AGM-12B Bullpup

This page is about the air-to-ground missile AGM-12B Bullpup. For the other version, see AGM-12C Bullpup.

Description

The AGM-12B Bullpup missile (scale is approximate)

The AGM-12B Bullpup is an American manually guided air-to-ground missile. It was introduced during Update 1.79 "Project X".

The AGM-12B, also known as ASM-N-7a or affectionately as the 'Bullpup', was created in 1960 as an upgrade from the test series ASM-N-7 and was named officially as AGM-12B in 1962. The AGM was powered by a Thiokol LR58-RM-4 liquid propellant motor to produce a range of up to 11 km and produced a thrust of 12,000 pounds or 53 kN. The production of AGM-12B ended in 1970 and 22,000 were produced.

General info

The Bullpup is a first-generation MCLOS (SACLOS if mounted on helicopters) Air-to-Ground Missile that can either be dumb fired like normal rockets or be guided in manually using keyboard inputs, the stock binds for which are Alt + WASD. It is important to note that the vertical axis controls are inverted by default, much like MCLOS missiles on tanks, so this is something you'll have to get used to when using the weapon. However, the option to invert the axes is available in the Controls menu, so if you just can't get used to the controls it is recommended to change the relevant setting for it.

The Bullpup has fairly good agility, reacting rather quickly to your inputs, which can lead to over-leading if you hold the direction keys for too long. It is advised to 'tap' the keys and try to center the missile on the target of your choosing, rather than trying to arc a missile in aggressively. The explosion radius of the Bullpup is quite generous for its warhead size, and can overpressure light vehicles even with a near miss. However, more armoured MBTs may only take superficial damage to the tracks and/or barrel, and will require either a very close hit or a direct hit to reliably deal with them. They can be fired from 8 kilometers away, but as you manually have to guide them in, if you don't see a target launching prematurely might be a fool's errand unless you know what you're doing.

Aircraft-mounted characteristics
Mass	259 kg
Guidance	Manual (MCLOS)
Maximum speed	455 m/s
Missile guidance time	30 secs
Firing range	8 km
Explosive mass	58.05 kg TNTeq
Armour penetration	73 mm
Warhead Type	HE

Helicopter-mounted characteristics
Mass	259 kg
Guidance	Semi-automatic (SACLOS)
Maximum speed	455 m/s
Missile guidance time	30 secs
Firing range	11 km
Guaranteed launch range	8 km
Explosive mass	58.05 kg TNTeq
Armour penetration	73 mm
Warhead Type	HE

Effective damage

The AGM-12B Bullpup inflicts high-explosive damage with low splash damage over a medium area. It is comparable in explosive power to a 250 lb bomb. It can overpressure lightly-armoured and open-topped vehicles even with a slight miss, while only superficially damaging the tracks and barrels of more heavily-armoured vehicles on a near miss.

Comparison with analogues

The Bullpup is closest to the French AS-20 Nord, as both are first-generation MCLOS AGMs that are on vehicles at a similar Battle Rating and share the most characteristics. The Nord has a higher top speed (Mach 1.7 is roughly equivalent to 580 m/s ASL), but the Bullpup has a significantly larger warhead and as such gets kills more often even on near misses (15.85 kg of TNT equivalent on the Nord while the Bullpup has over three times that with 58.05 kg). Both are fairly agile, although the Nord's higher speed (your missile arrives on target faster) but lighter weight mostly cancel out the handling differences. If you can handle one or the other, adjusting won't be too hard aside from getting used to how large your given warhead is given the differences.

Another roughly similar analogue would be the Kh-23M and Kh-66, used by Soviet aircraft in the 9.3 - 11.7 range. The Kh-23M requires that you take the Delta-NG targeting pod to guide the missiles in and has a limit of only two Kh-23Ms per aircraft, so you sacrifice a noticeable bit more in flight performance to use them on Soviet aircraft compared to on NATO contemporaries. The Kh-23M is a fast missile, clocking in at a top speed of Mach 2, while also having a 10 km max firing range and 96 kg equivalent shaped charge warhead, but isn't as nimble as the Bullpup and Nord and will also give you less time to guide the missile in overall due to its higher top speed. The Kh-66 is a more elusive missile, found on exactly one plane (The MiG-21PFM, which is an event vehicle), but still deserves a mention as it's also roughly similar to the Bullpup in performance. The Kh-66 is SACLOS-guided, meaning it follows your mouse crosshair, making aiming much easier than with Bullpups, but this also has the disadvantage of having to keep your mouse (and therefore your nose) pointed at the target until impact. The Kh-66 is quite maneuverable, able to zip between directions fairly nimbly, although its faster speed means there's less time to make fine adjustments, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on the situation.

