Make the Aerosentry SPAAG radar guided

[limber lily]

Imo it's really hard to counter other than saturating it with lynchpins, whereas with radar it can theoretically be jammed and rendered useless
Plus the model already has radar markings anyway, make it accurate at least

Maybe copy paste the radar code from the Boltstrike

[edgy scroll]

It also shouldn't be able to target ground vehicles (it shreds everything including MBTs) since it's radar isn't built for that and it doesn't have any optics/manual systems. Also as modeled it doesn't seem to have a search radar, and instead just a single targeting radar face, so it should also be constantly rotating to scan with its targeting radar, meaning there's sometimes a blindspot.

[chilly pawn]

i agree with this, but give it an optical backup like the shard.

[rapid walrus]

Yes and No
still engage soft targets but shouldnt be able to kill tanks or ships
blind spot ONLY if there is not friendly radar net for it to use

[meager siren]

Agree
It has what, 30-35mm cannons? It should be able to shred recon trucks, APCs, maybe IFVs but not tanks
I don’t know about Gepards and Vulcans, but Shilkas and Tunguskas can be used in fire support role

[rapid walrus]

All modern SPAAG have the ability incase enemies get behind the lines. I think they should be able to HALT tanks though, basically detrack, or maybe kill with back shot. I know gepard can have some mean sabot rounds but IDK if they ever have used them or how many are stock piled IRL. I assume if thinking of going to war with a near-peer power you would stock up with that and deploy with some as a "just incase"

Also without radar how do they track and shot bombs? A human would have a horrible hit rate trying to do it manual

[mellow imp]

It's an electro optical system but it's still aimed with a computer, it just uses magic cameras to track targets like bombs

Aero should get an FCS with an optical backup, and use Datalink to acquire targets with it's FCS. Without DL it should have to search

[orchid yoke]

This would be nice for jamming + surprise attack through low clouds 👍

[sacred jungle]

A purely EO/IR setup with laser ranging would make sense. It uses datalink for broader 'search' but is limited to visual range reaction if the target isn't available on DL. It would also mean it can't go through cloud.

Or, just go with the 3D model detail and put a Phased Array tracking radar on it. You could have similar warnings to inbound missiles (eg 'GUN - 2.2km') when it lights you up.

[mellow imp]

Yeah something like that, although I think the Aero should get radar and the Anvil should use IRST or whatever

But yeah more nuance for the spaag sensors would be great

[lucid coyote]

Ngl the only reason I want aeros to have radar is so they can be jammed, either to degrade their tracking or to totally stop it

[sacred jungle]

Ideally the Self-protect jammer would throw it off if you were far enough away.

[rapid walrus]

flip that, should mainly work up close and make them go "manual"

[sacred jungle]

Depends on the Jammer

[rapid walrus]

We are talking a broad frequency, omni directional flood the waves jammer not a narrow bean targeted and modulated jamming like the pods
AKA ECM and ECCM fight

[sacred jungle]

Yeah, barrage works best at longer range. In close the radar burns through.

[rapid walrus]

edit your comments to get them through faster, or the slow mo gets in the way

[sacred jungle]

Based on current RCS behaviours of the jammer on the Ifrit in particular, I suspect you get better jamming results the further away the radar is. For the Aerosentry, if you're getting that close you're also reducing your reaction time to start jamming and/or manoeuvring to avoid the streams of cannon fire.

Unsure what running the SP jammer prior to being shot at does in NO.

[rapid walrus]

Personally IDK what they would be using, it defies all my knowledge of EW lol (as in the game as is)

I mean, you need some pretty large and expensive emiters to do proper ECM on missiles unless it has no onboard guidance and is reliant on a home station guidance and you cant really jam beamriders unless you have ship size resources to my knowledge.

Once you get a bif enough array you can actually just cook most of a planes computers without meaning to just by "locking them up" if they are close enough and dont have enough shielding, which honestly I dont think many do besides "western" nations and perhaps china. An Aegis can put out so much energy its insane.

[wheat hollow]

To make this simple to implement, the Aerosentry would be linked to an HLT Radar truck like a Stratolance trailer, to bypass the need to alter the ingame model

[sacred jungle]

You only need to alter the in-game model if you intend to put a search radar on it (the textures and mesh already account for the track radar on the front of the turret). Otherwise the Aerosentry is already plugged into the Datalink.

The HLT radar / StratoLance combo is just to support the missiles' SARH illumination requirements. The Aerosentry only needs situational awareness to slew to target.

