But every time we try that I have to do CAP/intercept in a Harrier!
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Fixed that for you.
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Ehhhhh, sort of. If we’re talking an ingress into defended airspace, yes. You definitely want that dedicated sweep out there to clean up the air picture.
If we’re talking CAS in airspace that doesn’t like you, but isn’t shooting you, vice a DCA role protecting friendly ground forces in the same area, it’s not uncommon to switch from one role to another. You walk on a common loadout on one mission with the possibility you could be switched depending on a number of factors that come up real-time.
Obviously that’s if the assumptions and ROE remain the same, if either air or ground situation changes dramatically then loadouts and roles would likely adjust to match.
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I actually wound up doing that in a mission last night. There were supposed to be F-14s doing a sweep ahead of the HARM/slicks carrying Bugs, but our F-14 pilot was late.
Instead, I wound up taking down a quartet of Floggers using my 4 missiles plus the gun (for the one that was only damaged and needed finishing off) before I resumed flying towards the SA-11s that had fired at me a couple of times during the AA engagement! Of course, the 11s wound up taking me down as only 1 of my 2 HARMs made it to target and there were a pair of them.
Came back off the boat with the same loadout, headed for the 11 (there was an A-10C waiting for us to clear a path through the big SAMs before it went in against the IR/AAA and tanks) and DOH! A pair of 31s are coming in now! Took them out with 3 of my 4 missiles…and died from an 11 I couldn’t dodge.
When is the Bug jammer arriving already??
Took off AGAIN… a pair of 21s are incoming now! Took out one, my fellow Bug driver took out the other, and I finally got the last 11 radar. He had tried against the 11s too with no better luck than I had.
Anyway, final tally for the mission I got TWO ground targets and 7 fighters…in a SEAD loadout!
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Truer words have never been spoken.
There are a couple of way to run a fighter sweep. One way is to throw the fighters out in front of the strike package, essentially along the ingress route to over the target area. Shoot down everything in the way and you are done. However, if you get any “leakers” then they are still in the airspace the strike package if flying into…which may be unfortunate.
A second way is to fly a fighter sweep initially towards the target, but veering off at an oblique heading that takes you away from the target area. The defending fighters have to follow to get the intercept. (If they don’t, you hit them from their flank and they are dead). However, in doing so, they are pulled away from the target area. Your aim is to have the merge several miles away from the target. You also want the timing for the strike package to put them on the target just after the “fights on” with the enemy fighters, that way, with the bad guys committed to the fight, any leakers are both out of position and time late to defend the target airspace.
Hopefully I have explained this well enough. It would be better if i could wave my arms around while I talked, like real fighter pilots do. 
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We’re all (wannabe) flyboys here, we can picture the arm-wavery that goes with the story just fine sir.
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When talking ACM with hands, just remember that the hand with the watch on its wrist always dies!
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Is the OB update pushed back to a certain date or will it be released when it clears testing?
good question. we’ll see it when it happens, non?
I specifically phrased my question so that there is a definitive answer. 
I believe that the patch will be available as soon after the blocking bugs are squished possibly/hopefully today going off the post made by wags
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Yes
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Mini Update
While not a huge or a rather sexy item, the team has implemented the declutter options for the SA page. It’s based on the following declutter levels from pushbutton 7 that in turn displays the following options:
OFF. All symbols are displayed
REJ1. The following items are hidden: compass rose, lubber line, and SAM rings.
REJ2: The following items are hidden: REJ1 items and Waypoint/OAP/TGT data, and TACAN data.
MREJ1: Hide air defense symbols (SAM and AAA) and rings.
MREJ2: Hide surface unit symbols (coming later).
This is planned for one of the next Open Beta updates.
PLID is the next planned SA feature. This will allow you to manually set the contact to friend, hostile, or unknown.
Thanks
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In an upcoming Open Beta we will add (Pilot ID) PLID to the Situational Awareness (SA) page.
When pushbutton 2 (PLID) is pressed on the top-level SA page and a track is under the TDC, selecting PLID displays the Pilot ID sub-level that allows you to assign the trackfile HAFU. With no target under the TDC, the PLID option is removed and may not be selected.
This can be useful when you have a donor designating a contact as hostile, but you have not used ownship senors to confirm. You can use PLID to set the HAFU as hostile.
Next SA page tasks are Expand and Step.
Thanks,
Wags
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Looking forward to that ‘Expand’ button, if it takes a 180 forward view and expands it?
Really rely on that SA view on a busy mission now, and what with all these HAFUs from donors and the like, plus SAM range rings, means things are getting quite cluttered.
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I’m kinda confused, are we going to see an update to release and OB this week? Any update on whether the Litening will make it into OB in June?
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