xaoslaad

Here's another reason apparently: http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...aft/f-14sf.htm "Upgraded F-14s generally have greater range than the F/A-18C and could possibly reach targets beyond the Hornet's range." So for a precision strike at extended range could dictate a Tomcat over a Hornet when both were available.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/f-14sf.htm "Precision Strike provides the F-14 the capability to deliver laser-guided bombs for air-to-ground missions. It consists of the LANTIRN pod with laser designator and internal navigation system, LANTIRN control panel and night vision capable displays. In LANTIRN equipped F-14As and F-14Bs, the TID has been replaced with the PTID. In 1994 the Navy planned to spend over $2.5 billion to add limited ground attack capability and other improvements to 210 F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft (53 F-14Ds, 81 F-14Bs, and 76 F-14As). The ground attack capabilities were required to partially compensate for the loss in combat capabilities during the period starting in 1997, when all of its A-6E Intruder attack aircraft were retired, to the turn of the century when the F/A-18E/F, the next generation strike fighter, was scheduled to arrive. The strike enhancement program began in FY 1995 and completed in FY 2000, with 50 aircraft in FY 1998, 24 in FY 1999, and seven in FY 2000. The F-14 is undergoing two upgrades." Also: "The A/B initial upgrade, includes structural modifications to extend the F-14's fatigue life to 7,500 hours, improved defensive capabilities and cockpit displays, and incorporation of digital architecture and mission computers to speed data processing time and add software capacity. Block I adds a LANTIRN Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) pod with a built-in laser to designate targets and allow F-14s to independently drop laser guided bombs (LGBs), a modified cockpit for night attack operations (night vision devices and compatible lighting), and enhanced defensive countermeasures. The A/B upgrade had to be incorporated into 157 F-14 aircraft before the Block I upgrade could be added. " I believe there were A, B, and D bombcats, in addition to A and B non-bombcats. Edit: And reading that it's not clear to me if there were even non-bombcat D's.

Patently incorrect. In the late 1990s, 67 F-14Bs were upgraded to extend airframe life and improve offensive and defensive avionics systems. The modified aircraft became known as F-14B Upgrade or as "Bombcat". 37 F-14D's were made new, 18 F-14A's were made into F-14D®'s. You can easily look any of this up. You're just making stuff up. From one 'USMC' to another, stop spouting junk you heard from a guy that heard it from a guy, sit down, and read. It will do you far better in life.

Someone posted a link in the forums (sorry I don't have a link to the link and I can't find much about it on the Googles at the moment) describing how the AIM-54 was fairly unreliable and had the nickname something like the Phoeni-bomb because it would just fall of the rail unpowered sometimes. I mean you can carry six, so one should hit I guess. here: http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/an-elite-f-14-airman-explains-why-the-tomcat-was-so-imp-1610043625 "The bad thing about the Phoenix was it's old technology, which made it cumbersome and sometimes not function properly. It required its own cooling pump and sometimes the rocket motor wouldn't fire, making the missile fall dead off the rails. This earned it the not so glamorous nickname "Phoenie-Bomb"." So, I guess carrying bombs means carrying less Phoenixes, but carry more Phoenixes doesn't automatically mean carrying less bombs ;)

Strong desire for a somewhat modern multi-role aircraft. Peoples opinions vary. My buddy is a die hard F-14 fan. He thinks equipping bombs on an F-14 is sacrilege. But I think putting a GBU or two on a Tomcat, fighting your way in, taking out a key target or two, and fighting your way out would be a lot of fun. It was apparently a great strike aircraft from what I read. It would be a shame not to be able to use that functionality in the sim. Edit: with the F/A-18C coming we also have that option, so if they aren't able to produce a bombcat for some reason my disappointment will be tempered. I want both, but I am _really_ looking forward to the F/A-18C.

You're wrong.

DCS: F-14A/A+/B A/A+/B, so even if you discount the A+/B being the same there is still the A which is not the same. If you follow the above link they write it a little more clearly, F-14A/B (A+). So yes, we are getting two variants.

Of course :)

Nice, so there is hope this is a Bombcat, I guess. I would like it if it were.

Interesting. Here's another close up. I can't find a real close shot of how an AGM-54 is attached, but I guess it is different from what you are saying?

Is one of these a bombcat?

It's even easier than that... http://lmgtfy.com/?q=est+time

I want my Air Tractor, however I am not holding my breath.

Do a repair. It fixed for me, two comments down from my original

I did a repair that downloaded almost 400MB and the MiG-21Bis works now. Weird, but whatever. I don't have any mods or weirdness installed, but it works now, so not complaining. Agree on the Hawk; was just surprised to have problems with both instead of just the one.

