sith1144

Were there actually any fields in Germany with runways that bumpy IRL?

It wasn't really. Noone can say for sure what the Warsaw pact plans were but they'd certainly attack everywhere all at once. The Fulda direction I would say has outsized influence because it's where the Americans were at. If V corps had been on the road to Hamburg I'm sure wed be talking about the A24 charge or something with a snappier title

You should check the FAQ, there's a list of all airfields they intend to add I don't really get the point about carriers. Were any carriers expected to go patrol between Ipswich and Antwerp or something? any involvement of carrier aviation in exercises in Germany? Now a cold war Kola on the other hand... That'd be cool and a very natural map for a confrontation between NATO navies and the Northern Fleet... One can dream

It looks to me like Mannheim is on the phase 1 map. Now I can forgive street layouts being a little off, but this is more than a little haha. Here it is in game next to an air photo from 1980

I don't get this part of your argument because we are getting Volkel, Twente, Soesterberg, Gilze-Rijen, Eindhoven, Deelen, and de Peel in the Netherlands, as well as Kleine Brogel, beauvechain, bertrix jehonville, goetsenhoven, Liège, st Truiden, Weelde, and Zutendaal in Belgium. That's a fairly comprehensive cross section already? Especially considering there are some very important airbases in Germany still missing from the list. (Hello Geilenkirchen? Home of the AWACS?) I'd love to see it because I live here tho! But I do think I'm getting enough to hope for other stuff first (My priorities of further additions is basically: all airfields in the current high detail area in Germany > at least one French airbase > at least one Swedish airbase > at least one danish airbase > Bavaria> su-24 bases in Poland > extension to include bases in England)

Honestly you wouldn't be far off. For DCS purposes every division has as many T-64s, BMPs, BTRs, and artillery pieces as you want, it's not like it'll run well simulating an entire regiment at once. That said here's some good sources: https://www.relikte.com/literatur.htm has the numbers for 1988. It's in German but you can figure it out, in the index click on 8. Gardearmee and off you go. You can also use https://www.ww2.dk/new/army/armies/8gvoa.htm which has more time accurate equipment but is based on CIA estimates instead of Soviet/east German documents so less accurate. There's no definitive answer for where they would go so you are free to assign them as you see fit. I will note the 8GCAA and east German 3rd army aren't going to be attacking along the same route in parallel. So you're going to have East Germans or Soviets, not a mix. (Though one army could be in echelon behind the other ie following behind)

ah yeah those are neat! and once again highlights that we really need a Krug. and also the OG Strela-2 IMO.

also thanks for putting lights inside the hardened shelters! no more futzing around with a flashlight

Theres an SA-5 site just east of Apolda, FRAG-511, but IRL this was never operational. MGRS 32 U PB 84163 57991.

Hey, my preferred spot for stuff like this is the Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Digital Library! they have lots of fascinating documents, articles, and more

This highway entry/exit just south of Gotha is a bit wonky, though I'm sure it's not the only one

The 81st TFS became an A-10 squadron in 1994. They operated F4 phantoms before the 88s and got partial F-16s in 1988. As far as I've been able to find, A-10s operated from Sembach, Leipheim, Ahlhorn, Norvenich as forward bases with the actual home base in Britain. Per USAFE, a primer of modern air combat in Europe by Michael Skinner, 1983 (which should not be taken af a definitive source but is simply the book I was looking at this past week) The 78th, 91st, 92nd, 509th, 510th, and 511th fighter squadrons of the 81st TFW (TFW and TFS may have lead to confusion) flew the A-10 out of the twin bases RAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge. At least a third of the wing was deployed to forward bases mentioned above.

