Harlikwin

Cool, be nice if ED would get around to doing the same so we have some early missiles for MP.

I think this is one factor that in general is done super badly in DCS. Like IRL fighters would almost always have a connection back to GCI, its just basic radio planning stuff, but DCS doesn't simulate re-broadcast stations etc for datalink at this point and there would be tons of them around if you read anything about how IADS was done soviet style. I honestly hope ED and Razbam collaborate on this somehow because the mig23 will need it too.

It gets sorta complex, even stuff that uses optical tracking still uses a uplink to control the missile, which can be detected and jammed in some cases.

@Chizh Also any plans to improve the SAMs? Stuff like optical tracking and then of course the more obvious stuff like using non-PN tracking (3 point) when appropriate so you can't do silly things like fly the sam into the ground? Or you know stuff like IADS.

Last we heard ED nor other 3rd parties have plans to do a 16A, so the mig29 will have to snack on F4's. Yeah most likely the Poles didn't buy the 27T. As others have said it was "rare".

Which manual specifically. Cuz there are russian ones, polish ones, czech ones, Serbian ones etc. Yeah same thing as the ER/ET... The E. Germans were just cheap, never bought the missiles. Same thing with CZ migs, they never bought the R73, so they used R60M... But no one is gonna argue that the 9.12 couldn't use the R-73...

Yeah thats how it was done. Again, the US pilots flying the downgraded E. german ones talk about the IR seeker R27... So yes it was wired for it.

Yeah I'm curious to see what it will look like to be honest. The HB RWR stuff should be a pretty solid basis for ARM's/RWR's and other things. Frankly at this point I'd just love some AI units that can do OECM, and for DECM jammers to actually do DECM things vs OECM things.

Yup... Pretty standard thermal contrast things for IRST. Anything "warm" is gonna reduce the contrast/lock/detect range of the Mig29 IRST. And IR signals are absorbed by water molecules and atmosphere in general, so the less of it the better so it works better at high alt vs other high alt things. I'm sure the detect range vs a Mach3 SR71 is 100km+ or so.

Well, the next fun part is that IRST should detect clouds as "hot/warm"... And either see them as clutter, and/or reduce lock ranges if there is cloud behind the target.

How about giving us an Sa-7/14 and redeye or even Stinger basic, and an earlier version of chapperal... The overall unit mix in DCS is heavily skewed to the 90's which unfortunately leaves the 70s/80's scenarios/servers having to quite haphazardly try to figure how to make vaguely realistic scenarios. These relatively simple additions (wouldn't really have to even add 3d models as a guy with a tube on his shoulder is a guy with a tube on his shoulder) would be greatly appreciated by many DCS players.

no, SPO-15 is way more capable than that. But hawk and hercules were the major threats in Europe at the time. It had a programmable database. But just limited "lights".

Different propagation methods mostly. NVIS in particular. Helos used it, the Apache in particular since its quite useful for non line of sight stuff. Not that this is at all modeled in DCS, wouldn't be hard to do tho. Thanks for the clarification so I don't have to go dig it up out of a manual.

Yeah thats the other thing, how you simulate "doctrine" and good vs bad vs innovative crews/armies. The other thing that we also lack in DCS is sam site ARM countermeasures/decoys. Serbians lost very few sam sites to US forces despite 400 HARMs fired, both because they had good crews/doctrine and decoys/CM's. There is no "technology" for this. Its literal HS trig, and trust me SAM guys knew how to do trig. It was automated pretty quickly as well. Beyond that it was communication links that could be field telephones, or radios, or later microwave datalinks.

Yeah the early ones were, AFAIK the later ones could be remoted by at least a few km. And yes multiple EWR's cueing.

Yes, thats exactly what I'm saying, because I've done it. I'm just not 100% sure if the Russian DL's actually worked like that or not, but from the specs on the radios its certainly a possibility. Yeah, I know the chart and it got posted, given that its the 4th root of RCS in the radar equation its likely why I never noticed cuz there is no actual difference between a 3m and 5m target worth noticing its like a few %range wise. Anyhow the horse is now dead and we are now in the realm of sadonecroposting.

Oh I noticed the difference with bombers, but figured that was hard coded. But yeah I guess it makes sense they are just using the default RCS values and it isn't a huge difference. Yeah, and well doing the valley crawl in enemy territory is just asking to eat a manpad etc. As for comms, I assume soviet jets have those HF radios "for reasons", also interestingly the flanker DL at least also has a HF data radio, with very similar speeds to STANAG 4202.

For range on the 29 just fly high, just like any other jet. Also make sure you dump the tank before combat. Lots of limits with the tank. Tempests has been a bit dead lately but it will likely pick up after the holidays, usually euro nights and then US eves are somewhat populated, but its been variable lately. IDK if there are any major plans to change the map anytime soon. But there was a Syria scenario at some point. Most likely when the F4 drops pop will pick up. BF80's is mostly a Eurozone thing but generally well populated then, US eves its hit or miss. I doubt that ECW will ever really feature the 29 very heavily, its basically the 50 point thrill ride there.

