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.
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)
(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.)
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?
It’s actually easier to understand distance on the gui than in the cockpit, especially if there’s multiple signals at once. I say that as someone that’s used spo-15 for hundreds of hours in both simulator and realistic modes.
All you really need is a/d, pd and ai. Anything else is essentially useless, I find it fair the way it’s already implemented on the gui
I don’t see anyway to gauge the primary emission source strength on the GUI version. That is not equivalent to distance as it would vary by the type of radar the distances that certain strengths would appear, thus more importance towards the proper classifications of threats. As for “all you really need” that would be like using the SPO-15LM which allows you to pre-train the different light sets/bands to the threat types you are likely to encounter on your mission. Sure it’s easy to slim it down to those 3 but then you could be missing out on properly classifying threats.
It is pretty much equivalent to distance. Outer ring is around 50km, most inner ring is around 5km. Detection starts at 65km. Everything in between is varying levels of distance.
What other ids do you need other than air interceptor, pd radar, and ground to air radar?
This is more or less what the GUI SPO-15 should look like (minus the extra artifacts I couldn’t erase conveniently and the whole plane isn’t really necessary).
The ring around to the triangle could be distance if you know exactly what is flashing it’s radar at you because SAM sites and onboard radar strengths vary. You can see it in test flight, that the ring will have a different amount of lights lit in relation to your distance from a carrier:
From the ADATS, 11km down 1 light, then at 14km down two lights.
And then I had to do an Air Realistic Battle to get data on other planes’ radar:
From the F-18, 10km down 3 lights, and closer was difficult to gauge in an actual battle (I died for research sake).
This shows that the ADATS will max your lights at a much farther distance than the F-18.
So if you absolutely know it is an ADATS painting you, then yes you can map out how “far” each light means you are from it. Thus, all the more important to have the variety of threat types being identified so you can know that if a SAM is painting you and your lights are less than full, you are probably safe from it’s missile. On the other hand, if you have less lights from an aircraft, that is normal as it is not as strong a signature but the missile may already be on it’s way.
I could see it getting in the way, that’s why I just traced an image of one to keep it in the outline style. But maybe if you could set the transparency level, it wouldn’t matter.
It would need to be “inspired by” rather than a direct C&P of what is in the cockpit so that it fitted better on screen, but the core elements at least should transfer over
i kinda want them buffed to be able to detect J band. its technically possiblee because spo-15 has a detection range of waves from 4.45-10.35GHz. since J band is 10-20GHz it feels like a technically justifiable buff and would especially help with dealing with SAMs
eg: Su-17 cannot detect ANY SAM SPAA at its BR of 11.0. ADATS has an I band search radar so its the exception but it uses IRST and Beam riding SAMs so it doesnt rlly help anyway.
I think the GUI does show that. In the small circle around the cross, two different thick semicircular lines will blink on radar contact. If the top line is blinking it means the threat is from above and if the lower line is blinking it’s from below.
This was implemented back in 2024 in the Storm Warning update:
I don’t know in my opinion I think the spo 15 is easier to read because like for example if you’re getting engaged by a fox 3 the spo 15 will tell you the distance from you to the primary threat aka the missile
But also to be fair I did play tonne of DCS so I kind of had to learn how to read the spo 15
unfortunately…
although there are interpretations that say the later 15LM models did have an increased detection band. especially since the fitters were supposed to attack rolands and the likes. and how can you attack or launch ARMs at targets if you cant even detect them.
SPO-15LM (Mig-29, Mig-27K) is programmable to detect the threats expected in theatre. So the channels can be tuned to pick up threats using other bands.
Do you know what planes it was fitted on?
I don’t think I have a brochure specific to the le model, only LM and I can probably look in manuals for original spo-15 specs as well
