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My friend had to break open the piggy bank and dust off his finest Scottish pound notes to purchase this

Solid turnout last night chaps. Thanks to @fruitbat, @DD_Fenrir, @BluBear, @PapaBear, @wingflyr, @Zukker, @delta7 and a guest appearance from @Crash along with myself of course. Everyone was able to chip in and make a solid contribution and play their part in the advancement of the campaign. We continue to make good ground managing to take an another airport and FARP in our new drive back to the east. A strong showing by the F16 is starting to show benefits of good team work to attack targets with excellent aircover provided by the F14. Well done chaps.

UPDATE 3rd June A difficult night with the enemy putting up strong resistance via multiple air threats and long range SAM defences. After valid efforts from myself, @fruitbat, @BluBear, @delta7, @wingflyr and @DD_Fenrir (well a bit at the end, but still appreciated) we managed to capture Anapa. We have now reached the end of the move up the coast toward the west and will now be starting our fight moving more inland and eastwards. Well done chaps. NOTE: High Command would like to see @delta7 at HQ first thing Monday morning to discuss how he managed to take out our AWACS plane, causing us to have problems locating targets for the rest of the mission. Luckily HQ have been able to call up on the reserves and another unit is on station providing the data-link information.

I know another person who bought the F-16 after he had enough of getting shot down in the sluggish Su 25T when doing SEAD missions over and over again 😉 I've heard he will join you once he finds time to fly again and has prepared the basic controls

Not to blow one's trumpet, but last night I trapped first time on an Essex carrier. (Wingflyer as my witness) I'm not saying it was pretty and it may have been the last available wire, but I done it, honest. This is going to be a fun module!

And some more.....

Since more and more of us are getting the mighty Viper, this post is going to go through the steps you need to do to get the full functionality of datalink, rather than just the basic functions that you get with a dynamic spawn. Full functionality gives you the ability to not only share targets with the push of a button, but you can see what targets your team members are targeting, both air to air and air to ground on the HSD, you can hook team members via the HSD and have visual cues as to where they are in the helmet, In general its a real situational awareness huge plus especially in air to air. On top of that it allows for the full power of the HTS pod to be utilised, and quickly get PGML 1 locks on enemy SAM's, by using 3 or more HTS pods to triangulate the enemy SAM positions, and are accurate enough to use JDAM's on, negated the enemies ability to turn of its search radar when HARM's are employed. Once you have done it a few times, it is very easy, and takes a minute, and can be done at the airfield before moving. It is however critical it is done perfectly, otherwise it will not work. First up, press the LIST button, then hit the ENTER button, then use the DOBBER switch and go right twice, this will show the STN page on the DED, see below, Next we have to populate the STN numbers. These are 5 digit octal numbers, and there are 8 available slots, for a total of 8 team members. The critical thing here is, that everyone populates this list with the same numbers. I suggest we use the same numbers as a Dogz standard and just use, 00200 00201 00202 00203 etc up to 00207. We only need to populate with enough numbers as vipers flying. To enter these numbers you need to Dobber up and down until the Asterix's are bracketing the slot you want to enter, In this screenshot number 2 slot is ready to be set, as shown by the Asterix's bracketing it. once the number is typed in via the ICP, press enter on the ICP. Lastly everyone needs to pick a unique own ship number between 1 and 8, which we will have to allocate there and then on comms, to get to that, dobber down until the own ship number is bracketed, as shown below, Enter your number and press Enter. That is the Datalink set up. To get the full HTS pod functionality, one extra step has to be taken to add to the TDOA network, and that is to add the T in front of the STN number. this is quick and easy, just dobber down in front of each STN number to get the Asterix's either side of that position as shown by there position in the first screenshot, and type any number on the ICP and the T will appear, that' all that need to be done. Happy flying!

A bit of advice to those new to Beyond Visual Range weapons employment; the Crank is the most fundamental tactic to be employed and if you don't know it or how to use it you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage when engaging other BVR capable enemies in DCS. The purpose of the Crank is as follows: To limit your downrange travel by reducing your relative velocity towards the enemy thus keeping you further from the enemy (and potentially out of his weapons employment envelope) till the time your missile impacts than if you had kept driving toward the bandit To reduce the weapons employment envelope of the bandit by significantly offsetting the intercept point, causing (i) any missile he employs to pull a significant amount of lead and thus expend energy, and (ii) extending the flight time of that missile and thus depleting it of further energy and reducing it's terminal phase manoeuvrability and therefore lethality.

