The AGM-12B, also known as the ASM-N-7A or more recognizably the Bullpup, was the world's first mass-produced precision guided Air-to-Ground munition. A fairly large warhead size and its MCLOS guidance give many U.S. vehicles the tools to engage SPAAs at range, at a BR where proximity fused shells and surface-to-air missiles start becoming increasingly lethal to aviation. While they may not be as advanced as Walleyes and Mavericks, which are autonomously guided, a good pilot can easily match them in accuracy with precise manual guidance against even the fastest moving targets.
| Missile Characteristics | Stats |
|---|---|
| Mass | 259kg |
| Guidance | MCLOS (Aircraft) / SACLOS (Helicopter) |
| Maximum Speed | 455m/s (~M1.3) |
| Missile Guidance Time | 30 seconds |
| Firing Range | 8km (Aircraft) / 11km (Helicopter) |
| Guaranteed Firing Range (Helicopter Only) | 8km |
| Explosive Mass (TNTe) | 58.05kg |
| Armor Penetration | 73mm |
| Warhead Type | HE |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Moderate warhead size | Unintuitive MCLOS guidance method; High learning curve |
| Reliable long-ranged counter for radar/SAM AA at its BR | Missile smoke trail can obscure the target |
| Able to hit even moving targets with precision with skilled control | Guidance is ineffective when fired at close ranges (<1.2km)* |
| Able to be used as dumb-fire rockets in a pinch | Requires constant manual input; Leaves the pilot vulnerable |
| Long maximum firing range | Requires manual, third-person vision on target for effective guidance, limiting effective range |
- *While controllable, at sub-1.2km you will have almost no time to make course corrections, making them effectively dumb-fire rockets.
The AGM-12B Bullpup is a widely-available US-made, first-generation guided AGM found on various jet aircraft. Roughly equivalent to the AS-20 Nord or Kh-23M found on other planes around the BR, the Bullpup lacks any guidance of its own but instead takes inputs from the pilot directly (default PC controls being 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 (Pitch Axis for Weapons Aiming), so if you just can’t seem to get used to the control scheme it may be recommended to change the relevant settings to your liking.
Tactics
Bullpups don’t differ too much from Nords in their functionality, being almost identical in both how they function and how their flight characteristics compare. Nords fly moderately faster but also lack explosive mass, while Bullpups are slightly slower but with over three times the warhead size pack a much greater punch. When launched from ~1.2km or less, as they have little time to be guided, they act more akin to unguided rockets found on later Soviet aircraft such as S-24Bs or S-25Os — but the Bullpup differs in that it can maintain its accuracy even at multi-kilometer ranges, should you choose to manually guide them in.
Bullpups are best used as stand-off munitions before gaining access to higher BR aircraft that are equipped with true F&F munitions such as the AGM-62A 'Walleye' glide-bomb or the famous AGM-65 Maverick guided missiles. They can also be used at higher Battle Ratings, especially in poor weather conditions, as the lack of a seeker means you won’t be struggling to lock someone through spotty cloud cover even though your target is clearly visible, although against more competent enemy AA systems the manual guidance requirements may start to become a liability for staying alive.
Bullpups also benefit greatly from teammates scouting enemies on the battlefield, as this greatly simplifies the target acquisition process with the Mk.1 Human Eyeball — when there is a large red marker over the enemy, it’s not so hard to find them anymore! If any SPAAs are marked, try and target them first over other targets unless there’s one camper on top of a hill behind your spawn that you absolutely must take out first.
A somewhat niche use for Bullpups is to launch them in Air Realistic Battles in a head-on with another plane, as they will still show the ◇MSL diamond to players so long as the motor is burning, to cause them to panic and turn away. While they don’t have proximity fuses to trigger on aircraft, it may sometimes let you get the upper hand in an engagement by forcing someone to bleed off their energy or forfeit an otherwise advantageous position in a dogfight.
