Work with Heatblur to add supercarrier features to forrestal

[Hairdo1-1]

We now have the tomcat, a4, a6(AI model), eventually the A4 carrier varriant from heatblur. Cold War is starting to be the best era in DCS, it would be great if the carrier of the era had the supercarrier features as well

[Northstar98]

Yeah, would really love if Heatblur's Forrestal got the supercarrier treatment for people who own it.

[Gunfreak]

+ to that.

Also ww2/vientam era frigates and cruisers, so we can actually make 60/70 carrier fleet. Looks very odd taking of with the A4 and seeing Ticonderoga and Ardleigh Burke escorting the carrier. I've taken to use the British Leander class, as it looks at home in the 60s and 70s then those 80s 90s things 

[Northstar98]

11 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

Also ww2/vientam era frigates and cruisers, so we can actually make 60/70 carrier fleet. Looks very odd taking of with the A4 and seeing Ticonderoga and Ardleigh Burke escorting the carrier. I've taken to use the British Leander class, as it looks at home in the 60s and 70s then those 80s 90s things 

Well, in that case you'd also need a 60s/70s aircraft carrier

We have a post SLEP Forrestal (so mid 1980s at the earliest), pre-SLEP it had significantly different weapons and sensors (and how far back you go, the more different they get - no Mk 15 Phalanx, BPDMS instead of NSSMS/IBPDMS, 5"/54 Mk 42 guns). During Vietnam, Forrestal would've had 4 5"/54 Mk 42 guns.

The Ticonderoga we have is mid-to-late 2000s at the earliest (Mk 38 Mod 2, Mk 15 Phalanx Block 1B), the Arleigh Burke, at the earliest, ranges from 2007 with DDG 101 to 2018 with DDG 116.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Northstar98

[Tank50us]

This is already something that's planned for the Forrestal. No ETA on it yet, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Heatblur drops it around the same time as the Phantom. It's also possible that they're waiting for ED to finish all of the SCM features before putting them on the Forrestal class. Which makes sense... why add it now, and then have to do a ton of work to do it again.

[Gunfreak]

13 hours ago, Northstar98 said:

Well, in that case you'd also need a 60s/70s aircraft carrier

We have a post SLEP Forrestal (so mid 1980s at the earliest), pre-SLEP it had significantly different weapons and sensors (and how far back you go, the more different they get - no Mk 15 Phalanx, BPDMS instead of NSSMS/IBPDMS, 5"/54 Mk 42 guns). During Vietnam, Forrestal would've had 4 5"/54 Mk 42 guns.

The Ticonderoga we have is mid-to-late 2000s at the earliest (Mk 38 Mod 2, Mk 15 Phalanx Block 1B), the Arleigh Burke, at the earliest, ranges from 2007 with DDG 101 to 2018 with DDG 116.

 

The Forrestall still looks more like the 1960/70s Forrestal than a a Ardleigh Burke looks like a Fletcher. 

[Silver_Dragon]

11 hours ago, Tank50us said:

This is already something that's planned for the Forrestal. No ETA on it yet, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Heatblur drops it around the same time as the Phantom. It's also possible that they're waiting for ED to finish all of the SCM features before putting them on the Forrestal class. Which makes sense... why add it now, and then have to do a ton of work to do it again.

I highly doubt it, there is still a lot of technology to implement and I have a feeling that this is not going to be easy to "export" to a 3rd Party aircraft carrier (Heatblur Forrestal / Razbam LHA-1 / 25 de Mayo / etc), without an API stable. In addition, it does not cover for now, helicopter operations on ships or those of the future WW2 aircraft carrier carrier operations (Leatherneck USS Yorktown (CV-10) "Long-hull" Essex CVA / Commencement Bay CVE).

[Northstar98]

3 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

The Forrestall still looks more like the 1960/70s Forrestal than a a Ardleigh Burke looks like a Fletcher. 

Can't argue with that

[SkateZilla]

There is no HB A-4, ...

[Silver_Dragon]

On 11/4/2023 at 5:13 PM, Hairdo1-1 said:

We now have the tomcat, a4, a6(AI model), eventually the A4 carrier varriant from heatblur. Cold War is starting to be the best era in DCS, it would be great if the carrier of the era had the supercarrier features as well

A-4 has none a official module by ED or 3rd Party o DCS World... the A-4 show on the ED official videos, has only a Mod used to promote DCS World.

