Spino

It's added now, available in the high-fidelity mods section.

You know what, I did forget that one. I'll get it added shortly.

Someone please do this lol

What's the status on the Constellation Class Frigate?

They said Vulkan is supposed to come at some point this year, like August maybe IIRC. I know it wasn't supposed to come with the initiqal release of 2.7.

@Tank50us

They do look like World of Warships models, but I'm not sure that the Iowa in World of Warships has the barrel shrouds that this has.

I have a website with links to a number of DCS mods (see link below). https://sites.google.com/view/spinossimulationsite/dcs-world/mods?authuser=0 DISCLAIMER: I am not hosting or redistributing any of these mods, I am simply finding their locations on the web and providing a user-friendly way to access them. The "download" buttons will take you to the original location of the mod, so you can download it from there. On the main mods page I have some of the most high-quality mods listed, like the Community A-4E Skyhawk and Grinnelli's F-22 Raptor. I also have a subpage for other aircraft mods and a subpage for ship and vehicle mods. This list is by no means all inclusive, it isn't anywhere close. I will add more as I find them and have time. Feel free to post links to mods that aren't already listed on the site (must be the original mod location though). That will help me collect them and add them.

Are you talking about Vulkan? That would certainly make it scale better over multiple CPU cores, but for people with CPU-strong systems it might not do them much good given the current GPU market. I have heard before that DCS can't take full advantage of high-end graphics solutions like the 2080ti and 3080, like it only uses 40-50% of the GPU, but ED may have already changed that, IDK. I wouldn't know anyway because DCS eats my GPU alive with usage around 99% most of the time, and mine is at the low end, so that's to be expected. Right now it's paired with an R5 1600AF, and atm that works fine, but once they add Vulkan support I'll likely be completely GPU-bound, and since I already hit full GPU usage a lot, that's not likely to help me any until I'm able to swap it for a more powerful one.

This is more like it. Although the Tirpitz handily sinks an Iowa, which shouldn't happen.

Just downloaded it, testing now.

When?

It seems that the Iowas don't have a collision model. They aren't landable and missiles go right through them. Any fix?

Obviously 2020 has come and gone, do we have any projection on the release date?

I thought it was either the -135 or -130, but you're right, it's the -132. I can remember the -129 no problem, but IDK why I have trouble with the -132.

Same here. There weren't any RCS-reduction measures planned for the ST-21. The ST-21 was supposed to have the GE F-110-129 (or some version thereof, maybe -429 with the tailpipe extension that the F-14 engine bay required). Circa 2010 it might have gotten the F-110-135 which is the same engine used in a special version of the F-16 (IIRC was special-ordered by Qatar or some other Arab country). The -135 delivers over 30,000lbf thrust in full reheat under the right conditions.

As you can see here, the plane has an AIM-120, AIM-9Xs, a GBU-12, a pair of JSOWs, and SDBs. It also has a Sniper XR Targeting pod, and the other pod is a FLIR/navigation system. Now obviously all of this didn't even exist back in the 90s, the artist tried to depict what the F-14E might have been like circa 2010. Original plans called for a Litening TPOD and the upgraded avionics/new engines/airframe redesign. Here's a better example of what that might have looked like: Another thing that was planned was to get rid of the windscreen bracing that was a significant visibility problem in the Tomcat. The windscreen would have been more like what you find on a Hornet or F-15. Here's an article that summarizes what was supposed to have been the ST-21 and goes into a bit of detail with possible upgrades circa 2010: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29653/this-is-what-grummans-proposed-f-14-super-tomcat-21-would-have-actually-looked-like ANFT has similar information, albeit without the artwork.

They did do a lot of that stuff, there was a whole lot of redesign that went into the ST-21. AFAIK no RCS-reduction measures were considered, it was mostly about expanding the capabilities of the Tomcat airframe to meet future needs. Therefore the more powerful GE F-110-129 engines, redesigned wing gloves, extra fuel capacity, and modern avionics. The wings were supposed to have enlarged slats and flaps, and even be a little thicker in one design variation for even more fuel capacity (I'm not sure how well-thought out that idea was, the Turkey already had such long legs that thickening the wings might hurt the plane's top speed. I have heard some wild things about P&W F-119 engines and thrust vectoring nozzles, but I don't think Grumman ever seriously considered that, especially the nozzles. As other people have said on here, the RCS reduction measures applied to the Super Hornet cause a lot of problems for performance, which is why if you're going to build a plane with high performance and low RCS you have to design it from the ground up for those things, and the F-14 design just wasn't there in terms of being easily modified to accept RCS reduction measures without a significant performance hit. The Super Hornet has S-Shaped intake ducts that hide the compressor faces of the engines fairly well, but that due to the geometry of the Hornet that wasn't too hard to design for. As far as the Tomcat is concerned if you try to do anything like that you basically end up with a swing-wing Su-57. All the stealth Tomcat concepts I've seen (other than a single-seat derivative of the F-22 with swing wings, which doesn't really count) make no attempt to hide the biggest radar return source on the plane - the engine compressor faces. Yeah they look cool, but in practice they wouldn't have been nearly as hard to detect as the photos would suggest. I suspect Grumman knew this, but whether they did or not they never actually had any plans that I'm aware of to lower the plane's RCS. It was meant to be essentially the carrier-based counterpart to the F-15E, albeit retaining a heavy focus on the F-14's original fleet defense role. The Navy was apparently still concerned enough about the fleet defense role that it researched two designs for missiles to replace the AIM-54, and the Navy had only one plane with the performance and the radar capabilities necessary to fully exploit these long range AIM-54 replacements - the F-14. The AAAM program as it was called was cancelled in the 90s for the same reason as the ST-21 - the powers that be thought that it was too expensive and unnecessary. While the AAAM and the ST-21 weren't exactly developed in conjunction (IIRC it was originally intended to arm the F-14D), they would have probably become very much related had the ST-21 actually been chosen over the Super Hornet, because the F-14Ds would have likely been outmoded buy the newer and more capable jet. You can go totally fictional with the stealthy look and all, or make a plane that is as close as possible (under the circumstances) to what the ST-21 was supposed to have been. I personally favor the latter, but it'll probably come down to popular opinion among the people who make this happen as to which version gets made - and that assumes that it actually gets made. This is what I envision when I think about the ST-21. @Tank50us I'm not sure what you think about this, but this is artwork based off what Grumman had come up with. Just food for thought.

