One of the main reasons (apart from obvious features like terrain masking effects, encryption etc) SRS hasn’t been replaced by DCS VOIP on any of the big servers is that you can run it independently of DCS to communicate with players without the need to have DCS running when doing GCI with Lotatc for example
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I was curious how close that last Mig-21 came to getting me, because I’d Fox-3’d at one of them (far left in the sort, turns out it had already eaten a 120) but then the last one had turned hot on me, I broke right and my RWR went nuts. I dumped my tank and some flares, not realizing this was the one @schurem was already tangled up with. I got a lock and launch warning which I associated with the Fishbed, and went right and low, defensive, lots of chaff and flare.
What I didn’t know was that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and pulled an AIM-120 shot at a Flogger right as it went pitbull. Sorry for ruining your shot @Derbysieger! It ran out of energy in the turn, passing about 800’ behind me as I pulled hard.
Never saw the missile, rolled out on the target, popped and pulled and made a (very) low level snakeye delivery on the fuel farm.
Lots of AAA, like a scene out of Star Wars. If @chipwich was still wondering if they were aiming well, the answer was a definite yes. 
I was low enough that some of the ZSU-23-2 rounds fired fired from my 12 actually hit the battery behind me, so I’ll take credit for some SEAD I guess? 
Surprisingly I got out of there without any problems, RTB’d with the Mirage flight and rearmed to make another run with @chipwich & @Torc. Never repaired, not realizing until now that I’d taken some 23mm hits on the first flight (according to TacView). That was some great fun, really enjoyed it. Thanks again!
ETA: That same Mig-21 dodged 2x AIM-120s, merged 2v1, took out two of our strike eagles in two separate engagements, and then RTB’d without a scratch. I think he’s the real MVP! 
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Yeah that Fishbed was flown by the chosen one. Derby and I did a quick analysis directly after the mission with is Tacview file.
You gotta watch it from pre merge. He left his three wingmen to die against the TWS shots from Derby and me. This fourth turned away. I chased him and shot my second Amraam which he dodged.
I turned to face the incoming Floggers while this Fishbed danced with the other Eagles down low.
I shot down both Floggers but the Fishbed eventually got me in a high altitude knife fight (me not being able to get rid of the 12 Sankeeyes possibly factored in as well 
)
I have to watch the server track to see if this is what really happened.
Many lessons can be learned from this engagement 
It’s getting chaotic pretty quickly with so many planes. But I think we did much better than last month. And the A2A situation was definitely more challenging this time.
I wonder if we had an option to bypass the initial engagement if we had followed the flight plan and deal with the fighters on egress…
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So this scenario brings up an interesting situation, not too dissimilar from Mongo’s kill in desert storm. In that case it was more cut and dried because the MiGs made it to the merge. In the FP podcast, didn’t Mongo say he launched his AIM-7 at the absolute minimum WEZ? He was a nugget and his flight lead was telling everyone to wait for AWACS and sensor confirmation. At least that’s the way I remember the interview. But they were self escorted similar to what we did.
My question is, when self escorting and have bandits heading your way, if, when, and by how much do you deviate from your steerpoint vector? Or do you split the flight, one 2 ship element continuing as fragged and the other turning to engage? The Floggers were not supposed to be a threat until coming off of the target, but I ran out of time and set their spawn trigger to be the same as the Fishbed, just a little further away. I’ll tweak the mission a bit to have them harass the strikers when they are egressing and we can fly it again some time.
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Oh yeah, I wasn’t aware of your presence there otherwise I would never have taken that shot. I guess you were outside of my radars scan volume. I did two IFF scans before I launched my amraam but you didn’t show there either (I have seen IFF returns show up even for contacts outside the scan volume, might be a bug though I know too little to tell).
Data Link is a huge help in building your SA
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No worries! Frankly my fault for getting out ahead of the Eagles, I should have known better but was completely reactionary when my RWR lit up by that Mig-21. I was trying to keep mental SA with the DL, but for some reason only two of the SE’s were showing up in my HMD/SA page, so all I saw was that last -21 turning hot (didn’t realize he was furballed with schurem) and the -23’s further away off my nose. I was kinda rusty on the RWR, and thought I was defending a SARH shot from the fishbed until I looked at the Tacview today.
The sad part is you had what looks like a very nice valid shot, and it had to turn almost 90* to come after me. Lucky for me, but also for the Mig-23 I helped out, unfortunately!
Does the SE have datalink implemented yet? I’m not really clear on what is and isn’t working on that bird yet, I’m doing well just to start it, lock up radar contacts and drop bombs in CDIP so far.
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We might have pressed home the strike itself at the risk of being flanked. All in all I think Derby’s call to face the incoming fighters was a good one.
That was a nice formation right before we attacked the MiGs
Hindsight is 20/20.
We might have made a tactical mistake by commiting with all 5 aircraft.
Probably 2 Eagles would have been enough with the rest continuing to SP2 and be ready to turn in if things get to spicy for the first element.
There actually was good separation between the elements, though:
You can see the Floggers at the right side of the screen setting up their cheeky flanking maneuver.
3 times Fox-3 from the first element (all three will connect). So far I would say flawless execution.
You can see the “Chosen One” on the left leaving is friends an trying to notch us.
