dtmdragon

View File 'What if' F/A-16C Blk 30/32 CAS Vipers 'What if' F/A-16C Blk 30/32 CAS Vipers Background: In the 1980's, the USAF started setting aside F-16s for the planned A-16 modification, a dedicated CAS version. In 1989, the designation block 60 was reserved for the A-16. The A-16 Block 60 was to be equipped with a 30 mm cannon. This project failed because the 30 mm gun would heat up and singe the inner components of the left fuselage. The Block 60 did not go into production and the A-16 became wrapped up in the debate about close CAS. The supporters of the A-16 project wanted the USAF to replace its A-10A Thunderbolt with A-16's, arguing that the A-10 was too slow to survive above a high-tech battlefield. Detractors argued that the A-16 had insufficient range and load-carrying capability to make an effective attack aircraft, and, in addition, it would be too vulnerable to enemy anti-aircraft fire. However the USAF was ordered to retain two wings of A-10 aircraft for the CAS mission. No order for the A-16 was ever placed. When the USAF was forced to opt for the A-10 instead of the A-16, the decision was made to retrofit up to 400 existing Block30/32 F-16C/D's with new equipment to perform the CAS and BAI (Battlefield Air Interdiction) missions, effectively killing the A-16 program. Modifications would include a GPS, Digital Terrain System, system hardening, modular mission computer, and an Automatic Target Handoff System. A prototype Block 30 was based at Shaw AFB and went through numerous physical adjustments. Official designation, was to be F/A-16. In January 1992, this plan too was abandoned in favor of using LANTIRN Block40/42 F-16C/D's. The USAF was reluctant to let the idea of a dedicated CAS F-16 go, and planned to replace its A-10's with F-16s fitted with a version of the Warthog's Avenger cannon. In November 1988, the 174th TFW New York ANG transited from the A-10A to the F-16A/B block 10, becoming the first unit to operate the F-16 in a CAS support role. During Desert Storm, their F-16A/B aircraft were equipped with the GPU-5/A Pave Claw pod on the centerline station. If the tests were successful, there were plans for a fleet of F/A-16C's with the same armament. To demonstrate the concept, the AF installed Pave Penny avionics, 30mm gun pods and European One paint jobs on 7 F-16C's. A single F-16D was given similar treatment with a Falcon Eye system as well. These aircraft flew from Nellis with the 'WA' tailcode. The F-16s from the 174th were deployed to the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm, but the project proved to be a miserable failure. Precision aiming was impossible for several reasons: • The pylon mount isn't as steady as the A-10's rigid mounting; • The F-16 flies much faster than an A-10, giving the pilots too little time approaching the target; • Firing the gun shook the aircraft harshly and made it impossible to control; • Essential CCIP (continuously computed impact point) software was unavailable. Pilots ended up using the gun as an area effect weapon, spraying multiple targets with ammunition, producing an effect rather like a cluster bomb. It took only a couple of days of this before they gave up, unbolted the gun pods, and went back to dropping cluster bombs. And so the F/A-16C plan was quietly forgotten.... BUT...... What if the project was a success? And so I give you the F/A-16C Blk 30/32 CAS Viper: 3 separate aircraft: - F/A-16C Block 30 1986- 1993 (1986 Service date makes it NATO Fighters 5 compatible, 1991 would be more realistic.) - F/A-16C Block 32 1993- 2003 - F/A-16CM Block 30 2003+ Unique CAS loadouts including the Pave Claw 30mm gun pods. There are heaps of extra loadouts if you have a look with the mission editor. All F/A-16C have the Falcon Eye FLIR pod on the nose in front of the canopy. It was slaved to the pilot’s helmet which had a helmet mounted display. Basically anywhere the pilot looked at night he would see the world in infrared. It was also the West’s first HMD with targeting information, weapons cueing, navigation and terrain avoidance ques. There are Euro-one style skins for the early F/A-16C, the latter blocks two have a mix of normal F-16 camo skins and a lighter ghost grey style like on the A-10. To install: Drop into your C:\Users\xxxxxx\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters XXXXX Included in the folder 'NATO Fighters 5' is a modified 1986 Red Storm NATO Fighters campaign that includes the F/A-16. It will show up as an extra campaign and not affect any of the NATO Fighters 5 campaigns. Credits: - The Viper Team for their stunning viper packs. - Ravenclaw_007 for his new weapon packs. - Migbuster fot the F-16C skin templates. - Nato Fighters Team. Enjoy, Dan (dtmdragon) Combat Ace fair use agreement applies. Submitter dtmdragon Submitted 12/01/2015 Category What If Hangar

