dtmdragon

Kiwi A-4K in Desert Storm

Nice work!

I had this issue when using certain add on aircraft I had given too long a name. ie the name of the aircraft was to many characters. I had to shorten the name.

A lot of technical details at the time were kept under wraps due to the level of American military technology and hardware involved. Even as time has gone by lot information on the true capabilities of the Kahu upgraded A-4K has remained closely guarded by the RNZAF not only for the above reason but also the obvious tactical advantage to the RNZAF by keeping those details secret. That has continued today with the US State Department even restricting how close the public were allowed to view the aircraft when Draken displayed them this year. The RNZAF to this day refuses to declassify the post Kahu upgraded A-4K Pilots Manual citing security restrictions still imposed by the US State Department. A lot of the Kiwi ex A-4K pilots and technicians I have talked to over the years have implied that there is more to the Project Kahu upgrade in terms of capability that has or will ever be made public.

With regards to the performance and range of the AN/APG-66NZ radar in the project Kahu upgraded A-4K Skyhawks: Yes the radar dish/ antenna had to be made smaller to fit in the A-4 nose cone and normally that would result in a decrease in performance. HOWEVER the very cleaver people at Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) came up with a software modification/ upgrade specifically for the AN/APG-66NZ that prevented any decrease in range or performance due to the smaller antenna. The same software modification was also required to solve a few issues created by the length of wiring between radar components due to some of the radar components being located away from the nose in the fuselage avionics bay. Again this was due to the limited space in the nose. This information comes first hand from an ex RNZAF avionics specialist who I asked a bunch of questions when I did my A-4K Kahu mod for SF2. He spent his career in the RNZAF working on the radar and avionics systems of the post project Kahu A-4K. He has also recently co-authored a book on the A-4K in New Zealand service.

Great work!

Nice work!

Awesome work guys I for one appreciate every once of effort you put into this site and community!

Yes I armed the Royal Navy F-4K Phantom with Skyflash missiles as RAF Phantoms were using them in 1982 and I updated the Royal Navy F-4K Phantoms to the same standard as the RAF Phantoms were in 1982

I recently read a book about how in 1972 Buccaneers aboard HMS Ark Royal (R09) took part in a long range strike mission over British Hondura shortly before its independence to deter a possible Guatemalan invasion. The book also discussed the negative effects on the UK’s naval power with the scrapping of the Ark Royal and Eagle along with their conventional fixed-wing aircraft. So I thought to myself “I wonder how differently the Falklands campaign would have gone if the HMS Ark Royal (R09) and HMS Eagle (R05) had remained in service with thier Phantoms and Buccaneers?” So I decided to modify the Falklands Mod from here at CombatAce to use the HMS Ark Royal (R09) and HMS Eagle (R05) instead of the Hermes and Invincible. I replaced the Sea Harriers and GR.3 Harriers with F-4K Phantoms and S.2D Buccaneers. Because of the time that had elapsed from when these aircraft were withdrawn from Royal Navy Service and the Falklands war I updated them to the same standards as RAF Phantoms and Buccaneers were in 1982 including weapons capability. The difference was both obvious and devastating! The Phantoms absolutely dominated the air and gained complete air superiority with the use of BVR missiles and high speed intercepts. The all weather Buccaneers with their radar and larger weapons carriage were able to hit the Argentine forces on the island twice as hard as the Harries could. Their ECM pods and upgraded countermeasures/ RWR also gave them a higher survivability rate. The campaign was noticeably easier to complete and win than with the V/STOL carriers and aircraft. I wonder if Argentina would have thought again in 1982 if it knew it was going to be up against a conventional carrier force and air wing?

I am at the latest patch level (unfortunately) and my wingmen equipped with a gun pod and no internal gun will not use it in air-to-air combat, does anyone else have this issue? I am Using the AV-8B II Plus but have removed the internal gun and replaced it with removable gun pods linked to the gun pod nodes so I can have LID’s instead of the gun pods if I want etc. The LID’s are from the GR7

Love it! The griffen engined Spit has to be the most 'bad ass' air superiority fighter to come out of WWII

I had this problem and ended up having to re install the game(s) to stop it.

There is sort of a way around that. Add the gun/ cannon and gunner where it should be in terms of x,y,z position. Obviously there are no yaw or pitch model nodes etc. Create a copy of the gun/ cannon and rename it "xxxx_No_Fire_Effect" edit the copy of the gun by removing the 'fire effect.' This way you will have defensive guns firing but with no fire effect you won't have gun fire appearing randomly all over you ship which is what happens when the guns/ cannons are not linked to a yaw or pitch model node. I used this method for my 'what if' New Zealand Navy Essex class carrier: Objects.7z

Nice! Love special paint jobs on operational aircraft

Im planning on going this weekend, very much looking foward to it!

Thats a good way to think of things, cheers mate.

I got lazy moving the rabbit hutch on to fresh grass last night and instead of taking the rabbits out I just pushed the whole hutch with them still in it. At the worst possible moment my 3 year old daughters mini lop popped out and got its foot caught under the hutch. In its panic to get its paw out it snapped its arm and had to be put to sleep. So now I am holding my crying three year old daughter who is the apple of my eye and doesn’t understand why the ‘animal doctor’ couldn’t fix her bunny or why it is gone forever. :-(

Try the remove node method with the slimmer nodes? [AircraftData] Component[xxx]=remove1 Component[xxx]=remove2 [remove1] ParentComponentName=Nose <<<<<<<< Use the .out file to get the node and parent component names. ModelNodeName=sensors_02 <<<<<<<< DestroyedNodeName=sensors_02 <<<<<<<< DetachWhenDestroyed=TRUE HasAeroCoefficients=FALSE

2010 replacement for the Navalised A-4K Kahu and HMNZS New Zealand: http://combatace.com/topic/78246-royal-new-zealand-navy-fleet-air-arm-skyhawks/