UPDATE 26th June 2025 We will be running the latest version this evening. Please see below the changes since our last version 1.4.9 Added NoSA10AndSA11. Now include SA-15 that will be downgraded to SA-8. This can be toggled in the editor. Added to the Escort A10, F15E and Herc. "Flight sweep" and "Engage if engaged" Tweaks to the Dynamic shop items across all. Changed Jtac is now immortal. they get killed by blue players. Also, forced EPLRS ON (Datalink) Changed The shop Select Target menu Now include waypoint number and will be sorted by the numbers, from lowest to highest. Changed Blue side when era is cold war to suit that time period. Fixed issue with Hercules and CTLD they could not be dropped on the ground from the air. Fixed CTLD Capture troops. In some instances they would only capture ( first group) second would not upgrade Performance tweaks to AIEN, zone patrolling. Before, when the ground was about to move, it checked the distance on the road vs offroad, which cost a lot using findPathOnRoads. Now that result of the first check if it decide to use On Road, it will use that path by storing it. Also, zone patrol will not move if AIEN have marked them as UnderAttack since they might move due to reaction. I also store each subzone, if they are near the road and there are many of them. At least 10-15 per zone. This happens at mission start hence the load time might be longer. I even store the distance between each zone and which zone are closest to player zone and much more. All this happens at mission start to keep the flow under the mission. Fixed a bug that could kill the server when bought twice DYNAMIC CAP, Dynamic bomber and Dynamic SEAD. only those 3. Added Dynamic spawn on the CTLD FARP. ( Those don't have any template ) Added CTLD farp zons to be a valid supply zone. Added the possibility to drop off CSAR pilots inside of CTLD zones. Increased CSAR credit payout from 100 to 300 Fixed a bug in CSAR when AI or player without credits ejected, the message of pilot in need of rescue would not come even when asked manually from the CSAR menu. Removed Trace from the script that was i forgot to disable Fixed bugs bugs across the board.

Looks like I have bought it. Just need to calibrate pointCTRL and go through the video settings. Should be done this week (I get quite busy sometimes)

Looks like I will have to buy it. Other news, virtual desktop working and my PointCTRL finger pointing clicky thing isnt f##ked up, virtual kneeboard works, so it is looking promising.

Quick thrown together mission is now live on the server. All WWII planes (inc I16 and trainer P51) are available from the Blue land base. Red targets as marked. Mainly ground attack.

I said no more DCS but now the Cold War map and this makes me think again.

I think as soon as this is released it is going to be an instant buy for many of us, I will therefore be creating a mission to put up that uses the new map, the carrier and the F4U. I will make sure other WWII planes are included from a land based airfield.

Some new pics, Supposed to come out in the next patch.....

Any good advice/ tutorials for F16 - asking for a friend 😚

very useful for situational awareness and iff which im sure the awacs crews are eternally grateful for

Fake news 🤔

I have just uploaded a new version of this simple mission. I have removed the red 109's and replaced them with groups of "Zeros" (190 A8's with zero camo) set at 50% combat strength. (thanks for heads up @wingflyr, that feature had been hiding in plain sight ) I have also added a trigger zone so that they will not start until we go looking for trouble across the bay.

The B1 entered service in 1956. Along the way they had upgrades to produce the B1A. These had different wings(?), electronic counter measures and capability of in-flight refuelling and uprated engines. In 1960 the B2 entered service with all the changes the B1A had plus different, more powerful engines and lots of detail differences to accommodate them. They also had a great deal of radio and nav equipment updates. As Soviet missile and fighter development advanced the Vulcan's operational profile was changed in the mid-sixties to a low level attack and B2 airframes were strengthened to reflect this. As our primary nuclear deterent was about to change to submarine launched Polaris missiles it was judged not cost effective to upgrade B1 aircraft to low level work and they were all withdrawn by the late sixties. When I was at school we had a maths teacher who had been a v-bomber navigator in the RAF and he could occasionally be persuaded to talk about it. For all bomber crews, whether they were British, American or Soviet, nuclear war was a one way trip. No one had the range to return home after bombing their enemies major cities. The Vulcan's fuel use at extreme ranges in combat use was apparently a bit of a mystery and it was generally accepted that the Vulcan force would run out of juice somewhere over western Poland or East Germany on the way back. There was some debate over whether they'd get a better reception from the Poles or the Stasi....

