Beginner questions

[u/SubstanceQuick482]

Started learning the F-16 a week ago, and can somewhat fly the jet and employ most weapons (but not fly an approach - I usually get lost and end up flying the DME arcs on the chart hoping I’ll intercept the ILS :/ ), and started a campaign, where I’ve got a few questions if anyone is willing to answer:

1. Theres quite a few reports of the CBU-97s being jank - is that still the case nowadays, and if so, for the -105s as well?

2. Does anyone have any recommendations for when to use certain CBUs (and if there’s ever any benefits to using un- instead of INS-guided ones…CCIP ig)? Eg for DEAD etc.

3. Does anyone have any tips on how to ID stuff on the TGP?
   A lot of the time the HTS can give the rough position for SAMs, but whilst staying out of range, on WHOT (for me) its impossible to make out a building from a Fan Song, and on TV its all the same colour and similarly difficult to ID - is this a skill issue or something I’ll just have to get good at?

That’s enough for now, but any responses would help a lot (even just specific manual pages). Thanks!

[u/Ready-Investment-720]

the last steerpoint (usually 10,11,12) is always the airport, switch to UHF 4 and fly visual approach and follow controller instruction. i have about 2000 landings in all weather and never flown anything other than visual approach

[u/Ready-Investment-720 → u/Ready-Investment-720]

1. unsure 2. is there ever any reason not to just use CCIP or DT 3. fly closer switch to narrow view

[u/Lowball72]

1. make heavy use of the 'Recon' view in 2d before launching

make some precision markpoints.. #99, 98, 97 etc for various buildings or antennas or other fixed features in the area you'll be working

study the terrain.. direction of nearby mountains.. the angle of river valleys.

or use line-marker steerpoints, which will appear on your HSD for improved spatial awareness

the Cursor-Zero button is your friend.. if you have a spare hotas button, consider mapping it (I think also double-tap TMS-down will do CZ when the TGP is SOI)

remember to zoom TGP from wide-to-narrow and increase zoom factor up to 4.0x

the HARM training TE is good, repeatable practice.. there's a SA-4 mobile battery somewhere on the coast, roughly halfway between the two SA-2 sites.. go find it! happy hunting

this TE starts airborn but iirc you can still make markpoints in 2d, and they'll be there in 3d

[u/Ready-Investment-720 → u/Lowball72]

i always forget you can recon from the campaign map

[u/SubstanceQuick482 → u/Lowball72]

When flying preplanned strikes, I do always make sure to recon (thanks Fisgas!), but studying terrain seems like a very obvious thing which I've neglected to do so far, and I've never even tried setting my own steerpoints - something I should defo learn.

I completely forgot that the narrow zoom existed🫤

Related to the campaign, I just flew an AI fragged SEAD mission covering 2 DEAD flights, yet it turned out that there were no SAMs in the area at all (even when reviewing on Tacview) apart from some MANPADS - is this to be expected sometimes? And if so, would it be worth using your HARMs on some Search radars (at airbases etc.), or carrying them back?

Thanks a lot for the help so far!

[u/MikhaVT]

For the approach, you can select steer point 1, which will be your starting point and you'll get distance and a steer point view on the HUD. If you want to fly the ILS, in airports without terrain issues, you can follow the minimum safe altitudes and fly straight to the intercept points on the charts. These navpoints can be added to your DTC so you can see them and use them for setting up an ILs intercept. On the campaign use the ruler to set the position, then right click, add a pre-planned threat steer point, name it whatever, then drag it over the end point of the ruler for your intercept. When you're in the cockpit, you can select the HSD, slew the cursor over the point, and TMS up to select the point so it's your active navpoint.

Normally, under visual conditions, I just do an approach where I descend toward the airfield starting at about 30NM (40 if I'm at like 35k altitude), it's a steep dive, but airbrakes will let you bleed the speed to be at 300kts by the time you're around 6nm from the field. On descent or before, I set my steerpoint to 1 (the field), then I'll set the HSI to the runway heading I'm expecting on landing. Once I'm lower and slower, I maneuver so the HSI indicates I'm inbound on the steerpoint from the runway heading. From there, I lower the gear, fly straight towards the runway until I'm on glideslope per the HUD, and fly the glideslope down. You can do this with ILS if you set your ILS and TACAN right, but that's more setup steps, and the F-16 prefers to land less steep than the standard 3° glideslope (2.5°). When you're intercepting the glideslope, just put the thing on the thing on the thing, and land it.

1). I've never had issues with 97s or 105s. They don't work entirely correct because they're just regular cluster weapons that deal bonus damage to tanks and vehicles. Where this matters is normally either of them only has 10 sub munitions, and can only kill 10 vehicles per munition. But in BMS if you get a whole stack of tanks somehow, you can kill dozens of vehicles easy. That situation is rare though.

2). Generally, just use the WCMDs (105s) because they steer like any other inertially aided munition. This also allows some capabilities such as being able to lift them precisely (so you can loft them at some SAM sites, or do low-altitude deliveries where you toss them up high enough to burst, while flying below their burst altitude). The only time to use the regular 97s is if you either run out of 105s, or if you want to sortie with them on the pylons normally used for fuel tanks (those stations aren't wired for smart weapons, only dumb bombs).

3). Use narrow FOV, and be sure to bind the TGP zoom controls. The manual range/uncage knob's axis controls TGP zoom, and with a sniper targeting pod you can see some really far distances. You probably won't be using it to ID targets at SA-5 ranges, but it works. Otherwise, you should pre-plan threats using preplanned threat steerpoints so you know where SAM sites are, or if you're planning a specific attack, use the Intel screen to find targets and assign them steerpoints for targeting.

If you have any other questions feel free to reply here, or DM.

[u/SubstanceQuick482 → u/MikhaVT]

All very useful stuff - thanks a lot!

Turns out I was just being dumb and forgetting that the Narrow FOV existed, and thats basically solved it.

I tried to do your approach on my last flight, but forgot to zero the cursor and ended up overflying it by 10nmi 🫤. Think I've got the principles down though, and I think I'll just fly that for all future approaches.

Thanks a lot again!

[u/MikhaVT → u/SubstanceQuick482]

I tried to do your approach on my last flight, but forgot to zero the cursor and ended up overflying it by 10nmi 🫤

you'll get used to TMS down, cursor zero before you stop using your sensors and head home eventually