Re: Weapons accuracy
The search radius for planes is 20 hexes - 1000 metres in other words.
Pilots are not that good at Identification Friend or Foe.
(The Operational Research guys found one halftrack positioned on a hill in the post falaise investigation, so it stood out somewhat. It had been strafed from multiple different directions with strikes from rockets, bombs, 20mm, 50 cal etc found all around it. The OR guys determined that one knocked out halftrack had probably been claimed as a "kill" by at least a dozen pilots, if not more)
They do tend to attack an identified enemy if there is an observer with eyes on to an enemy in that zone, but if they have to search for themselves, everything is fair game to the Air Farce...
Hence, not a good idea to have planes overfly your side on the way to the intended target as then it may pick one of your units as its target for tonight.
So planes should only be vectored onto targets well away from friends, unless you have a dedicated observer with eyes on the target at arrival. And they should not overfly friendlies near the target on approach if you can avoid that.
"Close" air support is relative - it means attacks on things at least a click away from friendlies, preferably more.
In Normandy the UK used "pink" strikes as one way to deconflict air from friends - artillery fired red smoke in a belt 2-3 km deep, planes were allowed to kill any vehicle in one direction and not to attempt strikes whatsovever on the friendly side of the pink line...
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