Hi folks!
I’ve started using the A-10C in Sim, but I struggle with the GBU-39 SDB’s, and I assume that’s a skill issue, and I must be doing something wrong…
What I do is I climb to about 1000 meters, then about 10km out start pointing at my desired targets with the TGP and pickling the bombs. Like this in a Ground battle Event I get maybe 2, 3 kills with two dozen SDB’s dropped.
But I’ve seen players wash away whole ground battles with one sweep…
How do you guys do it? Do you actually mark the targets with the TGP, or is pointing at it before dropping actually enough?
What surprises me also is that from the targets I manage to kill, it’s usually the MBT’s not as one would expect the lighter armored SPAAG’s and LT’s…
Also, I tried my luck at Airfield SAM’s and SPAAG, climbing to even 2000 m and dropping at min. 10 km, which should be perfectly enough for the glide bombs, and also here only manage to scratch maybe one or two, even with each air defense vehicle getting 3 or more SDB’s thrown at them…
What am I doing wrong?
1 Like
I guess its because of the slow speed and the altitude. You need a faster plane and try to drop them from a angle,so you need pull up and kinda launch them.
Are you sure youre at a high enough altitude for your GBUs to actually reach the targets as the A10 is so slow they have no energy to carry themselves far. Ive found the GBUs to be worthless on Harrier ii so I imagine its far worse on thunderbolts
Go in a test drive and recreate the conditions for the drops and hold “Tracking Camera: Bomb/Torpedo” button (u by default) to see what you’re doing wrong.
1 Like
1km up and 10km out? i wonder if they even have the energy to get to what you’re pointing at. They aren’t powered, they’re glide bombs. They also aren’t tracking targets and only fly toward the gps coordinates you pointed out so if the target moves away from that point you miss them even if the bomb reaches that far.
I personally use them as saturation, SPAA that can track munition can easily shoot down an AGM-65. If you first launch like 4 GBU-39 at them, turn around for another go and then launch an AGM 20 seconds later the AGM hides in the bundle of bombs and can continue tracking even if the target moves.
Especially in the A10C as it is as slow as it is and you have to get closer than other aircraft for the same munition to reach its target.
2 Likes
2 km isn’t enough for a jet like the A10. Climb to 3-4 km or more.
Typo here or in topic name?
1 Like
Yes, just aim at the intended target and fire, no need to lock on the target with the TGP or whatever else. Idk about the killing tho, you are sure you are hitting them right? I haven’t really had much issue, seems to do enough damage to kill anything, only requiring a bit of aiming against MBTs in my experience.
Also like others said, maybe try slightly shorter distances or higher altitude launches, though I know that these can glide insanely far even with the lower speed of the A-10C. You can get around 6km of reach from sealevel, maybe with a little toss, so I don’t doubt you can get 10km with 1km of altitude. Only problem with such launches is that you give your bomb such low energy to work with so that it can not guarantee a good hit, it may only approach from a very shallow angle as it tries to stay afloat or crash into terrain.
About the AF SAMs, no idea, seems like a fine range and altitude. Maybe follow your munitions (idk if possible in sim tho) or check in sensor view afterwards if they even hit close or not and see what went wrong. If it just didn’t kill with a good hit, that’s just RNG.
1000-2000M
600 kmh at least
10-8KM distance when the first bomb drops.
Quickly drop a single GBU-39 on each target, aiming ( aim for turrets )
Profit
Ocasionally one or two bombs will fail, but youll be able to determine why based on how late they land.
Nah, range altitude and distance was fine, the glide bombs reached so far (I could even observe them gliding before the diving onto their targets) - just their accuracy and precision is not good enough.
Dropped about 200 SDB’s now on a test map, and never had a case where they fell short with my approaches, but they just don’t hit very well.
At those ranges visual target position desync happens thats why you should try to capture a target with your optic then launch a sbd at it
Could this be the same issue as on Heli EC maps where the vehicles are almost never physically at the spot they appear visually?
Since almost all of your misses seem to be in the same direction for (i assume) the same runs.
Depending on range , and how iffy the server is (Desync) , i tend to always hardlock the enemy tank if possible. I haven’t ever had issues with accuracy , only misses caused by desync.
1 Like
It is probably the slant angle you are targeting the vehicles at. From a low altitude and long distance, if you are not able to “lock” the vehicle with a TGP, it is probably inputting a GPS coordinate behind the intended target.
My other guess is when you are the “defending” side of a ground battle, the enemy tanks and APCs actually move forwards. Especially with the long flight times this will cause a miss with SDBs. The SPAA will stay stationary so knock those out with SDBs and then use mavericks and guns on the tanks and APCs that are left.
When “attacking”, all targets are stationary so should be easier to hit with SDBs.
1 Like