Hypothesis
ED pursuit of high fidelity avionics & flight model technology driven from cross over development from their military funded projects. Their fidelity goals demand declassified data on modelled systems to achieve maximum possible realism.
***EDITED TO REMOVE MY MISUNDERSTANDING ABOUT AIRFRAME NUMBER RELATING TO TOTAL SYSTEMS MODELLING FOR CLASSIFIED HARDWARE****
Result for immediate project (A-10)
Military declassification is only possible / likely on older models of a given aircrafts airframe, (and integrated systems). A-10C will not be modelled,(in its entirety), for this very reason. (So, possibly no FLIR, etc. in new DCS module.) There is no point complaining about this as ED wont model what they don’t have. That is their design goal. We must respect that.
Results in future development
Current military aviation development has fundamentally shifted since the end of the Cold War and even more so since the end of the Gulf War. The perceived role of military aviation now is primarily CAS & precision strikes as there are few organised “hostile” air forces out there. Afghanistan is a prime example of this type of deployment, (as it was for USSR). A-10 and Apaches are doing the work with a few A-A craft for escort / recon.
Witness the troubles of the much vaunted Raptor & Lightning, (F-22 7 F-35), 5th gen fighter projects. They are being hammered by US spending cuts. The govt are wary of spending so much money to “fight who?”
My “two pennies worth”
As much as I love A-G and flew the A-10 to death in LOMAC and trained myself to fly the KA-50 in DCS, I miss the fast movers. There is nothing quite like a tech-battle BVR encounter turning into a high speed furball over a hostile battlefield to get the blood pounding, (and yes, you can’t help but hum “highway to the danger zone” to yourself!).
Whilst I can’t see A-A in the DCS immediate pipeline because of the above, we are at least getting revamped LOMAC in FC2 and for that I thank ED.
Ps. please feel free to correct me in any of this. Just my Monday morning, post coffee & flapjack pontificating.
Pps. Yes, posted on “lockonfiles as well”, (sorry Crunch), as I want to hear as many opinions as I can, (to see if I am talking out of my backside).