Yoda967

This question is for G B or any of the other guys with carrier flying experience. CV NATOPS states that departing aircraft must make a "Kilo" report (aircraft mission capable). What's the format for a Kilo report and when do you make it? Thanks.

Grift, Yes. Wrench has written an easy-to-use script that will do that (and much more) for you. You can find it here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=213662

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but has anyone come up with a work around? In the mission I'm building, my Ford and Uzi flights identify themselves only by Eastern-style numbers, and the Enfield flight calls itself by its callsign.

One of the slang terms for "throttle" is "gun", probably because the throttle in some WWI-era aircraft resembled a gun. (At least according to yourdictionary.com.)

The SC places non-static units on the deck in the order they were added to the mission, and you have no way to change that order when updating an old mission.

Great stuff! https://www.navysite.de/carriers.htm#cvn68 is also a great source of info. Between the two sites, there's a ton of stuff to use in mission building.

Yes, I've had quite a bit of success in swapping out the Stennis for one of the new carriers. You can't simply change the Stennis unit...odd things happen. What I do is place a new carrier, then use a new trigger circle to mark the location of the old Stennis. Place the trigger circle on a recognizable spot, like the radar above the bridge. I reassign all the Stennis triggers in the mission to the new carrier, duplicate all the Stennis' waypoints with the new carrier, set all the carrier aircraft launch and landing waypoints to "turning point", and remove the Stennis. I then move the new carrier to the Stennis' position by using the new trigger circle as a reference, and set the aircraft to takeoff and land as they were on Stennis. You'll need to set most of them to late activation, and you can control which aircraft go where on the parking spots by spawning them one second apart via triggers. It'll take some experimentation for you to get them parked in the right places. I've been working on doing that since Thursday morning and just got them all to launch as planned this morning. Some thumb rules: 1. Late Activation aircraft apparently only spawn in spots 5 - 16. 2. Spots 1 - 4 seem to require spawning at mission start. 3. E-2s and S-3s fit best in spots 5 - 8. 4. If you're launching a mix of Hornets and Tomcats, the best place to spot the Tomcats are spots 13 and 14. 5. Anything parked in spot 11 will taxi out just in time to collide behind CAT 1 with the aircraft in spot 14. You may be able to manage this by changing the start times, but I haven't been able to make it work.

You're welcome. I've updated it with two new bits: spots 15 and 16 will go to CAT 3 and CAT 4 respectively, and be careful not to spot two Tomcats in spots 15 and 16, since they'll collide when taxiing out.

Pike, Page 78 of the SC manual gives some hints, but the numbering of the spots seems a little hinky. If you spawn all the aircraft on the ramp at mission start, it places them in the order you added them to the mission. If you do it that way, and you want a ramp start for your E-2 and S-3, select them 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th, and they'll go into spots 5 - 8, which seem to be sized appropriately for them. If you are converting an old Stennis mission to use one of new carriers, you won't have control over the order in which aircraft were added to the mission, and you'll need to start all the AI aircraft as inactive and uncontrolled. You'll then need to use triggers to spawn the AI aircraft in order of placement from spot 5 to spot 16. In SP, if you delay the spawning of the player aircraft, it'll go in one of the spots from 5 -16, too, and unless you have more than 12 aircraft in the launch sequence, the four spots on the six pack will remain empty. So far, it seems like catapult assignments are by parking spot. I haven't managed to build a mission with aircraft starting in spots 15 and 16 yet, but the first 14 spots appear to be assigned to catapults as follows: CAT 1: spots 1, 5, 9, 11, 14 CAT 2: spots 2, 6, 10, 12, 13 CAT 3: spots 3, 7, and 15 CAT 4: spots 4, 8, and 16 As for when it all starts, if you place all aircraft on the ramp and make all the AI aircraft uncontrolled, you can start everything up and nothing will taxi until you do. IMPORTANT: ME will allow you to place two Tomcats at spots 15 and 16, despite the manual saying this won't work. They'll collide when taxiing out from those two spots.

Whatever AI aircraft is parked in spot 14 (based on the top diagram on page 78 of the manual) consistently taxis to CAT 1 for takeoff. AI aircraft in spot 11 also consistently taxi to CAT 1 for takeoff. The sequencing of these two spots is also consistent: if the two AI aircraft are started at the same time, spot 14 taxis first. However, the aircraft in spot 11 will move forward before spot 14 can position on the catapult, and the two collide. Aircraft type doesn't matter. This happens with both Hornets and Tomcats. Yes, I can work around this by starting the spot 14 aircraft after the spot 11 aircraft taxis, but I'm reporting it because this is EA/OB, and it seems like something worth fixing.

Agreed. For now, we have to be careful of what order we add aircraft to the SC.

I've come to that conclusion, as well. I suspect that for now, anything built with CombatFlite counts as "old missions created before SC". Hopefully, Viper will do an update soon.

For single player, page 78 of the SC manual lays out the order of things, but it's confusing. The order in which you add aircraft to the SC is important. On my first attempt, I launched a cycle with 8 aircraft by following their suggestion to select E-2 and S-3 aircraft for slots 5 - 8. I picked in this order: 1. 2 x Tomcats 2. 2 x Hornets 3. 1 x E-2 4. 1 x S-3B tanker 5. 2 x Hornets I made each section or aircraft uncontrolled (except the player flight), and used a single trigger to start them all at the same time. I ran the launch cycle several times and it worked every time. I've run into difficulty using CombatFlite, but the mission was older and pretty complex. I didn't pay close attention to the selection order when I built it a few months ago. In converting that mission to use the SC, my number 2 got slotted in to spot 12 and gets stuck behind a pair of Hornets that refuse to move from spots 2 and 3. The result is gridlock on deck, and I'm the only aircraft able to launch.

