Following the various comments about stealth shoot-downs of AEW birds and other planes, I made up a test scenario and modified some platforms. First I found thru the radar logging that the AEW radars actually do need the LDSD flag, without that flag, radar range is reduced by 50% when detecting any aircraft at an altitude lower than the plane.

 

Brad kindly added the flag to the latest HCDB. Last night I restarted Fred Galano's MedWar scenario and the difference in AEW performance was fantastic. Planes could get close to me but now I could reliably detect even Su-24 aircraft before they could fire on me.

 

Thanks Brad!

Yeah, sounds like the "early warning" part is back with the AEW&C aircraft.

 

I hope all you HCCE players got a good taste of what your sim might have been like had it incorporated such things as terrain masking and ground clutter.