Bomber strike as alternative to arty

[MrD]

As an extra visual and/or auditory experience, how about a fixed path bomber flying across the landscape and dropping bombs on the map at coordinates called in by commander?

This could be an alternative or addition to artillery in commanders options.

We already hear the supply plane and then we have a supply crate dropped. Even if you chose not to see the bomber, a sound file could be placed to run that would make people know a bomber is about to drop ordnance and it would change the battlefield movements as enemy and allied forces alike rush for cover.

I realise you guys are going to look at introducing mortars and probably going to hack the arty system for it; changing skins, sounds and number/strength of explosions on impact, but this suggestion is as much for the players overall experience as tactical.

Hopefully this sort of thing will help to promote squad movement, tactical ordering of units around the battlefield by commander and provide a much needed diversion for troop movements, or even a troop clearing barrage for troops to use to cover territory.

This feature might only want to be used on open maps, rather than urban maps due to no one really wanting to level civilian homes and infastructure in this modern age of warfare.

[Hitperson]

been done before but the problem is that the aircraft model for each team is the same

[KP]

Been suggested before, please use the search function.

Just kidding, I'd love to see and hear that!

[bosco_]

I would be satisfied if the "Air Strike" would be one arty shell that hits the exact spot you marked.

[MrD]

Half the current fun with present arty is knowing or guessing the pattern they drop in, then running in just dodging the arty and covering most of the ground to the target without getting blown up and storming in just as the enemy are surfacing from their hideyholes.

A bombing run could be great as a line of explosions, increasing it's diversion, blocking and terror effects. It doesn't necessarily have to be a larger effect than arty, a diffferent faling pattern to arty would be nice, but the visual and most definitely the auditory experience would be hugely beneficial as well as the use it is put to.

[Maverick89]

Hell yer i thiought of this long ago and i think it should definetly be done.... or an alternate would be..

MLRS commander sets coordinates and it's steel rain baby

[[PTG]Z.user]

Yeah sounds interesting alright..

[Popa]

Bombers are not used as CAS. Something like an A-10 would be used to support infantry. If you called a B-52 in for CAS you'd have to be like 2 miles away from the target.

I supose it could be done if the plane, fixed on a path, flew in low and droped maybe 1 or 2 250lb eggs. But a plane cannot be 7,000 feet in the air and giving CAS to troops on the ground.

[Raniak]

Bombers are not used as CAS. Something like an A-10 would be used to support infantry. If you called a B-52 in for CAS you'd have to be like 2 miles away from the target.

I supose it could be done if the plane, fixed on a path, flew in low and droped maybe 1 or 2 250lb eggs. But a plane cannot be 7,000 feet in the air and giving CAS to troops on the ground.

Even with an A-10 sound it would be cool for maps that are too for real planes, call the bomber strike, an A10 come, bomb the place and go away to the carrier/airfield somewhere outside the map !

[Cerberus]

We don't necessarily need to have bombers... maybe an F/A-18E dropping a couple JDAMs from miles away... or an AC-130 firing all its cannons at once...

[Fenix16]

If the problem is that both teams would have the same bomber model, couldnt you just make the model really small to seem as if it were very high up? I dont think people would pay enough attention to it to notice any differences. I mean, the thing doesnt have to do a low altitude pass over the map.

[Liquid_Cow]

But a plane cannot be 7,000 feet in the air and giving CAS to troops on the ground.

You're right, usually CAS is done from 15,000ft or higher, that's outside of most AA and IR SAM range. B-52's do it from 50,000ft. You need a bomb? Your FAC contacts the bomber with coordinates. The bomber is flying a race track pattern overhead, programs the JDAM (or FAC/SF will illuminate the target if its a laser guided bomb) and a minute or so later there's a single big boom and sudden change in the topography of the target area. You never see or hear the bomber overhead.

Artillery is a weapon of the past. Limited range and tactical mobility combine to make it useless in low intensity conflicts. A buddy of mine who recently returned from Afganistan told me there might be all of 20 big gun in the entire country, mostly for defending FOB's from motars and snipers. If you need that sort of fire support its either coming from man-pack motars or a pair of birds overhead.

Switching to CAS would lead to an interesting element in the game, if your CAS is a flight of F/A-18's they only carry 4 JDAM's each, so you can spend it all in one place or ration it for later. If they are carrying Rockeye cluster bombs (which would be much better for the purpose of the game as they don't destroy entire buildings) they might have 10 each.

