MigBuster

98% no F-16s had the capability to carry AIM-7 operationally until 1989 despite several sources saying otherwise (looking at you Egyptian F-16Cs) . Those EPAF countries (Belgium etc) would have had to flight test, and pay for the capability and develop new pylons and the radar dev.........either to GD / Westinghouse or some other contractor. They would have been seen carrying AIM-7 and being a non classified thing many pilots and engineers would have stated as such by now. (No evidence of such a thing) No idea if it was even an option for them............but they did have some differences like Penguin (Norway). Would probably need someone that dealt with the negotiations back in the 70s to know. Basically if you look back back to the 1970s/80s they were really holding out for AMRAAM which was started around 1976 and expected in 1985/6 but was delayed with the first LRIP AMRAAMs delivered in 1987. (first separation AMRAAM launch from F-16 was about 1981)

In reality there is a lot of confusion but will try to clear it up. F-16A Block 1 was built from the start to carry Sparrow and had the cooling, space, power and provisions....however due to politics USAF decided not to put it on and dropped it in 1975. So the APG-66(V) did not have the bits to support AIM-7 like the CW module because they were intentionally left off. Long story short AIM-7 was not properly certified on F-16A until 1989 (F-16ADF) that used the APG-66(V)1 (according to Lockheed Martin/GD) It was not certified on F-16C until 1989 either and not ready until 1992. (according to Lockheed Martin/GD) After 1992 Lockheed advertised it as an option on any F-16A or F-16C regardless of the Radar if you wanted it but very few users ever had it. For example the EPAF MLU F-16s with APG-66(V2) probably didn't have the capability to fire AIM-7 they just went with AMRAAM instead. However the Taiwan Block 20s with APG-66(V)3 could fire AIM-7s (they were not allowed AMRAAM at first) Basically the USAF were given costs and a 3 year lead time in 1976 to put Sparrow on the F-16A so it was viable......................so for fantasy world you can just stick it on.

Shift and Num Pad arrow keys (1 to 9) was default. See "BMS Keyboard Layout (US Int).pdf" in your install ....\BMS_437\Docs\01 Input Devices\01 Keyboard Layouts\Basic Also "BMS-User-Manual.pdf" in your install for key mapping using the launcher ........\BMS_437\Docs\00 BMS Manuals

A new Pacific theatre of operation World War II era combat flight simulator has started development from Jason Williams who is partnering with Barbedwire studios. Jason is the former CEO of 777 Studios who made Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War series, and the former Executive Producer of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles franchise by 1C Game Studios. Website here: https://combatpilot.com/ Interview here: https://stormbirds.blog/2023/05/18/combat-pilot-a-new-pacific-wwii-sim-coming-from-jason-williams-and-barbedwire-studios/

Microprose announce they have reacquired the copyright for the Falcon series and sounds like there will be upcoming work along with continuing to work with Benchmark Sims (BMS).

Wow the B950 was Q2 2011 and that is an onboard Graphics set. A more modern gaming Laptop might be able to run it with an NVIDIA/AMD set (Maybe? ) - but 2011 Intel HD I would say that is the problem. You could try reducing the settings to minimum to see if that might get anything.

Is that an actual graphics card because those things were usually onboard or the inbuilt graphics on Intel CPUs (Laptop yes?) Run dxdiag and post the system specs.

Cockpit mod to do what exactly?

For global 360 head movement Extract Viewlist.ini, stick in the "flight" mod folder, and change these to FALSE in each relevant section: LimitPitch=FALSE LimitYaw=FALSE For side to side head movement that needs individual changes for each aircraft (needed for some ) #35 on here: You can limit yaw movement for each aircraft also to some extent IIRC individually.

There are a few ways to give unrestricted head movement. Are you using head tracking?

