VERSION 20230817 - Maintenance Update, Scoring
SUMMARY
Protect your naval group from attacking Submarines!
In this mission, your (and your friends', should you play in a group) job is to protect your naval group from an unseen enemy: submarines. At your disposal you have ASW Buoys and Torpedoes.
Caveat emptor: This is a more casual approach to ASW in DCS; it prioritizes pilot skills and co-operation when dropping buoys and torpedoes over technical accuracy. In other words: fun over realism. Therefore - rivet counters beware!
VERSION HISTORY
20230213 - removes a potentially freezing bug after a sub is located, pilots are now properly greeted.
20230816 - fixes AWS availability at start; better scoring; DML update
DURATION
45-80 minutes
DIFFICULTY
Medium (single-player), Easy - Medium (multi-player)
DESCRIPTION
You are tasked with protecting your group from submerged threats until it arrives at its destination. It's unclear how many submarines are in the area, or from with direction they will attack (both are randomized each mission for optimal replay value). There is at least one, and should it get past your defenses, it will kill the first ship it gets close enough (4 kilometers, 2.2 nm), at which point the mission is a failure.
Depending on which helicopter you are flying, you will have to devise your strategy to best detect and defend against threats from the deep. In general, you'll drop sonobuoys (which can detect submarines) until enough buoys detect the same contact and allow for a fix. You will then drop an asw torpedo close to the fix location to try and attack the submarine. As always, timing is everything.
You (and your friends) can fly up to two of the following helicopters
- UH-1H Huey
- MI-8 MTV Hip
- Mi-24 Hind
HOW TO PLAY
You load up your helicopter (Huey, Hip or Hind) with your choice of ASW munitions: Buoys to locate subs, and Torpedoes to attack them. You have limite stores and weight restrictions, so choose wisely
After taking off, you drop ASW buoys that autonomously (and automatically) search for submerged contacts. All active buoys emit smoke to help you visualize their position.
When buoys detect submarines, they transmit their data, and fleet command marks that data on your F10 map in real-time.
They will then try to correlate the data from multiple buoys to get a fix on the contact. Once a fix is established, it is marked on your F10 map
Helicopters can drop ASW torpedoes near the fix in an attempt to kill the contact.
Should your helicopter run out of ASW munitions, you can return to one of the supply three ships and re-stock / refuel.
PLAYER AIDS
Three ships in your group can re-stock your ASW supplies:
- Tarawa-class Amphibious Assault ship
- A 045A Frigate
- A 052C Destroyer
In order to load up on ASW munitions, you must first land on these ships. You can then contact the chief via communication-->other->ASW to stock up or change your current asw munitions (sonar buoys and torpedoes, see below).
TIPS
- In the beginning, prioritize buoys over torpedoes. The area you have to protect is wide, and the enemy can come from all directions
- since the fleet is moving and buoys last up to 30 minutes, drop your initial buoys close to your naval group, they will become your rear guard for the next 30 minutes
- Use the F10 map! It shows all active buoys, all contacts, and all fixes.
- This mission requires landing on moving ships, and flying long stretches over open water; it's not for helicopter beginners but should be fun once you learn to reliably land on moving vessels.
GAME MECHANICS
This mission utilizes a (fictional, for entertainment only) ASW method that works as follows:
- your aircraft (Huey, Hip or Hind) can carry asw buoys and asw torpedos
- you drop asw buoys which will then try and locate submarines automatically. The buoys are marked with smoke
- if enough buoys can locate a submarine, a fix can be calculated and is marked on the map
- once a fix has been established, a torpedo can be dropped close to the fix to try and destroy the submarine
But it's not quite that simple:
- buoys have a maximum detection range of 12 km
- a buoy's precision and detection ability drops drastically with range
- a buoy lasts 30 minutes before its batteries run out
- the precision and duration of a fix is much greater if the angle of detection between two buoys is close to 90 degrees (meanin that simply dropping a bunch of buoys at the same location will not help much)
- a sub fix is accurate only for 3 minutes after the last (automatic) confirmation
- a torpedo has a range of 12km but is only effective at about half that range; a guaranteed kill is only within 1 km (3300 feet) of the fix
- an asw torpedo runs at 55 knots for at maximum 8 minutes
And on top of that, your helicopter's stores are limited:
- 4 torpedoes max or
- 20 asw buoys
or some combination (e.g. 10 buoys and 2 torpedoes)
Each buoy weighs 50kg (some 104 lbs), and each torpedoe weighs in at 700kg (1410 lbs), so make sure that you don't overload your helicopter (obviously, a Huey won't fly far loaded with 4 torpedoes - but the Hip will).
So you want some ASW training?
This mission allows you to change into ASW training mode:
Go to communications-->Mission-->Sitch To TRAINING. The mission ends immediately, and an attack submarine spawns to the northwest of your group. Hunt it down and destroy it before it can get clone enough to attack your group.
Weather
- Broken at 8000
- Wind 10kts at 55
- The group is moving at 12kts, heading 320
NOTES
I built this mission as a test bed while developing DML's "ASW" modules - and my group deemed just too much darn fun to discard, so enjoy!
