Feature
Turn Their HAWKs Into Scrap!
A Lock On: Modern Air Combat
Air to Air Mission
by
Cat
Introduction
Hi all! We’re
back with another look at this great new sim. A disclaimer is
in order. These screenshots are based on Beta 15, since
I wrote this while I was familiarizing myself with the title before
its release. So your mileage may vary.
Many of you
have expressed frustration that the Soviet mud-movers have very
little, if any, air-to-ground capability out of the box. I also
miss this; I have read that the Soviet aircraft should be able
to pound mud with the best of them. Sadly, that didn’t happen
with the game as shipped.
The key words,
pilots, are “as shipped.” Igor Tishin, Valery
Blazhnov and Matt Wagner aren’t stupid. They’re old
in war, as the saying goes, and know that we serious simmers all
have our own ideas about how our favorite fighters should be able
to fight. They’ve therefore left the loadouts databases open,
and hackable by the casual flier. Though it will cause multiplayers
headaches, single-players will love this, because it means we
can pound mud with a multirole fighter! Basically, all dumb bombs,
all multiple ejector racks, all Russian laser-guided missiles,
and all Russian antiradar missiles are fair game, as far as I
can tell. The relevant file is called “MEInit.xml,”
and is to be found in the ME folder of your root directory. If
you read the file, you will see how certain weapons can be authorized
for carriage on pylons of your jet, merely by copying-and-pasting
the relevant code in WordPad.
For this
article, I hacked that loadout database, which as you demo fliers
know, can be easily altered with Wordpad. I did this because,
like many of you, I am a great fan of fast-mover air-to-mud, and
I miss dreadfully the old multirole Flanker of Flanker Version
1.5 fame. The release version of Lock On has none of these weapons
on the Su-27 unless you hack ‘em in yourself, except the
R-73 missile. The modeled version is the air-to-air only Su-27P.
I’ve created the multirole Su-27S here, which is basically
identical except it can move mud.
Remember,
if you do this, it be on your own head. The dev team did
not intend the Su-27, Su-33, MiG-29A or MiG-29S to carry certain
types of ordinance. Therefore, the HUD in those aircraft does
not recognize multiple ejector racks, though the weapons panel
works EXACTLY like in the Su-25 and they seem to work in game.
I cannot answer for use of U.S., French, or British ordnance,
either. I believe BL-755, Rockeye, and Mk-series slicks will work,
but I have not tried this. But the HUD displays won’t be
in Cyrillic. I can’t answer for laser Mavericks, ALARMs,
Shrikes, or HARMs, or any of the non-Soviet air to air missiles,
because I have not tried those. And the MFD code is gone, so IR
and TV guided munitions are right out, though the Russian fast
movers can HUD-target the laser missiles, just not the bombs.
As for the F-15, I have not tried to hack its loadouts, but I’d
be surprised if any of this works for it; I believe that for the
Russian birds, there is legacy code on board that lets us play
with their loadout options. Further, I have not yet tried this
with the game’s release version but the MEInit.xml file is
still open. And mark these words well: If you do like I did, DO
NOT complain to SimHQ or the team when it doesn’t work quite
like you want it to! These mods are unwarranted. Period.
Now, keeping
that in mind, sit back and relax: the Sukhoi Su-27S is about to
enter stage right!
My name is Sacha Dimitrovna Andreevna.
You remember me, yes? On a warm day in summer I was called into
my Commander’s office at our base outside Sochi…goodness,
I forget myself. Yes, you will remember that I am a pilot, just
like you. I am assigned to our 586th Fighter Interceptor Squadron,
a unit of our V-VS, what you would call the “Air Force.”
And Vasily and I have had another adventure that I must happily
relate to you today. It is most exciting!
On this day, our skills would be tested
greatly. You know our terrible foe, Sheikh Muqtadeh, who is greatly
feared in our former republic of Georgia. We fly from our Sochi
airbase against his IRLF terrorists, with the help of you Westerners.
Today, we must teach the Sheikh that we are more serious still,
for he has gone too far this time. Now the Turkish air force openly
bases F-16s and F-5s at Sukhumi, too nearby Sochi for comfort
and poaching on our brotherly Georgian territory besides! And
they are placing surface-to-air missiles, the effective American
improved-HAWK system, along with an early warning radar to spy
on us. This is just south of the city of Gudauta, and the Georgian
Su-25s based there are cowed; the HAWK now commands the south
coast. This, we cannot countenance. We must act.
