JTACs are essential scouting tools which provide invaluable intelligence on enemy movements.
Tactical Commanders can, and should be moving JTAC units regularly. At the very least they should be kept in tactical scouting positions to provide your team with the info they need to find and attack enemy units.
JTACs need to be within certain ranges, and have LoS (Line of Sight) to be functional.
JTAC spotted enemy units will be marked on the F10 map automatically. The mark will be removed if the enemy unit is dead, has moved and is no longer in range/LoS, or if a player manually deletes the map marker.
They provide spotting, and smoking capabilities:
Marks every 5 minutes
F10 Map Marker between 1000m and 10m of the actual unit position at time of update
The fuzziness of the marker depends on the distance between the target and the unit detecting
If a regular unit has line of sight on a target from 1nm, the fuzz will be 1000m, move that unit closer, to get LoS from 0.5nm = fuzz 500m and so on
Players can use smoke to get more precise information on JTAC detected units
Chat Command: -smoke (closest mark to you), -smoke XXXX (map marker ID), or -smoke EJ46 to request smoke for the zone based around EJ46
For example, here is a JTAC marked MBT. It is located somewhere within a 520meter radius of mark 6155.
Type in the chat window -smoke 6155
Top right corner of your screen, you will get a message with range and bearing from the F10 mark to where the unit/s are.
Note that the actual smoke in-game is exactly on the mark, in this case 6155, and not where the unit is.
You can now use the draw tools on the F10 map to mark the unit. Remember to change range units from Imperial to Metric!
If you missed the original message, don't worry. Press ESCAPE and open Message History. Or just type the -smoke command again.
F10 Command: F10 -> Status -> JTAC -> Mark units in zone
Generates colored smoke on the JTAC marker and provides player a message with the Bearing and Range from the marker/smoke to the actual position of the unit(s).
red smoke marks red units, blue smoke marks blue units
Enemy will be notified that they are being smoked!
This smoke lasts 5 minutes
Repeating the smoke command will re-send you an updated Smoke marking reference message.
You will be unable to request smoke for a varying duration based on player population and distribution
FW JTAC is an excellent tool which allows you to survey large areas of territory quickly, though not without risk. Altitude restrictions put you firmly in range of enemy SHORAD and IRSAMs
Players may fly certain FW Aircraft that operate similarly to RW. You still need LoS, and you can still scan up to 5nm each direction.
Although, there are some differences:
Intel is not “live” but is processed after landing at a friendly base
Altitude restricted to less than 12kft AGL. Fly above this and you will not gather any intel, but only in the areas which you exceed this height
Airframe restrictions apply. All Trainers, and some Legacy Aircraft have this function