Some Things I'd Like to See Eventually Added

[Jetguy06]

These are some things I'd like to see in DCS eventually, in no [articular order, and I completely understand and appreciate how long it takes to develop these things. No rush.

 

 

Rather than create a new post for each of these, I figured I'd lump them all into one post. I've been thinking about alot of these lately. My apologies if some of these have been mentioned before. Here goes...

 

 

-- Ability to set loadouts for static aircraft. It just feels weird taxiing around an "active" airbase, rolling past static Strike Eagles, Vipers, Hornets, Harriers, etc. and none of them have any external stores.

 

 

-- More "low-tech" air defense options, especially on the Red side. KS-19s and the like. 37mm, 57mm, 100mm AAA. And Fire Cans. Where are the Fire Can radars? These would be perfect for the Persian Gulf map and maybe an Iraqi map, if they eventually make one.

 

 

-- NATO airbase equipment. You know, like fuel trucks (the small ones) and such. I know there are mods, but these things really need to be added to the base game. This would really be important on the NTTR map.

 

 

-- More mission options for the ME. Like Stratos says here: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=228592

A strike option would be just one great example of new mission types.

 

 

These are all I could think of right now. There are more, but I should have written them down when I thought of them. Just some things I'd like to see, again in no particular order, and again, no rush.

[QuiGon]

-- More "low-tech" air defense options, especially on the Red side. KS-19s and the like. 37mm, 57mm, 100mm AAA. And Fire Cans. Where are the Fire Can radars? These would be perfect for the Persian Gulf map and maybe an Iraqi map, if they eventually make one.

This is something I would really love to see. The early cold war era is not very well represented in DCS (I'm glad we got the SA-2 now at least). Now that ED has developed a flak simulation for the WW2-AAA, it should not be a problem to give us some of the high calibre soviet Cold War AAA.

[draconus]

-- Ability to set loadouts for static aircraft. It just feels weird taxiing around an "active" airbase, rolling past static Strike Eagles, Vipers, Hornets, Harriers, etc. and none of them have any external stores.

Do they really just stay there with weapon loadouts when not used IRL?

 

 

-- NATO airbase equipment. You know, like fuel trucks (the small ones) and such. I know there are mods, but these things really need to be added to the base game. This would really be important on the NTTR map.

I'm surprised NTTR lacks this. It seemed so detailed.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

WWII pack has 40mm BOFORS AAA. A single hit , to AV-8B, F-5E, J-11A, and A-4E,and I loose my engine, with wing on fire, and little if any control. 2 X40mm hits, the aircraft explodes. I am treated to seeing the fuselage mines wings, tail, nose, going down in flames.

 

DCS unfortunately does not appear to have vintage Soviet ZSU-57 X2. 57mm will wreck your day.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

I second this. In addition DCS could use an expeditionary runway with trap wires on each end and field deployable ILS and PAR. USAF, Navy, and USMC make use of such fields. The hook on F-5E was designed for that, to allow short and expeditionary field operations.

[Jetguy06]

Do they really just stay there with weapon loadouts when not used IRL?

 

 

On an active base in-theater, probably not all, but it would be nice to have some, as if they were scheduled for a Strike mission or something similar in the next hour or two.

[Jetguy06]

WWII pack has 40mm BOFORS AAA. A single hit , to AV-8B, F-5E, J-11A, and A-4E,and I loose my engine, with wing on fire, and little if any control. 2 X40mm hits, the aircraft explodes. I am treated to seeing the fuselage mines wings, tail, nose, going down in flames.

 

DCS unfortunately does not appear to have vintage Soviet ZSU-57 X2. 57mm will wreck your day.

 

 

Yeah, I wouldn't be into using the Bofors. To me, that'd be like slapping a dark green paint job and red circles on a Yak-52 and calling it a Zero. I just can't get past the fact that it isn't.

 

 

The real static Red AAA is what I hope for, beyond the ZU-23 emplacements. We need authentic and realistic high-calibre AAA for the Red side.

