Eddie

Yep.

No. The AI behaviour in DCS isn't exactly the best as far as real world tactics, techniques, and procedures go. For the A-10C with any free fall live ordnance a 20 second delayed takeoff is the standard procedure. Other aircraft types vary from 5 to 30 second delays between each aircraft. Although as Paul say formation takeoffs do happen, but they are quite rare.

It allows you to use a higher power setting, which means less time for the engines to spool upto max power, which in turn gives faster acceleration/climb out in the case of a missed approach/go around.

At the moment there isn't. Until we get some form of DTC functionality from ED entering stuffin the pit and/or mission prepare is all we've got.

That's becuase of the angle, or lack thereof, you are approaching the target. Essentially you're outside of the launch limits of the Maverick (as set in DCS). However you're so far beyond the real launch limits of the Maverick it's scary. There is a limit of 30 degrees from boresight for the Maverick. If you can't even see the pointing cross on the MFCD, it's bad. Ideally you should be able to see the wagon wheel in the HUD, that means you'll be diving toward the target.

Adding the missing stations to the Strike Eagle would be the best option I agree, but until that's done, the existing stations can't carry AAMs. This means that for now at least we have a Strike Eagle configured for the AG role, which is afterall its primary tasking. Adding and removing weapons from stations is pretty easy, changing the 3d models may not be, especially if the modellers are busy with other tasks. Hopefully though such things can be added to the ever growing "to do" list, along with similar issues on other AI aircraft.

You all need to read up on this a bit more. With the aircraft in the role configuration (air-ground) seen in DCS, it cannot load AIM-7 or AIM-120 on the inner CFT stations. And when I say cannot, I don't mean "it's not authorised" I mean it is physically impossible to do so. The stations that can be loaded on the Strike Eagles inner CFT racks in DCS are the BRU-47/A Ejector Release Units (ERUs) on stations LCT-1, 2, & 3 and RCT 1, 2, & 3. They carry free fall stores which are attached via a pair of suspension lugs (loops basically) and held by the hooks on the ERUs. These ERUs cannot carry or launch any missile (again physically). The Strike Eagle also has 2 LAU-106/A Missile Ejector Launchers on the inner CFT racks, Station 3C, 4C, 6C, & 7C. These are not modelled in DCS at present. The real F-15E has 23 weapon stations, the DCS F-15E only has 19. When in the AA role config, the forward LAU-106/As for stations 3C and 7C are switched with the BRU-47/A ERUs for the forward AG stations RCT-3 and LCT-3. Meaning you either have a Strike Eagle in AA config, or AG config. Again, the DCS Strike Eagle is currently setup in AG config. The read MELs (STN-6C and 4C) are always in place, so this means that they could in theory be used. However if you load a missile onto either station the centre and rear ERUs (RCT-1 , RCT-2, LCT-1, and LCT-2) cannot be used. In addition if you load any stores on RCT-3 or LCT-3 those stores must be released before a missile loaded on STN-6C or 4C can be fired. Essentially this means that while physically possible, it's not practical to do so. Quick illustration showing the stations on the DCS F-15E model. Also see the two links below for more information. http://www.f-15e.info/joomla/en/weapons/weapons-stores/122-external-stores http://www.f-15e.info/joomla/en/weapons/weapons-stores/121-ejector-launcher

Yes, all the sleds in the battle book are setup for a target at 0 ft MSL. So they are essentially in AGL meaning you have to add target elevation "on the fly" to perform the delivery correctly. I'm the 476th we'd generally plan a specific delivery for a known target to give MSL altitudes on the sled valid for that target. The battle book deliveries are for use when you don't know your target in advance, such as On-Call CAS/FAC(A) controlled sorties.

Be careful with any delivery sleds you find online, remember the altitudes will be in MSL and will allow for the elevation of the target. So if the target the attack was planned for was several thousand feet above MSL, you'd be too high using it in DCS unless your target was at the same elevation.

Yes, and no. Real world examples can be found online if you look hard enough, but the delivery planner we use in the 476th can't do LAT/MAT yet so they are not in the battle book for now. Yes, LAT/MAT are Low/Medium Altitude Toss.

MBot, Is it possible to assign more than one EWR to a group? And if not can that functionality be added?

It's a momentary PTT switch that only causes the radio to transmit as long as it is held.

For a single point target like a vehicle you'd most likely want to be dropping two in a ripple. Three would also be an option depending how many you are carrying. But ultimately there is no single answer as with many things it depends on a long list of factors , some of which apply to DCS and some that don't.

I have no idea what is being referred to in that post, but I'll simply say learn to do it right from the start. Learning things the wrong way is not easier or more effective, or a good stepping stone. As far as negative g, the only time you'd use a pushover is a bump up attack with forward firing ordnance, but that's a whole other thing you really shouldn't worry about until you've learnt, and become reasonably proficient with a normal dive delivery.

They certainly can. I'll put a few sleds together in the next few days, if nobody else gets there first of course.

For canopy references, have a look at this image (note they are rough "rule of thumb" guides and will take some practice to get it right).

