Full Weapon Guide | VTOL VR

This is a practical, fairly detailed but simple guide on what each munition for the FA-26b (and others) can do and how to use each type.
Weapons shown in this video, by category:
- Dumb bombs* (A2G)
- Mk.82
- Mk.82AIR
- Mk.83
- CBU-97
- Hydra-70 *(missile, not a bomb)
- Optical Fire & Forget (A2G)
- CAGM-6
- AGM-65
- GPS Bombs (A2G)
- GBU-38
- AGM-89*
- AGM-161
- Laser Bombs (A2G)
- GBU-12
- Anti radiation (A2G)
- AGM-88
- AGM-126
- Radar (A2A)
- AIM-120
- AIM-7
- IR (A2A)
- Aim-9
- AIM-9E
- AIRS-T
*AGM-89 anti-ship cruise missile uses GPS, but it has its own internal seeking system to find the targeted ship as it moves. Pretty useful.
GPS bombs and cruise missiles can only hit stationary targets. Optical and anti-radar are great for moving targets but when you need to drop a bomb on a moving target, laser is the only option. I usually use the optical AGM-65’s for most moving targets though, as you’re usually dealing with tanks or trucks in that scenario and they’re more than powerful enough.
You can get air kills with optical, anti radar and laser guided munitions, but the odds are slim. It’s basically a trick shot.
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0:00 Intro
0:20 Individual munition overviews
7:12 Munition types
7:54 Dumb bombs
10:41 Optical fire & forget
11:26 GPS bombs
12:09 Laser bombs
12:53 Anti-radiation missiles
13:15 Radar missiles (air-to-air)
15:22 Heat-seeking missiles & missile interception (air-to-air)
16:39 Optical cluster missile (CAGM-6)
17:16 Dumb cluster bomb (CBU-97)
17:41 Cruise missiles (AGM-161)
19:34 Anti-ship cruise missiles (AGM-89)
21:04 Guns
22:17 Outro

[@Andrei5656]

"Hmm, this recommendation seems to be exactly what I need ... Practical Weapons guide. Hmm. Hope it's not two years old like the rest of the You tube VTOL scene ... posted three hours ago .... hot damn!" Edit: watched it in full, great video, and thanks :)

[@Enderbro3300]

One thing I wanna add, biggest perk of laser guided bombs is you can hit moving targets. It will follow your tgp to it's best ability which lets you hit tanks n shit. Idk if you mention it I just got past the laser guided part.

[@darkstar1592]

100%. Optical and anti-radar are also effective for moving targets but when you need to drop a bomb on a moving target, laser is the only option. I usually use the optical AGM-65’s for most moving targets though, as you’re usually dealing with tanks or trucks in that scenario and they’re more than powerful enough. Side note that the AGM-89 anti-ship cruise missile uses GPS, but it has its own internal seeking system to find the targeted ship as it moves. Pretty useful.

[@theflyingfish66]

​Biggest advantage of GBU-12 LGB over the optical missiles (Maverick and CAGM-6) is that the LGB can be triple-racked on most F-26 pylons (like the GPS 500lb bomb) while the Maverick can only be triple racked on the valuable outboard wing hardpoint. This means that on the F-26 you can always carry more LGB's than Mavericks, and if you want to use the valuable outer wing hardpoint for 2x AIM-120's then you can carry WAY more LGB's than Mavs (as the Maverick only has a 3x pylon on the outer wing) In summary: Mavericks can be fired much more easily and quickly, but you can carry much more LGB's and they can be 3x racked on any hardpoint. ​This makes them very useful for low-intensity "air support" missions where having a lot of bombs is more important than being able to fire them quickly. @@darkstar1592

[@M60A3]

Is it possible to stop lasing and the laser guided bomb will just guide towards the last point that i was lasing

[@wumpols]

@@M60A3Thats only possible with fire-and-forget missles, if you switch your target while its falling it will attempt to go to your new position

[@dakotaclement7751]

​@darkstar1592 there actually is a laser module. Top right button of the TGP is "Laser Mark." Why it sometimes (or most of the time) works without it is beyond me. But the laser is in the TGP and toggleable

[@Waterishloki100]

a good thing to know is that all the AIM are anti aircraft, AGMs are anti ground, and GBUs are guided bombs. this may help you remember or choose your weapons faster.

