Arrow

I haven't come across any myself and anything close have been different videogame genre forums on various flightsim websites, most of which unfortunately don't get many discussion threads. I really like this idea and from time -to- time I play videogames to achieve a Cold War cross-genre play experience. I've run missions in Germany with SF2E and then followed them up with missions with the the Flashpoints Campaigns: Red Storm turn-based strategy game for on the ground simulation. Then for an even more close in ground perspective, I've followed that up with a mission in the ARMA 3 first person shooter videogame using the Global Mobilization add-on; small area of the West German - East German border 1986. Doing that has given me a deeper level of immersion. I wish I had a place to discuss my play experiences, but I haven't really found any.

The Canadian government announced today they're in negotiations to purchase 88, F-35 Lightning IIs from Lockheed Martin. As far as I'm concerned this is a good decision for my county. We were one of the early sponsors of the F-35 ASTOVL program and we currently pay LM about $35 million a year for the right for CDN aviation companies to build parts for it. So far that's been paying off, with companies here generating over 100 million+ in annual revenues. There were some other nice birds in the competition like the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen, the latter being the 2nd place choice and the official alternate if negotiations with LM fall apart. It's really no surprise because of our history with the program and a RCAF CF-35 variant with a drogue parachute and refueling probe has been on the drawing board for some time. I've followed the development of the F-35 since the early days of ASTOVL and are convinced it's about the closest thing to a current gen F-18 Hornet. More importantly it's stealthy and a step forward in military aviation, whereas some of the competition seemed to be bridges between 4th and 5th gen aircraft. I'm still pissed the CDN gov't took this long to make a decision which was first suggested in 2011 and which IMO was the inevitable choice. But I'm glad for it none the less. Canada has only flown USA fighter jets (due to the Avro Arrow being foolishly cancelled) although we domestically manufactured both the F-86 Sabre and F-5 Freedom Fighter. The CF-35 will be the 7th of such jets, so the tradition continues.

From all I've read, it's the targeting acquisition capabilities which are the stand out feature of the F-35. Based upon the role and mission RCAF jets have flown in since the 1st Gulf War, that's an important aspect of any new jet Canada buys. And while the F-35 won't be as stealthy with the advent of better detection, it'll still show up on screens later than other military jets currently being produced. All of those were considered -including the Dassault Rafale- in the CDN governments RFP. The Rafale was particularly attractive, as Dassault would have allowed them to be manufactured in Canada. And who knows, CDN Gov't and LM could still fail to negotiate an agreement, resulting in Gripens for the RCAF. That's probably a long shot though, as currently roughly 20 CDN companies and agencies are actively manufacturing and conducting research contracts for the F-35. So negotiating a sound deal is very much in the interest of both parties. I can only go by what I've been reading and I'm admittedly less knowledgeable than others here at combatace. But from what I've read, target acquisition is likely going to become an increasingly important aspect going forward for any warfare that can be classified as close to symmetrical. I see locking up air and ground targets and handing them off via a network to ground or naval forces to deal with (or even older 4th gen jets trailing behind), becoming increasingly important role for military jets. That's where stealth comes in - the closer a military jet can get in before detection to lock up targets, the better. Have your heard about the operations by Aerorozvidka in the Ukraine invasion. IMO military aircraft will increasingly be called upon to perform an equivalent role from the air, for which stealth and an avionics suite capable of long detection is going to be crucial. As to F-35's lack of agility - while it may not be as agile as some 4th or 5th gen jets, it's still more agile than the Chengdu J-20, which last I looked is the only stealth capable jet being flown by potential adversaries. Russia has the SU-57 in development, but after current events are they even going to be able to afford to procure many of them?

Nope not yet - any existing schematics are secured away on CDN Ministry of Defense or LM servers. All I've been able to see or read is that the prototype is a fair ways along in its design, due to the spec having been agreed upon years ago. Who knows when we'll see our first F-35 in Canada though, as I have no doubt the CDN gov't will nurse the 18 billion price tag along over a number of years.

