Wilde

Or the other way around. We only know about those 2 or 3 regiments that have been upgraded to 27SM standards. And we know there are several evolutions of radar and other equipment. It is just unknown to which or even how many planes these were fitted. But whatever. The former JG73 of the Bundeswehr specifies its MiG-29G being able to track only single targets: http://www.fabulousfulcrums.de/fulcrum_a_e.htm And on top of that they say the MiGs for the Warsaw-Pact countries were superior to the exported ones.

I didn't add anything.

seem to be the ones being simulated in LOFC. For those the simulation is doing fairly good. I, and a couple of other posters probably too, am not so sure this is realistic though. The game is depicting Su-30s and AIM-120C. Both of which entered service only in the 2nd half of the 1990s. Furthermore the Su-30 came along with the N011. While surely there were quite some old Su-27S around in that timeframe I would also *think* that by then some equipment had been updated already. Also with the incident of Tolkachev I would assume, that every pre-1986 N019 would have been considered obsolete by the Russians. I'd expect them to upgrade their MiGs as a consequence. Again, with the game's timeframe not being prior to 1996 there was more than enough time to do so. Even the former NVA-MiGs being simulated could have been upgraded. I know, it sounds very speculative. Those Russians are some mystery-mongers. There are probably all kinds of evolution steps of those planes in service somewhere. Nobody here really knows. This also makes it difficult to simulate it properly.

$110 mil for a test bed is pretty expensive if you ask me. Also estimated price of the real thing is already some $200 mil per unit (including after sales service I suppose).

Doesn't the 29 feature either a N019 or a Zhuk-M (?) depending on the plane's version? Btw, I find it quite amusing how difficult it is to find actual information about the avionics being used in actively operating fighters. They're only quite openhearted about the export versions. But they hardly mention their own equipment.

Mr Sprey and Mr Wheeler ramble about the F-35 and the DoD procurement procedures in general: http://www.cdi.org/program/document.cfm?DocumentID=4500&from_page=../index.cfm (check the link inside to learn who they are).

There's a video showing the Cobra in combat. But some of this stuff is really unrealistic. And you need enormous situational awareness to do that in actual combat. If you slow down like that with someone being ready to shoot you you're dead.

Again I agree, GGTharos. The ET is not intended to be used head-on against a fighter. Sadly it works this way in FC. I *think* the normal procedure should be something like queuing ERs to the bogey to keep him defensive and shoot an ET after him once you're in reasonable range of the ET (20-25km?) while he is still defensive.

Wait, you said a "hot glow" can be seen from 18km in clear skies. What is a hot glow? I'd assume thats the direct look into someones afterburner? The 18 year old export-version Flanker manual says that it's EOS can track such targets at 90-100km. The difference is some 500-550% Dude, as you called me, that's not even remotely close...

I agree with that. I played around with EOS a bit and I managed to achieve locks on reasonable targets in between ~15 to 30 or 40 km. ED didn't screw up this one. And yes, surely modern aircraft like the Typhoon or the prototype Su-35BM probably can achieve even bigger ranges. But that's beyond LOFC actually. I don't see a good reason to simulate this.

It was only a couple of hours ago...

Ehemmm, only recently someone quoted the flight manual of the Su-27SK in these forums. Yes, that's the export version from 1991. take a look Now go ahead and tell me to read a bit more. Obviously someone else isn't following his own advices...

Are you making all this up right from the tip of your nose? The ET is not an anti-supersonic-bomber missile. Why? It has the same range as the ER. Assuming you were right about the pointlessness of IR-missiles in BVR, then why would the Russians waste an ET for a job that can be done with an ER just as well? This doesn't make sense. The stuff about balancing the plane is hilarious. The Flanker has a FBW control system. It will not roll because of there being 4 missiles on its right and 5 missiles on its left. That is not the reason for salvoing missiles. Also the IR ranges are not the same anymore as they were 20 years ago. The NVA MiGs taken over by the Bundeswehr were said to be having 8nm range for their IRSTs. They were equipped with R-73s which had seekers that could lock onto it's target from some 5-6nm. But that was 20 years ago and it was "export gear" back then already. Modern IRST system are claimed to have ranges of 100km (45km head-on). Modern seekers are claimed to have ranges of 45km (18km head-on). Such seekers are good enough for BVR, if the missiles is guided in similarly to an AMRAAM and if the target is forced to break away. And while it's true, that IR is not suitable in a cloud one also gotta say, that there is not always clouds everwhere. And even less often there are many clouds at 4+ km altitude. Especially in large parts of Russia, and even more so during Russian winter. I think you can figure this out yourself. And now you made me write this without me actually wanting an improvement to the heaters. Have you been trolling me?

I know that. But if you have a SARH incoming from your twelve you're not going to crash into it on purpose, are you?

Yeah well, that's what I meant to say. The reason you once told me was because it's being abused and something else you weren't so specific about. Didn't know the override feature was not moddable. Yes it is.

I know you do it for good intentions, but forbidding the use of ETs cripples one of the most important Russian tactics. It is impossible to launch salvos with mixed seekers in BVR this way. And that's very unrealistic and a massive boost to the F-15. Wouldn't it be more realistic to remap the "launch override" feature to "jettison missiles" as it is in real life? Anyways, this should probably be discussed in your thread.

WTF?! That was inches only! And also there were people on the ground AND he had crew standing in his chopper. If he slightly misjudges he kills like half a dozen people at least. Freaky.

ECM blinking and chaff effectiveness need to be addressed. ECM blinking should achieve nothing basically despite maybe disabling TWS abilities and denying precise range recognition. It should not break lock or even worse make the board computer switch to EOS! That's very annoying. And chaffs should be much more inefficient, especially against SARH missiles. Those should be homing to the target painted by the launching aircraft, not some aluminum foil flying around somewhere.

Tom released a mod recently that includes a tower and radar lighting mod. He made it public in German forums. (http://www.lockonforum.de/thread.php?threadid=4702) I'm not using it myself so I don't feel comfortable translating the feature list. But it probably includes this tower stuff as his screenshots show.

Also a number of civil aircrafts crashed lately. Remember the one in Amsterdam? Or the one in Japan? Strange things going on lately.

That's what the description of the MiG29 MFD mod says. You can find it at lockonfiles.com, downloads -> utilities+mods -> cockpit-mods. Great pics again, Ricardo. This looks so damn awesome!

This is not gonna happen. The timeframe is somewhere mid-nineties. For those aircrafts to be in it we'd need to advance a decade. I'd rather see some major bugs being addressed. My favorites are fix ECM, some missile bugs and a couple of other things. A better AI would be cool, but I doubt that would happen.

I was only linking that news-item. I have no idea what happened really. Although I read somewhere else, that the other guy who survived was also injured severely. The man who was killed apparently succumbed in hospital or when he was transported there. Really sad story. :(

Ah ok, thanks for clarification. :)

Is there any trick about using tacview for multiplayer sessions? It works fine for me in solo play, but it never records anything when I'm playing via hyberlobby. What am I doing wrong? edit: *damn* Forgot to mention I was talking about LOFC actually. Found this thread by forum search, so sorry if this is the wrong forum. :/