RShackleford

Off topic... but the F-15E is really one of the true multi-role aircraft that even qualifies for swing-role. F-15E can takeoff with an a2a and a2g configured aircraft and float between close air support and defensive counter air in the same sortie. Most other "multi-role" aircraft can only really do one role at a time. Gets aggravating when you do a large force exercise with vipers (and a viper mission commander) who consider you "just a striker" that they need to protect when you're the jet with an APG-82 AESA radar and multiple AMRAAMs available. The jet that absolutely needs to survive because we have the bombs to kill the priority targets, but at least incorporate us into the air to air gameplan, because we can do BVR way better even with an air to ground mindset.

Not from 25,000ft, they can't. Even from 10,000ft, if the computer perfectly computes the trajectory and the pilot releases with the pipper exactly in the middle of the target, wind differences across altitudes and bomb imperfections will buy a much larger miss than an LGB.

I think the main takeaway is that dumb bombs would for sure be used in full war. As rainmaker said before, that's why aircrew maintain proficiency in using those weapons. For all ops, there's a risk level given in the SPINS for operating within a MEZ, operating below X altitude, etc. Of course for something like Syria, default ALR is low, so you can't operate below X altitude without approval from Y but under certain circumstances you don't need approval from Y to elevate risk level. Right now we're trying to minimize collateral damage at low risk, which absolutely requires PGMs because you need to hit a small spot from 20k+. You can get near PGM accuracy in a dive-bomb with a Mk82 because the aircraft computers are really damn good at predicting an impact point, but not when you're at medium altitude without precise wind measurements every 1,000ft. From an old F-111 WSO I've talked to, during Desert Storm F-16s would storm an airfield day after day without any good effects, but a single 4-ship of F-111s would make the whole area unusable. Nobody was allowed to go below 20,000ft, so a dumb bomb is missing by 100m at least in a level delivery. F-111s really were the tip of the spear until F-15Es got their TPODs and LGBs. Just look at these dudes having a grand old time lol

That would be cool, but we'd need better engines to safely takeoff in the current AOR carrying 12xGBU-38/54s on the CFTs

Basically both Cs and Es are going to share ADCP II. Integration should come for both around the same time, depending on 422 TES testing.

I think all MHAFB jets have it, about 1/2 of ops jets at SJAFB (not including FTU jets) have it. APG-82 is really an amazing radar, can't wait to have more of them. F-15E has most of that. Don't really see C models flying around with Sniper, though... EPAWSS is going to happen, but it is a HUGE modification. It takes a jet out of the lineup for a long time just to put an APG-82 in it, it will likely take the jet out for a much longer time to put EPAWSS in because it basically requires taking the whole jet apart and rewiring everything. Es are for sure getting them, Cs it is still up in the air.

https://fightersweep.com/11927/watch-f-35-seems-to-stop-in-mid-air-as-pilot-puts-it-into-a-flat-spin/?fbclid=IwAR3KkaDhRUtrtfBgWI08_g07smSoNLp_qREwOGMp4Yk7PUABnWZnEbUaFiE

Unless you're speaking from a hornet driver's perspective or info given to you from hornet drivers, I don't really believe it. Even single digit SAMs (SA-2/3/6/8) means you need to pull max airframe limit Gs to get enough miss distance to survive. For double digit SAMs (SA-10 and up) all you can hope for is that you're far away enough to kinematically defeat the missile, terrain mask, or bend the wings to last ditch the missile. Good luck surviving against an SA-17 with anything but a clean jet. For air to air, like someone mentioned already, if you're merging (especially at a defensive or neutral merge) those tanks are being punched off unless it's a threat that can only shoot when they're behind you (IR missiles that can't track at high aspect.) It's absolutely stupid to not drop the tanks in a knife fight. You want every advantage possible. As a fighter pilot, you can't really get in trouble for punching tanks in combat when you're at the merge regardless of the threat, unless it is the common Syria ops where all air to air is shadowing "potential" enemy fighters.

In an all out shooting war like DCS, you should expect that tanks are being punched regularly. It's only rare today because nobody is being shot at by SAMs or participating in WVR combat. One of the first reactions to being lit up by a target tracking radar is that you're supposed to punch the tanks, and depending on risk level of the mission you might punch off the bombs to survive. You lose that extended range from limited fuel tanks and those bombs, but the jet (and pilot) is far more valuable.

For an F-15E strafe, the numbers are base altitude 7500ft, base roll in range 3nm (all assuming perpendicular flight path to target at roll in), open range 6000ft slant range, cease 4500ft slant range, abort when you don't have active ranging by 2100' altitude. 450+/-30 knots at open fire range. These numbers might help you, but won't be exact because F-15 has a 2 degree upcant on the gun. The 7500ft altitude and 3nm are numbers for a practice strafe pattern, but realize you can make these up on the go using TPOD lookdown angle, canopy code for 25 degrees down, or math. Basically every mile away equates to 2500ft of altitude for a 25 degree wire, so if you're 6 miles away you want to roll in from 15k ft. Speed should be a higher priority for crosscheck, if you're high altitude you want to be slower at roll in and at idle until you realize you need the extra speed because it's way easier to gain speed at 25deg nose low than lose it.

The way JDAMs work, is that even if you are flying an INS only aircraft but are self-targeting (relative-targeting), when the bomb comes off in INS it is going to the relative vector and range of what you sent it. If the bomb picks up GPS after leaving the jet, it updates the coordinates to reflect the targeting given by the aircraft, so it's more accurate because the GPS is updating the IMU. If you are targeting strictly off of coordinates, not targeting by an ATFLIR or radar, then the bomb will be off because of the transfer of coordinates given to the bomb when it was released due to INS drift of the aircraft. If the bomb picks up GPS during its time of fall, it will correct and go to the correct coordinates.

