WinterH

I personally don't think we are getting a warbird from ED this year, perhaps even the next one. Their plate is fairly full, Mossie is fairly recently released too. Nick Grey (ED CEO, unless there's anyone doesn't know) has said, I think a few times even, that he'd like ED to someday to do Hellcat, his favorite warbird, and also Battle of Britain planes. But as far as we know they are not concretely in the plans yet. There is also talk of 109G-6, as a lifelong 109 fan, only version I don't care for in the least but oh well... Next Warbird we know to be coming is Mag3's Corsair, and it does actually, and finally, feel close now. Like others have said, it looks quite likely OctopusG will soon announce a La-7 that they have teased, but we have no ida how close or far it is.

Mirage III EA is planned/under work by Razbam. Super Etendard is just AI though, at least at first as far as I know. As AI, Dagger and Mirage V are also being modeled by them. And yeah, Mirage F1 is hopefully fairly close

I feel like it should probably be F-4E with slats will be somewhat better in dogfighting, especially if at least AIM-9P5 is a possibility, but MLA will be the better BVR bird despite having a lot fewer missiles. MLA can theoretically turn pretty well with wings fully swept forward, but that takes away its main party trick: speed and acceleration, and is apparently highly unstable at that setting. Also wing sweep wasn't anything like in F-14. It was manual, and I seem to remember it not being possible at higher G loads. 45 degrees middle position seems to be "set it there and forget about it" wing sweep for dogfights in MiG-23 as it was apparently the best compromise in speed/maneuverability/stability. Thus, I feel like it will be even harder to handle than Phantom in a dogfight, and there's the famous situation with 70s Soviet canopies. Not that Phantom's canopy is brilliant, but MiG-23 seems especially bad in that regard. That said, MiG may still prove to be better in high speed fights. Experiences of IRL Phantom pilots practicing vs MiG-23 as shared by them in this thread seem to agree with my assumptions for the most part . On the flipside, when it comes to BVR, MiG-23MLA will have the better radar, that is probably easier to use (not sure), look down capability, and R-24 will be at least as good as, most likely better than AIM-7E-3 Sparrows. Then, there's IRST capability, even if proves to be marginally useful, it can still sometimes get silent detection/shooting ability in favor of the MiG, especially together with IR guided and all aspect capable R-24T. Finally, MLD is actually a good leap further in most ways than even MLA: more aerodynamic refinements did actually finally make it somewhat dogfight happy apparently, and radar was apparently even somewhat better than early MiG-29 radars, and it got countermeasures as default, as opposed to a rarity in MLA's case, it had Beryoza RWR, and it could use R-73s. But we are getting MLA after all, and looking at some numbers and some pilot anectodes, I feel like F-4E can do well in dogfighting against it. Though, if we only get AIM-9J or P-3 as the top IR missiles, then R-60M can prove a significant issue despite what I've said above, as it proved to be in case of Mirage F1 with rear aspect only missiles vs MiG-23 with R-60M. I feel like F-4E vs: Mirage F1, F-5E, MiG-21Bis, AJS 37 will all potentially be quite interesting anyway :)! MiG-19 too, as well as hopefully upcoming MiG-17. Not to mention F-8, Mirage III, man so many great Cold War coolness is coming up!

I predict when naval Phantoms come, they will more likely be J and/or S. They are more in line with coming F-4Es, as well as existing and upcoming aircraft to rival/complement them.

PAH1A1 is armed with HOT missiles only. And at firs that is the variant we will get. If, later, we get KLH too (Korean, and post Cold War version) as originally hoped for, it will have gunpods and rockets available, as well as a fairly advanced night capable optical system that can lase for others as far as I know. However, KLH doesn't get any guided weapons as far as I know.

2060 Super, you need to enable it through Nvidia control panel in 3d/DSR multipliers. Then you will get higher resolution options to choose from listed in the games' setting screens.

Modules I'm pretty sure we'll see this year: - AH-64D - MB-339 - Mirage F1 - F4U1d Corsair But as always with DCS, things may change, slip, etc. If Heatblur's F-4E really comes this year, I'll be up in the clouds, but we'll see. South Atlantic seems likely soonish too. Blackshark 3 also seems likely. F-15E, we'll see, I feel like it'd be next year, but who knows, PR on that one is amping up.

