Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

OK, about the Typhoon: The first aircraft is already being test-flown in Manching/Germany with the manufacturer and must be delivered in June, according to the contract - 4 Typhoons are to be delivered in 2007 in total, the remaining 12 in 2008-2009; check http://www.airpower.at/; So June should be fine, but with NO A/G weapons whatsoever of course; (these are Tranche 1 aircraft anyway); Political developments on this issue are changing every day, however, so there might be changes, but we'll see; for game purposes leave June '07;

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

An aircraft in this game "with NO A/G weapons whatsoever" is usless and will not be added regardless of contract delivery dates.

Also..... I deal with 92 OOB's and hundreds of thousands of bits of information in them. However, if I had every last bit of information at my figertips I would work for Janes and make more money with lot's less aggravation. Please explain what I'm supposed to make of .."these are Tranche 1 aircraft anyway"

??

Don

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

......AND when they will be fully operational.

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

There were no F-5E's either until they were flown in from Switzerland.....we're there ?? In the event Austria ever found itself in a real war the weaponry would be made available by nations with more foresight. ( and all the politicians that oppose them would suddenly be all in favour of them again, ).

The entire POINT of the game is to allow combat simulation. It's quite possible to fight Switzerland against Iraq in Iraq in the game. Is there even the remotest possibility that something like that would actually occur ? No unless you want to factor in the .0000999 chance that yes it could happen. So...... do we block players from selecting those two opponents ? No we don't . Imagine the howls if I blocked in code every "impossible" battle pairing !

The AVRO Arrow existed but for a very short time and never in combat. I included it for a number of reason and the main one was had something really nasty happened in 1959 you can bet the politicians that killed the project would have suddenly fallen in love with it so in the game it is armed and capable but only for a very short time.

If you want to build your OOB with essentially no ground attack capability for Austria in the early part of the 21st century it's your OOB mod and you can do with it what you please but what we decided long ago is that in cases like this the "Game reality" is that in a real combat situation the weapons would have been found to arm the aircraft.

Don

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

"An aircraft in this game "with NO A/G weapons whatsoever" is useless and will not be added regardless of contract delivery dates."

Don,

This is almost certainly the case with Austria's Typhoons. Air-to-Ground weaponry (other than internal gun) will not be fitted for a few years yet.

"Tranche 1" means the first production batch, btw.

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

The Tranche 1 aircraft are the first production version which don't (yet) include the systems needed to use AG ammo.
They are, like planned in the design, pure fighters.

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

"Air-to-Ground weaponry (other than internal gun) will not be fitted for a few years yet."

Could they carry dumb bombs, at least in a pinch?

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

Probably not, Marcello. The Austrians are going through a strong pacifist phase, and their Typhoons cannot even carry underwing fuel tanks: this prevents them being used "offensively".

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

As far as I know gfrom reading a few editiosn of Air FOrces Monthly the tier one Eurofighters can't carry any bombs. It seems the hardpoints are not the right sort.
Plus they don't even have software to launch bombs (Impact Marker on HUD and stuff), so the pilot would drop the things without any referencee marks, which wouldn't be so effective after all I think, and we don't really need a Typhoon 'bomber' unit in game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Austrian OOB - J35 Draken OSD
 

Mr Clark,

That is arguably the case for Germany, Italy & Spain. However, with the continuing delays to the project and the Jaguar's rapidly approaching OSD, the RAF insisted on early integration of an air to ground capability by BAe. Thus, the later production machines within Tranche 1 for the RAF can drop bombs etc.