The case for more Civil Aircraft Frames...

[Tank50us]

... well.... their Military versions anyway.

As many of you undoubtedly know, various military's use civil aircraft frames for a variety of roles. Most common is VIP Transport. Examples include the VC-25:
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These 737s used by the RAAF and Polish Air Forces:

And this A-340 used by the Algerian Air Force:

Now. Those are the easy ones. But many civil frames are also used for Electronic Warfare and AEW duties...

Such as, of course the 707 based frame used in the E-3:

The E-8 J-STARS:

the RC-135 Rivet Joint:

And... this... thing...

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But these aren't all. Multiple air forces have repurposed civilian aircraft to serve as AEW, ES, EA, and refueling aircraft.

This Gulfstream was converted into a Electronic Surveilance Aircraft by the Italian AF:

The RAF took the Comet, and extensively modified it into the Nimrod family of aircraft:

The Swedish Air Force also had the Saab company build this AEW:

And way more.

Now. I know many are reluctant to have these aircraft in DCS, due to the fact that ED isn't too comfortable with us killing civilians. But this thread isn't about the civil aircraft. This is about their military counterparts. Sure, many of them could be dressed up to look like airliners. Something I could theoretically do right now with the C-130 (since Lockheed does make an airliner variant of it). But I think deep down... many of us want these aircraft in the game because in actual conflicts they're present, and considered major assets by the side using them. Something worth keeping a sharp eye on.

I know that for ES and EA aircraft, their capabilities are highly classified. But even if their raw functionality isn't present, I still think having them in the game would be beneficial to mission creators.

Does anyone agree?

[MAXsenna]

With CAM you can blast down as many airliners as you want and the avarage person won't know that it's not part of DCS in any case.

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[Tank50us]

42 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

With CAM you can blast down as many airliners as you want and the avarage person won't know that it's not part of DCS in any case.

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I'm aware. I'm talking about making the examples listed part of the base game.

[Dragon1-1]

We do need more options for electronic support, but the problem is, their capabilities are mostly classified. Implementing them into DCS would be a significant challenge, in that you'd have to estimate how they interact with other assets from open source information.

[Northstar98]

3 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

We do need more options for electronic support, but the problem is, their capabilities are mostly classified. Implementing them into DCS would be a significant challenge, in that you'd have to estimate how they interact with other assets from open source information.

Yeah, but given how simplified AI sensors are (which are getting close for as simple as possible), I really doubt this would be much of a factor as the game currently stands, especially for stuff like AEW&C and AGS aircraft.

SIGINT/COMINT isn't really in the game at all (beyond snooping on unencrypted radios, which any aircraft in DCS can do, well so long as their radios are capable of receiving transmissions), though things like RC-135W would still be useful IMO, even if it's just purely there to flesh out scenarios.

The only other thing is that MPAs like the Nimrod (as much as I'd like to see MPAs such as the Nimrod, but also the P-3B and/or C Orion) are mostly dedicated towards ASW, something that is essentially completely absent in DCS. These aircraft do have ASuW capability (Nimrod received Harpoon in the mid 80s AFAIK, P-3C Orion Update II (from the late 70s/early 80s onwards) features Harpoon compatibility also).

[Exorcet]

4 hours ago, Dragon1-1 said:

We do need more options for electronic support, but the problem is, their capabilities are mostly classified. Implementing them into DCS would be a significant challenge, in that you'd have to estimate how they interact with other assets from open source information.

For the purposes of DCS, it would be good enough if say a jammer aircraft flying with a strike package just applied the default reduction in detection range against SAM's. It's consistent with current ECM behavior and would serve a purpose.

At this point I think I'd even be OK with lower poly models or even "invisible" aircraft if we could fill out the plane list. Something like JSTARS would be nice for a number of missions and if you're never next to it, it doesn't matter what the 3D model looks like.

Somewhat off topic but a 3D model-less generic aircraft that can fly at any speed could be useful in the ME for creating things such as false radar returns or for getting AI units to engage at things. I know for ground AAA we have the fire at point added a while ago, but this has limitations. Namely AI will always shoot the same spot and it can be cumbersome to setup with many units. An alternative could be to just add a "UFO" over the AAA that they can shoot at but can't shoot down to create the random fire effect.