CAS pilots! Don't be afraid to...

[Alex6714]

Yeah, now try the same with an AAV just over the ridge that in inf don´t see.

[Rudd]

"This is Air Support, I've found the enemy armor, will supress."

ur typing this while you fly....?

or are u using a voice com program?

Cuz until we see servers using alot more mumble its a rare server that has a bunch of pubbies on TS...

Its nice that you can spend so long getting in to position etc...in as if MIGs don't exist.

The reason to providing exact information on targets etc is so that the CAS can enter the area, destroy whats needing destroying and leave asap before something that can kill it turns up.

I would only ever expect a pilot to do what you were doing if complete air superiority was acheived

[Zimmer]

WIth excact gridcoordinates you can go in and out faster, and you will be less vurneable for AA and enemy figthers.

[h3killa]

Tophatter give up. You may be an experienced pilot(most likely not) but from what you are saying this makes no sense unless like Rudd said a complete air superiority was achieved. Other wise the best way to do is have your squad leader do all the orders and intelligence. Example: Squad one is at north bunker under heavy tank fire. They ask for Fire support from an A-10. My squad leader asks cords or lase of target. If they give a lase and cords then I have an easy job. If not my squad leader is going to ask for a general area to find. They give him one and he marks the general area. I go in at an alt of about 800M I use my HAT key to free look and see if I can get a general location. I spin into my dive so when I come out I can pull out on their 6. In my dive I have about 2 1/2 seconds to put my bomb in before I pull up to miss the blast. Then I pull up and deploy 5 flares about 1/2 a second after another.

[privetB]

I don't deny that u must have LTs but good coordinates are an absolute must. Not only AAs can destroy you but flying at such a low altitude make u very vulnerable for enemy jets. With exact coordinates it is easy to take out tanks without LTs. If u attack a target without a minimum of information you are risking 20 tickets just because the infantery is too lazy to learn how to lase(spot).

As for your flare thing. Guess what is found at lower altitude? Land and land features. Use the terrian for cover.

The problem with this tactic is that kashan is similar to the ocean. You don't have many valleys or mountains to cover. And the mountains in the middle of the map are mostly covered from AA into both sides (on the servers I play), so you cannot hide behind that mountains. And IR-guided SAMs are created for low distances between the target and the shooting plattform, flying low is a counter measure against radar or semi-radar guided missiles and to stay below the radar tracking systems to avoid being detected.

Look up combat footage of A-10's. They don't typically fly up high and do CCRP style bombing. They get down low and use that gun.

I've spend many times with playing Lock On, so I think I have a clue how flying in an A-10 is and trust me you need a lot of strafe runs with GAU-8 to destroy a tank. The GAU-8 is mainly used against infantry and light armored vehicles (such as APCs). Bombs and AGM-65, which are NOT laserguided (except for the E), are the mainweapons against enemy armor. I agree that they dont fly sky-high to drop their bombs but i think the main reason is that it is easier and more accurate to use the CCIP mode in close to the ground and u dont have to forget that the radar is the main reason to fly low.
But apart from this it is stupid to compare the best attitute in RL with the best attitute in PR (I am only speaking about CAS), because flying in PR is optimised for teamwork and has nothing to do with RL flying.

[hiberNative]

i'd never fly around low at an open map like kashan with a jet, looking for targets. give me a square and a key and i can dive down and shoot the first thing i see. otherwise you can take it out yourself.

[Rudd]

If I have to, I type that. Usually I say that over voip.

to who, a JTAC or commander?

[Rissien]

A good grid reference is fine, just put a marker on it and you can put a bomb or two on it with great accuracy. My best tactic is to get up high, roll over and dive and dive bomb it, if the grid is good you dont even need to break cloud layer jsut put the crosshair on the marker and drop then level out again.

My pet peeve is people lasing and giving no reference. You get a lase and all you know is where the lase is coming from *if you see the player flashing on the map* you have a 360 degrees worth of area around the person to check, you have no clue where hes facing or just how far out the target is. You have to fly around and risk exposure just to find the target and sometimes by the time you do the lase vanishes or your at a bad angle and have to make another pass, which by then the targets already moved.

[ChiefRyza]

Are you trying to get the pilots killed? Or do you blatantly disregard what it's like to be in a Jet on a 16km sq map, with no proper intel on targets or anti-aircraft. I hope to god I never get someone like this directing jets around on the server, because the way you talk about "calling in" CAS is quite literally, vehicle crucifixion. The reason, as many people in this thread have said, that we need co-ordinates for jets is that we want to be within the enemy AA range and visual range for as short a time as possible.