Target Priority & Counters
Bullpups, while threatening, also come with many strings attached. The most notable downside is obviously the fact that it is not a true F& F weapon — something that is felt very dearly in uptiers. If you are lucky and face World War 2 vehicles with your Scimitar, Sea Vixen or Buccaneer you can fly with near impunity while having great fun removing tanks from the minimap, but if you are flying something more in the league of the F-100D, F-4C or F-105D, this can start becoming a very painful downside. While you’re stuck guiding in your missile on target you are effectively unable to maneuver, especially a problem when many of the Bullpup carriers you’ll be flying will lack both a RWR and countermeasures.
As a result, your target prioritization remains the same as with Nords; go for enemy Anti-Aircraft vehicles first! It is much easier to guide in your Bullpups when you are not being shot at, be it by proximity fuse shells or Surface-to-Air Missiles. Here is a short (but by no means exhaustive) list of vehicles to beware when going hunting — or you may end up being hunted instead with nothing to show for it!
- WZ305 [CN]: This ZSU-57-2 derivative has a devastating bite in the form of proximity fuse shells! As the shells have a fairly wide proxy fuse range and good explosive mass, a hit will often mean certain death for any plane caught in its blast. It is, however, open-top, meaning any close hits will likely overpressure it instantly, so whoever sees the other first will likely have the advantage. Make use of the fact the DKY-1 shells it fires have tracers, so if he’s shooting at someone else it will be quite easy to find and missile him.
- M247 [US]: The M247 is also equipped with proximity fuse shells, but it also has a search & track radar to boot. Flying straight within 2.5-3km of this SPAA can result in a rather quick and untimely demise, so try and snipe it from further out to avoid being shredded instantly. As the proxy shells the M247 fires are tracerless, never fly in a straight line if you know one is around as you will quite literally have no warning before your plane suddenly explodes around you. Extremely annoying to fight, saved only by the fact most Bullpup carriers are American and won’t be seeing one often.
- ✰ Begleitpanzer 57 [DE]: A good light tank in its own right with a rapid-firing 57mm cannon, the Begleitpanzer is renowned for its anti-aircraft abilities thanks to a quick-traversing turret, plentiful ammo reserves and lethal HE-VT shells. While it lacks any radar tracking of its own, its thermal vision can spot planes and if you fly over one they won’t need a radar to shred your plane to bits. As it is lightly armored, even a near miss will usually cripple if not outright kill the vehicle in return.
- ✰✰ Strela-10M2 [DE, USSR, IT]: Simultaneously the least and most dangerous SPAA any Bullpup carrier can face. While the Strela lacks a search radar or thermal vision to find aircraft, if they find you and launch within their killzone you are almost guaranteed to be shot out of the sky. With its relative abundance in games, incredibly hard-pulling SAMs and its optical lock capabilties, if one is on the map getting rid of it ASAP will give you much more breathing room. If there is another teammate in an aircraft ahead of you, using him as bait may be the optimal choice to swiftly locate and destroy the Strela…
- Lvkv 9040C [SWE]: The exact opposite to the Strela — while it has both a capable radar and IRST tracking system and lethal tracerless proximity fused shells, it is both a rare sight in games and also has the constraint of having a very limited clip to fire from for protracted engagements. Still a very dangerous system that gives no warnings whatsoever when firing if using IRST — take it out to be absolutely sure you won’t be randomly jumped on your next pass! As it is based on the CV90 series of IFVs, it is surprisingly durable and may resist a Bullpup if aimed a bit too far out compared to other AAs, so killing one may be a surprisingly tough errand!
- ✰ 2S38 [USSR]: An incredibly common premium light tank, the 2S38 is equipped with tracerless HE-VT shells and an IRST lock system. This makes it incredibly effective alongside its almost bottomless ammo magazine depth, even if the proxy shells themselves have somewhat lacking explosive mass on their own. While too numerous to engage all of them on the map as primary targets, if no AAs are present the 2S38 is a good “1.5th tier” target to engage over other vehicles.
- ✰ 2S6 [USSR]: You will only face this vehicle if you are using Bullpups at a higher-than-normal BR, where you will generally have superior fire-and-forget munition options to use instead of Bullpups. However, should you choose to use Bullpups against a Tunguska, its long-range SAMs as well as its twin 30mm cannons will make short work of you if you charge straight at it blindly. You will have to maneuver midway and then course correct your missile, as it is almost guaranteed you will be fired upon and will have to dodge a missile — but if you do kill it and it fails to kill you, you’ve just made a very worthwhile trade, so congratulations!
