TLTeo

Interesting, do you have a source for that? I have never seen a picture, nor read about, a USMC Phantom with gun pods, despite their employment in CAS. I know the USN trialed a gun pod, but I have never seen any operating from carriers either..

The C, D and E were never carrier capable or flown by the USN or USMC. Ground based USMC jets were Bs, or Js (or N/S later). I'm not sure whether the USMC ever fielded a gun pod; the Navy did not, but the USAF did, so all in all I think it's unlikely.

ED have taken over weapon development and have said nukes are not happening, so there's no way this is happening. Is there an inert/training round version? Some sort of training scenario on NTTR is probably the best chance at simulating nuclear missions in DCS

By that measure, there are basically no maps in DCS that are appropriate for American aircraft.

I think you should manage your expectations. Firing Zunis or dropping a single unguided mk-82 in CCIP, nevermind CCRP, is not meant for taking out an individual tank, not even close.

The difference is that there's no chance of getting a full fidelity Su-34, while the Phantom is more of a question of "when?", rather than "if". Unfortunately, right now it seems like the answer to "when?" is "a long time".

Sustained turn rate at high Mach numbers (0.8-0.9) is not bad either (you can sustain like 4.5ish G), but it's hard to stay in the sweet spot because as soon as you pull a little too much, you bleed tons of energy with no chance of recovering it. Also, you need to be at full A/B all the time, and often that means you barely have enough fuel for one dogfight before having to RTB.

On the contrary, doing some quick googling, VF-74 and VF-103 deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean to support the US mission in Lebanon, flying the F-4S, in 1982, on USS Forrestal. This notion that after Vietnam the Navy didn't deploy F-4s anywhere is odd at best, honestly. The Phantom saw tons of action post-Vietnam regardless of variant. edit: also, in 1986 USS Midway deployed to the East China Sea (so in the ballpark of the upcoming Marianas map) with VFA-151, which flew F-4Ss. That would also fit upcoming DCS maps, and as far as I can tell, that was the last Navy Phantom deployment.

Do you have a source for that? I thought only the -G did edit: how about that, an -E and -G flying together both carrying Shrikes! It looks like only the G could carry the Standard or Harm though

Only a specific version of the Phantom which is the least likely to be developed for DCS. Your average Phantom is not significantly better at SEAD than, say, the Viggen.

Yeah, what kengou said. There is absolutely nothing remarkable in the Viggen's maneuverability. It's adequate, ITR at high Mach numbers is fair if you care to bleed your energy, and that's it. Even the roll rate you mention is nothing to write home about compared to e.g. the Viper or Mirage in Cat1/AA mode.

Also RB have a never ending list of stuff they are supposedly going to do. There's no way they are going to go off and work on assets for ED.

Because we're on the Internet, where everything is a world ending tragedy that must be addressed RIGHT NOW

I don't know about the modernized variants, but I doubt any other Phantom would allow the front seater to use the radar. Even the -D model Tomcat, which was a whole generation and then some ahead, didn't have that capability.

This is also something that I find odd in DCS - for me, it's not thaat different to this. I choose to pick up a module, then try to learn to operate it at the best I can (given my time constraints, not being an aviator, etc etc), regardless of what other modules can or can not do.

And here I am being all weird thinking that there's too much crap on the HUD of the Viper and Hornet. I barely glance at most of what's on there, most of the time. Honestly given the choice, I'd much rather have those on the Viggen (except - show me where the Mav is looking at damn it! Best feature in the Viper HUD honestly) and Tomcat.

Not that I'm aware of. More modern versions of the RB-15 can, but not the one carried by the Viggen as far as I know.

The campaign is supposed to be (somewhat) representative of Top Gun in the 80s, when Bio attended it. The -B was not a thing at the time.

FBW has little to do with how much the aircraft buffets at moderate AoA. Plenty of DCS modules with non FBW controls also have little buffet (e.g. the Sabre). Ultimately, physical feedback from the airframe is something that is not easy to translate into a computer sim, and to some extent it's down to developer choice. According to SMEs, the Tomcat was one of the more communicative jets in that sen, so HB have settled on it being much more prominent than in other aircraft (like the Sabre I mentioned - although the Viggen and even Mig-21 are similar ish).

That's interesting. I kind of assumed that anyone who can afford to fly a Typhoon woudn't bother with using unguided weapons.

My French isn't great, but I think Système de Navigation et d'Attaque roughly translates to "Navigation and attack system", so yeah, some sort of INS or Doppler suite plus air to ground computer, like e.g. the Viggen perhaps. If I had to guess, laser de télémétrie refers to a laser rangefinder, so maybe a system like that in the Su-25?

Maybe people from HB can answer this, but is missile guidance and radar modelling the same for AI and player aircraft? I'm asking because for LGBs, it certainly isn't. I found that you can set an aircraft with no TGP (say, a Mirage) to attack a bunch of ground target with LGBs with nothing lasing, and all the bombs will land perfectly on each vehicle. That makes me suspect something dodgy may be happening with AI missiles as well.

It's not really a cultural thing, people just do not understand how fighter roles work. You get the same useless conversations about plenty of other jets (looking at you, F-104A and C...)

I agree to some extent, but shooting Sparrows is one of the main missions the F-4 was designed for, and the vast majority of the Phantoms built have/had that capability. Wanting a Fox-1 capable F-4 is not quite comparable to wanting CFTs and AGM-84s on a Viper for instance.

Assuming OP is correct (which they are not), it's also the first fighter to ever fly with an AESA radar, which DCS certainly can't handle...