MiG-21 Weapons Management

This page is about weapons management for the MiG-21bis.

Gunsight

The gun sight displays a static non-moveable fixed net and a moveable pipper onto the head-up-display.

The Fixed Net

The fixed net is turned on using a switch on the bottom of the gunsight, and it's brightness can be adjusted using the knob on the bottom left of the gunsight.

The Pipper

The moving pipper uses an accelerometer, a gyro, and other inputs to attempt to accurately display where unguided armament is going. Most of the switches on the gunsight affect it in some way. The pipper is also affected by the throttle drum, which in-sim is moved with the i and k keys.

The pipper is turned on with a switch on the lower right side of the gunsight, and the brightness is changed by the knob directly above it.

The pipper's gyro can be disabled by turning the GYRO/MISS switch to MISS. The pipper will be more stable, but less accurate. The pipper can be damped by pressing down the lock key.

The pipper has three major "modes" of operation: automatic, manual, and 300m mode.

300m mode

300m mode is entered by rotating the throttle drum with the k button all the way to the rear. In this mode, the target distance is assumed to always be 300m, and the angle will be automatically set for the gun. Rotate the span knob to set the desired target wingspan width in meters.

Auto mode

Automatic mode is entered into by not being in 300m mode, and by flipping the AUTO/MAN switch to MAN.

Span still must be set manually.

Distance is taken from either a radar lock, the slant-radar range (if the radar is locked in the forward position), or if neither is present, the distance is assumed to be 600m.

The pipper correction angle is set automatically via the position of the GUN/LAUNCH and SHOOT/BOMB switches. If SHOOT/BOMB is set to BOMB, the pipper attempts to help with bomb releases (this is not CCIP or CCRP, and is not accurate). If SHOOT/BOMB is set to SHOOT, and GUN/LAUNCH is set to GUN, the pipper angle will adjust to the correct angle for the GSh-23. If it is set to LAUNCH, it will adjust the angle depending on which armament position is selected on the weapons panel (S-5, S-24, or missiles).

Manual Mode

In manual mode, the span and angle must be entered manually. When the target is within visual range, use the i and k keys to move the pipper diamonds so they surround the target. Range to the target will be estimated based on the wingspan and pipper diameter. Note that while in manual mode, the locking bars on the radar cannot be moved.

Customise Colour of Gunsight

The gunsight has fully customizable colours via the FlightGear dropdown menu MiG-21 -> Gunsight.

Weapons

Payload Information

Name	Type	Guidance	Range	Speed	Additional Info	Wikipedia article
R-3S	Missile	Infrared	8 km	Mach 2.5	Russia-cloned AIM-9	link
R-3R	Missile	Semi-Active Radar	8 km	Mach 2.5	Russia-cloned AIM-9	link
R-60	Missile	Infrared	8 km	Mach 2.7		link
R-27R1	Missile	Active Radar	73 km	Mach 4.5	Later variants only	link
R-27T1	Missile	Infrared	63 km	Mach 4.5	Later variants only	link
Kh-66	Missile	Beam Rider	10 km	2700 km/h		link
Kh-25MP	Missile	Anti Radiation	42 km	1620 km/h		link
UB-16	Rocket Pod	N/A			Fires S-5 rockets
UB-32	Rocket Pod	N/A			Fires S-5 rockets	link
S-5	Rocket	Unguided	5 km	300 m/s	Fired from UB-16/32	link
S-24	Rocket	Unguided				link
FAB-100	A/G	Unguided			Free fall bomb
FAB-250	A/G	Unguided			Free fall bomb
FAB-500	A/G	Unguided			Free fall bomb

Weapons Loading

Load and re-load of weapons can be done on the ground. Most weapons are changed using the drop-down menu Equipment -> Fuel and Payload.

Flares/chaff can be added to the left and right fuselage attachment points (Conformal CM). They can be reloaded using drop-down menu MiG-21 -> Reload Flares/Chaff.

The gun is loaded on start-up of the simulation. Re-loading is currently only possible by re-starting FlightGear.

Rockets

There is a ripple setting for launching rockets. However, please be aware that if the button / keyboard control is only pressed shortly, then only one rocket is released no matter the ripple setting. Therefore: hold down the button the whole time.

Rocket aiming is a lot like gun aiming - and they basically act like bullets (due to limits in the current implementation).

Missiles

KH-66

The KH-66 requires the radar in beam mode and the weapon selector to the appropriate S-24 position.

Flares / Chaff

The current CM “pods” are Yugoslavian in origin, and there isn't much info online about them. The implementation assumes the front 9 holes were for chaff, and the rear 20 were for flares.

Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)

Each of the four light bulbs represents one of the four sensors, not the system as a whole.

The RWR can be toggled between Day (yellow lights) and Night (red lights) by pressing on the gauge - but not in the middle, as that is the test button).

Depending on the relative position of the other aircraft, more than one light bulb might be on, as the aspect ranges of the sensors overlap each other. If there is more than one aircraft in range, then the blinking of the light bulbs might get infrequent /not constant rhythm, as each aircraft's radar scan passes over the sensors.

In the real aircraft the blink rate is based on aircraft, scan pattern, and distance. However, that has not yet been implemented.