@c0ff Not fixed as of ten seconds ago. EDIT: Got as far as downloading the carrier, and we're back to error 502. EDIT 2: working now. Thanks to whoever fixed it!

Same here. Can't start the sim. I did a repair, and now get this message: "Failed to get authorization data. Error code is: 502 No saved authorization found." If I click OK, it asks for authorization for all of my purchased modules.

Red Crown is not a carrier function, it's the callsign for the unit providing Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) services. Red Crown's job is to maintain a fused multi-source tactical picture for the aircraft in the area, which means a mix of ATC (think region center, not airfield) and Air Intercept Control. Think of it as a gap-filler for AWACS, which is always spread kinda thin. On the CG in the Gulf during Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, we had to provide PIRAZ after the AWACS on station suffered an explosive decompression and the alert AWACS wouldn't launch for 3.5 hours. Our AICs only controlled Air Force aircraft then because the carrier was down off Somalia and we were "alone and unafraid" in the Gulf. At the time, the Iraqis would wait until our CAP aircraft were tanking and then make a run into the No Fly Zone, and our AICs logged a few intercepts before AWACS was back on station.

Excellent video, Redkite, and a great review. Thanks!!

UPDATE: This appears to happen only when editing missions created on older versions (pre 2.5.6.47404) of DCS.

I'm running version 2.5.6.47404, which supposedly fixed this...whenever I place a unit or group, ME renames it. As before with the issue Pikey reported, this breaks triggers all over the place. Here's the previous thread: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=264356

Far, far, FAR too much lighting on the Arleigh Burke. Nav lights ONLY, please.

Yup...tracers. The combat load for Vulcan Phalanx CIWS is a tungsten discarding sabot ammunition that doesn't have tracers in the mix. Back in the 80's and early 90s when I was a CIWS tech, the ball ammo we used for training had tracers every 9th round. Ball ammo wore the barrels more than the discarding sabot, but when I was on the carrier, they only let us shoot the sabot stuff once...covered the flight deck with pieces of the nylon sabots. The Air Boss "cordially" invited us to join the FOD walkdown. I can forgive them for using tracer, but was more concerned with the mount on the starboard side forward engaging incoming missiles on the port side.

He was taking one for the team. It's better to have one guy fly into terrain than to have the whole group do it. If he could make it, then they all could, but first, he had to make it. If he didn't make it, the rest of them could try something else. In the case of an airfield, the elevation of the touchdown zone is known from the charts, but not the precise coordinates. Often, the airfield location noted on any documentation is taken from somewhere else on the field. So, the idea of overflying the runway and marking its position is pretty smart, even though it's desperate. The answer to your last question is almost certainly "luck".There must have been enough visibility for him to see the immediately surrounding terrain (enough to avoid flying into the ground) if not the required distance for a marginal VFR approach, but he also had to have been relying on his "spidey senses".

Rennes, it was a few years before that, but we had been shown a film about the USS EVANS and HMAS MELBOURNE collision during training. He told us in no uncertain terms to never trust the carrier not to maneuver unexpectedly, and for that reason, (in his words) "Stay the hell away from the carrier." LEYTE GULF would have benefitted from that advice, since TR backed into her without signalling. That CO went on to be a 3-star, and during his time as a carrier strike group commander (when he was a 2-star), he fired a destroyer CO on the spot for failing to keep a safe distance from the carrier. (interesting side note: a few years after I transferred off that CG, I was on the bridge wing of a destroyer as direct fire spotter during a gunfire support exercise off San Clemente Island, and we were coming onto the gun line as the CG was supposed to be exiting the other end of the line. Instead, as we were steadying up on course, our distance to the CG was visibly decreasing. It was late in the day, so her CO ordered a backing bell to extend their time on the gun line so they could finish their FIREX. We had to take evasive action, and it nearly cost us the chance to finish our own FIREX. The range safety officer saw it all happen, and let us stay out on the range after sunset; we got to fire illumination rounds with each of our remaining fire missions, which was a lot more fun. Still, that was the worst example of seamanship I have ever seen, backing down on a ship astern with no warning, and it was personally embarrassing because it was my old ship.)

In reality, the carrier will be accompanied by one plane guard ship, most often a cruiser. It'll usually be about 3/4 mile aft of the carrier. The rest of the group will generally be at least 5 to 10 miles away if in a screen formation. The group's replenishment ship is the exception, as it will generally be en route to port to pick up supplies, or on its way back to the group after picking up supplies. It really depends on the mission and the threat. If there's a really serious threat to the carrier, the small boys will be kept close (that 5 - 10 miles), but if there's a manageable threat to the carrier, the small boys will be "disaggregated" and sent off over the horizon to do other things, like training or PIRAZ. When I was on a CG, one hard and fast rule my CO had in his Standing Orders was how close we were allowed to get to the carrier: 1/2 mile aster of the carrier, 1 mile abeam, and 1.5 miles ahead. And if we were going to drive that close, he expected us to have a very good reason, and to call him to the bridge, any time, day or night.

If that's the case, there are a couple scripts out there that are easy to add. Wrench's Carrier Script works well with the JOHN C. STENNIS, and Air Boss apparently also does those things.