Try contacting them on Twitter https://twitter.com/thirdwire

I run it in Windows 11 home 64 okay. May not be necessary as these are legacy steps from Vista days. In the shortcut properties (Compatibility tab) ticked: Run the program in compatibility mode for windows 7 Disable Full screen optimisations Run program as administrator. Core game files are not installed in Program files. Make sure you dont have an antivirus program trying to stop the exe running also

Yep agree with that.

DCS Normandy 2 map released in early access, and discount on WWII fighter modules.

So......what was happening back in 2011 I wonder? Well there were rumours of a new version of Falcon 4 which was later released by Benchmark Sims (BMS), and in February of that year DCS: A-10C Warthog was released. The Strike Fighters community was eagerly awaiting the release of Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic - and it was also the year that Combat Ace member Sophocles bit the bullet and decided to get into 3D modelling. Now many years later, he has now released what certainly looks like the best modelled aircraft ever to grace Strike Fighters 2, and that includes all of Thirdwires efforts. Many modder projects start and look promising and then wither and die (especially after so many years) so we decided to ask Sophocles some questions about this project. The F-5A thread starts around 2012 - what year did you start the F-5 model exactly? I started the model in December of 2011. I'd never done any 3d modelling, but I was determined to learn, having done a lot of free-ware/payware texturing work for CFS2 and FS9. What 3D programs do you use to create 3D models? 3dsMax.. It is unusual for someone to stay on a single project after all this time - what has kept you going all these years to continue the project? Well, I spent about a year finishing the external model (learning all the basics as I went along, ie. modelling, mapping, animating) and then another year doing the cockpit.. I'd planned for a release in 2014 but by that time my world caved in together with the Greek economy..) lost my business, house, went through divorce and even lost the dog!! As you can imagine, the last thing on my mind was the F-5A model!!! I tried over the years at times to re-invest in the project, but real life just kept getting in the way... Many Combat Ace members were involved in the project, some actively helping along and contributing in one form or another (will thank and present their contributions in their entirety when the project is complete), others offering encouragement and emotional support (this is the best thing about the Combat Ace community!) but the one individual who for the most part inspired the level of detail in the model; and who subsequently worked the hardest getting the project moving again was Volker (ravenclaw).. without whom the project would not have been revived (post-2017). I really need to get the F-5A out to the community because their support (and patience, LOL!) has been incredible. After this do you think you will continue to do other 3D models on this level? Sure, with all the knowledge and experience I've accumulated over the years, any new projects (and there are a few..) will take a fraction of the time .. given the world doesn't implode...again!!!!! With special thanks to Sophocles you can download Hellenic Air Force F-5A Volume 1 here and looks like there will be more high quality volumes to follow:

But check out those boxes - drool.

Statement today from Benchmark Sims:

System specs ? possibly gfx driver or hardware problem. (or post dxdiag output) Does same thing happen without mods? (assuming you have any you will have to try moving them out to test) If you create another instance of the game do you get the same problem? Where did you get the game from?

By Damian Teo Join the 354th Bulldogs on a difficult mission over North Vietnam portrayed in this comic strip adventure!

