Struggling With Task Force Challenger Mission 1

[percivaldanvers]

I got in a bit of a cold war mood and decided to revisit the Task Force Challenger campaign. Hoooo boy was I in for a rough go of it. Using the Aim 7 feels like a death sentence in the Hornet for me. Normally in a BVR situation I'll fire off a missile to try and force the enemy defensive, but I lose lock so fast that the Migs can recommit while I'm still defending their Fox 1s and then it's just downhill from there. 

For fun I tried mission 1 with the F-14A also using only Aim 7s and two times just trashed the enemy Migs and Fencers with no losses to my flight. Reviewing my flights I don't think I was actually moving that much faster or flying that much higher. Kinematically the situation was about the same in all flights: flying about Mach 1.1, launching at an altitude advantage of ~5000 ft. Every factor I can think of is the same, but I won 2/2 attempts with the F-14 with no losses and poor flying on my part (I forgot to prep the missiles prior to merge in one and still won) vs winning only 1/3 attempts with the Hornet, and losing my wingman in the one occasion where I did win. 

I can't seem to nail down exactly why that mission is so easy with the Tomcat and so hard for me with the Hornet. Maybe I'm just too used to relying on Spamrams... 

[norman99]

13 hours ago, percivaldanvers said:

launching at an altitude advantage of ~5000 ft.

Maintaining 4999ft above the target, should work well. 5001ft won’t.

The radar in the hornet has a significant (many would say very unrealistic), arbitrary look down penalty applied when the target is more than 5000ft below your aircraft. This is applied irrespective of target RCS, closure, altitude, background clutter etc etc.

Apparently ED is re-writing/improving the radar, so that it behaves more realistically. All we can do is wait and see what this brings.

Whilst not necessarily the only thing affecting you in the scenario you described, it definitely doesn’t help.

Edited May 25, 2023 by norman99

[percivaldanvers]

13 minutes ago, norman99 said:

Maintaining 4999ft above the target, should work well. 5001ft won’t.

The radar in the hornet has a significant (many would say very unrealistic), arbitrary look down penalty applied when the target is more than 5000ft below your aircraft. This is applied irrespective of target RCS, closure, altitude, background clutter etc etc.

Apparently ED is re-writing/improving the radar, so that it behaves more realistically. All we can do is wait and see what this brings.

Whilst not necessarily the only thing affecting you in the scenario you described, it definitely doesn’t help.

 

Interesting! I did notice that I did slightly better in attempts where I didn't go for as much of an altitude advantage. Perhaps that's why.

[guriak]

On 5/24/2023 at 9:13 PM, percivaldanvers said:

Interesting! I did notice that I did slightly better in attempts where I didn't go for as much of an altitude advantage. Perhaps that's why.

@percivaldanvers Here's a video of me playing through this mission last night in case you gain any insight from it, I keep roughly the same altitude as the Migs, maybe slightly higher. my first Aim 7 forced the targeted Mig 29 (closest) into the defensive but the missile misses at the last second, followed up with a sidewinder for the kill, then onto the next Mig 29 which only took one Aim 7. After that the Su-24s are a turkey shoot. Situational awareness is of course very important, if both Mig 29s survive the merge you'll need to make sure neither one can get a good firing angle on you or be ready to notch/evade and drop CMs

I'm by no means an expert or some DCS Ace, but this is what has worked for me. If others have tips to contribute, please share!

Edited May 26, 2023 by guriak