During Operation Desert Storm, a F-16 Viper (Callsign Stroke 3) was fired upon by 6 Iraqi SAM sites during a air raid gone wrong, and dodged the missiles using only maneuvering since his flare dispenser had a malfunction he was unaware of. Could you guys try to replicate what happened and see if you could also beat multiple missile launches in a row without the use of flares?

The best part about this channel which really got me so interested was the amount of engagement with the audience and the fact they take the people’s advice to improve the channel. Keep up the great work!

I found this channel about a month or two ago, and I can't get enough. I don't play the realistic military sims, but wow are they fun to watch! Thanks Cap'n!

Seems like deconfliction is the next piece of the puzzle to tackle; the LRASMs from the Black Sea attack video and the Meteors in this one would be much more effective if missiles spread more evenly between targets. It’s also not necessary to fire at max range; pK would go way up if you programmed the stealths to fire closer in (as I bet they would consider doing as it’s still outside detection range).

Keep them long, if people want them shorter, they can simply fast forward. I love your campaigns!

I love that these videos are super long! They're alot more entertaining than the 10min videos

Full length videos are the way to go. I love seeing the entire battle play out.

In this scenario I would go with all stealth configuration. With 40 planes that gives you 160 missiles to take out 60 targets, and your own losses would be negligible, assuming the stealth works as advertised.

YES! Was hoping you'd do this! Also, going to the quote you put on at 2:58, this reflects what I'd said on a previous video of yours (don't blame you for not reading everything - you guys are awesome and the amount you do read is reflected in your sims (which are more entertaining than most TV shows for me). The PL15 may well have a similar range to the Meteor (Most trusted sources I've read say it's *slightly* less - talking like 10Km depending on the source), but where the Meteor is still leaps ahead (legit a generation or a gen and a half) is in the No-Escape Zone (NEZ) which is due to the Ramjet being included - impacting the Kill Probability (PK) quite significantly. Effectively what this means is that the top-speed achieved by the PL-15 will occur at a similar time to the Meteor, but from that point it will slowly drop off, meaning that at 110-120KM, the PL-15 will be travelling real slow and likely only have a decent PK against slow-moving, large, immobile targets. Meanwhile, the Meteor will travel at between Mach 4 and Mach 5 ish from the moment it reaches top speed, pretty much all the way to the target - even if that target is 110-120KM (although exact range is obviously restricted information so who knows - but this is the theory). This, as I'm sure you're aware (and sorry if this is patronising - I struggle with that sometimes but try hard not to be) results in an almost 90% PK even at extreme ranges. No idea if you can model this, but it would seriously reflect the situation more and will make the F-35 armed with Meteor that much more deadly. In terms of who won - the UK won. IRL, those F-35s would be rearmed and sent back up again, the Meteor missiles would have been launched with greater efficacy, and they would be more deadly as described above.

About team balance... If you're going into a fair fight you're using bad tactics. The aggressor should be using a force which has a decided advantage of some sort. The what if scenarios are still a lot of fun to watch. 👍

Best thing you said that you deliberately make full videos not snappy clickbait videos. Love to see the whole thing, along with the explanation of where it's not 100% simulated. Many battles change over time owing to the AI, the techonlogy or the GR pilots, and it's great to see it develop.

Just a thought .. if you could halve the F35 launch speed from the carrier you’d get more kills per fighter … with the current launch speed 4 or 5 missiles are going for the same target … I might be missing something of course

It would be interesting to replay this with the F-35 AI launch slowed down to 1/2 as fast. It would help reduce the amount of wasted shots.

43:37 “That’s my boy!” -crashes- No, my boy!

Thanks for the battle Cap. It appears the Meteor had a much higher miss rate than normal. Just based on the missiles I tracked in.

This is a classic case of British Longbowmen vs Chinese Chu ko Nu

WOW!!! That was brilliant. I've never watched one of these battle simulations before, but I'll be watching plenty more from now on.

You guys always fire the missiles at or near their max range and then they run out of legs or brains right at the end and you get a hit rate of less than 50%. I would think that with the advantage of stealth, you should get a little closer before you launch so you can give your missile a cushion just in case the flight parameters don't let it perform at max range. What am I missing?

Might be best to set up the F35s in whatever way seems to do best. After all, the crew IRL will know the best doctrine through simulations.