You shouldn't need pre-planned lineup points at all (waypoints etc). So yes, you should be able to do it all based on canopy references. It's much easier than it sounds.

Indeed. One of my biggest criticisms of DCS is the absence of any information & instruction on how to actually fly and fight the aircraft that are featured. DCS, and its manuals and tutorials are great at telling you which button to click when, but not great when it comes to telling people why they are clicking them, or how it all applies to air combat. Back in the days of Falcon, half of the manaul was dedicated to tactics, formations, BFM, etc. DCS doesn't have any of that at all. So it's not entirely surprising that people simply don't know even the basics.

Tac form has almost nothing at all to do with that, and everything to do with mutual support and deconfliction.

Forget trim, just fly the aeroplane.

1. Negative G hurts, it really hurts, where a pilot can take 9 positive G, 2-3 negative G is the limit. Negative G also significantly reduces a pilot's ability to withstand positive G. 2. Aircraft themselves don't like negative G, it gives fuel transfer issues, as you'll see if you spend to long pushing negative G in the A-10C. As well as engine oil pressure issues, and ordnance is difficult to get safely separated from the aircraft under negative G. 3. Negative G is slow. You move the aircraft much more slowly pushing 2 negative G than you do rolling and pulling 4-5 positive G. This makes you and easier target.

It's something most (all) simmer who haven't gotten heavily into real world TTPs do. And it's one of those things where I've never really understood why the concept of always using positive G to move the aeroplane comes so hard to some.

Take a look at the YouTube link in my sig, you'll find quite a few demo videos there to give some thing to think about, they'll at the very least get you asking some more questions.

"Less accurate" is a relative term. If you do it right, you'll still get weapon on targets. But the ballistic path of the bombs is inherently less accurate and more vulnerable to wind etc as dive angles decrease. Generally I focus on high angle deliveries when teaching it to people as they are what people find most difficult and alien. The biggest hurdle is getting away from the "long dive at the target" most simmers tend to be used to. I suppose the thing to remember is you won't get anywhere in combat by dropping a single bomb, you're either going to be dropping two (steep/low) or even up to six (high/shallow) in a string to hit even a single vehicle.

At present in DCS, there is no relevance with any weapon other than MK-82AIRs. For the MK-82AIR, selecting nose only will not deploy the ballute. They are various configurations for the MK-82AIRs. Fixed Hi/Lo configure the IFFCC ballistic calculations & DSMS profiling for high drag and low drag employment respectively. Pilot option (and pilot option 1 & 2) allow the pilot to select whether the weapon is dropped in high or low drag configuration in flight by selecting a relevantly configured profile. IRL a weapon with different fusing options is treated as an entirely different weapon by the DSMS. So a MK-82AIR set to FIXED HI, and a MK-82AIR set to FIXED LO would have their own entirely seperate profiles. This isn't implemented quite right in DCS. In combat you don't use it at all. It's only used in training and is set for mandatory minimum altitudes relevant to the type of delivery being performed. In combat it's left at zero as the only abort cues you really need are for terrain/frag avoidance. No function in DCS. They are calibration settings IRL and are not altered by the pilot anyway. As above. TOF controls the desired release cue on the CCIP projected bomb impact line (PBIL). When performing a CCIP delivery you place the DRC on the target and allow the pipper to track up to it. As TOF is related to altitude (as well as airspeed and angle) releasing at the correct TOF also gives the correct release altitude, or more importantly means you won't be releasing below planned altitude. This is a difficult one to answer, simply because it's not a simple subject and would take up most of a "very" long weapons and tactics manual due to the numerous variations and considerations. To get you started though, lower release altitudes/higher dive angles are more accurate, the higher release airspeed associated with high dive angles also make you a more difficult target. However dive bomb/high altitude dive bomb (30 degrees dive and above) deliveries do take more practice to master. Low angle (LALD & LAHD) deliveries (20 degrees or less) are used for low altitude/pop-up deliveries. While they are easier to perform they are also less accurate than dive bomb and leave you spending more time at lower altitudes flying at lower airspeed out of terrain masking, which can leave you vulnerable to hostile fire and less able to evade anything that does come your way. Although as long as you do consider the threat they can be very effective and are the only practical way to deliver weapons when operating at very low altitude. Medium & Low altitude toss deliveries (MAT & LAT) are your CCRP releases. While they do very much have a place and a tactical use, they are inherently less accurate and are best employed for large/area targets with large bomb strings and/or when dropping CBUs. For LAT.MAT you're generally going to be dropping everything you have in one go. It's also important to note that MAT/LAT can be and often are performed with a shallow dive angle, although they can be done level if required/desired. Lastly there is the Visual Level Delivery (VLD). The VLD is the in the weeds, fly level and fast right over the target and drop a string of MK-82AIRs on their heads delivery. I wouldn't recommend such a delivery in the A-10C in DCS. The AI can't really be "surprised" so even a low level terrain masked approach is likely to lead in death against anything that can shoot back.