"Beirut/Beijing." "Namaste." "Just because you're in China doesn't mean you have to fly upside down." No one can beat GR for amazing dialogue. 😂

When you do the tactical version of this simulation, keep in mind that before the Chinese would not initially commit their air forces, they'd most likely use a large number of long range surface to surface missiles to try and catch most of the Taiwanese air force on the ground, which would also suck up some of Taiwan's Patriot SAMs for missile defense.

And that's why F-35 has been chosen by every country allowed to purchase them, and why the AIM 260 is being rushed into service, real game changers. I'd like to see how F-15s contribute by having better missile launch parameters (high altitude Mach 2.5), and by baiting and then outrunning long range PL-15 launches, leaving the F-35s able to pursue the defensive and largely defenseless Chinese fighters busily trying to return to friendly SAM cover.

Great effort GR. So much effort must go into these videos - thank you. Looking forward to the next big naval battle.

That F-35 going in to Tbag the "Chinese" AFB, has been one of the more hilarious things I've seen as late.

Looks like the thing on the J-20 is "A-Star’s EOTS-86 Electro-optical and sensor system" from what i can find on the interwebs.

Hi valued Super Cap

One thing to remember about core game aircraft: the devs have to pay licensing fees and obtain permission from the IRL manufacturers to publish the modules. Something tells me they;re being blocked by their IRL customers from allowing the devs to do so.

When an aircraft is destroyed does the money counter include the cost of the armament it is carrying or just the airframe? Every missile fired is counted. I just saw a J-15B with 8 PL-15s on its stations go down. Seems like those missiles should be counted too.

I love the humour in these videos. It's why I watch them. I like Cap too. Been through a lot. I have a terminal illness and these videos brighten my days. Thank you GR.

The cat window is for the EOTS. Quote Lockheed Martin: The Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS) is the world’s first sensor that combines forward-looking infrared (FLIR) and infrared search and track (IRST) functionality. As an affordable, high-performance, lightweight, multi-function system, EOTS provides precision air-to-air and air-to-surface targeting capability in a compact package

As a “super-bug” mechanic, watching that human pilot flying upside down gave me crazy anxiety due to the stress maintenance inspection we have to do after flight. 😂😂😂 Great video tho. “Tonight, we ride!”

Love the radar updates, really changes the game.

32:34 J-20 with cat buddy seat= my new favorite fighter. 😁

Great Video, full fidelity battle will be awesome in the future!

32:40 It's the cupola holding the optics which make the 'glass cockpit' possible. The pilot gets a picture in his helmet-mounted display, enabling him (or her) to see 'through' the aircraft. Pilots can see in all directions, a huge advantage in many situations. Additionally, the optics support infra-red and telescopic views.

Fantastic video, that was one intense battle. The tide of battle really changed when the Americans got introduced to the fight. You know I do have an idea. You've done all of these long range missile mods, can I suggest one too? How about the Iranian Fakour-90s? They're domestically made versions of Pheonixes for the F-14s and allegedly they should have some longer range and a bit better tracking. It would make for a fun addition honestly. Not to mention Iranian F-14s were upgraded with PESA radars so they could even be included into your war games.

Great video I greatly enjoyed this one and many others! It peaks my interest when you do China vs USA.

Does the money counter include all the stored missiles on a plane when the plane goes down?

The little glass case under the new planes are the cameras they use for reconnaissance or targeting. They can see so far.

I wish everyone would call out “Bird Strike” every-time they shoot down Bird. If you’re a pilot or mechanic you’ll appreciate the pun. 😂

George say a thing.."I'm upside down". 🤣 Well done 👍 guys!💯

If these are F-35Bs, they're flown by the Marines. I think the one F-35 pilot has elected to go the "every Marine is a rifleman" route, land in China, and secure his own fuel for the flight back. I wouldn't say he has a particularly bad chance of success. LOL

I love these expositions for those who are not in the know. It might be repetitive for you to explain, but it's enormously informative for us newbs...the fate of a teacher i guess

Please run the full simulation with all branches. It will be long but it will be worth it

It's true about the national guard. I was a deputy during Katrina. The NG had M16s and were told to keep their mag in their pocket. I told the guy riding with me I didn't care about what they were told and load it. They were each given 10 rounds.

Good one Cap....!!! Now can you even broaden this scenario by using the Naval assets of Both sides....