[@darkstar1592]

Great tip

[@Julius_v00]

This is the most detailed explanation I have had for cruise missiles, thank you

[@thecowboyfromcali]

Been loving these mini tutorials. Would love some for the more hidden control schemes too, like holding stick for TGP to allow it to track head, I've always just had to navigate the display. I learn more every time you drop one of these

[@fisgasfighties]

Very helpful and well made! Thank you!

[@robertcrawford8107]

Awesome walkthrough!

[@Viper1Zero]

Great video, man. I’ve been playing a lot more VTOL lately and you’ve been putting out some great stuff! Keep it up and your channel will thrive.

[@darkstar1592]

Thank you!

[@Viper1Zero]

@@darkstar1592 Anytime man.

[@jerryrivera4298]

Man! I'm so happy to have found this. I just joined the clan, and it definitely was daunting to learn all about the weaponry. 🎉

[@darkstar1592]

Welcome aboard

[@tobias6115]

Thank you for creating these videos! It helped me a lot. The game should have tutorials showing everything you show in your videos...

[@callummcneill6266]

I saw your reddit post. Great video that I can show to my friend to tech him the game

[@cat_astrophic7]

Congrats on 1k!

[@darkstar1592]

Thank you!

[@Porkleaker]

Vulcan and Hydra 70's are great on TGP in PIP mode too can give you that extra accuracy. Need a lock for the Vulcan to get the the boresight for PIP but helps!

[@patoz8305]

Gran vídeo, muchas gracias por explicar todo tan bien y detallado.😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

[@S051K]

I can't remember the settings, but for dumb munitions, there should be a CCRP setting in the equip menu. If you set that on and have a TGP target selected, you have just hold the weapon release button, and depending on your attitude & salvo/accuracy settings in the equip config, should drop a number of munitions without having to guess when you're directly over the diamond. Works great for toss- or high-alt sorties

[@iPodCharger69420]

tyty

[@CinrycFS]

Thanks for the effort!

[@darkstar1592]

Thanks for watching

[@soptop659]

thank you a lot 🙏 i had no idea how to use any weapons except for the vulcan hahha

[@laserspike]

Nice video, thanks! Now I need to find a decent tutorial about using the TGP itself, because the in-game tutorial is pretty limited and skips over a lot of stuff.

[@darkstar1592]

Here you go. Thanks for the suggestion. TGP Tutorial & Tips | VTOL VR kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWPMlmmXmaqXrpo

[@laserspike]

@@darkstar1592 Ah wow, nice one!

[@SuperJeb98]

I believe that with the gun funnel you want to shoot when the target’s wings are touching the edges of the funnel

[@salemas5]

Personaly i love those unguided dumb bombs. Just set auto drop and you will hit almost every time.

[@TommyCurrell]

Great video. How do you know if an anti radiation missile is in range? The firing lights are always lit. I use the dumb bombs option to only release if the aim is on point. :)

[@darkstar1592]

Unless something changed in the new update, you should get a range indicator on your HUD, like the one I talk about in the AIM-120 section. I’m not sure why I didn’t get one when I fired the 88s in this video. Either way, if the firing lights are lit you’re in range. I like to be within the lower rectangle with air to air missiles because they need more energy to track a maneuverable air target, but that’s not as big of an issue with a stationary radar site. If the firing lights are on, you’re good.

[@TommyCurrell]

@darkstar1592 I think something changed bro. Even the short-range anti rad missiles in the f/a26b display the firing lights no matter how far you are.

[@Haljbeartt]

Yeah I believe it changed in the last update. Your RWR / ARAD now only shows bearing to target (that's also why you might also notice some radar contacts seemingly floating in the air - I believe its showing you the direction only), not the precise location. You can still get a range bar, but you have to find the target another way, like the targeting pod. I think if other aircraft are also getting nails from the same target, it can triangulate the position and give you range that way, but not 100% sure on that.

[@TommyCurrell]

@Haljbeartt I've used the tgp to gauge range, but from the numbers. I still can't see a range bar.

