Wishlist of little enhancements to EW & Radar modelling in DCS

[falcon_120]

I think ED is making a wonderful job of recreating the most realistic consumer combat simulator available, however the EW side of this is quite simplified and it is starting to be very apparent due to level of detail achieved in other areas of the simulator (iff, radar modes, flight model...). What I would like to do is create a small list with some minor/medium improvements that could enhance the simulation even more but still would not mean a massive work from ED. So basically anything that falls within the realm of what is achievable with limited resources in a medium to longterm roadmap. Let me begin with some things i'd love to see, hopefully you could add some more ideas on your own or even qualify my own if you think they are not feasible or realistic. Let me start with some ideas:

 

1- Introduce some minor randomnes regarding false target detection. Basically this would mean to introduce if its makes sense regarding type of radar and operating mode, of some (very small % posibility) false target echoes caused by for example large quantities of chaffs or other phenomena. It is my understanding that the most simplistic yet achievable simulation would be to limit this only to chaff, as explained before, or in some cases to a specific type of jamming (though this could be too complex...).

2-Basic standoff jamming. Without getting too complex, this would mean making the first introduction of dedicated EW aircraft (EA6b, F/A18G growler...) in DCS. The most simplistic way I can think of that yet adding to the gameplay it is that the existence of this aircraft in a mission is able to reduce detection/tracking range by a small amount, or introduce some randomness of loss of radar tracking cappabilities. This would mean that they become HVA like an AWACS and killing them becomes top priority for the opossing side. Having this aircraft could mean random jamming of radio communication (specially now that in-game voice is being developed by ED).

3-Doppler cell resolution. This mean that depending of the type of radar long range target flying very close to each other can only be detected as a single contact. I think that the only developer that has simulated sometihng like this is HB in its AWG-9 but I could be wrong though. This would give meaning to the use of modes like RAID addessment in those ACs with this option.

4-Improvements to EW. The only type of jamming now existing in DCS is noise jamming up to a predefined range. Without getting too complex a nice addition could be the use of some deception jamming techniques in fighters that instead of denying long range tracking, they work by causing radar tracking problems with a predefined random distribution (so its high at long range and very very low but possible at short ranges).

 

What do you guys think of these ideas, would it be too complex or unrealistic? What else would you love to see?

[CypherS]

+1

 

The current modules and their systems are certainly pushing the edge in terms of simulation detail. Hopefully, it becomes a priority at some point when the system on the Hornet/Viper become mature

[Dakota]

+1

[Harker]

+1. Good list. I think these are perfect points for now.

I like the chaff idea, it'd allow things like chaff corridors and it'd be good if chaff actually acted like chaff (messed with radar tracking and create false returns on the radar scope etc) and not like flares for radar guided missiles. They'd need to increase the time that chaff stays in the air too.