Suggestion for a video series ... Invitational league war games In short, you have a scenario. You invite a team a try and win it. (against AI) That's the preliminaries. In the finals, you set team versus team, but they get to place their defenses. So in short, it's not just going to be an offensive game, but something that involves all kinds of systems. planes, boats, sams, tanks and maybe a few cows. Surely it has been thought of before,, but I would be curious if it might now actually be possible to pull off? The simulation has become better, the servers can handle more, and you have the ability to edit not just scenarios, but weapons systems as well, AND your commentary is top notch!

I think the thing under the J20's nose is the IRST but im not sure

How about a similiar scenario but with an opening Chinese Salvo of ballistic and cruise missiles followed by massive air and naval battle if the server can handle it. Also if the Chinese get a fully intact F-35 they would call it a win

I think Ford 32 wanted to get the ATC with his sidearm or something.

This was an eye opener.

I love being a valley’d viewer. These are my faves.

Love the hornet & flanker 😊

these sims are very entertaining. bravo

Re: your closing comment at the very end. Yes, I did enjoy that, thank you. And yes, I also look forward to seeing a bigger one soon.

that glass pod thing at the bottom of the J20 and also the F35 is the fusion sensor electro optical and IR sensor also with laser and Electronic warfare and spy surveillance pod. so it doesnt have to carry them all separately like 4th gen with targeting and image pods

If operating from the 7th Fleet, the Super Hornets could have been supported by a small flight of Growlers and that would have messed up the targeting of the J-20s and resulted in less (or no) Super Hornet losses. It’s a real pity there’s no way to implement Growlers in game. They’re incredible technology.

APOC MVP

Do I see Cylon Raiders on the dirt, at the end of the runway where the J-20's are taking off? Eight of them in a nice little line.

32:34 on the F-35 it’s the electro-optical targeting system. I guess it’s something similar for the J-20?

A lot of fun!

thats a 360 camera for full visuals meaning like the f35 you fan see though the plane to whats around or below you

soo cool!!!!

The little class house under the F35’s nose is how the pilot can see and target through the bottom of the aircraft.

Those Viper Take Off's hahaha!

My guess on the underneath of the F 35 is a Camera pod. In another video it stated you could see through the plane by use of camera's on the outside of the aircraft.

The little glass window thing under the F-35's nose allows the pilot to see "under" the jet. I have a buddy at the plant in Florida and that's all he does.

Cap I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the British Tempest project. Love the videos, keep up the great work

Pretty sure that cage on bottom of J20 is EOTS 86. Their sensor array for detecting stealth.

Looking forward to these sorts of experiments whenever we get the Kola map. Here's hoping for a peak USSR vs NATO matchup circa 1975-1980ish.

Thankyou all for the content keep up the good work.....Apart from Cap sort that flight model plx tnx bye😉😉😉

Have you modeled how or use of Rapid Dragon would impact the battlefield?

Why is the J20 nerfed with luneberg lens?

what nation doesn't overblow their stats. Like when the US tried to deny the fact they lost 11 abrams in desert storm.

About time with the super hornet!

Just a question from watching the aim-260. Why have a two piece missile that separates so early and has to glide most of the way on the smaller booster? Would it not travel most of the way in one piece, then split with a huge burst of speed in the terminal phase? I might be wrong but hope someone has some answers and thanks for the amazing content!

A bit more detail of Taiwanese F-16, 140 of them are F-16AM/BM, which is a variant with F-16A block 20 airframe, F-100-PW-220 engine, no conformal fuel tank and upgraded with AESA radar. 66 of the other will be F-16V block 72 planned to deliver in 2026. Still not sure if them come with conformal fuel tank.

What about using the USAAF F-22 & the F-15EX carrying a mix of AIM-260’s & the new Sidewinders?!?

One big factor thats not being properly modelled is that in ranges of under 50nm. IRSTs become far more relevant, to the point where radars are superceded. Especially when AI is being dumb and flying around on full afterburner. In theory the J20 and F35s should see each other the their EOTS (cat cockpits) long before they see each other on radar and slave their missiles to guide on that instead.

We need some Cortana action again.

@grim reapers - Have you read the CSIS Taiwan Wargame Report? It might be some good source material for future simulations 😊

That glass cage serves 3 uses at least one is the vision parameters and weapon lock-on the ĺast is for thermal notification of weapon launch notification.

You Ess Eh! You Ess Eh! You Ess eh! You should run this again but with F22s as well, and maybe some F15EXs too.

