My Projects (EricJ)

[+dtmdragon]

1 minute ago, EricJ said:

Yeah but I also have this pic (I already have most of that already, thanks though), so I'm going off of that.

I believe all Growlers including USN have full AIM-120 capability and carriage.

[+EricJ]

I'm not sure about USN Growlers. They might but so far I've seen it on Aussie ones, not USN, so I'm going on that.

[+dtmdragon]

15 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I'm not sure about USN Growlers. They might but so far I've seen it on Aussie ones, not USN, so I'm going on that.

My understanding is they do but only ever utilize the fuselage check stations. It's thier self defence option but the ability/ clearance to carry AIM-120 is the same as the E/F.

Put it this way; the RAAF haven't done any additional clearance programs for AIM-120 carriage like with the AIM-9 or ATFLIR so it must be an original off the shelf capability. Just one the USN don't utilize which makes sense as they have the resources to provide Growlers with in depth protection where as the RAAF require the Growlers to self escort in some situations with thier more limited fighter fleets. So we see this capability exercised more often and enhanced with the AIM-9X.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dtmdragon

[+EricJ]

Well, so far I'm not going to add that capability to the USN Growlers. If as a user you want to, then fine by me. But overall as a virgin download, I'm going off of what I see operationally, not so much What If. Besides, when the Aussies lost one in Nellis the notation said that the replacement USN Growler had to be modified to suit Australian needs. Maybe it was the carriage of more AIM-120s I don't know, but I'm leaving that up to people who want it since they can learn how to mod or something to add that capability. Personally, I don't see why a SEAD bird needs more AIM-120s for its role (I see the AIM-9X as a good self-defense weapon, but that limits HARM missiles of course, or however they do things down under), so I don't see the USN doing the same thing. The Aussies have their needs, the USN has theirs. And what they do operationally affects how I make the mod.

[+EricJ]

Decided to make the A-7E FLIR a more tactical color than just white. This is for the TMF A-7s.

A-7_Flir.7z

Edited April 21, 2023 by EricJ

[+EricJ]

Was doing some testing and just want to note that shooting the system is hard (much like Fubar512's version) given the radar isn't able to be hit with a HARM (or any other missile for that matter). I can jam it with a Growler (3 x ALQ-99) up to about 17 - 20 miles, then it has you. I haven't bombed it yet, but I figure that the radar point is over the ground so you can't destroy it. I haven't flown a mission where it randomly spawns but thought I'd let you all know.

 

[+Coupi]

It should be destroyed with a new... AGM-88G alias AARGM-ER ! 

P. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Coupi

[+EricJ]

Hahaha I wish. If the warhead is the size of a tactical nuke you may kill it, but the G won't kill it either :(

[+EricJ]

Also tweaked the ALQ-99G Jammers to work in-line with the EA-6B Superpack. I figure that HomeFries and Co. did some good research on the jammers and figured that I can use that. What I did was make the jammers more powerful and tweaked the maximum frequency for the -L jammer pod as well. It will be in the next update but decided to upload them here now:

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by EricJ

[+EricJ]

Also updated the ALQ-99WG (The German Super Hornet pack) with the new values. Here it is if you don't want to go through the trouble of downloading  the whole pack for the jammer:

ALQ99WG.7z

[+EricJ]

Here's a quick video showing what happens when you fire two AGM-88Es at the SA-10A:

 

[+EricJ]

And this is what happens when you attack it with munitions. One thing of note, I don't know how far away you can lock onto the radar, but it allowed me to lock onto it with my Mavericks from a far distance, about where the video starts (at least that's what figure for now), so it is able to be destroyed with regular weapons, just anti-radar missiles have the issue with it.

 

[+Wrench]

if they EWR / SAM Radars are hand placed into the _targets ini (ie: called a specific type) ARMs tend to go stupid. Also, sometimes they don't show on the RWR.

If left alone, using 'generic' target tags (SAMRadar, SAMLauncher), things tend to work the way then should. It's a know issue for terraformers. Just another thing that got broke in one of the SF2 patches

[+EricJ]

5 hours ago, Wrench said:

if they EWR / SAM Radars are hand placed into the _targets ini (ie: called a specific type) ARMs tend to go stupid. Also, sometimes they don't show on the RWR.

If left alone, using 'generic' target tags (SAMRadar, SAMLauncher), things tend to work the way then should. It's a know issue for terraformers. Just another thing that got broke in one of the SF2 patches

It could be, but other radars I hit fine, so it may be how the radar is setup too, not sure.

[+EricJ]

In going through the EA-6B Superpack I noted some progression in the power of the ALQ-99s that they modeled. So I added more power to the ALQ-99s that the Growlers use, and also the podded ones too (Low and High-band): Against Farid's SA-10 burn-through is about 15 miles or so. That's a bit better and probably realistic (I don't know how effective the real-world one is of course, just taking the hint that they upgraded the pods over the years, and I'm sure it's pretty good so far). Replace the jammers and overwrite and you'll be good to go. It will be in the next update, but that won't be for some time.

