Isn’t the TPOD of the Hornet less capable than the Tomcat’s TCS resolutionwise (even though it’s a newer design?)
I would almost bet that a Litening2 TGP is better than the TCS of the Tomcat.
It coul be that the tcs has enormous optical zoom, but dead certain the Litening has a higher pixel density CCD.
The TCS was made for long range VID so it had great zoom. It was B&W originally…not sure about the F-14Ds.
The issue was two-fold: 1) It used the main radar display as its display–meaning if the RIO was looking at the TCS, he wasn’t looking at the radar. Still it was meant for a quick VID so that should not have been a factor…except 2) It also relied on the RIO’s aircraft recognition ability which could e hit-and-miss.
One of the things that I was I charge of was recognition training. Since we were a Navy squadron, that included aircraft, ships and subs. It being the mid-1980s, the training used 35mm slides. I had hundreds. Plus we produced kneeboard packages for the airwing–about 60 pages of line drawings and pics - all B&W…not the best but as good as we could do at the time. You trained them and gave them the packages but at the end of the day, it all relied on the RIO’s memory…
Sea Story
1986-87 Med Cruise: This was during the era where the Soviets deployed subs to the Med; a nuclear missile shooter (SSGN - usually a Mod-ECHO II or a CHARLIE) and a few diesel subs (FOXTROTs and TANGOs).
One fine day at sea onboard CV-67, one of our jets caught sight of a Soviet sub on the surface. This is a big deal. Based on where we figured the various Soviet subs were operating, it was either a TANGO or a CHARLIE. To catch the former on the surface was good; to catch the latter on the surface would have been a real coup!
Per SOP, the RIO (callsign FFace) had taken some hand-held 35mm photographs. He got back to the ship and I was debriefing him while the film was developed. FFace was pretty excited about the whole thing. The debrief went something like this:
Me - Was it a TANGO or a CHARLIE?
FFace - Oh man! I’m not sure. I looked down and could see the little gomers wearing little gomer hats.
Me - OK good. Crew-members sighted in the sail. [I wrote that down] Now let’s think about our recognition training. The CHARLIE is pretty big. The TANGO is fairly small.
FFace - Oh man! It was huge! I looked down and could see the little gomers in their little gomer hats.
Me - OK…let’s try this. The TANGO has a slim boat-like bow. The CHARLIE has a bulbous bow…remember the training memory aid, “Big nose Charlie Brown”?
FFace - Oh man! Oh Man! It had to be the CHARLIE… I looked down and could see the little gomers in their little gomer hats…they were wearing little gomer hats.
Thus ended the debrief.
At this point, young Ensign Hangar was faced with a dilemma: A surfaced sighting of any Soviet SSGN was a high priority event. A message needed to be prepared and transmitted ASAP. The alert P-3s would start flying, our subs and destroyers would be redirected…a general heck-of-a-hullaballoo would ensue. Damn the developing film! If it was a CHARLIE that message needed to be sent now!!!
Yeah…but something about FFace’s demeanor told me to wait…so I waited until I saw the photos…
In about 20 minutes the film was developed…I took a look…there it was!
A beautiful photo off little gomers, in their little gomer hats…standing in the conning tower of a TANGO-class Soviet diesel submarine.
Moral of the Story: Sometimes what matters is not the things one accomplishes, but rather the missteps one avoids.
13 Likes
Quick TPOD question. The Hornet tpod isn’t the same as the warthog tpod is it?
The one we have right now is the same, the Litening II made by Rafael from… 1996 or so.
The other pod we will get IIRC is the ATFLIR by Raytheon. I think it is even more modern. Not sure because there are several versions.
So why does the A-10 tpod seem so much better? Or is that just me.
The A-10C has better displays onboard, and currently more functionality to control the targeting pod.
Ouch, that’s harsh…
1 Like
Actually self-bestowed. He arrived as a new guy without a callsign. His name was ordinary–did not lend itself to anything. So for the first few days people who couldn’t remember his name would just say, “Hey you…F*** Face,…”. No real malice, just the way we talked in the fleet back then.
Anyway, as they were starting a brief for some mundane training hop and the briefer was writing the pilots and RIOs on the white board with the jet they would be flying…probably something like
204 - Truck / Boo Boo,
212 - Woody / ____
The he got to the blank this RIO pipes up and says. “Eff Face”…it was funny, they laughed, and it stuck…shortened to “FFace”…pronounced “Fff-Face” …he was a good guy! 
7 Likes
That makes sense. I figured it might be the displays.
That’s what I meant too. Could it be the displays in the Hornet is worse than in the Tomcat?
mini update
*"Hey everyone,
We currently have a heavy focus on the Hornet, with a couple of very complex and time-intensive features like the TGP and AG radar. Here are the Hornet items that the team is currently working on:
Further targeting pod features
AG radar
AA radar display fixes and additions
Datalink fixes
AIM-120 behavior
AGM-65 corrections
Improvements to gun funnel
Thanks,
Wags*
2 Likes
So quick(maybe) question, Whats the deal with AG radar? Why does it seem like a big under taking?
Short version:
If they want to do it reasonably realistic it is quite a complex thing.
1 Like
Gotcha.
The gun funnel did seem a bit off.
1 Like
Also they’ve never done one. Only 3rd parties have AG radar yet.
2 Likes
To be fair, Deka is using ED AG radar.
6 Likes