By the G pulling balls of Olds, why no F-4 in DCS?

This isn’t over! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

We can get more money! Soon!

I just received an email from this really nice Nigerian programmer who’s trying to launch a start-up, but needs an account to use for the funds. As soon as my account info processes, he’s promised me a payment that has more zeroes than the entire Luftwaffe.

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Wow, he must be super good at his job. Just the other day the same gentleman emailed me saying he was planning on imminently releasing the F-35, the F-22, the YF-23, the B-2, the B-21, the PAK-FA, the J-21, the SU-35SM, the F-15SE and the HAL PMF all in DCS quality, with a prospective release date of Q1 2016.

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This all sounds great, but make no mistake, the capability lost with the retirement of the Prowler will be sorely missed and their absence will make the USMC’s ability to fight conflicts independently much harder.

These are always the parts of Tyler Rogoway articles that grab my craw.

Can someone point out a conflict in the history of aviation where the USMC has fought an air war against a contemporary opponent on it’s own? I could argue the extremely early portion of the Solomons in WW2, but that’s it. Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, OEF, OIF, Non-descript Syrian CF, they’ve always deployed as part of a larger coalition.

The only scenario i could think of would be a regional flare up involving an MEU(SOC), but against anything that’s going to require dedicated EW support, I can’t fathom them not sending a CSG or ground base air back up. I’m not saying that the Prowler isn’t an incredibly useful aircraft, but at this point they’re basically falling apart. You can’t keep an aircraft that old and complex flying indefinitely.

Also according to @Klarsnow Prowler drivers are jerks anyways.

Wanna see Tyler really hit the roof? Tell him they are gonna replace the Prowler with the EF-35B…

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Launched using an electromagnetic catapult, designed concurrently, from the USS Ford, with a multi-ship LCS escort, while the pilot scoffs at the S-400 and modern escort carriers, and liquid oxygen diesel submarines?

I got that email too! I was very excited until I realized that the planned release did not include the RJ-21E tactical reconnaissance export version fully modelled. My wife’s second cousin walked past one once, and they are very dear to me.

Obviously, after that I then just swore to make them an enemy for life and will now spend 6 hours a day defaming them all over the internet. Never forgive, never surrender! Obviously.

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@near_blind, it’s not so much the anti-air jamming capability that the Marines have been using the Prowlers for, but their ability for detecting, tracking, surveilling, and jamming signals used to remotely detonate IED’s and other explosives. It’s why they’ve been getting almost as many flight hours as CAS missions over the 'Stan for the last decade and a half.

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I’m aware of the work the Prowler has done in the last decade. I’m not trying to dispute the utility of the Prowler, or even that it’s retirement is a net negative for Marine Aviation. That said reliance on a shared pool of EW aircraft is the direction the military has been moving in since the retirement of the EF-111 in the 90s.

My interpretation of that line is that the author was bemoaning that the retirement of the Prowler would end the MAW’s ability to go out and knock over a country all on it’s own. My issue was that never in it’s history has it been tasked or expected to do such a thing. The MAW supports the MAGTF, and when it’s not doing that chances are it’s deployed as part of a larger composite unit.

I generally enjoy the content Foxtrot generates, but I’m not a huge fan of the author’s editorials.

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Prowlers are great, but old as ■■■■, and everything they can do, the growler can do, and generally mo’ betta’ and as far as the marines losing an important component… It’s like near blind is saying, the marine air wing goal is not to win a war by its lonesome, (that’s what the Air Force does). The marines don’t have the planes, mission set, or support capabilities to in any way be an independent arm capable of that. And jamming, other than the aforementioned work in Afghanistan against insurgents, is helpful, but not really a multiplier for them. Also airframes have gotta go at some point, far better to retire the prowler than something else (compass call, growler) with similar mission sets in a environment that it is rapidly becoming obsolete in.

My bad, totally misread your comment there. And yes, you’re both totally right.

And yes prowlers are jerks, flying through the middle of my TI sortie, not talking not squawking, not on fdl. Just melting everybodies radar and derping along blind to the world. “Oh look 8 eagles are setting up for a war, let’s go ■■■■ those b course students rides up.” “Why didn’t you shoot your goat two, and why did your goat kill the entire formation?” " because it’s my first ride and my radar had fallen off before we even turned in for the fights on" is not an excuse

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Dang man, tell us how you really feel.

This may have happened more than once

LOL…

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You may not know this, but there are things in life that gnaw on a man worse than dying, and that’s not having an F-4 Phantom II in DCS. All of this free ranging A-4 and A-6 talk in an F-4 thread, well, cause me to wonder, are you men? Next, you’ll be wanting an A-7.

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b-b-b-but. I like kinda like the SLUF.

It’s a like a moped, fun to fly but embarrassing if anyone ever saw you in it.

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Which DCS you people are using here?
What are the specifications for its hardware as well as software?
Also which part you are controlling using the DCS?

circuit board fabrication

I have both 1.5.3 and 2.0 installed. The former has all of the modules, and the later just A-10C and UH-1H. I like flying in Nevada, but there are far more missions created for the earlier versions.

As can be expected v2 also has a lot of bugs, mostly with ground AI behavior and things like how ATC handles the aircraft. For instance, start your aircraft and ask for permission to taxi to the active. When you get to runway and request takeoff, you never get it until you taxi onto the active runway and near the threshold marks.

There are also some issue with the way 1.5.x handles missions, but the ones that I’ve been flying seem to work reasonably well. If you know a little bit about the Mission Editor, you can make quick edits to fix issues among the various versions. Case in point, load the weapons training mission for the UH-1H and during the point at which you are supposed to check out the door gunner’s position, you will find that your aircraft for the day has none. Easy to fix in the ME.

I’m alternating flying between Georgia and Nevada, depending on what I’m in the mood for. And I’ll fly a little bit of everything- I have all the modules except for the Hawk and C-101, but I’m only a danger to myself and nearby ground objects in the helicopters. I’ve been flying the Mirage, Flanker, and MiG-21 most frequently as of late.