Based on the things I have seen, I imagine that the F-14E's front cockpit might look something like this. Obviously the old F-14A/B style stick would have to go, and be replaced by a more F-15-like stick, like what the F-14D had, and the warning light panel is probably not in the right place, but the overall MFD config here is probably pretty close for the front cockpit.

I think the easiest way to satisfy most people with an F-4 Phantom would be to make 2 versions that were very similar, like the F-4B and F-4C. That way you have a carrier plane and a land-based plane with basically identical external models and flight characteristics. Granted that won't make people who want an F-4E very happy, because the F-4E has a gun and fits more scenarios as far as DCS is concerned (we don't have a Vietnam map, but we do have PG, Syria and soon the Marianas). The only situation I can specifically think of that calls for an F-4E though is the Syria map, and that only because the Israelis never bought any F-4 versions other than the E. The F-4C would actually fit rather well on PG though, in the hands of the IRIAF. They bought the C, D, and E as I recall.

I'm not saying that it would be realistic, although it might be closer than you think. Weight was supposed to go up by a couple thousand pounds on the ST-21, but unlike the F-15EX, the extra fuel tankage came in the form of increased wing glove area, while on the F-15E/EX it's in the FAST packs hanging to the sides of the fuselage, which is actually eating lift area to a degree because it covers up the underside of the wing root. I'm just saying that the overperforming F-14B FM is probably a good taste of what the ST-21 might have been like in terms of performance. However, the chances of HB actually letting anyone use that FM are basically nil, so the FM would have to be written from the ground up for any ST-21 mod. I'm not in favor of these RCS-reducing measures that people have said should be part of an ST-21 mod, for the reasons you just mentioned. Let's face it, the F-14 has the RCS of a semi, if not bigger, and no RCS-reducing measures would do anything significant for it unless you're willing to give up the sheer performance that is the whole reason for having a plane like that.

I've been looking for an early skin for the Prowler!

If something like this actually happened, I think we already had a starting point in DCS for it, although I'm not sure if it would be feasible to use it. Anyone who has done some flying in the HB Tomcat consistently is probably aware that HB nerfed the maneuverability on it shortly before the F-14A was released. They did this because it was overperforming, and not realistic. Rewind to the '90s when Grumman was working on the ST-21 design, and one of the things that they were going to change was the shape of the wing gloves - bulging them outward to mimic the shape of the wing glove vanes that earlier F-14s had (but rarely used). This was supposed to improve the plane in several ways; it was apparently projected to increase the strength of the wing glove (a problem on the F-14 that probably was behind the weight limit on stations 1B and 8B), add increased fuel tankage in place of the old vanes that were welded shut anyway, and increase lift and maneuverability across the board (but especially at high Mach numbers where the old glove vanes were supposed to deploy). I think it wouldn't be unreasonable for the overperforming FM of the F-14B (as it was in early versions of 2.5.6) to be close to what the ST-21 might have been like. Of course it would need to be tweaked since the extra maneuverability didn't necessarily carry over into high speed flight and the ST-21 would have had a more powerful F-110 derivative (I believe Grumman specced the most powerful version available in the '90s, the GE-129, which may be the same version we have in the Viper) and there were a few other changes such as increased weight and flaps redesign. But then, this all assumes that the overperformimg FM that the F-14 used to have would actually be made available (and I see no reason why HB would allow that to be used, unfortunate as that is). So likely the flight model would have to be redone from scratch using available F-14 data and ad-libbing the increased performance based on what little we know about Grumman's projections for the ST-21. Then the external model would have to be redone and the cockpit would have to basically be completely new. Then there's the radar and other avionics (which wouldn't be too hard to get "right" since all we know about them was that the radar would likely have been similar to the one in the F-15E and that the cockpit would have been modern enough to have MFDs and very few steam gauges). Circa 2003-2005 the ST-21 would probably have gotten the same JHMCS upgrade that the Hornet had, along with the AIM-9X as well. But there's the code work going into all this, and finding someone (or more likely several) who is up to this and willing to do it will be anything but easy. That's basically my take on what an ST-21 mod might be like and what it would take to make it happen.

There's a fair bit of interest in it from what I've seen. It's kind of like Grinnelli's F-22 mod, but for Tomcat fans.