Recon missions

[maggsy]

While throwing ideas around on TS tonight Matt talked of how to impliment real Aerial reconnaissance as another layer to a progressive mission/campaign assigning specific A/C to overfly/ recon potential areas of interest.
While the main battle group can focus on the current mission (Operation Badger for example) a secondary small force can be utilised to recon ane area under consideration for the follow up mission and based upon the outcome and what they find if anything !! ( this does require an element of role playing from the Mission designer and the ability to allow failures to gather correct intel to impact how further missions pan out)

I ran a rough and ready mission to overfly a few specific locations and using the TPOD to capture the Lat Long and taking screen shots both of the target location on the TPOD and as if using a camera taking snapshots as I overflew the area, this I felt was in the spirit of the assignment as I have the coord's and pictures of the area in question. I only used the F10 map to select potential area of interest and plotted the best ingress route to pass over or close enough to recon the objective.

http://prntscr.com/qshtrc (screenie of the TPOD with lat long and target id )
http://prntscr.com/qshu6o ( picture displaying the type of image possible by looking directly at the target and taking a Screenie ( not of same loaction as the previous image I was seeing how best to get a good recon image.)
http://prntscr.com/qshug8 ( another screenie from the cockpit during an overflight.)

The ideas can be developed further but the need to match the TPOD tgt and coords with a real time image of the location whilst keeping with in the spirit of what is possible is essential. Two Harriers on the sortie 1 harrier with jamming pod and sidearms providing SEAD top cover for the second low level Harrier fitted with the Litening Pod ( only one pod can be fitted to the Harrier so it either the TPOD or Jammer)

[Mr_Sukebe]

I very much approve of the idea.
The only issue I see is with being able to take a screenshot whilst in Vr

[Muff]

did equal training this morning with the tpod on the general server and this is the outcome.

i wanted to scout the arfield with the AC-130 and JF-17

[maggsy]

Just ran my recon test with VR headset on
used a voiceattack command to select "sysq" each time I wanted a screenie either of the terrain orTPOD
I simply looked at the object and said "Camera" and it took perfect screenies

http://prntscr.com/qsolcq two SA 10 launchers in the foreground by the river

http://prntscr.com/qsolz7 JPOD showing Lat Long ( will need to lean closer to create a clearer image)
Remember this is just a test and posting/sharing images can be improved, I would envision that if a recon sortie is successful the debrief will include forwarding the data to the mission planner/ mission builder who can then add or ignore any intel gathered ( leaving the element of doubt/surprise in any follow up missions)
To further expand if the mission builder looks at Tacview of the mission that included the recon element and decides that the recon team spent too much time overhead the tgt he could decide the OPFOR noticed and moved forces into an otherwise undefended area ( I would suggest a single pass is the low probability with any further passes ramping up the probability of Air Defence and ground opfor appearing at a later mission as a result)

Again the intention is to increase the immersive element for all participants, by simply adding a recon element into missions allows the results (positive or negative to be added to any further missions).
I do not see any great impact on other planned elements as the ToT would have to be sequenced to merge with the main force and the triggers they have built in.

[maggsy]

Thats perfect Muff seems we have a proof of concept its just a matter of intigrating a "Realistic" senario and SOP into missions

[Hendo]

Would be a cool mission to do. Is there a way to export the TPOD image as a jpeg, like a screenshot?

Edit: If you make a snapshot view of the MPCD, you can get quite clear image.

[fly_george]

the viggen can also do elint recon, so a10's can spot and viggens can find far off sam sites