Janes F15 is an incredible military flight simulation. It
takes the art to new heights in at least two areas: flight
modelling and wingmen command and control. In a third it goes
beyond anything else yet seen: an incredibly deep and
flexible mission builder. I could go on, but this update is
only to point you to the potential of the mission builder.
Cowboy Bill Wilson has already been busy
delving into the intricacies of the Mission Builder. His
efforts on our behalf have resulted in a challenging and
fun mission that takes us into the heart of Downtown
Baghdad. The real challenge is in surviving long enough
to hit the bridge!
Since Cowboy has been good enough to post
this experience at his site for all to sample, and since
its a great example of the potential of the mission builder
in action, I thought I would give it a good run through and
tell the story. YES.. I lived to tell about it! Ok..
actually, I bailed the first time but managed to hit the
bridge the second. The rest is... history! Here is the
first shot:
When you enter the mission you will find
yourself at around 19,000 feet in a flight of eight,
approximately 70 miles from downtown. At almost 600 knots
true air speed, you will be over Baghdad in a few minutes;
that is, if you survive the gauntlet!
No worries, you have superior technology,
superior skills, and this briefing to get you in! Er.. you
DO have superior skills, don't you?? Well, no matter, you
can keep trying til you get it right!
First, ignore everything Bill tells you
about this mission. Its hard. Drop that center tank while
you have the time to think. Ok. Switch to A2A mode and
extend your radar to eighty miles. You don't have AWACS
eyes and you are sticking out like a sore thumb anyway so
this way you can at least see what is coming. Set your TEWS
to SEMI so that your jammer will come on when needed.
In the shot above I have taken out my
second bandit and am turning toward the target. But don't
worry about that yet. Lets talk about the mission in
general.
What amazes me about this mission creation
ability, and its not just true of F15 but of any good
mission builder, is how the AI comes along for the ride.
YOu set the parameters, and everything else should fall
into place, just like in the real world. That is, your
wingmen will still react in accord with good A2A doctrine.
SO will the enemy. You issue your orders and the Universe
unfolds as it should. Let me qualify that.. you may still
die, but only if you screw up!
Its amazing. Really. Your wingmen make the
calls, they warn each other, they sort bandits, they report
when they are hit or when they hit something, they even
radio you when they are down safely if they bail! Dang! Its
too good!
Enough slobbering, on with the show. SO ...
you are about 70 miles from downtown and your radar shows a
buy sky out ahead. What are ya gonna do? Set up an
intercept of course! Sure, you could just call engage when
you are in range, and this might go okay, but you will do
better if you divide your forces. So... hit the radio (TAB)
and issue some orders to aircraft 5-8 (choose DIVISION).
Tell those guys to bracket right. They will acknowledge and
spin off to the right.
Give em a minute to move wide and then call
the DIVISION to SORT bandits. They will call out their
targets so you know which ones are taken. Then hit your
radio again and this time order aircraft THREE and FOUR to
engage. YOu can do this in a number of ways. Try a DRAG
manouver or something else just to see how they respond. If
the DRAG works call your wingman to COVER and follow those
bandits as they follow THREE and FOUR. When you and your
wing are on their tail you can pick em off.
Alternatively, you can tell the ELEMENT to
SORT then engage, or to SPLIT LO then engage. Each manouver
has its own strengths and with time you will learn when to
choose which one. In the meantime, for some advice, have a
peek at Dan Crenshaws A2A Wingman
Tactics discussion.
Things will get pretty hairy once the
missiles start flying. It also gets pretty impressive!
Voices are crackling, bandits are locking you up, smoke
trails curl across the sky, occasional flashes and
explosions light up the canopy in the distance. You may
even hear some coarse language out there! The breadth of
vocabulary is not in any way inferior to F22 ADF. Wow!
Where were we? Oh yeah, Cowboys designer
furball.. er, mission. Watch these Iranians, they ain't no
slouches when they get on your tail! If you get into a
knife fight jettison your A2G stores or you will be riding
the silk in short order. When a MiG is on your tail its a
bridge too far.
Ok, you've run the gauntlet and you're
still in one piece, shaken but okay. Most likely you still
have three or four team mates still in the air also. Call
em into line and call up your ground attack menu. Choose 4
for FLIGHT and 6 for GROUND and send em after their
targets.
Command Interaction and Control
With the recent retirement of the FB-111, the F-15E
has become the USAF's premier deep
strike/interdiction aircraft. While the USAF's new
F-22 will
be able to carry A/G ordinance internally and
externally, the F-15E will still continue to serve
as the principle A/G weapons delivery platform
until a new design is approved. Due to the recent
budget crisis that the US military have been
experiencing, this could be some time to come.