I was shooting my second slammer when he turned hot…
… which he evaded. I think I lost lock as well and felt the urge to face the incoming Floggers.
2 Mirages, 2 Strike Eagles and 1 Hornet against the ultimate Fishbed.
Schurem’s Amraam also misses very close. He’s really lucky here.
Meanwhile I kill the first Flogger but have no idea that there is a second.
I’m pretty sure this is were SA went down the drain.
Schurem dancing with the Fishbed, who shoots an R-3S in the head on pass
This guy is pulling off maneuvers that others can’t do.
This could have been it, if chipwich fenced in properly
(no offense - been there, done that 
)
Schurem fought hard but couldn’t shake the godlike AI and had to succumb to the Soviet missile.
During the furball, some of us remembered the primary mission.
Freak and Torc rolling in.
Warpig pickling Mk82s and eating some 23mm.
I shot the second Flogger right under the parachute of his wingman…
… and get jumped by the Fishbed. Never saw this shot. Fortnuately the angle he chose was really bad.
I finally managed to see him, when he was contrailing and misinterpreted the contrail as a missile trail (hence the flares).
While trying to remember my key binding for emergency jettison (I still have 12 Mk82SE on my CFTs) I lose tally. I’m hanging slow & heavy in the air and finally eat the fourth R-3S of this guy.
Did I already say I miss Jester in the Mud Hen? An active WSO would have been helpful here.
A better choice would have been to go full burners and dive to the deck 3 minutes earlier to gain situational awareness.
Meanwhile chipwich bombs the mission target.
Shortly after that Derby’s DCS crashes, which accounts for the third airframe loss of this strike (although I wouldn’t really count that).
In summary I think we did quite well against 6 enemies. We shot down 5 aircraft and some of us attacked the primary objective.
Two Strike Eagles were lost to an Elite Fishbed driver.
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ya kidding me, right? (looks at preceding posts and starts removing his HOTAS from the desk…) 
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Hangs head in shame. FWIW, if Master is not in Armed posit, the little radar acquisition box will lock onto a target, but none of the missile symbology will show. So radar is doing its thing, while missile remains dormant, no matter how hard you press the red button.
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No but it will show up on the Vipers and Hornets Data Link if AWACS sees it. You can turn the data link knobs and flick the switches in the Eagle but it won’t do anything (yet)
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The tactics look improved - last time I think the plan was to admire the formation flying until the radio said “merged”.
Latest ace AI MiG-21bis appears to be ported from an arcade game so would not worry too much.
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Yes, I agree. I think once there is more than one flight, separate radio channels are mandatory to not end up with lots of overtalk.
I’m guilty myself of speaking only on Discord and not using the SRS channels.
For the next mission it might be useful to put a dedicated frequency for each flight in the briefing. Additonally another frequency for the whole package should be added. I’m not sure if you really have to configure radio presets for each plane. At least Hornets and Strike Eagles can manually enter the freqs from the briefing.
For older planes like the F.1 it might be necessary. The F-5 only has one radio which can be used from the cockpit. On Enigma’s server they have added “virtual” radios that can be use via the SRS Overlay.
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I’ve done that before too. 
Yup. I was guilty as well. Should probably just go ahead and set up the radios in the ME to prevent someone from missing the freq and ending up NORDO. Strike + Flight, and maybe use a virtual radio for the F-5, I have no idea what the F-1 has radio wise (a baguette with an antenna?).
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Btw you can now copy settings for radios etc to any aircraft of the same type so you only have to set up one aircraft and just check the option to copy it to every member in the flight or even every aircraft of that type for the whole coalition. Works for the load out as well IIRC
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Nice flying
For me boom tanking is a series of disconnects that I only notice, because there suddenly is a “Contact - You’re taking fuel” call while I thought I am in good position
Probe & Drogue tanking on the other hand just feels natural. I refueled in the Tomcat yesterday for the first time in weeks and connect on the first try with no issues staying at the basket.
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Thanks and yeah you need a good sight picture that you can focus on keeping as the position lights can be hard to see in lighting conditions like in my video. In the video you can’t really make them out at all but even ingame I could barely make out the right light which tells you if you’re too far forward or aft. The left one for altitude is much easier to see. I mostly concentrate on getting in position once and then simply keep that sight picture stable.
2 radios.
Radio 1 allows for manual entry.
Radio 2 is preset only.
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Yeah, there’s just something odd about the AF way. Ironic considering the Navy’s reputation…
I never have figured it out, but Probe+Drogue is like riding a bike. I don’t think I’d been on DCS for three weeks, and hadn’t AAR’d for way longer than that (flying on Enigma mostly lately).
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The boom allows for much higher transfer rates, up to 6000lbs/min for AWACS and other big wings IIRC and from what I have heard refueling off the boom is much easier irl as all you have to do is fly in formation while the operator takes care of the difficult part. And with small fighter aircraft like the F-16 the boom can even steer the aircraft to a small degree to keep it in position.
I highly recommend the FPP episode on big wing tankers if you are interested in the topic
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Good info, and I love the FPP. The boom ‘dragging’ smaller fighters isn’t implemented in DCS, is it?
That question illustrates how much time I’ve spent successfully transferring in the '16 and '15, doesn’t it?
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