It's complicated, but the Canadian Gov't did have an order in for 18, F-18Es as a fit gap measure, but the deal got nixed. to briefly sum up; in the early days of the Trump Administration Boeing filed an infraction with the NAFTA (now called USMCA) trade regulation board against Bombardier Inc. - a Canadian company. They claimed unfair competition practices regarding Canadair regional jets and claimed Bombardier was unfairly receiving government subsidies. When in fact the funds in question were coming from a mutual investment fund who's major clients just happened to be a CDN provincial teachers association. The whole thing got laughed out of court so to say, being dismissed shortly after. Before the dismissal though, the CDN government announced the F-18E deal was dead. I 'm a fan of the Super Hornet too, but I doubt the CDN government will buy anything from Boeing again - at least not in the near future.

Oh Excellent. While I don't own SF2V, I do own SF2E and SF2NA. I applaud your goal of placing more roads on the tiles. I've read Fall's Street Without Joy a couple of times and he mention attacks on roads that gave access to rural French outposts. Reading it I got the impression that the French had build quite a network of roads in Colonial Indochina - especially in the Tonkin region. The houses and trees on your latest tiles are impressive!

Very cool idea. For the OPERATION DESERT ARROW (1984) campaign, the RCAF should also have the CF-188, as it was introduced in 1982 and despite delays there were enough delivered by 1984 to field a squadron. Would players need to own the Strike Fighters 2 game to run this campaign, or would SF Euro be enough?

This looks very good. I'm assuming this is built upon the SF 2 Vietnam base terrain - is that correct? I ask because I don't own SF2 yet -just WOV- but I was considering getting it.

Late to the party with a reply, but I was just thinking about SH3 the other day, which I own. I was getting an itch to reinstall and remembered the GWX mod, but I no longer have it on any storage devices and was wondering where to get it. This new updated mod gives me much more reason to play again. Nice review!

Aren't these likely the MiG-29MU1 variants and possibly even the MiG-29MU2s we're talking about here? I'd read somewhere that the MiG-29MU1 had an upgraded radar that put it on par with the capabilities of the SU-35's Irbis-E system. Regardless of whether it's a match for the Flanker-E's detection, MU1s upgrade is supposed to improve its detection by a 1/3rd, so maybe that's making a difference. I rarely fly Fulcrums and Flankers while siming, so I'm admittedly ignorant about how these 2 birds match up in terms of flight capabilities. If these Ukrainian Fulcrums are the more upgraded variants though, should we be so surprised that they're taking down some Flanker-Es? As well, what about the rumored upgrades to Ukrainian Fulcrums by the the Israeli corporation Elbit Systems of Israel. Did that ever happen?

I want to stay far and clear of the politics, so don't take my words as anything other than a tactical military speculation/discussion. I'd read twice, once from an ISIS insurrectionists and the other a Taliban, that they most feared armed drones. Other than the Nagorno-Karabakh war though, all the other uses were against insurgents fighting in asymmetrical warfare. And as others have said, Armenia forces were ill prepared to defend against drones. I wonder if drones like the TB2 would fair as well in a war with more equally and modern equipped forces? Still, the TB2 looks like a very capable and lethal threat. I expect if there is an invasion, Russian tank, AFV and IFV losses will be higher than some expected. The way I see it though, with 67 battalions on the Ukraine-Russia border and 10 on the Belarus-Ukraine border, Russia owns the Donbass for good if that force goes in. My thinking is that the Ukraine's supply of TB2's doesn't change that outcome. I've read Russia needs to deploy 100 battalions minimum at the start to hold all of the Ukraine, so I'm not even sure they can force regime change in Kiev with what they have at the ready?