Usage in battles

Bullpups are best used in Ground Battles, where their semi-guided nature can allow players to strike enemy ground vehicles with lethal precision given that they are proficient enough in their abilities. You can fire Bullpups off unguided in emergencies or if you think you've lined up a good shot, which turns the missile into a slightly worse version of the S-25O found on vehicles like the Su-25, but as you don't get CCIP and have the ability to control the missile this isn't recommended unless absolutely necessary. The other way to use Bullpups is as a kind of standoff munition against enemy Anti-Aircraft vehicles, particularly gun-based SPAAs. SPAAGs generally have an engagement window of up to 2.5-3 kilometers, meaning so long as you know where a SPAAG is (or use the tracers left by an AA vehicle that is currently shooting at a different teammate other than you) you can engage them safely from range, without ever risking getting into the <1.5 km range where getting shot down is very likely. If there are no enemy SPAAGs present, you may go after enemy ground vehicles without too much prejudice; so long as you can line up your missiles, almost any tank is fair game! Do, however, keep in mind that the missile still travels fairly quick, so don't try and launch it at too close a distance as you may only end up getting the dreaded "Hit" marker with nothing to show for it. It's much better to line up a better attack run later, unless the situations are dire.

In Air Battles the Bullpup has fairly limited utility, as most ground targets are much more efficiently dispatched with the help of your gun or bombs/unguided rockets. Given Bullpups are fairly hefty missiles and can only be mounted in single moounts per pylon, compared to the dozens of bombs or rockets you can load you are limiting your potential by taking Bullpups, unless you have very specific goals in mind. Such goals can include:

• Engaging Pillboxes

Pillboxes are annoying to tackle, as they take up a lot of gun ammunition to dispatch unless you line up a gun shot through the machine gun port at basically sea-level altitudes and can often shrug off small bombs if they aren't dropped precisely. If for any reason you wish to specifically engage these pillboxes from high altitude without dipping to low altitude (if your plane lacks CCIP) or you aren't having much luck lining up your bombs (if your plane has CCIP), Bullpups can serve a very small niche as you can guide them in to directly hit the Pillboxes which do result in an instant kill. Do, however, note that this is fairly inefficient, and simply dumping slightly smaller caliber rockets (Zunis for example) at Pillboxes or simply engaging the AI that's more easily killed (AAA and Howitzers surrounding the Pillboxes) would be a much more efficient way to mount ordinance on your pylons. As a side note you could most likely try to take out enemy airfield AA (or try and hit people on the airfield with them) with Bullpups, but this poses a severe risk to your aircraft so caution must be exercised.

• The Bluff

Air-to-Air Missiles are a thing many people dread facing, and in hectic moments people can easily react on gut instinct when they see that MSL diamond streaking towards them. Bullpups (and other guided AGMs just like it) will show the MSL indicator just the same when the motor is still burning, and as they aren't true AAMs you can also fire them any time at any angle. If the enemy sees a MSL icon headed towards them just as they think they have an easy head-on, you can force them to break off as most people will panic and attempt to pull away from the "missile" headed towards them. This can also be effective when an enemy has fired a missile at you in a flareless aircraft, as firing a Bullpup towards the missile may spoof the missile's seeker and save your aircraft once in a while.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Has moderate explosive mass; even a near hit will overpressure light tanks and SPAAs, or at least cripple them
• Fairly long range; outranges SPAAGs and has similar range to early SAMs (~8 km)
• Nimble, responds to controls well
• Allows precise hits on critical targets with user input, with much less risk to the pilot
  • Most aircraft carry multiple Bullpups; Allows precision strikes on multiple targets from safety

Cons:

• Learning curve can be unintuitive
• Hard to keep track of the missile at long range, responsiveness decreases as the motor burns out
• Adversely affects flight performance noticeably, given its weight and drag
  • You will also most likely carry multiple Bullpups, compounding this effect
• Somewhat low explosive mass; may not damage heavily armoured targets much on a near miss
• As you need to manually guide in the missile visually, the stated 8 km range is rarely feasible

History

Development of the AGM-12 Bullpup began in the early 1950s, after the Korean War sparked a demand for more precise, guided, weapon systems that could hit targets which were usually more difficult to hit with conventional ordnance. Apart from that, the new weapon system ought to increase the safety of ground attack aircraft and their crews by keeping them further away from returning ground fire.

A competition was ran by the U.S. Navy and the Martin company was awarded a contract in 1954. Work on the new missile, designated ASM-N-7, began and after several years of development and testing, the new weapon system entered service with the Navy in April 1959.

The design of the American first air-to-ground missile was fairly simple - a 250lb (113 kg) warhead derived from an aerial bomb, mounted on a rocket-propelled, roll-stabilized body. The entire missile was manually guided via radio signal to its target, using direct vision. To aid with aiming, two bright flares would ignite on the missile's rear end upon launch. These would make it easier for the operator to keep track of the missile in flight as it would be more visible.

The Bullpup was first employed in combat during the Vietnam War, although only seeing limited success. This was due to the fact that in order to ensure the highest probability of a successful hit, the aircraft that launched the missile had to fly the same course as the missile until impact. This of course, exposed the aircraft to anti-air fire and severely limited the pilot/operator's situational awareness in the case of single-seat aircraft.

Nonetheless, the Bullpup was still mass-produced for both the U.S. Navy and Army, resulting in around 30,000 units made across all of the weapon's variants. Although the missile was starting to be replaced in the '70s by more advanced systems, it wasn't until the '80s when the Bullpup was finally retired from active service.

- From Devblog

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Related development

• AGM-12C Bullpup

External links

• [Devblog] AGM-12B Bullpup: They can't dodge