FOREWORDS

Jane's FA-18 allows the player to conduct CAS mission with the aid of Forward Air Controllers (FAC), which is represented by soldiers in enemy territory whose task is searching out ground targets and call in information for an air strike. They can illuminate the targets with laser or evidence them with smoke. They can also be airborne, but what follows refers only to ground FAC.
Unfortunately, the manual is lacking of informations about its use, so it's been worked out by nice guys, who helped the sim community by posting very valuable hints and deeper explanations on forums sim dedicated.
Our goal is to try to gather them, in order to offer an all in one tutorial for all of those who still are confused about FAC employement in Jane's FA-18.
Anyway, feel free to make us know what we've missed, and we'll try to repair it with a forthcoming revision.   

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As you are at about 20 miles to your Forward Air Controller area, you may contact it and you'll be given the "nine line brief". 

Quoted from Bob "Recluse" Tullman post at http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/Forum32/HTML/000138.html

<<In the sim, the nine line is as follows:
1)IP (initial point for reference) which corresponds to your waypoint + 1, so if the FAC says "IP 4" it references your waypoint 3. This is due to waypoint 0 being counted by the FAC as the first WP.
2)Target Bearing
3)Target Distance
4)Target Elevation
5)Target Type
6)Mark Type
7)Friendly Bearing
8)Friendly Range
9)Threats in area
So, if the FAC says:
IP 4, Target bearing 270 10 miles, elevation 250 feet, Tanks,Smoke marker on target, Friendlies bearing 90, 5 miles, no threats in area
It means:
The target I want you to hit is a tank 10 miles west of your waypoint 3. Elevation, 250. Look for a smoke marker. Don't hit me, I'm 5 miles EAST of your WP 3. No other threats in the immediate area.
[note that in the sim, any armored vehicle will be called a tank. A truck will be called a truck, and any ground target will be called a SUPPLY DUMP, even if that ground target is, e.g. a truck park or tank battalion not composed of Moving vehicles]
He will also call "Coordinates on Dolly" this refers to his updating your targetting system via the Link 4A/TADIL-C Tactical Datalink. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have made it into the released sim and you will not see any additional targetting info on any of your systems.>>

If you can't track your target, you can ask for it once again with the radio call "blind", pressing the Tab+Shift key, then 6 and then 4. At this point you will be given the 9 line brief again.

Anytime you ask for a new target, FAC will respond with a "4 line brief".

Quoted from Recluse's post at http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/Forum32/HTML/000138.html

<<The 4 line brief is much simpler:
1)Threat situation
2)Target bearing (FROM YOUR AIRCRAFT)
3)Target Range (FROM YOUR AIRCRAFT)
4)Target Type
He will still put smoke on the target. 
When the FAC calls TARGET ILLUMINATED, and/or SPARKLE, he is lasing it. If and only if you have laser guided ordnance ONBOARD and SELECTED in the SMS page, will you see a little x in your HUD marking the laser spot. You can attack that target with laser guided weapons with the following caveats:

1)If you have a FLIR onboard, change the laser mode to MLAS, since whatever YOUR laser is illuminating will take precedence over the FAC laser and might send the ordnance to a different target.

2)IT helps to target the laser spot (click through HUD works well) in order to get an idea of range so you know that you are dropping your LGB or firing your AGM-65E or AGM-123 within range of the target. It doesn't require guidance from you, but if you drop it out of range, it will not reach the target.

These caveats apply equally to Buddy Lasing>>.

Quoted from Recluse's post http://www.combatsim.com/memb123/ubb/Forum31/HTML/003599.html

<<The 4 line brief gives bearing and range relative you your aircraft: 
"Bearing 120, range 5 miles" means if you turn your aircraft to 120, the target will be 5 miles ahead. 

The Nine Line brief IP is relative you your closest waypoint to the action. Because of a slight bug, counting waypoints from 1 rather than 0, the IP called by the FAC is actually 1 waypoint HIGHER than it should be.. so if the FAC calls IP 4, you should interpret the rest of the bearings from your WP 3. You can use the HSI and CRS switch/CSEL indicator similar to navigating back to the carrier to get a bearing line through your WP, or just fly to that WP and point your nose at the bearing given. 

When the FAC calls SPARKLE, and you get the little x in the HUD, it means he has Laser Designated the target. You will only see the x if you have Laser Guided munitions selected. If you are dropping LGB, go to CCIP mode, turn your own laser to MLAS, and drop on or near the x. Your bomb will guide on the laser spot from the FAC. If you have Laser Guided missiles, AGM-65E or AGM-123, you can just point and shoot, but it sometimes helps to roughly designate the x with a click through the HUD to make sure your weapon is in range. Again, make sure your own laser is in MLAS mode, otherwise it will designate whatever spot YOUR systems think is the target and NOT the target the FAC has illuminated. 

Whew!!! 

Recluse>>.

If you are interested about a real world explanation of the FAC nine and four line briefs, see:

http://www.bmh.com/bmh/CAS/CAS_article.html

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So far about FAC with target laser illumination...but what if FAC doesn't sparkle the target? 

Quoted from Elf post at: http://www.dogfighter.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000046.html

<<Ground FAC in the game have a 50/50 chance of having a laser.>>

So if Fac marks the target only with smoke and doesn't lase it, we suggest to operate as follows:

1. Steer the AC towards the given target, as if it were laser illuminated.

2. As you spot the smoke mark on the ground, click over it through the HUD, then slave the ATFlir to the so designed target by clicking on TGT.

3. At this time refine the designation slewing the TDC (target designator cursor) for a visual search of your target through the ATFlir. 

4. Once you've identified the target, press the "Enter" key to handoff it to the ATFlir in AutoTrack mode. At this point you have a designated target which can be attacked with any ordnance of your choice. If you pick laser guided ordnance, remember to switch on your onboard laser by pressing "Lock" key, assuming you had before switched your ATFlir to MLaser mode (as you should!).

5. If you can't track your target with the Atflir, you can use your onboard GMT radar (but locking a dot in GMT you can never know if the dot is friend or enemy).
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If you want to set up a FAC mission of your own, there's a valuable tutorial by Recluse (here he comes again :-) ) at: 
http://www.zianet.com/baldeagle/MBTraining.htm .

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HOW TO USE THE ZIP ARCHIVE

Simply estract the .cmf file to ..FA18\Training or Mission folder and the .lot file to ..FA18\Resource. That's it!!

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WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE NICE PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO CLARIFY THE FAC EMPLOYMENT IN JANE'S FA-18. WE OWE THEM A LOT, AND YOU CAN READ THE NAMES OF SOME AMONG THEM IN THE TOPICS MENTIONED ABOVE. IF YOU THINK THERE'S SOMETHING TO ADD, FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US.

A SPECIAL THANK GOES TO BOB "RECLUSE" TULLMANN.

Gielle
gl.mani@inwind.it

Manbat
manbat@tiscalinet.it

VISIT MANBAT'S SITE:
http://web.tiscalinet.it/manbat