ASAT/GPS Jamming Environment

[WHOGX5]

I'd like to propose the ability to simulate a no-GPS environment in DCS. Much like the USAF's Red Flag exercises that are regularly flown in GPS blackout conditions I'd like to have the ability to fly in the same conditions in DCS. Reason being that a full scale war between any of the worlds superpowers would probably result in the immediate destruction of GPS satellites, or at least the jamming of GPS signals forcing aircraft to use INS navigation like in the old days. A simple checkbox or a trigger that can be set in the mission editor to toggle this feature would suffice.

 

This would be quite a simple addition that would only require that modern aircraft actually have a modeled INS and the ability to update the INS via fixes. It would provide a completely new challenge to people who fly modern fighter jets like the F/A-18C and F-16C and it would also give mission makers a tool to put aircraft from different eras on a more even keel, while staying 100% true to realism. Just like it would in real life, a GPS jamming environment would hamper the reliance on standoff precision weapons like JDAMs, JSOWs and SLAM-ERs and make GBU's, MAVs or even dumb bombs a more viable option. Flight plans would have to take terrain and landmarks into account to allow for easy updating of the INS rather than simply flying a point A to point B mission. This in-turn would make maps containing lots of water or big, featureless deserts a bigger challenge to navigate in just like they would in real life. All in all, it'd add a completely new type of gameplay for all GPS-capable fighter jets in DCS.

[Tippis]

You can essentially do this already by setting the mission date early enough for GPS to not be active. I don't remember off the top of my head exactly what it considers the cut-off date, but 1980 will do the trick.

 

Whether this will have an impact on the specific aircraft (and if so, how) is a different matter altogether, though…

[Frederf]

I swear under the old Black Shark game you could set GLONASS inoperative. Various GPS environments (full, degraded, non existent) would be a cool environmental variable. But the environmental variable would be the easy part. The hard part would be coding every aircraft (ship?) how to properly react.

[SparxOne]

8 hours ago, Frederf said:

The hard part would be coding every aircraft (ship?) how to properly react.

 

And imagine the part where they'd need to implement all this logic to the AI 

[WHOGX5]

On 8/23/2021 at 2:53 AM, SparxOne said:

 

And imagine the part where they'd need to implement all this logic to the AI 

It would be cool if they did but I definitely don't think it's a necessity. 90% of the effect of implementing this would apply to players themselves. If you're fighting an AI that has GPS compared to one that doesn't the difference would barely be noticeable by the players. Most of the AI aircraft we currently have in-game don't have a GPS system as it is and they still act in a believable way. In the end, a pilot without GPS who knows how to properly manage the INS would practically navigate as well as one who has a GPS. The main difference would be in the planning stages and some additional workload during the mission for whoever only has an INS, but the end result would be quite similar.

[Frederf]

AI weapons would be affected but AI airplane navigation should probably not. I don't think the AI has variable precision in its navigation based on skill level or any other factor.

[WobblyFlops]

The other issue is that some aircraft like the Hornet simply don't have a nav system that models INS only operations properly. It kind of works but the update options are finnicky and bugged. It's a great idea on paper but it'd only be feasible if at the very least the flagship ED modules had working degraded NAV modes with in fixes being possible.

[QuiGon]

I think it was 1994. Any mission set prior to 1994 will have no GPS available in DCS.