Cap, make sure for the real fight you set all the bases in China to be red. It will prevent the Blues from landing there.

A) Idk why but there’s something sexy about the F-5 as old as it is. B) I’ve noticed you’ve never modeled the Growler in these war games which is a very important/useful asset in regards to counter-air. Just wondering why. Love these war games please keep them up. Mahalo for the hard work 🤙

F35 + AIM-260 seems to be a unbeatable combination for now. If you mod in the PL-17 missile, add more J-20s or potentially the FC-31 for naval situtations, China probably stands a better chance and may be able to shoot down some F-35s, although the advantage should still lie with the Americans. Anyways, thanks for all the work you do running these simulations, really shows how much of a difference stealth + modern missiles make.

You gave the Americans aim260 why not give the Chinese their modern SAM that they would actually use? Not to mention a Cold War AWACS This isn’t realistic or remotely simulating what would happen at all

Thank you Capt and crew. Blue cheese burger and Chips,

The us carrier is too close to the mainland, it is not possible to take that risk. The safe distance is at least 2500km from mainland.

Rickybobby has one speed and thats GO! 🛩

$150M for a J20 seems high, I can find estimates from $30m up to $120M but even $120M seems high and might be including the cost of development which the F35 cost per unit doesn't usually account for.

You should use mirge-200-5 too replace the f-5e Because f-5 know be use as a training jet not the combat jet right know

can anyone get these mods are they all GR only and do you need the Beta for mods or can the regular DCS use mods like the f104

Interesting in light of the new CSIS study, which I haven't read yet, but reports say Taiwanese planes would be destroyed on the ground through missile strikes. Yikes!

What a simulation’i learned something here the F35 is 💪🏿

Let's see something new with F-4's!! Big F-4 missions!!! Let's see the F-4 a lot!

now would Taiwan play that game charging into a barrage of pl-15 missiles or do they have a better survival strategy

cap, i think for a fair fight, it would need to have the PL-17 against the AIM-260.

The block 3 super hornet is considered a 4.5 gen

It would be interesting to see a stealthy cruise missile carrying a couple AIM-260s as a AWACS killer

Why would Taiwan fly straight at a superior opponent instead of waiting for them to get close enuff for the air defense system to lock in on them

This might be a stupid question, but will the upcoming/upgraded AN/APG-85 Radar on all F-35 variants be able to modeled with any sort of benefit/gain to NATO forces in DCS? Obviously in real life there are gains, but is there anything publicly available that can be used for gain in simulation purposes here?

I thought the US was supposed to be a defender of Taiwan? In this, if China attacks Taiwan, they win. But if it's America being the aggressor and attacking China first (as they probly would) US wins? You need to run this again with the US actually being defenders rather than their usual shoot first tactic. Besides a carrier fleet that far from home and supply, they would be lost in the end with the Chinese in their home advantage and resupply ability

The serial number of J20 that has been observed so far is CB07156. According to the previous rules, China should have more than 200 J20s. Also, please consider their huge early warning aircraft system. In short, a very good video.

George is the real MVP

If there happens to be commercial airliners or private jets in the same airspace, would AWACS be able to ignore them, or would missiles find any target of opportunity?

in your dream, you have everything. MEGA

yea, hope this is the simulator CISI used, so the US will not suffer huge lost of air craft carries

知道会被添堵。。。大过年的，经过思想斗争，还是点进来了😂

Can you scuttle the F35 defector?

So no c130ish with crates of freedom? Dam.

