How do aircraft choose their targets?

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How do aircraft choose their targets?

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How do aircraft choose their targets? - 8/25/2021 9:37:20 PM

mmacguinness

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What criteria do aircraft use to choose their targets?
On a relatively crowded battlefield, 3 of 6 aircraft all chose the same isolated tank, ignoring groups of other tanks and APCs just a few hundred metres away, and all within a short distance from the designated strike areas.

And the enemy tank survived all air attacks!

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 8/27/2021 9:27:41 PM

Veitikka

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When an aircraft is comparing a target to another potential target, it considers:

* The target type (vehicle/infantry/anti-air/"gun unit"/mortar)
* The target value
* The distance
* If the target been identified
* If the target been suppressed
* If the target has a radar (the aircraft needs a radar warning receiver (RWR) to do this)

They don't try to optimize their weapon usage so that they could damage the maximum number of targets in a single pass.

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 8/28/2021 5:37:39 AM

mmacguinness

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OK.

They are all pretty obvious criteria, except, why suppression status? How is a pilot going to know this from 4 or 5 km away or more in the couple of seconds he has to choose while flying at 600-800km/hr?

And, don't pilots communicate to ensure they don't all choose the same target, i.e., once a target has been selected by one aircraft, it should no longer be on a potential target list for other aircraft?

In the instance that prompted this question, both aircraft from one flight chose the same target.
Another aircraft from another flight with a different target zone also selected it. Relatively open country, with dozens of enemy vehicles in sight. The targeted tank was on its own, over 300m from any other.

As for optimising weapon usage, I don't expect maximum possible damage on each pass. But I would expect a pilot attacking a crowded battlefield with multiple clusters of potential targets, to give a higher priority to clusters, and give a lone isolated target a relatively low priority for target selection.

< Message edited by mmacguinness -- 8/28/2021 9:05:48 AM >

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 8/31/2021 8:56:23 AM

Veitikka

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The suppression status is used to make units attack multiple targets. For example, you may have seen a tank firing at a squad and then targeting another squad, and then switching back to the first one. This happens because it picks the squad that is less suppressed.

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 9/1/2021 12:54:58 AM

mmacguinness

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Ok, I get that for ground units in contact.

Still don't see how a pilot rolling in at high speed several km away with only seconds to pick a target could identify suppression status. I cannot see how it could be a factor in pilot target selection, unless FAC told him, and AB does not model FAC direction of specific targets.

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 9/6/2021 8:14:19 AM

Veitikka

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Now when I examine the code more closely, the suppression part is not used by aircraft. Only when a ground unit has two fully identified and almost identical non-vehicle ground targets then it attacks the one that's less suppressed.

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RE: How do aircraft choose their targets? - 9/7/2021 11:32:00 AM

mmacguinness

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Thanks.

That still leaves the matter of the FAC/CAS routine selecting the same vehicle as target for multiple aircraft.

Granted, AB's treatment of FAC/CAS is highly abstracted, and there are no JTAC/FAC units. However, my (amateur) reading of the JTAC/FAC manuals and descriptions that I have found indicate a high degree of control over target allocation by FAC to aircraft, the pilots do not have much input. This implies that there should not be duplicate allocation or selection of targets within LOS of friendly units.

Interestingly, I have never seen duplication of targetting for deeper strikes beyond friendly LOS.

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