Always love to hear what Heatblur have planned for their slate of modules for DCS World and yesterday’s end of summer development update gives us a great look at what they are up to across their many modules. Here’s my summary of what’s new!

New F-4E mini-campaign

A new free mini-campaign is coming to the F-4E Phantom II from Heatblur called “FROG-7.” The campaign is intended to set the mood for a future free campaign release called “Days of Atonement.” Both are set during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and draws on historical documentation and SME input from IAF veterans who flew during the war.

Heatblur have a short disclaimer remarking that the campaign is set to historical events during a period when the F-4E was heavily used in air operations and is not meant as commentary on current affairs.

The missions are intended to be as accurate to the real world missions flown during 1973 so expect a lot of historical authenticity from these scenarios.

F-4E updates

Heatblur are preparing a long list of updates to the F-4 Phantom. Updates to cockpit backlighting should enhance usability at night. UHF repeaters, WRCS ALT/RANGE placards, WSO ECM and KY-28 panels are all mentioned specifically.

The F-4E’s RWR is getting a bit of a boost too with the ability to detect active radar homing missile seekers. The database for the RWR has been updated to include newer threats and there are new emitter handoff sounds for the AIM-120, AIM-54, R-77 and Tornado platforms. TGT SEP is now working and actually separating the targets out too!

New weapons are being introduced. BDU-33 practice bombs are in, GBU-24A/B Air Force variant are in replacing the Navy variant. German F-4E (in place of the F-4F) are getting the BL755 and SAMP-250KG LD bombs mounted on TERs. There will also be a ACMI/TACTS pod added to the aircraft though it will have no functionality at the moment.

Jester is getting some new updates with new types of waypoints capable of being entered. Jester will also now be able to do in-flight INS updates with NAV FIX. Details are in the manual! Additional INS improvements are also coming to the Phantom as well.

There’s also a list of fixes coming to solve various bugs on the Phantom addressing crashes and solving various minor problems. New 4/8 way hat controls have also been added to the Jester wheel and self-accelerating knobs have been added to cockpit controls. Audio improvements and visual improvements are also inbound.

F-14 updates too

Various fixes are coming to DCS: F-14. These range from fixes to the TID repeater and the removal of laser code settings from the kneeboard infavour of of the new fuze settings in the re-arm menu. Zuni weapons pods have more accurate mass, TARPS pod is now compatible with more weapons, and corrupted weapons names have been fixed for Jester. Button clicks have been rationalized for left/right click movements.

New instant action missions for Afghanistan have been added with more to follow and fixes have been made to the Cage the Bear campaign.

Heatblur are also hoping to get the early version of the F-14A out before the end of the year. This version has an earlier model RWR among other limitations.

Viggen not left out either

For all of those Viggen fans, the AJS-37 is not left out from the updates that are flowing out of Heatblur. Bug fixes are incoming such as one that prevented the RB15 missile from locking onto targets in NAV mode, flash rates for ground collision have been adjusted to more accurate real world settings, and new toggle bindings for ATT and HÖJD are coming.

There are also new instant action missions for Afghanistan.

A-6 and Eurofighter news

Heatblur also have teased a few more updates on their in development projects. They report that the A-6 AI model is finally being wrapped up and should be in one of the next updates. That’ll be great to see and a nice teaser for the full fidelity flyable version to come sometime down the road.

Work is also continuing on the Eurofighter. They haven’t said much about it but community questions always surface on what the status is of the project and its obviously ongoing.

Read the full report here!