Link16 Aircraft Type

[Joni]

So the AZ EL page shows the type of aircraft of the L&S:

 

1. How is that possible? Are AWACS beams so powerful to determine that no matter the aspect?
2. Why doesn't this appear on the SA page? Doesn't make much sense to me. Does anyone know if the real jet does it?

 

Thanks.

[Bunny Clark]

My understanding is that what you see on the AZ/EL page should match what you see on the SA page, both places should show trackfile aircraft type regardless of if the info source is your own or datalink. 

 

I do believe that AWACS systems have more powerful NCTR capabilities than fighters do. This info is also shared out on the network, so if any friendly fighter with Link16 gets a NCTR print off it that ID will go out to the whole network. 

 

I have no hard sources for any of this, so I may be off on the details though. 

[Joni]

28 minutes ago, Bunny Clark said:

My understanding is that what you see on the AZ/EL page should match what you see on the SA page, both places should show trackfile aircraft type regardless of if the info source is your own or datalink. 

 

Thanks. So you think the SA page should display the SURV NCTR print?

 

In DCS it only shows yours.

[Bunny Clark]

1 hour ago, Joni said:

In DCS it only shows yours.

I've definitely seen it show me datalinked target type before, unless I managed to get an NCTR print on a contact 80 miles away in RWS somehow ... 

[Joni]

31 minutes ago, Bunny Clark said:

I've definitely seen it show me datalinked target type before, unless I managed to get an NCTR print on a contact 80 miles away in RWS somehow ... 

 

I've never seen it before and I tested it thoroughly. 

 

Tested it again now and it only shows ownships NCTR print.

 

@Santi871 You probably know about this. Can you tell us please if the SA page datablock should or should not display offboard/SURV NCTR print?

 

THanks a ton!

 

 

EDIT: manual says 

Quote

Aircraft type. For example: SU27. On offboard or STT/NCTR print are required

 

The manual even shows a picture of an offboard only (not radar detected) target that has an SU27 print.

 

So it seems there is a bug going on.

 

I'll make a report.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Joni

[AvroLanc]

Personally I agree with Joni’s post, I’m seeing the same issues and it’s more apparent now that the AZ/EL page has been implemented. 
 

Hostile tracks on the as/el data block always seem to have the correct type ID, presumably a result of some kind of AWACS NCTR. However it’s never been documented how this might work....range criteria / aspect etc? I’m guessing that real world AWACS capability is going to be greater than the 25nm fighter type we see in game. IRL AWACS would have other intelligence and ECM data to help form IDs so I appreciate it gets complex to model. 
 

Added to this, the SA page ID never matches the AZ/EL (for hostiles). 
 

However it might be worth considering it’s all WIP since MSI data still isn’t properly implemented on the AZ/EL. 

[Joni]

17 minutes ago, AvroLanc said:

Personally I agree with Joni’s post, I’m seeing the same issues and it’s more apparent now that the AZ/EL page has been implemented. 
 

Hostile tracks on the as/el data block always seem to have the correct type ID, presumably a result of some kind of AWACS NCTR. However it’s never been documented how this might work....range criteria / aspect etc?

 

In my tests about this bug, both E2 and E3 start to provide NCTR print at 98nm. No matter the aspect.

[AvroLanc]

6 minutes ago, Joni said:

 

In my tests about this bug, both E2 and E3 start to provide NCTR print at 98nm. No matter the aspect.

 

Ok, thanks for that. Not tested it myself yet. I've no idea if that's correct, but it doesn't seem unreasonable......

 

There's a bug (or is it?) where friendlies SURV tracks without MIDS/L16 never receive an ID from Awacs. Anyone have any idea whether this is correct or not? I do know that AWACS can indirectly publish a PPLI in this case, and hence should contain ID data, but my reference is some F-16 docs.

[Joni]

1 minute ago, AvroLanc said:

 

Ok, thanks for that. Not tested it myself yet. I've no idea if that's correct, but it doesn't seem unreasonable......

 

There's a bug (or is it?) where friendlies SURV tracks without MIDS/L16 never receive an ID from Awacs. Anyone have any idea whether this is correct or not? I do know that AWACS can indirectly publish a PPLI in this case, and hence should contain ID data, but my reference is some F-16 docs.

 

The whole MSI thing is very very much WIP, and is currently working far from fine so I would not be surprised if that was also a bug.

 

Personally I would rather see the NCTR SURV bug I posted in the other thread fixed, as it translates to a better combat result.

 

But yeah, it should also display friendlies type of ac.