Bud just wanted to let you know that I only found your channel today and so many questions I have had on the hornet, that I could never get answers to has been answered by watching a couple of your vids. Thank you very much and keep up the great work.
5:58 Note that the steering dot is bugged and almost always is on the target. 9:41 What those values 1-18 actually represent is minimum change in target aspect to kinematically defeat the missile. So say you have a value of 3, that means that the target must turn at least 30 degrees to defeat the missile kinematically. 18 is the best, because it ensures that the bandit must turn around 180 degrees if they want to defeat the missile. I.e Rne. 10:10 LOST is referring to the missile probability of intercept based on the parameters at launch initially. The computer is saying that at this time, best on the initial launch data and current radar data that the missile has most likely missed the target, hence LOST is displayed. (somewhat bugged atm) The actual indicator for memory mode is MEM on the HUD (IRL) and the attack format along with the broken TD box on the HUD. 12:44 note that STT can be regained and PDI should resume. Especially in a tail chase, you want he Sparrows to loft. 15:35 IR COOL doesn't apply to the AIM-9X. Just wanted to mention a few things, great work with this one!
Ref to the Mobius comment…. just FYI, my steering dot is seldom on my target and appears to calculate a predicted location of where the bandit will be. Only time i get steering dot on target is a hot target coming straight at me.
As for your sparrow comment, you want to LOFT if the bandits nose is on you, and you are far. If you are close, you do not LOFT, as without loft it takes a direct path to the target which is what you want close range
All right I’m 4 F18C training videos in now and I have to say Thanks…….. learning a-lot. With that being said I am and will always be forever a Turkey bird driver😎. So just before the end of the year thanks to your newsletter I decided its time to learn the F18C since I have had it for awhile. When I first grabbed the Hornet year and half ago I practiced AAR, and Case 1 then pretty much have flown the Tomcat exclusively. Your explanations are exactly what I was looking for, keep the details coming.
These are absolutely awesome vids and I am enjoying the heck out of them and learning a ton. Here mainly to learn the radar tracking and air-to-air modes for right now. Great job.
Not really possible to generalise here. I don't think so in short however lets go for an example. AMRAAM vs R77. AIM-120D states a maximum range in public documents of more than 86 nautical miles. R77M public data says 120 nautical miles. Likelihood is that the AMRAAM is under stated and the R77 is over stated. That being the case they are realistically about the same. As a further comparison Meteor claims a maximum range of 110 nautical miles so again likely very similar.
@@deephack I was just asking because when I see missile launches form players flying Russian aircraft they seems to be able to fire from much further than I can in say an f18
@@markmagness3693 - depends on the missile and the plane, the AIM-120C has theoretically 57nm range (D isn't in DCS yet), but that is influenced by aspect (a hot target is going to get closer during the missile's flight, so it can be launched-at from further away as it won't be so far away when the missile runs out of energy), your altitude (you'll be able to launch earlier at 30,000' than 20,000' as there's less air density to slow the missile down), your speed (the F/A-18 is not particularly fast, if you're doing Mach 1.2 and the enemy at co-altitude is doing mach 2.0... their missile is 0.8 mach faster than yours as it leaves the rail before the engines fire!) You will probably need to just burn your first -120 shot, it won't hit, but it will force the opposing fighter to go defensive (because if they do nothing, it *will* hit) and they'll already have launched a more effective missile at you and forced you defensive. If you've been pushed down from 30,000' to 1000' and they've not also been forced defensive, your missiles won't have the energy to climb through all that dense air and be effective as they get up to altitude... while your enemy can sit up high and rain missiles down on you and they'll be coming in with crazy amounts of energy and speed 😬 - so force the enemy defensive with a shot, defend against their shot, then get your nose pointed at them when you've closed the distance and let them have another missile before they can get an advantageous position! Their range advantage only works until you're able to get effective shots out to them 😁