It's not that we think Chinese tech is garbage. We're just not falling into the same trap that "experts" did with Russia prior to their current conflict. China, like Russia, has a long-standing habit of touting exaggerated abilities, when it comes to military ability. The US, has a long-standing habit of understating capabilities and attempting to keep real characteristics secret. We're not great at that, but that's not the point. When taking public figures without a realistic handicap, it's not so realistic. History has shown that whatever china says, you can probably deduct 20% for actual capability.

Would have been interesting to see what the new loadouts of Wildcats with the two new anti ship missiles could have achieved if anything

In this situation, missiles like the meteor turn the f35 into little more than a stealthy boost phase.

Love watching the Reapers because the videos are so entertaining but I also learn a lot. I love the amount of research you put into this Cap!

Great morning/afternoon Cap and Crew, I really do hope your all doing fantastic. Great video and battle. Please 🙏 keep up all the great work.

Can’t thank you enough, Cap & Grim Reapers, for all of your content! I look forward to the daily video drop as it really helps take my head out of life’s stresses. Thank you

Thanks for all great videos!

Hooray for full videos! Thanks Cap

Who ever said make your videos ten mins long can stub their toe on their coffee table lol I love the long battles!

I think AI wasnt great, in real life I'm sure the British wouldn't be lobbing Meteors as soon as they took off, instead they'd use their stealth to get somewhat closer ( not too close to where they're detected) to get more effective shots in. Aswell as that if the battle had took place more near to land for both sides so the AI would be able to rearm, I think the British would've done better

in 60 minutes you have 20 35's back in the air headed at the chinese fleet reloaded with anti ship.

Obviously the British would not just blindly fire missiles without communicating with each other. Irl the brits would win easy. But once other countries catch up with stealth tech, who knows. Drone ships with rappiers (or whatever British anti air missile) leading in front of the British fleet?

Thank you for keeping your videos at full length! Don't listen to those who want abridged versions.

Full Tactical Videos are best ! LOVE them :) thanks

American here; sorry for all the bozos giving y'all grief for using the PL-15, unfortunately a lot of people just don't have the ability to take in information that conflicts with their incredibly vague and narrow view of the world. The AIM-260 will probably even the odds but until then, we better put all that expensive RAM coating to good use. Or until they somehow make the F-15 EX compatible with the Meteor which... holy shit that'd be scary

Love the longer videos, don’t shorten them!

I've watched a few of this show. This is the 1st time I've seen them in a few hours of playing. I've learned now how important rockets are in different missions and how many different missiles there are. Since the horrible war has been going.. am finding out more about rockets and missiles there are. From sea, air and ground. Do they play against other teams? keep it long. Real time . Good show. 👍😊

Love the full videos.

Literally the best part of the videos "Hello Valued Viewers!" feels like a warm hug

The meteor is such a dominant weapon. I'm entirely convinced it's the best air to air missile of our day. Really the meteor breaks up into three separate missiles.

keep the long vids Cap! I can't get enough long form full tactical videos. I watch more WarGames vids than TV! trying to learn DCS and these are invaluable for study!

The RN can get an f-35 re-fuel, rearmed and launched in under 15 minutes, but only in emergency situation and it doesn't leave enough to do a proper check on the air frame

Simba fan club approves our king of the jungle being "On a Boat" Thank you for all the quips and keeping cap less serious! Love Grim Reapers and the team!

Love the full videos Cap. Just cant capture full wargames or missions with 10 minute videos. Cheers, keep it up

TY FOR FIXING THE RTB THING when they ran out of missiles and just stayed there it was driving me nuts

UK carrier group also has a hunter killer sub.

As someone who watch your blackbird/Vulcan falklands bombing video from start to finish, keep the videos as they are, if it’s a epic or a short, so be it

Imagine being a Chinese pilot going up against stealths! You have no idea where they are, just that they are there and firing missiles at you that could hit you at any moment and you'll have little to no warning!

Honestly for the stealth configurations I’d have them hold off a bit with firing, increase that PK and help ensure the batteries aren’t dying in flight.

I'd love to know why nobody has created a disposable/retractable pylon system. With the proclivity and advantages of stealth technology the ability to fire off an array of long range missiles and then convert the aircraft back to a stealth configuration to guide missiles/reattack seems like it would be a massively powerful technology

One point the UK F-35B (RAF/FAA) do not use internal gun or gun pod so its really missile only for all use cases including close-range air-to-air.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense has confirmed that its F-35B stealth fighters will be armed with Meteor air-to-air missiles and SPEAR 3 precision-guided standoff munitions by the “end of the decade.” The new weapons promise to bring a major leap in capability for the F-35B, especially when combined with the enhancements that the Block 4 upgrade will provide, especially for the aircraft’s radar, which will make the Meteor even more formidable.