The West is busy in the Middle East, but
even the NATO is now reaching out to us. War makes strange bedfellows,
yes? The Americans send this day again the Overlord, their incomparable
E-3 AWACS aircraft, to be our eyes. The Germans now patrol the
Crimean skies with their MiG-29 and F-4 fighters, and the Canadians
are coming with Hornet fighters. And soon, they will send American
Marines and other NATO soldiers to bolster our troops, if they
can.
But Vasily and I must strike the first
blow, on the ground this time. We have been given this great honor
because our Cranes are the fastest birds in the sky! Yes, we fly
the Sukhoi fighter, the Su-27S, what you call “Flanker.”
Here, we call it “zhuravlik,” the Crane, because it
is beautiful. And these Cranes have teeth. They are the “S”
model, not the older air-to-air “P,” and have been type-rated
for air-to-ground ordnance, rarely seen in versions older than
the Su-30. The Turks do not know this. But they will find out.
Our Commander tells us that the Turks
and their IRLF dogs have set up their stolen 55G6 EWR radar and
we will kill it, and the I-HAWK battery that guards it, and commands
the southern skies. And then, we will land at Gudauta base, that
our Georgian comrades may know that the Rodina will never forget
them. We must be careful, for our agents tell us that the IRLF
have the Shilka gun-tank, too. And Turkish F-5 fighters guard
them as well. So we fly with the new R-77 and R-73 missiles. And
our glorious Red Banner Fleet is on watch for us, the Moscow and
her consort, Neustrashimy, will be nearby with Moscow’s long-range
air defense battery to protect us. You call these the seagoing
SA-10, the SA-N-6, and it is much better than the Turkish HAWKs.
But the Turk is sneaky, and we have heard that two of their American
Perry frigates are on patrol in the Black Sea.
Again I have the mission planning. I tell
our ordnance chief of our mission, and requisition two R-77 and
two R-73 each for self defense, for both Vasily and myself. As
for me, I work best in our natural interceptor role. I am most
proficient beyond-visual-range, and prefer the R-27TE and R-27RE,
but for mid-range combat the R-77 is best; it is similar to your
Western AMRAAM, in fact, the American “Red Flag” instructors
I once had the honour to train with called it, “AMRAAMski.”
A testament to Vympel’s engineering, no? Against the Turks
we will need their maneuverability. I leave the air to ground
ordinance selection to Vasily, who flew Su-30s before coming to
the 586th. He is our resident…how you say…mud-mover,
yes?
“The
threat is radar-guided, so we will need anti-radiation missiles,
Sacha. We have the choice: X-58, X-31P, X-25MP. I advise against
the X-58. It is heavy and long-ranged. Were we attacking the Turkish
Navy, perhaps then. The X-31, well, we do not confront Patriots
or the S-300 this day. I recommend the X-25; it is fast and light.
It packs a good punch and we can carry two along with bombs. And
PB-250 bombs, I think.”
“Multiple
racks?” “Da. Two of three each, from the Su-30
squadron here. We will each have six bombs and two missiles. Your
HUD avionics will not recognize the combination, Sacha, but fortunately,
the Su-27 is fitted with a similar armament control system as
the Su-25. You are type rated for the 25, da?”
“Da.
It will show “b” for bombs, YP.C for missiles, HPC for
rockets, BNY for cannon. In the small window, on the eyebrow panel
left of the pylon indicator below the HUD.”
I planned the ingress. We would take off
from Sochi-Adler as before, and at low altitude use the mountainous
terrain to shelter us from the HAWK radar. Sukhumi base is on
the coast and we will have to make the final approach to target
over water, terribly exposed. It will be low, and fast, with our
missiles to cover us. Perhaps the Turk will keep his cursed radar
off, then.
The weather is glorious. Our meteo officer
pours glasses of tea and as usual I munch cucumber slices as he
briefs us. “Sacha, the cloud base is at 1,700 meters,
visibility with haze, about 50 kilometers. Broken clouds. Wind,
5 meters/second at ground, seven at 2000 meters, nine at 8000
meters.”