[edgy scroll]

True - but taking into account that currently the Aerosentry doesn't have a search radar, plus the jamming mechanics of the 'dusa (basically disables radar fire control and radar missiles, but not radar tracking, stops datalink from and to the specific unit, and lowers accuracy of ballistic targeting) it should become very bad at shooting down targets while being jammed. Also, still shouldn't shoot at ground targets unlike the Anvil (multipurpose 57mm, but tbh also OP as it 4-shots an MBT)

[lucid coyote]

SPAAGs shouldnt be winning fights against MBTs so easily, a single aerosentry wipes out the airbase by the bridge easily

lets not forget the way they obliterate shards
it wouldnt surprise me if the aero could cripple a carriers air defenses

[sacred jungle]

Yeah, it needs to be tuned for AP effectiveness against IFVs at best. The effect on MBTs is BS.

[edgy scroll]

I mean, rapid-fire 30mm would be pretty devastating against an MBT technically - just look at the Bradley versus T90 situation - except it was using APDS rounds or something similar, and not airburst HE. As the Aerosentry is completely AA focused I'd doubt it has much or any AP ammunition that it can even switch to, and HE isn't doing much against a tank or even an IFV to be honest, aside from blasting some paint off and giving the crew a headache

[wild vine]

You could still change the model, not like it has liveries

[sacred jungle]

The Sentry may be cheesing it's effective range as it possibly has a longer detection range than the MBT - which should be acquiring and killing the Sentry at ~4km in the rolling countryside typical of NO right now.

[wild vine]

There needs to be a way for ships to kill them, ive watched the primevan one at Vigil Cay island shred a trio of shards that were approaching and firing with their lousy aim

[late pulsar]

https://discord.com/channels/909034158205059082/1283518673537077270

Shameless plug

[wild vine]

I saw, dont worry.

[lean anchor]

In real life, Gepard fires frangible APDS but I doubt it would be able to severely damage ifv and better class of armor

But in game aerosentry fires proximity HE and even APCs are a big doubt when it comes to damaging

[dawn kelp]

depends on the IFV, but the 35mm Orelikon can seriously mess up quite a few IFVs, most russian IFVs aren't protected from even 25mm APDS rounds, most NATO IFVs are protected frontally from 35 mm APDS

[dawn kelp]

while I believe it would make sense for the guns to be track IR guided I propose alternatively it has a search radar that'll be possible to suppress using ARMs followed by slower responsiveness as it'll have to find targets manually, effectively letting players "debuff" it making it weaker for a duration of time as the crew would be scared by the ARM

[lean anchor]

but you see, the frangible one shatters upon impact to damage aircraft better, it ain't your normal apds

[dawn kelp]

you may have misunderstood me, the 35mm oerlikon in it's normal configuration can fire anti tank munitions as seen from it's modeling on the Gepard in WT which is surprisingly accurate in comparison to the real life counterpart the belt that's on the outside of the turret housed in the external sponson is where the normal APDS anti tank rounds are, I'm not 100% sure they are actual darts as they have just been described as "anti tank rounds" by multiple historians and tank experts, there is 20 rounds per gun.

[lean anchor]

gepard could surely pierce some tanks with normal apds

(from sides mostly)

also, 25 mm APDS is like STANAG Level 5, most of your daily armoured vehicles can't stand against that without add-on armor

[dawn kelp]

the sides of some modern MBTs would even struggle against these guns, but that's nitpicking, my point rather is that I don't fully see this being a unreasonable problem that the Aerosentry is capable of direct fire destruction of the IFVs. considering we are talking about a even more futureristic scenario I wouldn't even be surprised if we are talking about 50mm or 57mm autocannons which would be even more problematic in a direct fire role

[lean anchor]

well, 20 mm can destroy armoured vehicles in this game so

[edgy scroll]

honestly 12.7mm fire can destroy up to an afv8

[wild vine]

Le ɓụmp because need

[pure compass]

I’d say give it a search radar for longer detection range, on top of the datalink.
Have a fire control radar for primary shooting and use it’s optical/IRST with laser tracking as a backup and or supplement to the radar tracking. The main thing that the jamming would do is deny the radar accurate range information, which is where the optical/IRST fire control would come in. Being a little less accurate but still plenty able to defend itself.
And the self protect jammers shouldn’t have very much effect unless you’re like really close range. Otherwise directional jammers should absolutely mess with the thing’s abilities to acquire and track targets.

Could also think of using kinds of laser dazzlers to affect optical tracking maybe?
Idk I’m just throwing stuff out there

Maybe if we allowed the self protect jammer to affect it, you would have to mostly stay at the same or similar angle you fired the weapons at as if you move off to the side too much the direction of jamming is different from the direction the missiles are coming in, making it easy to get a track on the missiles.
Staying with the direction the missiles are coming from and jamming would make it much harder to acquire with the radar

[primal oak]

Theoretically 35 long barrel autocannons could penetrate side tanks armour (Gepard has APDS ammo, for example)