Today we are taking a trip back to 2004, a time when as you can see from the photo above featured PC CDROMs! Before Internet speeds for most were high enough to consider sending entire game files they had to distribute games to people using good old fashioned Compact Disks. The shiny CD came complete with its own (Jewel) case with cover and even a printed manual. As you can see a time when even Thirdwire had to distribute games and make them look like games used to - the manual even tells me to go to http://www.softwarehelpdesk.co.uk/ for technical support…………..ha looks like that domain is up for sale! Looking at the back we can see it even ran on Windows ME with 256MB of RAM! - Yes, I had to look back to remember what Win ME was – the very last of the Win 9x line before Microsoft thankfully ditched that and we got Win 2000 then Win XP. Of course, in 2004 or nearly all of that decade Win XP was the only game in town for home users and it was great for its time. For anybody who had bought Strike Fighters: Project 1, a Vietnam game was a logical and most welcome step forward….a game that recreates the intense air combat experience in the skies of North Vietnam at the height of the air campaign……………..what could be better! The manual lists the Player and AI aircraft, and although the VPAF selection looks fairly complete, the US selection was very limited compared to the later Strike Fighters 2: Vietnam. This was a time when there was hope for the future and many opportunities to modify the hell out of the game and start getting into place the absolute ton of things not included in the box. Terrain & Environment As you might see (from the case) the Terrain that came with WOV wasn’t much better than what comes with one of Thirdwires Phone & Tablet PC games – a pretty poor and unrealistic looking barren wasteland. Unsurprisingly it was not long before modders produced somewhat better tilesets - one of the first I remember and although free was used by Yankee Air Pirate later: The RA-5 Vigilante - does not come with WOV There was a payware tileset for sale at Razbams store at some point – but suffered from having obvious borders and tile edges – also 512 x 512 bitmap files were pretty big at the time but very low res by today’s standards. This later effort includes a version of Starys Green Hell which included a lot more trees for the first time: Vietnam was hell - Green hell! When released WOV also had no clouds either but they were added in a later patch: Low level clouds, gone but not forgotten Game play The North Vietnam Air Force (VPAF) and air defences were quite well set up as part of the terrain, with relevant SAM and AAA models for the era along with relevant AI. The MiGs varied in effectiveness from patch to patch whereas some of the SA-2s had a Kill probability of about 99% - this was rightly toned down somewhat in Strike Fighters 2 (SF2). WOV included an airbourne FAC (Forward Air Controller) role and this was usually represented by an 0-1E Birddog flying over the battlefield (Callsign Snoopy) – this was removed from SF2. The game added Carrier operations for the first time although the carrier was pretty lonely by itself most of the time, and players could only fly off it in campaigns and scripted single missions! The B-52s thought they were safe from Thirdwires lesser spotted MiG-17F Payware There were some options for payware – mostly from Razbam and Yankee Air Pirate – both had air of controversy that I won’t go into here. One of the very few payware aircraft was the A-1 skyraider pack Before the Mission Editor arrived in SF2 you had to create single missions using Notepad basically, quite a time consuming and difficult process. Yankee Air Pirate basically created single missions based on real missions from Vietnam and was quite an important addition for anyone with an interest in that subject. Populated carrier deck Landing and taking off in Hueys from smaller boats like this Shooting down Colts in Hueys Shooting the side gun in Hueys - Get some!. Of course, with scripted missions you can do quite a few things you cannot in auto generated single missions and campaigns! Advance clone army! The VPAF, masters of camouflage Looking back Wings Over Vietnam certainly started out as a fairly serious attempt to put together a decent standalone Vietnam war Air Combat simulator and in that respects, did a pretty decent job, but only if you took time to add a lot of the mods available and change the game yourself. Graphically it was using DX9.0c so was up to date in that regards although again you had to add mods to get it looking to what it should have perhaps been out of the box. F-111A - not included with WOV EB-66 - not included with WOV …………and Here we are at the tail end of 2017 and still no real alternative to WOV and SF2V on the Vietnam War flight sim front.