“There will be turbulence with
those wind speeds, and in the mountains.”
“It is two meters per second at
ground, Sacha.” Vasily lit a cigarette and sucked in the
smoke with a sour look. “Three meters per second at 2000
meters. We’ll be bouncing like rubber balls on the bomb run.”
I flip the top up on my gold Chaika watch,
and see that it is time to board. Overlord, the American AWACS,
will be waiting for us and soon the GAZ jeep will come to pick
us up. When we take our places, I scan my cockpit, in my No. 11
aircraft. All is in order. The crew chief signals, and I start
my left, then right engines, and close my canopy as I hear Vasily’s
jet, No. 12, start as well. We listen in on Guard as we taxi,
and roll down the runway for a formation takeoff.
Set Condition 1-SQ for surface action.
General quarters, general quarters! All hands man your battle
stations! The alarms begin their shrill ringing as the crew
of the battlecruiser run. In its nerve center, a bearded officer
peers into an orange-lit radar screen and checks his watch.
“The Turk is too close this time, Dmitri Alexandrovich. I
will teach him to be more cautious in the future. Weapons free,
you may fire when ready.”
The cruiser Moscow shudders as
first one, then another SS-N-12 missile roar out of the starboard
launch tubes, dropping booster jets into the sea as they pitch
up into launch attitude. Some fifty kilometers away, the Muin-I-Zaffer
and her consort have a bone in their teeth and are steaming for
a confrontation. They had no idea that the Russian Navy was playing
for keeps, this time.
The Turkish ships react slowly, and Zaffer’s
consort pays for it with the lives of one hundred and forty sailors.
Three Standard SM-2 RIM-66 missiles miss the incoming sea-skimmer,
but with luck, the one following it, the one meant for the Zaffer
herself, is intercepted. The first, however, impacts the other
ship, setting her afire and bringing both Turkish ships to a halt.
But Moscow cannot rest. In her
Combat Information Center, a new threat is on screen.
Overlord is calling. A pop-up threat,
at the Turk airbase. Their F-5s have scrambled. Vasily wants to
fight them. “One, permission to engage targets!”
“No, Vasily! Stick to the plan,
let the Navy have them, but be vigilant. Watch them on the American
Link-16!”
I bring up DVB mode and select R-77. I
flip my radar on and off to initialize the Link to the E-3, just
in time to see the Turk aircraft turn to face me. They are out
of radar range, but now I have established the Link 16 with the
Americans. Our noses are cold like the Borzoi dog in winter, and
yet I can see everything he does from nearly 100 kilometers away.
But the Turk, he does not close! The hated F-5 spins like a child’s
toy!
On Moscow, her VLS cells on the stern
spit fire to the launch of two SA-N-6 missiles as her crew cheers
wildly. So far, one Turkish ship is dead and now, two aircraft
may join her at the bottom of the Black Sea.
The missiles fly true. The Turkish aircraft
cannot escape.
We are skimming the ground now. Houses
and power-lines and roads fly past. I can almost reach out and
touch the treetops.
My collision alarm blares fitfully as
I fight the turbulence bouncing me about, and I wistfully think
of the American F-16 with its terrain-following radar. The Turks
have this, may they rot. My variometer needle is bouncing like
an angry child having temper-tantrum, first a 10 m/s descent,
then an updraft. I’m at 75 meters, and 950 km/h speed at
nearly full military power.
“Sacha, you see what I mean? It
is like the American pinball game up here!”
I stifle a giggle. I see Vasily in my
right mirror, trying vainly to keep tight formation so that the
Turkish EWR or HI-PAR radars will only get one blip and not two
if they see us. He has the worse ride.
The Russian cruiser has more death to
deal this day. Another SS-N-12 is flying to its target, and though
Muin-I-Zaffer releases three Standards in quick succession, she
cannot escape any more than the F-5s or her consort.
“Vasily, IP.”
“Two, running in. Going SEAD.”
I must draw the Turkish fire. I
pop over a mountain and skim over a cliff, the deep blue of the
Black Sea below me. The Turk has a clear line of sight. I’m
picking up three different radars. One intermittently locks me.