Square is friendly or unknown, and friendly will also say “friend” below it. Because he fired the sparrow before he was in STT the radar had not yet interrogated and identified the target so it was still classified as unknown when he shot (to confirm an aircraft as hostile the F18 needs 2 forms of identification, it can’t rely on just 1, when he “soft locked” the target he got an IFF pulse with no return so that was one way, but not enough for the system to declare the aircraft hostile, the second form came with the STT when it could use the radar return to identify the specific aircraft which could also be done by pushing the sensor select switch depress if you don’t want to hard lock the target. If datalink is on and another aircraft can see the target and also declared it hostile this too can be used as the second form of identifying it as a hostile). You’ll notice as soon as he shoots and the radar switches to STT it changes to a Diamond because the STT allows for the interrogation. Side note, the 120 was also shot in an STT lock in this video, but unlike the sparrow it does not need to be. It can be shot in just LNS “soft lock” even if you’re outside of the range where it’ll go active, presumably because it doesn’t need as accurate a targeting so long as it goes in the general area for when it’s own radar can turn on, it goes active, and follows a more accurate track than the F18 radar provides in the soft lock, of course STT will still be more accurate of a shot because of the fact it tracks it precisely like the aim 7 off the rail, but it is not necessary, and the downsides to an STT lock outweigh the pros in a BVR engagement in my mind (the hostile aircraft doesn’t know you’re locking them, they get no rwr warning other than that your radar is on until the missile goes active a few seconds before impact and you can engage multiple aircraft simultaneously) in ACM by all means use an STT, or if you’re trying to hit a max range shot or just engaging 1 target bvr it would probably be better, but as far as multiple aircraft in BVR, TWS with just the LNS, the “soft lock” as I called it is usually preferable, just make sure you get those 2 forms of identification to declare the aircraft hostile, which will always be a diamond 👍🏼 no fratricide here please
My radar is not picking up any targets no matter what settings I use. Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if it's a bug. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Make sure D/L is on, IFF is on. Although I have yet to find any TH-camr mention this, I seem to have to have an AWACS flying around also. (With D/L on and IFF on and without an airborne AWACS, I do not get targets to show up.)
In the stores page, the range display seems to be in meters (or you're thousands of miles away). Are the Rmax Rne and Rmin really in miles and not kilometers? That is odd and incongruous.
F/A-18 A2A radar is somewhat messy, a lot of information very small and overlapping each other. This is the only thing, well together with the lack of power that I do not like about this module.
th-cam.com/video/kgX_NNiSFeM/w-d-xo.html If you want to set up controls like in the F/A-18C Hornet, it would be Weapons Control Switch UP/FORWARD for the AIM-7. UP/FORWARD - AIM-7, RIGHT - AIM-120, DOWN/BACK - GUNS, PUSH - AIM-9
These vids are incredibly useful I've not been on DCS long and have discovered the depth of learning to be much more than I had anticipated, however it is very engaging and enjoyable. thanks @deephack for the detailed content. Just need to create some training missions and put it all into practice. Superb!
Excellent question. There are a few different reasons I would give. First one of course is that maybe you are simulating a period before the AMRAAM was available in which case Sparrow is all you had. The other one is that as a Semi-Active missile the AMRAAM has some rules of engagement problems potentially. You can't guarantee in a target dense environment such as a furball that what you fire on is what the missile is going to hit after it goes active. I have seen instances in the sim at least where on going active the missile sees a different target than the one you intended and chases that down. I don't know if the later blocks of AMRAAM fix this with the datalink but it is a real world possibility with some versions of the missile. If you are worried about hitting a nearby friendly then the sidewinder or sparrow is a better bet.
Bud just wanted to let you know that I only found your channel today and so many questions I have had on the hornet, that I could never get answers to has been answered by watching a couple of your vids. Thank you very much and keep up the great work.
5:58 Note that the steering dot is bugged and almost always is on the target.
9:41 What those values 1-18 actually represent is minimum change in target aspect to kinematically defeat the missile. So say you have a value of 3, that means that the target must turn at least 30 degrees to defeat the missile kinematically. 18 is the best, because it ensures that the bandit must turn around 180 degrees if they want to defeat the missile. I.e Rne.
10:10 LOST is referring to the missile probability of intercept based on the parameters at launch initially. The computer is saying that at this time, best on the initial launch data and current radar data that the missile has most likely missed the target, hence LOST is displayed. (somewhat bugged atm)
The actual indicator for memory mode is MEM on the HUD (IRL) and the attack format along with the broken TD box on the HUD.
12:44 note that STT can be regained and PDI should resume.
Especially in a tail chase, you want he Sparrows to loft.
15:35 IR COOL doesn't apply to the AIM-9X.
Just wanted to mention a few things, great work with this one!
