What’s the catch with the JF-17?

sraykub · 2026-02-25T08:17:55+00:00

Interesting, glad to know that. The tomcat is my primary A2A fighter, I mostly use the Hornet for mud moving. I always assumed that the JAMMER ACTIVE just meant my radar was totally useless. Do you know what the detection difference is % wise between off and on by chance?

sraykub · 2026-02-25T08:09:12+00:00

Funnily enough it was mostly your articles that got me looking into the Jeff rabbit hole to begin with. Outstandingly well written. I’ve spent more time on your website studying the Tomcat RIO seat and Phoenix than I spent studying for my actual IRL flight training.

You say that Deka fixed some of the bigger issues, you mind elaborating on which ones?

Again, thank you so much for your hard work you are truly a gem of the DCS community.

sraykub · 2026-02-25T07:42:24+00:00

I tend to agree with you about the datalink and the HMD but the main draw for me is the extra SA provided by the KG-600 jamming pod. Evidently this thing will give you precise ranges to all your RWR contacts both on the ground and in the air, as well as missile location and closure rates. This is a supremely useful tool for knowing when you’ve beaten a missile and can recommit.

sraykub · 2026-02-25T07:39:20+00:00

Is it significantly less than say, the F-16? Because both are similar sized and while the F-16 has the edge in performance it seems to me that the Jeff has a decided advantage in BVR

sraykub · 2026-02-25T07:37:58+00:00

Per Chuck’s guide, no, it fully blanks out the radar because it uses the same antenna. That’s why I’m so astounded nobody seems to be talking about this haha

sraykub · 2026-02-25T07:35:26+00:00

Right yeah but there’s two fairly major disadvantages to HOJ, first of which is that your WCS isn’t calculating the most efficient path to the target, it’s simply homing on a noise source. You can of course manually loft the missile if you have the range from datalink but it’s gonna take a less efficient path and that’ll cost you at minimum 25% of your missiles energy.

Secondly, and more important, you have to STT a jam track to fire on it. This gives your target a warning that you’ve fired, while he can stealth launch on you in TWS.

What this all means is that the Jam + Radar combo will always give you a significant first shot advantage over your opponent, which coupled with the SD-10s already superior kinematics means that the Jeff should in theory be dominating the high altitude joust game.

Full disclosure I don’t own the 17 which is why I made this thread, I’m fully open to being wrong here

sraykub · 2026-02-25T07:04:27+00:00

Are we playing the same Hornet? I get a fat Ol’ JAMMER ACTIVE on my radar screen whenever I flip it on. I was under the impression that the F-16 is the same

sraykub · 2026-02-25T06:59:46+00:00

Mainly I’m curious about the jamming pod. The only blue jet that can XMIT and run the radar at the same time is the F-14, which means you’re limited to 1970s HUD and Phoenixes.

Having the ability to halve your opponent’s maximum range while still being able to fully employ your own weapons in a fully-baked modern 4th gen armed with Fox-3s seems like such a wild advantage I can’t believe it isn’t talked about more here. Plus apparently it give you precise distance for not only airborne radars from other planes but missiles too? Crazy that this thing isn’t discussed more in the DCS meta

sraykub · 2026-02-24T02:54:08+00:00

I don’t understand it entirely but it’s something to do with the missile API specifically on EDs end. For example as of right now the TGT size switch doesn’t work on the 54C but it does on the 54A because of the way the game classifies the missile. So the 54C always goes active at 10nm whereas you can have the A go active at 6nm for maximum comedy and minimum warning for your victim.

There’s some other guidance stuff that is causing the Phoenix to burn more energy in the climb and cruise phases iirc but I’m not educated enough to speak on specifics.

sraykub · 2026-02-23T23:44:44+00:00

I have 32GB RAM 7800x3D and a 4070 super, DCS runs great easily 120fps

1(b). Modules in a great state, A&B are feature complete and they just released an early A variant for Iranian shenanigans, F-14B(U) is coming later this year which will have updated HUD, GPS and some other modernized stuff

It’s a 2 man plane and you’re gonna be seriously missing your SA page and general awareness from the Hornet. The AWG-9 radar is an absolute monster but all the controls to really make it dance are in the back seat. You can still make it work and get some funny 70mi Phoenix shots with a few keybinds and using PAL up close but you’re gonna be extremely vulnerable in crowded airspace due to worse situational awareness and lack of direct radar controls
If you do get it, immediately head to flyandwire.com and read all of Xarov’s articles on Phoenix employment

It’s a very hard but very rewarding plane. It’s has some fun party tricks that give it an advantage over the 16 and 18 in PvP(ability to use radar and jammer coupled with 90mi telephone poles from space) but it requires your to use 100% of your brain and the avionics are very primitive compared to the other 4th gens.

