GBU Attacks Not Being Fired Upon

[DWReese]

I was attempting to attack an underground unit with a GBU-28, which must be dropped from a maximum distance of FOUR miles away. The site was protected by a SA-15, which has a 20000 foot ceiling. because I wanted to protect my attacking planes, I dropped the GBU-28s from a altitude of 40000 feet. The GBU-28s didn't get lower than 20000 feet until they were less than one mile away. At that distance, the SA-15 refused to shoot at the GBU-28s.

I tried this same scenario but I dropped the GBU-28s from a distance of 20000 feet and the SA-15 did fire, and defeated all of the GBU-28s.

So, it is safe to say that the altitude has something to do with this. I believe that the logic that was used likely prohibits much of the firing to occur if the target is too close, horizontally. But, if the GBU-28 was just entering 20000 feet altitude (vertically) when it was less than a mile away, it would be about four miles away from the target. The SA-15 should have the ability to shoot at that, I would think.

Doug

[Dimitris]

You can try ordering a manual weapon allocation (from the SA-15 operator's POV) and see what the "crew" tells you as the reason for not shooting.

Be aware that reaction time may play a factor. An incoming target may be in-envelope at time-X but not yet able to be fired upon (OODA cycle in progress), and at a slightly later time-Y it may be "ready" to be fired upon but no longer in-envelope. This is one of the things that can drive AD operators mad.