Building Situational Awareness?

[Joif]

I think I may have been spoilt slightly by ease of modern avionic's when it comes to building SA, I was in a free flight server recently I found it very difficult to maintain SA when there's a good mixture of a friendly/enemy contacts to sift through as the IFF didn't seem to be working, this jet seems very reliant on being directed by GC/AWACS which is understandable for an interceptor but for whatever reason the server AWACS wasn't responding (most likely my incorrect radio use) which meant my SA deteriorated pretty quickly when looking for hostiles.

 

I eventually picked up and killed my target but only after it went WVR so it took several minutes longer than it should have, had it have been another player I would have been toast :blush:.

 

The RWR doesn't seem to be of much help in a busy war zone as often threat lights are lit up in many directions friendly and foe unless there's some sort of hand off function I've missed?

 

Ideally being on TS with fellow pilots would have helped build better SA but with the drop in drop out nature of the DCS Multiplayer servers I don't always have time to prepare that level of co-ordination.

 

Anyway's this is my new favourite DCS Jet despite its flaws from that era I think it adds to the appeal and makes a new challenge so thank you Leatherneck for this awesome module, can't wait get some more hours in practicing A-A and building SA.. if I can accomplish it in this then I might have to handicap myself in modern jets :thumbup: :joystick:

[Hadwell]

Building SA in the mig-21 really means understanding the limitations of the radar and rwr, and learning to work around them,

 

the radar for example, if you pick something up, hold your plane still and see if the thing you picked up moves to the left or right, towards or away from you, you can tell what direction its facing that way....

 

the rwr picks up something every 90 degrees when one light is on.

 

if two lights blink at exactly the same time, the contact is either at 355-005, 85-95, 175-185, or 265-275, so if ever you see just one light on the RWR, just turn your plane till two lights are on at the same time, and you'll know what direction the contact is in within 10 degrees.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Hadwell

[Joif]

if two lights blink at exactly the same time, the contact is either at 355-005, 85-95, 175-185, or 265-275, so if ever you see just one light on the RWR, just turn your plane till two lights are on at the same time, and you'll know what direction the contact is in within 10 degrees.

 

Did not know that.. really useful thanks.. Guess I need go over the manual for the RWR it didn't seem to get covered in the training missions. Can the types of threat be differentiated?

[Hadwell]

No the RWR consists of a beeping sound, and 4 light bulbs lol, I think... you could learn the pulse frequencies of the different types of radar in different modes, but even I'm not that hardcore... take a look at my youtube channel, you can see how to get kills online with the mig-21 there, link in my sig.

[Kobymaru]

as the IFF didn't seem to be working

IFF is Working well enough, you just should not forget to turn it on (switch RV4).

 

this jet seems very reliant on being directed by GC/AWACS which is understandable for an interceptor

Yes, it is, it was designed that way. That doesn't mean it doesn't work without them!

 

but for whatever reason the server AWACS wasn't responding (most likely my incorrect radio use)

The problem with the Radio communication is simple: You cannot explicitly set the radio frequency to an arbitrary value, it is fixed to 20 presets. If the server admin decides to change the frequency of the AWACS (or an ATC for that matter), you're out of luck, because your channels are fixed.

IF it works, it works on Channel 0.

 

The RWR doesn't seem to be of much help in a busy war zone as often threat lights are lit up in many directions friendly and foe unless there's some sort of hand off function I've missed?

There aren't any "functions", but there are tricks.

 

* Your zone of reception extends -45° to +45° vertically. On one hand, that means you cannot detect sources ABOVE or BELOW you. On the other hand, if do detect a threat in the zone, you can bank (or pitch) your plane until the signal stops. Then you know in which plane the target is.

 

* While technically, you are limit to 4 directions in the horizontal, you can find the exact 3d-position of the radar source by maneuvering your plane:

- If the source is exactly in front of you, then both the upper left and upper right lights illuminate

- If the source is exactly right to you, then both the upper right and lower right illuminate

- same for left, behind you

- NOTE: it CAN happen that you are illuminated by 2 or more sources (then you will think there is 1 from the front but there are actually a left and 1 right). You can find this out by checking if the lights illuminate simultanously or alternating.

 

* Also:

you could learn the pulse frequencies of the different types of radar in different modes, but even I'm not that hardcore...

Wait, is that actually possible? If this is implemented, I would totally learn those pulse frequencies. I'll take as much information as I can get

 

 

I build my SA like this:

- Find the direction where the enemy comes from (lets call this attack direction), and where you come from. Remember this direction well!

