303_Kermit

+1

I travel from one crash site to the other. I learn the history of Starfighters form JaBoG 34. These week I visited crash site of Oblt. Kelenk on the mountain "Hochgrat". It looks very different if you see the report about the last flight, and after you see an actual crash site. Anyway.... maybe it's offtop, but may I ask for these one Skin? Looks insane.

Not that much... I mean... F-104 combat range - 420nm vs EEL combat range 135nm. Is it even worth to take off?? Purely defensive plane. Not a fighter - just Interceptor. Not very capable one, since there is no place for bigger radar antenna, and no serious Fox 1 missiles could be used on it. Unable to perform any mission behind the front line not A2A nor A2G (well... Kuwait is exception, but it isn't a very big country - they could ignore massive thirst of Lightning and his non existing range, since they sleep on Oil, and their country is so small, that you may see both ends from one tower in between them) No CAP, just GAI missions like MiG-21F-13 or MiG-21 PF/PFM (SPS). Very limited usage. You would be bored flying it after 5 days. It's actually very funny if one think: Adm. Yamamoto was killed during first known purposely performed Interception mission - thanks to huge range of P-38. British Lightning in spite of his speed would be unable to perform that interception. But if you live on an Island you can built fighters that can't reach speed of sound - pretending that they do, or build very fast interceptor, that is unable to utilize his great speed/climb anywhere except well prepared exercises. As for armament... a photo pasted by @Tengah shows one big nothing. Not Impressive even for modest F-104G capabilities. Many guys will gladly Ignore limitations of F-104 - because it's thrilling to fly , insanely pretty, and it's a legend known all over the world. EEL is nowhere near to that. It's ugly from every possible angle, and seem to be a one trick pony.

Only Mother can love that Quasimodo...

Just for my curiosity... What missiles are you going to use for BVR? no AiM-7 fly that fast / that far to be a BVR capable. Jesters Locks are fine - just do it within 10nm-15nm range. Not further. It's not F-14. For low lvl Boresight works well, but of course it's not a BVR

One can't have opinion about a temperature of boiling water.

Independent from own likes and dislikes, your suggestion is against logic and fairness to guys who bought Mirage F1. Shame yourself.

Wrong. I fly Sabre a lot, I fly MRF1 a lot - but mostly BE/CE. I never flew F-16/18/JF or any other BVR capable type. Not interested. I like to see my target sweat and scared. See their eyes when I kill them. See they stall their F-4 when I do rolling scissors. F1M is a competitor for gen 4+ fighters. BVR is not my music, and MRF1M on servers like BF modern or Contentions modern... I can't imagine that. ... Clearly you don't know what you're talking about. And how did you ever figured out that I like modern planes more, when I just wrote, that it's the opposite? It's just like with your MiG-21. PF/PFM/MF would be great for DCS. BISON is wasted time.

First prototype flew in 1998 so... I hope it's AiM-120 or MICA equipped. Some Vertical Scan acquisition also would be nice. otherwise it's pure masochism IMHO.

We fly F-1 as our main plane from over 1 year. Some of us don't even touch other modules. I have no problem taking F-4E out, but mostly we fly at least as a pair. I choose when I want to fight, and when I don't. at 0 lvl I'm faster. My engine is more economic, and when F-4 is out of fuel I still have 20 minutes of flight to rtb. 1 on 1 Phantom has better acceleration in range 0,4Ma - 0,7Ma. Also slightly better Turn rate, but if both pilots know their <profanity> it takes enormous amount of time to see actually visible advantage. F1 fights very well in vertical, if you know when to shut down Hyper Lift Devices. Doing that you can outmaneuver F-4. It's however not easy, and from my most experience pilots half of them don't feel comfortable in dogfight against F-5 or F-4. Personally In worst case with F-4 on my back I start from "break" and drop altitude rapidly in various vertical maneuvers trying to archive rolling scissors with F-4. Then I pull hard to low speed and High AoA. I use combat flaps first, and when second warning siren comes (first about high AoA second about speed under 220kt), I use full flaps. F-4 always fells down like a brick. Usually After that either I become gun solution or separate myself from dogfight. On most CW servers Phantom has artificially made weapon advantage. In spite of the fact that R530 was available in service from 1962 and Supermatra R530F in 1979. Usually we're Equipped in R530 not before when Phantom becomes AiM-7F (on Contentions we become R530(EM) when Phantom becomes AiM-7E2). Compared to AiM-7E2 our R530(EM) has much smaller range. Head on gives us no chance to hit him first without some F-pole maneuvers. Firing it from tail aspect makes much sense on high alt, when it keeps high speed for a long time. On deck lvl, I usually lunch my missile only to loose weight. It's actually very funny. missile starts accelerating, and after short period of acceleration missile flies 100-300m in front of my Mirage with roughly same speed as I have, and then I start catching up. I become gun solution before missile hits the target.