Depends on what bombs.... For Snake eyes and dive bombing you want to be in CCIP (easy and very effective with dumb bombs), for level (ish) bombing on a waypoint or dropping LGB's on a target in your TGP you want either DTOS or CCRP (function very similar, DTOS allows more flexibility with designating, particularly using the Helmet). There is also a hybrid CCIP/CCRP mode which can be useful for dropping LGB's onto a target your being talked onto and don't want to get to low to, but we'll leave that for now. This thread I did a couple of years ago walks you through LGB's (also has an extensive part on the HTS pod and HARM's in it). LGB's are bread and butter bombs, and you don't even need to lase them yourselves with helicopters around, one thing i would learn though if you are going to drop bombs with other people lasing for you is how to quickly enter a new steerpoint into the DED, its actually very easy and can be done in 30 secs or so..... JDAMs and other GPS weapons work in two different modes, PRE for launching on a steer point, or VIS for using the helmet to designate an area on the ground before using the TPOD to fine tune before dropping. JDAMs are an incredibly powerful and quick way to get warheads on foreheads quickly, and up to 4 in 1 pass on 4 different targets once you are proficient, but not suitable for moving targets. Basically, a JDAM is going to land wherever your Tpod is looking, whether via steerpoint, helmet cuing, HUD or HTS pod, as long as you are in release constraints. You will need to learn your Tpod unless you get co-ordinates from another source (can easily be sent via datalink from one F-16 to another...). If you learn how to drop LGB's and JDAM's and understand CCIP functionality you will be able to drop every type of bomb ordnance, only types of Air to Ground weapons that the F-16 has that are employed differently than these 3 methods are Mavericks and Harms. I would start with LGB's, that knowledge base will then help with progressing to JDAM's, or if you want to start with dumb bombs, start with CCIP bombing. Here's a quick little demo of CCIP bombing, put the thing on the thing...... (can I get direct hits every time, no, but I'll be close every time. If you set up a good approach you are 90% there though, throttle back and speedbrakes out in the dive). If you do CCIP bombing with CBU 97's you will make a real mess on enemy positions. Here a silly vid I made several years ago showing the carnage you can do with CBU97's, (CBU 105's are a GPS guided version of this weapon dropped the same way as JDAMs) this run in a low level toss bombing in CCRP using a steer point... skip to the last minute and a half for the release and carnage (symbology of the drop has changed since this video was made, but same process).

Whilst sweltering in the Friday afternoon heat doing my chores (yes, I am the perfect husband ) an idea came to me. How about we run a Foothold campaign one weekend for 24 hours straight, taking the mission through both time zones for UK/Europe and Canada/US. We try and get as much of the mission completed as possible with players able to come and go whenever they can? It would mean some changes to the server as a one off ( @FoolTrottel ? thoughts) but might be a fun way of getting as many Dogz as possible to take part in what ever way they can? Has the heat got to me or does this idea have any value? Friar

Both me thinks ! Idea is a good one, I like it. Server can for sure run for 24hours. The down side is that a sizeable part of those 24hours the mission will be dark. As dark as night. In 1946 one could stop the time if I recall correctly. Not sure if DCS can do that? Or is the darkness in there not a problem?

Friar, I spent a few days on this writing more lyrics and moving things around a bit to come up with a set I liked and stayed on theme. This one I will sing someday it will be fun. It has inspirational memories of other M8's here at home too. Have fun hearing what you started M8! I can't find time to fly but during breaks or motel stays I can still fart around with kind of stuff even from my phone. I can't wait for retirement. https://songer.co/song/h1adtuzwjpd0buzfxffkhcoq

Viper Squad: GO!

Good man! Want any help or have any questions, feel free to ask

Surely "he won't regret it BB? Ok, I think this "joke" has gone on long enough. The F16 Delta will give you so many many more options in the DCS missions we fly, even I am aware of that. Some say you are managing weapons systems as well as flying but the satisfaction of being able to take out a target from 20,000 feet IS very satisfying when you have done the work to make it happen.

Welcome to the Viper club Dave('s friend), you won't regret it!

Sure, no problem.

Thanks I have found some, @fruitbatdon't think I will make tonight but might pick your brains later if that's ok

@delta7 If you want to save yourself a lot of time, I can go through with you what are particular things you really need to have mapped to your hotas, and what isn't as important, plus cockpit setup. Plus anything else really. But if you don't want to go down that route, grim reapers vids will be ok. I am actually around this evening, and was going to ask colin if he wanted to fly anyways, if you happen to be free.

Grim Reapers and Chucks Guide will help

I did chuckle to myself earlier today, thinking about how it might offend Tom's sensibilities if we parked a carrier of the coast on the Normandy map.....🤣

@Crash - come and join us Crash - You know it makes sense. You have all the kit to make it so worthwhile....

You da man Col!

We used to be a proper country

Yes, for the last week, all I saw was, all kinds of indicators that tell us it about to be released. I for one am Very excited for it long awaited release and ready for its major challenge it will present.

Damn, you caused me a tear or two as well Todd. But that's OK, because real men can cry if they like, even while they fire a few .45 slugs in the air in remembrance of their fallen comrade. EEEEEEEE-HAW, I shore do miss that geezer!

great stuff william toddspear!