Did anyone else happen to notice the pilot salute before the cat launch in that video? That would be really cool to see before each takeoff.
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I want one of the shirts to discretely slip me a middle finger. THEN I know DCS has arrived!
If youāre going to get a middle finger from a Skittle, itāll likely be a handler or shooter, and they would be the opposite of discreet. For good reason.
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No, I get you. Iāve always felt the Tomcat was gawky looking. It looked unnatural with wings swept forward, and looked like a plain old delta with them swept back. Conversely the Hornet always looked so sporty and nimble. Like The Tomcat was Andre the Giant, and the Hornet was Bruce Lee.
Also, that video is neat, but I think we call agree what would be really cool is a shot-for-shot remake feature Cessna Caravans.
Going to have to clear up misconceptions here
- The Tomcat certainly is, unlike all of itās 4th gen contemporaries, not maneuverable. Remember big = canāt manuever. There are literally no examples to the contrary
- All things equal, pair of 2nd Gen interceptors and an upgraded 50s vintage attack aircraft are more than enough to consistently defeat the Tomcat in a dogfight. There is no evidence, certainly not a massive exercise in the 70s or some sort of school of fighter weapons to disprove this.
- Remember: if it can fire big missiles, it canāt maneuver. Thatās just fair balance as mandated by the Yalta conference of 1945.
Internalize all of the above, and if we happen to meet online, be sure to join the other team as to better exploit the Tomcatās weakness.
If you hear something on the wind that sounds vaguely like a 20 something laughing his ass off, its not that. Probably.
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Well that sounds like a Mudspike Challenge. Post a selfie with your mustache in your sim pit on your first flight 
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Having read this, I was just about to comment a picture of an Su-30MKI. Then I read the rest of the postā¦
Well, this IS the F-14 thread after all so I wil still give you a big air superiority fighter that looks like a Turkey with widely-spaced engine nacelles and a ton of lift surface, a crew of 2, and a long-range radar.
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Iāll be sure and tell that to the Su-27/30/33 that I shot down gunzo with both the Scooter and Bugā¦
On a more serious note:
āBut, as they say, no matter how good the violin may be, much depends on the violinist. I always felt respect for an enemy pilot whose plane I failed to down.ā ā Ivan Kozhedub
Overall, I donāt expect most F-14 crews to be threatening to the typical DCS air quake combat; that will take some time as they adjust and learn how to fly and fight to their advantages. I suspect that after the initial luster has waned, the more dedicated and very good crews will be very good at playing the Kittyās strengths. Iāve already seen it a lot with the Bug, watching people get absolutely clobbered in it and playing to the other sideās tune. Chances are if someone is flying around in a Bug, they probably arenāt much of a threat ā nature of the game with popular aircraft.
Something to keep in mind with the big planes though: if youāre in a gunfight, the big plane is a bigger target. In the old IL2 days I remember this very well with the P-38. While it could hold its own very well (provided a competent pilot), it was also a lot easier to hit from certain angles ā especially in a furball. There were ways to minimize this of course, but that took some skill to pull off. The F-14 will be the same way in DCS and it will be interesting to see what the crews do in the game.
A-6s donāt have guns, so no problemo.
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Hey everybody, ban @near_blind, heās a dirty team killer! He shot down the strike package he was supposed to be escorting!
(Also, A-6 had capacity to carry a couple different gunpods, though Iām not aware of any being used on active service.)
And a sidewinder on the outer wing pylons. Yup.
Yes, it becomes very clear that the F-14 was readily inspired by the A-6. An evolution, in fact!
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Plus, it has flaps, so you know, variable wing geometry and all that.
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Well yeah, when youāre banned for team killing, kinda hard to save anyoneā¦
I think a lot of that will hinge on how effective they make the AIM-54. On paper, later models were able to intercept cruise missiles, so in theory, should be decent enough to bag fighters. On the other hand, It had a pretty sorry combat record IRL. On the other-other hand, it didnāt really have much of a combat record at all, so not much to go off of other than āby-the-booksā modeling.
Actually, I think most of that will hinge on how effective the radar is. The typical red side SOP is to stick to the hills and use IRST, never radar (unless employing R-77), utilizing R-27T/ET and R-73 missiles for stealth kills at low altitude. Remember, these guys have had to face F-15s with spamraam from the LOMAC days, so theyāve already got some idea of what to anticipate from the Kitty. Depending on how it plays out, itās probably going to take crews to try and draw the Flankers and Fulcrums out of the hills a la Operation Bolo style to get them into the Kittyās engagement envelope. Given that, Iād probably have a couple Kitties loaded with Sparrow and Sidewinder, try to get the reds to bite, then draw them high for Kitties loaded with Phoenix at a distance for suppression. That, of course, would take teamwork, so Iām not sure itād work so well with just one Kitty buzzing aroundā¦
The AIM-54 has the same combat record in US service as the AIM-9X, which is say circumstantial and non-representative of the capabilities of the weapon. There were two attempted shots. One failed because the missile was improperly loaded onto the jet and the mistake was not caught by the flight crew. The second was a shot outside of Rtr where the target, a Flogger, intuited it had been engaged and exited the area at high speed. No missile in existence could have splashed that bandit with those parameters., The ability to engage cruise missiles in of itself is no indicator of performance versus high performance fighters: those targets do not maneuver and fly constant heading and speed. Generally speaking, if the radar can see them anything that can catch them can kill them. AIM-54As can engage cruise missiles. AIM-7s can engage cruise missiles.
What I would point out is that the professionals briefed on the missileās actual capabilities, the threats that would be faced, seemed confident in their ability to effectively destroy any threat.
Iād be more concerned about the capability of the AWG-9 than I would be the AIM-54.
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