P-12 is the EWR... It doesn't need to be co-located. And yes they did co-locate it early on, then they figured out, oh wait, this is a bad idea for exactly the reasons you laid out. And yes I'm well aware that we have like a mid/late 70's SA-2. Also my engagement flow was a bit satirized to what I see the average DCS guy doing online. But the problems with IADS modeling and SAM guidance are very real in addition to the various RWR issues. Various early RWR's couldn't even detect certain SAM radars due to frequency issues or PRF issues and so forth, so it was a constant game of catch up. Which is why these days you have planes and satellites hoovering up every erg of energy from the Ukraine or Israeli conflict looking for new things, old things, unknown things etc.

IRL RCS matters. FC3 radars don't model differences in detection ranges due to RCS, various FF modules do it differing standards, I.e. the Jeff has some generic aspect based model. While the F15E afaik does both aspect and even stores differences. That just means you fly low so you are hard to spot visually with your radar off usually in mountainous terrain. Its quite popular with flanker guys thinking they are stealthy doing it, with their EOS on to find high flying targets. It can work in DCS depending on the server. It just really wasn't done much IRL for millions of good reasons.

Yes yes, thanks for the clarification. What has a penalty, the FC3 radar? really?

The Azimuth limits in FC3 are correct AFAIK as is the overall mechanization, L/center/right (there is a switch on the front panel). The overall detection ranges in FC3 are about -ish right. Obviously FC3 doesn't account for RCS so I think they are just based the 3m^2 detection for fighters, so obviously flying tennis courts like the 14 and 15 should show up at somewhat longer ranges, while the F16 for example will a smidge less. Remember RCS/range scales by the 4th root so don't expect miracles, and the F14/15 will see you LOOONG before you will see them. it is a PD radar and it can look down. It has HPRF/MPRF though there were issues IIRC in MPRF. The one thing mentioned being the processor overloading in various situations (presumably high clutter ones). And this was corrected in the later 9.13 radar which had something like double the processing power. Also IIRC one of the bad situations was look down over swampy ground (again likely more clutter. The other obvious thing is that the inverted cassegrain antenna is gonna have way larger side lobes than planar antenna designs on western jets. So down low the range will be worse since it has to account for that noise/clutter and its receiver is gonna get overloaded at a higher alt than something with a planar antenna design. Again, the whole "cockroaching" meme we see in DCS with flankers/fulcrums just generally wasn't a thing IRL and is just a consequence of poor FC3 sensor modeling and the aero-quaker community looking for the best ways to exploit that. Mostly the radar mechanization sorta sucks from a control standpoint compared to western 4th gens, and while FC3 kina models it of course it has to be mapped to the hotas, when IRL it was in the front of the pit. You should ignore the FC3 lower limits, they are like +10 and -6 on the real thing and go in different steps (FC3 is 1k steps and exceeds the lower lookdown limit), the radar elevation knob is visible in the FC3 jet. Also I'd have to go back and check but I don't think the jet did auto IFF like just happens in FC3, and given the various co-location problems you see with this on good IFF/radar models like the M2k and the F15E it will be interesting to see if ED models it and how. The general .02cent version is the Fulcrum is gonna suffer in BVR vs the big-nose 4th gens. Versus something like an F14/15 with a 7F (or even 7M since its time appropriate), assuming they are high and fast, they will shoot first since even the 7F outranges the 27R. So you are pretty much on the defensive. But the 27R is faster, so with creative maneuvering tactics to drop locks you can defend and still be in the fight, its just gonna be harder for you. BFM, you will have the advantage since you have the HMS and R73's. Though I imagine the HMS will be slightly more difficult to employ since it actually takes time to lock targets IRL versus the current instant FC3 lock.

Yeah, Modern chinese AI stuff would be great. J10, J-12, J-15...

I mean the 29 is "inferior" to the flanker when it comes to things like sensors, but well the FC3 sensors work well enough, and hopefully if ED does a good job with the radar/EOS then they will be realistically worse than the FC3 versions. But still decent enough for what needs to be done. You basically just need to practice using the radar to quickly easily find targets. The EO system at least beyond BFM should be trash so I wouldn't spend much time there, though who knows how it will be modeled by ED. Where it shines compared to the FC3 flanker (and I'll leave the discussion of how "good" the FC3 FM is to another thread) is that the 29 is vastly more nimble compared to the flanker accelerates better and IIRC rates better. I far prefer the 29 over the flanker in DCS for these reasons. The other pro-tip is that don't ever fly the 29 in burner except air combat, you will instantly be out of gas. In fact outside of climbing keep the throttle at 80-90%. You have magic range gauge and you can see how drastically your throttle setting impacts the range. At higher alt (Where you should be anyway) you can fly across all the maps in the 29 if you aren't being dumb. And your cruise speed will be nearly the same at 80% or 100% throttle. Also don't overspeed the 29 or you wont be able to turn. Also don't fly it on GS, tempests or BF80's are the better servers for it. Or Enigmas if you want to seal club gen2/3 jets with it. Also the 9.12 should have DL, though not what you are used to in the FC3 flanker.

Lol, you can "simulate it" right now. Hop into fulcrum fly to waypoint make pew noises, or hose off an R27 into nowhere and RTB. Successful mission.