noob education needed here... what can the SA-342M do?

Why not? See past its limitations and use the gazelle for what the other modules cannot do.

The KA50 lack a RWR, the gazelle has one, voila, triangulate position of SAM or Radar unit and have the KA50's attack it.

If the KA50 come across lightly defended targets with an engagement range of < 4km, they won't have to waste their valuable Vihkr's and let the Gazelles's take them out while they focus on the unit with an engagement range of < 8km.

Sounds good on paper...

Good list. Here are some more:

 

Instead of range: Target angular size. Big close targets are easier to spot than small distant targets. Helicopters seen from the front are smaller than seen from the side.

 

Target bearing rate. Moving targets are easier to spot than stationary targets.

And if carefully looking the DCS lua script (path: DCSWorld\Scripts\AI) for detection.... it includes most (all?) of those.

What is as background, what is the lighting, what is the speed, what is the direction, is there earth curvature, is there mist or clouds or rain/snow, where the sun is, is there trees between etc. Even is there lights on the target (like formation lights left On or turned Off etc).

And if those just would be used as well for the 3D models against human players.

As I would like to see transparency values for 3D units. Making units transparent based to those values.

Like if there is a ground vehicle on ground, not moving, not firing etc. Then make that unit like 50% transparent if it is against ground at high angle. It would be a semi-believable concealment and you would very easily lose targets, and not see a dark dot at far, eventually spotting ground units from 10-15km distances.

Why not? See past its limitations and use the gazelle for what the other modules cannot do.

 

The KA50 lack a RWR, the gazelle has one, voila, triangulate position of SAM or Radar unit and have the KA50's attack it.

 

If the KA50 come across lightly defended targets with an engagement range of < 4km, they won't have to waste their valuable Vihkr's and let the Gazelles's take them out while they focus on the unit with an engagement range of < 8km.

The problem with that is KA-50 has its cannon, what is more than enough to know most other targets down than MBT. So the Gazelle main task really is to work as RWR (while KA-50 works as LWS) and then do scouting with its thermal camera.

That would make it very interesting as if Gazelle could easily tell coordinates of its findings via radio, KA-50 pilot could quickly input those to PVI-800 and engage them.

Noob Question, don't be aware the Gazelle is equiped with RWR, and have such drastic change to the civil variants.

Is there a list with common changes for military equipment, doe's the Gazelle for example have also a LWR?

Only a RWR it had. No laser warning system. As Far I Know

So it is like opposite of the KA-50.

One of the developers listed RWR symbols for the system, but it included all helicopters, even the Mi-8 that doesn't have laser or radar at all :P (well, our version, not talking about the recon version that has the big radar mounted on the side) and it was said that it doesn't have a laser warning system, so it can't know when KA-50 example is aiming at it.

And most of all, you will have to build a real teamplay, and that's IMO the first time in DCS history that another aircraft can be useful when playing with the Kamov.

Using A-10C TAD in my opinion is different way as useful. Why so? Well, you can actually see where your wingman (or all of them) is flying, and you can see where they are targeting/looking with their TGP or so (where their SPI is) and that way you can very easily just slave your cursor on their SPI and make it yours too. So if one A-10C pilot see something interesting, it is required to anyone else just to use TAD to locate that A-10C or its SPI and make it as own.

That makes scouting very easy as you can avoid never looking same areas as others, and you can very nicely coordinate attacks just with the radio, guide others to positions etc.

I mean : A Mi-8 won't be useful for a Kamov, same for a Huey, same for a Mig-21, a Su-##, for an A-10 (Same job, slower rate of fire). The Gazelle can fill many gaps of the Kamov, and more is coming with the Mistral version.

 

Nicolas

Gazelle really can work as a scout for KA-50 because its thermal camera, and camera positioned above the cockpit so you can hover more nicely behind cover.

And because Gazelle has the RWR, it can specifically guide KA-50 to take down those targets first.

And with Mistral the Gazelle becomes as well a air-to-air supporter.

So I would say Gazelle is like a KA-52 for KA-50.

It keeps overwatch against fighters, scouts for the ground units and SAMs and it is capable to do very sneaky quick attacks for heavier targets too if required, allowing the nice teamwork if well done.

But I still say that if KA-50 would have a RWR, I wouldn't see so much need for Gazelle, as the datalink between KA-50 is far more useful for me as you can easily share the targets, quickly map multiple positions to everyone etc.

And for that the only real nasty thing is that pilots needs to manually delete the ABRIS targets.

Oh, and yes. If Mi-8 would be usable like it should be, as a transport helicopter with extra weapons for KA-50, it would be as well excellent teamwork chopper. Think about it, it would fly with the KA-50 flight and carry 36 Vikhr missiles and 800 rounds 30mm or something for rocket pods.

The same thing would apply then for Mi-24P as well, carrying a extra ammunition for it too in the flight (or like with the Mi-24 do, carry 4-8x ATGM extras inside them to be loaded when landing somewhere for reload).

But that RWR for Gazelle is really a huge benefit, because it will come to save many pilot from surprises when fighters are scanning the areas, firing Mistrals at them etc.

Coordinate in mission operation dixmude

Can be sent coordinate of target in single company operation dixmude from my sa342 to another helicopters?Ed

Gazelle is a light single engine observation utility helicopter. It is slightly underpowered and carries no armor. It is volunerable to every fire in DCS, down to an infantryman with AK. It is not Apache, MI-28N, or MI-24, or even a Cobra. Its use really needs to be part of a team. The M variant with HOT3, needs to be escorted by L (cannon and rockets), MiniGun variant for close-in defense, and Mistral variant for SHORAD. Yep it takes at least 4 Gazelles to approach firepower of a single dedicated attack helicopter. To survive it has to fly lower then tree top, weaving between hedges, and terrain. To evade fire from ground threats, it has to be in constant high speed motion, pausing to hover to fire missile, then displace. Use terrain and manmade features for masking, concealment, and cover. Just like a light ground combat vehicle. Do not close to direct fire range of enemy weapons. Russian tanks have long(er) range anti-tank missiles, fired through main gun, which are very effective against hovering helicopters, and have longer range then HOT3. BMP-1/2/3 , Stryker MGS, Stryker ATGM, HMMWV with TOW, M6 Linebacker have similar anti-tank missiles that are threat to helicopters.

So design your mission plans to suit capabilities of your Gazelles. M with HOT3 is escorted by L, Minigun, and Mistral for air defense. A 'package' would have four 2 ship formations. M HOT3 X 2. Thats you and your wingman. So thats 8 XHOT3 ATGM missiles. Separate AI flight of 2 X L variant tasked with ESCORT mission, of escorting your M. A single ship flight of MiniGun variant for close in defense against infantry and soft skinned armed vehicles, mission to ESCORT your M flight. A single ship flight of Mistral for air defense against enemy helicopters and close in air threats.

Sadly DCS does not allow flight to be mixed type. But online cooperative you could have your battle buddy in non M variant.

IMHO, MiniGun variant , is best for flight training with Gazelle. Set gun to have zero rounds, and take only 40% fuel. Thats DCS: Gazelle at its most nimble, with unobstructed view. Hopefully RAZBAM will make an doorless, unarmed version an option one day.

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IMHO, MiniGun variant , is best for flight training with Gazelle. Set gun to have zero rounds, and take only 40% fuel. Thats DCS: Gazelle at its most nimble, with unobstructed view. Hopefully POLYCHOP will make an doorless, unarmed version an option one day.

Corrected that for you! :music_whistling:;)

OOPS! Thank you. I