Your way of calling in CAS is selfish and you obviously couldn't care less if the jet dies or not, as long as you get your target down. Project Reality specifically designs the CAS system around ground intel, and the pilot has to rely on this information to be of any use. Ive had people call jets in and there has been AA in the immediate area, but hey..who cares about the jet? "We need this tank gone, screw your safety, kill it for us".

A jet can stay in the air for a very long time doing the opposite of what your asking them to do. Stay above the 1100ft AA lock ceiling, and only react to situations on the ground through very accurate markers and keypad locations, and you will be more use to your team than someone who just scoots around in plain sight, shooting things they see (which is pretty useless mind you). Your biggest threat is GROUND AA. This will clean you up in no time should you decide to re-enact a Vanilla game and fly around expecting to be invincible.

Searching for targets visually will result in you dying. I would go as far as saying your asset wasting if your doing this in-game, because obviously if your doing this your either:

1) Retarded
2) Stupid
3) Way too confident
4) Too much time on your hands
5) All of the above.


You want to get the target destroyed in the FIRST run. You can't afford to zoom around the one area over and over because guess whats going to happen....

[alexaus]

ye but its 16Square 4x4

[Psyrus]

I wont always get my co'ords, or my lase. When the guy the ground is too stupid to do anything but ask for it to be killed, you need to improvise and kill it. This is not like real military operations, not everybody on the ground knows what to do. So you, as the pilot, needs to know what to do in any given situation. If you cannot do that, you have failed as a CAS pilot.

Nah, if you follow what you do, you are a MASSIVE fail CAS pilot, and I'd hope some nub gets the plane before you do. At least he has the excuse of "not knowing better" than you, who knows the proper way to do it yet ignores it for the sake of his own "fun" or kill ratio.

I could care less if you kill those extra 2 tanks, but if you end up dying and I need CAS 10 minutes later, you're the fail. ChiefRyza hit it pretty much on the head. I've seen time and time again people take this "scouting for targets" approach and I have yet to see them last out a round, whereas myself and others have kept planes up in excess of an hour (whilst maintaining 20-40 kills) by following the proper CAS tactics.

To each their own, but you'd get a decent earful were you to employ those shoddy tactics on a server that I'm designating targets on. I want my CAS when I need it, not some rambo fighter l33tz0rz A10 pilot who wants to 'keel all lolz'.

??:

[Alex6714]

16km maps? I thought it was 4km.

That's why I ask if there is AA in the area. Refer to my previous post where I gave alittle step-by-step scenario of this tactic. I ask the groundie if AA is in the area. If not, I'm good to go.

Ok see this is the problem. AA range = 1200/1400m. View distance. = 900-1000m.

Hills = Break visual.

Therefor you can never rely fully on a groundie saying if there is AA or not.

[Rudd]

Guys, you can disagree with the man's tactics. Do not get insulting or offensive. If he can pull it off, fine. But lets put forward our opinions with respect.

Joint terminal attack controller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

yeah, I'm sad to use the lingo tbh. It makes me sound savvy...or dumb.

I guess you were talking to ur SL on the ground then? that can work ok, I was confused cuz if u were talking on a teamwide net you'd be filling the net with chatter. its ok if it was in teh CAS squad though. Though such operators don't tend to work that well with teh PR spawn system.

[Oddsodz]

Oh my. If he was in the A-10. And I am on MEC. He would not last to long and that is a fact. My AA Gaskin would eat him up real fast. Fact.

[CAS_117]

Get your hands dirty! What I mean is get down low. Don't be afraid to do this! You'll be way more effective if you do this!

I know this has happened to all CAS pilots:

-BluFor Inf:"Hey air support, can you bomb my lased target?"

Of course in your scenario, you are not given co'ords. Do you need them? NO!

-Pilot:"Where is your lase?"
-Infantry:"Uhh...East of the North bunker."

(Yes, i've chosen Kashan Desert for my scenario)

Still no co'ords. Now I've seen most pilots just say,"I'm not bombing anything until I get co'ords," and I just think that is silly. With the info the groundie has given you, you can make a low pass to determine where the target is. Then come back around to kill what you've spotted. That's all it takes.

NO,"You need co'ords" replies. NO,'You need a lase" comments. It is in my opinion that the best pilots not only can get in the air, bomb accurately, and land. That the best pilots can do so in a choatic, confused enviroment in which info and time can be short.

You will also gain much respect among the ground-pounders. I know this. This is how I run CAS when I jump in the cockpit.

100% correct.