AWACS help needed

[0405 Andrew]

In the feedback I have received, AWACS has not been performing correctly. Apart from move the waypoints I have not changed the AWACS apart from making invisible and invincible from the default template.

At what height should it be flying? There is also a problem with the DATA LINK in the F16. Could this be a problem with Mist or anything else I may have done?

[Neil Willis]

It could be a radio buffer issue. The more AI stations such as JTAC Tanker and AWACS in the system, the slower it can become.

As for altitude, the eyes in the sky work best with lots of height.

MIST - not come across issues, but a scan of the ED forum might flag up any bugs.

[Chris]

AWAC I believe in DCS has a range of around 350Km which can be shortened by terrain, mountain range, height of target aircraft (curvature of earth masking ) etc Recently I noticed a drop of effective range to receive Link16 donor tracks to around 250Km with the AWAC at 30K

There are reports of issues with Radar in various modules lately, possibly it could be linked.

It could just be DCS, if you have the AWAC high enough - 30K should be more than fine many use 25K or 20K - if that does not work then not much you can do/

[Grillman]

With the parameters you see in the photo, none of the reds were visible on the F-16 datalink, for any of us. Also if you watch the AWACS path on tacview, it flies an awkward pattern over land and not the normal racetrack.

Grillman

[0405 Andrew]

Thanks Grillman.
Here's how it is set up, what do I need to do? Just 2 waypoints are set, on WP1 it has an orbit command.

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[0405 Andrew]

Looking at it in detail in tacview.
It appears not to know that it is invisible and immortal, probably a good thing.
AWACS is following a perfect race track until a mig 29 Targets poor old Geoff, Geoff evades the first missile (well done) , this carries on in the direction of the AWACS, this may or may not affect the AWACS, I'm not sure how DCS works as they are clearly at different heights. I think it's probably the proximity of the Mig 29 that causes it to alter course. Once the threat has left the area it returns back to the race track.
While evading I wonder if it cannot track anything or transmit D/L? I can set it to no reaction to threat. I don't mind 11F, have probably enough to do.

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[Grillman]

I noticed the presence of Red Air in the vicinity Andrew and it did cross my mind. However, it turns towards the threat, instead of away from it.

Although I like the realism in your missions, I wonder what effect the 80kt "jetstream" has on both the Awacs operation and F-16 HUD (in terms on DCS imperfections). Maybe they can't handle the realism as well as we hope! For example, the bearing distance calculation made by the Awacs, should in theory be wind corrected. On last week's mission this correction was significant at high altitude. The data passed on to the (incomplete) F-16, might not be read correctly and eventually dismissed, especially if the drift correction feature is used on the HUD, which eventually failed on me twice. I am just thinking aloud !

Incidentally, looking at the mission editor screen shots you kindly shared, the Awacs has waypoint 1 altitude of 35.000 feet but on the advanced waypoint actions below, it is ordered to orbit at 30.000ft.


Grillman

[0405 Andrew]

Cheers, I've no idea on wind speed, I'll change that to see if it works.
Were you getting DL at all, prior or after the Awacs evasion? I'll change Awacs to no reaction to threat. I can't see that it could have been anything else but evasion, as straight away after it resumed the race track.

Well spotted on the alts, I've been tinkering and pushed it up to 35,000 but apparently not in the advanced wp actions. Thanks for drawing to my attention I'll change that too.

[0405 Andrew]

Wind speed now 30 kts
No reaction to threat
Orbit at 35,000

All changed, hopefully it will work.