I must have missed something last week because I haven’t yet reported on some of the latest development details coming from the Eagle Dynamics team and their DCS World Weekend News updates about the Mi-24P Hind and the Ka-50 Black Shark 3. Over the course of the week we’ve also seen some fabulous updates on the DCS: F-15E from RAZBAM, and there’s been a new Open Beta update that has brought us a bunch of module updates and a series of new Operation Jubilee themed missions for DCS WWII content.
Black Shark 3 imminent?
Last week, during the DCS World Weekend Update, there was a brief update called ‘Big Bundle Bargains’ emphasizing some bundles that Eagle Dynamics are offering right now for the Black Shark 2 and Mi-8TV2 or Black Shark 2 and Combined Arms.
You can get both bundled together for $49.99 USD which is a nice little discount as the Black Shark 2 is also offered for $49.99 USD and Combined Arms is offered for $39.99 USD. It’s essentially a free module if you opt for the Mi-8 combo pack which is probably the way I’d steer readers towards. The Mi-8 is a great module and for helicopter fans its a fun and challenging helicopter to master.
In that update we also learned that Black Shark 3 is releasing “imminently” which to my mind suggests that we’re just weeks away from a potential launch. Definitely not long now.
Eagle Dynamics haven’t revealed their full update strategy but if its handled in the same way as the A-10C, the initial upgrade offer will be just $10 USD making it very worthwhile for current fans to get the latest version with some added features like the IGLA air-to-air missile and enhanced missile warning system. We’ll see if that’s how this all materializes.
Hind updates
There’s some great updates about Petrovich AI for the DCS: Mi-24P Hind. These updates are focused on what Petrovich will be busy doing when he’s not firing off ATGMs at ground targets.
In a future update, the AI will now realistically scan for threats and then warn you about what has been seen. The field of view will have limits thus ensuring that it isn’t an all seeing all warning system but rather a human like experience. Even missiles with visible smoke trails will be spotted if Petrovich is looking in the correct spot. Neat!
Wolfpack345 has a new tutorial out about these updates so check that out.
Jubilee missions
It’s the 80th anniversary to Operation Jubilee. Better known as the Dieppe raid, this was an early Allied amphibious attack on German-occupied France launched in August of 1942. The raid was intended to test German defenses and Allied capabilities to mount such a raid and it ended in disaster. Of 6,086 Allied soldiers involved in the raid, 4,397 were reported missing, taken prisoner, wounded or killed in action. The Canadian Army bore the brunt of the losses.
In the air, the RAF faced serious challenges with the appearance of the Fw190 on the scene and the air battle was hard fought with losses incurred on both sides. It’s against this backdrop that DCS rolls out a new series of 9-missions utilizing some of the series’ WWII assets.
For the Allies, there are missions for the Spitfire LF Mk IX and P-51D Mustang and the Axis there are missions to be flown with the Bf109K-4 and Fw190A-8. WWII Asset Pack is required. Although these are not historical airframes for the time period, this does provide a kind of tapestry to loosely work from and they should be a good way to get another series of missions flown over the Channel map.
Open Beta updates
A bunch of open beta patches have been coming out over the last couple of weeks including yesterday with a relatively big one – 2.8.0.32937 and then another one today with some minor updates.
A long list of updates have been put into place for aircraft ranging from the Mirage F1, F-16C, AV-8B, AH-64D, F/A-18C, MiG-19P, AJS-37, and for DCS: South Atlantic. The last one, South Atlantic, which gets a bunch of new updates including updated lighting, new detailing, updated objects, and 7 new airports.
Check out the complete listing right here!
F-15E updates
The F-15E’s synthetic aperture radar has impressive capabilities to see the world ahead of the Strike Eagle and in a series of updates on Twitter, Ron Zambrano RAZBAM CEO shows off the work that the team has been doing to make this come to life.
The screenshots show a work in progress experience, however, what I see is looking very complete and impressively detailed. Considering that we’re looking at imaging capabilities from not quite two decades ago, this is impressive!
Yet another indication that DCS: F-15E Strike Eagle is moving towards a releasable state. Stay tuned for that!
Check the latest from DCS World Weekend
There’s quite a bit in this update and there’s probably a few other things going on over in the world of DCS World that you might want to read about. Be sure to check out the DCS World Weekend update for the latest.
Stormbirds 
Getting the BS3 and the F-15E this year would be great. Those two are top of my list. And that radar on the F-15E looks fantastic. I’m ready to put a few hours into the learning curve for the new Eagle.
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All I want for Christmas is Black Shark 3!
And…
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…and the F-15E and the Kola map.
That would be fun. 🙂
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Oh yeah – Kola Map is gonna be a GREAT addition to the game!
I’m genuinely curious to see if Orbx’s map features will be significantly different / “better” than the others. Perhaps there are tools the other devs weren’t able to use effectively, but with Orbx’s vast experience they’ll be able to…
Whatevs – I’m just stoked for another map that isn’t desert, AND is still historically significant 🙂
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