MiG-21 Weapons Management: Difference between revisions

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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 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 (left to gunsight, ca. middle). The pipper will be more stable, but less accurate. The pipper can be damped by pressing down the lock key.
The pipper's gyro can be disabled by turning the GYRO/MISS switch to MISS (left to gunsight, ca. middle). The pipper will be more stable, but less accurate. The pipper can be damped by pressing down the target lock key ({{Key press|n}}).


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

Revision as of 16:07, 21 September 2019

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

Gunsight

The gunsight displays a static non-moveable fixed net and a moveable pipper onto the head-up-display. It must be turned on by flipping the Gunsight switch on the main switch panel on the right cockpit wall (bottom row, second switch from left).

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

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 (left to gunsight, ca. middle). The pipper will be more stable, but less accurate. The pipper can be damped by pressing down the target lock key (n).

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.

Lights

The gunsight has three lights:

  • The top left light indicates you are within launching parameters.
  • The top right light indicates that you should break off the attack as soon as possible.
  • The green light in the centre indicates that the gunsight is receiving radar information (in other words, that the radar has a lock).

Dials

The upper left dial shows distance for missile usage. The large central dial shows, in top to bottom order:

  • pipper diameter in mils
  • distance when using guns
  • distance when using missiles
  • distance when using rockets

Which gauge to read depends on which switches have been selected, and the position of the AIR/GROUND switch (on the weapons panel).

Weapons Information

Payload and Pylons

The hard-points are labelled as follows:

  1. Left wing inboard pylon
  2. Right wing inboard pylon
  3. Left wing outboard pylon
  4. Right wing outboard pylon
  5. Fuselage pylon

There are also a left and right fuselage attachment point, which currently only can be used for chaff/flare (in future versions of the FlightGear plane JATO rockets might get used).

Name Type Guidance Range Speed Pylons Additional Info Wikipedia article
R-3S Missile Infrared 8 km Mach 2.5 1,2,3,4 Russia-cloned AIM-9 link
R-3R Missile Semi-Active Radar 8 km Mach 2.5 1,2,3,4 Russia-cloned AIM-9 link
R-60 Missile Infrared 8 km Mach 2.7 1,2,3,4 Can also be ported as a set of 2 on outboard pylons link
R-27R1 Missile Active Radar 73 km Mach 4.5 1,2 Later variants only link
R-27T1 Missile Infrared 63 km Mach 4.5 1,2 Later variants only link
Kh-66 Missile Beam Rider 10 km 2700 km/h 1,2,3,4 Can be used on both air and ground targets link
Kh-25MP Missile Anti Radiation 42 km 1620 km/h 1,2 link
UB-16 Rocket Pod N/A 1,2,3,4 Fires S-5 rockets
UB-32 Rocket Pod N/A 1,2 Fires S-5 rockets link
S-5 Rocket Unguided 5 km 300 m/s Fired from UB-16/32 Against soft ground targets link
S-24 Rocket Unguided 1,2,3,4 Against hard ground targets link
FAB-100 A/G Unguided 1,2,3,4, Free fall bomb 100 kg
FAB-100x4 A/G Unguided 1,2 Set of 4 100 kg bombs
FAB-250 A/G Unguided 1,2,3,4 Free fall bomb
FAB-500 A/G Unguided 1,2 Free fall bomb
RN-28 A/G Unguided 5 Tactical nuclear bomb. Intentionally not implemented in FlightGear link
n/a Smokepod n/a 5
PTB-490 Droptank n/a 3,4,5 490 litres
PTB-500 Droptank n/a 5 800 litres

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.

Weapons Armament and Deployment

Unguided Free Fall Bombs

To set the correct angle of the pipper use the information included in the bombing_data.csv file (situated in the top level folder of the aircraft) to set the pipper depression angle using the top right wheel on the gunsight with the red gauge Angle.

Put the pipper on the target and monitor the bottom range band of the gun sight (scale from 0.4 to 2 km): drop bombs from 1.5 km or higher by holding the WEAPONS RELEASE button. You will have a visual cue when the LAUNCH ALLOWED light is lit up.

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)

Flashing light and tone indicate one or several aircraft being picked up. The 4 lights represent the approximate directions. The faster the flashes, the closer. Steady is launch.

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).

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

Examples of lit light bulbs:

    X |
    --+--
      |

Means there's one or more aircrafts forward/right of you.

    X | X
    --+--
      |

There are two possibilities:

  1. An aircraft directly in front at 12 o'clock position
  2. One or more aircrafts forward of you both to the left and to the right


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