One of the aircraft that got a lot of attention in the DCS World 2022 and Beyond trailer this year was RAZBAM’s F-15E Strike Eagle. Following the trailer release, RAZBAM has shown off more of the jet in a series of screenshots released to the community. Let’s have a look!
Strike Eagle looking more complete
Feast your eyes on the latest screenshots from RAZBAM. Inside and out, these show the F-15E off in a new light than anything we’ve seen so far. Both front and back seats and exterior model look to be in a state of readiness like we’ve not seen previously.
Analysis and thoughts
These are clearly more complete images than we’ve seen from the project so far. It’s taken years to get to this point. Famously, it was reported a few years back that the project was just months out but it has taken longer to get to that point than anyone expected.
RAZBAM has spent significant time on their other projects with the M-2000C and AV-8B in particular getting a lot of attention from their developers. Although that has likely slowed the F-15’s progress, it has probably also been a good thing.
When RAZBAM introduced their previous projects, there were features that weren’t as complete as they are now in DCS World. Radar (both air and ground), datalink and targeting pods have all made strides in the core of DCS World and are more mature than they were a couple of years ago. That will, hopefully, mean that the F-15 is going to come out swinging having benefitted from a lot of work that Eagle Dynamics did for the F/A-18 and F-16.
So where does this leave the F-15 right now? We don’t know the exact status but we can infer from the screenshots that programming on the aircraft’s systems are now well underway. We can see HUD symbology, MFD symbology, and analogue gauges are working and reflective of the current condition of the aircraft. Of course the F-15E is a complicated aircraft with a significant weapons load requiring plenty of programming to get it all to work.
That all said, I do think RAZBAM are now closing in on a state where they will be able to sell and make this module available to customers. What state it will be inexactly when they pull the trigger on it will be interesting to see but I do expect that RAZBAM will wait until it has reached some key milestones. Prior issues and release problems are not likely something that RAZBAM are keen to repeat and I think and hope that experience will ensure that this is a smoother release.
I don’t think we’re weeks out but we may be several months out and I think 2022 will be the year that we see RAZBAM’s Strike Eagle.
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