TMA on FFG (a total madness?)
 

As a nebee, I need some tips with the TMA on the Oliver Hazard Perry FFG, is a total madness. I found a video about TMA but is relative a subs TMA.
Thanks in advance

Leave it on auto. I've yet to see players (even experienced players) use manual tma on the frigate.
It is many times more difficult than doing tma on subs.
The reason is that everything has to be marked on paper, if for some reason the contact you're tracking goes beyond the edge of the sheet you have to scrap all and start all over again.
This fact makes doing manual tma on the frigate a very tedious affair.


If you're a noob, learn tma on the sub.
The theory and concepts are the same for subs and frigate, it is only the amount of work you have to do that changes between sub tma station and frigate tma station.

The only time the FFG TMA station should be used on manual is when you absolutely must merge two or more contacts into a single master track for whatever reason.

Other than that, every skipper I have ever encountered is in agreement that the station really needs to be left on automatic, and that this was probably the game-designers' intentions, given the inherent limitations in the station design.

This is really not a problem, as TMA on the FFG is rarely actually performed (at least in DW) other than for datum creation on TA contacts when stalking a target, which the autocrew can handle reasonably well without going overboard in accuracy. By the nature of the FFG, the majority of contacts are from the active sonar or radar, which makes TMA unnecessary.

Cheers,
David

There are a few factors that make the tma on the ffg a disaster.

If you do it manually, you'd better be doing it on a contact within 5nm, or you'll have to "imagine" the lines being longer, which is easy to miss. And if the contact is actually further away than the max the map can display, you can give up on it already.

If you put it on auto, you'd damn better remember to turn it off before using active sonar, or any data you get from it will get discarded and hidden as far as the contact data goes.


There is one mitigating factor against this disaster: Radar contacts are positioned as detected. If you're using that radar in the first place, that is...

I do believe the lines on the FFG TMA plot only extend 10nm out. Since visual range is 8-10nm, the only instance you would be doing TMA would be on a submerged contact. Even then, that's a bit close for comfort. Better to use the helo and sonobouys, or active sonar, to locate its exact position.

The biggest turn-off for me is the lack of a dot stack. Why couldn't they upgrade the FFG's technology?

ESM lines do. TA lines stop at 5.

I learn something new every day.

Because they are soon to be sold off or turned in to scrap metal in favor of new Destroyers.