About the only CAS that comes below 15,000ft on a regular basis is the A-10 because its so freaking tough it can handle getting whacked around a little.

On maps like EJOD where neither side has air superiority (or perhaps air support is unavailable, as often happens in a place like Afganistan)then you'd have motar units, shoot and move to stay alive as counter battery fire would decimate any arty that stayed in one place too long. Break in fire would be justified as "bug out" time for the motar unit.

Maps like OMAN, air power is up for grabs. US arty would be from the cruisers off shore, not on the beach. Again the MEC arty would need to move after every fire mission (Ageis cruisers can track arty shells back to their point of orrigin). CAS is provided by players in aircraft.

Maps like the small Basrah you could have the high altitude CAS, but they would not be allowed to bomb the city for fear of collateral damage.

Probably none of this is poissible given the current game engine, but it would be nice to see it considered for future development.

[MrD]

Artillery is a weapon of the past. Limited range and tactical mobility combine to make it useless in low intensity conflicts. A buddy of mine who recently returned from Afganistan told me there might be all of 20 big gun in the entire country, mostly for defending FOB's from motars and snipers. If you need that sort of fire support its either coming from man-pack motars or a pair of birds overhead.

That doesn't sound right at all. I happen to know a certain RA officer who could tell you that arty is absolutely essential in Afghanistan and in fact there are proposals to make it more comprehensive in use, that are being researched right now.

[JellyBelly]

Like that shell the US Armys developing, that uses GPS to hit a target dead on. The perfect way to literally blow up a few million of the tax payers cash.

[El_Vikingo]

^^^^^^^^^
What they said.

[Cyber-Couch]

It has already been suggested, and the devs said that arty is hardcoded and can't be altered.

[Sealights]

I think there should be an Air Strike icon for the comander so plane squadrons bomb X position requested by SL

[Hides-His-Eyes]

Or get rid of arty entirely and make planes useless for seeing things so that orders from commander are their only hope in hell of hitting anything

[Sealights]

^^I agree^^ I like team work, specially the Comanders in Devfile 24/7 Al Basrah are awesome. We have 2 A10 flying around searching for kills. would be awesome if the A10s couldn't open fire if not requested by Comander. it would become more tactical and realistic.

Or maybe A10 would have to land to load bombs while got permission for a bomb strike. bombs limited by comander

[Liquid_Cow]

MrD'] I happen to know a certain RA officer who could tell you that arty is absolutely essential

Not to try to sound like a skeptic, but sounds like your friend is an arty officer who's trying to protect his job (which is true of anyone who's working in a field which is threatened).

Please forgive the digression from topic, but here's some observations about modern artillery on the modern battlefield:

Limited Range: The largest field guns have a practical range of 20-30 miles. Now if you were covering a country the size of Rhode Island or Crete you would not have to move or use many guns, but in Afghanistan its a different story. You need either a lot of guns or the ability to move quickly

Limited mobility: Most US Arty is towed, primarily because that's cheaper than self propelled. Its also more reliable (fewer moving parts). But it takes 20 minutes to site a battery of artillery before you can shoot the first round. If your target is in a car he can be outside your maximum range within that time.

Inaccuracy: While there are "smart" arty shells they are extremely expensive and not in general use. W/O adjusting your fire it's pretty tough to hit the target on the first volley. In an urban setting this would lead to massive collateral damage.

Vulnerability: The cannon crews are exposed to enemy sniper and counter battery fire while shooting, they have little or no armor to protect them, so setting up outside of well-protected areas is risky

There are some advantages arty has: Its cheap. Its reusable. Once set up it can provide fire support continuously until out of shells. When using "smart" shells the explosive warhead is much smaller than an air dropped LGB or JDAM allowing it to be used in a "tighter" target area.

Now compare aircraft to arty: Mobility is not much of a problem when cruising at 450knts. Range likewise. Even the worse of the "dumb" bombs is pretty accurate when dropped by aircraft with targeting computers (everything today). All but immune to any threats. Very expensive to operate. When the birds are winchester you loose your coverage. Very small very accurate warheads available in the form of Hellfire and Maverick missles.

I'm not trying to say that artillery will ever go away. I see a bright future for small tube arty (mortars), and should we ever get into a medium to high intensity conflict there will be a huge roll for big guns, but in the current conflicts its just not the big hitter it used to be and has been relegated to a secondary roll.