65th Aggressor Squadron (65th AGRS) to be Reactivated... For Early F-35s
-
Similar Content
-
By Menrva
View File Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition
Welcome To Duty
Built with the extraordinary expertise and dedication of modders from CombatACE.com, Operation Desert Storm – 30th Anniversary Edition promises to be the most complete total conversion ever made for Strike Fighters 2 by ThirdWire.
Fly with more than 50 aircraft ranging from Cold War relics to the most advanced platforms. Gain air superiority in the mighty F-15C Eagle or challenge the Coalition with the agile Fulcrum. Support troops with the A-10A Thunderbolt II, bomb strategic targets with the stealthy F-117A Nighthawk, lead airfield denial operations in the iconic Tornado.
Enjoy a beautifully rendered scenario on a scaled and accurate terrain. Fly over the lakes and rivers of Mesopotamia, the oil-rich fields of Kuwait, the mountains of Iran and Turkey. Take-off from aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf to watch over Kuwaiti oil rigs. Perform landings and patrols in more than 90 airports and air bases in the Middle East.
Take part in different campaigns including the Iraqi blitzkrieg on Kuwait and the US-led liberation of the Kuwaiti Emirate. Discover how the Iraqi Army was one of the biggest in the world, through the eyes of American, British, Canadian, French, Italian and Arab pilots. Test your skills and abilities flying for the Iraqi Air Force during all stages of the conflict.
Thirty years after, Operation Desert Storm still remains the largest air operation of modern warfare to date. Modders and flight sim enthusiasts at CombatACE teamed up to bring you a unique product in the lite flight sim world. Exquisitely detailed aircraft and paint schemes are delivered in a well-researched and thorough order of battle.
The ODS 30th AE Development team would like to thank CombatACE.com, its admins, moderators and contributors.
We are sure you will enjoy and appreciate this high-quality freeware product. From the aviation enthusiasts, to the aviation enthusiasts... and for the pilots of tomorrow.
Minimum Requirements
Required products from ThirdWire:
Strike Fighters 2, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: Israel, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic, July 2013 patch Full support for:
Mission Editor DLC Campaign Customizer DLC System specs:
OS: Windows 7 x86 Processor: Dual Core 2.7 GHz Memory: 4.0 GB RAM Hard Drive: 17.0 GB Free Space Video Card: 1024 MB DirectX 10
Sneak Peek
Disclaimer
CombatACE.com shall at all times retain ownership of the Software as originally downloaded by you and all subsequent downloads of the Software by you. The Software (and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software, including any modifications made thereto) are and shall remain the property of CombatACE.com and of the respective developers/modders.
In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, shall CombatACE.com, or any person be liable for any loss, expense or damage, of any type or nature arising out of the use of, or inability to use this installer or program, including, but not limited to, claims, suits or causes of action involving alleged infringement of copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or unfair competition.
The Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition modification does NOT comply with CombatACE's Freeware Licensing. Various contents of this modification are exclusive, as such you are NOT allowed to share, redistribute and/or make use of the mod and/or its contents for other purposes, without the consent of the mod's developers. Contents of the modification are the copyright of their respective authors.
Notes about the installer
Beware, the mod is available only in the ISO format. You can either mount it on a virtual drive, burn it on a DVD like in the good old days, or unzip it with 7-Zip or equivalent software.
The installer will automatically detect your installation of the required Strike Fighters 2 games by reading through the registry keys. Game folders that are copied from or manually moved from where they were originally installed are not supported. You need all three aforementioned Strike Fighters 2 games and they must be installed with ThirdWire's original installers, not manually copied from other sources nor moved elsewhere after installation to other folders or drives. If you do not meet any of these requirements, installation cannot proceed and you are on your own. If you install all required games properly, the installation of the mod will proceed correctly as intended. The installer then lets you choose where to install the mod folder; you can even install the mod on a different drive or partition than the one where Strike Fighters 2 is installed. No further user input nor manual edits after installation are ever required; the installer takes care of creating all proper links to your desired path for the mod folder. After installation is over, simply run the mod by using the created Desktop and/or Start Menu links.
If you have a previous version of the mod installed, please use the uninstaller to remove it completely. Clean installation is mandatory. You might want to make a backup of the Controls folder, so that you can easily restore your controller settings afterwards.