How credible are the producers of this video? I ask because it mentions a RCS (radar cross-section) for the F-22 about the size of a bumble bee, but I've always read about the size of a seagull. What the narrator claims sounds more like stealth capability under ideal conditions, rather than the norm he seems to be insinuating. According to the wiki, even the F-35 Lightning II can have a RCS less than the size of a golf ball under ideal conditions. As well, the narrator seems to portray the Chinese Chengdu J-20 as a true competitor, but I've read its less than stellar turn radius puts it behind both the F-22 and F-35 for performance. And while it was rumored that Israel leaked secrets aiding the manufacture of the Chengdu J-10, nothing was ever actually confirmed and nothing close to solid evidence was ever presented. The F-22's dual engines are a boon for survivability and something I know my country's Airforce (which is in on the F-35 program) would truly love to have. That said, aren't they also a bit of a bane for stealth compared to the F-35 in terms of a larger rear heat signature? I've also read in a number of publications and articles, that the extremely high cost of the F-22 was more of a factor in it not being considered a jet for foreign sales. JSF program was from it's early days always supposed to be producing the aircraft that would fulfill that export role. I personally feel the F-22 is a beautiful warbird (a 1st of its kind) , an excellent air asset and deterrent and I've always loved flying one in a combat sim - TAW was a blast back in the day. That said I don't think the F-35 Lightning II is exactly chopped liver, so to say, in comparison to it.

I admittedly don't know much about West vs East tanks for vulnerability and survivability. I've read some books, but they didn't cover that aspect of tank warfare too well. For a DLC for a video game I have that models the early 80's (ARMA 3 with Global Mobilization add-on) , the German Leopard I is more or less a sitting duck Vs a East German T-55. The key is sitting duck, because if you continually move from cover to cover and quick quick maneuver to put a T-55 in your site and get in a number of hits, you have a far better chance due to the good speed and decent guns. One hit from that T-55 gun though...deadly! I'm guessing that's what some here are alluding to in regards to tactics. It's been a humbling experience for me to play scenarios, because my country used the Leopard I and now uses the Leopard II. Anyhow, I don't really know if the videogame I'm playing is a much of a realistic representation of actual battlefield conditions. Just that it's been an eye opener, because I'd read a number of sources that until the USSR rolled out the T-72, they didn't have much of a chance in a real tank battle.

I didn't migrate to Windows 10 until the very last day of Windows 7 support. So I got a mature version and it's been nothing but excellent as a gaming, business app and development platform. I do run it on a custom built desktop PC with a quality mobo and components, which no doubt helps.

Oops - missed the correct press of the [2] key there. Too bad I can't edit that post to set it straight.

I'm betting Windows 11 is a flop, since going back to WinXP every other addition of Windows (Vista, 8) has been. So I'm expecting support for Windows 10 -as it was for XP and 7- will be extended; probably at least out to 2015. I'm not trying to be cynical, just an accurate observer of history.

Sorry for taking some time to get back. Yes, based on on the visual improvements the DX10 fixer does for FSX, doing something similar with SF2's DX10 implementation would be a significant improvement over the current state. Note; I'm talking about the payware version 5.3 of Steve's DX10 Fixer, not the freebie 3.2.3 that you can be downloaded from the avsim.com library. The new fixer with the optional cloud shadows addon is a big improvement over the 3.x gen.

I'm going to have to disagree with you, if only because I have real experience this isn't entirely the case via my installation of Flight Simulator X and a 3rd party enhancement product called the DX10 Scenery Fixer + its Cloud Shadows addon. The in-cockpit shadows, lighting effects and cloud shadows it enables at times are nothing short of breath taking. DX10 was just debuting when FSX released, but the visual improvements this DX10 fixer offers over the original product is radical and far more effective than what Strike Fighters 2 does with DX10. There's no argument that DX11 brought much more to the table, but FSX w/DX10 Scenery Fixer has convinced me that much more could be done with SF2 using that graphics API alone.

Wow - great stuff! I've been away for a while and this is the 2nd thread I read upon return. You're doing some terrific research and work here and I can't wait to be able to play these maps. I've read more books on the 2 Vietnam wars than I can count on my fingers and toes, so it's exciting to read about others digging into the history. In the past I've done research on the Indochina War to recreate more accurate and lesser known scenarios for the Force on Force tabletop game. If this gets to a point where you need info on specific IW battles and campaigns, I can probably be of some help.

