User Guide

5: COMBAT
5.23
Realistic TADS and the Laser
Longbow
Before you can activate the laser, you must select a TADS target. Also, before
you can manually toggle the laser on/off, you must select the
REALISTIC TADS
OPERAZTION
option in the OPTIONS menu (under the Gameplay/Realism sub-
menu). See the
Install Guide for details.
Numpad e Toggle laser on/off (with TADS as active target acquisition mode)
You can activate the laser when you’re using your chain gun. This is highly
recommended, as it increases accuracy. You
must have the laser active to fire
Hellfire missiles in LOBL mode, however. If you try to fire them while the laser is
off, you’ll get a
NO ACQUIRE message above the High-Action Display. (In LOAL
mode, you can fire Hellfires with the laser off, but you’ll have to activate it and
lase the target before the missile’s countdown timer reaches zero.)
♦ If
REALISTIC TADS OPERATION is off, the laser activates automatically.
♦ If
REALISTIC TADS OPERATION is active, but the laser is off, then your helicopter’s
weapon computer uses the best system available (usually the Fire-Control
Radar). This can be inaccurate because targets may move before the FCR
completes its next scan.
♦ If
REALISTIC TADS OPERATION is active, but both the laser and FCR are off, then
the weapons computer calculates the distance to the target based on the
TADS camera angle and your current altitude. This is highly inaccurate, as it
does not take things such as terrain into account.
Using the Laser with Laser Hellfire Missiles
L Select Laser Hellfires in the Mission Planner Arming window
aO Activate REALISTIC TADS OPERATION in the OPTIONS menu
h Toggle TADS target acquisition on. TADS appears to the left of the High-Action Display
B Select Hellfire missiles
s2 Switch to Direct master mode (activates LOBL missile launch mode and TADS/TSD MFDs)
L or T Lock onto a target and wait for missile lock tone
Numpad
e Toggle laser on (this also gives accurate range-to-target information for the chain gun)
z Fire Hellfire