Notso

In fact for most Modes/profiles of the GBU-24 - Continuous lase is required for it to work properly.

Yes, sadly I hate to admit I was. But not for too long. When the new digital maps showed up, it was like Moses parting the red sea. Angels sang..... ;) Still though, the film cassettes were (usually) better than nothing. When they worked.

Good stuff. Thanks all.

I recall a few threads a while ago where some users were using the MFDs with good success in VR. It sounds like it just takes some muscle memory to find the right buttons. I'm about to order this pack, but before I do - are there any pros and cons with VR use? How hard are they to set up and program? Any tips or tricks to VR use? I really like the idea of being able to reach out and push real buttons instead of using the trackball. TIA

Hi all, I've got some HOTAS hardware questions: Currently I have the TM Warthog stick and throttle. I recently bought the TM F/A-18 add on grip for when I fly the Hornet. I'm adding a set of the cougar MFD pack for tactile button pushing. All is used in VR. My question is: Is it worth getting the Cougar F-16 throttle when I fly the F-16 module rather than using the dual Warthog throttles tied together? My plan would be to switch out the throttles depending on which module I'm flying just like I do the stick depending on whether I'm flying the Hornet vs the A-10 or F-16. But not sure if its worth the extra $$ and time to set it up. Any thoughts? Edit: all are used 100% in VR.

I'm somewhat surprised no one's mentioned a late 80s / early 90s Fulda Gap sort of scenario. Another couple of scenarios that would be fun would be a current NATO vs Russia in Ukraine or Georgia type thing as well as a Balkans Allied Force pack. Also, with the JF-17 introduced, it would be fun to do a "What if" scenario of a US/NATO vs Pakistan conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Far more interesting terrain than the PG, IMHO.

Yes, I think so. Just the empty square with the buttons around the edges

That's really cool! Can you post more pics of your cockpit and how you built and what components you used? Thanks.

I assume that is for non-VR users, right? I only use VR, and I've been toying with the idea of getting the MPD add-on screens with the OSB buttons so I can reach out and press actual buttons for more realism. Any thoughts as to which are the best for this use? Does TM make these screens? Or are there other brands that are better?

I can't speak to the A-10 IRL, but in other jets - you can't hear the bombs coming off at all. I mean think about it, even if you were only doing 200 kts - imagine rolling your windows down in your car at 200 kts and hearing just the wind noise and the jet engine noise. No way you're going to hear a KER-THUNK of a bomb being ejected off a rack though all that other noise. You can definitely feel it though, especially a MK-84. But unfortunately, you can't simulate that in DCS.

Not having the moving map once you're used to it is practically an inflight emergency. ;)

