Like most people I imagine, I spent the last week or so grinding the Summer event to get the F106A.
On paper the jet looks awesome and with some unique gameplay mechanics to get your head around. The forefront of these features being the HMS combined with the unique canopy and weapons system that prevents the pilot using the gun with the bay open. This design flaw makes it imperative the pilot is able to lock enemies quickly and use the radar gunsight to shoot down potential foes. Considering how difficult this all is to do quickly, effectively and in first person, it leaves me completely flabbergast that the radar does not have IFF. Obviously this isn’t a problem for the Arcade or Realistic folk, but I can help but feel this is yet another kick in the pants for the Sim community.
What’s even the point of BVR radar guided missiles when you don’t know who you’re targeting, it’s an interceptor for goodness sake.
It does have an AN/APX-72 (IFF Responder), but as The F-102 (APX-6 / and later the -25) / F-106 was designed for the Homeland defense mission. To work in close concert with Ground based direction It was ancillary; as targets would either be handed off to the interceptor from a ground station, or they would be given a Vis-ident ROE, or free fire zones at appropriate DEFCON levels.
The Issue is that the Ground station would handle target deconfliction & selection which isn’t modeled, I could see an argument made that it does have an IFF system, just that it’s incomplete.
Further much of what would be implemented is abstracted as with other aircraft, some of which are conferred IFF capabilities.
bro aim4 are not bvr
Never said the missiles were, the radar has SRC which is literally a BVR mode.
Other jets have similar setups like the 104 and only feature 9Bs.
My biggest issue with it… it’s not as fast as they made it out to be. Missiles are shit. But I could live with that if it was F104-levels fast.
Can anyone really be shocked that Gajin’s bug fixing team just ignored every single bug report (except for some x-ray view bug)?
Well, DID the Hughes MA-1 have IFF? I couldn’t find anything…
The numbers were always available, you could’ve checked before grinding it
Its always a historical accuracy thing. So would need sources for it having it IRL.
Tripod does make a good argument for that, but I doubt it would work
Eh, the event jet was just an excuse to get me to bother playing air mode. Otherwise I’m always playing ground. So I’m not too fussed either way, even if I never use the F-106A ever again.
Question would be moreso, does SAGE have IFF, as SAGE was tided directly into the MA-1 and was what provided targets to the plane’s computer.
It could operate alone but it bypasses the entire design philosophy of the system built for the F-106.
This.
From the SAGE section -
“The operator of the terminal could pull up past positions of aircraft or missiles, as well as project future locations. In addition, the system used another feature far in advance of its time: a light gun. The gun was used by the operators to point at an aircraft on the screen, and the computer would respond by displaying related identification information about that aircraft. The system has the dubious distinction of holding the record for the world’s largest (physical size) computer ever created.”
Does seem like SAGE would collect and distribute identification data in real time to operators, and by that distinction, aircraft they were directing.
They also have manuals for the 106 at this page on their site Manuals, Checklists, TO's | F-106 Delta Dart
Found out about the site just recently, it is impressively well curated.
Really makes me wish more aircraft had document scans of the quality it has.
In T.O. 1F-106A-4 Illustrated parts breakdown it shows that a AN/APX-72 should be located in the front right electronics compartment, pages 198 and 199 if you are reading from the Electrical and Electronics Subsection PDF
T.O. 1F-106A-1 1965 change 5, 1 Dec 1972
Section 4-42A to C and 4-43 covers the IFF itself, it is used to ID the plane to ground systems, which is also stated in section 4-29 (Page 258).
Figure 4-6 in Section 4-13 (Page 243) shows the ground-to-air antenna located on the underside of the fuselage.
Shows an IFF panel in the cockpit layout on pages 33-34 which states the panel is for IFF/SIF (number 4). Page 36 references the IFF warning light on the right hand side of the cockpit (number 45) as well. Page 54 1-43, electrical diagram shows the IFF running off of the MA-1 28V DC Generator.
Section 2-9 (Page 130) steps 16 and 17 for preflight are setting up SIF and IFF. Section 2-24 (Page 157) notes, “As soon after take-off as flight conditions permit, positive operation of the IFF should be established with an Air Traffic Control Facility if the route of flight will require an operative IFF.”. Section 2-24M (Page 167) a positive IFF check should be made within an hour before landing. Section 2-33 (Page 174) covers IFF shutdown after landing.
Section 3-26 to 3-28 (Pages 211-213) shows effects of MA-1 DC power supply failure.
The manuals state that the Tactical Situation Display (the map in front of the stick) would display target location on the map.
In the 1980 manual 1985 revision, Section 1-57-59 (page 62-65) it goes over the Integrated Flight Information Display, and the AVVI (left side) which also displays the targets altitude.
You did.
In all honesty I don’t know if it should get IFF or not.
On one hand IFF would be handled on the ground and sent to the aircraft where the pilot would select a target and be provided information on target location. I don’t really see how gaijin would go about adding this as a mechanic specifically for this aircraft.
You could make it so that enemy positions show up on the TSD but that would probably be too powerful as you can now provide accurate location data to teammates.
On the other hand you could add IFF so that it retains some of the functionality of having targets provided while still requiring players to actively search for targets.
In other words it would get iff if datalink is modeled, which ain’t happening for a long time
So how does the A-10C’s HMD IFF work, if not by datalink?
magic. devs stated that they aren’t datalink even though those systems (rafale, 2k and a10c hmd) are literally datalink
I knew the French were all secretly witches