I love the SPO-15 RWR in the cockpit as it functions mostly as it should. However the 3rd person GUI for Realistic Battles is lacking. After researching it quite a bit and testing it a few times, I have noticed more deficiencies in the actual implementation in the cockpit and the GUI. It made me wonder why the Russians stuck with such a dogshit RWR for higher and higher tier aircraft until I realized it is just not given full functionality in game.
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Strength of Emission Source
This does work in the cockpit just not in the GUI.
However, it would take a lot of knowledge about different radars to use this to determine range. Also note, that this is to the radar carrier, not the missile (unless it is a ARH in it’s lock range) .This could be narrowed down if another feature was implemented: -
Differentiation Between Primary and Secondary Threats
First, the lights above the characters “П, З, Х, Н, Ф, and C” being lit indicate the primary threat (the strongest signal) and then the characters themselves being lit indicates the secondary threats.
Second, the angle numbers being lit indicates the direction of the primary threat and then the green lights closer to the center indicate secondary threat angles. In-game seems to light both sets of lights for type and angle in the cockpit and GUI flashes the angle with no differentiation and both threat types if there are multiple but with no differentiation of which is primary (stronger) versus secondary. -
Elevation of Primary Threat
This is shown in the cockpit with the characters “В” for Выше (Higher) and “Н” for Ниже (Lower) and light as appropriate for each condition (in relation to the plane so if you were upside down it will be reversed) or lights both for something on equal altitude. There is no indication on the GUI for this despite being critical information. -
Threat Types in Cockpit Versus GUI
Back to “П, З, Х, Н, Ф, and C”
П - ПВО
З - Зенитные РЛС / Дальние ЗРК (Translit. Zenith РЛС / Distant ЗРК)
Х - Х-диапазон / Короткой дальности (Translit. Х-range (Specific bands) / Short ranges)
Н - Наземные РЛС (Translit. On-ground РЛС)
Ф - Фронтовые РЛС (Translit. Frontline РЛС)
С - Средней дальности ЗРК (Translit. Average ranges ЗРК)
ПВО - Противовоздушная оборона (Translit. Against-the-air defense)
РЛС - Радиолокационная станция (Translit. Radiolocation station)
ЗРК - Зенитный Ракетный Комплекс (Translit. Zenith Rocket Complex)
(I do transliterations because it helps with people looking to pick apart words in Russian for the roots thus making it easier to understand than a translation that may not align with the exact definition.)
The GUI options are:
AI (Air Interceptor)
PD (Pulse Doppler)
A/D (Air Defense)
HAWK (Hawk)
N-H (Nike Hercules)
CW (Continuous Wave)
Some of these are appropriate as the SPO-15 was tuned against Western specific systems such as the 'Н" being designated as “N-H”, but it does not reflect all the bands that the SPO-15 is designed to detect. Also, it is common for a source to be identified as another until it is within a certain range but I have no easy way of testing if that is reflected in game. I’d love to see the Cyrillic characters used on the GUI instead. We can hear our crews in the native languages, why not have display elements (of the actual vehicles) be used as well?