21 February 2025

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

We are delighted to announce that our new DCS: East Afghanistan region is now available in the latest DCS update! You will also see some great improvements to the southwest region! Check out the launch trailer.

This new area contains 10 new airfields, several large cities such as Kabul, and a massive amount of dramatic terrain for you to explore. The DCS: Afghanistan map has been improved throughout with higher quality textures, normal maps, updated airfields and urban areas, as well as a more precise terrain mesh. The addition of the eastern region increases the high-detail of this map to 2,290,164 Km2 and now expands to the Arabian Sea for carrier operations. Enjoy!

Alongside our East Afghanistan terrain launch, the new DCS Update introduces improvements to the DCS Core, various modules and assets. Please find an overview of the most significant fixes and additions below and make sure you update to version DCS 2.9.13.6818 now.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics

East Afghanistan

Out Now!

The next region of DCS: Afghanistan is now available: East Afghanistan! This new area leverages our latest map technology and lessons learned from previous terrains, including the Southwest region. The eastern region is characterised by its rugged, mountainous terrain, interspersed with agricultural areas around Bagram and along waterways. Kabul, the capital and largest city in Afghanistan, includes several points of interest such as hospitals, historical sites, monuments, and unique neighborhoods. The Eastern region also includes the urban areas of Bagram, Gardez, Jalalabad, and Khost and 10 highly-detailed airfields:

• Bagram
• Kabul
• Jalalabad
• Gardez
• Khost
• Sharana
• Bamyan
• Urgoon Heliport
• Ghazni Heliport
• Khost Heliport

Along with the release of the Eastern region, the entire map offers improved surface textures, ground clutter, noise, and normal maps. We have also upgraded the transition between ground texture types and increased the visual quality of surfaces throughout. In the months ahead, we will continue to enhance the map’s performance and visual fidelity, as well as improving AI pathfinding.

For carrier ops, the current update now expands to include the Arabian Gulf, albeit at a lower resolution. In parallel to continued improvement on the Southwest and Eastern regions, we now move our focus to North Afghanistan. New missions for DCS: Black Shark 3 and DCS: Flaming Cliffs 2024 have also been added for DCS: Afghanistan, enjoy!

Flexible purchase options provide customers the choice of purchasing one or more of three regions of Afghanistan: Southwest, East and North. You can purchase DCS: Southwest Afghanistan and DCS: East Afghanistan for $29.99 each. Alternatively, you may purchase the entire DCS: Afghanistan map for the early access discounted price of $55.99. This will include all current and future regions and updates.

DCS Update

Development Progress

DCS Core

This week’s update saw numerous changes and improvements including AI aircraft being unable to react to radar-launched missiles outside of visual range if not equipped with an onboard radar warning receiver. The initial implementation of tactical turns when flying in a two-ship with an AI wingman has also been added, and AI aircraft now use enhanced lead pursuit for more timely rejoins. Various additional improvements have been made to the S-3B. The Mi-28 can now land on small helipads, and the MiG-31 damage model has been upgraded. Ground and naval AI also saw improvements with Chinese Assets pack ships. The HQ-7B short range SAM has received accuracy refinements, and artillery now fire at secondary targets again.

Graphical and performance improvements to the DCS Core include the addition of both High and Low SSAO effect options and a number of shader compilation errors have been fixed. This update also saw important bug resolutions to the Mission Editor. The dedicated server saw certain options improved in addition to bug fixes. Numerous weapon improvements for both SAMs and Tomahawk were implemented, and magnetic north has been updated to better reflect current real world deviation.

Eagle Dynamics Modules

The DCS: F-16C Viper saw the following improvements: addition of a mouse click function on the throttle to move between OFF and IDLE; the Ground Moving Target game crash is now fixed; Dogfight Mode stuck with NO RAD indication is fixed; new parking brake and anti-skid control bindings added; pilot survivability improved.

The DCS: F/A-18C continues to see enhancements such as adjustments to the AIM-9X tracking near gimbal limits; similar pilot damage modeling as the Viper, and several fixes including a PDLT crash in EXP mode; interface between the data link pod and the AGM-84 fixed; and AUTO bombing mode based on an OAP now fixed.

Both of these aircraft and the DCS: F-5E also include air-to-air infrared-guided missile seekers being actively distracted by flares prior to missile launch. This makes pre-emptive flares effective when flying against these aircraft. AI aircraft saw a large number of behaviour and functional improvements.

DCS: F-5E Remastered improvements include more correct radar display when powered off and refined gun dispersion. The DCS: L-39 Albatros saw fixes for certain clickable cockpit elements, while the Yak-52 control binding animation and auto start issues were fixed. WWII Warbirds such as the DCS: P-47D Thunderbolt and DCS: P-51D Mustang benefit from corrections to their engine performance and lighting systems, respectively.

Third-Party Modules

Magnitude 3, developers of the DCS: MiG-21bis, have fixed SPO-10 lights, while IndiaFoxtEcho has upgraded collision models, cockpit functionality, and gunsight operation for the DCS: MB-339A/PAN. Deka Ironwork Simulations brought loadout panel improvements to the DCS: JF-17F Thunder, solving mission editor freezes and refining data link text overlay. For a more detailed list of all the changes in this week’s DCS Update, please read the complete changelog.
DCS: F-4E Phantom II by Heatblur, saw numerous bug fixes and mission improvements.
DCS: Mirage F1 by Aerges also saw a large number of improvements to systems and input bindings.

We hope you enjoy exploring the new East Afghanistan region and take advantage of the many improvements included in this update. As always, stay tuned for more news.

Thank you again for your passion and support,

Eagle Dynamics