PFunk

I have kind of a dumb question for those of us who like to fly casual-style. Is anything going to be done to make the game avionics functional?

The R-27 has a lousy combat history. It's been used in one conflict, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The aircraft were flown by Russian 'advisors'. 24 were fired with one hit. The aircraft crashed when it tried to land. BVR missiles are not reliable in RL.

I'm just looking at how history has thus far played out. I am fine with the modeling of the AIM-120 because I think it represents truly what the effectiveness of BVR combat is in a real-life setting. The Russian missiles are optimistic. I cite this man's War College paper on BVR combat as my reference. http://pogoarchives.org/labyrinth/11/09.pdf

I'm just looking at the practical use of these weapons and their historical performance, which is less than stellar. IR-seeking missiles are historically more effective and most of the post-WW2 kills have been in WVR combat. BVR missiles and the BVR fight, historically, has been a expensive endeavor with very spotty and inconclusive results. In other words, the worth of these efforts is hardly what you'd call effective. Think of it in terms of infantry combat. We have lots of heavy battle rifles that can reach long distances to kill someone, but most infantry combat happens within 100-200m. Which is why those weapons are not terribly effective and M4s are. Think of an internal cannon as an infantryman's combat knife. Few kills have been made with either. Those M4s are much like the IR-seeking short-range missiles found on Eagles and MiGs. The BVR fight is limited in effectiveness. You have the limitations of the weapons themselves, IFF that is so unreliable we generally don't have an air battle without AWACS or J-STARS flying around to tell who's who on the player cards, and then there are political concerns about friendly-fire or shooting down a civilian airliner that was senseless enough to wander into contested airspace. To my mind, BVR weapons are a good idea that never really showed the results we wanted. This is why the F-4E wound up with an internal cannon.

Love your nick, MOD. The thing that bugs me about the fast mission creator is that it literally spawns you within missile range of the enemy. I've been locked up on takeoff. At least SF2 gives you time to get settled in and get your radar situated before sending you into battle.

Keep in mind that BVR missiles have a shockingly poor track record. All of them. There were 24 R-27s fired by Russian mercenary pilots in the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. One kill. And that one was only accomplished after the stricken fighter crashed on landing. The AIM-120 has nine kills. Most of them against Serbian aircraft that were barely airworthy, much less combat-capable. Shouldn't shock us that it doesn't kill a lot of things when you launch one. I think the Slammers are modeled fine. I think it's the Russian missiles that are...optimistic...

Everything you guys are describing sounds more like a job than fun.

Sapphire HD6970

I kinda hope that we stick with 80s-90s-era avionics for DCS. Those are hard enough as it is.

Meh. I just go until the missile gets me. I don't think I've ever landed one yet.

Well, I'm pretty much experiencing the same thing. I can't imagine why the Air Force would've wanted the F-15 and similarly, I can't see how it would've been effective at countering the Foxbat.... ....or I'm just a crap pilot.

I'm noticing that there seems to be a overwhelming attitude of "hard = real". it must be real because it's so hard to do. All I can say is that the Air Force breathed a huge sigh of relief with me. I wouldn't have lasted a minute in combat. No, seriously. My average flight time in DCS is about a minute and a half.

Hey, is there any way you guys can put us on a runway a little further from the 'action'? I'm pretty much getting lit up on the ground.

I know I'm the minority and this is probably something most of the members here wouldn't alert you to, but the Easy Avionics in the F-15C are broken. RAlt+F5 or RAlt+F7 will target a contact in the little display up in the upper right hand corner, but the avionics in the airplane are not locking up the target and you can't launch a weapon. Doesn't matter if the radar is on or off. Doesn't matter if you use boresight or BVR mode. Nothing locks up. This happened when the F-15C was made its separate module. The Russian simplified avionics work perfectly. Please don't do the same thing to the Flanker when it's made its own separate module.

Still slugging along with a GTX 460.