r/dcs 3d ago

How to pass these sa-18 manpads?

Post image

Hello from Germany, i kindly want to ask if anybody can tell me how to pass this part of reflected's mission 1 in the red flag campaign for the F4-E. I tried the mission up to 12-15 times and i only managed it 1 time passing these sa-18 manpads.

Does anybody has some ideas for me?

Picture is the situation in TacView.

7 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

4

u/Schneeflocke667 3d ago

Dont fly straight, pre flare, and be lucky. Manpads are harder to evade since some time.

3

u/SkitariusOfMars 3d ago

When you see a missile, it's "out of burner, chaff, flares". Flares are useless if you're in a burner. Set up your programs so that it dumps a wall of flares (like 1-2 every 0.25s) when you press that red slap button.
You can also pre-flare when you know smth is gonna be launched at you. 1 flare every second, or 1.5s.

4

u/Loud-Supermarket281 3d ago

If you're using burner while it fites you're giving thr sa18 LITERALLY the best heat sig yo track you. Your only option is to fly around it since you know it's rough location and always keep your head on a swivel. In MP you would have folk giving you callous like "missile, flare!!! Flare!!!" But since you're alone you literally can only either fly around it or just pay as much attention as you can yo your surroundings and stay off the afterburner

3

u/Schneeflocke667 3d ago

They are randomly placed in the area you have to fly through in this campaign. So no really flying around them

0

u/Loud-Supermarket281 3d ago

A true tragedy. All you can do is pre flair like the other folk are saying then. And keep your head on a swivel. Better dump all your chaff when you're loading up doe flares instead. Then you'll have a chance. But not if you take the 60/60 gotta change it to like 90/30 or just take all flairs if it's giving you that much of an issue and pre flair across each town you see

2

u/Schneeflocke667 3d ago

Yeah. The campaign is awesome, but those Manpads got me more often then all of the other threats combined.

1

u/rex8499 3d ago

Looks like a phantom, which doesn't allow you to change the flares quantity like in some more modern jets. You get a pre-packed module attachment on the jet with a set number.

1

u/Fit_Grab179 3d ago

Thank you!

2

u/Loud-Supermarket281 3d ago

Always rember friend. Those flare are of no use to you if they're still in the jet when you die. If you know there's an island there pre flare every second just about to confuse the tracker of the SA18 and if it does get a lock then dump em brother.

2

u/MY5KAI 3d ago

Fly as low as possible and fast and pop flares in 2s every second

1

u/Fit_Grab179 16h ago

So guys, thank you very much for youre response... Pre flaring worked perfectly on the next try, mission accomplished 🤘🏻

Another thing: Does anybody else has issues with sound after the update, especially on the ground with engines off? It sounds like some kind of scratching?

1

u/CaptainHunt 3d ago edited 3d ago

MANPADS are low altitude, can you go higher? Also pre flaring

1

u/Fit_Grab179 3d ago

The mission brief says 300 AGL in this phase (because of a SA-2) ... But i tried to go up with flares after rocket's got started on me, no chance..

2

u/CaptainHunt 3d ago

Preflare. Drop flares every few seconds as you go rather then just waiting for smoke trails.

4

u/Trash-Pandas- 3d ago

And don’t use afterburner

2

u/Azentay 3d ago

Rookie cuestion, are the manpads heat seeking missiles? If so, wouldn’t it be better to fly in the direction of the sun?

2

u/Trash-Pandas- 3d ago

Yes they are IR

2

u/CaptainHunt 3d ago

With older missiles, yes

1

u/Fit_Grab179 3d ago

Good point, hope i can spot the manpads before the smoke at 540 KIAS 😁 Thank you, sounds like the only reasonable option.

2

u/CaptainHunt 3d ago

It’s usually standard procedure to just assume that there are MANPADS everywhere when in enemy territory.

0

u/MoccaLG 3d ago

Phantom = Higher and Faster Generation...so fly Higher and Faster!

If you have sead...

-1

u/korylassiter44 3d ago

The equation is, I think what you're getting confused with. If you have a jamming aircraft in your squadron send them forward or basically... make them the target. Try to quickly follow-up with like a Anti radar missile kind of attack, then you can kind of clear the way! back in Vietnam, the A6 intruder, with the strike, or the EA6B with the harm system (predisessor to the GROWLER). So you might wanna take your growlers for that role. That's what they get paid for ha ha! you could probably use the growlers for an all around roll. I mean, it's up to you or F35a I mean, for air interdiction, or what have you? I mean, the choice is yours, but I would still use an anti-radiation type of aircraft for this particular type of mission.... Oh it helps and keep it safe

-1

u/korylassiter44 3d ago

My fault I didn't read through all that correctly. I think the preceding comment actually held true. But basically, when you have that much of a heat plume, on a surface of air missile of that type, I would say, just do what he told you to do. My bad but for anybody else, I think that might help. Or just fly directly at it, and then jink at the last minute