DCS Black Shark: Tactics Primer (Part 2)

10 Rules to Live By (continued)

Rule #4: New Area=Danger Area
Every time you enter a new area, assume that every tree is hiding an enemy anti-aircraft system.

Rule #5: There is no such thing as too much reconnaissance
Taking advantage of your helicopter's maneuverability and powerful optic systems, thoroughly recon any new area you are about to enter. Use terrain to mask your position: initiate a hover from a covered position, then slowly and progressively bob-up until you can scan all the new area. During this bob-up, get ready to descend in case you are detected or fired upon.

Rule # 6: Identify your targets
The modern battlefield is very dynamic. The position of enemy and friendly forces can change considerably in a very short time and without notice. Given the mobility of mechanized and armored warfare the concept of front-line is obsolete. Identify your targets based on type of equipment, their spatial orientation and the briefing.

Rule #7: Preserve ammunition
It is useless to arrive to the objective with the cannon as your only weapon available. Focus on the mission objective. Avoid decisive engagements with opportunity targets if doing so means risking the completion of the mission. Also, remember that once you completed the mission you may need ammo to fight your way back to base.

Rule #8: Know the operational situation
Pay very close attention to the briefing: it contains all intelligence available at the time of take-off. Depending the type of enemy forces you will face, arm your helicopter with according ammo and counter-measures. Pay close attention to the climate report, it may be important to determine your approach to the objective area. Off all combat aircraft, the attack helicopter is the one that operates more close to land forces. Try to understand your mission objective in the context of the operations of the land forces your are supporting.

Rule #9: Attack the enemy from your maximum munition range and on its flanks
When you attack frontally, you expose your helicopter to fire from all the enemy line. Attacking on one flank the amount of enemy weapon systems that can fire at you are reduced.

Rule #10: Patience
Lack of patience is a killer. When you discover enemy units at a rate higher than the rate that you can destroy them, re-think your approach.


Source for the "10 Rules to Live By" entry:

"Gunship Academy", by the great simulation-guides author Richard Sheffield.

Cheers,

"The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War"

Every human in earth knows wars as catastrophic events. Why we humans engage in them anyways?

This fantastic book by Dr. David Livingstone Smith offers a somber hypothesis from the perspective of evolution, anthropology and psychology: evolution may have shaped our human brains in that way.

According to the author we have a strong and intrinsic disgust for killing each other, yet through evolution the brains of our ancestors have acquired the trait of being able to deceit others and even ourselves. Surprisingly, this self-deceit process appears to be even unconscious. Add to that our ability to imagine threats and the list of ingredients for the recipe of the "Most Dangerous Animal" is almost complete.

To explore the possible roots of our same-species violent behavior and to find an explanation to it, this book will take you back and forth in time and space, from a cave millions of years ago to present day Iraq. Well documented, accessible to the lay reader, this is book written in an engaging style.

A small warning: this book is not a light reading neither it has a happy ending. The vignettes of wars and other violent acts are very graphic and quickly brings the point to you that we tend to sanitize, romanticize and glorify war. The book wraps it up with a final chapter explaining why, alas, there is apparently no end in sight for the terrible custom of war.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Tactics Primer (Part 2)

10 Rules to Live by (Continued)

Rule #2: Fire munitions from their maximum range

The farther you are from your target, the less possible it will detect and fire back at you.

Shkval view of an enemy tank engaged with an anti-tank missile from a distance of 1.7 km. At this distance, enemy tanks can shoot you down very easily.

Shkval view of an enemy tank engaged with an anti-tank missile from a distance of 5.3 km. At this distance, the enemy tanks will have a hard time detecting and firing at you.

Rule #3: Avoid the "Dead Man's Zone"

The crest of hills are the worst places to be hovering or flying. Remember to use terrain to mask your helicopter. Fly around hills, not over them.

(Click on the image for an expanded view)

(Click on the image for an expanded view)

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Tactics Primer (Part 2)

10 Rules to Live By

All forms of combat require an agile mind able to adapt to the continuously changing challenges of the battlefield. In tactical combat, there are never absolute truths or optimal solutions and speaking of "rules" sounds like out of place. The "rules" discussed here are actually guides that are valid in most situations. Take these "rules" as a framework to think about your own solutions to the tactical challenges you will face.

Rule #1: Never fly over the objective

... or over any area in which you know or suspect there are enemy troops. Remember, under your aircraft is one of the places where you cannot see or aim your weapons.

(Click on the image for an expanded view). During un-guided rocket runs is when most of virtual pilots make the mistake of over-flying the objective.

(Click on the image for an expanded view)

(Click on the image for an expanded view). An ideal un-guided rocket run.

(Click on the image for an expanded view)

Cheers,

Real Life Interruption. Will be back soon though!

