23 April 2021

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

The union flags have now returned to full height following the mourning period for his Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip trained as a pilot on the Chipmunk and progressed to the Harvard and Vampire. He was awarded his wings by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir William Dickson at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 4 May 1953. He became a Marshal of the Royal Air Force and Commodore-in-Chief of the Air Training Corps. The Duke of Edinburgh was an experienced pilot and logged 5,986 hours on 59 types. In 1972 Prince Philip, even flew Concorde himself, he was a passionate and very competent airman indeed. Our thoughts are with Her Majesty the Queen and the whole family.

This week we would like to bring your attention to DCS: The Channel. An impressive list of updates has been released, including more than ten V1 launch sites and four new UK airfields. Buildings and structures of interest have also been added and we encourage you to check them out.

By popular demand and in order to ensure that users aren't tempted to enhance the performance of missiles in game, we have locked the LUA parameters.

Starting today and running to 26 April, a DCS Weekend Deal is on Steam with up to 50% on most modules.

We hope that 2.7 has been a successful update for you and would like to thank you all for your bug reports and solidarity in improving DCS World.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Team

.LUA

Changes

As our online community grows and grows, we recognise that ensuring a level playing field for all has become an important matter and therefore, on popular demand we have locked the LUA files relating to weapon systems.

The Channel

Development Report

East Church

RAF Eastchurch remained active between the wars and was home to No. 266 Squadron during the Battle of Britain. During the Second World War, Eastchurch was part of Coastal Command, a fighter and bomber outfit that protected Allied troops and supply chains from the U-boats and the Luftwaffe. By 1943, Coastal Command finally received sufficient long range B-24 Liberators, equipped with enough Wandering Annies needed to prove victorious.

The Command saw action from the first day of hostilities until the last day of the Second World War. It completed one million flying hours, 240,000 operations and destroyed 212 U-boats.

Biggin Hill

Between the wars, the airfield was used by a number of experimental units, working on instrument design, ground-based anti-aircraft defences, and night flying. The base was closed between 1929 and 1932 whilst renovations and the construction of two new hangars took place.

Headcorn

On the 6th of August 1943, 127 Wing Royal Canadian Air Force moved in 403 and 421 Squadrons equipped with Spitfires under the command of ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, the highest scoring wartime allied Ace in European theatre.

On the 17th of April, 1944. The airfield was handed over to the 354th Fighter Group comprising the 353rd, 355th and 356th Fighter Squadrons who operated the North American P-51D Mustangs. There were 3000 ground crew supporting 70 aircraft.

Today, as a private civil airfield and parachute centre, it also houses the Lashenden Air Cadets of 500 Squadron and Thurston Helicopters, a helicopter flying-school company.

High Halden

RAF High Halden was a Royal Air Force base in Kent. Opened in 1944, it was a prototype for temporary Advanced Landing Ground airfields, which were required for the rapid growth of air operations to support the growing activities as Allied forces progressed east towards Berlin.

We have been working on the airfield and the mixture of agricultural field textures, as well as finer details around the bunkers and recognisable remains.

3D Units

Ground Models

LAZ-695 and Liaz 677 civilian buses

The LiAZ-677 is a Soviet and Russian city high-floor bus, the first prototype released in 1963. Mass-produced from 1967 to 1994, assembly lasted until 2002. These were some of the most popular city shuttle buses in the USSR.

SA-6 Gainful (NATO) 2K12 Kub

The 2K12 Kub-M1 Surface to Air Missile system was initially developed for the Soviet Army Air Defence to supplement the larger and longer ranging SA-4 Ganef. The M1 variant was initially deployed in 1973. The SA-6 is a highly mobile system, and is able to quickly switch firing positions.

The 1S91 Search and Track radar system comprises a tracked chassis with a centrally mounted turret, featuring two independently rotating sections, the lower of which mounting the acquisition radar, and the upper tracking and CW illuminator radar. This allowed the system to search for targets with the acquisition radar, and then perform tracking and illumination with the second radar. This provided much greater flexibility compared to the SA-4 Ganef.

The combat debut of the SA-6 / 2K12 was during the Yom Kippur war of 1973. The superior low altitude performance of the weapon, and the CW semi-active missile seeker resulted in a much higher success rate compared to the earlier S-75 / SA-2 Guideline and S-125 / SA-3 Goa systems.

The SA-6 has seen use in a variety of conflicts, including the 1982 Israeli invasion of Southern Lebanon. Desert Storm and the subsequent Northern/Southern Watch operations, and the 1999 Allied Force campaign.

BTR-80 APC

The BTR-80 is a wheeled amphibious combat vehicle designed to carry infantry and marines to the battlefield, it provides supporting fire from inside the vehicle. The BTR-80 mounts a turreted 14.5-mm KPVT machine gun and a coaxial 7.62-mm PKT machine gun.

All of the features that we have highlighted in this week's letter are now available for you to use in DCS World 2.7 Open Beta. We are working diligently to fix existing bugs and will be providing an update in the nearest future.

Thanks again to you and all the community for your passion and support,

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Team