11-20-2015, 03:10 PM
FAC/CAS Mission in Sahrani
I had tons of fun spotting targets for Harriers. It is psychologically most gratifying to watch the results of your directed air attacks.
Couple of lessons from ground team
I think it might have been better to split the ground FACs to 3 teams, 2 operators/team. Divide target area to 3 sectors. Say..SECTOR WEST deals with Cayo, sector CENTER deals with the big town on center, and SECTOR EAST deals with everything east of that. Mark sectors with FHQ map draw. 1 team (2 operators) / sector. Every operator has his own LR radio so everyone can talk to aircraft if need be. Assign different SR channels to FAC teams, and save LR to comm with aircraft or critical info between teams. Maybe even divide 2 jets / sector, so each sector has dedicated pilots and they know whose voices to listen.
- Mark targets with different colours in each sector. Change marker colour with shift-arrow keys (can't recall if was up/down or left/right).
- Delete marker from map as soon target is destroyed.
- Talk to pilots with their names (think of them as call signs).For example 'Air-ground: Target painted' can mean different things when there are 6 jets on the sky. 'Variable-Stag. Enemy shilka painted, NW of town, 400m from closest town building.' is more clear. Now jet knows whos talking to them and who does the message concern.
- Provide more BDA (Battle damage assesment) after the attack. Example. 'Varible-Stag: BDA. Good gun run on enemy infantry, estimate 5 EKIAs. Over?' or 'Gun run missed, impacts 300m south, go around, over'
- ONE laser only / target area at a time. Communicate with your fellow FAC. Multiple dots are distracting to pilot, and I don't know how guided munitions reacts to multiple dots on target. Also check your weapon mounted laser is OFF when painting targets to aircraft.
- I repeat. Make sure your laser is OFF unless you paint target. Now we had a damn close B-on-B gun run from Harrier. I only can think our laser was accidentally on, pointing on our feet or something.
Anecdote:
I was laying prone trying to find enemy infantry just south of us and had tunnel vision through my designator and didn't see anything outside scope. I heard jet engine, brrrrt, bangbangbang, and thought Harrier was strafing enemy infantry away from us. I thought that the noise was unusually loud but that's just CUP vehicles .
Varanon: Holy shit, what was that?!
Doveman: A gun run?
Lego: Yeah, just a gun run
Stag: Yeah, just a regular everyday neighbourhood gun run.
Varanon: Guys, that was gun run.... on US!
Harrier had strafed our quadbikes and narrowly missed us!
I had tons of fun spotting targets for Harriers. It is psychologically most gratifying to watch the results of your directed air attacks.
Couple of lessons from ground team
I think it might have been better to split the ground FACs to 3 teams, 2 operators/team. Divide target area to 3 sectors. Say..SECTOR WEST deals with Cayo, sector CENTER deals with the big town on center, and SECTOR EAST deals with everything east of that. Mark sectors with FHQ map draw. 1 team (2 operators) / sector. Every operator has his own LR radio so everyone can talk to aircraft if need be. Assign different SR channels to FAC teams, and save LR to comm with aircraft or critical info between teams. Maybe even divide 2 jets / sector, so each sector has dedicated pilots and they know whose voices to listen.
- Mark targets with different colours in each sector. Change marker colour with shift-arrow keys (can't recall if was up/down or left/right).
- Delete marker from map as soon target is destroyed.
- Talk to pilots with their names (think of them as call signs).For example 'Air-ground: Target painted' can mean different things when there are 6 jets on the sky. 'Variable-Stag. Enemy shilka painted, NW of town, 400m from closest town building.' is more clear. Now jet knows whos talking to them and who does the message concern.
- Provide more BDA (Battle damage assesment) after the attack. Example. 'Varible-Stag: BDA. Good gun run on enemy infantry, estimate 5 EKIAs. Over?' or 'Gun run missed, impacts 300m south, go around, over'
- ONE laser only / target area at a time. Communicate with your fellow FAC. Multiple dots are distracting to pilot, and I don't know how guided munitions reacts to multiple dots on target. Also check your weapon mounted laser is OFF when painting targets to aircraft.
- I repeat. Make sure your laser is OFF unless you paint target. Now we had a damn close B-on-B gun run from Harrier. I only can think our laser was accidentally on, pointing on our feet or something.
Anecdote:
I was laying prone trying to find enemy infantry just south of us and had tunnel vision through my designator and didn't see anything outside scope. I heard jet engine, brrrrt, bangbangbang, and thought Harrier was strafing enemy infantry away from us. I thought that the noise was unusually loud but that's just CUP vehicles .
Varanon: Holy shit, what was that?!
Doveman: A gun run?
Lego: Yeah, just a gun run
Stag: Yeah, just a regular everyday neighbourhood gun run.
Varanon: Guys, that was gun run.... on US!
Harrier had strafed our quadbikes and narrowly missed us!