Thanks again for the notes. This is super useful. I didn't realise that the 1-18 probability value actually had a meaning beyond more being better.
Ref to the Mobius comment…. just FYI, my steering dot is seldom on my target and appears to calculate a predicted location of where the bandit will be. Only time i get steering dot on target is a hot target coming straight at me.
As for your sparrow comment, you want to LOFT if the bandits nose is on you, and you are far.
If you are close, you do not LOFT, as without loft it takes a direct path to the target which is what you want close range
All right I’m 4 F18C training videos in now and I have to say Thanks…….. learning a-lot. With that being said I am and will always be forever a Turkey bird driver😎. So just before the end of the year thanks to your newsletter I decided its time to learn the F18C since I have had it for awhile. When I first grabbed the Hornet year and half ago I practiced AAR, and Case 1 then pretty much have flown the Tomcat exclusively. Your explanations are exactly what I was looking for, keep the details coming.
I'm getting back in the Hornet after a long hiatus and I really appreciate these videos.
These are absolutely awesome vids and I am enjoying the heck out of them and learning a ton. Here mainly to learn the radar tracking and air-to-air modes for right now. Great job.
Lovely stuff! Really enjoy the content and your style. Is making my DCS learning so much easier. Thanks!
You haven’t fooled me sir. I know you’re scott manly in disguise. Lol but great video!
Haha! I wish.
How do you actually lock on the target in the Left MFD? I know with the F-16 it's TMS up but the F-18 is different.
In the F/A-18C you depress the TDC to lock.
Question.
why I cant lock some of the target when it already show red target???
It could be that what you are looking at is a datalink target and not an actual radar return. What radar mode are you in?
@@deephack Arm the AMRAAM. then I hit sensor right (diamond on right MD). TDC slew to target. after that I cant lock that target.
sammeee did you figure it out?
@@cyranova9627
Outstanding explanation! When firing an AIM 120 or AIM 9x, do you leave the radar caged?
So I’m pretty new, do the western missiles have less range than say Russian one?
Not really possible to generalise here. I don't think so in short however lets go for an example. AMRAAM vs R77. AIM-120D states a maximum range in public documents of more than 86 nautical miles. R77M public data says 120 nautical miles. Likelihood is that the AMRAAM is under stated and the R77 is over stated. That being the case they are realistically about the same. As a further comparison Meteor claims a maximum range of 110 nautical miles so again likely very similar.
@@deephack I was just asking because when I see missile launches form players flying Russian aircraft they seems to be able to fire from much further than I can in say an f18
@@markmagness3693 - depends on the missile and the plane, the AIM-120C has theoretically 57nm range (D isn't in DCS yet), but that is influenced by aspect (a hot target is going to get closer during the missile's flight, so it can be launched-at from further away as it won't be so far away when the missile runs out of energy), your altitude (you'll be able to launch earlier at 30,000' than 20,000' as there's less air density to slow the missile down), your speed (the F/A-18 is not particularly fast, if you're doing Mach 1.2 and the enemy at co-altitude is doing mach 2.0... their missile is 0.8 mach faster than yours as it leaves the rail before the engines fire!)
You will probably need to just burn your first -120 shot, it won't hit, but it will force the opposing fighter to go defensive (because if they do nothing, it *will* hit) and they'll already have launched a more effective missile at you and forced you defensive. If you've been pushed down from 30,000' to 1000' and they've not also been forced defensive, your missiles won't have the energy to climb through all that dense air and be effective as they get up to altitude... while your enemy can sit up high and rain missiles down on you and they'll be coming in with crazy amounts of energy and speed 😬 - so force the enemy defensive with a shot, defend against their shot, then get your nose pointed at them when you've closed the distance and let them have another missile before they can get an advantageous position! Their range advantage only works until you're able to get effective shots out to them 😁
Best one I've seen on this so far.
So when using 120’s a square is a friendly but when using Sparrows a square is an enemy?