Not being able to purchase North Atlantic is indeed a shame, as IMO it changes the game via nautical ops the most for the better. Since you have Euro, the mod I'd recommend most is the NATO Fighters 5 campaign. It's large, comes in 7 different archives and clocks in at about 2.5 GB, but it adds so much quality and quantity to the Euro theater that it's worth every bit the effort. Kudos to all the modders here who put in the effort to create it.

Oh yes, please do! The A-6E is among my favorite mud movers in SF2. Your work on the Tornado is amazing - I had no idea that a WO cockpit could even be modeled to that extent! I'm looking to produce some AAR's based on SF2 NF5 missions that work in conjunction with missions for the Global Mobilization expansion for ArmA 3 - 1983 cold war ground conflict around the vicinity of Weferlingen in the GDR. My idea is to have SEAD and CAS missions in SF2 NF5 affect the amount of Shilkas and T--55s that are on the battlefield in my ArmA3 GM missions. The Weferlingen area is covered in SF2 Euros with airbases in the vicinity, so it definitely seems doable. Considering I'll be focusing on the Tornado and F-4F Phantom II in SF2 missions, this mod will be very beneficial to my project. My biggest hangup so far is figuring out how to script missions with the ArmA3 Eden Editor, so that they allow for armor strength/numbers to be auto-adjusted based upon the the results of SF2 missions. Like SF2 though, there's lot of quality fan-made tools for Eden editing, so it's just a matter of continuing to throw myself at the learning curve. ;)

Will it match the thrills of the original, or simply be The Mummy flies again.

One of the problems I'm having with Shoot, is that it's maxing my mic's recording level. That could be the cause of the notrecognized wave continually being triggered, as it might be picking up background noise. I have noise suppression and echo cancellation enabled, but with levels being maxed it still might be responding to some noise or interference. I believe i have .NET 1.1 on my PC because of the installation of a legacy game. If you could post the original Shoot install, I'd be interested in installing it to see if I get better results.

My country flew the F-5A and I've flown them in SF2 Europe - used to fly one a lot in Wings over Vietnam in what-if scenarios. It's dangerous to fly in heavy SAM theaters as it doesn't have a Radar Warning Receiver and consequently can't do, or is poor for SEAD. When flying strike or CAP with lots of AA, fly nape of the earth and pop-up to about 6000' at 1 NM distance from the target. It's decent with LDGP bombs delivery and is a very good rocketing platform. It's maneuverable and reasonably fast and therefore good in a dogfight; especially when going guns. Again though, without a RWR it's vulnerable to any A-A radar based missiles and without flares is vulnerable to heat seekers. So if you're going to dogfight get in close and gun them out of the air. You could also add the F-104 Starfighter, as it was specifically designed by Lockheed and funded by the US government for export to allied countries. I personally don't care for it, because it's a bitch to turn at high speed - also not that good in a dive. It's damn fast though and at least it has a RWR and a radar scope IIRC. [Edit] Forgot to mention that the F-5A for SF2 has a very pronounced roll when applying rudder. Some players are probably OK with it and you might prefer it, but I felt it was off. I use the RCAF CF-5A freedom fighter and there's alternative flight models that correct it. The F-5A wasn't good on takeoff and required a lot of runway and IIRC the base fan-made F-5A for SF2 is similar. So go full throttle before releasing the wheel brake. In real life the CF-5A had a variable undercarriage that would raise the nose and change the AoA so that it could take off easier. My grey cells are failing me though and I can't remember if that feature is modeled in the SF2 CF-5A.

I have the .NET Framework 1.1 and .NET Framework 4.7.2 installed. The wave files play fine. What I'm hearing is the notrecognized.wav being repeated. It only plays once when [Capslock] is 1st pressed, but the moment I say something that notrecognized wave keeps playing in a continuous loop. Yes, I've done fairly extensive training with the Win7 voice recognition feature and for the most part it hears my reading of the voice-training text reliably.