Back in 2004 a book was released by Osprey that likely caused a few (thousand) Internet forum arguments……………...Iranian F-14 Tomcat units in combat by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop. The information in the book shattered the typical Western held views and perception of what really might have happened during the eight-year Iran Vs Iraq conflict in the 1980s. The book is probably owned by most Tomcat fans out there and even was referred to positively by both Dave Baranek and his guest Iranian former F-14 pilot (Mikey) in Episode 5 of the Tomcast on YouTube. But what was the controversy all about and how accurate was the information presented? After all information is usually the first casualty of war and it usually takes decades afterwards to even start scratching the surface. Lack of Information Osprey books are normally very well researched using the best information available that they can get released into the public domain. That information can often be cross checked especially in the US where more of this information is available. The problem with the Iran/ Iraq conflict is that most of the official Iraq war records seems to have been lost during the constant state of conflict there. Likewise getting credible information from Iran also involves contacting those who have to remain anonymous due to such things as political persecution and death threats. (Even if they live outside of Iran) Trust Today Tom Cooper is probably one of the top authorities on Middle Eastern Combat having published many books with leading Historians….. but this book was one of his first and it had listed almost no source references! You basically had to put trust that Osprey had actually had a look at where this information was coming from. What gets your backs up! The book is only written from an Iranian point of view and thus, to most of us that does not mean you can dismiss it but you need to be weary that there is always more than one side to every story. We also have to accept that the information on the conflict was still not great at this point in time and therefore unlike most Osprey books you had to accept that the information was raw and a higher percentage of it was likely wrong. For an example of the hodgepodge of data, in the chapter “The Fog of Disinformation” it states: “It remains unclear exactly how many air-to air kills were scored by IRIAF F-14s between 7 Sept 1980 and 7 July 1988” It then tells us that a Post war Iranian conference concluded that a total of 71 x AIM-54s had been fired with a further 10 lost (Due to crashes/defection etc) The conference also determined the F-14 had a total of 30 x confirmed kills with 16 of those confirmed AIM-54 kills. The author then states that they have further evidence for 130 confirmed kills total including 40 with the AIM-54. Then if we move to the Appendices, it lists another figure - around 58 “confirmed kills” with the AIM-54 and around 159 total confirmed kills. [more on that later] So then the hodgepodge of information gives a total that might be in the range of 30 to 159 for total claims, and AIM-54 claims might range from 16 to 58 [okay] Accuracy The book was the first time most found out that perhaps the F-14s were used in combat and that stories of the US sabotaging all the missiles etc were not completely true. This is one thing in the book at least that is backed up in some other interviews like here: What is the biggest myth about the Iranian F-14s? “The most tiresome is that the departing US personnel stationed in Iran managed to sabotage Iranian F-14 radar, electronics and Phoenix missiles before leaving Iran in the ensuing days after the 1979 revolution. Let me tell you that I was a young officer during those days at Esfahan Khatami air base. Our wing commanders and senior officers made sure this never happened. We lined up departing American personnel before boarding their TWA aircraft and inspected them all. From: F-14 Tomcat pilot Col. Fereydoun A. Mazandarani (rtd) The Appendices and the art of the Kill Although there is probably a lot of useful information in the book the one area that always seems a tad flaky was the Appendices which lists 159 confirmed kills in total for the Iranian F-14A. It does at least list some sources for the information. What we can do is take information released more recently (including newer text from T Cooper) from the Iraqi side and see what has changed and if it can be matched up in anyway to these confirmed kills. In particular Iraqi Mirages in Combat (2018, Miguel Garcia, Independent) Iraqi Mirages (2019, Tom Cooper & Milos Sipos, Helion) A confirmed kill is not a confirmed Kill In the history of aerial warfare, the difference between confirmed kills stated by one side only and the real actual kills has been like the difference between Jupiter and the Sun! In fact, ridiculous claims are even partly to blame for major blunders such as the USAAF sending in unescorted bombers for so long over Germany in 1943 to their inevitable slaughter. After all, why do you need escort fighters if your bomber crews claims show they have already shot down the entire Luftwaffe! A good airforce should only claim a confirmed kill based on multiple criteria – even gun camera film in the past has not been enough evidence of an actual shootdown. Pilots in the stress of combat are extremely bad eyewitnesses and here we have a conflict where pilots are firing missiles BVR. One explosion in the distance or a radar blip disappearing are not evidence of an actual shootdown. So, a “confirmed kill” by one side is usually better described as a “Claim” instead. 33 claims on Mirage F1s………. hmm That’s right, the Appendices in the book list 33 F-14A “confirmed kills” (claims) over Mirage F1s. (Garcia M) only lists a total of 32 Mirages lost over the period to all causes! Out of that, only 2 of those dates match any of those 33 events. [what!] So is that 2 actual losses only out of 33 claims listed!! [Oh dear]. But wait you say that independent book from Garcia M cannot be much use, can it? Well, the thing is the 2019 (T Cooper / Sipos) book actually matches the information in the (Garcia M) book closely and almost disowns the 2004 data like a child that doesn’t meet its ideals. The (T Cooper / Sipos) book does mention another 2 of the events out of the list of 33 but in both cases states the missiles fired by the F-14 missed the Mirages. So where does the figure of 33 comes from? - Is it coincidence that the total number of Mirage F1 losses (Garcia M) to all causes comes to about 32 for that period?? Better information? Either way both of the newer books provide information that Iranian F-14As may have shot down 7 or 8 Mirage F1s during the conflict [Yes, slightly less than 33]. Likewise, they also show that Mirage F1s may have shot down 4 x F-14As (a 5th F-14A was hit but flew back to base) Is that accurate? – only time will tell but at least the numbers are going in the right direction [down] Other things noted in the 2004 book are, the Appendices also show most of the Sidewinders and Sparrows used as the type AIM-9P and AIM-7E-4. The more recent information suggests that Iran only had the AIM-9J and AIM-7E-2 and were essentially using ones supplied for their F-4s which had degraded capability because of it. Also, on page 76 the 2004 book tells us (from the Iranian side) that Iraq received Super 530D and Magic 2 missiles. The recent information in both newer books suggest Iraq only received Magic 1 and Super 530F missiles and nearly all their claims were using the Super 530F. So, perhaps some progress has been made in the past 2 decades because instead of these authors shouting at people on internet forums (yes, some did) there is maybe a bit more calm and willingness to look at both sides and the actual data available. The final word on the book is that its real value was not only to highlight that the conflict was very different to published stories about it at the time, but also may have helped inspire those more passionate to get out there and start digging for better information. Sources · Iraqi Mirages in Combat (2018, Garcia M, Independent) · Iraqi Mirage (2019, Cooper T, Sipos M, Helion) · Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in combat (2004, Cooper T, Bishop F, Osprey) · Air Combat Memoirs of the Iranian Air Force Pilots (2015, Ryan, K, Bishop F, Independent) · Schweinfurt-Regensburg 1943 (2020, Marshall Michel III, Osprey) The Tomcast Episode 5: Iranian F-14s (2020, Baranek, Online): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q5Y_ai4s2Y Interview with Fereydoun Mazandarani (2020, Hushkit, Online): https://hushkit.net/2020/04/07/interview-with-the-greatest-living-fighter-ace-f-14-tomcat-pilot-col-rtd-fereydoun-a-mazandarani/

