JANE'S F/A 18 (www.combatsim.com)

JANE'S F/A 18 : COMMS and Control

by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson

I've covered the interface and offered a few dozen screens. It's time to look at COMMS and wingman control and interaction. I'll outline the functions first, then next up will be a step by step mission report. First, some quotes from our interview:

"We greatly expanded the capabilities of the ground FAC. We also added airborne FAC's to the game. One of the cool aspects of the FAC's is that they can put smoke on targets for you and, if the ground FAC has a laser, they can designate for you.

"You can communicate with your immediate flight, but also with members of the package (like SEAD and Sweep escorts). We've added additional commands along these lines since F-15. There are several new wingman commands. A couple of examples are of SEAD commands and also the ability to tell wingmen how many weapons to put on targets. And several new AWACS commands have been added.

Sounds good so far. Let's have a look at the actual command structure. The TAB key accesses the RADIO 1 command structure, while SHF TAB brings up the RADIO 2 Menu.