I know a lot of F-16 guys that don't have it in their guard units, just SADL only, which requires a gateway in the area for them to "talk" to link16. Same with F-22s, they can't send info to link16. F-35s can. For the rest of the thread, like it's been mentioned before, link16 is going to be a game changer for air to air. You'll now be able to fight a full air to air engagement without any comms if you set targeting contracts and tactics beforehand.

Could be the model is showing an MJU-7 flare but the aircraft is actually using an MJU-10. It is either that or vice versa. I can't remember which is which, but one type of flare takes up twice the space of the other flare, so if the outside model is one flare but the systems in DCS are modeling the larger of the two, that could be the disparity. Just sucks in DCS that it doesn't matter, because every flare is exactly the same. Not that anyone can blame ED, because it's pretty classified what type of flare cocktails work against different missiles.

Easiest answer that's taught to USAF pilot trainees (and thus probably dumbed down a bit to be used as a rule of thumb) is that best angle of climb is obtained at the highest thrust/drag ratio (so around best glide speed because that's best lift over drag), and best rate of climb is obtained at highest power/drag ratio (around best cruise speed.) Flight manuals should give you best speed/AoA for both though, so go with that. For F-18 purposes though, remember that you set and trim AoA and adjust glide path with the throttle.

This link is fantastic

You can use X channels as well. Example of a 4-ship tuning would be 1:1X 2:64X 3:64Y 4:1Y, that way 1 and 3 can usually just hit the TACAN button to quickly change from X to Y or vice versa to see their element distance apart. Very useful because tactical formation is generally 1-3nm apart line abreast. A/A TACANs can give readings down to .1nm, but they can be unreliable.

Generally, NVGs for fighter aircraft don't have a gain control. It's also different in game from real life because you aren't looking through the NVGs for cockpit controls, you have cockpit lighting and hopefully a lip light (you turn the light on and off by poking it with your tongue lol.) You focus the NVGs for looking far away, so everything in the cockpit will be blurred if you try to use it that way. Everything in cockpit is done underneath the NVGs, and you hope you have an NVG compatible cockpit so the displays aren't reflecting off the canopy and ruining your outside view.

Good concept to supplement the lack of F-22s. Would be totally unnecessary if we didn't take apart the entire production line that made F-22s though. Just easy to do when Boeing still has F-15 production lines for various foreign buyers.

Actually adds realism to the game... TWS on a mechanically scanned array gets destroyed by even the most basic jammers. We're so used to the simplified F-15C TWS, everyone thinks it works fine. With any type of jamming you need STT. The "missile launch warning" also doesn't make sense for most modules. These things don't look for an STT, they look for specific frequencies that will show with STT or TWS.

I think TM is making a new HOTAS for this module, but can't confirm because this is going off memory from a long time ago. The HOTAS itself isn't really too different from the hawg, but all the simmers with these setups the guys are using have their own custom setups that can really throw you off.

It's going to be wonderful. Hopefully it will result in ending the welded wingman that everyone does now (because it's really really hard to keep visual with flight lead from more than a mile away in game) and people can now be in 1-5 mile line abreast formations to focus on working their sensors instead of using 90% of brain bytes staying with but not hitting lead, especially with a more realistic radar that will prove more difficult to use than simplistic FC3 radars that lock in .1 seconds after you hit the TDC.

So can we all agree yet that IFF of the F-18 should just super easy mode FC3 F-15C style until it is implemented properly? Sorry guys, I'm not a programmer, so I don't know if you can make it the easy ball on the radar screen, but that should be what's done until everything can be sorted. Just stop trying to do a proper IFF until is is finished and use the old school version until then, please. The F-18 is handicapped enough in BVR as the radar is so bad (though I haven't tried the new release that is supposedly good.)

It's a pretty huge thing IRL, an F-18 and a Tornado were both shot down by patriot batteries early in OIF for not squawking the correct codes. Most modern ROEs require LOF (lack of friendly, not squawking the right codes) + PID (positive id, your aircraft has determined it is an Su-27 by various classified means) before shooting, but in the full out wars in DCS you can't really expect that partially due to how bad the radars are and partially due to how bad the missiles are. You lock onto someone that isn't showing friendly, you basically have to shoot very quickly or you're just aborting with a losing situation and no missiles in the air. US tactics are based on an ID from far beyond visual range, so it's reasonable to expect a decent IFF out of the DCS hornet.

I understand how it works in fighters in general, which surprised me that there is no info on the radar screen. Mode 1 and 2 is pretty straight forward, you put in a 2 or 4 digit code that gives a response, and fighters can also interrogate if there's any response at all (correct code vs normal response.) 4 and 5 are crypto based, where it can be changed daily and is loaded into the jet pre-flight. In real life F-15s, the data shows on the radar screen showing something like -M2C meaning lack of mode 2 correct code, or -M2N meaning lack of mode 2 squawk of any code. I think for DCS purposes the easiest solution is to give every jet on your team mode 4 and all it would take is to set that as IFF for your jet's interrogator, and if the F-18 has two interrogators like the F-15 then you could set another interrogator to look for mode 2 and have your wingman/flight lead squawk that as well in case Link16 isn't working for easy flight rejoin.

I pretty much stopped playing F-18 online in PVP servers that don't show friendly contacts on F-10 because it has seemed broken since being implemented. The confusion in this thread with different people having completely different understandings of how it works kinda shows there isn't a guarantee it is working for you in MP even if you're doing things correctly. Does anyone know if the pitch ladder thing is true for the real hornet or just a bug? I'm not really complaining about IFF because I know it is a WIP but just want to note that people are using it correctly in its current implementation and still experiencing issues.