[DmitriKozlowsky]

BOFORS 40mm is still used today. M2 HB machine gun, from 1919. Still in use today. Browning Automatic Rifle, the BAR. Uses same 7.62mm NATO ammunition. It was .308 back in WWII. Soviets/Russians copied Bofors 40mm, enlarged it, and called ZSU-57-2. Bofors 40mm batteries are directed by optical tracker or radar. NVA used Bofors 40mm, 23mm, and 57mm Soviet AAA. If you can get past the propaganda, check out NVA home movies from Vietnam War, you can see they employ optically aimed AAA via 1930's Reflex sight, using hand held red flag signals. NVA employed AAA in battalion sized units. Two battalions of 40mm filled sky with enough steel to bring down F-105. Thuds were some of the fastest aircraft used in Indochina. Yet WWII Soviet version of FLAK battalion was bringing down aircraft that were thought to require SAMs, like Sa-2 and SA-6 to nail. Germans had AAA up to 88mm. THose famous 88mm AAA guns (a plot element in Saving Private Ryan), and turned into anti-Sherman tank guns toward end of WWII.

I have WWII pack, its great for the reasons you stated, for its low tech. Make an enemy naval group composed Samuel Chase, and 2 of those Landing SHip Dock. They use Bofors 40mm mounts. Attack them in daylight, with dumb bombs or rockets. On first pass , they may miss. But if you reattack or even get too close on first pass, be ready for bad news. If you are flying fast and parrallel to those targets, they will miss. But you must point your nose at them to release bombs or rockets. So maintaining target separation discipline is vital, they will shoot you down. At some minimum sep distance, you must break left or right , not up. Or a 40mm will find you. The unwashed masses, the commoners think that WWII weapons are inferior to modern late 20th, early 21st Century. Maybe a little, and certainly modern sensors and fire control is superior. But a WWII unit will kill you just the same. I was having fun strafing NAZI Tiger tanks with A-10C, and I lost 1/3 of my port wing, one of stabilizers, and front gear. To Tigers and German FLAK guns. If you get close enough to the WWII enemy, they can shoot you down like Jesse James.

[Leadnap]

-- Ability to set loadouts for static aircraft. It just feels weird taxiing around an "active" airbase, rolling past static Strike Eagles, Vipers, Hornets, Harriers, etc. and none of them have any external stores.

 

(US) Aircraft are not stored with fuel and munitions on them - and "loaded" aircraft with live ordinance are parked on the other side and not allowed on the unloaded side. I know there are technical terms but the only airfield I've been to was Bagram and I wasn't exactly trying to figure out the air field layout while there.

[Jetguy06]

BOFORS 40mm is still used today. M2 HB machine gun, from 1919. Still in use today. Browning Automatic Rifle, the BAR. Uses same 7.62mm NATO ammunition. It was .308 back in WWII. Soviets/Russians copied Bofors 40mm, enlarged it, and called ZSU-57-2. Bofors 40mm batteries are directed by optical tracker or radar. NVA used Bofors 40mm, 23mm, and 57mm Soviet AAA. If you can get past the propaganda, check out NVA home movies from Vietnam War, you can see they employ optically aimed AAA via 1930's Reflex sight, using hand held red flag signals. NVA employed AAA in battalion sized units. Two battalions of 40mm filled sky with enough steel to bring down F-105. Thuds were some of the fastest aircraft used in Indochina. Yet WWII Soviet version of FLAK battalion was bringing down aircraft that were thought to require SAMs, like Sa-2 and SA-6 to nail. Germans had AAA up to 88mm. THose famous 88mm AAA guns (a plot element in Saving Private Ryan), and turned into anti-Sherman tank guns toward end of WWII.

I have WWII pack, its great for the reasons you stated, for its low tech. Make an enemy naval group composed Samuel Chase, and 2 of those Landing SHip Dock. They use Bofors 40mm mounts. Attack them in daylight, with dumb bombs or rockets. On first pass , they may miss. But if you reattack or even get too close on first pass, be ready for bad news. If you are flying fast and parrallel to those targets, they will miss. But you must point your nose at them to release bombs or rockets. So maintaining target separation discipline is vital, they will shoot you down. At some minimum sep distance, you must break left or right , not up. Or a 40mm will find you. The unwashed masses, the commoners think that WWII weapons are inferior to modern late 20th, early 21st Century. Maybe a little, and certainly modern sensors and fire control is superior. But a WWII unit will kill you just the same. I was having fun strafing NAZI Tiger tanks with A-10C, and I lost 1/3 of my port wing, one of stabilizers, and front gear. To Tigers and German FLAK guns. If you get close enough to the WWII enemy, they can shoot you down like Jesse James.

