Graveyard of Empires

Introduction video by Echo Victor: you'll see an example of the practical use of this add-on at 12:10! You'll find attached an updated version of the Fragmentation Envelope add-on for Tacview. In this release, there's no major new functionality, but a few corrections to past calculation and detectio

As a follow-up of this previous post, you'll find here the next theater: Kola. Please refer to that original post for installation details!

As a follow-up of this previous post, you'll find here the next theater: Caucasus. Please refer to that original post for installation details!

Hi all! I am initiating the release of several .hgt terrain file packs designed to support more accurate DCS World mission planning and debriefing. For those who followed my very first posts, back in 2024, I distributed at that time real-world .hgt files for various DCS theaters, specifically focusi

Hello, Just a quick update to share the most recent .xml files for CombatFlite. You are now well aware how to use them, if not, don't hesitate to look in past posts here how to modify the original .xml data base to include all theaters and new airports. The major changes are: New airfields added (Ko

For those who might have missed it, over the past few weeks, I’ve been developing a debriefing tool for Tacview: a custom add-on that renders a worst-case 3-D bomb fragmentation envelope at detonation. This tool uses real-world data derived from open-source US aircraft manuals. If you'd like a detai

Hi everyone, Just a quick update for all paid members: since the summer will probably be quiet on my Patreon, subscriptions will remain paused through (at least) early September, as they have been for the past couple of months. If any new paid members join in the meantime, the initial subscription p

I'll try to summarize here main changes made to the Fragmentation Envelope add-on since v1.5.1. For those unfamiliar with the project: the add-on displays a 3D worst-case fragmentation envelope and probability-of-incapacitation (PI) danger circles for bomb detonations within Tacview, intended as an

Thanks to Peregrine, one of our members, the missing East Germany charts have been added to the previously released Cold War Germany map. Don't hesitate to see that former post to find the full legend! Remember that if you're a MissionPlot user, you can simply point towards your CombatFlite folder i

As it has been discussed in the past in other articles, weapon lethality is dictated not just by the blast wave, but by the high-velocity fragmentation pattern. In my many flights in various multi-player environment, I observed that a gap exists within the virtual flight simulation community: while

I'm one of those people who like spending time debriefing their missions with Tacview, and I always found myself limited by the available colors you can use to tag objects. Instead of the default Blue or Red color, I generally assign a specific color per mission type, for example Cyan for OCA, Green

October 21, 2001: two Mirage IVP reconnaissance aircraft deployed to Al Dhafra, UAE, to conduct over 80 IMINT missions over Afghanistan in under three months. August 27, 2021: the final A400M departed Kabul International Airport with embassy personnel following the Taliban’s successful assault on th

I wanted to inform you that all Patreon subscriptions have been, again, placed on pause. Due to current time constraints that prevent me from maintaining a consistent schedule, subscriptions will not resume until I am once again able to guarantee regular or significant content postings. I want to en

One of the most obvious difference between civilian and military aviation probably lies in the planning cycle. I admit that my experience in the civilian world is limited: I earned my Private Pilot License as a teenager at a small flight club and later completed my Instrument Rating (IR) between two

In my previous post titled "Visiting Afghanistan", I quickly introduced the "DCS ISR" feature in MissionPlot. The video above will show you more in details how to use it. Enjoy your new tool! How to use DCS ISR feature in MissionPlot (YouTube)

The sole purpose of this post is to help you locate the unique objects and remarkable landmarks that have been discussed in our two previous posts: Kabul area, followed by the rest of the country. For this, you'll find attached a kneeboard page with all coordinates, so that you can easily create a w

Leaving the dense urban area of Kabul behind, the second part of our visit focuses on the vast expanses that define the rest of the Afghan theater. We will first identify the few unique modeled objects located in Herat and Kandahar, and then we will highlight several remarkable geological landmarks.

The Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission stands as a cornerstone of modern air power, and it was particularly true in a theater as complex and vast as Afghanistan. While everyone focus on fighter and bomber jets, the persistent eyes in the sky provided by ISR assets are what

Rohrkrepierer from JaBoG 35 has kindly sent me three additional maps to cover the whole West Germany: you now have a full 1976 1:500.000 aeronautical chart (Luftfahrtkarte). As it was the case for the initial release, you'll find attached a projected map that is suitable for manual flight planning f

For once, we'll leave the tactical side, and we'll take the time to make a short tour of prominent Afghanistan places that we can actually find in DCS. I'll start here with some of the unique objects that have been modeled, and that we can admire from our virtual cockpits. I. Kabul I.1 - Darul Aman

Following our previous look at the residential and defensive structures, we can now shift our focus to the natural and semi-artificial features of the Afghan landscape: water and vegetation. To better appreciate the environment on the ground, I recommend the attached footage of a date orchard in Nan

In a previous post, I shared a full list a useful CAS vocabulary, more particularly for the talk-on phase. You'll find here a focus on the vocabulary that's more specific to the Afghan theater I. Housing & Buildings I.1 - Khana The term Khana is the local designation for a house or a residential dwe

You'll find attached an historical 1:500.000 aeronautical chart for West Germany. That chart is accurate for 1976, and is therefore perfect for those trying to achieve a high level of realism on DCS CW Germany theater! Note that this chart has been produced in collaboration with one of our members,

For those following the Discord channel, you already know I am collaborating with Kas from Avalanche Industries, the developer behind AI_ATC (among others), to build a fully interactive Afghanistan mission template. Our goal is to move beyond the limitations of the default DCS environment by impleme

Following the civilian flight rules that we discussed in the previous article, we need to look at the standing air routes that cross Afghanistan. During the 2009–2012 period, these routes were busy. Even though a war was happening on the ground, the sky was a crowded place where combat jets and airl

In the early stages of the conflict in 2001, the Afghan airspace was almost entirely closed to civilian traffic. International airlines rerouted their flights to avoid the region, and the sky was used primarily by military aircraft. By the 2009–2013 period, the situation had changed. The military ca

The next natural step after creating the BMAs and setting up the possible AEW tracks is to position the Bullseyes for the theater. As usual, the Combat Flite (.cf) file and mission kneeboards (.pdf and .png) are available for download below. Geometric Accuracy A Bullseye (BE) position is defined usi

Hi all, After a month off, I wanted to take a moment to explain where things stand, what is changing, and where this project is going. Philosophy Over time, I’ve been thinking about the purpose of this page and how the content should be shared. The goal has always been to make real-world combat avia

This is the third part of the zip archive. Part 1 here. Part 2 here.

This is the second part of the zip archive. Part 1 here. Part 3 here.

You will find attached the original DCS Syria F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. Due to the extremely large size of the area, it's difficult to achieve a good resolution with relatively small file sizes. This file a therefore a "medium-high" resolution map, shared in three split/zip archive

As you might have noticed already, CombatFlite is now available for all on https://www.combatflite.com/ The update is really minor: apparently it only removes the license features. Unfortunately, no new theater added, no official database update, or no feature change... Therefore, the workarounds de

This is the second part of the zip archive. Part 1 here.

You will find attached the original DCS Syria F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. Due to the extremely large size of the area, it's difficult to achieve a good resolution with relatively small file sizes. This file a therefore a "medium-high" resolution map, shared in two split/zip archives.

You will find attached the original DCS Syria F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. Due to the extremely large size of the area, it's difficult to achieve a good resolution with relatively small file sizes. This file a therefore a "medium-low" resolution map, to keep file size reduced. For tho

As most of my older posts, the "bomb fuzes guide" is now available for download to all members, as well as the recommended fuze settings for various aircraft. In the coming months, I'll try to update that guide to include Soviet fuzes. Happy Christmas!

You will find attached the original DCS NTTR F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. As for previous maps (Caucasus, Persian Gulf and Marianas), the resolution is high in highly detailed areas, and it has been kept low to average in low detail areas, in order to reduce to file size as much as po

Here is my own trial at recreating the IFR and VFR transit corridors through Pakistan, as they have been described previously. You'll notice that in the South, the corridors start or end either from existing IFR waypoints in the Muscat FIR, or for naval operations from ad-hoc waypoints that will be

As we all know, Afghanistan is a landlocked country, isolated from direct maritime access and surrounded by sovereign states whose airspace immediately becomes a strategic factor in any sustained air campaign. At the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in late 2001, this geographic reality sh

You will find attached the original DCS Caucasus F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. The same map in very high resolution has also been published for paid members here. Still, the attached map is totally suitable for any most mission types: as you can see below, the zoom level is sufficient

You will find attached the original DCS Caucasus F10 map in .mbtiles format for CombatFlite. Compared to the previous release of the same map, the resolution if even higher in highly detailed areas, and it has been kept average in low detail areas, in order to reduce to file size as much as possible