9 April 2021

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

We are pleased to inform you that Open Beta 2.7.0 is progressing well and will soon be available. This update will bring noticeable changes to DCS World including the new Clouds and fire effects as well as our advanced WWII propeller technology.

We are working fast towards moving DCS: F/A-18C Hornet to Release state and you will enjoy some substantial enhancements which will be visible in the 2.7 Open Beta release. Extensive work on the ATFLIR targeting pod as well as the AGM-88C HARM modes have been completed as well as the Coupled Autopilot mode and new Radar modes which are also now in final testing.

Bringing PB mode to the HARM for both Viper and Hornet required us to develop new math models capable of accurately predicting the optimum missile flight profile and the limits of the missile’s range envelope. Please read our HARM development research below.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Team

2.7

Is Coming

If all goes well, DCS World Open Beta 2.7.0 should be launching on the 14th of April 2021 and will introduce the new Clouds and their large range of presets to choose from in the Mission Editor. We are also working on a Cloud generator capable of creating on-demand visual representations of much larger clouds such as towering cumulus and cumulonimbus. After the initial launch, we will continue the development of natural cloud cycles, severe weather behaviour, thunderstorms and fog.

The new Clouds require weapon and radar atmospheric models to be significantly updated at the logic layer. We are sure that you recognise that this process is man-hour intensive and requires rigorous debugging. We thank you for your patience and support as we work towards steadily enhancing DCS World as a whole.

WWII in 2.7

Propellers

A notable update coming to 2.7 is our unique and new technology that calculates the exact location of every propeller blade. This offers the possibility to draw a very accurate representation of the spinning propeller dependent on the type of prop, the number of blades, specific RPM and prop pitch.

This approach allows for smoother blade transitions from still, to idle, through to taxing and take off, as well as proper transparency from all viewing angles, aircraft speeds, power settings and blade pitch.

We have prepared for you this teaser video which demonstrates this new approach and we look forward to your feedback with great eagerness.

Watch: New WWII Propeller Technology

F/A-18C Hornet

New Features

The 2.7 update for DCS World will also see significant new functionality for the Hornet.

Highlights include the ATFLIR targeting pod that will be available in parallel with the existing Litening targeting pod.

The ATFLIR includes new field of view and zoom options, the ability to slew the sensor line of sight while in SCENE mode, display of waypoint markers and expanded coordinate display options.

DCS: F/A-18C Hornet | ATFLIR Basics

The Coupled Autopilot mode allows the aircraft to automatically fly to a set location. This can be a waypoint, TACAN station, or target (TGT) location when in AUTO delivery mode.

DCS: F/A-18C Hornet | Coupled Autopilot Mode

The new radar modes include the automatic wide acquisition mode (WACQ) that allows both a wide auto-acquisition scan and the ability to slew the centre of the automatic scan area.

DCS: F/A-18C Hornet | New Radar Modes

Two new modes for the AGM-88C HARM anti-radiation missile will also be available: Pre-Briefed mode which allows the engagement of hostile surface radars from long range, and the Self Protect with Pull Back option which allows automatic HARM engagement of SAM threats as well as the ability to disable the weapon in flight.

Please check out our instruction videos here: DCS: F/A-18C Hornet | New HARM Modes

Following the release of DCS World 2.7, we will release additional Hornet features that include:

• AGM-84K SLAM-ER land attack missile
• Offset Aim Points (OAP)
• RAID Single Target Track (STT) Mode
• New flares with increased carriage

We look forward to sharing more information soon.

HARM

Development Report

Predicting optimum missile flight profile and envelope range limits.

At first, we updated the HARM missile autopilot to make lofted trajectories more realistic. This is now not only limited to constant climb angle but also includes semi-ballistic flight with an optimal angle that provides a smooth trajectory, increasing missile velocity at impact and minimising time of flight.

Optimal loft angle is computed by the aircraft and passed to the missile prior to launch. To calculate the missile range envelope we used a regression model which required us to perform tens of thousands of HARM launch simulations in varying conditions. The generated data was then passed to our regression model and compiled into just a few equations with several dozens of relevant coefficients.

Solving these equations with respect to different variables allows us to obtain different types of usable data. For example, on the Viper’s HUD you can see maximum missile range, missile range for current flight conditions and pitch or turn angle required to hit the target within missile range.

Missile range depends on the aircraft velocity, altitude, pitch and azimuth to target, thus the missile’s range envelope is bounded by a 4D hyper-surface which we can represent partially for fixed altitude and velocity, which defines a section of the 4D surface. Below you may see such a section with range depending on target azimuth and aircraft pitch only.

We hope that this brief summary of the new features which will be released will help you to prepare for this next big update and we look forward to sharing more information regarding DCS World 2.7 next week.

We are very excited by the upcoming improvements and have you to thank for staying by our side during these challenging times.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Team