BlackPixxel

Hello! When firing an ARH missile beyond its seeker range it has to be guided via mid-course updates from the shooter. He has to keep the target locked until the missile is in range to go active. In DCS this mechanic is completely broken for all ARH/Fox3 missiles: You can have the target locked, fire an ARH missile and then just turn of your radar and leave the target. The missile will still constantly guide towards the target even far beyond the range where its active seeker would take over. The mid-course updates from the shooter are not modelled at all. The shooter's support is not required after launch for updates. The missile knows where the target is even without the shooter supporting it. This is a major bug, as it allows the ARH shooter to disengage much earlier and turn away, while his missile will still perfectly guide towards the target. The correct behaviour would be: The ARH missile should, when the shooter unlocks the target, fly towards the last known intercept point. There is still a chance of finding the target when the target did not maneuver much and is within the seeker FOV as the missile goes active. The attached trackfiles show the issue. I fire ARH missiles beyond their seeker range at a maneuvering target and immediatly turn off my radar. The missiles still constantly pull g and follows the target before it even goes active. They magically track the target beyond their seeker range. I hope this can get fixed quickly, as it is 100% unrealistic and affects air to air combat significantly. Also, any update about this issue: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=253434 ? It is not acceptable that Fox 1 when losing radar lock briefly are 100% trashed if there is a chaff in the air without a chance of reacquiring the target, but Fox 3 will guide towards the target even with no radar support at all at long range. ARH INS BUG.zip

Thanks, sounds like we don't have to wait for that long!

Is there any estimation other than next year when other missiles (especially the R-27) will follow? The R-27 really suffers when maneuvering, and it stalls much sooner than the Aim-120 when it should be the other way around.

Sometimes they do, but the CCM value of SARH in DCS is so bad that it is very unlikely. With Aim-120s having a very good CCM value the likelyhood of reaquiring a target is much higher I assume. Take a look at the ER tacview file here, where one ER reacquires after it was on a chaff: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4084367&postcount=1

Without afterburner it is similar to the F-16, but with afterburner the IR detection range is less than half of that of a Hornet (which equals to less than 1/4th of emitted heat). And that with a MiG-29 engine.

Reviewing does not mean making them better. Could also mean tweaking certain aspects, such as drag during turns.

INS Guidance of ARH Right now all ARH missiles in DCS will have INS/datalink guidance to the target even if the shooter disables his radar and turns away. ARH missiles will track the target without any support from the shooter until the missile is in range to go active (~15 km). At this range, the missile will be guided by its own seeker. This is completely unrealistic. When an ARH missile is launched and STT/TWS lock is dropped, then it no longer receives updates of the target position. It should fly towards the last known intercept heading/point and hope that the target will show up somewhere within its seeker limits. Right now the missile will magically guide towards the target even without any radar STT/TWS support until it is in range to go active. There is no way to break this magic guidance lock, as it is not affected by notch/chaff. The only way to break the lock is by waiting until it goes active, then it can be notched/chaffed. I attached 3 tracks showing the issue (Aim-120C STT, Aim-120C TWS, R-77 STT). Immediatly after firing I switch off the radar and turn cold. Note how the missiles still maneuver and track the target well before they even go active. To sum it up: When radar support is dropped for SARH missiles (R-27) they will instantly turn towards a chaff and be trashed 100% with no chance of relocking the target if STT is regained quickly. But when radar support for ARH missiles (Aim-120, Aim-54, SD-10, R-77) is dropped, they will still track and this tracking cannot be broken untill the missile is going active with its own seeker. This is especially bad with long range phoenix shots, as you have to wait until they go active in order to defeat them by notching/chaffing, even when they are not supported. ARH_INS_BUG.zip

Ah, that is really unfortunate. Thank you for the update.

Are there any news for there reworked phoenix implementation? It seemed like it was so close to being done.

Any other FC3 plane has them visible like the 27. Cannot tell what FF modules do, as there is no FF Flanker :D

Either way, when the controll surface deflection for a given aiming error varies with flight time, then a slowly increasing controll surface deflection with increasing flight time (depending on the launch range to the target) could be implemented. Variable PN is the wrong term here, but it would achieve somewhat similar results: Reduced energy bleeding in the early stages of the flight. In some part of the block diagramm of the missile should be an element that either multiplies or maybe limits the signal going to the actuators depending on the flight parameters.

This is exactly what would help the missile, limiting the deflection at the early stages of the flight (if the target is far away, but the range to the target is known). This will help it to save more energy for the final phase.

When the coefficients for control surface deflection change depending on flight time, isn't that somewhat similar in effect to changing the PN coefficients based on distance to the target? The last two quotes were not for pn, I just found them interresting. What do you mean by mechanical kalman? Analog electronics or actual mechanical moving parts doing the filtering? Sounds interresting!

variable PN-coefficients for R-27? Some time ago it was said that the DCS R-27 will not get the variable PN coefficients that Aim-7, Aim-120 and R-77 received. In this post an article from a Vympel chief designer is shown which appears to state that the R-27 does more than just pure PN with static coefficients: https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=222352&postcount=72 This says that the coefficients for the control surface deflection are adjusted depending on flight time, altitude and speed. This means variable PN coefficients. This is also interesting, as it states that the missile does more than just trying to fly directly into the target. It can choose a different trajectory. The presence of Kalman filtering could also indicate that the missile is not only made from analog electronics, but also has digital signal processing. Is there any hope for variable PN for the R-27?

Nice! Might have just been a Singleplayer issue, in multiplayer it seems to be fine,

A few months ago the navigation light on the tail of the Su-33 went almost invisible. The flare-effect is much much smaller than on the other aircraft. Before that patch the light was similar to the Su-27 etc. It is so dimm that it is very hard to tell whether the light is on or off, especially from the cockpit. In this picture the light is on, but it looks like it is off. Su-27 for comparison, just look at how visible the light on the vertical stabilizer is: It would be really nice if this could be fixed!

The same happens with all FC3 modules. Su-25, Flanker, MiG all have no wind correction. Not sure if it is intended that way. At least real MiG-29 (propably the other ones as well) had a ПЗ-mode to compensate for wind and moving targets.

Yes, and bugs will be reported so they can be fixed.

There is a problem with the JF-17 on SPO-15 of the Flanker: It shows at full signal strength, even across the full caucasus map (in singleplayer). Until this is fixed the SPO-15 will be useless, as any irradiation from a JF-17 will be seen as priority threat due to the 100% signal strength. I do not know how it affects the RWR of other planes. I hope this can be fixed soon.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=4093885&postcount=2 It is the issue I wrote about a month ago. Unlock the target or lose radar lock and the missiles turn into a chaff instead of keeping the last intercept heading. The absence of radiation should make it impossible for the SARH missile to go for the chaff.

Есть ли шанс, что это будет исправлено в ближайшее время?

To force radar on from an IRST lock you just press the radar button once and then the EO button. If the conditions for a radar lock are met the EO will switch of completeley and the lock will be by the radar. If the radar is unable to lock the target, it will stay an EO lock. Turning radar on and exceeding the IRST gimbal limit but not the radar gimbal limit will also cause the lock to switch to radar.

Su-33 please!

With todays update the F-14 behaves very similar to the other big fighters in DCS when it comes to IR emission. It seems alot more reasonable now. Thank you for the adjustment!

ED please...