We used to use the same technique. Its been a few decades now, but I used to fly AH-1s which also have fixed rocket pods. The direct fire range (that is aiming directly at what you want to hit) was something like 3km, but using indirect would get them our to 7+.
To do that the gunner put his sight on the target and in the backseater's HUD a crosshair known as a Constantly-Computed-Release-Point (CCRP) would appear and drift around. The backseater would have to manuver so that the CCRP was over the fixed cross hair in the center of the HUD then fire. This usually required the nose to be WAY up, and if you started at a hover you'd quickly be doing 40 knots backwards, so you only had a few seconds to get on target and fire, lower the nose and move forward, and repeat. Not fun. Much easier to do from slow forward flight like these guys, but then you gain altitude which can also be really really bad. Either way the only thing you can see through the HUD is the airframe and the back of the front seater's head because the nose is WAY up.
It can be pretty accurate too, and because the rockets are coming down at a steep angle the range dispersion is much lower that in direct fire.
Irving Vesper
2 hónappal ezelőtt (szerkesztve)
The Israeli Air Force did something similar in the Yom Kippur war, primarily to stay out of the range of Egyptian SAM batteries when attacking. Airplanes approached their targets at low altitudes, below the radar detection limit. Then, out of the SAM's range, the planes would enter a short and steep climb, and then the bombs would be released, the process being timed with a stopwatch by the backseater. The bombs would then follow a parabolic trajectory. This was also a last-resort technique, as there were not many other options available to cope with overwhelming AA defenses, and precision must have been very low using this technique.
Ivan Slavutskiy
2 hónappal ezelőtt
On helicopters, the operation of NARs in the nose-up mode is a long-established mode that allows you to increase the firing range by 30 percent, which allows you to minimize or completely eliminate entry into the affected area of MANPADS and ZU.
The mode is used for firing NARs at an area target with known coordinates and is used from all types of helicopters.
Having a continuous range to the target, the helicopter is accelerated to a predetermined speed, a stopwatch is started, and at a distance to the target equal to the flight of the rocket, the desired pitch is created, and the combat button is clamped.