It has been this way for me since 2.7 came, as a side effect, I can't use Nvidia DSR to fake a higher res than my old screen supports anymore either, oh well

Yeah, can't quite link sources, but I remember Heatblur saying many times that A-6 is the last module in their pipeline, and looking at the roadmap, and the recent teaser, F-4E looks like their 2022 slot (of course, assuming all things going well). Thus, the order right now looks like F-4E, Typhoon, A-6E, Naval F-4s, probably anyway. Unless they now have multiple teams, then some of development may go in parallel maybe.

Kirk's first hand experience comments look like even more reason to hope for getting both Pave Spike and Pave Tack for each respective variant we are to get with the module

Our versions of F-4E actually We are to get a 72-74 ish bird, probably with DSCG, and an ARN-101 DMAS bird, either late 70s or up to 80s maybe. In any case, the worst case scenario, a AIM-9P version with an improved seeker should be possible as an all aspect missile option, as well as quite a few rear aspect ones. If it really was a possibility, a less poo-poo Sparrow version then AIM-7E, obviously in addition to the E itself, would also be welcome. Perhaps these will be possibilities for the DMAS bird. Guess we'll see as Heatblur shares more as time goes

Yeah but at that point they're not F-4E anymore, but rather F-4E ICE, Peace Ikarus, Kurnass, Terminator etc, different aircraft due to extensive modernizations. I suppose this does mean there is one aspect where F-5 can be an ok medium to train with: having an air to air radar with no look down capability. Perhaps also the general look and feel of gunsight and reticle to a degree. But overall I still think A-4 and F-14 are the best fits: A-4 for air to ground, navigation, shrikes, bombing, F-14 for air to air, two seat, also navigation to a degree I guess. I also assume their handling characteristics will be more similar to F-4 than F-5's will be.

No, A-4 is only for flight/air to ground portion of things, also its radar is for air to ground mapping/ranging only, no air to air mode. Only period option to train with sparrows is indeed the Tomcat.

As far as I know, the early version can get the Pave Spike, and late one Pave Tack. But so far HB didn't say anything about pods, better wait for the news on that front I guess. While I appreciate the extra effort wouldn't be any sort of trivial, as far as I know cockpit itself doesn't really change much, if at all on Pave Spike birds. The reason it would be nice is that quite a few of F-4E operators had some Pave Spike birds themselves, while Pave Tack wasn't really exported for Phantoms as far as I know. There are also a few smaller cool-to-have reasons, it is a lot lighter and less draggy, goes into Sparrow station rather than centerline, and is a lot more old-school and hard to use experience. So since we are amazingly having two different levels/periods of F-4E, as it deserves, it'd be even more amazing to get two separate types of TGP for each

In my opinion, the best two options are A-4E mod, and F-14. Similar vintage as upcoming early to mid 70s and late 70s to 80s F-4Es. Even the canopy is quite similar :). Many of the systems and gauges would be at least close. Tomcat has a similar two seat setup, and a literally tacked on relatively early TGP, roughly similar to the ones we may get. A-4 has that 'Nam feeling and methods similar with the early Phantom, it also has a similar bombing computer and weapon release programmer. Also has the AGM-45 Shrike we should get with F-4E. Not exactly same implementation, but similar weapon capability. Their difficult to fly well, but surprisingly well performing when done so characteristics should also be similar in a way with it. One honorable mention could be Viggen with early Mavericks like we'll find in F-4E. But otherwise I'd say A-4 and F-14 are better analogues. I personally don't quite agree with the suggestion of F-5E. Many of its characteristics like ease of flying, visibility out of cockpit etc are more like later aircraft, but it's weakness of thrust is unlike Phantom's strength in there. RWR isn't similar either. Nor the kinds of payload and weapon delivery capabilities. MiG-21 is of similar vintage yes, and also is hard to fly but flies well of you can tame kind of deal, but still very different in many ways, wouldn't be the best choice imo.

That's a F-4G and Israeli F-4 only possibility as far as I know.

