FLANKERATOR

'Extend' means increasing the distance between you and your opponent by heading the opposite way. Regarding your question, you'd want to see BVR combat as being very dynamic so you can't go through a checklist simply because your next move depends on what your opponent is doing. In your scenario (27vs15/1on1/flat), the F-15 will usually try to take advantage of having ARH missiles, so you'll have to wisely choose when to temporize and when to press on. Typically, you'd want to identify the weakest salvo before committing yourself, the goal being to take his six when he tries to extend away. Ideally, you'd want to deal with not more than 1 missile before pressing on, so identifying the right moment for this requires experience and tactical awareness. We're talking HvH here not AI, as the latter will always press on (scripted/easier to defeat). Beware though, an F-15 will not always extend away because it got Active missiles. So be prepared because he can do the same to you (close in when your backing away). A lot of experience and tactical feel on top of perfectly mastering your aircraft technically and kinetically. Also, Tacview is worth a thousand words when it comes to learning from your tactical mistakes or seeking advice here. I hope this helps.

What scenario (1on1/many vs many)? Terrain type (mountainous/flat)? What is your A2A task (actual kill or mission kill)? An ARH gives you the freedom to turn around and extend, but for example, what would happen if an R-27ET-equipped adversary managed to dodge your missiles and start chasing you. Plus, an R-27ER can actually hit head on if used properly. Bottom line is that being sneaky is not the only and certainly not the best way to go vs an Eagle. The Su-27 is an air-superiority fighter and you should fly it accordingly. You've got options at your disposal in a SARH vs ARH encounter, and it depends a lot on the mission objective, environment and of course, pilot proficiency and experience.

Hey Trailer, 104th squadron looks like a good match for you, they fly everything and the F-15C is their backbone, so if you're into flying the Eagle online with a bunch of cool, welcoming people, yet proficient and serious when flying PvP, 104th is the way to go. Here is where you can apply: http://104thphoenix.com/

104th and 51st are still discussing it. Results from JW2 have already been processed so if this final fight ever happens, it will be seen as a separate battle/event. I don't know if it would be the right time now after the last release when you look at the amount of people complaining. I have personally not updated my DCS yet.

R-77 is broken beyond measure as it is now. It needs to be fixed first IMO. I don't think it will ever be added to the Flanker's arsenal as this particular topic had already been discussed extensively and to no avail. Same for the P version of the R-27 family, there doesn't seem to be any proven record of its usage in actual combat. In addition, imagine how would it be if people had to turn their radar off every time a Flanker popped up on their RWR, especially an Eagle in BVR as relying entirely on radar-guided missiles. This is one very hot topic indeed.

This is one promising newsletter, I hope that game stability and especially multiplayer will still get their share of love in the middle of all these announced modules and features. The more modules, the more potential bugs are likely to pop up. Fact is that DCS's overall stability has improved a lot since the last campaign, I just hope this will be a steady and ongoing effort in parallel of all additional content.

External Views If external views are disabled, the only way I'm aware of to spectate live is to catch people at the base using F-11, then follow them with the mouse as they takeoff, though you'll be left behind once they get too fast :) You can still enable external views and watch the action offline afterwards, but live, it's very limited, at least to my knowledge. ATC/GCI view If you'd like to have a tactical view of the theater, you can use Combined Arms (JTAC slot and both server and whoever wants to watch need to have CA installed). There is also LoAtc which is a nice application that will give you even more options than what Combined Arms can provide. Cockpit View You can ask clients to live stream on Twitch using game recording software like X-split or Loilo.

Awesome! My MiG-29 folder is having a hell of a start with these 2! Keep them coming Octuplefire, could not rep you again...

Sweet, thanks!

No FSX experience here whatsoever. Why don't you try those view options live in-game then you can pick the most convenient for you. I would.

Would be great, Thank you! Meanwhile, I'd love to put my hands on HD versions of the 2 Tornado's you've posted before if ever possible.

High resolution guys please. With your permissions, I'd like to add these to my collection. Thanks!

