by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson

  JANE's F/A 18 may be the definitive F/A 18 simulation. It will be up against stiff competition in the form of Digital Integration's F/A 18 Super Hornet (remember, DI made Tornado some years ago, still a classic).

At E3 in Los Angeles in May JANE's F/A 18 was already looking very, very good. In fact, it looked so good that two of our writers chose it as the best of E3.

F/A 18 represents our ideal for JANE'S Combat Simulations. It's hard core, yet typically accessible to the novice via a host of configuration options that simplify the simulation and ease the opposition. While it lacks a fully dynamic campaign system, the "semi" dynamic system has evolved to the point that in some aspects it is superior to a fully dynamic campaign.

With our last spate of information generated by hands-on experience at E3, we were becoming anxious to get up to date information. Some weeks back we fielded the following interview. The restricted number of questions is due to the time constraints faced by the Maryland team as they attempt to finish this product.

Q. I understand that F/A 18 is modeling the E model. Tell us why this was chosen and what the differences are over the earlier aircraft?

CJ Martin Says: This is a good question. There isn't a quantum difference between the F/A-18E and F/A-18C in terms of performance, weapons carried, or types of missions flown. The E model aircraft does add two more weapons stations and has somewhat better range than its little brother. It also has a more up to date cockpit interface, with things like a LCD touchscreen Up-Front-Controller (UFC).

Most of the differences are not so obvious to the casual observer though; things like a reduced radar cross section, more advanced Electronic Countermeasures and the real biggie for the Navy of the future, room for future avionics growth.

When I was a member of the F/A-18C/D Product Support and Development team at NAS Patuxent River, it was always a major ordeal to try and "shoehorn" a new box into that airframe without causing major headaches. It's not just a physical space issue either; it's things like having enough power, cooling air, and being able to get to it quickly if it needed to be replaced. The new jet has more interior space and generous electrical power and cooling air reserve margins to handle future growth.

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The "Latest and Greatest"

From a game design standpoint, it simply made more sense to model the "latest and greatest" version of the F/A-18. A cleaner cockpit interface means the avionics are easy to use, yet give up nothing in realism.

In fact we've raised the bar even further in our avionics modeling, doing stuff that simply hasn't been done before outside a full up multi-million dollar Military Simulator. The advanced defensive systems mean that even a rookie pilot has a chance against some very capable air defenses. You can't consistently make mistakes and expect to always survive, however it does give you a bit more leeway when you are first learning the game. The extra weapons stations and range are nice things to have as well. The two things real fighter pilots want are more gas and more weapons than the bad guy has.

Q. The carrier ops fans are on the edge of their seats waiting to see what you have modeled in the carrier ops and environment. Tell us about your goals here and describe what we will see as we sit on the Cat.

CJ Martin Says: We've done a lot of work on capturing the "feel" of modern carrier flight operations. A real carrier airwing is a tightly integrated team, and in Jane's F/A-18 you'll see the various airwing aircraft launching from ship, carrying out their respective missions, and afterwards recovering back aboard. You'll also hear all this happening thanks to our extensively modeled communications.

Carrier Ops

For example, the carrier has four separate entities you'll talk to when you are returning from a mission. First you'll contact the carrier's Strike Controller, which can be thought of as a shipboard "AWACS"-type controller. Strike will clear you inbound and hand you off to the Marshal Controller. When you check in with Marshal, you'll be given the current weather report. You'll also be told where to hold and when your expected "push" (approach) time will be.

Once your push time has been reached, Marshal will hand you off to the Final Controller, who will guide you in all the way until you reach a point 3/4's of a mile behind the ship, where you'll be prompted to call the ball. At that point the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) will take over and give you last minute flight path corrections and guidance until you catch a wire or bolter. If you do bolter, you'll be contacted by either Marshal or Final (depending on how many other aircraft are waiting to land), and the process starts over.

Go to Part II: Catching the Wire.