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View File 'What if' Delta Dart F.1 (F-106A) Royal Air Force Skin pack 'What if' Delta Dart F.1 (F-106A) Royal Air Force Skin pack Decal are all stock TW Lightning decals so you can change the squadron to any RAF Lightning Squadron and the correct markings should show. - 1 Polished Silver Skin - 1 All Over Green Skin - 1 Two Tone Air Defense Grey You MUST have the SF2 F-106A pack installed: http://combatace.com/files/file/14246-f-106a-delta-dart-for-sf2/ You MUST have a SF2 Title installed with a Lighning e.g. SF2 Expansion Pack 2 Credits: - Pasko and his team that did the F-106A above. - Geary for the F-106A templates. Enjoy! Dan (Dtmdragon) Submitter dtmdragon Submitted 12/01/2015 Category What If Skins

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I reckon! Amazing that Falcon eye HMD was developed in the late 80's but a HMD aka JHMCS wasn't in widespread use on western fighters till the 2000's. The mission terrain map stored in the A-16 mission computer was so accurate that air-to-ground weapons could be deployed with the radar off with no slant range information etc and the CEP was only about 5-10 meters larger!

It was called 'falcon eye' It was an infrared camera slaved to the pilots helmet which had a helmet mounted display. Basically anywhere the pilot looked at night he would see the world in infrared. It was developed in the late 80's. The CAS A-16 also had a digital terrain system that provided a terrain following capability with the mission terrain map stored in the aircraft mission computer which tracked the aircraft's location via GPS and INS. Forward air controllers could also automatically hand off targets to the A-16 mission computer via data link. Targets, weapon delivery information, way points and terrain warnings would all be displayed in the falcon eye HMD. Its sitting on my computer I just have to put it all together to upload when I get some time. I added it to the NATO Fighters 5 1986 campaign which has been a lot of fun to fly in. It could be added as a 'what if' to the Desert Storm mod to...

Typo: replace every GR.7 with GR.5 lol

View File Harrier GR.3 Trial Camouflage schemes Harrier GR.3 Trial Camouflage schemes. As part of the Harrier II GR.7 development a new two tone green and a two tone grey camouflage pattern were trialled on two of the RAF’s GR.3 Harriers. The Green scheme was chosen for the GR.7 as it was thought to be the most suitable in the low level European cold war environment. However the GR.7 soon switched to the grey scheme with the change to medium level tactics. Combatace fair use agreement applies. Instillation: Simply drop in your mods folder. Will work with the stock Harrier GR.3 and my GR.3 (82) Falklands War Modified: http://combatace.com/files/file/12988-sf2-harrier-gr3-82-falklands-war-modified/ Credits: Thirdwire. Wrench for the TW GR.1 Template. Nato Fighters team for the Harrier fuselage serial numbers. Enjoy, Dan (dtmdragon). Submitter dtmdragon Submitted 11/26/2015 Category Harrier

I have been playing around with the Polish Mig-29 doing some Baltic air policing lol. But I to am not overly happy with the in game performance of the R-73 so I have been doing some research on how well it actually preformed. From what I have found it should preform better than the AIM-9L/M (wider FOV etc) and I have found a few references stating the west didn't have anything to match it until the Python 4 was developed. So in terms of SF2 the data.ini needs to be slightly changed to reflect slightly better performance figures than the AIM-9M and equal to the Python 4 (available in one of the Team Viper Israeli packs).

F/A-16C Block 32 CAS Falcon

Camouflage options... Rain of fire!

Re-done the Air Defense Grey skin as a two tone grey instead of an all over grey.

No problem, decals are all stock TW Lightning ones so you can select any RAF Lightning Squadron markings. Might do a RAF licence built Dart with a Sprey engine and twin 30mm gun pod. I tested the Firestreak and Redtop missiles in the Darts weapon bay but they are to big to fit.

Delta Dart F.1 in Royal Air Force Service

Years ago when I set my current PC up I researched getting the best performance out of it etc. I found out that Norton was one of the worst ant-viruses to have in terms of affecting game performance. One of the best is reportedly Avast (which also happen to be free). I made the switch and have used Avast ever since. I found that out from a Microsoft Flight Simulation X (FSX) forum in a master post dedicated to getting the best out of your PC to run FSX.

Spinners are you hitting on me? Haha

God if only!!!! Iv'e often though to myself a version of the Tornado that was a hybrid of the GR.4 and ADV variant along the same lines as the F-15E Strike Eagle would make a good what if.

They used them for the first few days of operations and then ditched them for cluster bombs. The gun pods were extremely inaccurate as the force of them firing skewed thier attachment to the weapon pylon all over the place. Adding to that was the fact the software modification to display a correct CCIP hadn't been done. The best they could make use of the gun pod was as an area weapon apparently but like I said it wasn't used for very long. http://www.f-16.net/f-16_versions_article18.html Back to the 'what if' Fulda senario, what CBU would be the most likely used by the USAF in Europe in the late 80's/ early 90's? CBU-100?

F/A-16C Block 30 Fighting Falcons from the 78th TFS 'Bushmasters' engaging Soviet armored columns in the Fulda Gap.... Had the A-16 or F/A-16 gone into production it would have had one of the first versions of a helmet mounted display with its Falcon Eye system...

Very cool

It's ejected downward just like on the F-22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVkqrkA8KnU