 

 

I'm certain they are effective, and some are still in use. But still, for the most part, they are WWII systems being used as stand-ins for modern high-caliber systems. I'm asking for authentic systems, not WWII stand-ins mimicking more modern Red AAA.

 

 

Leadnap

 

(US) Aircraft are not stored with fuel and munitions on them - and "loaded" aircraft with live ordinance are parked on the other side and not allowed on the unloaded side. I know there are technical terms but the only airfield I've been to was Bagram and I wasn't exactly trying to figure out the air field layout while there.

 

 

Makes sense. Still, you could have one side of a base, say, Al Dhafra, with the default static aircraft on the ramp, and another side with statics that are armed for a mission that is about to be flown, but without actually having them as true AI aircraft.

[Dehuman]

-- Ability to set loadouts for static aircraft. It just feels weird taxiing around an "active" airbase, rolling past static Strike Eagles, Vipers, Hornets, Harriers, etc. and none of them have any external stores.

 

You can add them as regular units, and select "uncontrolled"

Then you can load them up and some aircraft even have nice touches like boarding ladders and covers

[Jetguy06]

You can add them as regular units, and select "uncontrolled"

Then you can load them up and some aircraft even have nice touches like boarding ladders and covers

 

 

I'll have to give that a shot. I had no idea that was an option for non-static aircraft. Thanks!!

[SonofEil]

(US) Aircraft are not stored with fuel and munitions on them - and "loaded" aircraft with live ordinance are parked on the other side and not allowed on the unloaded side. I know there are technical terms but the only airfield I've been to was Bagram and I wasn't exactly trying to figure out the air field layout while there.

 

Not my experience at all. Working with A-10’s at Bagram and other deployed locations we very rarely defueled aircraft except when required for specific maintenance, usually a fuel cell inspection or closely related system. In fact aircraft are usually refueled after their flights. Munitions also stay on the aircraft and there was not a special area for armed birds. They were sitting right there on the flightline with all the other aircraft. I think rockets might have been pulled from their pods after every mission, I seem to remember hearing that they’re more susceptible to accidental firing from stray voltage, but everything else stayed on wing.

Here’s some 8mm film I took at Bagram with footage of planes just sitting around with mav’s and gbu’s hanging off them.

 

[Jetguy06]

Not my experience at all. Working with A-10’s at Bagram and other deployed locations we very rarely defueled aircraft except when required for specific maintenance, usually a fuel cell inspection or closely related system. In fact aircraft are usually refueled after their flights. Munitions also stay on the aircraft and there was not a special area for armed birds. They were sitting right there on the flightline with all the other aircraft. I think rockets might have been pulled from their pods after every mission, I seem to remember hearing that they’re more susceptible to accidental firing from stray voltage, but everything else stayed on wing.

Here’s some 8mm film I took at Bagram with footage of planes just sitting around with mav’s and gbu’s hanging off them.

 

 

 

That's some great footage, Quinn. Thanks for sharing!! I'll try the uncontrolled aircraft option and see how that works for now. I'll report back later with results.

[CAmastersgt]

I would love there to be a perpetual active campaign on a server that routinely generates missions that players can opt-in and accomplish.

 

I've worked with a number of nations and at the battalion, brigade, division, corps and higher level headquarters and it would be nice to see mission generation based on current ground unit needs. Most CAS missions happen this way whether on call or part of a fluid campaign or planned campaign. Lots of fun coordination with the ground unit (freq., call-sign, marking targets, etc.)

[WinterH]

...Browning Automatic Rifle, the BAR. Uses same 7.62mm NATO ammunition. It was .308 back in WWII...

 

Excuse me for being a pedant :P. In fact, BAR does not use 7.62 NATO, and was not .308, as 7.62 NATO and .308 are mostly the same thing. BAR used 30-06, which in metric, would be 7.62x63mm, while current NATO round is 7.62x51mm. Old round is much more powerful, but also has considerably more recoil.