I really enjoy your simulated encounters with all the details. A+ from me. now the But... But these definitely have to be taken with a grain of salt. The DC simulator is just an estimator based on what the authors know and think they know. There is plenty of unknowns that are best guesses or simply ignored as not existing (as they are unknowns). Frist, US and NATO understate capabilities and our rivals love to intimated by normally (not always) overstating acknowledged capabilities. I have many questions especially about how DC is modeling things both on radars and EW jamming that they do. I literally have worked on designing many of the systems being simulated. 40 years First of all, jammers (all Highly classified) are being modeled to be very weak from what I can tell and radars are not being impacted by lookdown ground clutter sufficiently etc... (different from terrain blocking line of sight). To give an example, NATO flew over Serbia whom had many SAM sights. Yet the patrols were mostly seen a routine over the Serbs for the most part. Capt O'Grady got shot down( which was followed by his heroic escape) in his F-16 is an exception that was a rare single event. What they are not telling you is that O'Grady contrary to required procedure did not turn on his ALQ-131 Self Protection Jammer as he got used to the relative routineness of the flights (where all the planes had their Self Protection Jammers on). He was not really a hero as he should not have been shot down as he violated important essential procedure ( but he had a spectacular survival story after his blundering negligence). Here in DC, jammers don't do anything meaningful that I can tell. Even simple noise Jammers seem to do very little even at long range. Jammers have a 1/range squared advantage at long ranges over the usually more powerful radar. Anyway, the point of the dialogue is even "modest incorrect" modeling can have a big impact on these battles. Here is how I see Taiwan would plan a defense. Taiwan not take a forward position with its F-16s. Taiwan would Put two AWACS in the rear Put a C-130H/E stand off jammer also in the rear but closer than the AWACS (the DC do nothing jammers that could easy with simple noise jamming cut most enemy radar ranges in 1/2, 1/4) A large plane dedicated to jamming can have power source levels equal or more than many/most of the opposing radars. Use directional jamming Hold the Taiwan F-16s (loaded with Self Protection Pods -AN/ALQ-184 or 131s, Harpoon missiles 120 nmi range to sink the attacking fleet, and AMRAAM 120 C or D) back behind the SAMs towards and under the AWAC/Stand Off Jammer protection thus safe from early stealth strikes and safe from early enemy radar detection due to longer range and reduced detection range of radar. Strike the stealth/non-stealth fighters with AMRAAM 120 from held back F-16s when AWACS/SAM radars locate them in range. Sink the navy when half way across the channel with harpoons. Without effective jamming, long range air to air missiles(plus Stealth) tend to become the be all king of battle. Also, an F-16c block 50 was 18.8 million adjusted for inflation is 40 million ....don't know cost of block 72 upgrade

WHOOOOOO!!!

When you do the new super hornet mod are you guys going to try making the block III super hornet? It has much more powerful engines and more advanced datalink than the block II.

Need to model missile artillery systems also drone bombers. Those will be the first teeth bared in any similar current day conflict between modern powers.

what was the fuel loads like on the return?

That guy was trying to defect, and ya shot him down….

TL;DR: At 16:32 you can see RickyBobby128 immediately reacts to the launch of a missile (that "no-one knows where or at who it is launched, so it can't give anything away"...), by not just slightly changing his gameplan (he was currently in the process of getting high and fast to try to get an AMRAAM off), but by completely turning around (heading directly away from the missile he "doesn't know about") *and* diving for the deck. Given how these modern BVRAAMs operate, we should be seeing most kills being scored at long ranges and against unaware pilots, who never even knew they were in danger. In stead, we see almost omnipotent defense maneuvers that scrap these high-tech weapons before they even get to terminaI guidance. /TL;DR Cap, you keep saying the scoreboard being visible in real time doesn't matter, because no-one actually acts on the info it provides (or changes their tactics to exploit it). However, the biggest advantage of these long range datalink guided missiles (ie. that you're almost always in it's WEZ, without having *any* indication that a missile has been fired at you), is lost when people know exactly when the missiles are fired. Furthermore, the missiles are given thick (and coloured, for easy IFF, even with severely degraded SA) smoke, without even giving the rocket motor any of the improvements to its energy density and specific impulse, that Aluminium (amongst other smoke producing additives) brings to real solid rocket fuel compositions. Combined with DCS 's absurdly good Mk.2 (telescopic) eyeball, this allows people to quickly and *unrealistically* check if the missle, that they already know has been launched, is coming towards them or not (this can be done by even just slightly changing your heading and looking for missile trails to follow). Even if they have lost SA and unknowingly closed to within the no-escape zone of the enemy's missile (and thus should be easy pickings in the modern air domain), the long smoke trails (which also allows them to regain some SA, as the colour tells them the missile is from an enemy and gives them an indication of where the bandit that launched it was) and early missile launch warning, gives them a pretty good chance of notching the missile or driving it into the ground/sea (similar to an old FOX-1). I believe it is the combination of both of these factors (together with the horrible core-game missile guidance and control logic, and the very weird/lazy way in which radar, and all EW in general, has been implemented and locked down), which combined, results in these vastly more modern and powerful missiles and aircraft still ending up on the deck in WVR combat. It essentially degrades their effectiveness to that of some basic, albeit very long range, semi-active AAMs!

Can we have more war games with E/A 18 growlers, because in a real conflict they would be quite essential