Square is friendly or unknown, and friendly will also say “friend” below it. Because he fired the sparrow before he was in STT the radar had not yet interrogated and identified the target so it was still classified as unknown when he shot (to confirm an aircraft as hostile the F18 needs 2 forms of identification, it can’t rely on just 1, when he “soft locked” the target he got an IFF pulse with no return so that was one way, but not enough for the system to declare the aircraft hostile, the second form came with the STT when it could use the radar return to identify the specific aircraft which could also be done by pushing the sensor select switch depress if you don’t want to hard lock the target. If datalink is on and another aircraft can see the target and also declared it hostile this too can be used as the second form of identifying it as a hostile). You’ll notice as soon as he shoots and the radar switches to STT it changes to a Diamond because the STT allows for the interrogation. Side note, the 120 was also shot in an STT lock in this video, but unlike the sparrow it does not need to be. It can be shot in just LNS “soft lock” even if you’re outside of the range where it’ll go active, presumably because it doesn’t need as accurate a targeting so long as it goes in the general area for when it’s own radar can turn on, it goes active, and follows a more accurate track than the F18 radar provides in the soft lock, of course STT will still be more accurate of a shot because of the fact it tracks it precisely like the aim 7 off the rail, but it is not necessary, and the downsides to an STT lock outweigh the pros in a BVR engagement in my mind (the hostile aircraft doesn’t know you’re locking them, they get no rwr warning other than that your radar is on until the missile goes active a few seconds before impact and you can engage multiple aircraft simultaneously) in ACM by all means use an STT, or if you’re trying to hit a max range shot or just engaging 1 target bvr it would probably be better, but as far as multiple aircraft in BVR, TWS with just the LNS, the “soft lock” as I called it is usually preferable, just make sure you get those 2 forms of identification to declare the aircraft hostile, which will always be a diamond 👍🏼 no fratricide here please
@@stamis22 appreciate the clarification
My radar is not picking up any targets no matter what settings I use. Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if it's a bug. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Best to make a video or track file to demonstrate. I don't know what the issue might be.
Make sure D/L is on, IFF is on. Although I have yet to find any TH-camr mention this, I seem to have to have an AWACS flying around also. (With D/L on and IFF on and without an airborne AWACS, I do not get targets to show up.)
@@jimrowden7693 Thanks for the tip!
In the stores page, the range display seems to be in meters (or you're thousands of miles away). Are the Rmax Rne and Rmin really in miles and not kilometers? That is odd and incongruous.
The range on the stores page is actually yards I believe and the R ranges are all in nautical miles. Standard naval measurements.
@@deephack Forgot about yards. Also handy it's yards and nauticals since that's (basically) 2000 to 1.
16:30 Did you tap cage/uncage or NWS to change target?
Uncage in this instance
great tutorial
I’ve heard that bandits oftentimes come back as friendly radar contacts so fox first and ask questions later
I've not heard of this and would definately not reccomend that you do that on a multiplayer server :-D
F/A-18 A2A radar is somewhat messy, a lot of information very small and overlapping each other. This is the only thing, well together with the lack of power that I do not like about this module.
th-cam.com/video/kgX_NNiSFeM/w-d-xo.html If you want to set up controls like in the F/A-18C Hornet, it would be Weapons Control Switch UP/FORWARD for the AIM-7.
UP/FORWARD - AIM-7,
RIGHT - AIM-120,
DOWN/BACK - GUNS,
PUSH - AIM-9
These vids are incredibly useful I've not been on DCS long and have discovered the depth of learning to be much more than I had anticipated, however it is very engaging and enjoyable. thanks @deephack for the detailed content. Just need to create some training missions and put it all into practice. Superb!
Thank you!
If u fly at 200 feet can u be detected
That would depend on the radar in question and the terrain. In many cases no but this will vary.
@@deephack thanks deepak
What button is it to get the lock on the radar, every single video I’ve scene doesn’t list a button HELP!
tdc depress if curser over target or nws button
Why would you bother to carry a Sparrow at all?
Thanks so much for helping a WW2 simguy with radar, lol.
Excellent question. There are a few different reasons I would give. First one of course is that maybe you are simulating a period before the AMRAAM was available in which case Sparrow is all you had. The other one is that as a Semi-Active missile the AMRAAM has some rules of engagement problems potentially. You can't guarantee in a target dense environment such as a furball that what you fire on is what the missile is going to hit after it goes active. I have seen instances in the sim at least where on going active the missile sees a different target than the one you intended and chases that down. I don't know if the later blocks of AMRAAM fix this with the datalink but it is a real world possibility with some versions of the missile.
If you are worried about hitting a nearby friendly then the sidewinder or sparrow is a better bet.
Me be like: "can bro speak english plz?"
Let me know if there are any terms that need explained and I'll try my best.
Good!