Suggestions on common issues
Make sure that you are using your dedicated GPU. By default, Strike Fighters 2 usually selects the integrated GPU you may have on your CPU, which is much weaker in terms of VRAM. In case you have frequent crashes or black/missing textures, I highly suggest you download and install the DXVK graphics wrapper (x86 DLLs) into your Strike Fighters 2 game folder: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk. You need a Vulkan-compatible GPU. The wrapper can greatly improve the experience with the mod. With DXVK I can play the mod on a mere Intel UHD 710, whereas without it the mod would always crash to desktop. Go to Sound and set Sound Channels to 32. We got reports that 16 is not enough and will cause crashes on some systems, due to the higher quality sounds included within the mod. The mod is pretty heavy for the game engine despite huge optimizations. Strike Fighters 2's engine is 32bit only and apparently does not manage VRAM properly; consecutive campaign missions might show black/missing textures on objects or cause crashes to desktop because the game does not release the occupied VRAM from the previous mission you played, thus the more missions are loaded consecutively, the more easily you may run out of memory. Set Ground Objects to Medium or Low, Horizon Distance to Near, and Shadows to Medium or Low. These are the most troubling settings. Avoid Unlimited settings as much as possible. If the mod used to work and suddenly crashes to desktop, updating or reinstalling video drivers should help. Make sure that DirectX June 2010 Redistributables are also installed, they are included inside the ISO disk image of the mod. Inside the mod folder, you'll find some extra text files. "(Coalition Order of Battle)" should be of your interest; the mod's terrain covers the entirety of Iraq, at the cost of not having all of Saudi Arabia; this means that a number of important units are based on airbases that are beyond the in-game playable area. With those units you always spawn near the target area, you'll never get to start from a runway nor to land on the assigned runway beyond the invisible wall. You have an entire list of the affected units in the aforementioned text file. By pressing ALT+N, the plane returns to base automatically. The mod is fully compatible with the Campaign Customizer and Mission Editor DLCs by ThirdWire. The Campaign Customizer might be an alternative way to experience those off map units I mentioned previously, since it assigns you to a random airbase of the in-game flyable area. Escort missions are often broken, this is not an issue of the mod, but a bug of the stock game; sometimes the AI flight you escort does not engage its target and keeps flying in a straight line instead of following waypoints, thus the trigger for mission success will never happen. Abandon the mission or retry it if the issue happens, sometimes it works. Pray for ThirdWire AKA Tsuyoshi Kawahito to work on a 64bit version of Strike Fighters 2, maybe even with support for DirectX 12. With that done, any out of memory issues should become an old memory. Submitter Menrva Submitted 01/16/2021 Category User Made Campaigns
-
By Menrva
Welcome To Duty
Built with the extraordinary expertise and dedication of modders from CombatACE.com, Operation Desert Storm – 30th Anniversary Edition promises to be the most complete total conversion ever made for Strike Fighters 2 by ThirdWire.
Fly with more than 50 aircraft ranging from Cold War relics to the most advanced platforms. Gain air superiority in the mighty F-15C Eagle or challenge the Coalition with the agile Fulcrum. Support troops with the A-10A Thunderbolt II, bomb strategic targets with the stealthy F-117A Nighthawk, lead airfield denial operations in the iconic Tornado.
Enjoy a beautifully rendered scenario on a scaled and accurate terrain. Fly over the lakes and rivers of Mesopotamia, the oil-rich fields of Kuwait, the mountains of Iran and Turkey. Take-off from aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf to watch over Kuwaiti oil rigs. Perform landings and patrols in more than 90 airports and air bases in the Middle East.
Take part in different campaigns including the Iraqi blitzkrieg on Kuwait and the US-led liberation of the Kuwaiti Emirate. Discover how the Iraqi Army was one of the biggest in the world, through the eyes of American, British, Canadian, French, Italian and Arab pilots. Test your skills and abilities flying for the Iraqi Air Force during all stages of the conflict.
Thirty years after, Operation Desert Storm still remains the largest air operation of modern warfare to date. Modders and flight sim enthusiasts at CombatACE teamed up to bring you a unique product in the lite flight sim world. Exquisitely detailed aircraft and paint schemes are delivered in a well-researched and thorough order of battle.
The ODS 30th AE Development team would like to thank CombatACE.com, its admins, moderators and contributors.
We are sure you will enjoy and appreciate this high-quality freeware product. From the aviation enthusiasts, to the aviation enthusiasts... and for the pilots of tomorrow.
