I swear the entire forum needs the bad influencer tag. Downloading as I type.
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Yeah, not sure whyâŠbut I bought it. You people are a bad influence 
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Iâve had my finger hovering over the buy button on a Humvee for some reason??
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Iâm pretty sure you guys are more of a bad influence on me than I am on you when it comes to spending. Just saying. 
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You mean providing you opportunities for continued excellence in early reviews and impressions? Why yes thatâs a service we provide. 
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Well, if my reviews had the thoroughness and eloquence of a review that @BeachAV8R Chis would write, you might have a pointâŠ. But âitâs a bit goodâ hardly qualifiesâŠ
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I donât know about that⊠Without taking anything away from Chris. Just about any regular saying âitâs a bit goodâ makes me think âI might need to buy thatâ 
And for anyone still sitting on the fence over the Kola map? Itâs a bit good 
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Kola is indeed âa bit goodâ Iâve been flying out of Bodo in a RNoAF F-16 in VR of late and the experience is excellent. I have hardly used another map since its release. I am very pleased Orbx have started in DCS. They say they will be working on Kola a lot more before starting on another DCS map.
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Hi! To find out what I can do, say @discobot display help.
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Yes
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You know, all too often his answers come off as almost humanâŠ
Wheels
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Check out The Sneak Peak of the upcoming Winter Textures in The Kola Map on Wags Latest Video. 
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Partially. However the OSCARs employed the same missiles as the KIROV (SS-N-19 ) with the same terrain masking issues. They too would have to get SW of Vestfjorden to get clean shots. Plus, the ASW disadvantage of being not as quiet as a 688-class SSNâŠ
At the time we were talking Su-24s; the advanced air-to-ground FLANKERs did not exist. So we are talking day-light raids with tactical ASMs. That meant they had to get a heck of a lot closer, so a longer time for the F-16s to attrite them. Plus weâd still have some F-14s in reserve. Could they have gotten through? I donât know. (I did a brief on the subject when I was an EnsignâŠcool stuff.) Today, with Norwayâs F-35sâŠperhaps a different story.
Setting aside the US SSN aspectâŠperhaps they are busy going after Soviet boomers out protecting the CVBG from Soviet SSNsâŠin my professional opinion an open ocean engagement, they could have gotten within missile range. (If we are to believe Wikipedia, that would be around 300 Nm) Yes, we had tactics for engaging a Soviet SAG and exercised them regularly. It would have been a hard nut to crack.
For example, a SAG consisting of a KIROV CGN, a SLAVA CG, and a handful of Sovremennyy DDGs and Uladoy DDs can put up a heck of a lot of advanced SAMs. SA-N-6s (seaborne SA-10s) on the cruisers alone, SA-N-7s (seaborne SA-11s) on the Sovremennyyâs plus lots of self protection SAMs (SA-N-9s; seagoing SA-15s) and Soviet CWIS (AK-630). Even with Harpoon, weâd probably have to get within SA-N-6 range to launch. HARM? You are shooting HARM in the heart of the SA-N-6 envelope; probably inside the SA-N-7 MEZ. As I said, a tough nut to crack.
Hence the Vestfjorden strategy. If they want that clean shot, they must transit the Barrents and northern Norwegian Sea to get itâŠall the while we would be attempting to crack that nut.
(Note: But once that we cracked that nut, if the poor damage control demonstrated by the Moskva CG (ex-Slava) is anything to go by, the fight may have been over for good.)
Yes, You are correct! However, if we remember our Clausewitz, "Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult." 
All-in-all it would have been a gamble that boiled down to timing and numbers. One carrier in Vestfjord? Ehhh⊠Maybe OK but Iâd make sure I knew which life raft I was assigned to. Two carriers? I think they could generate enough defensive and offensive air power to win.
@MBot , Great discussion!
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Thatâs very interesting. Nominally the Su-24 should have a NOE night and all weather attack capability as it was equipped with a terrain following radar. But I know there can be quite a big difference between nominal technical and actual operational capability, as amply demonstrated by the Russians recently. So that might have been your assessment at the time.
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I got curious and pulled out a radar horizon calculator. The Kirovâs SA-N-6 FCR are about 35 m above the waterline. A target flying at 200 ft is visible out to about 25 NM. So if a P-3 or E-2 is tracking the SAG from a comfortable distance and phoning in the targeting position, Intruders should be able to deliver truckloads of Harpoons with impunity. Of course once you want to send in Corsairs with HARMs and Walleyes it starts to get hairy 
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Itâs more of a matter of getting the Harpoons properly targeted. At 200 ft I donât think we had total confidence with the A-6Es getting a good radar picture out to 25 Nm. But yes, you are correct. I take it for granted that you did the radar horizon math for r=the SA-N-6. The elevated duct effect will probably add a few Nms to thatâŠbut that works for both sides. Fun stuff.
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Yea⊠I canât remember which Su-24 variant we were looking at in 1986, and Iâm not saying we discounted nighttime attacksâŠafter all from the end of November to mid-January its all-night, all-the-time up hereâŠwhich I can attest to. 
Plus the weather up here is often less than ideal so it was deemed more likely that they would choose some aspect of daylightâŠwhich, if you thin about it, is all the time up here from the end of May to mid JulyâŠwhich I can also attest to.
These days with Su-34s and their ilkâŠit would be a different ball game.
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I obviously donât have any real world experience in this, so I am just trying to fully understand this with the limited knowledge I have acquired through reading and playing video games. But to me this doesnât seem to be a major issue, as the Harpoon was programmed with a flight plan (or used a bearing-only launch) and didnât need to be locked on the target prior launch. As such I do not think that the launcher needs to see the target with its own radar, it just needs to have the target coordinates. Which could easily be provided over the radio from any suitable aircraft at higher altitude and safe distance (E-2, P-3 or another A-6). So I would imagine that that the A-6E would approach the known target area under the radar horizion, receive the latest target coordinates over radio, punch them into the system, launch the Harpoons and go home without ever exposing themselves or using their own radar.
I have also done this in DCS with the Viggen without using my own radar. Though due to the limited range of the Rb 04 it doesnât actually mean you can stay under the radar horizon of the target. But will also work absolutely fine with the longer ranged Rb 15.
Also we need a DCS A-6E Intruder
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