Flappie - Thanks for responding!
I did the repair process you suggested in another post but that was unsuccessful as you can see in the attached screenshot.
I have also attached the autoupdate_log per your request.
I have all the latest files in my _downloads folder.
I'm running on a fresh install of Windows 10 with no anti-virus or firewalls active.
I have had DCS running on this computer before but it was installed via Laplink from my "old" computer.
This has been a very frustrating experience. I could go on about my hardware and all I have done to resolve this problem myself but I'm hoping some guru can look at this and go "oh, this is your problem"
autoupdate_log.txt