- Find the mental "front line". On your side of it, you are "safe": you should not get shot down and you only should see friendlies on the radar. On the other side of it, there should mostly be enemies.

- On the start, put the frontline halfway between enemy and allied base

- If you think you are on "your side" but you see only enemies, RUN!!! Also, shift the frontline back

- If you think you are on "enemy side" but you see only friendlies, shift the frontline forward.

 

Remember the frontline and attack direction!!

If you get RWR pings from one direction, you should know if this is an enemy or not, by comparing to the mental frontline you built above. Examples:

- You fly from base, you are in "your" zone, you get pings from behind. -> You know you have on friendly fighter behind you.

- You are over the front line flying into attack direction and get pings from the front -> Either ally who goes RTB (ask on Teamspeak!!). If not, definitely an enemy. Prepare for Aim-120 to the face.

- You just took off, so you are definitely in "your" zone. You get locked. -> You think it's a stupid ally who is raygunning you or doesn't know it's rude to lock people for no reason. You think everything is fine. You get an Aim-120 to the face. Turns out, it was an enemy who slipped by all other planes in "your area" and is almost at your base. This actually happened to me :cry:

 

Rules for engagement: if you get pinged and you think its an enemy, just run like hell. If you don't, you get an Aim-120 to the face.

You can only attack if you have an enemy on radar who did not ping you or one that pinged you only seconds ago.

 

 

Ideally being on TS with fellow pilots would have helped build better SA but with the drop in drop out nature of the DCS Multiplayer servers I don't always have time to prepare that level of co-ordination.

This is actually very important. Always be on TS and listen to everything your teammates say.

Identify your friendly radar contacts: lock them up, call "raygun" and wait for "buddy spike" on the TS, then unlock them. Remember the voice or maybe the name. Try to keep track of his position, maybe keep him on radar screen. Next time he gives a "bandits" call, you can approximate enemy position from his position.

 

Also do this with fighters coming FROM attack direction over the frontline, sometimes those are allies that RTB.

 

I guess doing all that, I have become very annoying in Teamspeak, but I just don't have the right sensors to play solo :music_whistling:

 

Sometimes, when you do a sortie (for example going for Strikers), you can take an F-15 with you who, this will be your "AWACS".

 

I am by no means a good pilot, but I hope with these tactics (and with help of my teammates) I can develop OK situational awareness.

 

I know I said a lot of times "remember this, remember that", and I agree that this is hard. The key here is practice: You cannot start to THINK when you handle your plane, your radar, your weapons. This should be automatic!!! Practise until it is. Then you have your mind free to think about the tactics, and make a mental "map" of the conflict scene.

 

Anyway, I hope that helps.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Kobymaru

[Hadwell]

Teamspeak is a double edged sword, yes, when the teamwork is strong, it's useful, but 95% of the time it's a bunch of people playing solo, talking about stuff, and that, when you need to pay attention to survive, is very distracting...

 

but in general, yeah, you need to generalize the battlefield in your head, build up a mental database of where you see enemies over time... people generally go the same directions every time, so you can, after a while, just know where you'll find someone.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Hadwell

[Jerkzilla]

The RWR is such a strangely designed thing. When you get locked, all the lights go on, as opposed to, I don't know, having a separate lock warning light so you can still see where the enemy is locking you from.

[kmstewart64]

Strangely enough, the simpleness of the Mig 21 avionics helps me. In the F-15C, I find myself overloaded with too much info and just stare at the RWR. In the Mig 21, I tend to focus on only one contact at a time. Simple avionics helps my simple mind!

[Why485]

The RWR is such a strangely designed thing. When you get locked, all the lights go on, as opposed to, I don't know, having a separate lock warning light so you can still see where the enemy is locking you from.

 

This is my biggest beef with the RWR. Usually you can tell where the lock is coming from based on what my RWR was doing beforehand. For example if the top right light was blinking and the beep was very rapid just before lock that's probably where it's coming from.

 

However, there are sometimes situations where it's near impossible to guess where the lock is coming from because your RWR can get so saturated from radar energy all around between friendlies, enemies, and SAMs alike. In those cases your only real option is to start banking/pitching to try and figure out where it's coming from if you think you have the time. If not, just hit the deck and try your best to break lock and re-assess the situation once you've broken LOS.

 

Flying low is something I do practically constantly because up high it's easy to get pinged from every direction and it's very, very difficult to get any good information from that. When low, you'll be masked from most radar signals because of terrain and there's less of a volume of air to keep track of when you do start getting pings on the RWR.

