Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR) - (a guided hydra rocket)

[Darkpowder]

Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR)

While not a vast benefit, it could be used on at least two factions, and perhaps may replace the unguided hydras in time on gunships.

Direct Attack Guided Rocket - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hydra 70 components fired from a hellfire rail. Very effective, and now successfully tested from an apache as well as a littlebird.

Little Bird conducts live-fire DAGR tests

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) today unveiled the Direct Attack Guided Rocket (DAGR), a 2.75 inch guided rocket developed as a company funded initiative, designed g to defeat targets in urban operations, while minimizing collateral damage. The DAGR is fully compatible with the Hellfire II laser guided missiles, increasing M299 smart launcher load-out by up to four times. Its off-axis capability also provides an increased engagement envelope by supporting launch from unmanned aerial vehicle platforms. During flight testing conducted in February 2007, DAGR demonstrated objective maneuverability capability for minimum range engagements. Later in 2007 Lockheed Martin plans to complete a full test flight matrix for unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters, as well as perform platform launch. The new rocket uses semi-active laser guidance system, employing lock-on-before-launch, lock-on- after-launch, and target location handoff, programmable laser coding, and flexible fly-out modes. Designed to be 'plug-and-play' compatible with Hellfire systems, the DAGR will be able to launch from any platform that currently supports the Hellfire weapon system.

Something relatively simple to model in pr perhaps? A replacement for the littlebird armament would seem appropriate?

[WilsonPL]

July 2009 - 2nd platform flight test - Little Bird AH-6: successfully hit the target in two separate trials.[7]

just a prototype, army is not even using it

[McBumLuv]

July 2009 - 2nd platform flight test - Little Bird AH-6: successfully hit the target in two separate trials.[7]

just a prototype, army is not even using it

Yea, but PR is modeled in the not-too-distant future.

Would be a really cool addition to the Mod, though if it's used on Hellfire rails, is it restricted to a maximum of 16 on the Apache? Oh well, I'm sure it would be amazing for the LB and Apache in the situations that would warrant it (Obviously not replacing Hellfires when up against tanks and such), and I'm guessing the copilot would control them?

BTW, they can't have small of a turn radius, do they?

[Nitneuc]

Not to be off-topic but do you guys use "rocket" for guided projectile too ?
I tought "missile" stands for guided auto propelled projectile (hellfire,TOW, sidewinder...) while "rocket" is rather used for dumb auto propelled ones (Hydra, katiouchka, al qassam...)

[Darkpowder]

Not to be off-topic but do you guys use "rocket" for guided projectile too ?
I tought "missile" stands for guided auto propelled projectile (hellfire,TOW, sidewinder...) while "rocket" is rather used for dumb auto propelled ones (Hydra, katiouchka, al qassam...)

By you guys, do you mean myself or the articles source?
for me, i used rocket as that is the designation of the armament, as described by the manufacturers.

[waldo_ii]

A rocket is anything that propels itself with an explosive reaction. A missile is anything that travels through air or water or vacuum intended as a weapon. A Hellfire can be a missile, but so can a rock. A Hellfire is a rocket, but a rock is not.

[M_Striker]

I've always wanted some variation among the armaments for the different factions' helicopters.

[IAJTHOMAS]

A rocket is anything that propels itself with an explosive reaction. A missile is anything that travels through air or water or vacuum intended as a weapon. A Hellfire can be a missile, but so can a rock. A Hellfire is a rocket, but a rock is not.

Obviously that is an inadeqaute defintion in the context of military usage, although technically correct, you're not class a bullet as a missile in that context, surely?

[mat552]

Same as the projectile from a ballista is a "missile" so is a bullet.

The term has been adapted by some (majority?) to mean a guided rocket of some sort.

On topic, this would lack the power of a hellfire as relates to anti armor, would it not? Seeing as how it's just a guide-able hydra.

[waldo_ii]

The idea for this program came from the success of the JDAM program*. Before the JDAM program, getting a single bomb onto a single target required the usage of an incredibly expensive bomb. JDAMs do the same thing for a fraction of the cost. Another important piece of equipment was the Hellfire, a laser-guided rocket. Each one of those costs a small fortune, so they looked for a way to make that cheap too. The army has a million 70mm Hydra rockets lying around, so they started a program to strap on a laser-guidance system to each one of those. That is where the DAGR came to be.

A DAGR wouldn't be as useful as a Hellfire, as it certainly won't destroy a tank or bunker or any other heavily-armored piece of equipment, but it will be just as effective in taking out cars/technicals/HMMWV equivilants, lighter armor, such as M113s or BDRMS, AA emplacements, etc. It exists just to save money.



As for its usefulness in PR, I don't know. I mean, it could be coded in without too much difficulty, just make hydras lock onto laser targets, its just that since Hellfires are unlimited and much, much more powerful, there isn't really a reason to use a DAGR instead. Although it could prove very handy in attack Hueys and littlebirds.


Upon some more thought, I support this suggestion. I can foresee the Army/Marines purchasing a fair amount of these just like they did JDAMs, it could be very useful in today's theatre of war in Afghanistan; nothing our Marines will face will require more than a 70mm to take care of, Hellfires would be overkill. It fits the PR timeline, and will be useful ingame



* A JDAM is a cold-war era dumb-bomb, which was built to be dropped along with another hundred in a sloppy, awesome carpet-bombing run, which has a modern GPS unit strapped onto it, which makes it a very precise, useful weapon. The conversion is also very, very cheap. Some credit it with changing the face of the modern battlefield, giving troops on the ground the ability to get precision ordnance on a target in a matter of hours, even minutes, instead of days.

[mat552]

Very cool and useful backround info snipped for space

It fits the PR timeline, and will be useful ingame

Well, it'll work brilliantly for everything up to the point of heavy armor, which the US factions run into in a couple maps.

[mp5punk]

I personally like this idea but thats just me and how much i like helicopters. I would really like to see the gunner able to control hydras like in real life, or what they call "Match and shoot" that would be pretty cool.

[Jigsaw]

Yea, but PR is modeled in the not-too-distant future.

Doesn't really count mate, if it could be on future weapons and is currently only in prototype mode it will not be in PR.

Not to mention that not all of PR is based in the future, for ex. Sangin is based on events from 2006.

[mat552]

Doesn't really count mate, if it could be on future weapons and is currently only in prototype mode it will not be in PR.

Nor are all currently active weapons and weaponsystems that would be called to action in a global conflict represented, and the PR team have no intention to bring some of those to life.

[McBumLuv]

Doesn't really count mate, if it could be on future weapons and is currently only in prototype mode it will not be in PR.

Not to mention that not all of PR is based in the future, for ex. Sangin is based on events from 2006.

That's true, but there's much leeway in it. Isn't the Chinese Z-10 still in prototype mode (And as we now know, not even the proper model)? While yes, that is simply ported over from BF2, if the Dev team was anal about making sure nothing included was a prototype or anything, it would have been a higher priority to change.

Perhaps that's not the best example, though, since this suggestion is asking for something to be made that's still a prototype, while the replacing the Z-10 would take much more effort than modeling DAGR rockets, but all the same.

Then again, the suggestion would require more cooperation between two pilots in a helicopter, making the "epitome of lone-wolfing" LB require some more work and knowledge to properly crew.

I"m not sure how it would be modeled, though. It could be easily modeled like the Hellfire system, or it could be pilot controlled, where he/she can use the control look to aim it when there's no laze. It would probably be slightly easier to model it like a hellfire if it's modeled ingame, though, with the copilot controlling it.