Minimum Requirements
Required products from ThirdWire:
Strike Fighters 2, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: Israel, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic, July 2013 patch Full support for:
Mission Editor DLC Campaign Customizer DLC System specs:
OS: Windows 7 x86 Processor: Dual Core 2.7 GHz Memory: 4.0 GB RAM Hard Drive: 17.0 GB Free Space Video Card: 1024 MB DirectX 10
Sneak Peek
Disclaimer
CombatACE.com shall at all times retain ownership of the Software as originally downloaded by you and all subsequent downloads of the Software by you. The Software (and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software, including any modifications made thereto) are and shall remain the property of CombatACE.com and of the respective developers/modders.
In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, shall CombatACE.com, or any person be liable for any loss, expense or damage, of any type or nature arising out of the use of, or inability to use this installer or program, including, but not limited to, claims, suits or causes of action involving alleged infringement of copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or unfair competition.
The Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition modification does NOT comply with CombatACE's Freeware Licensing. Various contents of this modification are exclusive, as such you are NOT allowed to share, redistribute and/or make use of the mod and/or its contents for other purposes, without the consent of the mod's developers. Contents of the modification are the copyright of their respective authors.
Notes about the installer
Beware, the mod is available only in the ISO format. You can either mount it on a virtual drive, burn it on a DVD like in the good old days, or unzip it with 7-Zip or equivalent software.
The installer will automatically detect your installation of the required Strike Fighters 2 games by reading through the registry keys. Game folders that are copied from or manually moved from where they were originally installed are not supported. You need all three aforementioned Strike Fighters 2 games and they must be installed with ThirdWire's original installers, not manually copied from other sources nor moved elsewhere after installation to other folders or drives. If you do not meet any of these requirements, installation cannot proceed and you are on your own. If you install all required games properly, the installation of the mod will proceed correctly as intended. The installer then lets you choose where to install the mod folder; you can even install the mod on a different drive or partition than the one where Strike Fighters 2 is installed. No further user input nor manual edits after installation are ever required; the installer takes care of creating all proper links to your desired path for the mod folder. After installation is over, simply run the mod by using the created Desktop and/or Start Menu links.
If you have a previous version of the mod installed, please use the uninstaller to remove it completely. Clean installation is mandatory. You might want to make a backup of the Controls folder, so that you can easily restore your controller settings afterwards.
Suggestions on common issues
Make sure that you are using your dedicated GPU. By default, Strike Fighters 2 usually selects the integrated GPU you may have on your CPU, which is much weaker in terms of VRAM. In case you have frequent crashes or black/missing textures, I highly suggest you download and install the DXVK graphics wrapper (x86 DLLs) into your Strike Fighters 2 game folder: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk. You need a Vulkan-compatible GPU. The wrapper can greatly improve the experience with the mod. With DXVK I can play the mod on a mere Intel UHD 710, whereas without it the mod would always crash to desktop. Go to Sound and set Sound Channels to 32. We got reports that 16 is not enough and will cause crashes on some systems, due to the higher quality sounds included within the mod. The mod is pretty heavy for the game engine despite huge optimizations. Strike Fighters 2's engine is 32bit only and apparently does not manage VRAM properly; consecutive campaign missions might show black/missing textures on objects or cause crashes to desktop because the game does not release the occupied VRAM from the previous mission you played, thus the more missions are loaded consecutively, the more easily you may run out of memory. Set Ground Objects to Medium or Low, Horizon Distance to Near, and Shadows to Medium or Low. These are the most troubling settings. Avoid Unlimited settings as much as possible. If the mod used to work and suddenly crashes to desktop, updating or reinstalling video drivers should help. Make sure that DirectX June 2010 Redistributables are also installed, they are included inside the ISO disk image of the mod. Inside the mod folder, you'll find some extra text files. "(Coalition Order of Battle)" should be of your interest; the mod's terrain covers the entirety of Iraq, at the cost of not having all of Saudi Arabia; this means that a number of important units are based on airbases that are beyond the in-game playable area. With those units you always spawn near the target area, you'll never get to start from a runway nor to land on the assigned runway beyond the invisible wall. You have an entire list of the affected units in the aforementioned text file. By pressing ALT+N, the plane returns to base automatically. The mod is fully compatible with the Campaign Customizer and Mission Editor DLCs by ThirdWire. The Campaign Customizer might be an alternative way to experience those off map units I mentioned previously, since it assigns you to a random airbase of the in-game flyable area. Escort missions are often broken, this is not an issue of the mod, but a bug of the stock game; sometimes the AI flight you escort does not engage its target and keeps flying in a straight line instead of following waypoints, thus the trigger for mission success will never happen. Abandon the mission or retry it if the issue happens, sometimes it works. Pray for ThirdWire AKA Tsuyoshi Kawahito to work on a 64bit version of Strike Fighters 2, maybe even with support for DirectX 12. With that done, any out of memory issues should become an old memory. -