There must be several others - here is one

For a limited time only! This edition will be only available until Feb 29, 2020. Strike Fighters 2 Complete Edition is a collection of the entire Strike Fighters 2 series (over $400+ value!) including 5 games, 2 expansion packs, and 29 DLCs all in one single, easy-to-install package! The package inlude: • Strike Fighters 2 • Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam • Strike Fighters 2 Europe • Strike Fighters 2 Israel • Strike Fighters 2 North Atlantic • Strike Fighters 2 Expansion Pack 1 • Strike Fighters 2 Expansion Pack 2 • All 29 Strike Fighters 2 DLCs You can get this Complete Edition for free if you've already purchased all the products listed above! Get Strike Fighters 2 Complete Edition for FREE! You can also get a 50% discount if you've already purchased 5 Strike Fighters 2 games! Get Strike Fighters 2 Complete Edition discount! https://store.thirdwire.com/project_sf2_complete.htm

The Soviet PVO used missiles, unguided rockets and guns - even Tu-128s were used to shoot at them. A lot of missiles of course missed, sometimes a direct hit by the missile was enough. See defending Rodinu vol 2 by Krzysztof Dabrowski. flying directly at a balloon at 60000ft means you have to be fast so getting out of the way is going to be problematic. an off boresight shot was the best way to keep things as cheap as possible.