Dear readers,

I'm in a business trip and will be back posting very soon. Stay tuned!

Cheers,

"No Enemy, but Peace", a Comic About Real Heroes

This has to be my oddest find ever. In a comics store I found a comic written by a US Marine about a real-life story of heroism and courage during the battle of At-Tarmiyah.

Very good reading and illustrations. You immediately note that the author knows what he is writing about.

There is a more extensive comic coming out in the near future.

Please support this small operation by buying the comic here.

Cheers,

War Gaming in the Military

The Training and Simulation Journal has an article about war gaming in the armed forces around the globe.

The Army realized that the new generation, or Generation Y, is a significant percentage of the Army and that it learns more efficiently using a game than with PowerPoint, said Don Toliver, operations director at the National Simulation Center (NSC) at the Army Combined Arms Center and Training at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Tactical Landing ... Sorta

1.5 km away from the runway

Runway is getting closer ...

Gear down!

The runway gets buried under the nose. Thank Lord for TrackIR!

The dive ...

From the cockpit, closely watching the airspeed ...

Pulling the cyclic like there was no tomorrow

Finally level flight

Touchdown!

Cheers,

DCS Black Shark: Tactics Primer (Part 1)

This series of entries are focused in attack helicopter tactics at the individual level. Off course, attack helicopters almost never take-off to combat individually. At a later time, I will expand this series to tactics to be used at the platoon level. On the meantime, the tactical principles in this primer will help you to fly as a part of a formation.

This series of entries are based in stuff I gathered on the web. I condensed and adapted most of the stuff found and I encourage you to check those original sources. The sources will be cited at the end of each installment.

Flying to the objective

Compared to fixed wing aircraft, the attack helicopter doesn’t have the luxury of being able to fly very high or fast. It’s almost ironic that these two apparent shortcomings of the attack helicopter are actually its two advantages: being able to both fly extremely slow and at a low altitude that allows it to evade enemy anti-air weapon systems. In addition, the attack helicopter has a very high maneuverability that allows it to change the flight regime in small space and time spans.

Unfortunately, the advances in radar and infrared detection technologies are always a threat for the attack helicopter pilot. The biggest challenge for the attack helicopter pilot is to fly towards the objective avoiding detection. The best way to avoid detection is using terrain as cover.

If you are a virtual pilot of fixed-wing combat aircraft, it’s time for a paradigm shift. You are used to dive majestically from the blue with your wings pregnant of fire and the arrogant attitude of a God that entertains himself dealing death to the poor earth-laden mortals. Those times are gone. You are now like a hero of the ancient Greek mythology, half-god and half-mortal. The earth where the soldier lives and dies is now your life and death. The eternal paradoxes of tactical land combat are now your salvation and perdition. Being pilot and soldier at the same time will require the most from your abilities and intelligence. This is your time of greatest glory.

One way to avoid detection by using terrain as cover is the so-called “nap of the earth” (NoE) flying. In NoE flying, the pilot flies at approximately 6-7 meters above the ground and at a speed of 90 Km/h. The vast majority of modern radar systems cannot detect targets flying at a very low altitude. In addition, Doppler-based radars are designed to ignore returns moving at speeds of less than 100 Km/h in order to avoid detecting civilian traffic. During a NoE flight, the pilot chooses a route that allows the maximum terrain cover. The base of hills, around (not over) elevations and behind crowded terrain is ideal for NoE flying. In mountainous terrain, attack helicopter pilots usually fly at an altitude that is halfway between the base and the top of the mountains.

As exhilarating as dangerous, NoE flying requires a lot of concentration.

NoE flying is not problem-free. The slow speed and the low altitude expose the attack helicopter to small-arms fire and un-guided rockets. An alternative to NoE flying is “contour-chasing” (CC) flying, which is done at higher altitudes and speeds. CC flying is used when the presence of enemy anti-aerial or aircraft is less likely. For a CC flight, the pilot maintains an altitude of 12-15 meters and a speed of 150 Km/h. The pilot doesn’t fly around the hills but rather maintains a straight course, keeping a constant altitude above the ground.

CC flying has the advantage of higher speed at the expense of concealment

Coming up next, “10 Rules to Live by”

Source for this entry:

http://www.101st.org/Data/5.27.htm

Cheers,

Battle Group Commander: Episode One

In a previous entry, I shared the news about a sale at Shrapnel Games.

Thanks to the sale event and the coupon I mentioned in my previous entry, you can get "Battle Group Commander: Episode One" for $12.49.

Sure, this game features only four scenarios. Yet I can assure you will be hooked and get hours of gameplay and tactical goodness out of this game. If you have been in the fence about this line of war games, this a golden opportunity.

Cheers,