Hey all. Ive been sticking my nose in a whole slew of manuals, pamphlets, and papers to channel the spirit of 1981, and I thought Id share a hopefully inspiring example of the sort of missions you might realistically fly. First, to set the stage: June 12th, 1981. McPheeters Barracks, Bad Hersfeld, Germany. The troops of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment are scrambling to get to their equipment. Somewhere up north along the border a single shot turned into a skirmish and then into a war. Neither side seems to have been mobilized, and no nuclear weapons have been deployed yet. But even without weapons of mass destruction, the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army across the border is a formidable force. The closest group to the border, the 39th Guards Motor Rifle division alone has over a hundred tanks and over half a thousand BMPs. As the troops get ready for battle the first jets loaded with bombs fly past low and fast. Air-land battle and you: what is the job of aviation? NATO does not want to trade space for time. After all, space is inhabited by the very people they are trying to protect. NATO therefore needs a plan to win battles right at the border. In March 1981 the US Army Training and Doctrine command published an 84 page pamphlet outlining the Airland battle doctrine that would be developed further in field manuals in 1982 and 1986. At its core, this means fighting the enemy on the ground and in the air at the same time. It asks commanders to fight not only the enemy directly in front of them, but also the second echelon forces following behind, still in enemy territory. The Warsaw pact intends to win by applying constant pressure across the entire line until it breaks (it is, of course, greatly oversimplifying things to boil it down to a single sentence. But im doing so anyway). The goal of fighting the second echelon is to relieve this pressure and allowing American troops to seize the initiative and act, so they can reposition, counterattack, resupply, whatever the situation may demand. To boil the counter-strategy down to a single sound-bite as well, the plan is to trade firepower for time. Later in the decade, new weapon systems like the M270 MLRS and AH-67 Apache will offer commanders better weapons of their own to engage the second echelon. But for now, nearly all of the interdiction will have to be provided by the Air Force. Since at least 1943 interdiction - hindering the movement of enemy troops not currently in contact - has been identified as an important part of air power. It was less important than air superiority, but more important than Close Air Support (CAS) V Corps, the American unit responsible for the “Fulda Gap” has a staff unit dedicated to the interdiction mission. Their job is to analyze in real time which routes the enemy will take and how long it will take them, and to use strike aircraft, helicopters, artillery, and electronic warfare to delay and disrupt them as much as possible. This is where we come in. It should be noted that missions are going to be flown against planned targets. The objectives are going to fit into three categories: Delay the enemy by a given amount of time. This is unfortunately somewhat hard to measure in DCS. Channel the enemy down a specific route. Also on the face of it not possible in DCS because the ground units just follow their waypoints. Defeat the enemy in a specific area. This one we can at least measure in DCS. The good news is, its not up to the fighter jockey to judge the success, so at the end of a flight we can still get a nice mission success screen. As a final note, interdiction missions are going to be against planned targets. Between the thousands of anti aircraft weapons on the ground and the thousands of aircraft in the sky, there's not a lot of room to fly around looking for targets. Leave finding targets to the OV-10s and other reconnaissance aircraft. This map shows the locations of the divisions of the 8th GCAA and a big red arrow along their path to the border. If V corps determines that these troops are indeed headed for the Fulda Gap, and not towards Bamberg in the south, they are going to want to focus their efforts on delaying all enemy units that might join the battle in the next 72 hours, up to a depth of about 150 kilometers behind the front line. There is a highway that runs all the way from Leipzich past Jena, Weimar, and Erfurt to the border. This is the fastest route for the enemy to get to the frontline. The goal of our strike package will be to degrade this highway to delay the next unit following it by two hours. This will give the ground troops some time, but also gives the air force another two hours to rain down ordnance on the enemy units now slowing down at chokepoints. If we look at this highway in DCS, we come across this pair of bridges at Günthersleben-Wechmar a bit South-East of Gotha. If these bridges are destroyed, Soviet forces will get delayed as they will have to repair/replace the bridge or ford the stream, none of which is as fast as driving across a bridge. Enough little delays like that add up quickly. These bridges will be the target of our flight, a 4-ship of F-4 Phantoms from Hahn Air Base with high drag bombs. Missiles, Missiles everywhere: the threats. About five kilometers North of the bridges sits an SA-2 battery at FRA-513 Seebergen bei Gotha, and 31 kilometers South-East sits another at FRA-514 Remda bei Rudolstadt. Besides these fixed East German systems, each of those four Soviet division has an SA-6 regiment with multiple batteries and each of the 4 regiments per division has 4 ZSU-23 Shilkas, 4 SA-9 or SA-13 SAM vehicles, and an awful lot of MANPADS. There are also doubtless mobile East German systems roaming around, but I think I’ve done enough research for today. And of course, the warsaw pact has hundreds if not thousands of interceptors standing by as well. There will be a lot of aircraft wrecks by the end of the day! YGBSM: Supporting flights. Luckily our flight is not alone. At Spangdahlem Air Base sits an entire wing specialized in Wild Weasel operations. They will be out there to suppress the SAMs. F-15s from Bitburg will be providing top cover directed by E-3s from Geilenkirchen (Ugra pls ) There will be no tankers until the situation in the air has become a little clearer. Its about the journey: sights along the way. As you make your way from Hahn to the target, you will pass through the HAWK belt. This is a line of HAWK Surface to Air Missiles that run from the coast to the Austrian border. These are going to be looking for targets. Because radio communications could be jammed, simple corridors have been pre-arranged. you'll be low and fast, as will almost all aircraft. Maybe you'll see F-111s or Tornados on their way to bomb enemy airfields. Cobras or Hinds engaging enemy columns with missiles and rockets. Su-24s or Su-22s heading for the front - or your airbase. With everyone low and fast your chance to acquire, identify, and engage an enemy aircraft is going to be minimal, and turning and fighting is a great opportunity for someone else to run in and hit you with a steel chair. On the ground below you might make out exchanges of gunfire, ATGMs flying around, hillsides getting cheese-gratered by DPICM, and vehicles turning into burning wrecks. Beyond the frontlines you might see a motor rifle battallion snaking around some abandoned civilian cars, scrambling to bring the MANPADSs to bear. Hopefully, there's no Shilka or SA-13 waiting for you at the bridge, no MiGs scrambling to intercept you, and the SAMs are nicely distracted by the wild weasels. With a bit of luck you might even make it to the end of the week That's a bit long I guess. But I hope I managed to summarize the role of USAF aviation in a cold war gone hot scenario and given you some inspiration to go make a cool mission. The pamphlet I mentioned is TRADOC Pamphlet 525-5 25 March 1981.

