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Stores & Armament

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ZorkaA edited this page Jan 13, 2024 · 4 revisions

The A-10A has a fairly simple armament system, which is further simplified for use in FlightGear, though this could change in the future.

Available Stores

  • AN-ALQ-131: ECM Pod. Inoperative. Stations 1 + 11

  • AN-ALQ-184: ECM Pod. Inoperative. Stations 1 + 11

  • AIM-9M: Air to Air IR missiles. Stations 1 + 11, Dual rack

  • LAU-68: 7 unguided rockets per dispenser. Stations 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 + 10

  • CBU-87: Cluster munition. All pylons except center.

  • Mk-82: 500lb Bomb. All pylons except center, Triple rack on stations 3, 4, 8 + 9

  • Mk-82 AIR: 500lb Air-Retarded Bomb. All pylons except center, Triple rack on stations 3, 4, 8 + 9

  • Mk-84: 2000lb Bomb. Stations 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 + 9

  • AGM-65: IR Guided rocket, Good for light to medium targets such as trucks, or Shilka's. Stations 3 + 9 (Triple rack)

Armament Panel

The A-10A has a physical armament panel, unlike the digital screens found on most modern aircraft. This panel has various functions and controls for weapons carried by the A-10. The most important buttons are those that select the stations and weapons. These have 4 different lights, which illuminate based on the status of the selected station.

  • Orange E, Empty. This light illuminates if the pylon is empty of releasable weapons. This light also illuminates when the store loaded on that station cannot be released (ECM pod, Fuel tank, Cargo pod)

-- This light does NOT illuminate when the pylon is out of rockets.

  • Green indicator lights. Indicate how many weapons are on the station, up to a maximum of 3.

Weapon Employment

Air to Ground

As with all weapons, the aircraft needs to be powered up, and in the air (No Weight on Wheels).

  • Master Arm needs to be set to ARM -- For Gun, Gun rate switch needs to be set to HI. This acts as a secondary arm switch for the gun
  • Select pylons containing the weapons you wish to release. You can select multiple, as long as they contain the same weapon type. For instance, You can select all pylons containing MK-82s, but you cannot select all pylons containing MK-82s and then select a MK-82AIR.

There is a CCIP piper (Continuously Computed Impact Point) which shows when a weapon is selected and Master Arm is set to ARM. This gives you a marker that will show you where your weapon will land, taking into account the aircraft's speed, altitude, as well as weapon-specific features such as drag and weight.

AGM-65 Mavericks

The A-10 in FlightGear has a simplified implementation of the AGM-65 missile. This is due to FlightGear's core lacking some features needed for a more realistic implementation using the TV monitor on the right of the cockpit.

In order to target the missiles, the missile needs to be selected, and Master Arm has to be set to ARM. There will be a round marker which is located approximately in the center of the HUD. This marker is what the seeker can see. You can move this using the arrow keys on your keyboard, and it is limited to the boundary of the HUD. To lock up a target with the missile, you need to move the marker over the target, and then press l (Lowercase Lima). If there is a valid target at that location, the missile will start to track it. You can then fire as normal using the trigger, or e and the missile should track and hit unless you were outside valid launch parameters.

Air to Air

The A-10's standard aiming systems for the gun will not accurately, if at all, work in an Air to Air environment. To switch the aircraft systems into Air to Air mode, you need to use the AIM-9 Mode knob, on the armament panel. This knob has 3 settings, all of which are modelled in FlightGear.

  • OFF. This is the default position, and when in this position, the AIM-9 system is de-energized and no cooling is possible. The missile's seeker is fixed powered off, and if the missile is released it will be dumb, and not track anything. There will also be no seeker tone.

  • COOL. This mode only serves a single purpose, which is to start the cooling of the AIM-9 seekers.

  • SEL. This mode enables the AIM-9 system and allows arming of AIM-9 missiles. This also switches the HUD into Air to Air mode, providing different symbology when using the gun that is more useful and accurate in an Air to Air situation. AIM-9's released in this mode will track, if the seeker was tracking a subject prior to launch.

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