It’s been a bit quiet on the official Heatblur updates for several months, however, Heatblur appear to have been busy working away on a bunch of items including some major updates to the Viggen and now we have a bit of news from the team that the F-14A early model and the AI model of the A-6 Intruder may be in as early as the next DCS update. Let’s refresh!
Updated: Sept 19 at 7:32 am EDT with new Intruder image)
First, the Viggen news
I mentioned it in my update yesterday but its worth going over in a little more detail. DCS: AJS-37 Viggen is one of the sim’s older models though it has seen extensive work done to it over the years by Heatblur’s team of developers. This latest update is a bit more significant when you look into it.
The aircraft has seen a new electrical system added with circuit breaker logic added too. There are also new warnings and failures for electrical, hydraulics, autopilot and even the reverser added. The RWR database has been updated to reflect some of the newer additions to the sensors database in DCS World. Heatblur also report that the issue preventing RB-24 and RB-74 missile lock ons has been solved. Good!
Tomcat early style
It’s been in the works for quite a long time now but it sounds like work over the summer has finally delivered on the long promised F-14A early. This variant of the F-14 sports a variety of different looks with the non-TCS (Television Camera Set) undernose pod setup, the implementation of the ALR-45 RWR which is more like the RWR system on the F-4 with directional and sound based indications without the icons and easy identification, and a bunch of other smaller details – the kind of things that Heatblur loves to get into. Heatblur’s roadmap indicates that it will also have older weapon selections and iconic liveries from the squadrons of the US Navy that used this early version.
Expect a very high quality rendition of the earliest version of the Tomcat and perhaps a variant that is more suited to some of the popular Cold War servers out there too.
Heatblur’s roadmap also still lists plans for the F-14A 95GR or the IRIAF version as a kind of bonus with further features stripped out of this export model. Curious to see if both arrive together.
Intruder … AI at least
Heatblur’s long term roadmap includes the release of the iconic A-6E Intruder for DCS World. This project, like many of Heatblur’s projects, have been burning away in the background for quite a long time and one of their goals was to release an AI, non-flyable, version of the aircraft to be used in scenarios prior to the flyable version. The KA-6 tanker variant has also been listed as a planned release at some point.
According to the update, at least one (or maybe both) variants of this AI only release are hopefully due in the next update. Pending any delays.
On their Facebook page, Heatblur end off their status update with the following:
Stay tuned for the launch of the Intruder and early F-14A as we wrap up this summer’s work.
Stay tuned we will!
Updated: New Intruder image
Overnight, Heatblur posted this image overnight showing off several of the liveries available for the A-6. Nice!
Stormbirds 
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