[Joif]

Taking on-board the RWR knowledge people have shared I had a much smoother run last night, managed intercept 3 contacts using an outbound radial from Home-base to keep me on track to their last known location until I was confident enough to go low level and start scanning and using RWR to fine tune... it wasn't quite a repeat of the same scenario as I had no friendlies to worry about but my IFF was working OK had there been so must have missed that switch on my start up on the first run.

 

Seems like flying drunk will keep you rolling enough to help you figure out where RWR pings are coming from in this bird, good to know I can drink some of the alcohol cooling as an emergency in-case I sober up mid flight.

[BJack]

IFF is Working well enough, you just should not forget to turn it on (switch RV4).

 

 

Yes, it is, it was designed that way. That doesn't mean it doesn't work without them!

 

 

The problem with the Radio communication is simple: You cannot explicitly set the radio frequency to an arbitrary value, it is fixed to 20 presets. If the server admin decides to change the frequency of the AWACS (or an ATC for that matter), you're out of luck, because your channels are fixed.

IF it works, it works on Channel 0.

 

 

There aren't any "functions", but there are tricks.

 

* Your zone of reception extends -45° to +45° vertically. On one hand, that means you cannot detect sources ABOVE or BELOW you. On the other hand, if do detect a threat in the zone, you can bank (or pitch) your plane until the signal stops. Then you know in which plane the target is.

 

* While technically, you are limit to 4 directions in the horizontal, you can find the exact 3d-position of the radar source by maneuvering your plane:

- If the source is exactly in front of you, then both the upper left and upper right lights illuminate

- If the source is exactly right to you, then both the upper right and lower right illuminate

- same for left, behind you

- NOTE: it CAN happen that you are illuminated by 2 or more sources (then you will think there is 1 from the front but there are actually a left and 1 right). You can find this out by checking if the lights illuminate simultanously or alternating.

 

* Also:

Wait, is that actually possible? If this is implemented, I would totally learn those pulse frequencies. I'll take as much information as I can get

 

 

I build my SA like this:

- Find the direction where the enemy comes from (lets call this attack direction), and where you come from. Remember this direction well!

- Find the mental "front line". On your side of it, you are "safe": you should not get shot down and you only should see friendlies on the radar. On the other side of it, there should mostly be enemies.

- On the start, put the frontline halfway between enemy and allied base

- If you think you are on "your side" but you see only enemies, RUN!!! Also, shift the frontline back

- If you think you are on "enemy side" but you see only friendlies, shift the frontline forward.

 

Remember the frontline and attack direction!!

If you get RWR pings from one direction, you should know if this is an enemy or not, by comparing to the mental frontline you built above. Examples:

- You fly from base, you are in "your" zone, you get pings from behind. -> You know you have on friendly fighter behind you.

- You are over the front line flying into attack direction and get pings from the front -> Either ally who goes RTB (ask on Teamspeak!!). If not, definitely an enemy. Prepare for Aim-120 to the face.

- You just took off, so you are definitely in "your" zone. You get locked. -> You think it's a stupid ally who is raygunning you or doesn't know it's rude to lock people for no reason. You think everything is fine. You get an Aim-120 to the face. Turns out, it was an enemy who slipped by all other planes in "your area" and is almost at your base. This actually happened to me :cry:

 

Rules for engagement: if you get pinged and you think its an enemy, just run like hell. If you don't, you get an Aim-120 to the face.

You can only attack if you have an enemy on radar who did not ping you or one that pinged you only seconds ago.

 

 

 

This is actually very important. Always be on TS and listen to everything your teammates say.

Identify your friendly radar contacts: lock them up, call "raygun" and wait for "buddy spike" on the TS, then unlock them. Remember the voice or maybe the name. Try to keep track of his position, maybe keep him on radar screen. Next time he gives a "bandits" call, you can approximate enemy position from his position.

 

Also do this with fighters coming FROM attack direction over the frontline, sometimes those are allies that RTB.

 

I guess doing all that, I have become very annoying in Teamspeak, but I just don't have the right sensors to play solo :music_whistling:

 

Sometimes, when you do a sortie (for example going for Strikers), you can take an F-15 with you who, this will be your "AWACS".

 

I am by no means a good pilot, but I hope with these tactics (and with help of my teammates) I can develop OK situational awareness.

 

I know I said a lot of times "remember this, remember that", and I agree that this is hard. The key here is practice: You cannot start to THINK when you handle your plane, your radar, your weapons. This should be automatic!!! Practise until it is. Then you have your mind free to think about the tactics, and make a mental "map" of the conflict scene.

 

Anyway, I hope that helps.

 

Thanks for sharing this usefull information. I'm sure this tactic will help me to survive and make kills on the MP battlefield.