I ensure I’m in Zemlya-YPC mode, for Kh-29MP firing.
 |
My Kh-25 will take the most threatening
automatically, and I designate. |
 |
It’s picked up a target in the cluster of radars
ahead and I fire.
|
 |
Activating my Sorbtsiya jammer system, I roll over and
pull for the deck with full burner on.
I switch to bombs, and see the “b” indicator
on my control panel adjacent to the HUD flip into its tiny
window. On the HUD, I have my CCIP reticle, which will allow
me to put bombs on target. I breathe out to relax, reminding
myself that the CCIP in the Su-25 and Su-27 tends to pitch
short.
|
 |
I must put the pipper beyond target
before I squeeze. |
 |
Oh no! Somehow, my missile locked the EWR radar instead
of the HAWK!
|
 |
“One, you’ve hit the EWR system!”
It’s active and I’m committed! I swallow the
lump in my throat and concentrate. I’m too low for
the HAWK to hit me, I hope.
|
 |
The Turkish operators are waiting for me to get within
no-escape distance, and high enough for a SAM kill. It is
me they concentrate on, though Vasily is popping up and
down over the hills surrounding their base to try to draw
a shot.
Suddenly, a solid tone from my Beryoza radar-warning system!
|
 |
“Sacha, SAM-launch, twelve
o’clock!” |
 |
The HAWK has launched! I check my weapon panel, ensuring
I’m back in YPC mode. One Kh-25 left. I designate the
threat emitter, confident that this time the system will
prioritize the SAM, hopefully over the Shilka that is also
out there.
|
 |
The Kh-25 drops off the pylon, and falls a few feet...
|
 |
... before igniting and streaking
away. |
 |
"I got him!"
|
 |
I pull a hard, 9-g turn and fight to stay conscious, tightening
my abdominal muscles as the instructors taught us in flight
school. popping chaff/flare combos from my APP-50 dispenser.
My warning system shouts “Maximum G!” as
I roll in for a bomb attack.
|
 |
I put the search radar under my
pipper, switch into salvo mode, and drop a double PB-250
onto the SAM battery, jinking madly to avoid tracers streaming
past my cockpit.
|
“One, off to the southeast! Watch
the triple-A, two, he’s next to the runway!”
“You
got the HI-PAR, Sacha, but the bombs scattered among the launchers.
You have to put one right on target to knock them out.”
“Roger-now,
go take out the Shilka if you can, Vasily. It’s going to
interfere with the next series!”
“Nyet,
I’m in hot behind you already and committed, on the search
radar. It’ll have to wait til the next pass.”
I roll and
bring the pipper to the remains of the SAM system as Vasily calls
bombs gone.
 |
I bring up Vozhv return mode and
call Vasily to join up.
“Vasily, meet me over the
water. I want to show our Navy friends that we have accomplished
our mission.”
|
 |
The ships are 40 kilometers to sea.
I fly low over them and rock my wings, and see the sailors
waving their hats and cheering as I pass.
|
 |
We will land at Gudauta, now and show them we are here
and the IRLF will not prevail.
|
 |
Gudauta tower gives me a vector
to their runway 15, and I drop into Pos mode at the beacon.
|
 |
The turbulence is heavy now, and
I fight to stay on glide-path. |
 |
I’m bouncing hard; it is a
rough ride in the clear-air turbulence over the heat waves
coming off the mountains. It is a 20 degree Celsius day. |
 |
Ultimately, I pitch long over the
thresh-hold... |
...but land in fine shape, popping my
drogue chutes to slow down and put on a show for the Georgians.
This will show the world, and the Sheikh,
that we mean business!
If you enjoyed this and would like to
see more of Sacha and her friends, tell us about it on the Forums
here.
Test System
Specs
- AMD Athlon
Thunderbird XP 2200+ processor overclocked to XP2500
- Asus A7N8X
mainboard with onboard Aureal AC97 sound
- 512 MB
133MHz DDR SDRAM
- Creative
12x CD-ROM
- Maxtor
40GB main drive
- Windows XP
- Thrustmaster
Fox2 Pro USB joystick
- PNY Technologies
NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti4600 using NVIDIA v52.16 drivers
- The mission
was flown using LOMAC Beta 15
