Plenty of positive feedback from readers here and from around the community around the first impressions preview article posted yesterday focused on some specific features of the DCS: F-4E. I’ve had a few questions come in as a result of that and I decided that it’d be good if I can try and answer some of those questions prior to launch.

Missions available

One comment I received from yesterday’s article was asking me if I knew which maps were supported and then how many missions were available for the jet. Similar to the pattern we’ve seen with the past projects, the F-4E comes with a fair bit of content right out of the gate and Heatblur tend to add additional missions and campaigns later on which is indeed a selling point of the module on the DCS World e-Shop. Multiple campaigns and additional missions are planned.

Heatblur have partnered with several mission creators including Reflected, SEDLO, and Activity, as well as making use of the talent in-house to provide both a selection of complete missions, available via the mission menu, as well as a lengthy list of instant action missions.

The missions all have briefings of some form or another and the ones I’ve checked out have had a fair bit of detail. You can fly a low level strike on DCS: Sinai that gets very hairy very quickly. Or you can intercept a Soviet Tu-95 over the Kola peninsula on that map. Or even take part in a detailed Red Flag multi-ship exercise. There’s quite a bit here.

The maps that I know are supported are DCS: Caucasus, DCS: Marianas Islands, DCS: Nevada, DCS: Sinai, DCS: Syria, DCS: Kola and DCS: Persian Gulf. Each map has a standard array of free flight options, cold and dark starts, takeoff start, and usually a few practice ranges for specific weapon types.

When you factor in all of the available options there’s a good forty(ish) missions included though some of those are going to be very basic free flight options. Its ample and above the average.

UPDATE: Heatblur informs me it’s actually over 100. I grossly underestimated just how many in total!

Weapons and configurations

Heatblur have ensured that the DCS: F-4E is well armed right from the start and so I want to go through some of the weapon categories and specific weapon types that you’re going to see on the Phantom when it launches tomorrow.

In the air-to-air arena we have a lengthy list of AIM-9 variants including the AIM-9B, J, JULI, L, M, P, P3, P5 and the Captive AIM-9M for training. The AIM-7 includes the E, E-2, F and M variants. Of course, the F-4E has the standard M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon mounted in the nose.

Available pods include the ALQ-131 ECM pod, and the AN/AVQ-23 Pave Spike (Fast/Smart) and standard Pave Spike. The fast and smart pans faster and is… smarter. You get the idea. These give the F-4E an early laser designating and precision strike capability together with the GBU series of laser guided bombs.

For rockets we’ve got a collection of 2.75in FFAR unguided rockets with phosphorous marking rounds, HE and HEAT options in combinations of LAU-3 and LAU-68 pods with the available pylons being able to mount 1x, 2x or 3x of the pods. Speaking of pods, there’s also a selection of CBU-1, 2 and 25 variants with a mix of HE bomblets and one with target marker flares. There’s also SUU-23 which is a self powered M61 20mm cannon pod complete with 1,500 rounds of ammunition. Three of these pods can be mounted!

Air to ground missiles include the AGM-12C Bullpup and AGM-45A Shrike ARM.

Finally, there’s a lengthy list of bombs that include the Mk-81, 82 and 83, CBU-52B and 87, BDU practice bombs, the laser guided GBU-10, 12, 24A/B. There’s also the TV guided bombs including the GBU-8 HOBOS (a 2000lb TV guided bomb), and the AGM-62 Walleye in both version I and version II. The Mk20 Rockeye is in there too!

Have I missed and forgotten something? Probably! The full list is actually here on the Heatblur website.

You get the idea that the Phantom has a lengthy list of weapons and a fairly impressive capacity to carry them.

For the time period, the F-4E is among the most multi-role with the ability to potentially carry three fuel tanks, an ECM pod, four Mk 82 bombs, three Sparrows and four Sidewinders. It can’t dogfight with all of that on the jet but it can potentially strike a target and fight its way back home. Some configurations don’t let you do all of that but suffice to say that the Phantom can pack a big punch if it wants to.

Miscellaneous other questions

A couple of other questions that have come out include how do you access the manual from inside the jet? Answer: press the M-key and up pops an integrated web browser with instant access to the manual. Or you can read it here.

Can the jet land on a carrier deck? I haven’t tried this personally but I’ve heard from other testers that yes the jet can land on a carrier deck and that the hook will grab one of the wires. Why does it have a hook? Even USAF aircraft have a deployable hook for arrested ground landings in emergencies and it just so turns out that the F-4E’s carrier roots ensure that it can handle this sort of flying fairly well. You won’t be able to takeoff again mind you so this is a one way trip. If you want Phantom carrier ops, look for Heatblur’s follow-up F-4 release sometime in the future.

Finally, someone asked me how it stacked up versus the F-14. I wasn’t sure if they were talking about fighting performance and potential or the quality of the product. On the later point I’d say it’ll take me a long time to really narrow down the distinct differences between the products but its easy to say right now that both products are top notch flight simulation experiences. You can’t go wrong with either. As for the combat aspect, the F-14 is a generation ahead and designed to address some of the naval Phantom’s shortcomings. But that doesn’t mean that the F-4 isn’t incredibly fun to fly or potent in its own right!

That about wraps up the additional questions but if you do have extra questions I will try and answer them in the comments! Just 24-hours to go folks.