No, I'll post it PM to you if we perform something like that. For us "the worst case scenario" was the most important case.

Yes, but assuming all you said, does it make F-105 "Wholly inadequate for Air to Air combat" As someone tried to convince us? Because that was the whole point.

Great Idea! I'd like to have it instead of F-35 Regards Gents

I think, it's advisable to scroll up, and read. Questions repeats many times, and somewhere on the road there is also an answer. Regards.

I'm flying exclusively F1. Over a year now. Never bored.

I have identical problem. I use VPN to connect with licence server, but then pings skyrockets, so I turn VPN off. Then I can play multiplayer, but I see no server list. I have no family protection. Problem seem to be on the side of internet provider. ED seem to be innocent here

We tested F1CE extensively: test was performed on 15-23.10.2024 Constant turn on altitude 300ft: Conditions: Standard atmosphere conditions, 20°C no wind, no turbulence, wakes on, fuel unlimited 100%, two Aim-9B payload. Test layout: during a test pilot performs a stabilized turn with constant speed, altitude, and bank angle. After stabilizing the turn at given speed, pilot reports "ready for measurement". After that moment, exact conditions are kept: altitude +/-20ft, speed +/-0,5kt. If conditions aren't kept, measurement is interrupted and repeated after meeting desired conditions. Measured are taken by external observer. Time start and stops at given HDG after performing 360° turn. Observations: 1. During turn (stable and unstable) proportionally to loss of speed, there's visible travel of aerodynamic center to the front. 2. Hyper Lift devices allow to perform tightening high "G" corner. 3. When speed drops below 400kt, drag seem to raise nonlinear (rapidly). Keeping constant speed becomes more difficult. 4. 5G may be kept even in 360° turn, prolonging turn fight after that isn't advisable. 5. Between 300 and 350 kt there's slot movement, that causes keeping constant speed difficult. 6. On AoA close to critical in full flaps configuration, at 200-220kt, right before stall , plane seem to be more responsive to steering. Keeping plane on AoA close to critical requires attention. Recorded times: 200 knot 0:36 slots + flaps full 225 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 240 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 250 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 255 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 260 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 265 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 270 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 280 knot 0:34 slots + flaps full 290 knot 0:34 slots + flaps combat 300 knot 0:34 slots + flaps combat 310 knot 0:36 slots - see "observations" 330 knot 0:35 slots 380 knot 0:33 slots 400 knot 0:31 slots 440 knot 0:31 slots 460 knot 0:33 slots - maintaining constant stabilized turn above 460kt was difficult. Small changes in input results in big changes in archived stabilized speed. 600 Knot 0:39 clean 700 Knot 1:20 clean

I swear I came here because I read: "Mirage Squadron Server blblablah best blablah ...." then I red your post about 3x searching for what type of Mirage you fly....

TBH I see only one true problem with F-104G Starfighter. Looks cool in every single one livery ... How shall I choose one? Throw coins?

She's too pretty!

Works perfectly on Syria and Caucasus, where I fly on the daily basis. I'll install PG, Sinai and South Atlantic to be sure. Thanks again for your work!

Here is an answer: https://www.16va.be/3.3_appui_tactique_part3_eng.html In short: PF, PFM, PFS, SMT were transition plane between Fighter bomber variants of MiG-17 and SU-7B/BM, later replaced by MiG-27 / Su-17. When MF and bis came into service, there were no place for MiG-21 in frontline fighter - bomber units. From second half of '70 MiG-27 and Su-17 came to replace them. Why? MRF1 is best DCS module. Nobody complains. F-104"G" is excellent choice. "Der Witwenmacher". Can't wait.

Rubbish. If you don't want to argue then don't nobody forces you. As for your arguments... They are weaker and weaker. You may call a working girl "A Lady", and she's still going to charge you before the night is over. In both cases - it's just wishful thinking.

