Air-to-Ground Combat

Air to Ground Combat is the various techniques used to engage and destroy ground targets (ideally those belonging to the enemy faction). Although simple in nature (compared to the more complicated Air-To-Air methods and techniques), there are still a number of aspects in the A-G (Air-To-Ground) domain you can familiarise yourself with.

Release modes

In this release modes chapter we are going to examine the few modes we can use to release our weapons. Note that this mainly applies to bombs and rockets: missiles technically do not fall under either, but dependent on the airframe they can be classified under CCIP, CCRP, or neither.

Which release mode you wish to use may depend on the situation: i.e. the target location, other threats in the area and the weapon type you wish to use. For example, rockets prefer the CCIP release mode, but this may be a less viable option if there is a heavy SAM presence around your target. A high altitude CCRP drop with a guided munition may then be a better option.

CCIP

CCIP is perhaps the easiest of the release modes to grasp, as this release mode entails literally pointing your nose at the target and releasing the weaponry. However, most weapons need a correction for drop (distance and gravity) they incur on their way to the target: some aircraft (A-10C, F-14, F-18C) give you a means (via HUD symbology and automatic distance ranging) to adjust for the drop, in other aircraft (F-5E) you may need to adjust for this yourself if you want your weapons to hit.

Weapons typically released via CCIP are rockets and unguided bombs, as well as bombs that are fitted with a retardation device (to slow them down in relation to the aircraft, for low level bombing). These weapons need this impact mode for accurate bombing, as their (unguided) nature and aerodynamics would lead to imprecise results otherwise.

Other modes

Missiles such as the