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Is Iran F-14 still planned?


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15 minutes ago, WolfHound009 said:

what will be the difference between the Early -135 and the -95 ?

 

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An early "135" isn't really any different from the existing A except in the RWR and lack of LANTIRN, plus the old style gun vents. Technically the ALR-45 jets have visual differences from ALR-67 equipped ones as well but unsure if those nuances will be remodeled or not.

At one point there were some thoughts about making the ALQ-126 jammer blisters and TCS mountable "pods", which would allow the early and late A models to more easily represent a broader range of production Tomcats (if you pretend the beaver tail isn't there). Even neater would be if ED's framework would allow for one module to be configured differently based on dates or assigned country, because then you wouldn't need a separate Iran jet. I'm hoping it's still a consideration, as making some of those model changes might be very invasive and resource intensive, same with the dynamic MODEX. I don't care about dynamic MODEX myself but I get that others do.

 

As for scope/feature creep, at this point it appears each HB module will be benefiting from other module developments. Existing code and features speeds up development in some areas, and as breakthroughs are made, they are reworking older features to improve them. The Phantom will be benefiting from the groundwork laid by the Tomcat, and the Tomcat will benefit further from the work that will go into the Phantom. And the Intruder will likely benefit from both, as by then the pilot/BN animations will have matured from the Tomcat and Phantom. Jester's LANTIRN functions will likely be a big part of the groundwork for the A-6's BN AI, and I'd bet whatever WSO work is done for the F-4E will also carry over to both the Tomcat and Intruder. And the Viggen tangentially is benefitting from all this as system coding can trickle its way down. That and things like the Bullpup might be built from that one missile the Viggen has, and then backwards again if the new code is superior. Or maybe folks would like the Tomcat to be like the F-5E, F-86, and be left as "done" with issues still existing while resources are put elsewhere?

I've been waiting for mostly visual changes on the F-14, but I haven't been screeching about it. Just casually sending pictures of my growing mountain of flight gear, HGU-55s, and HGU-33s to Cobra. Hell, a few of us folks started just making the changes and documenting it so we'd actually be helpful when the time comes. But I suppose it's a mindset thing. I've been hammering away at school and work so that when the time comes, I can start pumping out Tomcat skins and helmets. Whenever the new helmets arrive there's going to be a ton of work to do, and frankly I'd rather help and contribute than complain.

 

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On 5/3/2022 at 12:25 PM, LanceCriminal86 said:

Even neater would be if ED's framework would allow for one module to be configured differently based on dates or assigned country, because then you wouldn't need a separate Iran jet.

 

The C-101 has this feature, you can see the shape of the nose change if you select different liveries! Surprized me a lot when i saw that

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23 minutes ago, Hotel Tango said:

The C-101 has this feature, you can see the shape of the nose change if you select different liveries! Surprized me a lot when i saw that

Yeah, that's based on animation arguments though. What I'm talking about is deeper integration of the date system in MV as well as assigned country to actually determine loadouts, systems. The specific case being just making a -95 GR Tomcat, and the Iran configuration disables some of the functions and locks it to only using the ALQ-100 pod without a TCS, locking out the ALQ-126 blisters. Technically the Iranians had the Air Force style helmets and harnesses but that would mean another pilot remodel. Maybe when the F-4E comes in, they could "port" those crew over to the Tomcat but for now that's a lot lower on the pole than working out the system differences.

And the challenge for the Tomcat is it's much higher on the poly count and textures than the C-101, trying to store all those different possible configurations in the Tomcat would likely cause a serious performance impact after talking it over. As much as I would love to see every configuration of the external model available as an animation argument, concessions will have to be made. Me, I'd be fine settling for having to keep the late beaver tail if we can swap out the TCS and enable/disable the ALQ-126. Then the early and late A model can be mostly correct to represent older blocks back to the ~ 90-GR range through the last 140-GRs, the older jets that were still around in the mid-late 90s, and the newer late blocks that finally did get the DFCS, ALR-67, LANTIRN, PTID, etc. The reserve squadrons had a mix of these, with 201 through 1998, while the fleet squadrons mainly had the 110-115+ GR blocks through the end. 161134 at Valiant is one of the few I've seen that were pre-ALQ-126 but still served through with VF-41 to Afghanistan. Almost every other jet has been the very late blocks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As far as TCS options go, I am hoping that there will be some way to simulate an early USN -A and by early I mean with the ALQ-100 pod slick, no TCS, no Bullet fairing. I know In theory that the -95GR (IIRAF) That HB is working on could be used for this and this comes with its own set of compromises in terms of simulating a early USN -A. The fuel tanks won't be usable and theres no ACLS. However these are minor points (I dont mean to sound ungrateful).

i originally thought that it may have been better to have a USN 95-GR that has the options to remove fuel tank pylons and disable ACLS? Cos then within that, Iranian and USN -95GRs could be simulated. However, what I have just said comes with its own set of issues as this USN -95GR would leave the REDFOR without an F-14.

Maybe, a compromise could be to allow the -135-GR (Early) to have a TCS option/feature where it would be possible to only have the ALQ-100 sensor mounted to the nose without the actual TCS/Bullet fairing, this way the simulation of an 'Early (1970s)' USN -A becomes possible. 

 

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5 hours ago, WolfHound009 said:

Maybe, a compromise could be to allow the -135-GR (Early) to have a TCS option/feature where it would be possible to only have the ALQ-100 sensor mounted to the nose without the actual TCS/Bullet fairing, this way the simulation of an 'Early (1970s)' USN -A becomes possible. 

 

I think this is what they're meaning to do, make an animation argument to exclude the TCS in favor of the ALQ-100. 

As a side note, don't confuse a mid-70s 90/95-GR with an early 70's 70/75-GR. That early F-14 is visibly structurally different than the jets delivered to the USN or Iran after 1975. We'll most likely never have the initial service Tomcats, as interesting as that would be.

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DCSF-14AOK3A.jpg

DCSF14AOK3B.png

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29 minutes ago, Swordsman422 said:

I think this is what they're meaning to do, make an animation argument to exclude the TCS in favor of the ALQ-100. 

As a side note, don't confuse a mid-70s 90/95-GR with an early 70's 70/75-GR. That early F-14 is visibly structurally different than the jets delivered to the USN or Iran after 1975. We'll most likely never have the initial service Tomcats, as interesting as that would be.

Early 70s F-14s had that chin pod right? It looked a bit like a TCS but i'm not sure.

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51 minutes ago, WolfHound009 said:

Early 70s F-14s had that chin pod right? It looked a bit like a TCS but i'm not sure.

Some of the really early ones (like in the first deployments of VF-1) had an IRST pod that turned out to not work very well, so it was deleted.

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External features of the F-14A really had 3 main groups. The first being the prototype and initial production jets with different beaver tails and 7 gun vents, then the main production lots from around 75/80 GR onwards, and then after the end of 110-GR where the upgrades to the jammers were introduced through the final 140-GR jets around 86/87. There were some minor changes within those times but the big splits were from the initial production batches to the ultimate "Standard" and then the late blocks that adopted close to what was in the F-14A+ minus the actual ALR-67 RWR (but apparently set up to be able to receive it, which they did late 90s-early 00s). 90 or 95-GR introduced the probe on the tip of the radome but that's less noticeable than the ALQ-126 humps and new beaver tail, or the 7-hole gun vents.

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VF-11 and VF-31 1988 [WIP]

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