Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: gwh%monsoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Multiple weapons delivery...
Message-ID: <1990Jul23.201856.5580@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 23 Jul 90 20:18:56 GMT
References: <1990Jul18.040913.14392@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: The OCF Gang: Making Tomorrows Mistakes Today
Lines: 34
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: gwh%monsoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)

In article <1990Jul18.040913.14392@cbnews.att.com> scott%sting.Berkeley.EDU@ (Scott Silvey) writes:
>Is it possible for a 2-crew bomber with an advanced "360 degree"
>  laser designator to guide an in-flight weapon while 
>  simultaneously dropping unguided ordinace ballistically on 
>  another target?  If this is not possible, is it because of 
>  either (1) avioncs/weapon systems limitations or (2) the fact 
>  that this is way too complicated for an air crew to perform 
>  under fire?

I doubt it. The primary reason is timing; the average operational self-
illuminating laser guided bomb drop only has the weapon in the air for a few
(less than five) seconds.  That's too short to do much of anything else in the
way of lining up on another target.  You might pop off some gun rounds, tho...

Not to mention the lack of mission planning.  When a target needs multiple 
weapons drops, the general rule is one plane per individual target. Why? The
one pass rule... More than one pass over a target area lets the air defenses
have an unreasonable chance of nailing one of your planes.  Much better to 
hit them all at once.

>Would an A-6F be capable of something like this?  Are there any
>  other aircraft that could do something similar?

What A-6F? The navy never bought any. 8-(

  == George William Herbert  ==    * Warning: This person contains chemicals *
 == JOAT for Hire: Anything,  ==   ** known to cause Cancer, Birth Defects, **
=======Anywhere, My Price.=======  ************ and Brain Damage! ************
 ==   gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu    ==
  ==     ucbvax!ocf!gwh      == The OCF Gang: Making Tomorrow's Mistakes Today