**HAPPY WAAAAAGGGHH NOISES**

Videos are from the earlier versions where CMPTR position of the mode dial wasn't animated yet, and the feature was accessed through the LABS position. You need to use CMPTR position in current version. LABS is a different, older bombing system that isn't nearly as accurate, and is mainly meant for delivering nukes. As far as I know it's not implemented in our A-4 right now, but if you have F-86 you can use it there. Essentially, you fly low, when right over the target press weapons release, and go into a vertical climb. LABS indicator will guide you with needles that you try and keep centered, and the system will release the bomb when it thinks it'll hit the general postcode, or at least the neighboring one

Yeah I think this should at least be a mission editor option like "multi crew enabled/disabled" for individual aircraft put into the mission. I love multicrew in Hind, Huey, Tomcat. But I'd also like to be able to use other positions in a multiplayer session if we will not do multicrew. I get that it's hard to support both at the same time for same unit, hence the suggestion of enabling/disabling it for individual aircraft in mission design stage.

Yes, though technically you can still do the usual "hover and keep sending missiles" thing with Hind too. It requires the helo to be light, altitude low, temp also not too hot, and the operator needs to first fire the missile looking at the boresight, way up above the target, and gently bring the sight down on the target. That's not a "gamism" either, as far as I know it is sometimes practiced by IRL Hind crews. Still though, as said, it is not really what Hind is designed for, and it can only do so under ideal circumstances. Still though, fact remains that Hind's guidance system is limited to 8 missiles regardless. Looks like this hasn't changed even on Mi-35M.

Sooo loooking forward to it here! :))

Again, any naval phantom can in no way, shape, or form represent F-4E, which is the great majority of the Phantom history all over the world, from USAF service in Vietnam and beyond, to far east in South Korea and to some degree in Japanese services, brief stint in Australia, Greece and Turkey both, and in Middle East with Israel, Iran, and Egypt. Especially Israeli, Iranian, and Turkish phantoms has seen plenty of operational action over the decades. Moreover, in a DCS sandbox environment, aside from historical scenarios, it could work both as a decent if not amazing air to air BVR fighter, and a fairly decent dogfighter (up until F-4S naval Phantoms didn't get E's slats), as well as an attacker a plethora of strike capabilities in 70s-80s scenarios, and even as a supporting underdog up to 90s. A mid to late 70s F-4E would still represent a Vietnam era one decently for air to air and air to ground missions with just some loadout restrictions as well. A naval F-4 would, in contrast, only be a better interceptor with its radar, SEAM mode Sidewinders etc, but even then, historically as a second fiddle to F-14 anytime post Vietnam, with only USN/USMC service, arguably also a brief stint with RN, and little operational history to show for after the 'Nam. It can take off from a boat though, I suppose, worth all the sacrifices for that right? /s Getting both, eventually, would be really nice, very cool even. But a naval bird on its own, can only represent a bare minority of what Phantom is, at the expense of majority of it.

For someone who wants an E like I do, J is firmly in the "better off not even being done" bin. Naval Phantoms had better air to air capabilities like a pulse doppler radar that can look and shoot down, an early helmet mounted sight, and better missiles. However, when it comes to being a multirole aircraft, E was much, much better. It already got early targeting pods in 70s, had AGM-65 Mavericks, GBU-8 and later GBU-15 TV guided bombs, latter of which had man-in-the-loop capabilities, AGM-45 Shrike anti radar missiles, an internal gun, a complex iron bombing computer with many modes etc. And yeah, an actual onboard gun too. Neither J, nor even S would remotely be able to simulate an E in any way. Nor can really E simulate a naval one. ED staff said multiple times in various venues that they aren't the ones making the F-4 BTW. I am hoping very stronglt that it'll be a 75-80s F-4E. As far as I'm concerned it is by far the more interesting aircraft to use, and it just has a way wider history and operators: USAF, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Iran, South Korea, as well as Japan and Germany with close yet somewhat different variants specific to themselves. Australia also temporarily operated it.

MiG-21 has been a favorite for me since its release. Yes there's been downs, quite a few, and sometimes big ones. But LN kept updating/fixing, and MiG is still charming many newcomers despite being a ln ancient module. They've also shown the courage to release a civilian aircraft for pure joy of flight, which I also respect. F4U and F-8 are both among my most anticipated modules, as well as the teased Su-17 or 22. So yeah, being them on guys, I'm waiting to get them

I have nothing against a naval variant in addition, so long as I get an F-4E. Man, this is one special plane where it's going to be VERY hard to make everyone happy and at the same time not make everyone mad