MiG-29 - The good, the bad, and the ugly

[av8orDave]

First, the good: ED has done an outstanding job of modeling the Fulcrum. The visuals look great, the performance feels right, and it provides a great suspension of disbelief; it feels like you’re in an early 4th gen fighter.

The bad: I’ve always suspected, read, heard that the 4th gen Russian aircraft were high performance, short legged, and barely more advanced than a household microwave. They could climb and turn as well as anything, but could do so for barely any time, and were so primitive they wouldn’t be effective in a peer to peer environment.

The ugly: The sim confirms the bad. The radar is barely functional, the cockpit ergonomics are horrendous, and the RWR is basically just a noisemaker with flashing lights. 

So, having said the above, I think the MiG is going to take a ton of practice in order to be able to use effectively.

[Cgjunk2]

The other option besides trying to learn how to use it effectively, is to just pretend you’re a billionaire with enough disposable money to buy and feed your own mig-29.  Then just fly the jet with total abandon, roll coal, and make very, very expensive holes in the sky.  This plane has the perfect FM for that!  

[Harlikwin]

So, I think ED got the RWR wrong in the regard that the SPO 15 was not "blind" in the frontal arc, there is a maintenance doc that talks about properly "blanking"/synching the SPO-15 when using the radar.

But I think this maintenance tended not to be done by some allied countries (or they lacked spare parts), and the reversion mode just shuts it off if its out of synch. 

There is also a serbian account of a mig29 pilot that was trying to lock up a western jet when his RWR went off and he was able to evade the missile.

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Harlikwin

[av8orDave]

Just saying… it is easy to see how the F-15 has been the end of many MiG-29’s… and why the roles were never reversed.

[Harlikwin]

1 minute ago, av8orDave said:

Just saying… it is easy to see how the F-15 has been the end of many MiG-29’s… and why the roles were never reversed.

Well "a few 29's" but yeah. And at least in the gulf and the balkans the F15's were mostly still "cold war" era (ish). But most people don't realize that all the fancy radar modes etc on the F15 only came in the late 80's. So, early on it would have been a bit more challenging for NATO. Not to mention there were only 2-3 squadrons of F15's in europe total. 

Per soviet doctrine, 29's weren't supposed to fight F15's anyway unless it was a GCI directed ambush. 

Vipers are another story.

 

 

 

[av8orDave]

1 hour ago, Harlikwin said:

Well "a few 29's" but yeah. And at least in the gulf and the balkans the F15's were mostly still "cold war" era (ish). But most people don't realize that all the fancy radar modes etc on the F15 only came in the late 80's. So, early on it would have been a bit more challenging for NATO. Not to mention there were only 2-3 squadrons of F15's in europe total. 

Per soviet doctrine, 29's weren't supposed to fight F15's anyway unless it was a GCI directed ambush. 

Vipers are another story.

 

 

 

Best I can find, the -15 has downed seven MiG-29’s in total (5 in Desert Storm, 2 in Kosovo). 

My big takeaway from the DCS module so far is that the avionics are just stunningly bad… the radar is pretty rough and the RWR is almost useless. The HMD is pretty cool and adds some nice capability within visual range, if you can manage to survive that long. 

[Kuky]

Hm, I agree about ED probably modelling the RWR badly by adding this  inability to use it while radar is on, I think this effect is not how they came by default but by lack of maintenance, so I think ED should change this to match the intended/default function of it and not the effect of lack of maintenance as it is now. If it stays like it is now RWR is pretty much useless and maybe I'm wrong but I just can't see the logic of why Soviet engineers would make the 29 like this from factory as it makes use of RWR on 29 pretty much irrelevant.

[352ndOscar]

 

Quote

Not to mention there were only 2-3 squadrons of F15's in europe total.

CORRECTION:

• 36th Fighter Wing, at Bitburg Air Base, GE
  • 22d Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (BT
  • 53d Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (BT)
  • 525th Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (BT)
• 32nd Fighter Squadron, at Soesterberg AB,
  • 32nd Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (CR)
• 48th Fighter Wing – RAF Lakenheath, UK
  • 492d Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (LN)
  • 493d Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (LN)
  • 494th Fighter Squadron, with 24x F-15C Eagle (LN)

168 F-15C authorized…..

Edited 8 hours ago by 352ndOscar

[SAM77]

Radar is pretty much useless online MP. Not as bad in the instant action missions. SPO lock tone is brutal to my ears even at low volume. Well aware it's EA so no biggie. Everything else is superb!

[Dudikoff]

8 hours ago, Kuky said:

If it stays like it is now RWR is pretty much useless and maybe I'm wrong but I just can't see the logic of why Soviet engineers would make the 29 like this from factory as it makes use of RWR on 29 pretty much irrelevant.

Unless it's something they couldn't solve at that moment and left it for later (like e.g. the TWF mode sometimes overwhelming the Ts100 computer, which was fixed with Ts100M, IIRC).

But, yeah, this sounds like something that should be made optional as it was definitely not designed to work like this.

Edited 1 hour ago by Dudikoff