The original F-15 design has come a long way from
its role as an interceptor. While externally it may
look similar to a mere two-seat Eagle, The F-15E is
very much its own aircraft. Born of a desire to
replace the F-111, the US Air Force looked to a
private venture created by McDonnell Douglas to
create a strike version of their F-15 Eagle air
superiority fighter. The idea was to create a
fighter-bomber which could conduct its strike
mission with a minimum of support and without the
need for accompaniment by escort fighters. While
the original prototype, dubbed the "Strike Eagle"
was a modified F-15B, today's F-15E is a different
aircraft both inside and out.
While essentially retaining the same dimensions of
a two-seat Eagle, The F-15E's structure has been
redesigned and strengthened, increasing its takeoff
weight from 68,000 to 81,000 pounds. Giving the
F-15E a beefier appearance are two Conformal Fuel
Tanks (CFTs) which attach to either side of the
fuselage, serving a dual role. Each CFT is capable
of carrying 723 US gallons of fuel with less drag
than would be present using standard external
tanks.
Each CFT also features six stub-pylons for the
mounting of ordinance. The stubs are placed
tangentially, causing less drag than would be
present with the use of the standard Multiple
Ejection Racks mounted to the wing stations. This
new placement arranges the bombs in two rows along
the sides of the aircraft. This reduction in drag
translates into slightly higher speeds and
increased range. The F-15E still retains the
ability to mount standard MERs on the wing and
centerline pylons in order to carry additional
ordinance.
Ensuring accurate delivery of this ordinance is the
APG-70 radar and the Lockheed-Martin LANTIRN
(Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infra-Red
for Night) system. The APG-70 is based on an
improved F-15C's APG-63 pulse-doppler radar. The
most notable feature of the APG-70 is its ability
to produce photo-realistic patch maps of a given
area down to the 8.5 foot (2.6 m) resolution at 10
nautical miles from the target. Resolution
diminishes to a maximum of 127 feet (38.7 m) at 160
nautical miles.
The LANTIRN system is made up of two separate pods,
one mounted under each air-intake of the F-15E. One
pod is primarily for low-level navigation in poor
weather conditions while the other pod performs
targeting roles. The AAQ-13 navigation pod under
the right intake features a Texas Instruments
terrain following radar. This radar has been
coupled with the flight controls and throttle to
provide a hands-off terrain-following course while
maintaining a constant altitude down to a minimum
of 200 feet. Mounted above the TFR pod is the
Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR). Through a small
window at the front of the unit, the FLIR provides
the pilot with a 1:1 IR image of the world which is
superimposed on the aircraft's Heads Up Display,
allowing the pilot see at night.
Beneath the left intake, the AAQ-14 targeting pod
is made up of a separate attack FLIR and laser
designator/range-finder housed inside a small
aerodynamic turret at the front of the cylindrical
pod. This FLIR offers several levels of
magnification to allow for identification of
targets from considerable distance. The laser
designator/range-finder is correlated with the
attack FLIR and can provide accurate ranges to
designated objects. In addition, it is capable of
sending specially-coded bursts of laser for the
guidance of laser-guided bombs.
Controlling this avionics package is a crew of two
who occupy a cockpit optimised for the strike role
and designed to ensure an efficient division of
labour. The pilot is seated in the front while the
Weapons System Operator (WSO) is seated directly
behind the pilot. Both cockpits feature flight
controls though the WSO is typically not a
qualified pilot. The pilot's station features a
Kaiser ID2349/A wide-angled HUD below which is
mounted the Up-Front Controller which is used to
select radio channels and to enter in navigational
data.
You are going to want to stay low as you
swing toward your target. Basically, you have to deal with
AAA and SAMs, but they will have a more difficult time
seeing you and locking you if you stay low. What you want
to do is cruise in around 400 feet and then pop up to about
1500 to drop your cargo, then duck down into the weeds
again. Likely you will have to be dropping flares, your WSO
will take care of chaff. Listen carefully to that man in
the back seat; if he tells you to break left do it!
Yes, this level of AI interaction places
more demands on you. Cowboy commented in the F15 mailing
list:
The "setup" of the engagement once you
have detected your enemy at long range (you had better see
them first) by positioning your wingman/element/ division
or flight properly will usually count the most to determine
the outcome of the engagement... you are not alone up there
and you better learn how to work as a team or you will not
get far... I assure you of this point. By the same token
you cannot "hide" and send your men to deal with the threat
alone all of the time either or they will die and not gain
vital experience you need them to which enables them to
help you later in the campaign. The information above also
applies to enemy SAMs and AAAs as well.
If you need some Thrustmaster files for
your F22 and TQS to start you out click HERE. Note: this file includes a
.ini file that must be placed in your F15 directory since
it replaces the default EXPERT key configuration by adding
three more commands.
Cowboy Bill Wilson has already been busy
delving into the intricacies of the Mission Builder. His
efforts on our behalf have resulted in a challenging and
fun mission that takes us into the heart of 
