DCS third party developer RAZBAM has been teasing that they had a surprise or two in the works for a couple of weeks and now they have delivered on their promise to reveal their surprises and give us an idea of what they intend to deliver before the end of 2018. Buckle up because I think you’re going to be excited by this!

Here comes the MiG-23 “Flogger”

Some of these surprises we knew about but at least one flew under the radar for quite a while and only just emerged today. Back about a year ago, RAZBAM announced that they were intending to work on the MiG-23 and then promptly backed off that commitment. Today they reaffirmed that they are indeed working on the MiG-23 and that it’s fully licensed by Eagle Dynamics this time around.

Fans of having more DCS World level Russian aircraft are of course over the moon from this announcement as having a full fidelity MiG-23 really adds to the aircraft list for REDFOR in Cold War related air battles and generally speaking can be employed in all kinds of scenarios.

RAZBAM wasn’t shy on sharing some details. The MiG-23 version they are developing is the MiG-23MLA. This popular variant had approximately 1,100 versions built including for export to various Soviet states. It also had improved radar with ECM resistance and the ability to fire the improved versions of the AA-7 Apex/R-24R/T missiles.

The MiG-23 should match up nicely against the F-14 Tomcat by Heatblur and Belsimtek/Eagle Dynamics’ F-4 Phantom.

And we have screenshots!

RAZBAM’s Facebook also teases us that the MiG-27, a development of the MiG-23 oriented at ground attack, could also be a future development. Time will tell!

And the Strike Eagle

I talked about the F-15E and RAZBAM only a few days ago but we now have confiration that the F-15E Strike Eagle is now officially one of their products under development. RAZBAM has been intending to do this aircraft for many years now but the critical aspects have come together and they intend to do a full DCS World work-up for this version of the Eagle. F-15 fans, rejoice!

Here’s some of what RAZBAM announced on their Facebook page:

This module has been under development for quite some time now, in fact, for so long, that some parts of it needs to be redone to current quality standards, now we can announce RAZBAM is fully licensed by Eagle Dynamics for DCS and by Boeing aircraft industries as a whole project!

Similar to what Eagle Dynamics and Belsimtek managed with the Hornet, Boeing is officially licensing this aircraft which hopefully means unprecedented levels of access to the F-15E (unclassified of course) and will likely benefit in the same ways that the Hornet do for things like authentic audio files for cockpit sounds and voice warnings.

I’ve put some hours into Microprose’s F-15E Strike Eagle II and Strike Eagle III in the 1990s and it was those simulations that helped me grow my interest in flight simulators in general.

The F-15E will be an interesting aircraft to have in the mix. With the FC3 level F-15C being an entry point, the DCS World level F-15E with its massive amounts of flexibility in terms of ordinance should feature prominently in multiplayer matches and single player campaigns alike.

DCS: South Atlantic

This shouldn’t be a surprise as I’ve previously reported RAZBAM’s updates on their South Atlantic project by their new terrain team but it is news that their team has been given official go-ahead by Eagle Dynamics to develop a map featuring islands in the South Atlantic. We don’t know much about the map but it will likely feature the Falkland Islands and come with dozens of ship and vehicle assets.

Will RAZBAM evolve their AV-8B NA Harrier into a Sea Harrier suitable for use over the Falklands? Nothing has been announced but reading between the lines suggests that this could very well happen. Their own Mirage III could fit nicely into this scenario and a community effort to build an A-4 could eventually evolve into a supporting aircraft there too. So too could an eventual Super Etendard.

They have a work in progress video featuring some of their ships and vehicle assets.

Lots of surprises

Today was definitely full of surprises for DCS fans and the various announcements appear to have been well received. A full featured REDFOR MiG-23 has been extremely well received and many feel that balance will be restored to DCS Cold War era multiplayer. The F-15E is an extremely popular choice too and should add considerably to the modern era. The surprise there being just how far RAZBAM is on this module and that Boeing has signed on to make this a licensed module.

South Atlantic isn’t a surprise and feels a bit like a quirky choice right now but I’m sure we’ll see it develop into something interesting. At the moment it doesn’t have its star aircraft anywhere in sight… but that may change.