Eddie

It bypasses the overheat shut off protections. Aircraft RADARs will fail to standby in flight in the case of overheating to protect the electronics in the case of cooling problems due to an ECS failure, for example. If you’re engaged in actual combat, the you want to RADAR to keep doing it’s thing until/unless it physically fails, not much point protecting the system from an overheat before being shot down/being unable to complete the mission objectives.

‘Waypoints’.

MIDS is Multi-function Information Distribution System, a Link-16 standard datalink. MIDS A/B are the encrypted anti-jam digital voice communication channels provided on the MIDS network by the MIDS radio. It’s doubtful they’ll have a function in DCS, until/unless ED develop an integrated voice comms system. Perhaps SRS will use them on some way, but that’s still to be seen.

Anything up 20 degrees is valid for a low angle high drag delivery. There’s nothing precluding employing high drag weapons via a dive bomb delivery (30-60 degrees) either, not as common but tactically viable.

FYI turning on Pitot heat is a checklist item for before take off in the Hog, it should always be on in flight (also true of most tactical aircraft).

Yes. If you see the ‘M’ symbology on the TGP format then the pod thinks it’s masked. It’s worth noting that as I mentioned above, the masking profile is accounting for the all the apertures on the pod, not just the one you’re “looking through” at that moment (the CCD might not be masked, but the LASER could be).

If you mean GBU-12 I’ve not seen anything to suggest it’s not accurate enough. I suspect it’s not as susceptible to losing energy due to early LASER activation as it should be but that’s only minor. The JDAM have nowhere near the performance they should have, as has been pointed out already they slow down even in a vertical dive, which is simply not possible in reality.

You have to manually initiate an area or point track following loss of track for any reason. Masking refers to the pod being in the loaded masking profile, it doesn’t matter if the LOS of the camera is physically masked. The masking profile(s) account for stores and all parts of the airframe and allow clearance from the airframe for both the CCD and IR camera apertures and the LASER/IR Pointer. In DCS we always have the most restrictive masking profile, regardless of what stores are physically loaded to the jet, and we can’t select alternative profiles.

JDAM doesnt’t just fly a ballistic arc like a GBU-12, that’s why. JDAM flies a separation manoeuvre after release, and then will follow a specific flight patch to its target in order to meet the selected impact airspeed, heading, and dive angle. It quite literally glides all the way to the target, it doesn’t just fall on a purely ballistic trajectory. Even a Paveway II is ultimately just falling with only some comparatively minor corrections to its impact point. At present DCS doesn’t model JDAM very accurately, so things like this may not be apparent befcuase the features that would show why it’s the case are not present in the sim.

No. Unless you also disable the Proximity fuse.

Even in a fighter doing M0.9+ lofting will not yield greater range. The only time lifting can be tactically useful IRL is where the threat environment prohibits any other type of delivery. Which given that a high alt/high speed release will give ranges around 15 nautical miles, isn’t surprising. The short range nature of lofting would almost limit JDAMs effectiveness as it wouldn’t have sufficient flight time to acquire a GPS position or the energy to fly the kind of attack profile the weapon normally uses. The A-10C doesn’t support any kind of lofting profile for JDAM. It simply isn’t done in reality. As for the JDAM flight model in DCS, right now it is very simplistic, and rather unrealistic.

Lofting JDAM does not increase its range, in fact it generally reduces it, hence you’re only able to release when in the LAR. Best range with JDAM is gained by increasing airspeed and altitude, true of both real life and the sim.

1. The Fuze type. In this a FZU-39/B radar proximity fuse. 2. The canister function (burst) delay after release. This is used when a proximity fuze is not fitted/as a backup. 3. The chosen escape manoeuvre after release. This is the manoeuvre you’ll perform after the weapons come off the jet to ensure you clear the blast/frag envelope. Examples: Climbing (CLM) Turn Level Turn (TLT) Turning (TRN) 4.Height of Function in feet above ground level (AGL) 5. Canister spin speed in revolutions per minute at burst. This in conjunction with HOF determines the pattern size of the sub munitions.

The only time I’ve seen tanks punched off in real life was over Libya, there was one occasion where a tornado crew punched off the tanks as part of reaction to a SAM threat. There was also a second occurrence where an engine fault saw another crew punch the tanks on final. Things do vary between different aircraft types when it comes to when the crew would get rid of the tanks (and other stores for that matter), some aircraft have a greater need to get rid than others, but the crews I speak to daily still say if they’re being shot at by a significant threat then they want them gone in most cases. The more modern jets, such as Typhoon, have much lower drag tanks that can be kept during BVR and even WVR with minimal penalty. But there is still a penalty. Specifically to DCS, given the drag reduction and performance increase associated with getting rid of the tanks, if I’m dealing with a significant SAM threat or peer level fighter threat, the tanks are going before engaging.

It toggles the display of friendly unit indications (green cross) from EPLRS enabled units on the TGP display.

Self Protect mode is not intended for offensive attacks, it’s there purely to allow a defensive return shot against a threat system attacking your aircraft. In such cases you’re not generally going to know the range to the threat, so knowing the weapons effective range is also quite moot. Speed/altitude affect the operating range of all weapons. The only way to determine what impact is has in DCS is to do the tests and share the result with the community if you wish to use SP mode in an offensive role in the interim until TOO/PB are implemented.

An aircraft being out of service does not equal the systems in said aircraft no longer being sensitive. There will still be a lot of systems/capability info that is very much sensitive and may reflect other aircraft and weapons systems still in service. That situation is likely to remain for decades to come.

That might be workable for aircraft like the A-10 which can be hot rearmed (even then not all types of ordnance can be hot loaded) for those who fancy sitting on the ramp for some time, but for most aircraft rearming takes hours and can’t be done with power on or a pilot in the cockpit. A realistic hot pit refuel time would be more reasonable to implement, but even then not all aircraft can be hot refuelled, and all have different timescales. The suggestion of having specific refuel and rearm areas would perhaps be the best way. I think the only practical way might be to improve and extend the resource system to take aircraft of the available pool when people repair/rearm/refuel for a period of time to reflect them jumping to a new airframe and the previous aircraft being turned around.

Actually some fighters do have the ability to engage a DL target without using their own RADARs (or should I say without their RADARs emitting anything other than an M-Link), even Gen 4 fighters. Public article that may be of interest (http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/104172/eurofighter-fires-amraam-in-passive-radar-mode.html) That said, I don't know if the Hornet has that capability.

In reality you can’t.

Military procurement and test & eval programmes take years, purchase dates aren’t an indicator of in-service date. JDAM came before BRU-55. We’ll be getting the former, but probably not the latter.

JDAM/JSOW require a data connection to the aircraft (1760 interface), the BRU-33 doesn’t provide this, the BRU-55 does. Paveway II/III LGBs don’t have any electronic connection to the aircraft.

Canada use Sniper, Switzerland use ATFLIR.

Because airquake! ;) I’m sure those flying any kind of realistic scenario will make heavy use of them, and every other weapon system.

The HARM will loft in PB/EoM modes, not in the range unknown modes (SP/TOO).