[upyr1]

On 11/4/2023 at 12:13 PM, Hairdo1-1 said:

We now have the tomcat, a4, a6(AI model), eventually the A4 carrier varriant from heatblur. Cold War is starting to be the best era in DCS, it would be great if the carrier of the era had the supercarrier features as well

I think you mean f4h Phantom II. I would love the Super carrier and some cold war destroyers and cruisers and the Iowa-class battleships 

Edited November 6, 2023 by upyr1

[RaisedByWolves]

There is an AI, A-6?

[draconus]

5 hours ago, RaisedByWolves said:

There is an AI, A-6?

Not yet added to DCS.

[upyr1]

On 11/4/2023 at 6:54 PM, Northstar98 said:

Well, in that case you'd also need a 60s/70s aircraft carrier

We have a post SLEP Forrestal (so mid 1980s at the earliest), pre-SLEP it had significantly different weapons and sensors (and how far back you go, the more different they get - no Mk 15 Phalanx, BPDMS instead of NSSMS/IBPDMS, 5"/54 Mk 42 guns). During Vietnam, Forrestal would've had 4 5"/54 Mk 42 guns.

The Ticonderoga we have is mid-to-late 2000s at the earliest (Mk 38 Mod 2, Mk 15 Phalanx Block 1B), the Arleigh Burke, at the earliest, ranges from 2007 with DDG 101 to 2018 with DDG 116.

 

The SLEP ended in 1985. So we have a 22-year period where we have a carrier and no escorts. 

Here are some period-correct cruiser classes and subclasses I'm not dealing with individual fittings There are a few that could be added

 Lehey (1962-1995) 9 built

Belknap (CGN) (1964-1995)  9 built

Long Beach (CGN) (1961-1995) 1 built she normally escorted New Jersey in the 80s

California (CGN) (1974-1999) 2 built

Virginia (CGN)(1976-1998) 4 built- and we get  Texas 

Ticonderoga-class (Mk26) 2 built they were available before 1985

Ticonderoga-class (VLS) Available from 1985 on.  The easiest to get into DCS  our late refit variants can stand in for now

Destroyers-

Forrest Sherman-class (1955-1988) 18 built

Farragut class (1959 - 1993) 10 built

Charles F. Adams-class- (1960 -2003) 23 built

Spruance-class destroyer (1975 -2005) 31 built

Kidd-class (1981-1999) 4 built

Arleigh-Burke Flight 1 1991 onwards

Arleigh-Burke Flight II 1998 onwards

Arleigh-Burke Flight IIA 2000 onwards (in DCS already)

Frigates

Garcia-class (1964-1990) 10 built

Brooke- class (1962-1989) 6 built

Knox-class (1969-1994) 46 built

Oliver-hazard Perry-class (1977-2015) 71 built

 

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I don't think we'll see everything on the list, at least for a while, so we have to decide what we do we want to see added. The first issue is what will take the least amount of work. As we already have the Burke, Tico, and OHPs in DCS those would be the top candidates to look at.  I'm not sure how well DCS models navionics however weaponry can be more obvious. 

So let's take a look at the Burkes for an example. We currently have flight 2a Burkes which carry more missiles than the previous ships in the class. So it might make sense to keep the 2As as their own class/subclass and have the 1 and 2 combined into one (at least at first) and possibly divided later. 

 So if we get the flight 1 and 2 Burkes that takes the Destroyers to 1990 and by adding the MK26 armed Ticos we can get as far back as 1983. As for what other classes, that is another issue. Clearly, a battlegroup for a given period in DCS should look like one did in real life. I'm not sure which criteria should be given more weight, so I think we need a chart where each class is given a score based on the following criteria Number of ships in the class, years in service, variants, doctrine/practice/mission set,  and fame. 

The first three issues should be obvious, everything else being equal ED should focus on the larger classes with the longest service lives with the least amount of change. 

Now we have to balance out what ship types were actually in a typical battlegroup plus what makes the most sense to have in DCS based on the mission set. The mission sets should be given the following priority multi-mission, AA, and ASW.  Even though AWS currently doesn't exist in DCS, ASW ships still make sense for the sake of accuracy.