As always - it depends on many factors. There is no one specific way to do an LGB bomb run. The factors to consider include (but not limited to): -- Target (stationary or moving, Small or large, Designated Point of Impact (DPI), is the DPI on a horizontal or vertical portion of the target, etc, etc) -- Release altitude (high, med, low) -- Threats (where / what type) -- Type of LGB (PW2 or 3. GBU-10 or 12) -- Winds -- Wingman considerations (formation, simultaneous drops, etc) -- What station on the jet is the pod loaded on -- Others stores that could mask the pod -- Terrain, man-made objects, smoke, clouds, etc that could mask the target All of those things and others will drive your attack profile. For instance, In a high threat target area, you may ingress at low altitude and either loft, toss or pop up to altitude to release. If a low threat area - you can just run in at medium altitude. Generally, you want to maintain as much standoff from the target as possible. You generally always want to attack either with a pure headwind or ideally a tailwind. Crosswinds are bad for accuracy unless you have no other choice. The type of LGB (PW2 vs 3 or GBU-10 vs 12) will drive if you delay lase or continuous lase. As will the release altitude and speed drive cont vs delay lase. Your formation, simultaneous DPIs, target orientation, other masking issues such as terrain, smoke, clouds etc will drive both the run-in attack direction as well as which way you turn after release. Where the pod is located on the jet and other stores that could mask the laser will drive if you turn left or right. So...... having said all that - a typical low threat, medium altitude GBU-12 profile would be to line up on the target at 10-15 miles with as pure a tailwind as you can get. Set speed at about 480-540 TAS up to the seeker limit of the bomb (usually around .9 Mach). Why 10-15 miles??? Well lets say at 20K height above target (HAT), the bomb release range will be around 5nm. By setting up at 10-15nm, this gives you around 30-60 sec to get lined up on the ASL since you're doing 8-9 nm/min. Once lined up, this gives you one final chance to make sure your pod is tracking on the correct DPI, the bomb is set with the correct station, laser code, master arm on, etc. Once all that is good, fly down the ASL by trying to be as precise as possible keeping the FPM centered on the ASL, wings level and at 1G. This is important because the less variables you have going on such as bank, G, etc - the less the squirrels in the computer have to calculate the release solution. Assuming you are dropping in CCRP/AUTO, then hold the pickle button down at 10 sec time to go (TTG) continue holding it until the weapons release cues flash. IF you are doing a continuous lase attack - I would squeeze and hold the trigger just before the 10" TTG, make sure its firing and then push and hold the pickle button at 10" TTG. Continue trying to precisely fly the ASL until the bombs come off the jet. As soon as you're satisfied that you have the release cue and the bombs are off the jet, let go of the pickle button and then perform a moderately hard 4g check turn in the desired direction based on the factors you calculated above and roll out about 45 deg off the attack heading. This maneuver accomplishes two things. You are maneuvering the jet early in the TOF of the weapon when it will have the least impact on the bomb if the TGP crosshairs move from the turn and it will give you the most standoff from the target. The key though is to roll out wings level and then concentrate on refining the crosshair placement on the DPI. Minimize the amount of crosshair movement especially late in the TOF such as the last 8-10" or that really screws with the LGB accuracy and weapon energy. As stated before, the direction of the check turn is based on lots of things - but usually the first consideration is which station is the pod located on. If on one of the cheek stations - then turn in the opposite direction of where the pod is mounted. For instance, if on the right cheek station, then turn left to prevent masking. If on the centerline station, then you can go either way. Once you roll out, if during the time remaining, a part of the jet or the stores just begin coming into view - just slightly raise the wing on the target side. That should immediately unmask whatever was beginning to block the laser. IF you desire a delay lase attack - do all of the above except that you will roll out after the 45 degree check turn and then squeeze the trigger at about 10-12 secs TTI (time to impact) as shown on your HUD. Anything more than about 15" is considered continuous lase and the min time to lase is about 8" to get the laser on. Another viable option with the Lightening Pod in a low to no threat environment is just to fly straight through over the target. The pod will spin when you are directly overhead (NADIR) but it usually can handle it. I'm not a fan of this but its seems to work in DCS just fine and its less complicated. I'm not a fan of the slow constant 10 deg bank turn all the way to impact. While yes it works, it far more workload on the pilot AND it induces more potential errors into the pod. If you roll (or stay) wings level - its one less thing you have to think about while trying to keep the crosshairs on the target. One final thing.... if its a really high threat environment - consider doing a different attack altogether. You are a bit of a sitting duck while you're trying to guide the bomb and you're head's down focused on the X-hairs. Consider a JDAM, JSOW or something instead. Or given there seems to be no loft attack capability yet (WIP?), then maybe have a buddy laser aircraft standing off just outside the threat and you just run in and release the bomb as the mule and then do a U turn and GTFO.

Except that is real life too. Sometimes based on the specific AOR ROE, you might require a VID while the bandit does not. And yes, you are at a huge disadvantage in that scenario. But there are specific ways to deal with it and fighter crews train to that scenario. Link-16 has certainly made all that usually easier, but it doesn't remove the need for a pure VID on occasion before you can shoot.

What sort of min system specs does the Index require? It looks interesting.

Holy shizza, that's a lot of setup time. So much for windows plug-n-play :( But great info, thank you.

It's interesting, there seems hardly any discussion of the HTC Vive Pro. That's what I'm currently running and it seems to work well. Have had 0 issues and the resolution seems good, but I don't have anything else to compare to. As I said earlier in this thread, I'm tempted to get the Reverb if its resolution and clarity is better. But many here imply that its a very finicky HMD to set up and not crap out. One question, if I do go to the Reverb - can I use my HTC base stations or do I need to get HP specific ones?

