When the box doesn't need me, I fly the F-16C Block 50 in DCS World, mostly into places full of SAMs. Suppress them with HARMs, then come back and finish them with JDAMs and CBUs. That's SEAD and DEAD, and it's the best part of the game.
Need something to fly tonight? Generate a mission.
Left MFD: HARM attack display. Tap a SAM to attack it. The green arc is how far the selected weapon reaches from your current altitude and speed; red rings are SAMs that are on air.
Right MFD: stores and energy. Use the buttons beside a weapon to select it; the bottom buttons pick the loadout for the next sortie.
Too far? The jet climbs and accelerates by itself, and if that still isn't enough it presses in. Press into a ring that's still on air and you'll be defending instead of bombing, so HARM it first. Climbing costs fuel, and at Bingo you go home. Ranges are game numbers that grow with altitude and speed, not the real envelopes.
Pick a preset or set each station yourself; it's loaded when you return to base. The stations only offer what a 2007 Block 50 can carry there: HARMs on 3 and 7 only, wing tanks on 4 and 6, the ECM pod or a tank on the centerline, and on the chin hardpoints under the intake, the HTS pod on the left (5L) and the targeting pod on the right (5R). Without the HTS you're down to HAS mode, the HARM's own seeker, at reduced range, and without the HTS or a pod there are no coordinates for mobile SAMs.
Two jobs that sound alike and aren't.
Make the radars stop looking. A HARM rides the radar's own beam back to it, so the smart operator switches off. The site goes quiet, the strikers get through, and twenty minutes later it's back on air.
On the display above, a HARM makes a SAM go dark for a while. It comes back.
Make sure it never looks again. Take the coordinates from the HTS, drop a JDAM on the radar, or throw a CBU-105 over the launchers. Slower, and you have to get closer, but it stays dead.
On the display above, JDAMs and CBUs remove a SAM for good.
My SEAD and DEAD loadout. Two HARMs to make them blink, two CBU-105s for whoever forgot to. Why only two HARMs: the 2007 Block 50 manual DCS is built from clears stations 3 and 7 for them, and nothing else.
| Station | Store |
|---|---|
| 1, 9 | AIM-120C AMRAAM on the wingtips, for anyone who interrupts |
| 2, 8 | AIM-9X close in |
| 3, 7 | AGM-88C HARM the reason for the sortie |
| 4, 6 | CBU-105 wind-corrected and sensor-fuzed, thrown from high and fast. Or GBU-31 JDAMs |
| 5 | 300 gallon tank SAM sites are never close by, and climbing to throw a CBU costs fuel |
| 5L | AN/ASQ-213 HTS pod left chin hardpoint under the intake; finds the emitters and gives the HARMs and JDAMs their targets |
| 5R | Targeting pod right chin hardpoint; to see what's left after |
High-speed anti-radiation missile. In HAS mode the missile's own seeker finds the emitter, in POS mode (EOM, PB or RUK) you throw it at where a radar should be, and with the HTS on the HAD page you throw it at where one is. Calling "Magnum" on the radio is half the fun.
GPS bombs, 2,000 and 500 lb. Coordinates in, release in the zone, turn away. They don't care about smoke or clouds.
The favourite. A sensor-fuzed canister with a wind-corrected tail kit: it opens over the target and sends down submunitions that look for vehicles. The higher and faster you are when you let go, the further it flies, so the yeet is the technique.
Combined effects cluster bombs, the 103 again wind-corrected. Less clever than a 97, plenty for a dug-in SA-8.
The SAMs I spend most of my evenings with, and the symbol they show on the RWR.
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