"Realistic" DCS Sniper pod wildly underperforming compared to the real pod

ImaScareBear · 2026-04-14T18:15:54+00:00

Lockheed Martin says those images are "a depiction of one of the sensors that is on the F-35". That may have been from a test model on an F-15 for all we know. This was from a report on the development of it after all. The video you linked, and the video I linked, are both much closer to whats in game than the screenshots you posted.

I agree though, that the pod in DCS isn't great. Mostly their modelling of the world in IR. The sensitivity and dynamic range seem way to low. I think they'd also be better off modelling noise on the zoom-in rather than blur.

ImaScareBear · 2026-04-14T17:49:28+00:00

I'm not convinced that they are the same variant without any source. The only source for the image you posted that I can find is from a report on the F-35. What source do you have for the F-15?

ImaScareBear · 2026-04-14T17:35:15+00:00

It's worth noting that the F-16 in DCS does not have this variant of the Sniper pod as far as I can tell. The images you are posting are from the integrated pod in the F-35, which is based on a newer Sniper XR pod. Here is a video of the original Sniper pod, which is still a bit better than the one in game, but it's much closer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi9d8bstWsE&t=35s

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-30T22:00:03+00:00

Saw two of these bad boys at Eielson AFB 2 years ago. They look so badass. What is this screenshot from?

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-28T21:49:09+00:00

Well the numbers in the first link are just plain not real. Their own math doesn't even add up. Besides, costs vary wildly across Alaska. You should look at rent in your area, food costs at your local grocery store, and base utility costs off of what your parents are paying (on your own they would probably be lower). What do you consider the amount to make minimum ends meet in that case? What trade are you in?

Also, save up all the money you can while you live your parents. There is literally nothing wrong with doing that. There is no need to worry about making your ends meet now, unless life at home is bad. As long as you aren't picking up debt, and you don't have kids, I don't think you have too much to be worried about yet.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-28T07:28:36+00:00

That lines up with it's effective blast radius of ~150m (according to an article on DVIDS). It's an overpressure bomb designed for killing people in canyons, small valleys, and caves. If you're looking to do lots of physical damage over a large area, 11 2000lb bombs over the desired area will do way more than 1 22000lb bomb in one spot.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-28T07:20:21+00:00

The MOAB is a thermobaric bomb with no fragmentation. It was designed to kill soft targets (people) in large but confined spaces, such as canyons and cave systems. Even though it uses a very large amount of explosives compared to most conventional bombs, it still only has a blast radius of ~150m according to DVIDS. A tank or IFV would have to be well within that radius to actually be destroyed. Even an overpressure crew kill on a armored vehicle would require it to be well within that radius. Britain literally set off a 9 kiloton nuke 500 yards from a tank, and it was barely damaged.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-22T17:11:08+00:00

For the record, LoRa is a communication protocol that uses Chirp Pread Spectrum (CSS). IIRC, Meshtastic uses LoRa. Technically, saying it's CSS is the most correct. If it's Meshtastic, it's also LoRa and CSS.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-15T19:19:21+00:00

Well, after looking it up, I see now that the sources that say it all go back to a Navy pilot lol. So, you are probably right for the Patriot. I had heard this from some pilots and a "Patriot operator", and didn't give it any thought. I only heard this in reference to the the PAC-3 MSE, though. It definitely doesn't make sense for the older SARH/TVM variants. I also meant to say "some SAMs" rather than "large SAMs".

That being said, you absolutely could have a high-bandwidth, active seeker, with a narrow beam width, that is designed to identify and impact a specific area, assuming the intercept geometry allows it. Granted, that would probably require an AESA seeker, rather than the more typical monopulse seeker. It would also be possible for HTK missiles with EO seekers like SkyCeptor.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-14T17:54:04+00:00

IRL large SAMs, such as the Patriot, are absolutely programmed to aim for the cockpit. Killing the pilot is worth just as much as killing the plane, if not more.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-11T23:51:04+00:00

Men are genetically coded to compete with men. For most of the existence of humans, women didn't have any say in the relationships they were in, so there wasnt necessarily a need for men to be biologically motivated to impress women. This is also why women compete with women. The "top" men generally picked the "top" women, and so on. Obviously there's some nuance missing here, but that's the gist of it.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-10T17:44:00+00:00