It's usually a good idea to overestimate your enemy, but also not to show all your own cards. It's a balance experts have to maintain.

The other thing to say about that older video, is that if a diminished UK CSG entered the threat of Chinese attack, they would probably also be carrying a US marine F35 squadron because NATO as a whole wouldn't countenance the possibility of losing a carrier group just because it wasn't carrying its full capacity of aircraft.

4:50 lol hell yeah! Cap you took my advice!😅✌

If the ships don’t fire on each other, is it even a naval battle? I always love that part at the end of these.

"the opposite of chivalry" didn't a french king utter similar words after the battle of Crecy???

I would love to participate in a GR fantasy-football kind of thing... brackets of dogfights with all the regulars (Sock, Violet, Matrix, etc) and all the newbies (Cannonball!) That would be fun.

A decent amount of bandits were sent to Meteorville tonight. But the Meteor is a far more capable monster than shown in this video. The missile can change its speed midflight and it can reacquire a target after an initial miss.

Full videos. There is a fast forward button. It’s your friend

Hello GR's. I was an AO (Aviation Ordinanceman) back in the 80's. We were just getting F/A 18's on the flight deck at that time. I don't think it would be anywhere close to an hour for the first 20 or so planes to land and rearm. We could send up a rack of snake eyes (6) every 6 minutes and we would build the whole time the planes were out. And we were only one of the magazines. I think, if you found out how long it takes to fuel a plane, that would be your turn around time. Granted, things are very different today and there are still DCS issues, but I have heard you request naval advice before, so that's what I've got. Keep up the wonderfully long missions. How about a NATO attack on the Russian front lines. (Just in case they use a nuke.)

I for one enjoy the long videos!

I like the longer 60 to 120 minutes episodes it is llke watching a show or a movie keep up the good work!

53:25 From now on it will be fist fight between the ship valued human people.

A note on the opening, I wish I would have caught the original video when it aired. When i stopped working at lockheed in 2021 the british F-35's on the line (each was marked by the country flag and the airframe number for that country) exceeded 40 iirc. im an open book for unclass info guys! ask away!

Cap, love the long format videos! Never go to the dark side click bait 10 minute fish brain attention span videos. Keep up the great work. I look forward to every video you upload!

The PL 15s are good missiles on the surface of things looking at the range and other factors. However at the same time many experts argue that due to its size and also estimated weight, it would be somewhat useless against fighter sized aircraft Many experts believe it's to counter the US support units like AWACs and refuellers, with that being the thing it's good at Against fighters it likely won't be the best due to obviously a big manoeuverability gap between fighters and the support units, and due to this the PL 15 may actually not be as good as it seems

I love the carrier battles cap! Full length videos are the best! One of these days can you redo the US versus Russia carrier group?!

I love seeing the Murder Lightings working correctly this time.

The Type 23s would be x2 correct, but they are quite good at picketing. However it wouldn't have 2 Arliegh burkes unless a combined fleet. That being said the type 45's would have 4, if a fuill fleet. Plus by the 2025 they would be one type 31. Also you'd have a number of Wildcats firing anti air and anti ship missiles. they have been tested to hold 20 missiles on pylons. the AWAC is an interesting point.

Unfortunately they kinda end up wasting the stealth configuredd F35s by launching all their meteors at max range. If they waited even just till they were 25- 50 miles closer they'd still be out of detection range but the missiles would have far better firing parameters, retain more energy prior to going terminal/final approach, giving a higher kill probability, and making kinematic dodges more unlikely.

OK---. Shame is that Lockheed with BEA have come up with Stealth Pylon Missile Pods and Drop tanks for the F-35 and F-22s that do not increase RCS of the Fighters. Though they still add DRAG. Each Missile pod can carry 2 to 4 missiles internally. With 4 pods carrying 8 to16 additional missiles under the wings or a 3,000lbs Stealth fuel tank replacing one of the pods under each wing and the center line adding range over a clean fighter... While the pods can be dropped reducing drag, they are a bit expensive. One advantage is that the Pods can be attached fully loaded with missiles cutting the time it takes to get the fighter back into the Air. You should check them out!!!