- Osa-AKM [DE, USSR, IT]: Effectively a better Roland and in three tech trees like the Strela, the Osa is a quite powerful tool against enemy aircraft. With fairly agile mouse-guided missiles, IRST and a decent radar suite, it is the pick of many tankers aiming to clear the skies. Due to its large size, however, it is very easy to spot, and even easier to knock out, so strike it quickly and with precision.
Other vehicles such as 35mm Oerlikon equipped SPAAGs (Gepard, Type 87, Chieftain Marksman, PGZ09 and many, many more) and gun-SAM equipped SPAAs (Gepard 1A2 / PGZ04A etc.), as well as pure SAM vehicles (Ozelot, Type 93 etc.) will also all pose a threat to you (it is, after all, their job to make your job as hard as possible!), but the ones mentioned above will generally be the most notable of all the enemies you will face. So long as you engage gun-only SPAAs from far enough away or a teammate is drawing their fire it isn’t terribly hard to dodge incoming fire / snipe them before they notice you, and MANPADS-type SAMs other than the Strela’s missiles are generally not hard to dodge as they only pull ~10Gs. Most gun-based radar AAs will also attempt to shoot you at much longer ranges than their effective ranges (many will often shoot at 2.5+km!), and as their shells have tracers it can be shockingly easy to outmaneuver the hail of shells and guide in your missile into their roofs compared to the other vehicles mentioned above in the list.
Comparison to Other Missiles
Unlike Nords, which have both been a frequent item of comparison in this article and also have a single large flaw in the form of poor damage, the AGM-12B Bullpup is quite well-rounded. It has no obvious flaws for what it is aside from its hard-to-master manual guidance mode, and in its niche as a standoff munition against enemy air defenses it is perhaps your only hope in the early Cold War bracket if you want to actually deal with enemy AA first. “Just fly low” may work sometimes, but when you don’t have teammates scouting the enemy constantly this mode of play is hard to be consistent when you have to land your bombs, often without the help of CCIP, at 900km/h+ while hugging the deck for dear life. Bullpups offer an alternative method of engagement, one where your survival and your performance is dictated strictly by your skills at the game, and it is hard to overstate just how satisfying it is to snipe an enemy with one.
Compared to the Kh-23M, while the Kh-23M has a much larger warhead than both the Nord and Bullpup it also mandates the use of the Delta-NG pod on all vehicles that carry it, adding additional weight to its carrier aircraft and taking up an extra pylon. Almost all Kh-23M carriers (the Su-24M is an exception to this!) also only carry 2 Kh-23M missiles, which overall limits the flexibility of the missile compared to the Bullpups which can often be found in quantities of 3 or 4.
The AS-30 and AGM-12C Bullpup both outclass the Bullpup, and are found on vehicles typically a BR higher than most AGM-12B carriers — both have noticeably better warheads, and can generally secure kills better, although the limits of manual guidance and the somewhat scarce planes that can carry the latter missile means you won’t get nearly as much use out of them compared to the venerable 12B Bullpups. AS-30s, however, still see good use with their laser-guided variants, although this comes with the limitation that it alerts the enemy if they are equipped with a Laser Warning System (LWS).
Conclusion
While the missile guiding skills themselves don’t necessarily carry over once you unlock vehicles with F& F munitions, your target prioritization skills definitely will, and in that regard the Bullpup trains you well as the bridge between unguided and self-guided ordnance. Bullpups may not be for you — just like casemates and ATGM-only vehicles aren’t for everyone, for some the multitasking required may just be too much — but there is very little in this game that comes close to the satisfaction of knowing all the kills you’re getting is the result of continued practice and honing your craft. You can never take a single Bullpup for granted!
So, if you haven’t, why not try giving Bullpups a shot? You might have been missing out on something quite unlike any other until now, and even if it doesn’t click for you, you’d still have a renewed appreciation into what people have to do to make it look like they take very little effort to use. It’s never too late to try something new!