Military Air Component Commander
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How It Works
While the Military AI Commander is responsible for commanding operations on the ground, the Military Air Component Commander takes control of all air assets in theatre and issues Air Tasking Orders to available aircraft, with the exception of helicopters assigned to logistics taskings. ATOs are prioritised depending on the tactical situation and available air assets. They can include Combat Air Patrol (CAP), Defensive Counter Air (DCA), Offensive Counter Air (OCA) and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) as well as support to ground ops such as Recce, Close Air Support and Strike missions on the current ground objectives.
The ALiVE MACC module creates an Air Component HQ at the nearest airbase to the module location and optionally spawns Air Defenses in the vicinity. MACC uses existing aircraft spawned by the ALiVE Military Placement modules or, if none are available, can spawn additional fixed wing or rotary aircraft. MACC is also capable of conducting naval aviation operations from the CVN-83 USS Freedom.
If C2ISTAR autotasking is turned on then MACC will also assign Air Tasking Orders to players. Unlike pre-made tactical ground tasks, all ATOs are generated from actual battlefield events.
Usage
Place the Military Air Component Commander module in the editor and sync to the Military AI Commander(s) of the same side. Only one MACC is required per side. MACC will radio broadcast the progress of current Air Tasking Orders to all players on the same side.
- Persistence: Active Air Tasking Orders will be persisted between server restarts.
- Faction: Faction of air assets to be controlled by MACC. By default MACC will inherit from synced AI Commander modules but this field can be used to override with different faction aircraft.
- ATO Types: Array of Air Tasking Orders available to MACC. See below for a full list of available types. Example: ["CAP","DCA"]
- Air Space: Named marker defining the Air Force Area of Responsibility (similar to a TAOR). If no air space is defined, the whole map is used by default. Any manually placed aircraft intended for use by MACC must be within the marker area.
- Create HQ: Places a composition for MACC HQ or uses nearest available building.
- Place Air: MACC uses aircraft spawned by Mil Placement modules by default. If none are available, it will spawn at least 1 armed fixed wing and 1 armed rotary wing asset. If no aircraft are spawned by Mil Placement or MACC, then empty assets can be placed manually in the editor.
- Place AA: Places Ground Based Air Defenses (GBAD) in the vicinity of MACC HQ.
- Resupply: Resupplies aircraft (same class as aircraft destroyed, but does not retain any custom loadouts) that are destroyed when on sortie. (Insta-spawn today with a random maintenance time, will integrate with Military Logistics in the future).
Air Tasking Orders
ATOs are assigned to available aircraft by MACC based on the evolving tactical situation. Aircraft returning from a sortie will spend 12-15 minutes in maintenance before becoming available for missions again. High priority primary taskings are assigned by MACC independently. These include:
- CAP - MACC assigns a single fighter to establish a Combat Air Patrol in the CAP area in order to prevent ingress of enemy aircraft. CAP is the highest priority task and MACC will try to maintain a fighter on station at all times. After the CAP mission ends, expect a 2-5 minutes delay before next mission is scheduled.
- DCA - one fighter is held in reserve at the nearest airbase for Defensive Counter Air, ready to scramble and intercept inbound enemy strike aircraft. This is a high priority task andn MACC will try to keep a fighter in reserve at all times. If only 2 aircraft remain, then MACC will only assign CAP and DCA missions.
- SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defense. MACC will periodically task strike aircraft to destroy enemy Ground Based Air Defenses (GBAD).
Secondary taskings are assigned by MACC in response to requests from the Military AI Commander for air support. These include:
- CAS - Close Air Support for troops fighting on the ground. Usually used when infantry forces face motorized, mechanized or armoured enemy.
- Strike - bombing runs on specific ground targets such as key buildings at an objective. Used prior to taking large enemy held objectives.
- Recce - Reconnaissance missions to report location of enemy ground forces to the Military AI Commander. Used when AI Commanders are planning to attack large enemy objectives.
- OCA - Offensive Counter Air missions against pre-planned targets such as runways and hangars in order to reduce enemy air capabilities. Used when AI Commanders identify objectives as an airfield.
Carrier Ops
To have MACC conduct naval operations off the USS Freedom, manually place some empty air assets on the deck in the editor and ensure they are profiled by the Virtual AI System. Place the MACC module on top of the USS Freedom so the carrier is used as the MACC HQ. Do not select Place Air in the MACC modules.
AI pilots will use the middle two catapults without warning. Players should use the outer catapults to avoid collisions.
Note that launching aircraft from USS Freedom on Malden currently appears extremely buggy, we've logged a ticket with BIS https://feedback.bistudio.com/T125951
Editor Notes
- MACC uses aircraft spawned by Mil Placement modules or, if none are available, the MACC module itself. You can also hand place empty aircraft in the editor and ensure they are profiled via the Virtual AI System for use by MACC. They must be placed inside the airspace marker of you are using one.
- Ensure that any empty aircraft that are meant to be used by players are excluded from the Virtual AI System.
- Manually placed aircraft need to be within the marker area of a defined airspace
- Some mods do not have proper ammo configs for aircraft which prevents ALiVE from properly detecting them as CAS, CAP, etc. See here for more info: https://github.com/ALiVEOS/ALiVE.OS/issues/384
- If aircraft are spawning the wrong way in a hangar that is due to a config issue with the hangar itself. Some of them have their config 'opening' pointing one way while the actual opening is in another direction. https://prnt.sc/g0ulqf Note that aircraft will still function - the MACC module teleports the aircraft to the taxi position instead of driving it out of the hangar.
