Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

I went on the internet and read that moving the laser spot when illuminating the target could greatly reduce the accuracy of the weapon.

However this seems a bit odd because I also know tha laser guidance is effective against moving targets like tanks or vechiles on the ground.

Could somebody explain this or is it just a spelling mistake?

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It is a mitake and is not... Confused

Moving the laser will reduce its accuracy, but that is the reason why most laser targeting pods, ie Sniper XR, LANTIRN and the like, have a stabilisation system. So yes, move the laser and you will miss, but targeting pods will track even moving targets.

Elite 1K Joined: May 26, 2005 - 08:39 PM Posts: 1496

I would submit that steadily tracking a moving target and waving the laser around like a laser pointer that a cat is chasing are two different things.

As Guysmiley notes, it depends on how the spot is moved. If the spot is moved rapidly from one point to another, the weapon would have to acquire the new target position, reset its guide filters (if the location difference was large enough) and begin guiding to the new spot. If it doesn't have sufficient energy to reach the new spot, it will miss. If the spot is moved rapidly back and forth between two or more points, the weapon is going to have to make a decision: choose one targeted position and go for it or choose a targeted position that splits the difference among all the spots it's seeing (the latter is called centroiding). Again, the accuracy is affected.

If there is a smooth movement of the spot, e.g., a moving vehicle is being targeted, the weapon can actually build a velocity vector and aim to where the target will be.

Loomis wrote:

As Guysmiley notes, it depends on how the spot is moved. If the spot is moved rapidly from one point to another, the weapon would have to acquire the new target position, reset its guide filters (if the location difference was large enough) and begin guiding to the new spot.

Yes this explanation makes sense to me. I was also wondering that is it possible that a pilot could steer two or more lgbs during a single pass? For example two bombs against one or two separate targets.

I do know that laser designators and seekers use a pulse coding system to ensure that a specific seeker and designator combination work in harmony. But does each LGB seeker unit has the same pulse code or does it depend on the bomb?

<i>...is it possible that a pilot could steer two or more lgbs during a single pass?</i>
Two bombs against one target is a no-brainer (in both senses of the word) because both bombs would guide to the same spot. However, the first bomb there would tend to either obliterate the target or to put up so much stuff in the air that the laser point would become unusable.

Two bombs, two targets might be theoretically possible, but I don't see it happening in practice. Shifting the laser spot from target to target means less time that the spot would be on the target and the bomb guidance would suffer accordingly. If the bombs were dropped together, there's no assurance that each bomb would select a separate target.

First rule of LGB Club: Don't talk about pulse code logic.

By the way has this F-15E Strike Eagle driver gone nuts when he's dropping 4 GBU-12s together? Twisted Evil

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... bu-12s.jpg

If I understood correctly each bomb or guidance unit has the same code so if the F-15E pilot uses the laset to paint the target every single (4) bomb is heading to the same target? Or am I still wrong?

Maybe it is just a test for multiple LGB release/target drops or something. Isn't WA the tail code for test/training aircraft at Nellis and/or a base in Arizona at one time? They are dummy bombs as well, so that would be my guess.

I'm sure somebody else out there has a better/correct explanation than I do.

StolichnayaStrafer wrote:

Maybe it is just a test for multiple LGB release/target drops or something. Isn't WA the tail code for test/training aircraft at Nellis and/or a base in Arizona at one time?

Yes it is. USAF Weapons School flies from Nellis AFB and other bases too various aircrafts, F-15s, F-16s, Ac-130s, B-52s etc.

Weapons school teaches, they don't test. It's possible however thet they may loan jets on occasion since they all belong to the same wing.

Forum: F-16 Armament & Stores

Laser guidance limitations