Alfa Foxtrot

Exactly what I did! I have the F-14b GR, P-51, Neveda and Persian Gulf modules and now fine-tuning my system to run it all… and struggling! I had two options to run DCS- both ASUS Zenbooks. The first a 7 year old with an I7 CPU and GEForce GTX 960M that with 3 USB, HDMI, etc. I hoped would make for a good platform. But I couldn’t get it to work at the config settings I attempted. So I tried my new Pro Duo, also with an I7 but more memory and better GPU, but even that is frustrating me because my view in the cockpit jumps everywhere randomly, screens flicker, etc. OCD nightmare… so I’m unfortunately spending the majority of my time watching DCS YouTube videos to learn what I can and now found the mission editor. I plan to create some good naval scenarios!

Where has this been in my life before now??? I must live under a rock… I served in the US Navy during the Gulf War aboard an Aegis ship in CIC. After the war I was an SME for several major defense contractors where I was tasked with developing combat system operator training simulations to acquaint new crew with the various modes, functions, and methodologies from the manufacturer weapons specifications, known in the fleet as “Computer Assisted Submode Training” (CAST). CAST had a terrible reputation dating back to the 1980’s. Turns out the reason behind this was poor management rather than incompetent developers. Just a low dollar program managers and government had no interest in beyond throwing a “deliverable” to the fleet to say it was done “to contract.” That may sound harsh but CAST served its purpose and did become much better over time as later baselines of Aegis developed- despite the lack of good management to take it to THIS LEVEL as it needed to be. You can imagine my excitement to get my hands on DCS World 7 last week. Like aircraft spec’s, Navy ship spec’s are available too. At least I can say that they are available in PDF (in 42 volumes - each hundreds of pages) FOUO. Knowing that with CAST there was an operator front end of the ACS console and associated equipment elements that could simulate all operator functions accurately in CIC, I wonder how difficult something like that would be to integrate into DCS to allow critical Aegis functionality in the game? Allowing users to set up the equivalent of Aegis Doctrine statement to perform weapons and sensor functions, Air Intercept Control, Datalink, EW, FAAWC, Strike, etc. Large market for that and it would easily be the end of CAST if available through current defense contracting regs. Though perhaps not under current circumstances…

I am a former Operations Specialist and served two tours forward deployed in Japan as Force Track Coordinator (FTC) with Midway (86-91). I held many qualifications that allowed me to stand watch as FAAWC during Desert Shield. However, Datalink was my thing and my normal watch was as Tactical Information Coordinator (TIC)- though often as FTC being on an AEGIS cruiser assigned as Force Anti-Air Warfare Commander (FAAWC). In fact, i've attached a couple of recent pictures from an award ceremony stemming from my service that occured in Jan. 2022. The USS MOBILE BAY received recognition as the first Long Range Search and Track Ballistic Missile ship, stemming from my voice and datalink reports of SPY-1 radar detections of SCUD missile launches over Saudi Arabia in Feb. 1991 while on watch as FTC (callsign ZF). I made my voice report over AAWC&R to ZW as Vampire's, then broke my transmission to the two Patriot batteries active in the Datalink. One of them responded with "Valid skin. Engaging. Out." The rest is history! But it took a lot of effort to get that recognition for the ship after 30 years. [Note: I did not attend the ceremony. It turned too political for myself and others who chose not to go]. Though I held a qualification as Air Intercept Controller (AIC), my duties as TIC/FTC led me to regular interactions with the E-2 and AWAC's monitoring the datalink. I became interested in DCS because I am a button masher. I love pushing buttons. I'd like to know if I have what it takes to operate the controls as either pilot of RIO.