By Spinners
View File [Fictional] McDonnell Douglas F-4E 'ADC' USAF
McDonnell Douglas Phantom F-4E 'ADC' for Strike Fighters 2
This is a simple mod of the stock F-4E_72 to make a fictional interceptor version of the Phantom for service with the USAF in the 1973 to 1998 timeline. 'What if' markings for four ANG squadrons are included;
1. 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Texas ANG
2. 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - New Jersey ANG
3. 186th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Montana ANG
4. 198th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Puerto Rico ANG
BACKSTORY
During early 1970 a USAF review of America's air defence assets highlighted the increasing obsolescence of several aircraft including the F-101, F-102 and F-104 and whilst early F-4C Phantoms were trickling down to the ANG units McDonnell Douglas could see an opportunity to sell an optimised 'Air Defense' version of the F-4E to the USAF to swiftly and cost-effectively modernise a large proportion of Aerespace Defense Command. During this time McDonnell Douglas had studied various single-seat or stripped-down versions of the F-4 for the German Air Force but for the USAF they proposed a version of the slatted F-4E with all air-to-ground capability removed, slightly more powerful 'clean burn' J79 engines, simplified air-to-air only radar and the new solid-state AIM-7F Sparrow missile offering longer range with its two-stage rocket motor.
By this time the massive production run of the F-4 had meant that the fly-away unit cost for this simplified version of the F-4E made it one of the cheapest Phantoms ever and such was the confidence that the USAF had in McDonnell Douglas that in March 1971 they simply asked for a fixed-price quotation for 300 F-4E 'ADC' aircraft and ordered them in April 1971! First flown in June 1972 the F-4E 'ADC' were delivered in a smart and glossy 'air defense' grey scheme and entered service with the 198th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the Puerto Rico ANG in February 1973 replacing the F-104C's and F-104D's of that unit. Sadly, eight of the 198th's Phantoms were destroyed in a terrorist attack at Muniz ANGB in January 1981 and the unit operated several 'standard' F-4E's until 'ADC' versions could be allocated to them.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the F-4E_ADC folder into your Aircraft folder.
2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the F-4E_ADC folder into your Decals folder.
That's it!
CREDITS
As always, thanks to Third Wire for a great little game/sim.
And, finally, thanks to everyone in the wider Third Wire community.
Regards
Spinners
Version 2 - January 5th, 2024
Submitter Spinners Submitted 06/13/2010 Category What If Hangar
-
By Spinners
McDonnell Douglas Phantom F-4E 'ADC' for Strike Fighters 2
This is a simple mod of the stock F-4E_72 to make a fictional interceptor version of the Phantom for service with the USAF in the 1973 to 1998 timeline. 'What if' markings for four ANG squadrons are included;
1. 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Texas ANG
2. 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - New Jersey ANG
3. 186th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Montana ANG
4. 198th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Puerto Rico ANG
BACKSTORY
During early 1970 a USAF review of America's air defence assets highlighted the increasing obsolescence of several aircraft including the F-101, F-102 and F-104 and whilst early F-4C Phantoms were trickling down to the ANG units McDonnell Douglas could see an opportunity to sell an optimised 'Air Defense' version of the F-4E to the USAF to swiftly and cost-effectively modernise a large proportion of Aerespace Defense Command. During this time McDonnell Douglas had studied various single-seat or stripped-down versions of the F-4 for the German Air Force but for the USAF they proposed a version of the slatted F-4E with all air-to-ground capability removed, slightly more powerful 'clean burn' J79 engines, simplified air-to-air only radar and the new solid-state AIM-7F Sparrow missile offering longer range with its two-stage rocket motor.
By this time the massive production run of the F-4 had meant that the fly-away unit cost for this simplified version of the F-4E made it one of the cheapest Phantoms ever and such was the confidence that the USAF had in McDonnell Douglas that in March 1971 they simply asked for a fixed-price quotation for 300 F-4E 'ADC' aircraft and ordered them in April 1971! First flown in June 1972 the F-4E 'ADC' were delivered in a smart and glossy 'air defense' grey scheme and entered service with the 198th Fighter Interceptor Squadron of the Puerto Rico ANG in February 1973 replacing the F-104C's and F-104D's of that unit. Sadly, eight of the 198th's Phantoms were destroyed in a terrorist attack at Muniz ANGB in January 1981 and the unit operated several 'standard' F-4E's until 'ADC' versions could be allocated to them.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the F-4E_ADC folder into your Aircraft folder.