Ignore this if you wish, but the Meteor isn’t due for integration with the F-35 until 2027 at the earliest, so AIM 120’s would be the missile dejour for the present.

if people don't have time to watch a full video then watch it in parts or skip it to the best parts otherwise im sure most of us like the full action and intro from the Grim Reapers 😃

was wondering if a meteor , say, could have a BROACH warhead fitted for antiship work?

would be nice if you could add J-35, the new Chinese naval fighter jet to the scenario, probably going into service in 2025

Hi guys. Do yall have/would it be possible for you to make a video simulating a carrier air wing attacking a large destroyer squadron? In Carrier v Carrier battles, considering their escorts aren't numerous, whoever wins the air engagement tends to overwhelm the enemy with anti-ship missiles. How would it look like if the strike was against a desron? Would the entire air wing come loaded with anti-ship missiles? Can you even do SEAD targeting radars in the ships? That would be cool I think

Nice

To be fair, the F-35 guns have been notoriously inaccurate during testing, so I guess the dog fights were actually a good depiction.

OK----. One last thing is that the Murder F-35s can drop their Pylons after the wing missiles have been fired returning the F-35 to Full Stealth fighters with all the Advantages with missile still in their bays. But that does not seem to be used here...

Fantastic air combat simulation! Chinese flankers have thrust vectoring? And if they have, what models? I heard somewhere that the J-20B will have thrust vectoring

Thanks Cap & Crew! I'll throw my opinion in favor of the longer videos. I like them because I can gather some good ACM and techniques. Getting cold in Colorado, so it's time to order a Grim Reapers hoodie.

The map overview at 48:23 sort of looks like a stylized Flanker. heh

I am pretty sure what Doctrine would say to do in this case, would be they would Mad Dog off their missiles and then data link other missiles off of the ones ahead

Fun video.

What I think would be intimidating would be seeing all the cons of the missiles and hearing the man down calls and not seeing anything on radar. Kind of got “Predator” vibes to it

Fun stuff

Yes, Cap, full videos please!!

I can somewhat understand the politics thing from the previous one, tho I don’t understand it when before that a budget increase for the Mod was announced from 2.2 to 3%. maybe in future you can do a battle based off the thatcher admin’s type of military budget percentage, like what would the RN have if it was 8% like during her time as pm? That’d be interesting

Question...can the lightnings dump their external pillons after they're empty? That way they can spam long range missiles at a distance and then close at stealth.

It'd be more useful, and I know there's server limitations, if you started them 500 miles apart and there had to be reloading, no-man's-land fighting, etc. This is like a shotguns-only fight across the table when the lights are turned out.

Yep deconfliction. It looks like with the longer range engagements the second group of f35s come into ranger while the first groups missiles are still in the air. They spot the same set of targets and launch on them. When the first meteors shots hit, it leaves the second groups missiles without target and they go dumb. A goodly portion of shots get wasted. A d they are finite. It didn't happen with 120 Cs as the flight time was a lot less thus the targets dropped off quicker.

I think the lightning should have used their stealth and pushed in much closer before launching. Instead of 100 miles why not 50 and then turn and burn.

PLEASE KEEP DOING LONG VIDEOS!

The war games deserve long videos. I watch them at 1.25x speed.

Stealth 1, Non-steath 0: South China Sea Turkey shoot

I think there needs to be more work done on the meteor missile. It seems to loose track alot and it seems to be dodged a lot.

I thought that the beauty of the meteor was that it had a throttle motor that would allow it to still be under power at intercept

In the future maybe the human stealth F-35's should push-in more on that initial wave to increase the probability of kill instead of firing at max range since you know they can't see you until 25ish miles. Maybe fire at 50-60 miles and then get tf outta there?

yayy, THE RETURN OF THE METEOR on GR how about an improved Europe + America vs Russia + China (Possibly + India?)

Ironically cap, the Type 23’s are just as capable as the Type 45’s since the 2016 refit with sea ceptor. They have the same Integrated CiWs and have sea ceptor, which is superior in terms of modernity to Aster missiles on the Type 45’s. The only thing that’s really changes is the number of targets the Type 23’s radar can track at once and their resolution. But can easily track a 4th gen fighter and ashm. The number of VLS is 32 to the type 45’s 48 Which by 2022 was supposed to be increased anyway to 72VLS or 48 and Ballistic interceptors or tomahawks/ LRASM. But alas the British government is Cutting the defence budget again! They said it’s increased 1% but as everyone is well aware the £ has just lost 30% of its value this year. Meaning the 3% Defence budget will only facilitate further disarmament by rust.