High-fidelity Decoys

[DWReese]

Hi gang,

In some of the journals that I have read, defending forces sometimes use high-fidelity land decoys to throw of an incoming missile attack. Theses decoys are simply man-made structures that resemble the target, and may entice the pilot to actually shoot at the wrong thing.

To the best of my knowledge, these type of land decoys are not present in CMANO. So, I was thinking, could a regular SAM unit have some other form of vehicle/platform be edited and attached to it? perhaps a truck or something? If so, then wouldn't it be possible that if the SAM unit was hit, then the decoy (the added platform) could sustain the damage instead of the actual SAM weapon itself. If so, then wouldn't this essentially simulate a land decoy?

Please tell me if this is could be possible, and if it would actually deliver the kind of results that I was looking for.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Doug

[Dysta]

My best way to put decoys are using 'real' units with no ammunition, and have all the sensors/ECMs and magazines removed, then set proficiency of these units as 'novice'.

This will still make players and AI presumed these units are 'real' (which actually is consider the same unit code been used), and also showing the probable sensor radius and missile range that makes them even harder to predict they are just mocks.

However, there is no way to remove the datalink or radio embedded into these units, when they're under attack, it will alert the side and use the 'decoy's embedded datalink to transit guidance to their own units/missiles to peform interception. Wish there is an update to allow player modify the datalink package.

[DWReese]

I understand what you are saying. My only remaining question has to do with the possibility of adding this stripped down and defenseless platform to an exist real SAM unit. Since both would have the same radar units active, and when the ARM attacks, it would have a 50/50 chance of hitting the real one, or the one operating on the stripped down version. Would that be the same thing? If each real and dummy unit had two radar units operating while under attack, then the ARM may, or may not, take out the correct one? I could potentially get a situation where the ARM only takes out the decoy, couldn't I?

So, should it be separate like you suggest, or would it still work if it was added and defenseless dummy embedded with the real unit? Just a little more help, please.

Please explain why it wouldn't work, if possible. It could save me from asking more questions, and trying to figure things out on my own with trial and error. <G>

Thanks again.

Doug

[Dysta]

I need time to fiddle it. See if you could add some SAM units together, then make decoys have no ammunition or sensor in it (not a real unit mixed with some unloaded SAMs). Grouping them and see if they will try to reload missiles to these 'decoys'. If they not, this would be a good setup at this moment.

The attacking side will still attack a group of SAM units regardless, and will not tell which one is decoy. But for the player, he/she can easily find out which unit(s) in a SAM group are decoys, by switch to unit view and observing which unit are not launching. Then manually assign attacks that not hitting them.

[DWReese]

I'm playing around with it now. I set it up as you suggested. I have one real unit, and one decoy. The decoy still has the electronics, but no weapons. I used the Event Editor to place both units on the map at the same time, with both using active electronics. I'm hoping that they will both stay active and both be illuminating when the ARM attack occurs. If so, then the ARMs may have a difficult time trying to figure out which is real. The Event Editor will be set up so that the units are essentially right on top of one another so that you can't tell which platform will get hit. Will that work, before I plunge ahead?

Doug

[DWReese]

If I set the decoy up independently, then the program won't activate the FCR, even though it is present, if there is no actual weapon available. I haven't tried creating a system whereby the ammunition has been reduced to zero. That, as you said, appears to be the only way that this could be done as an independent platform.

I'm still not sure if I couldn't somehow create a decoy platform (with the necessary FCR) and place it inside the actual SAM unit, thereby giving it more vehicles to be destroyed. If that could be done then, in theory anyway, it would seem that ARMs could attack the decoy instead of the actual weapon components of the SAM.

Any more thoughts? Anything that I might be missing?

Doug

[mikmykWS]

These are on our list but in the meantime just remove weapons from Sam sites to accomplish about the same.

Mike

[DWReese]

Mike,

Regarding your work-around fix, I just wanted to let you know that I did as you suggested and removed the weapons (leaving the search radar and the FCR) and turned them to active. When I switched to the other side to see what I could shoot at I noticed that the alert only indicates that the search radar is active. Apparently, the FCR won't turn on if there is no weapon to shoot. Perhaps I can try to leave the weapon and remove all of the missile from the platform. That might work, but the AI probably wouldn't activate the FCR if there were no missiles to fire, anyway.

In any case, I'll just wait for when it's added to the new version, whenever that is. It's no biggie.

Doug

[mikmykWS]

Great. Yeah this is not a high priority at this point.

Thanks

Mike

[Tomcat84]

I'm pretty sure I managed to create decoys by taking a "vehicle (car)" or whatever and adding a SAM radar. By manually setting then to ignore EMCON and have active radar I thought I even could get FCRs to emit.

Guess I'd have to double check.