Eagle Dynamics are adding another feature to the DCS: F-16C in an upcoming patch. This time its LADD bombing mode and it looks interesting if not necessarily practical in every scenario. Let’s have a look!
LADD attack
Low Altitude Drogue Delivery or LADD is an additional mode that DCS: F-16C pilots will be able to employ in a future patch of DCS World. This mode is similar to the toss bombing mode available for the module but with some unique parameters that are not available in CCRP toss bombing.
Matt Wagner goes on to explain that this method of employment is not likely to be used all of the time and that he understand it to be a mode intended for use with a nuclear weapon. Matt also immediately jumps in to note that the Eagle Dynamics team are not intending to add the B61 nuclear bomb to the DCS: F-16C arsenal.
So, this is mostly an effort to offer up a complete F-16C experience and I do applaud ED for going the extra mile on their modules even if the specific mode may find little use. The goal was to offer the most realistic and detailed F-16C module possible and they do seem to be continuing towards that goal.
Check out the video below and try it for yourself when the update comes out. Sometime soon!
No nukes?
I’m offended!
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So long as you don’t go nuclear over it 😊
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Tactically speaking, back in the Jurassic Era, LADD was practiced as a simulation of dropping high-drag Mk-82s and 84s under an overcast. While technically a viable method of delivering the B-61, the “shape”, “blivet”, “bucket-of-sunshine”, AKA “Warsaw Pact Central Heating” would need a long fuze delay to permit you to get several miles away before detonation. Additionally, the weapon’s kinetic/blast effects of detonating on the ground would be reduced compared to the preferred option of an air burst over the target.
A characteristic of an air burst is the Mach Stem, so escaping at tree top level would be a bad idea. IIRC somewhere around 1200 to 1500 meters AGL is theoretically optimum. We didn’t practice ground burst deliveries of B-61s.
https://www.atomicarchive.com/science/effects/mach-stem.html#:~:text=The%20reflected%20blast%20wave%20merges,the%20direct%20blast%20wave%20front.
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