Yes, new modules tend to shake up stability a bit, which is understandable, though in this case, my bet is that some other things went wrong and coincided with the 1.2.10 release and this is, in my opinion, what caused all that initial fuss. Aside from few people reporting random crashes, it looks good enough.

(1)You are not supposed to IFF (identification friend of foe) a jammer unless you get close enough to burn through it (you will then see a clear contact in the middle of the jamming signal). (2)Few tips: - Use in-game intel to build general SA (follow the battle feed, check the player pool..etc) - Use EWR/AWACS if available - Use comms/chat to ask friendlies - Lock on the jamming signal and broadcast "Raygun" to the allies, if someone answers 'Buddy spike' then you must unlock. (3) The radar's scale is just a scale for displaying purposes. The jammer must have disappeared because of the TD (target designator) on the VSD (radar screen). In the F-15, the target designator is connected to the antenna's elevation, so when you change the scale, the TD's position shifts as well, so does the altitude range that you are scanning (displayed on the left side). I'm not an F-15 guy but this is what came to my mind. Normally, if you move that TD again after changing the VSD scale, you'd be able to re-acquire the jammer, just try to put it back into the same altitude range as before. (4) He must have gone HOJ on you (Home On Jam), means he locked your jammer and fired. In HOJ, although the targeting info is not provided, the missile will still try to track your jamming signal. In the case of an R-27, you wouldn't hear the missile launch warning (you'd hear him hard-locking though). Another reason could be you banking more than 30 deg when turning, in this case, your RWR wouldn't transmit anything (blind spot).

The 29 needs a lot of love at this point. All the missiles may have some flaws here and there, but that R-77 is a complete joke.

I like to scan in relation to my own altitude - Take your altitude at any time, convert it to KM (Kilometer) and scan as much as this downwards, then scan as much as what's left out of 9 or 10 upwards. For instance at 5km high, I'll go -5/+5 in elevation (Russian fighters). At 7km high, I'll cover -7/+3. Below 1km, I'll usually go from 0 to +8 or +9. Obviously, you want to slew left, center and right before you move to the next one and stay at least half a second at each increment to allow the radar to refresh. I call this pyramidal scanning pattern and it saved my virtual butt countless times. Of course if you have wingmen who you can trust, then you can divide the air space into sections for each one of you for faster scanning.

I like your screenshots. Any reason why you don't post them in higher resolution (1920 x 1080)?

@deckard: As Jack and Frostie said, those numbers are about using the right PRF in relation to your target's aspect angle. Realize that using the right PRF is only part of the detection effectiveness and surely not the most important one. What really matters first is to steer your radar antenna both horizontally and vertically in order to put your target into your radar's cone (Think of it as trying to see something using a flashlight in a pitch-dark room, you will see only what you illuminate - also realize how narrow the light cone is at the source and how the further, the wider it becomes). This is how your jet radar operates, it will see only what's inside the scanning 'cone', therefore, it's up to you pilot to move your antenna to detect your targets. We said the further, the wider, so realize that the further, the more space you will cover and that the closer, the less space you'll cover. This means you'll have to be more active with your scanning to detect closer targets as your radar cone is narrower at that range. Learn how to fly while scanning methodically with your radar, once you start getting a good picture of what's around you, then you can add up the PRF task. Priority is to move that radar and it can take a bit of time and training to really get the hang of it. Also many other things are involved to scan properly like your own altitude and the terrain type, though at this stage, better to tackle those later on. Step by step...

As Exorcet said, under 20km, forget HI and use ILV first then switch to MED (EOS might do a better job than MED for targets flying away). A quick guide about radar PRF effectiveness according to OBA (estimation) OBA<20--------> HI 20<OBA<90----->ILV 90<OBA<180---->MED OBA (Off-Boresight Angle) is the angle between the axis of the antenna (boresight axis) and the direction of the target.

@deckard Latest long range kill I saw for the R-27ER was from <51>Rage during the last Joint Warrior battle (DCS 1.2.9). The moment he pulled the trigger, Tacview was reading 30 miles (48km) away from his target (F-15C). He was at medium altitude IIRC and the F-15 had some angle off. @stray_cat Rmax for the RL AIM120C is well beyond 55km (drone style intercept). Effective range is really hard to say as it depends on lot of things, you can well hit from 40nm away with a big lofted trajectory from over 40k if your target is unaware and/or focused on something else or miss within 6nm if your guy is good and has nothing to do but survive your shot.

