DCS F-5E Dynamic Campaign: Wild Weasel

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Join the F-5E Tiger II of the 64th Fighter Weapons Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nevada and participate in a 1976 combat exercise to train Wild Weasel anti-SAM tactics in the Nellis Air Force Range. F-4E Phantom II of the 39th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron will train radar suppression with their AGM-45 Shrike missiles, while the Tigers provide the strike elements to knock out the missiles. It is a delicate business and coordination within the large packages is key, as the time window to hit the suppressed SAM batteries is limited.

This is a mini-dynamic campaign of just about 5 missions. It is basically an excerpt of some of the latter missions of the Desert Tiger 76 dynamic campaign. The purpose of this mini-campaign is to provide an easy entry to the DCE system for everyone that does not want to invest the time into a campaign spanning over too many missions. It concentrates on the interesting SAM attack missions so also those that did not progress deeply into Desert Tiger 76 have an easy opportunity to experience them. In addition, since the unit count and general scope of this campaign is greatly reduced, it will run a lot better for those with performance problems.

Even though this is a mini-campaign with only small number of aircraft and targets, it still boasting the usual dynamic campaign features such as resources and damage tracking and automatic mission generation. Single player and 4 player COOP (with the usual limitation inherent to DCS) is available.

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I just flew the first mission, i was able to get 1 ground kill. My flight needs to head back for more training, they pitched a no-hitter. Interesting mechanic with the batch file, everything worked perfectly, setting up mission 2. Thanks for creating this!

This sounds impressive. WOW I need more information. Might end up getting it.

There is one important thing I forgot to mention. Apparently DCS changed the AI taxi logic. No AI flight will start to taxi after you have started to taxi until you take off. This is important to keep in mind, especially if you spawn at a remote corner of the airbase. In large packages this might cause delays in take-offs and forming up that might jeopardize the whole mission. Generally it is best practice to wait at your parking position until every other flight in your packages started to taxi to take-off. Once the leader of the last flight started to move, you are free to taxi as well. Doing your start-up beforehand is safe.

MBot,
The more you talk about this the more intrigued I am. An airfield buzzing with activity sounds very cool. Keep posting your tips. THis is very informative.

Well generally speaking, the campaign will put together packages depending on the number of available aircraft, the requirements of the target and the threat level of the mission. There can be one or multiple strike flights in the “main body” of the package, depending on the firepower requirement the target was assigned by the campaign designer. The ATO then automatically assigns fighter escorts and SEAD escorts depending on the respective threat of the mission (and pending available aircraft). You probably don’t see too much variation in this campaign because it only features a few different targets, but you will notice the following. As SA-6 search and tracking radars get destroyed, you will see fewer SEAD escorts in subsequent missions. Once the Early Warning Radar gets destroyed, subsequent missions no longer have fighter escorts, even though the enemy still has aircraft. MiG-21 interceptors require an EWR to cue their launch, so no EWR - no need for escorts. How exactly the ATO is created is still quite a lot more complex as that, with a lot of cool finesses (at least in my opinion :slight_smile: ). The ultimate aim is to create missions that look reasonable.

The campaign engine would be able to put together pretty large Alpha Strike type packages, but for performance and playability it is better to keep it somehow limited. In this Wild Weasel campaign I have seen packages with 18 aircraft, which seems to be about the limit of aircraft a single base can launch in a timely fashion. If the package is formed by aircraft from multiple airbases, this is somehow easier.

Of course if there are a lot more targets and more available aircraft, there can also be multiple packages. In the Desert Tiger 76 campaign I run into a situation when returning home from my mission, I had to circle for a while, while about a dozen aircraft launched and formed up over Nellis for an outgoing package. For this Wild Weasel campaign though I have intentionally kept it down, in order for a lean campaign and good performance.

Well I guess now is the time to dust off the manual bombing tables and brush up my A/G skills in the Tiger.

Did 2.2 bring improvements for the campaign? I can remember you were complaining about SAM AI.

Indeed 2.2 fixed the SA-6 not engaging and 1L13 EWR not detecting aircraft, which were bugs that were breaking my campaigns for months.

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This looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it, but I also keep thinking that it would be fun with Sidearms! I need to read the forums and figure out how to plop some player controlled AV-8Bs in there!

And Viggens!

Excellent news. I tried the Desert Tiger but it coincided with a dodgy patch to make it unplayable. This sounds just right for my current rig :slight_smile: