Well thank goodness @fearlessfrog finally clued me in that you actually have to ARM your countermeasures with a switch… 
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There is no cooler plane…ever. 
Seriously though, the Hornet is a more versatile aircraft, particularly with the non-radar variants of the Harrier currently in DCS. Speaking of study sims in general, I’d say that there is a lot of wisdom in choosing a capable multi role aircraft and “gitting gud” in it. Unless you really like the role your specialist aircraft is made for.
From the Marines side of the equation, the Harrier was designed to be a bomb truck and stay close to the front. It has great CAS software and is a solid dumb bomber; from the old days before every field kitchen and latrine rated a PGM.
What DCS lacks (AFAIK) is that dynamic battle simulation with moving front lines, forward air bases, a good FAC calling proper 9 Lines, etc.
It’s what the Harrier was made for. Without that context, the plane looks more like a limited, short range, light attack jet. Fun, but a bit anachronistic.
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So we’re still plugging away at this, and it’s getting better as we work out all the buttons. It’s a fun campaign. The server resets everyday (I think), so catching it when it’s on a mission time of AM gives quite a lot of time to do a few things in order.
We’ve got ok at suppressing the CAP, or rather we’re getting there.
For the SAM coverage we’re doing good DEAD work.
Next up is capturing an airbase! General approach:
- There is an airbase just on shore called Bassel Al-Assad. It’s just north of the town Jablah and south from the coast town of Latakia. It’s the location that has those two ships (TP emitter on EW) off of it.
- The biggest threat is a SA-11 near the coast about 3nm north west of the airport. We need to take that puppy out first. I’ve marked it with a terrible arrow here
Because it has a local SA-15 then it takes a couple of HARMs to punch through.
- The two offshore Russian ships are a pain, but it give a chance to use Harpoons.
Here’s what’s working for me on those two ships:
(a) Load up with 4 84-AGM D’s. Heavy stuff, adjust trim 16 for a carrier launch.
(b) Once up and headed towards Jablah warm them up, they take 30 secs or so.
(c) Go AG mode and cycle the Ground Radar from MAP/GRD/SEA to be Sea mode.
(d) Sensor select the ground radar, move the TDC cursor over one of the ships (80 nm range is good to start, and not that far from the Carrier group). To select a ship DON’T TDC DEPRESS ON IT but again hit the Sensor Select switch for the MFD (so if on the right MFD, hit Sensor Select Right). This will lock up a sea contact. If targeted the wrong one, use NWS/Undesignate and go again. It is also fun to play with the EXP2/EXP3 modes, but you’ll need a TDC Press assigned to be able to move the ‘scan area’ (hold down, move TDC, release etc. You can also go to Options/Special/FA-18C and turn OFF Realistic TDC Slew).
(e) On the stores page select the 84’s at the top. I went with MODE = BR/RNG (because we have a target locked on the ground radar, otherwise it can only do Bearing BOL mode). Select MED for flight height and SKIM for final phase (that’s the defaults I think).
(f) Let them go, picking a target on the SEA radar, so two for the big cruiser, two for the escort frigate. They might shoot down one or two with CCW, but a flood of four starts to hurt them. Great fun to watch them go in, as they sea skim.
I’ve never used the Harpoons or SEA radar before on the Hornet, so this is great fun.
After the ships are out then time to plan the airbase attack and capture? Plenty of SAM and AAA sites on that, so maybe some JDAMs or GBUs?
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Good short video for that, for visual people
I’m finding the TDC slew for EXP2 is sort of difficult to use, so need to play with that more.
Harpoons are excellent fun.
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Great report (from both @BeachAV8R and @fearlessfrog )
I just finished a PG mission - my “Arrival” set of missions (to be followed by more ‘stuff’ operationally). Trying to learn the JDAM/JSOW switch-ology. NOTE: I had winds turned on and kept missing. Turned them off and “shack”. Dunno about that.
After a successful trap (one of my best but still got the EGIW bit - and I made a point NOT TO “Ease My Guns” [touch the throttle]). Dunno about that one either.
So, agree: SC is much more immersive. After my trap I pulled up to the stern elevator, shut her down, popped the lid and ate my virtual PB&J while I watched 2 AI trap. Quite pleasing this sim thing.
Agreed whole-heartedly to this. 95% of my time is in this one. Beyond all the buttons and knobs you get to play with, the shear fun of poking the tanker, catting & trapping is what does it. Without the latter it’d still one of the best IMO.
Viper is slowly getting there; you only have overhead patterns to have fun with (which is a joy in its own right), and the tanking is kind of a yawner, though more difficult than I’d first thought it would be.
