Cytarabine

I know it has been raised before but given the Viper is getting it and it exists in the real Hornet any plans?

I don’t know what I am more excited about; - the fact we are getting a phreaking phantom! - the suggestion of more variants (which has to mean a naval variant right? F-4J??) - that Heatblur are the developers

Too bad the GEN-X decoys appear to be off the table currently, because yes they would make engaging SA-10's a much more realistic proposition. Currently my approach if going solo against an SA-10 with SA-15's or SA-19's involves a lot of prayer and low-level flying with firing off my HARMS just before I get within the engagement radius of the close in defences and hoping one slips through to take out the radar. I set myself up a little scenario to practice this on and got reasonably good at it, but it was far from a sure fire thing. This shouldn't shock anyone that an SA-10 properly setup is a tough nut to crack, it is doing exactly what it is designed to do. One of the weaknesses of the current DCS arrangement (in the absence of Skynet of course) is that the radars will stay on the whole time rather than switching off when under attack by a HARM. To be honest the F-16 with the HTS and WCMD's and a HARM is probably going to have an easier time with an SA-10 site than a Hornet is (once it gets the HTS of course).

Just to clarify OLED TV's are great for gaming, however they are not ideal as general purpose monitors (due to their subpixel arrangement and of course burn in issues which are an inherent part of the technology). Some modern TV's are great as monitors, but it's about getting the right one. I use a 49" 32:9 ultrawide and it is great for DCS, the additional horizontal FOV makes looking side to side with track IR feel less janky that it does on a 16:9 screen. My monitor also serves as my workstation when working from home and an OLED TV would not fit the bill for that given there are often static images on the screen for extended periods of time, and a lot of my time is spent reading text which is where the subpixel arrangement on OLEDs is less good. If I was buying a display purely for gaming though it would be harder, an OLED TV is amazing for that. Horses for courses. Personally happy with my choice, it suits me (and has freed me from spending my time tweaking settings to get VR playable).

Yeah with TOO mode and a TGP you basically have a poor mans HTS in the Hornet with its magic TOO mode. Hopefully they make it a little more in line with HAS mode in the Viper in the near future.

Absolutely. The HSD page should do a whole lot more but it doesn’t. My vain hope is that with relatively few weapons systems left to implement (JDAMS, JSOWs, WCMD and finishing off the HARM) the systems in the Viper can get some real attention fast after the Hornet leaves early access. The HSD, HTS pod and the ground and HTS features for JHMCS will hopefully get some much needed love (along with all those missing pages, oh and a DTC (which will further augment the HSD))

Ironically right now with the magic TOO mode in the Hornet and the TPOD symbology it is easier to put a waypoint on a SAM site in the Hornet then the Viper (the TOO mode is almost a poor mans HAD right now).

Initially the SA-10 wasn’t intercepting missiles if they were going supersonic, this has now been fixed so your PB shot is outta luck there. You’re going to have to launch from closer, well within the engagement range of the SA-10 which makes it a lot more challenging. Alternatively you can try and overwhelm it if you have multiple members in your flight.

The Viper should have a CRUS page in the DED which has functionality similar to the FPAS system in the Hornet, just not modelled yet. I really don’t see the substantial avionics advantage the Hornet has, things work differently but they still work. The AZ/EL page is nice, but it’s not a game changer, the HSD page is at least as good as the SA page (and is not fully modelled as yet), and the advantage in the Hornet JHMCS is a feature of development state. The only avionics advantage that might change things is the ASPJ as most air to air Vipers are probably not lugging an ECM pod.

Amazing. Just took my Viper for a spin over the Caucuses map and it is like a whole new map which doesn’t feel so out of place alongside the excellent more recent maps. Great work!

Oh if only we had a -5Mk2 or a -D

To a 9X? Sure. It’s from an entirely different era. Compared to contemporaneous weapons it’s same ballpark. I’ve never found it a particular problem. You can’t just ‘put MICA’s on a 2000C’, it doesn’t carry them. That would require a -5F which is a different aircraft with different avionics. If RAZBAM make one one day I will order it day one, but let’s not end up with a frankenmirage.

Disapointing, particularly the GEN-X decoy and the Mk 77.

So other than the jittering clouds with the shader version @Woona has put together it is performing better than 2.5.6 and looks great. I also repaired my install which seemed to help. Hopefully they fix the clouds at the horizon soon because it is quite distracting.

The only thing I can think of is for air-to-air where you can retain a cheek mounted station for an AMRAAM/Sparrow, but the tradeoff for ground pounding is pretty big given if you want to carry more fuel you are going to have to occupy one of your wing hardpoints. The ATFLIR gives much more flexibility in the strike role (we've become accustomed to the LITENING being on a cheek station as well, but I don't think US Hornets carried the LITENING on cheek stations, only on the centerline hardpoint).

On the block 3 Rhino’s you certainly wouldn’t want to be dropping the centreline pod without a good reason given it contains the IRST hardware.

If I am getting down in the weeds - NVG’s otherwise JHMCS. Will be interesting if ED implement the NAVFLIR in the ATFLIR pod (actually it’s mounting adapter) with the raster HUD rendering. Even less reason to bring along NVG’s.

Why would you drop them? They aren’t in unlimited supply. In truth you would only drop them if you are in a situation where the extra drag or weight would be detrimental (dogfighting, emergency situations etc).

The Hornet has now on a couple of occasions (both over Iraq and Syria) shown how the ability to swing from one role to another mid mission is important so it wouldn’t make sense to not have crews do both as you can’t swap mid sortie. That isn’t to say every pilot does every specialised role.

It shows. The Hornet has turned into such a beauty, so many capabilities in one package. Very excited for the next release as the Hornet approaches completion, though it is going to feel strange when things are complete, will miss getting another new feature on my Hornet.

Well it doesn’t carry the lighter warhead Mavericks that the Air Force planes do. The Viper can’t triple rack the heavier ones either.

It is, in the SA page. See section 12 of Chuck’s guide.

The Hornet has ‘rules’ to classify contacts and basically you need two sources to declare a bogey a bandit. They can be from IFF response (remembering this is a lack of response so can really just say not a friendly), NCTR or a donor. You can also assign a contact yourself with PLID.

The Tomcat doesn't have jamming effects on the radar display though. Hence why I wondered placebo (currently only been testing it against AI as I haven’t had time to get online much).

Yeah JSOWs are meant to have a low RCS but the SA-10’s pick them off easily. Kind of defeats the purpose of the JSOW to be honest.