but theyre moving! and I doubt theyre part of civilian traffic

Im curious if the new ground vehicles showed in the launch trailer will be in the sim? they werent in the patch notes. Pretty sure I spotted a T-62 and BTR-60, and we dont have those

in my defense, Kastrup and Karup look alike XD

heh I am in fact reading a history of the development thereof wrtten by officers https://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll11/id/1662/rec/10

ONLY base? aren't we already getting Kastrup airbase? in phase 2 even?

currently deep inside some literature on doctrine and tactics development, 1975-1985 to get into the spirit of things. ooooh... books...

Hey guys if the cold war went hot the 31st tactical fighter wing was planned to fight in Germany. I think it'd be a shame to exclude a whole fighter wing from the map and it only takes a single airport, so yugra pls add Homestead Airforce Base on the west side of the map (That was a bit of a good natured parody if you can't tell)

Jever was also home to regular multinational exercises

the occasional missing airfield notwithstanding consider me very excited for this release

good video, thanks for sharing! I hope we will at some point get some kinda bridging equipment to blow up

Hello, I was running a coop mission I made on a multiplayer server and most of the units in the mission did not spawn. of course we only found out at the target. When I tried running the mission again the units spawned as expected. server-20250413-230119.trkCampaignMission10.miz

Hello, I have a consistent issue with the AGM-45 being desynced in multiplayer. That is, the missiles behaviour looks different to the shooter and to the server. steps: Set up a dedicated server with an F-4E and an SA-2 fly the F-4E and launch an AGM-45 with a mk22 seeker at the SA-2 in WRCS mode observe the missile with F6, ask someone else to also observe the missile. I have attached a server track of a mission where this happened (my personal track was too big) and screenshots from tacview that illustrate the problem. The first two show the servers track, with the missile tracking an F-4 before hitting the ground. The last one shows my track, with the missile impacting the radar. The radar was still destroyed on the server track. server-20250330-211044.trk