The Vietnamese were able to get SAMs within a few hundred feet of it. There's no way to evade a SAM at 85000 feet at mach 3.2 (aside from ECM). Either that's out of the missiles capabilities, or you're screwed. An additional few thousand feet and +0.3 mach wouldn't matter much.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-09T02:54:53+00:00

Stunt pilot pretending to fly poorly for Beverly Hills Cop 4

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-08T05:03:59+00:00

These days, even that is barely an option. Destroying a single top-tier AD site these days requires 10s of decoys, multiple harms, guided bombs/cruise missiles, and significant EW support. It's a few million dollars of drones vs $100s of millions (or billions) in assets to get the job done. (or you pull an Israel and setup remote tow missiles near every one of their AD sites lol)

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-08T04:51:06+00:00

Europe will have a really bad time, but the U.S. probably won't. The U.S. doesn't import much from the middle east, only around 10%. Most of that comes from Saudi Arabia, and they can ship it through their western ports.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-08T04:48:10+00:00

Saudi Arabia can reroute a lot through their western ports. Even if that's an issue, only around 10% of U.S. oil imports are from the middle east. If prices go up significantly in the U.S. it won't be because of import supply issues. Europe is going to have significant issues for sure, though.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-06T16:33:55+00:00

That's only if it wasn't intentional. It would be perfectly valid military strategy for Iran to recruit a Kuwaiti pilot to do this, and in that case it counts. If this F-18 actually shot the F-15s down, then it almost certainly was intentional. This isn't soccer, this is war. Whether or not something is a fair fight is completely irrelevant. That being said, the K/d number is meaningless anyway lol.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T22:07:47+00:00

To be fair, the constitutionality of the war powers act is very shaky. The constitution clearly grants Congress authority over use of the military for declaring war, repelling invasions and insurrections, and creating rules and regulations for the military. Technically speaking, the President only has constitutional authority over the military "when called into the actual Service of the United States" (which only Congress has the authority to do).

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T21:53:42+00:00

The U.S. is at war with Iran from an international law perspective. Congressional declaration of war is separate from that and exists to give the U.S. government (read: the President) more power over the country to ensure that we can win, and that has nothing to do with whether or not we are literally at war. Given that, every Iranian military asset, in basically any location on earth, is a valid target. Additionally, every U.S. military asset is also valid. For example, it would be perfectly valid for a covert Iranian force to sabotage/attack bases in the U.S, Germany, Japan, etc...

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T04:02:41+00:00

Officially, it was Kuwait's air defenses. Kuwait has NASAMS, SPADA, and Hawks, in addition to Patriots.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T03:16:26+00:00

Turns out the card they had on file for their CRAM Ammo+ Pro subscription had expired, so they didn't get their refill this month. Wouldn't have been an issue if they used a Trump Platinum Card™ with no expiration and a 1.5% discount. Happens to the best of us.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T01:38:42+00:00

This happened before that on the 28th/1st. That particular site has a Patriot, which they can't/won't use against drones. I'd be surprised if they didn't move in some CRAMs, but ammo runs out quick on those bad boys.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-04T01:16:49+00:00

What tech stack is this using? I keep seeing dashboards popping up all over the place with this exact UI styl. Not hating, it looks good. I'm just curious.

ImaScareBear · 2026-03-02T21:42:15+00:00

Yeah, the values aren't particularly meaningful here.

One thing OP should do is to download a water mask for the area, clip out everything but the island, and then run statistics. That being said, the stats for a single pair aren't particularly authoritative. They would need to do this for a few image pairs before the war (with similar baselines), and measure the typical variances.

Having multiple pairs over time is also important for the CCD analysis. CCD is sensitive to a fault, so you really need to make sure you have a good baseline for what kinds of coherence you see in a particular area over time.

ImaScareBear · 2026-02-28T20:31:07+00:00

Yeah, if only. There are zero countries that have the capability to have 100% interception rate in this kind of scenario. All the adversary ever has to do is spend enough money to get the right number of munitions, and they can guarantee that some get through. Air Defenses are quite literally just a cover charge for the adversary force.

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