Wasserkuppe Radar Station and "Fliegerhorst"

[FreshTheFallen]

 

Hello DCS-community and Ugra-Media,

 

first of all, thank you Ugra-Media for this amazing map, the level of detail is amazing and IMO it truly captures the "feel" of the region. I was flying around the area near Fulda in the East of Hessen where I live, and while I obviously did not expect picture perfect accuracy for everything (while the villages and towns are in the right location, the way the roads between them flow definetely isn't map accurate Also quite funny to see a nearby village being turned into a pure industrial complex ) it still felt familar. The most notable sites like the Fulda cathedral and the Palace (thankfully without that godawful "new" tower cap) are immediately recognizable.

 

However, flying further east towards the GDR I was surprised to find the peak of the Wasserkuppe, the highest "mountain" in the Rhön area, to be completely empty. Considering the history of this particular mountain as the site of one of the earliest glider flight schools, and then later during the Cold War as one of the prime sites for US/NATO radar surveillance of the GDR airspace I would have thought this to be a significant enough site to model as a potential point of interest (cripple/defend NATO radar surveillance capability of this area). Unfortunately I could only find german documentaries detailing the history of the mountain, but for those interested: 

While today only 1 dome exists, there were up to 4 concurrent radar emplacements on the mountaintop which could be modelled for the Cold War era. Especially because of its significance as a radar station during hte cold war, I'd love to see this area modelled more accurately on the map.

 

[Northstar98]

Echoing my thoughts on other threads - the radome should be a static object, not a scenery object, so we can place functional radars in the right locations.

If it's a scenery object, we won't be able to use the site as a functional EWR site.

[Blackbahia]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb FreshTheFallen:

 

Hello DCS-community and Ugra-Media,

 

first of all, thank you Ugra-Media for this amazing map, the level of detail is amazing and IMO it truly captures the "feel" of the region. I was flying around the area near Fulda in the East of Hessen where I live, and while I obviously did not expect picture perfect accuracy for everything (while the villages and towns are in the right location, the way the roads between them flow definetely isn't map accurate Also quite funny to see a nearby village being turned into a pure industrial complex ) it still felt familar. The most notable sites like the Fulda cathedral and the Palace (thankfully without that godawful "new" tower cap) are immediately recognizable.

 

However, flying further east towards the GDR I was surprised to find the peak of the Wasserkuppe, the highest "mountain" in the Rhön area, to be completely empty. Considering the history of this particular mountain as the site of one of the earliest glider flight schools, and then later during the Cold War as one of the prime sites for US/NATO radar surveillance of the GDR airspace I would have thought this to be a significant enough site to model as a potential point of interest (cripple/defend NATO radar surveillance capability of this area). Unfortunately I could only find german documentaries detailing the history of the mountain, but for those interested: 

While today only 1 dome exists, there were up to 4 concurrent radar emplacements on the mountaintop which could be modelled for the Cold War era. Especially because of its significance as a radar station during hte cold war, I'd love to see this area modelled more accurately on the map.

 

They have modelled the Radar Station on the Wasserkuppe...unfortunately 2,5 nm away from the correct position!nullnull

[FreshTheFallen]

On 4/25/2025 at 11:08 PM, Blackbahia said:

They have modelled the Radar Station on the Wasserkuppe...unfortunately 2,5 nm away from the correct position!nullnull

My guess is they generated that thing more than handcrafted it, as with most more rural areas of the map I've seen so far. As mentioned above, I know the area and a bunch of roads don't follow the real ones, and some villages just get turned into industrial complexes. That asset probably also is a just a generic thing anyway that is placed multiple times across the map.

My concern was that with the historical significance, esp. relating to the cold war, of this being an important radar site and military base (first controlled by the US, later by the Bundeswehr) surveilling the airspace around the Fulda Gap I think it should get more love and some dedicated assets at some point.