CVW Composition: CV-59 (USS Forrestal) CVW-99 (fictious carrier air wing) VF-1 (F-14) (fighter) VF-84 (F-14) (fighter) VA-22 (A-4) (attack) VMA-211 (A-4) (attack) VAW-116 (E-2D) (early warning) VS-21 (S-3) (anti-submarine, buddy tanker) HS-3 (SH-3H) (anti-submarine, SAR/CSAR, plane guard, etc) (VAQ and VFP detachments will be replaced by F-14s with ALQ-167 and TARPS pods) Associated aircraft that are not part of the CVW C-2A Greyhound for carrier cargo transport P-3C Orion for submarine hunting ----- CVW Reasoning: I want to operate off the USS Forrestal rather than the Stennis. That makes for a cramped CVW, and mission-specific aircraft are left out in favor of putting mission-specific pods on existing aircraft. For the fighter squadrons, I want a red tail but VF-111 is out since the CAG bird is Miss Molly. VF-1 also had a nice-ish red color scheme, so they are in. Then, for some contrast, VF-84 has those nice black pirate tails. For the attack squadrons, the community A-4E module is a very high quality, free, fully flyable aircraft module that can also be used as an AI aircraft. I like the blue colors and white stars of VA-22 and it would be reasonable to also have a Marine attack squadron attached, plus they add a lot of visual variety with the VMA-211 color scheme. Eventually, once Heatblur release their AI A-6E, I want to use it to replace the A-4E squadrons. For the early warning squadron, we can pretend the in-game E-2D is an E-2C. The VAW-116 skin will give some nice variety on-deck compared to the fighters. Would be nice to give it a radome swirl like VAW-123 for some in-air visuals. For anti-submarine squadrons, we will have both a fixed-wing and rotary-wing squadron. The fixed-wing will fly S-3B because they are already in-game with the correct code to allow buddy-tanking, adding some nice variety to missions. The rotary-wing squadron will fly the SH-3H as a mod. If we accept Vietnam era skins, there are nice red/black skins like HS-3, otherwise use whatever. For electronic warfare squadrons, it would be nice to get *functional* EA-6 Prowlers. Until Heatblur release their AI version or until I get around to looking at the related links below, stick a (non-functional) ALQ-167 jamming pod on an F-14 and play pretend using mission triggers to turn off radar sites based on proximity. EW is never going to play right in DCS so it's not worth spending much time on this. For photo-recon and electronic intelligence detachment, put a TARPS pod on an F-14 and play pretend. It'll allow flying the correct mission profile but doesn't fully model the TARPS pod. Given the small size of the Forrestal-class, a dedicated detachment is less likely. For cargo and transportation, a C-2A Greyhound should be added. Also some land-based marine aircraft like a P-3 Orion to be seen in the distance sub-hunting around the carrier group. For enemies, the in-game MiG-21 is already excellent since it's Heatblur's grand-opening module. The in-game Tu-95 is terrible but there is a community mod that improves it. I think that's the only critical enemy plane to improve since it's large and we'll be spending a lot of time look at it from close range (and zoomed in on the TCS) as the primary fleet threat. I also want to simulate a pre-deployment workup at NTTR using the proper ranges and an FCLP for training. The (online) 476th fighter squadron has a good mod for populating all those ranges. ----- Download Links: F-14 VF-1 skin: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3319604/ (includes better missile skin) https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3313474/ (probably better skin overall) F-14 VF-84 skin: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3313467/ A-4E community mod: https://heclak.github.io/community-a4e-c/ A-4E VA-22 skin: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3325857/ A-4E VMA-211 skin: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3302707/ E-2D skin pack: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3307929/ SH-3H AI mod and skin pack: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/309243-sea-king-ai-mod/ or: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/346587-ai-seaking-mod-sh-3h-mk48/ S-3B skin pack: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3307156/ C-2A and P-3C (and some other useful stuff): https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3307071/ plus extra skins: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3310355/ Tu-95 improved model: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3321032/ 476th Range Targets Package (also includes FCLP box for use in ME): https://forum.dcs.world/topic/152988-476th-range-targets-package/ Special aircraft to escort (e.g. RC-135, EC-130, etc): https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3321706/ ----- Misc: TODO: Investigate this EA-6B Prowler mod for adding a VAQ squadron to the CVW. Though perhaps it's better to wait for Heatblur to release their AI EA-6? https://forum.dcs.world/topic/256589-vsn-northrop-grumman-ea-6b-prowler/page/2/ Note some ideas on using it for EW in missions: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/256589-vsn-northrop-grumman-ea-6b-prowler/page/8/#comment-5277706 Note some tweaks to flight performance since the mod is based on the S-3B: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/256589-vsn-northrop-grumman-ea-6b-prowler/page/2/#comment-4526436 TODO: Investigate this F-8 Crusader mod: https://github.com/tspindler-cms/DCS-F8