And that's and argument for.... ? Well... check stats of Vietnam war. F-105 performed more missions than F-104, killed more MiG's than F-104 (27,5 A2A kills, 24,5 of them by M61/A1 Gun, at a cost of 17 planes lost in A2A combat. I say it's nice statistics), and dropped more bombs than F-104. I think it makes him quite capable. I know... F-104 wasn't popular during Vietnam war, and later send to secondary tasks etc... TBH I am sure that in capable hands F-104C would show in Vietnam war it's true valor. All these plane demands is very experienced pilot, unfortunately that was not the case in Vietnam. Anyway don't you think guys that it's not the point? The point of flying F-104 is to ride an ultimate "bad**s" To perform A2G is one thing, but making it in F-104 - that's the skill level. You can land in any weather conditions? great! Do it in F-104... You can kill MiG-19 ? good... Do it in F-104. You can always find better plane than F-104, but you can't be more cool if you ride it, and you can't show more skill than winning a fight in Starfighter. That's whole point IMO. I will fly F-104 since day 1 hour 1, but not because I think it's that great. I think it's ultimate challenge. Mastering a plane take me about a year of training. VFR, IFR, A2G, Memory Items and Emergency situations, etc. etc... I wonder how much care needs F-104 to master him. If F-4 is such a challenge... What can one expect from F-104? I have goosebumps.

MiG-21bis / MF - 2x 500kg + 2x250kg MiG 21 has 3 generations, and none of them is considered a Fighter bomber. However some versions were capable of carrying even nuclear warheads, plane itself posess no true ground Attack possibilities. During 1972 war of attrition Egypt used those plane in that role - evaluated as useless in A2G, in opinion of both sides. In whole Warsaw pact there was a term of "Training ground weather" - 0m/s wind no clouds etc. In other weather conditions it wasn't even practiced. Practical use of MiG-21 in CAS missions was never seriously taken into account. Other types of A2G missions (deep strike etc.) were not even considered. saying that it's "One of his important missions" is a wishful thinking and bending facts into own opinion. no. MiG-21 isn't a fighter bomber. Almost every fighter since WW1 can carry some bomb ordnance. A6M Zero, F4F-3 Wildcat, Bf-109 F/G/K, FW-190A (however his F and G mods are fighter bombers), F-86 Sabre, and many others. Not every Fighter with capabilities of carrying some bombs is considered a fighter bomber. Su-7bkl - a modification of Su-7 which originally by design was planned to use as nuclear warheads only. Without capabilities of carrying conventional payload. Adaptation to classical A2G role came later, and was rather improvised one. But... 4x500kg - is for Su-7bkl a fully operational payload Mirage III isn't a fighter bomber, it was rather a role of Mirage 5 isn't it? In Russian doctrine in 1950 a role of ground attack plane CAS - fulfilled IL-10. Later , there were modifications of MiG-17, even later main role of ground support took Mi-24. A role of tactical bomber played IL-28 (way too long IMO), later Su-7 (later almost all modified to BKL standard), and from mid 1970 - Su-17. And again... why you consider F-105 as not direct competitor for F-104 ? Aren't they both fighter bombers? Why not F-4 Phantom ? they all both served in '60, and they all are fighter bombers. In DCS - his competitors are F-4 Phantom, Mirage F-1CE, and AJS -37. Every one of them outclass F-104G dramatically. So considering the main topic: "What capabilities should we expect from the F-104?" my answer is correct, and any arguing is just throwing dust into the air, because facts are simple: 1. F-104 is capable of flying fast, however combination of range - speed - payload forces you to choose between them. He's either fast or maneuverable or posses necessary range. never all of it in the same time. 2. Even in best case his payload is tiny. Mk83 is heaviest bomb that he can carry, and he may take maximum 3 of them. No 2000lb bombs. 3. It's pure fighter made for aggressive and skilled pilot. It posses some A2G possibilities, but any WW2 late US fighter bomber can easily compare with him in terms of range and payload. In any conventional doctrine of use aerial forces, these plane may not be taken seriously as ground attack plane. Ah... one more thing. Almost every CW scenario involves a use of various AAA / SAM / SHORAD /MANPAD systems.... What kind of RWR posses F-104? Isn't it AN/APR-25 RWR? The one who highlights only when an aircraft is being locked onto or is targeted by semi-active radar homing (SARH) missiles? AFAIK it provides no directional input? Even as little as F1 or MiG? Does it warn about missile Launch? As for passive countermeasures, is it AN/ALE -40?