Saw this on Baltic_Dragons’s Discord and I thought it was interesting enough to start a discussion
User by the name of Britchot posted this:
Ramrod is a way to call out authentication codes. It’s a 10 letter word with no repeating letters that correspond for 0-9. For example, TRAMPOLINE: T=0, R=1, A=2… So, if I to tell you to authenticate in sequence, “Mike Papa” (3-4), you would respond with “Oscar Lima” (5-6). You could use it for any codes over unsecured communications, just not use it a lot, or it can be cracked easily.
Yurgon posted it :
The way I learned RAMROD from different community groups was a bit different though. The idea is to pick any 3 consecutive characters. The first and last of these 3 are the challenge, and the center character is the response.
From the above example, it could be: TRA MPO LINE
“Warrior, Chevalier, authenticate Mike Oscar.”
“Chevalier, Warrior, I authenticate Papa.”
It could also go around the word boundaries: T RAMPOLI NE
“Chevalier, Warrior, authenticate November Tango.”
“Warrior, Chevalier, I authenticate Echo.”
Would be cool to code this in a mission via the comms menu… Hmm.
I like it. Explain it in the briefing, then make it a theee-choice challenge or something.
In the mirage2k red flag campaign something similar is done with the ATIS, to check if you were paying attention to it.
This is very interesting. It is a variation of a one-time cypher pad but one which can be done in your head (if you are good with spelling).
I think the “done in your head” part is key for DCS / flight sim use - especially in VR.
As far as writing it into a mission…actually not that hard.
A triggers fires and you receive the challenge transmission (e.g. “Warrior, Chevalier, authenticate Mike Oscar.”)
The same trigger gives you a few new comms options one of which is the correct response (e.g. “Chevalier, Warrior, I authenticate Papa.”)
the correct response fires a trigger that gets you whatever you need done for the next part of the mission. The incorrect responses all fire the same trigger that leads to failing at least part of the mission - for example maybe Warrior was going to provide you SEAD support and now he will not.
Probably want a timer set (Time from flag) that triggers the same as a wrong answer.
Both correct and incorrect response triggers, clears the comms menu options.
To keep it simple, I would put the directions for how to use this in a ReadMe file and for the Mission Briefing enter a single line “Authentication Word - TRAMPOLINE”