2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the F-4E_ADC folder into your Decals folder.
That's it!
CREDITS
As always, thanks to Third Wire for a great little game/sim.
And, finally, thanks to everyone in the wider Third Wire community.
Regards
Spinners
Version 2 - January 5th, 2024
-
By Spinners
View File [Fictional] North American F-109A Retaliator
North American F-109A 'Retaliator' for Strike Fighters 2
This is a simple mod of Julhelm's superb North American A-5A Vigilante to make a fictional 'Retaliator' interceptor-fighter in service with the USAF in the 1964 to 1988 timeline. There was actually several North American proposals for 'fighter' Vigilantes offered to the USN and to the USAF and it's a pity that the enormous potential of this amazing aircraft was never fully realised. Anyway, 'what if' markings are enclosed for three ANG squadrons;
1. 101st Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Massachusetts ANG
2. 159th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Florida ANG
3. 186th Fighter Interceptor Squadron - Montana ANG
BACKSTORY
Development of the North American A3J-1 Vigilante progressed well during the late 1950's and the first flight of the YA3J-1 prototype in August 1958 revealed it to be a real thoroughbred, packed from nose to tail with outstanding technology. However, a strong faction against the Vigilante was forming within the USN arguing that strategic bombing was not part of the USN's business and North American decided not to assume that large orders for the 'basic' A3J-1 would follow and they began to look at other roles for the Vigilante.
One line of development would eventually lead to the reconnaissance Vigilante (RA-5C) but another line of development transformed the A3J-1 into various fleet defender and ADC fighter options. Fortunately, the wing of the A3J-1 was designed for zero wind over deck launches and this resulted in a wing too large for low-level attack missions but ideal for a fighter. During early 1959 North American offered a long-range fighter version to the USN and USAF but had only a lukewarm response. However, following the cancellation of their F-108 Rapier in September 1959 things now became a bit more urgent for North American and they schemed a revised A3J-1 Fighter with uprated J79 engines and semi-recessed Sparrow missiles.
Trying again in 1960 they received a firm no from the USN (who by then knew they had a winner in the F4H-1 Phantom II) but the USAF agreed to a detailed analysis of an optimsed land-based interceptor fighter (named Retaliator in May 1960) and in June 1960 they announced that the Retaliator was to be ordered as an immediate follow-on to the F-106 programme with 350 ordered although this figure was later reduced to 240.
The prototype YF-109 flew on April 30th 1962 and production F-109A's entered service in late 1964 with the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Minot AFB, North Dakota. The only export order was from Canada who ordered 60 in 1968 and these entered service with No.409 squadron in 1969 remaining in service until 1990.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. From the AIRCRAFT folder drag and drop the F-109A folder into your Aircraft folder.
2. From the DECALS folder drag and drop the F-109A folder into your Decals folder.
3. From the PILOTS folder drag and drop the F-109A_FuelPod into your Pilots folder.
That's it!
NOTES
Julhelm's Vigilante comes with an authentic Vigilante pit so rather than just slap a Phantom pit into this bird I've used his pit and just tweaked the ini's for the interceptor-fighter role. I'm not the greatest on avionics but it works!
In this revised upload I've chosen to include the Fuel Pod as a pilot (in the same way that we add a Fake Pilot) as I'd noticed my wingmen were jettisoning it when the action started even when adding NoJettisonTank=TRUE. I've also added AIM-9 Sidewinder's to the Retaliator's inner wing pylons.
This aircraft needs/deserves a gun but I've resisted the temptation. However, you can add one if you like and the space from the redundant linear bomb bay could easily accommodate a neat M61 installation slap-bang on the centreline.
CREDITS
As always, thanks to Third Wire for a great little game/sim.
Big thanks to Julhelm for bringing one of my personal all-times favourites to the community.
And thanks to Julhelm for also releasing his templates for ham-fisted amateurs like me to screw around with!
And, finally, thanks to everyone in the wider Third Wire community.
Regards
Spinners
Version 2 - January 3rd, 2024
Submitter Spinners Submitted 06/03/2010 Category What If Hangar
-