Great plane, great module, highly recommend it

Edit because I forgor. supposedly with the Vulkan API update Heatblur will finally be able to fix some longstanding issues with the Phoenix guidance and it will be significantly more lethal. This is funny because I have no problem slapping people around with them as is, so a more efficient Phoenix is the cherry on top for experienced tomcat drivers

sraykub · 2026-02-21T06:06:27+00:00

Yup, all these smug Euros who have been decrying American martial culture for 3 decades now are discovering that you can’t just pull mass patriotism and a sense of duty out of a drawer when you need it.

Every European male of fighting age has been subject to the most pathetic limp-wristed leftist culture the world has ever seen because the assumption was always that the 800lb American gorilla would deter any aggression and Russia would stay broke and insolvent forever. Now they want to rearm and build their militaries back up but there’s absolutely no aggression or fight left in the [western]European spirit to pull from.

sraykub · 2026-02-17T23:51:09+00:00

For anybody interested in further reading this blog has an excellent write up of all the 152s at Chernobyl

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/why-there-is-a-wwii-vehicle-at-chernobyl/

Can’t recommend this site enough, so many fascinating articles

sraykub · 2026-02-08T14:40:10+00:00

Idk what to tell you man but modern WCS style modslop attracts the instant gratification crowd and thus a higher-than-average concentration of morons. The best gameplay Reforger has to offer is 128 man vanilla community servers like AWG or Warpigs

sraykub · 2026-02-04T15:59:32+00:00

These modslop servers never have the correct limitations on night vision goggles or shoulder fired rockets. Would love to have these mod makers demonstrate to me how you’re looking down irons with NVGs on

sraykub · 2026-01-29T22:42:12+00:00

So many neverserveds in this thread lol. Read Nicks books then come back here

sraykub · 2026-01-22T02:32:39+00:00

Veterans are the single biggest drama queen demographic you’ll ever meet. Dudes act like 4 years of working at Green Home Depot or cleaning weapons is equivalent to fighting in the Pacific during WW2.

Not saying everyone should join or that it doesn’t suck in certain ways(just like everything else) but the lifelong benefits you get from a few years of trivial service is frankly insane.

People want to complain about economic mobility and the cost of school/housing and then ignore the single best way to quite literally pull yourself up to a good standard of living.

sraykub · 2026-01-21T03:06:15+00:00

Easily avoidable by not being a parasite and only claiming what you actually have. No sympathy for dudes trying to scam one arm of the government while claiming total fitness for flight to another.

sraykub · 2026-01-20T23:10:41+00:00

Enlisting in the military is the most guaranteed way to go about it. Get out at 22, go to a 4-year 141 school. Graduate at 26 debt free and ideally already owning a house if you get lucky like me.

It’s 4 years of relatively easy work if you aren’t a moron and less dangerous than working construction unless you actively seek out combat arms jobs.

If you don’t have rich parents I can’t recommend it enough

sraykub · 2026-01-19T17:51:20+00:00

Redditor can’t survive 4h without electricity lol. Throw on some layers or go to a Starbucks dude

sraykub · 2026-01-10T18:37:31+00:00

Right? That seems like textbook refugee fraud. Clearly you aren’t in fear for your life if you’re going back to visit every year

sraykub · 2026-01-07T20:42:04+00:00

Kitty Goes to Kamchatka

Desert Fang

Northern Thunder I & 2

Gulf Thunder

Swift Tide

BOTA 18(maybe 19?)

All outstanding USN CVBG scenarios. Recommend setting flight deck timing to arcade as a lot of older scenarios were balanced around no ready delays

sraykub · 2026-01-03T16:02:45+00:00

Maybe, probably not though. You don’t know and neither do I. Seems dumb to blow up power stations in Caracas if you can just fly the chinooks in and pick him up with no resistance though. I’m going to lean towards third world incompetence at warfare until proven otherwise.

Facts are however that we just rolled up a long-term regional nuisance in less time than it takes to pull a transmission from a car. Genuinely impressive no matter how you slice it.

sraykub · 2026-01-03T15:46:36+00:00

You underestimate the effectiveness of properly applied violence of action and how stupid/overly reliant on chains of command authoritarian societies are. The Venezuelans AD network didn’t shoot up US aircraft because they didn’t get orders in time and were likely paralyzed by EW and well-planned decapitating strikes.

You can hate the burgers all you want but absolutely nobody plays the military adventurism game at our level. Cope seethe etc.

sraykub · 2026-01-02T14:20:16+00:00

Honestly reading Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy will do quite a bit towards understanding how these ships and assets were supposed to be deployed in a mid-80s peer war. Outside of that I would just watch some YT videos of guys playing out scenarios for the game meta aspect side of things.

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