PhantomHans

I would have expected an adapter or spacer and not the sacrifice of 1/2 of your AIM-9s. Although perhaps by the 80s the only jets loading it on a pylon were RF series and not carrying AIM-9s anyway?

I noticed there's the option to load inboard jammers, I think including ALQ-131. However these block the pair of AIM-9s. Shouldn't it be possible to load AIM-9s and Sidewinders at the same time due to the Combat Tree modification? I know it was done with ALQ-87 and ALQ-101, sometimes even with one each per pylon, and still carrying AIM-9s, during Vietnam. I would assume they wouldn't go backwards in capabilities with later pods?

All the PaveSpike talk makes me wonder... I know it was a USAF system but did the Navy ever try (I suspect probably not...) integrating it into the F-4 or F-14 to provide an early targeting pod capability? I expect probably not but with all the crazy stuff that was tested back in the day... Somewhere I've got a photo of an F-4 with a pair of ALQ-71s hung off the center mount of TERs on the inboards and I think with MK82s or something else on the TERs at the same time...

That should be how to employ a Sparrow in Cage or "Flood" mode but there's no guarantee of a hit. I'm pretty sure I have scored hits using it like that but I prefer to have Jester lock the target before launch.

If I can get below them to get a look up aspect with the radar and Jester can find and lock them, I'm getting locks on MiG-21s at 10ish miles. That gives me enough time for a pre merge Sparrow shot. The first one they can often ditch, but as he goes beam it seems like pressing my attack for a second launch gets me kills. If he has a wingman than relies on mine to get the other bandit or keep him at least off my six.

Are you in CAGE mode with the CW illumination switch on, and if so, are you keeping your targets in the gunsight?

Can we overlook the bridals or would that make heads explode because people were having fun?

Okay think of it like this... The radar is a flashlight that lights up the target so the missile can see it. If you "lock" the target, the computer keeps your light on the target for you so the missile can see it. If you go to CAGE and keep the pipper on or near the target, the radar just shines its flashlight ahead of you like the headlights on a car. As long as you turn to keep the target in the light, the missile can still see it, even without locking on.

Depending on the target its possible the missile went into HOJ mode, Home On Jam, and followed a jammer signal to the target...Or maybe your side lobes did you a favor and kept him illuminated but I don't think that should work. MAAAYYYBE one of your wingman if present had it locked and it was able to follow that signal but I don't think that should work either.

I'm guessing probably no different than going from SU-33 to F-14 to F/A-18 to F-4. Unless you only buy and fly a single module I think you're going to have to get used to mixing it up a little. And remember that Navy Phantoms had changes in their day too. If you're used to landing an F-4B,G,N or J on a carrier an F-4S might be different with the slats.

Unless I'm mistaken this is basically the F-4's version of "Flood" mode. Your radar points straight ahead broadcasting. If you fire an AIM-7, itll home in on the biggest reflection it sees. If the target maneuvers out of the illuminated area, the missile goes dumb. Basically its a manual lock where you point the whole jet to steer the radar.

I admit it feels sluggish in terms of straight line acceleration but only a little bit. Bleeding speed in turns doesn't surprise me. Didn't they used to say the Phatom was good for one good turn, maybe two, and then totally spent on energy?

Oh... You know what, I got used to using the radio buttons and not the easy com button when playing F-14A in a campaign but I bet it's still enabled in my settings. Could that be causing the conflict?

The great thing about simulators and simulations is thay they can be used to test out wild and inappropriate things, like F-16s on a carrier. In the case of the F-4E, not only is it the only flyable (official) F-4 we have, but it comes from a family of carrier capable aircraft. The F-4E may not have been carrier capable, but the F-4A,B,G,J,K,N,S certainly were. The 4E has similar slats to the 4S, though not exactly identical, broadly similar weapons, although a different radar. If you strip it of gun ammo and paint it like a Navy jet apparently it's close enough for some for the time being to pretend a little bit for the sake of fun. So I understand why they do it or want to do it......For now. When Heatblur releases an F-4J, then I think an appropriate question to F-4E on carriers might just be "Why not buy that one?"

You can definitely trap just fine. Elsewhere I argued that, although incorrect, because people were going to do it anyway, they should enable it to at least start hooked up to a catapult or otherwise be able to hook up to a catapult somehow, until such time as the real naval F-4 module was released. Leave it as an unsupported and undocumented feature. An "easter egg" of you will. But some heads around here would probably explode at the unrealism of it and whip into violent anger about other people having fun.

Module really needs it IMHO. Even if he's only able of helping with certain things.

It sounds to me like "Loft" in a Shrike basically just tells the missile to cage the fins and go straight until it has passed a certain amount of altitude increase. You shoot it upwards and after it's gone up a certain amount it'll start to guide.

I feel like you're gonna certainly need more than one per battery. With the A model accuracy you're probably looking at 4x for the same radar tbh. The B seems much more effective though.

Right I guess we're gonna have to agree to disagree and use that ignore button to enhance our experience here.

That's pretty much what I've been doing. It's a rare thing. I would have guessed side lobe due to the sweeping but seemed odd to see that with the radar "locked". Anyway...F-14B Upgrade with Sparrowhawk HUD...$10.99 add on module coming soon please after Phantom is done? Lol.

Okay that explains part of it! I assumed he'd be making some errors somewhere but didn't realize how far off he could be. Any idea about the strange locked target behavior?

You heard him Heatblur. The F-14 has knobs in the cockpit labeled "not modeled" on the tool tip and some things in the cockpit not modeled at all. Turn off the entire module until this is solved please. And some of the settings for the AJS-37 jammer aren't modeled, please remove the module until that's fixed. The F-16C doesn't have the data cartridge modeled yet either so we should turn that whole module off too.

There are tons of things in DCS that aren't finished, are missing features, have parts not modeled, or have guesswork involved. I'm glad all of THOSE things got your personal stamp of approval.

For what its worth, I would be willing to shell out an extra $10.99 to get an F-14B Upgrade with the new Sparrowhawk HUD as an add-on module. I know that the work to make it isn't exactly free and I don't think they ever discussed bringing it into DCS to begin with. @IronMike If you guys make a Sparrowhawk HUD in an F-14B happen, I'll pony up that $10.99 immediately. Just saying. Even if you've got to fudge some things. As far as the D model goes, yhea, sure, I'd love to have one. IMHO due to all of the rework you're really talking about a totally new separate module at that point. The most exciting part about the 14D to me is the new cockpit. If there was such a thing as a 14B with the MFDs up front I would be all over that thing and asking that they make it.

I'm getting good locks and good kills, although Jester can and will get bad locks and report them as a good lock, as well as his general inability to find targets past 10 miles or so. Eta: Sometimes Jester reports a contact along the correct bearing, at the right range, but apparently the wrong altitude. Like a contact at 10,000 when I know the bad guy is at 15,000. Sometimes he will lock, and report a good lock, but I'll see a signal on the scope with lots of noise and an ASE dot that swings quickly from side to side. Actually now that I think about it, it seems to move at about the scan speed of the radar in search...Which would make me think it's related except for being in STT so the system shouldn't be swinging the dish...