Can anyone actually fly the MiG-21Bis or Hawk T.1A in 1.2.15? The MiG-21Bis displays to me what looks like I'm sunk into the fuselage and is completely unresponsive to controls. Selecting a T.1A just drops me in an A-10C....

Thanks everyone for the replies. Kind of what I suspwcted. The rudder thing is a neat trick. I dont know if I possess that kind of coordination to rudder and lock a target at the same time, but I'll have to give it a try.

Im not sure if youre saying the missile not locking onto EWR etc is something that needs to be addressed, but my understanding is that the discrepancy as to what the pod can see and missiles can lock is 'accurate', and therefore there is nothing to be adressed.

Most aircraft kills are either full blown explosions from the larger A-A missiles hitting them or when it impacts the ground. This isn't really a problem, except when you're attacking aircraft on the ground. In that case 500 pounders are your best friend. 30mm guns, especially the A-10's do pretty good too.

I made a simple mission for a friend and I. It was a wave of a few Mirages, followed, by a few F-16's, and then some bombers. We flew out from the carrier directly at the threats which were flying directly at us, all of them coming in more or less in a straight line. Now, the Mirages didn't have jammers, but the F-16's behind them did, so when in BVR mode all we could see was the jammers on the HUD with no way to discern the 'dashes' that were likely appearing for the closer Mirages, making it nearly impossible to engage them in BVR mode. My question about this situation is whether or not there is a way to filter out the jammer noise, some other means to lock onto the nearer aircraft in such a situation, or whether the only way around it would be to maneuver in such a way that the aircraft are no longer in line.

It's your posture. Bring your monitor closer and sit back and up properly in your chair with your controls at a comfortable height, if you can. Leaning forward, having to lift your arms too high, or rolling your shoulders forward to reach your controls will wreack havoc on your back and shoulder muscles. For me raising my chair some and pulling my monitor toward me so I can still see while sitting back has made a massive difference - no more pain. And I say that coming from being in some severe pain after playing for a few hours.

Interesting. It makes sense. You know the algorithm after being through it once, but you have to rewrite it for the new engine with all the nuances of that. I was wondering if it was more drop in at some point - like get a 'skeleton' framework written to get it to interact with the engine and then pasting whole piles of existing code, especially seeing how fast you went from a demo having something like one or two lines on the MFD to a screen with radar, etc. I guess developers could never be that lucky.

lol @3X EVGA GTX 980 and still games coming in near and even under ~30fps. $4k+ in monitors and video cards. Dang. Looks pretty, but too rich for my wallet.

I have an ASUS PB287Q and I have three things to say on the subject: Make sure the monitor supports and you use DisplayPort 1.1 or HDMI 2.0 and make sure it supports at least 60Hz at 4k. This particular monitor comes with a setting that needs to be adjusted out of the box to get 60Hz, and just the amount of time it took me to get things fixed up (which wasn't long) was enough to make me realize 30 Hz is terribad. If I can tell it's BAD. You will want to use SLI. With one card I end up in the 20's for FPS a lot. With two 970's in SLI I usually see 30's to 50's, and sometimes a lot higher. For me anything over 30 is acceptable; my eyes are terrible, so I go with the old conventional wisdom that I can't tell the difference with anything over 30 FPS. This is less important than the other two, but still worth consideration. It is best to use use Windows 8.1 for 4k. The screen scaling for 4k is superior. As in it just works. I have no tried Windows 7, but I have read repeatedly this is one place where Windows 8 wins big. You can use Windows 7, but your probably going to have to mess with icon and font sizes and so on trying to get things just right.

Hardly silly or little, a couple of community members worked hard on it and revised it several times. Perhaps not be so insulting to them (I am not one of them and have no relation) without even looking at or implementing it? The AI units are coming with the maps, right? OK, so at this very minute you can't have every bleeding scenario imagined under the sun. Who cares? If you can't look the other way on the things you have to do to get a reasonable approximation of a WWII scenario as a temporary solution, full well knowing it's all coming down the road, then you should stop complaining and come back when it's done to your high standards. Screaming now now now doesn't change the fact RRG dropped the ball and ED had their plans plus now RRG's plans on their plate. They're busy. Sure I wanted EDGE end of December, Normandy like yesterday, etc., etc. My wants are still tempered with the reality that they have much work on their plate and a lot of the delay isn't their fault in the least little bit. And third parties can't release maps until Edge is here, so screaming at them to make maps hardly makes sense at the moment. When Normandy and a Pacific map do come I will happily convert any missions I do have over to whichever is appropriate. Until then I am fine with doing what I can to make it close enough to be reasonable.