[@Haljbeartt]

@@TommyCurrell interesting. I may be misremembering, but I am sure I've seen the range bar pop up since the update - further testing required in that case.

[@McLaren_2009]

The TGP screen has a "Mark" option that I thought was a laser designator. Does that imply that you can mark targets for other aircraft with laser guided munitions?

[@darkstar1592]

I don’t know if their munitions will follow your laser, that’s a good thing to test. But you can see other planes’ lasers with night vision, which looks cool.

[@darkstar1592]

I checked. There's no buddy lasing unfortunately. Hopefully it gets added because that’d be a great feature for multiplayer.

[@TheOnil34]

Do you not have to turn on your laser with the mark button for laser guided bombs?

[@Shultzy520]

No, the mark button only turns on a IR laser that can be seen while using NVGs

[@Rollin3D]

Off-topic, but out of curiosity, how are your button presses so smooth and naturally looking in-game? Pressing a button or switch seems really finicky for me a lot of the time. Using the Q3, so controller tracking is quite good, but I notice a lot of the time my finger in the game will actually go through the button, and it takes me a second to fiddle with it until I can click the trigger to activate the button. You look like you're actually quickly and smoothly clicking the buttons... Just a practice thing maybe?

[@darkstar1592]

Probably just practice and doing my best to be seated around the same distance from the instruments each time so I got used to the distance. I still reach through buttons every now and then but usually only when I’m trying to do multiple things at once.

[@KayoMichiels]

Great video! If only the recording of your voice wasn't glitching out every once in a while...

[@darkstar1592]

Yeah no kidding. I need to get a better headset mic so I don’t have to record the oculus mic over air link. It’s not terrible.. but glitches happen and I don’t like it.

[@KayoMichiels]

@@darkstar1592 Yeah, the Antlion ModMic Wireless probably is the best pick for that.

[@darkstar1592]

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll look into it

[@Bigfatmasta]

I thought the gun funnel is meant to align with the wingtips of the target.

[@Andrei5656]

Well yeah but it's incredibly inefficient as you'd need to have a mind spreadsheet of every plane's wingspan and what wingspan the funel was calibrated for. An FA26 and a T55 don't have the same wingspan, so if you were dogfighting with those planes at the same speeds, under the same Gs, at the same distance, if you wanted to align the target plane so their wingtips touch the funnel lines, the T55 being smaller would mean you'd lead the shots more (the target would be "lower" in the funnel) than for a bigger plane, right? But in reality, the size of the plane doesn't matter, the geometry of the dogfight does. So you can make it work but it's kinda like painting a static target on a WW2 fighter's canopy glass : there's a lot of talent and experience involved.

[@darkstar1592]

I’ve gotten a lot of different, and often conflicting information on how to use it. So I’ve never really fully mastered it, but if you’re right, and I think you are, this is huge. Thanks

[@falcononpc]

In my experience running a burst from the wing tips being just outside the lines to just inside has been effective. But even so, not all shot opportunities will be at that perfect broadside angle so it definitely comes down to feel sometimes.

[@GurplPurpl]

Ok so, I have just started VTOL VR and.. should i always use boars head?? Bc a lot of pro players constantly use it abd i thought its only for guns

[@darkstar1592]

I mostly just use it when I’m in a dogfight and there are enemies close by that might not show up on my radar as fast as I might need. I don’t use it much normally.

[@GurplPurpl]

@@darkstar1592 ok, tysm

[@matt92099]

why would you use a dumb bomb vs radar guided bomb? like what are the benefits seems like you would never want to use the dumb bomb. Does the game/missions incentivise you to use dumb bombs in some way?

[@darkstar1592]

Since the jamming update they’re more useful. Dumb bombs can’t be jammed or confused.

[@matt92099]

@@darkstar1592 are there any ground targets in standard missions that would react to getting radar guided bombs, that would then react by trying to jam it?

[@matt92099]

@@darkstar1592 are dumb bombs cheaper or less weight?

[@fastfed]

Thats ccip bombing where is ccrp

[@Big_X170]

what is the map

[@darkstar1592]

It’s the fa-26b single player target practice mission