DCS: Everything to know about the AGM-141 TALD

For the Tomcat and Hornet; How to use, Maximum Ranges, Deployment techniques, ai setup, Spotting a Jet from a TALD and use in combat. Everything you could possibly need to know about the TALD in DCS World.
00:00 intro
00:21 TALD Setup Hornet / Tomcat
00:37 TALD Science (Maximum range, guidance)
02:10 Loadouts
02:30 Setting up the AI to use TALDS
03:47 TALD Tactics and spotting jets amongst TALDS
Support the creation of more content!: / redkite
Join the Official Discord!: / discord
/ redkiterender
/ redkiterender

[@isotaan]

You should be able to enable the AI aircraft to engage TALDs from the mission editor. You'll want to set the CAP/Engage Within Zone/etc. task to include "Missiles." By default they only engage aircraft, so without this they'll ignore the decoys. A note of caution: The AI doesn't consistently engage TALDs with fighters and it seems that sometimes the AI tries to close to BFM and doesn't know what to do.

[@RedKiteRender]

Thanks for that information! A Pity ED didn't point me in that direction when i questioned them on it. Unfortunately it's still only meaningful in a mission designed for it, and sounds like the it's really for missile interception not deception odds. So 99% of the time Ai will ignore it for most players anyway. None the less, great information for mission/campaign makers!

[@MrPhantom453]

Always so detailed and thorough Mr Kite. Thank you.

[@jasons9564]

Thanks for taking the time to make a chart! I know that has to be time consuming. It is a great service to everyone!

[@WinchesterDelta1]

Great video again. Adding the part with the mission editor was a very nice addition. Hope you keep doing that in future videos.

[@clericneokun]

thank you for the height-range guidelines and ME tutorial for AI aircraft. I'm gonna enjoy using this new toy.

[@theflyingfool]

Great work Redkite! Thanks!

[@prichardgs]

As always thourough and enlightening! Thank you!

[@ColeNorthgate]

Excellent guide

[@_lo8241]

Top tier guides, thank you RedKite, get well soon. (Mirage videos sooooon?)

[@stixxaus5373]

Nice work (again) @RedKite. I think you have a typo in your distance sheet - 30nm column at 20k should read 3,966ft not 39,66ft. Fantastic clear and no nonsense videos, keep it up!

[@RedKiteRender]

Yes, you are right. Thanks

[@noisytwit]

Your closing statement reminds me of the scene in the Battle of Britain movie where the newbie is being schooled by the Sqn Boss. - "Never fly straight and level in the combat area". Just as valuable advice today as 80 years ago...

[@RedKiteRender]

Very true words!

[@willielinks3865]

Awesome video as usual! Hope to see you do the new Baltic Dragon campaign again!

[@RedKiteRender]

Will be, but the extra externals take time to do and between life and high priority jobs like the F1ce it's fallen on the backburner a little. Shouldn't be too much longer before i can commit to it being a weekly series.

[@willielinks3865]

@@RedKiteRender you're awesome! Keep up the great work. Thank you for all the work you do

[@ray32245mv]

Is there a way to make AI wingman launch TALDs on command, such as "attack target", or perhaps some way to make them release on a condition or something in mission editor? Thanks for any tips, and great videos, discovered your channel the other day, and you really hit all the details without wasting time.

[@NeightWolf49]

Great stuff as always Redkite. I just used these successfully against a Hawk site this week. They worked as advertised.

[@archimaede]

Very informative as always Redkite. Would you have any hints for us about an upcoming Mirage F1 video?

[@RedKiteRender]

Next video will be Engine Relight, which should be followed up by Radar use.

[@_lo8241]

Do you know if we will see radar guided weaponry usage in the radar video?

[@RedKiteRender]

Weapons will be included with the radar.

[@Jakes_1-1]

At 1:13 you mention 360GS is roughly 5nm/min. Wouldn't that be closer to 6nm/min? I know...I am very late to the party here, only have a use case for these now in a mission I am involved in. And you always have some of the best tutorials! Great video and will be using your advice extensively. Thank you!