The answer to your questions, as always, depends. Depends mostly on your tactical gameplan and who you're going up against. If an aware bandit with a long range radar missile - then you would most likely F-Pole and support to active and then notch or drag out. If an older gen fighter with shorter range radar missiles, Heaters only or a bomber - you might support it to impact just to increase the Pk. I was playing with the AIM-120s a bit the other day and I was seeing what I assumed to be the time to active countdown in the HUD. At pickle, there was an A14 and it gradually counted down, although somewhat erratically. I snipped it when it went to A0 and then notched but noticed two strange things. 1) I had an almost 0 % PK on the bandit on numerous occasions and 2) it didn't continue to count down to impact. Unless I'm misunderstanding how the Viper works, at Fox3 - you should get a countdown to Active and then once it goes active, it should then switch the countdown to impact. Of course if you cut the missile loose, the computer has no way of knowing and I believe it just continues to countdown based on last known maneuvers. But it shouldn't just stop altogether. Otherwise there is no way to know when to call "Timeout".

I'm not sure what that has to do with the OP's question at all.

Only cuz you're jealous ;)

As always, it depends. But the typical refueling altitudes for most fighters is in the high teens to low 20s. The higher you go, the harder it is to refuel and stay on the boom as you get heavy with gas. Especially if you're already heavyweight and draggy with ordinance. I would think 25-26K would be the max usually. 30K would be RTFO unless there was no other choice due to wx, but it would not be fun for the guy trying to hang on to the boom or drogue. You would likely be in at least min AB to stay connected.

Ah, apologies. I didn't read the OP question correctly. I thought he meant that TWS was losing lock. I see now that the missiles aren't guiding correctly. And to pick nits on terminology in the OP - But if the missiles are still in the midcourse phase, the missiles are not "losing lock" as they are not active yet. They are just being updated by the radar to fly to a point in space so when they open their eyes, the missile radar can see the target and fly to intercept it. If the missiles then acquire the target and lock on with its own radar, it will ignore the fighter radar updates at that point. So being in TWS or STT shouldn't have any effect once its gone active. That's why you could snip and drag out once they go active. But as Cypher said - if there is a known issue with DCS and midcourse guidance of ARH missiles, then that seems to be more of a radar issue and not a missile issue. I do know I've tried shooting AIM-120s at bandits from both STT and TWS in F-16 and supporting them to active and then snipping and dragging, but my success rate seems very low. Not sure if its an F-16 thing, missile thing or just user error. Dunno, but hopefully ED are on it if there is a known issue.

Yeah, I found that. it's just a really clunky way of doing it. Is that how the real Hornet radar works? If so, leave it up to the Navy boyz to find the most difficult way of doing something easy. :music_whistling:

I don't know if its normal on a real Hornet's radar, but I'm somewhat surprised that you can't range bump with the cursors at the top or bottom of the scope to change the radar range or bump the sides to change the scan azimuth like you can in the F-16. That's pretty common radar mech across many RL platforms, so I'm very surprised the Hornet is not mech'd that way either. Or is it just a feature DCS hasn't modeled yet?

That actually is one of the RL drawbacks of TWS - that it typically doesn't handle aggressively maneuvering targets all that well. Certainly not as good as STT. The very definition of Track WHILE Scan means that its a compromise mode attempting to do both tracking and scanning. However, if its losing lock with "slight" maneuvers by the bandit, that doesn't sound normal.

No worries. Another way to think about it is if you're in a strike package and there are other attacks going all around at various times - more than likely you've been in a mass briefing where the entire strike package timing and sequence has been briefed to everyone. So the other strikers as well as the escort guys all know when and where stuff is going to go boom. If you suddenly got on the radio on the common strike freq that is being used by AWACs and the CAP bubbas to sort out the bandits and called "pickle", everyone on that net would likely immediately 1) go WTF? and 2) would wonder who that was, were it was, is it near them, do they need to move, etc. It would cause mass confusion. About the most you would ever want to say is something to the effect that you are attack complete and egressing in a certain direction so the Escorts/CAP guys know that you're headed their way again and don't mistake you for a bad guy coming hot on their radar. But again, in a properly planned strike package, they would already know that based on timing and they would also be able to see you on Link 16 as well. But back in the day before data link, a head's up call on strike freq that you're attack complete (Miller Time) was appreciated and SA enhancing. The times where you are calling weapons releases as I described previously would all occur on a discrete Freq with the JTAC, FAC-A or or another flight. Only a very few people would be on that radio net, so more talking is not really as big deal. The more players on the radio, the less talking you will want to do unless you have something that everyone needs to hear, such as being engaged defensive @ bullseye 350/69.