The 88 flak solution.

[Ack-Ack]

LCT(R) 

What part of "non-Allied ships" is hard to understand?  A ship that saw service with both the USN and British Royal Navy hardly counts as a "non-Allied" ship. 
 

ack-ack

[Skyguns MKII]

What part of "non-Allied ships" is hard to understand?  A ship that saw service with both the USN and British Royal Navy hardly counts as a "non-Allied" ship.  
 

ack-ack

M-18?  

Sorry pal just misread

[phatzo]

Now where have I heard that one before. 


Ya beat me to it.

lol not quick enough, imediately what I thought too.

[AWwrgwy]

Im a little lost about these types of AA.  What were the differences between proxy fuses and timed fuses?  How were, and where would they be used?  I thought most major militaries during the war used radio technology so when the round came within a distance it would explode. 

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wrongway

[alpini13]

    Thanks for all the good work and info pyro,im glad to see we are going in the right direction.Theres been alot of talk of sp and tank detroyers here and i know each one requires alot of development.I though that the flak 88 used in antitank/aircraft role would be a great addition until those others are ready,and with the german halftrack already in the game we have a tow vehicle,instead of modelling the german prime mover artillery tractor(the unarmoured halftrack).

[EagleDNY]

For the most part, flak gunners didn't stop firing at all and it was usually the fighter pilot's responsibility not to fly in the "flak zone" to avoid being hit by friendly fire.

For example...US Navy DEFCAPs over the fleets...do you really think the fleet AA gunners stopped firing at the attacking Japanese planes as soon as Hellcats and Wildcats appeared?  Hell no. 

ack-ack

Exactly my point - if the friendly fighters don't have to worry about being hit by friendly fire, they might as well just sit around in the puffy ack all day.  Thats the 'gamey' bit.  In the context of this thread (since we are talking about 88 fire) I am thinking more about german interceptors and the huge flak areas faced by American B-17 and B-24 groups during daylight raids.  They pretty much knew that they were in for fighters as soon as the flak stopped, and if the fighters suddenly disappeared it was a sure sign of a flak barrage to follow.
As USN Defcap is a different animal altogether as far as flak is concerned since they did have proximity fused ordnance.  Again, a flying shell doesn't give a hoot who it is near when it gets that trigger signal so it is up to the pilot to exercise discretion.  The point of the defcap is to engage inbound aircraft well away from the fleet, which is why the USN had radar picket destroyers so far out in their formations.  I remember reading in the Battle of the Philipine Sea the pickets detected Japanese aircraft 150 miles out, and interception occurred 70 miles out. 

[EagleDNY]

Right at the beginning of this last development cycle, HT made a proof of concept test version of this that worked pretty much like that except with a numerical range readout.  I practiced on it a bit and it's difficult but workable.  There's still some other issues to work out in order to see it move forward.  If implemented, it wouldn't replace the proximity fuzes on the current fleet but could be used for 88's and on different ships.

If you can give us an 88 that has ammo that explodes with a numerical range readout, that solves this problem right off. 

Now all we have to do is have the discussion on the lethality of puffy ack in AH....

[hitech]

Exactly my point - if the friendly fighters don't have to worry about being hit by friendly fire, they might as well just sit around in the puffy ack all day.  Thats the 'gamey' bit.  In the context of this thread (since we are talking about 88 fire) I am thinking more about german interceptors and the huge flak areas faced by American B-17 and B-24 groups during daylight raids.  They pretty much knew that they were in for fighters as soon as the flak stopped, and if the fighters suddenly disappeared it was a sure sign of a flak barrage to follow.
As USN Defcap is a different animal altogether as far as flak is concerned since they did have proximity fused ordnance.  Again, a flying shell doesn't give a hoot who it is near when it gets that trigger signal so it is up to the pilot to exercise discretion.  The point of the defcap is to engage inbound aircraft well away from the fleet, which is why the USN had radar picket destroyers so far out in their formations.  I remember reading in the Battle of the Philipine Sea the pickets detected Japanese aircraft 150 miles out, and interception occurred 70 miles out. 

You can take friendly fire from your own ack.

HiTech

[icepac]

This is nice a nice touch concerning friendly fire.

I was wondering how the puffy ack arrives where it eventually explodes.

It seems that the ack explodes semi-randomly about your plane about the same distance away regardless of flying straight and level or carving up the sky at 400mph at super high altitude.

I would think that a reversal after the gun has fired would cause the ack to end up further away but it seems  not the case.

Is this because anything less accurate would allow people to loiter over enemy ships or strats for much too long resulting in unfair milk runs that cause too much opportunity to damage the enemy?

[B-17]

Since you mentioned "on different ships" does this mean there is some thought being put in about adding non-Allied ships?


ack-ack

that would be nice...Yamato class...Bismarck Class... but no LCT (R)

[icepac]

Now where have I heard that one before.  


Ya beat me to it.

I flew a long time and apparently gunned very ineffectively without knowing the throttle controlled altitude/time delay of ack detonation but, once I did, I started writing nasty things with the ack smoke to the attackers.................... usually oriented so they could read it from above.

Here, I just write "LOL" with the ship convoy headings program whenever I see one headed toward a sure suicide.

[icepac]

I flew a long time and apparently gunned very ineffectively without knowing the throttle controlled altitude/time delay of ack detonation but, once I did, I started writing nasty things with the ack smoke to the attackers.................... usually oriented so they could read it from above.

Here at aces high, I just write "LOL" with the ship convoy waypoints whenever I see one headed toward a sure suicide.

(Image removed from quote.)