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

2:20 "and four bombs" - has the ones attached that just look nice, but leave everything completely unharmed :D

[@RedKiteRender]

I really wish they worked better

[@Deltarious]

This reminds me that I've been disappointed with the performance of the JSOW-As recently as those would be my preferred weapon to use with TALDs. I only re tested them fully recently so I can't say for sure if their performance has gotten worse, but over multiple passes in an actual mission on a server the results, even when trying to target a specific unit, but including when switching to more 'area' targeting, with multiple JSOWs in rapid succession, are nearly always worse than 1 unit per JSOW for me right now, making the Cs the better choice. It's this kind of unreliable damage modelling that really makes me wish we had the JSOW-B, which of course wouldn't be particularly realistic as it wasn't procured, but it would solve all my woes in DCS.

[@RedKiteRender]

Yeah the clusters are frequently disappointing, which sadly means you'll very rarely see someone carry rockeyes. Historically clusters were the more popular munition, but they're so unreliable in dcs.

[@purplepenguin43]

@@RedKiteRender was just trying to drop cbu-99’s in the hornet on a hawk search radar and pair of land rovers for practice. Level flight 4000ft, autopilot cpl and alt hold to remove pilot as factor, no wind, auto mode, vt/ht @ various heights and modes. All missed. Most would land short, a few long or right or left. Only way to inprove hit chance was set vt to 2000-3000 to get the spread wider then the margin for error. Even forgetting setting the deploy fuse, the case would still land 1000ft from the target. That and when i did get one to finally hit it did like 20% damage and radar was still operational. Its sad cause literally one of the Wikipedia photos for the hornet during the gulf war is a single harm on 2 and and cbu on 7. Im looking though your vids right now to see if you have anything on cbu’s in the hornet. Excellent videos btw, the difference between f***ing around having fun and having fun doing science is spreadsheet’s, and you have some excellent spreadsheets.

[@RedKiteRender]

@@purplepenguin43 Thanks! Even the AI frequently struggle to hit with the CBUs even with targets on flat ground...

[@theperpetual8348]

@@purplepenguin43 For some reason there's a huge difference between the Mk20 and CBU-99 in game these days. Although not strictly accurate for navy hornets, I always use the Mk20 instead of CBU-99 and it's one of my favorite weapons (against soft targets). For effective use, make sure you: -Set VT HT to 1500 (it's always 1500, can't change the fuse. You can only change targeting params so right now 1500ft is the only correct value) -Set Position in HSI to POS/GPS (Workaround for Hornet INS bug, potentially optional) -Use a release angle of 30deg or more. With this the Mk20 is a solid choice against soft targets such as trucks or SAMs. Of course, releasing in pairs will increase effectiveness further.

[@CallsignJoNay]

@@theperpetual8348 I never have any luck with MK-20 even against humvees. They no more effective than convenience store fireworks. Maybe the Tomcat has something to do with it, but I thought all A2G weapons were ED controlled. So IDK man.

[@jebb125]

anyway you can share the ranges for a kneeboard since you did all the hard work??

[@OzDeaDMeaT]

How were you switching between all those aircraft targets at 5:18 ?

[@RedKiteRender]

TWS and Un-designate

[@dagisiemens]

Very good! Any "inside" information regarding the F1? 😇

[@paulbrooks4395]

NCTR should not always work due to the lens configuration on the decoy making their RCS indistinguishable from a real aircraft RCS-unless NCTR is operating from an aspect that allows radar returns from the engine fan blades.

[@RedKiteRender]

Yes, that would be the 'some situations' i mentioned, without going into a full blown guide on NCTR

[@fonesrphunny7242]

It's already sucking out the fun on most public servers I've checked. Take off, spam TALDs, spam JSOWs, land, rearm, repeat.

[@RedKiteRender]

That's up to the mission maker to resolve, you can restrict / limit specific load outs. In organised play they're a great challenge, but i totally get your point in the random environment that's public mp.