 

As for the actual subject of the thread, yes high caliber flak, as well as more variety in light to medium caliber flak would be really cool.

 

Bofors 40mm is, indeed, still in use all over the world. So it really wouldn't be too far off to include in later scenarios.

 

Inclusion of SA-2 is a good step in the right direction. But some technicals and oldschool heavy AAA would be cool to have too.

 

I don't have the asset pack, but if radar directed 88mm flak is already there, I think it can be expanded to 100mm Cold War guns too.

 

As for the technicals, there's a lot of variety we could have. Give them a PKM, M2, DShK, KPV, ZU-23, S-8 pods, recoilless rifles... heck even mortars...

 

These would give light attack/COIN type aircraft some suitable playmates too.

 

Same goes for the MANPADS. They are very important types of threats in mission building, but we only have quite modern types like Stinger and Igla-S. Older types like Redeye and Strela would be rather nice to have, as they are much lesser quality, but also still threats for low flyers.

[Jarlerus]

As for the actual subject of the thread, yes high caliber flak, as well as more variety in light to medium caliber flak would be really cool.

 

Bofors 40mm is, indeed, still in use all over the world. So it really wouldn't be too far off to include in later scenarios.

 

Inclusion of SA-2 is a good step in the right direction. But some technicals and oldschool heavy AAA would be cool to have too.

 

I don't have the asset pack, but if radar directed 88mm flak is already there, I think it can be expanded to 100mm Cold War guns too.

 

As for the technicals, there's a lot of variety we could have. Give them a PKM, M2, DShK, KPV, ZU-23, S-8 pods, recoilless rifles... heck even mortars...

 

These would give light attack/COIN type aircraft some suitable playmates too.

 

Same goes for the MANPADS. They are very important types of threats in mission building, but we only have quite modern types like Stinger and Igla-S. Older types like Redeye and Strela would be rather nice to have, as they are much lesser quality, but also still threats for low flyers.

 

I throw my +1 as hard as I can towards you! :D

[DmitriKozlowsky]

Being prior service U.S. Army (no combat deployments), and what I recall from working with USAF, Navy/USMC colleagues, on our NTC rotation. This is not official policy or SOP, it s just what I recall. Aircraft on tarmac, not undergoing maintenance, may or may not be armed, as directed by commanding officer, or standing orders, depending on situation. All mounted munitions, on tactical aircraft, must be tagged with red streamers attached to ground safety devices. Jokingly referred to as Red Tag Sale, by some. For critical missions, two or more mission elements (individual aircraft) may be assigned to same target package. Meaning that if ingressing element develops an issue and has to abort, the backup takes its place. Either launched on order, or both are launched together. Parked aircraft may also be armed sitting on alert. British use term QRA, quick reaction alert. Airfields in NATO, may have specific areas where bring-back non-cannon munitions are off-loaded. In NTTR map, in Nellis, the rectangular area after DOE Tarmac, is used to offload live bring back munitions, on live fire exercises. Training (anything blue or with blue stripes) and cannon ammunition , may be offloaded at parking. However, the SOP and policy changes , per Commander's guidance. Probably forward deployment airfields, have their own SOPs and guidance depending on situation. The one and only time, that I am aware of, when Taliban showed any class, is when a force of them penetrated defenses and security of U.S. Marines and managed to destroy 8 AV-8B parked, plus two in maintenance hangar, and they managed to kill Marine Squadron Commander. While I salute my brothers and fellow Americans in Marine Corps, and I honor the sacrifice of a Marine Corps officer , who fell in combat with the enemy, I must admit that on this one occasion Taliban (who all died) did hit a legitimate military target, when seen from their point of view, instead of machine-gunning women in a stadium. This is a type of a mission that US Special Forces and those of our NATO and Pacific Allies train for. 1982 SAS raid on Argentine Air Force field to destroy Pucara attack aircraft comes to mind. The Taliban raid, resulting in destruction of parked aircraft, likely affected standing SOP, as to handling of live ammunition.

Getting back to the question of armed parked aircraft in DCS. That is already possible. Set air element on TAKE OFF FROM RAMP, and set UNCONTROLLED. Arm aircraft as desired. In mission, the uncontrolled aircraft will be shown sitting armed on tarmac with no pilot and canopy open .