Yes, better to keep the ball rolling, what are you guys up for? The problem is that 2 weeks ago, red and blue teams tried JW2 in 1.2.10 and reported lagging issues before postponing the final. Also people who were on the servers playing public missions, reported similar lagging problems just after 1.2.10 came out. They described the server as unplayable due to huge lagging. It appears things got better now. Maybe all this past trouble was just due to other reasons not necessarily 1.2.10-related. Maybe some issue with the master server timed with the release of 1.2.10, maybe a temporary issue with the server's bandwidth. As things seem to be rolling smoothly now on exact same DCS build on both servers (51st and 104th), we could have well been barking up the wrong tree.

There was a big lack of communication and coordination for this fight. Most of the guys ended up reluctant to roll back to 1.2.9 and I hadn't heard from Maverick to know about the blue team status until today so I couldn't update. At the same time, people were not unanimous about 1.2.10 but at the same time not keen to roll back to 1.2.9 so both teams have decided to stand down and postpone this final fight again until further notice. From my side, I will go ahead and update the rankings and will amend whenever I get the results of this battle.

A TWS-guided AIM120 will give no lock and no launch warning regardless of your ECM status. You will get a pitbull warning in both cases, but very late if your ECM is emitting (approx 10sec vs 3 sec). Pitbull means the missile is close enough to turn on its own radar to intercept you). You will get a lock warning in both cases, but you're not supposed to get a launch warning when you have your ECM on (subject to a bug in the past against AI, not sure if it has been fixed). There are 3 warnings here: - Lock warning sounds like continuous 'BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP' - Launch warning sounds like 'BEEP BEEP BEEP' - Pitbull warning sounds like a launch warning but will last until impact or miss. Your RWR diodes will also start tuning off counterclockwise as the missile gets closer, simulating a countdown for you to time your defense. So remember: - R-27ER warnings ECM off--->lock yes - launch yes - pitbull No - R-27ER warnings ECM on--->lock yes - launch No - pitbull No - TWS/AIM-120 warnings ECM off--->lock No - launch No - pitbull Yes max - TWS/AIM-120 warnings ECM on--->lock No - launch No - pitbull yes min Finally keep in mind that your RWR will go silent every time you bank more than 30deg. Like GG said, as much as your ECM will deny your opponent targeting information (speed and altitude), it will also give any missile headed your way a strong signal to hook on. It's a bit tricky and best would be to keep it off to make the most out of your RWR, then as your SA gets better, you can start using it to trick your opponents. If in doubt, leave it off.

You have to understand that ECM is a double-edged sword. It basically allows you to deny the enemy targeting information before reaching the burn-through distance, but at the same time, screams out your presence from very far away. If the enemy sees you already, there is no much benefit from going music on unless you'd want to make him loose the lock on you (spoiling an early semi active on the way). You can use it to try to draw the enemy's attention to you while wingmen silently try to flank him. As a rule of thumb, use ECM when the threat is relatively far away because otherwise, you may well end up unaware of a semi-active being fired at you, or even worse, unaware of an active about to hit you, not to mention, being team-killed. It you mean the 8/16/32/64/128/256/512, this is just a scaling range for the MFD (mufti-functional display). Understand that the waves of you radar travel the same way regardless of the range you set for your MFD. It's good practice to zoom in and out to get a more accurate picture on your MFD. So that's only eye-candy for you. There's however another setting on the bottom of the HUD (showing 100 by default I think), this one is supposed to alter the detection in some way though I have never used it personally.

Before because your ECM won't let you detect the missile approaching early enough if you keep it on once the missile is on its way to you. R-27 - you wont hear the launch warning AIM-120 - You'll get Pitbull warning barely 3 sec before impact. If you can see him, go to helmet mode, otherwise vertical post merge or bore before the merge. It works against 1 or 2 at the most. Each of these last-ditch moves are very expensive energy-wise so you'd end up low and slow really fast.