[@fonesrphunny7242]

@@RedKiteRender I don't have the dedication (anymore) to join a squad, so public MP it is. I regularly visit servers I haven't been to before, hoping to find a good one, but no luck. 90% of people just don't know what they are doing, be it as pilots or mission designers. Public is basically no fun anymore already. Hornets chasing easy kills is just the tip of the iceberg, but it's enough to make a ship sink.

[@AaronNies]

You mention TALDs are never engaged by AI--I think you should do more research on this as I've had a MiG-19 distracted by a TALD and started to merge with it on Flashpoint Levant. I might still have the Tacview as well if you're interested.

[@RedKiteRender]

I've not been able to get them to shoot after repeated tests. But i'd be interested to see your example if the ai somehow managed it, Ai is notoriously unpredictable. AI aircraft don't engage 'guided missiles' to best of my knowledge. ED commented that they'll shoot TALDs in the future; If i were to guess, when a formal 'Decoy' object class is added.

[@AaronNies]

​@@RedKiteRender Found the tacview. Looks like I could have been mistaken. It appears like the mig-19 starts to briefly turn toward a TALD but it could have been his normal maneuvers on jets 5 miles to his front. Even though his turn in looks like he's distracted by the TALD, he's 250 feet above higher than them and stays neutral rate of decent. He does pull 5 G's like he's lining up on their six so I'm still suspicious.

[@RedKiteRender]

The Mig-19's not exactly a TALD's target audience, having a weak radar, and they're not very visible within 'visual range' so I'd say it's probably coincidence.

[@AaronNies]

@@RedKiteRender Very true. I think the TALD was in radar/gunsight range when it pull towards the TALD. 2k-1500 ft. I agree it's most likely not the TALD it was going for now that I'm hearing other AI don't react. It sure looked like a perfect momentary distraction when I first saw it though. Hopefully with all of the nice AI changes we're getting they will include decoy behavior

[@RattlerSSBN]

Did this possibly get BUGGED in 2.8 upgrade? Redkite's instruction on AI TALDs worked for me perfectly until I upgraded last week. Is anybody having success now with it?

[@RedKiteRender]

Read today's patch notes: Fixed: AI F/A-18 will not release TALD

[@RattlerSSBN]

@@RedKiteRender Thanks Redkite, what timing you have😎😎

[@RattlerSSBN]

Attn All Plane Capts: the AI can now drop TALDs again from F/A-18 with the latest update v2.8.0.32937, just change the 'Weapon' Redkite talk about in video from 'Unguided' to 'Decoys'.

[@masterman3178]

Me and my wingman tried a combo on a SAM site. He had all TALDS but I had x4 harms. He launched and I followed my launch shortly after. However I believe the HARMs outran the TALDS thus they got shot down anyway.

[@RedKiteRender]

Yep, got to time it, especially if the site has a lot of SA-15s for close protection.

[@emossg]

More F1 tutorials when?

[@RedKiteRender]

When they're cleared by Aerges.

[@erfguuipo8084]

Is SlAm better than this ??

[@RedKiteRender]

Depends on what you want it for. As a decoy, the TALD is 100% better.

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@RedKiteRender What targets are they good for? Tanks and stuff? I am looking for a all round long range accurate bomb when I see any opportunities. Rockets? I would have 2 Sidewinder and 2 AMRAAM always, so that will help me take down enemies and I need options for ground attack.

[@RedKiteRender]

@@erfguuipo8084 Well, JSOW-C is good for most things, long as it's not moving. 2x per station. TALDS are not a weapon, they distract radars and bait them into shooting missiles at them.

[@erfguuipo8084]

@@RedKiteRender oh okay so would I launch jsow and talds at the same time ? :) thanks heaps for reply .

[@RedKiteRender]

@@erfguuipo8084 Launch the talds first, then give it a little while and launch jsows. But you only need talds if the target as the ability to intercept missiles. SA-10 and 15 in particular.