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Oh yeah. The Jump Jet is my close 2nd fav…admittedly, likely, cuzz I’m terrible at the V part in V/STOL. Only one that seems to have shorter ‘legs’ than the -18C 
Not sure how close this comes to the real world but my eyes are ALWAYS on the fuel gauge in the Harrier; back of my mind, well before I RTB, I’m wondering just how much fuel I’m gonna burn up trying to land [on the boat].
And it’s the most difficult to poke the basket with. Hornet is easy for me anymore.
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Yeah, based on my real world experience - that’d be zilch- the DLC was a “Good Idea”. Kudo’s to the person that slapped that fix on the design.
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Seems like this might be a role on the server mission(s) [this topic]? My experience is limited online but; via Discord channel and CTRL + F11 view for the JTAC? Never messed with it so I’m sure someone’s come up with a better idea by now.
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@jross - it was pretty funny as I flying online and was in the pattern but kept boltering. Each time I came around and got ready to call the ball a huge WMR Google Chrome notification would pop up in the middle of the screen in the headset showing me each of what you posted above. It got kinda funny, as I kept boltering, running on fumes, and then going back in the pattern, and then in the groove and bam - one more notification blocking the carrier.
I’ll turn them off - it’s here that I get to by typing ‘Notifications’ in the start bar:
(you didn’t do anything wrong, it was just funny and my bad for leaving on the notifications in headset, you just happened to post 3 times with the right interval for a hornet Case 1 pattern)
I think I have a video of you saying something about that notification popping up and then boltering… It was uncanny how many times it happened right as you were settling into the groove. I told Frog and Fridge that you were working for the Russians…
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As for the mission above, we (@BeachAV8R, @Fridge and brief pop-in from @boomerang10 who arrived during a really annoying 'Deck Crew Work to Rule, Single Launch bug) kicked some DCS inanimate object butt. F-14’s, Su-24’s, M-2000’s all in flames around us. We took out the SA-11, various SA-15’s and bombed Bassel Al-Assad so hard he wanted to rename it out of pure shame. Ships were harpooned enough to make two beautiful local dive reefs.
The ATFLIR is sort of good, but the mission has thick clouds at about 12,000 feet making it an awkward height to keep about the local manpads etc but then hard to peek through for GBU targeting. It might be the case where dumb bombs and CCIP are better or maybe next time some mavericks…
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I dropped 16,000 lbs. of bombs on that airbase and didn’t hit a thing. If that server is still up in the morning I wonder if the craters I made will still be there… 
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We had some epic cooperative melees tonight. That was really intense and a total blast. Some of the close in missile shots were great…really fun.
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All I can say is: Oops!
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Sounds like one of those scenarios where I’d be granted a new callsign. I just can’t think of one right now. Course since I was the culprit I’m DQ’d from any input 
Seems my lousy INet connection is good for something? Bolter Spam?
Come on Tuesday! - 1GB going it. IF they show up this time. And I can get it all working (installing a 1G NIC into my box Monday; CAT5e/6 patch cables on the way…can’t wait to re-join the 21st century).
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Popup?
I think mine might be GetTheBarrier 
Ah, so I completely forgot about the ground radar and the GMT mode. More toys to learn…
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Ok, played with the ground radar. I’m not finding it very effective or I’m working it wrong. The ‘Hold TDC down + Slew’ for the EXP2 and EXP3 zoom modes feels like I’m drawing circles on my stomach while patting my head. The resolution of the radar is really poor so far. I’ll need some practice.
One thing I did do was figure out how to get the ATFLIR on a general region and then use it in-cockpit to do the HSI / DATA and then add a manual waypoint using the N/E and elevation it displays (which I assume is in feet on the ATFLIR). That plus the Weapon Designate on the new waypoint then gets me back in a good spot to slew around looking in gaps in the clouds.
The ground radar GMT mode unsurprisingly doesn’t seem to return anything for when the ground tracks aren’t moving. On a close up peek, it seems like the enemy units at Bassel Al-Assad are in a line to the south of the main runway - so BMP’s, a T-55 or two. Those are the things to take out before Blue can move in.
Thinking about how I died yesterday was interesting. One death due to ‘head down in cockpit’ where I just ate the sea (fix: use the AP ALT at the very least, or look up now and again), one death due to an SA-3 when I was merged (fix: have a basic understanding of where the SAM threats are still active, even when fighting) and then a classic ‘Caught by phoenix launched from the moon’ where I had the SA down at 40 nm and then sort of ignored everything else (fix: either have AWACs on comm2 and listen to it or get better at refreshing my picture rather than programming the hornet for too long).
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Nice breakdown. Have you been on today? I wonder what the status of the campaign is… I might be able to hop on for a bit later. I’m wondering if my sixteen craters are still on the airfield. You can call me…Black Buck…
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