ALQ99.7z

Edited April 25, 2023 by EricJ

[+EricJ]

This is how I'm running my tests really, to simply fly towards the radar (represented by the red ground object) and see how it works. Something interesting that the ICAP III Prowler in the Prowler Superpack works good against Farid's SA-10 radar, completely suppresses it and you can fly over the radar and no peep. I think that the internal jammers do that, since they're listed because the aircraft doesn't have actual podded ALQ-99s like the Growler does. So if you're looking for a good escort jammer then check out the EA-6B Supepack. As far as the Growler is concerned, may have to modify the settings and see what I can come up with for the internal jammer.

[+EricJ]

Also tweaked the ECM in the Block II birds (E/F) and EA-18Gs (RAAF included). Until it gets updated here are the new values:

[ECM]
ReferenceName=AN/ALQ-214v5
SystemType=ECM_JAMMER
JammerType=DUAL_MODE
JammerStrength=118.8
MinFreq=2.0
MaxFreq=20.0
CanJamCW=TRUE
MinExtentPosition=-0.404,-2.859,0.608
MaxExtentPosition=0.404,-0.824,1.018

Simply copy and paste, and go fly. It will be included in a new update sometime.

[+EricJ]

Well did some tests and found out that podded ECM jammers don't seem to work, or maybe the pods were too low powered. I did the test by removing the internal jammer on the Growler and found out with pods that the pods didn't seem to work. Is that a known issue or bug? If so then it's one of the other innumerable fixes that needs to be done, sometime. Who knows if it's on TK's radar or not (more than likely not). But otherwise I put it back in and it worked fine. Found out the setting to allow the Growler to jam radars more effectively. I'll post an update here for the Growlers. I think this is the best fit setting to work with the EA-6B Superpack, so there is jammer capability when assigning it as an Escort Jammer role, and for SEAD:

ReferenceName=AN/ALQ-214v5
SystemType=ECM_JAMMER
JammerType=NOISE_JAMMER
JammerStrength=118.8
MinFreq=2.0
MaxFreq=20.0
CanJamCW=TRUE
MinExtentPosition=-0.404,-2.859,0.608
MaxExtentPosition=0.404,-0.824,1.018

[+Wrench]

Quote

Who knows if it's on TK's radar or not

Brother, his radar isn't even turned on. Elvis has left the building

We're never going to see any upgrades/updates/patches/fixes for SF2 unless we do it ourselves.

[Jimbib]

48 minutes ago, Wrench said:

Brother, his radar isn't even turned on. Elvis has left the building

We're never going to see any upgrades/updates/patches/fixes for SF2 unless we do it ourselves.

That's the one thing I wish I had the skillset to do or even knew where to begin with, is build 3rd party patches that add (or at least jerry-rig) new features and fix a tonne of the bugs in SF2.

[+EricJ]

4 hours ago, Wrench said:

Brother, his radar isn't even turned on. Elvis has left the building

We're never going to see any upgrades/updates/patches/fixes for SF2 unless we do it ourselves.

Yeah I'm  aware of that, just sucks. Anyway true as far as updating the game though.

[+EricJ]

Did a quick test and found out that DECEPTIVE_JAMMER and NOISE_JAMMER is your uber jam anything modes for your internal ECM. DUAL_MODE is fairly realistic as it models burn through, where the other two modes work at any range. The catch is that you must be far away from the radar to jam it. Otherwise, once it goes off you can't jam it, i.e. turning off and on doesn't work, it's just how the game works. So if you want realism go with DUAL_MODE, and if you want uber ECM go with the other two. I don't know how the logic did it since early ECM didn't work that well (from what I understand), so a USN A-7 can jam radars very good in the game. I don't know or care about the real-world performance (and if I somehow knew, I wouldn't tell you anyway) of the ECM jammers since the podded ECM doesn't do shit for you. But that's just a quick look at the ECM functionality in the game. Hopefully (as we've already beaten a dead horse) it can be fixed in the future, but that's what I'm seeing.

And as for the Growler, it seems like there is no internal jammer for it, just the ALQ-99 pods that serve as the  jammer system. Well for now unless a miracle happens I won't be removing the jammer from the plane until the pod situation can be sorted out.

Also retextured the ALQ-99 pods:

Edited April 26, 2023 by EricJ

[+Wrench]

external pods, iirc, -- hopefully someone else will chime in too -- got borked years ago. Best the just have them for eye candy, and build in the ECM suites to the aircraft's internal systems

[+EricJ]

Yeah, but I don't want to go over every aircraft to replicate a jammer. I might do some for some select planes but overall yeah, we have to see...

[+daddyairplanes]

i'd do what interests you, and be available to explain what you did to anyone that wants to do it themselves (and asks nicely of course)