How to use AWACS' declare / correctly use iff?

[Darcaem]

Totally noob question.

I bought the F1 as soon as it was available but I haven't actually use it until this summer, and I'm having a blast. Used to the F18's avionics and SA, flying this third generation jet is super fun. I've done Carsten's tutorial, read the manual and flight a lot a custom cold war sandbox mission I made. Now I started a retribution campaign and I have realized I cannot do proper CAP since I don't really know how to operate iff, use AWACS nor build a proper SA picture. In my custom sandbox I didn't have this issue since I know more or less where my allied are and the general heading where enemies might be. But in the retributions missions I have already shoot down my own AWACS twice 

My main problem is the AWACS in on the same general heading as the bandits and more or less at the same altitude and distance as the reported bandit. So what I do is to lock the first "suspicious boogie" I get on my radar, and with it locked I has AWACS to declare. It responds "contact is unknonwn", so I assume since it is not detected as friendly it must be a bandit... turns out the contact was the AWACS itself.

Long story short, can I rely on AWACS' "declare" call? And if I can, how should I properly do it? For context, I fly the EE in missions set around 1985 and the bandits are usually migs (Warsaw Pact available aircraft). And I cannot interrogate mysenf since the EE does not have the proper equipment, does it?

Thanks!

[omohat]

I'd love to know this as well. I've tried this mapping on PvP Cold War servers with decidedly mixed results.

[Vibora]

In the Mirage F1 other airplanes can see if we are friend or foe when setting the IFF, but we can't identify other aircrafts. There is no interrogation by itself. So, the 'AWACS Declare' is the only way to know if the target is friend of enemy, depending on the circumstances.

Edited yesterday at 09:23 AM by Vibora

[Darcaem]

On 8/28/2025 at 11:00 AM, Vibora said:

In the Mirage F1 other airplanes can see if we are friend or foe when setting the IFF, but we can't identify other aircrafts. There is no interrogation by itself. So, the 'AWACS Declare' is the only way to know if the target is friend of enemy, depending on the circumstances.

Thanks!

Yeah, I tested a very simple mission with a blue, red and neutral C130s and an E2D, and AWACS declared all three correctly has friendly, hostile and neutral. Thing is if you lock the AWACS itself and ask them to declare, they declare contact as "unknown". So, everything understood, AWACS does declare fine and it is reliable, just I have to bear in mind that he cannot declared himself if locked by mistake. I must improve my sa I guess...