Can't wait for that one to come out!! I grew up with Gunship! on the C64, it always amazes me how far the technology has moved on! I have great fun with the KA-50's optical sight which is cued by my VR headset, and I'm sure the AH-64D will feature something very similar!
Here are some of the features that we are currently working on for Early Access. We look forward to giving you an exact date when pre-orders will begin. We expect it to be in the first week of May 2021.
Aircraft Systems
Powerplants and related systems
Fuel system
Hydraulic and pressurised air systems
Electrical system
Lighting
Flight Instruments
Auxiliary Power Unit (APU)
Autopilot modes
Multipurpose display
MPD pages (ENG, FUEL, etc.)
Keyboard Unit
Enhanced Up Front Display
Fire suppression system
The AH-64D is equipped with advanced sensors capable of target detection and engagement at long ranges. Here are some of the Early Access features;
Avionics
Navigation Subsystem
Embedded Global Positioning
Inertial Navigation system
Doppler radar velocity sensor
Air Data system
Radar Altimeter
Automatic Direction Finder (ADF)
MPD Tactical Situation Display (TSD)
Communication systems
The AH-64D is capable of adapting to several roles within the context of close air support tasking. In addition to the 30 mm M230 single-barrel chain-driven autocannon, it can carry external stores and weapons on its stub-wing pylons. Equipment we are planning to release includes;
Mission Equipment Sighting Subsystem
Integrated Helmet and Display Sight System (IHADSS)
Rocket Management Subsystem (2.75 Inch Aerial Rocket)
Hellfire Modular Missile System (Semi-Active Laser)
Weapons page
Defensive Systems
One chaff and two flare dispensers
Airborne Survivability Equipment (ASE) page
Common Missile Warning System (CMWS)
Radar Warning Receiver (RWR)
Dedicated designers are also working on photo-realistic cockpit details and labels. In parallel, work continues on the external model textures.
The flight model and flight control system are highly complex and demanding. We are confident that the fidelity will be very high at Early Access. Much more information on the development of this sophisticated attack helicopter will be coming soon.
We are currently preparing the pre-order access for later this summer. Our work is focused on preparing the AH-64D Block II for Early Access release, based on a detailed design specification. These efforts are spread across all areas of module development, including art, systems, flight dynamics, AI, and more.
Thank you for your passion and support.
Yours sincerely,
Eagle Dynamics Team
DCS: AH-64D
Development Report
The external model and cockpit are extraordinarily complex and time consuming. An enormous amount of research and work have gone into making these as detailed and accurate as possible. Special attention has been given to the pilot crew models and animations.
Much of the avionics work focuses on the navigation system and TSD pages. This is in parallel with the IHADSS / PNVS / TADS, the Area Weapons System / Rocket Management Subsystem, Longbow Hellfire Modular Missile System with the AGM-114K.
The Aircraft Survivability Equipment (ASE) is also in development. This incorporated the Radar Signal Detecting Set and the Common Missile Warning System (CMWS). These will be available at launch and greatly increase mission survivability.
The flight model is progressing nicely, and we are now developing the flight augmentation systems that include SCAS and HOLD modes. Modeling of the T700 GE 701D EDECU engine and related systems is underway.
Starting today, we'll be talking a lot more about our DCS: AH-64D. This will be particularly true in upcoming newsletters. As I do for the Hornet and Viper, I'll also try to give some updates here. Our sprint goal is to have the AH-64D complete enough to create the pre-order launch video.
Here is a general overview of where we are with our US Army AH-64D Mid-Block II (2005-2010):
1- The cockpit graphics are around 90% complete. Remaining items are behind the PLT seat (CB panels and other items), the rifles, cleaning up some temp textures, completing the compass on top of the PLT instrument panel, and few other items.
2- The external model is about 85% complete, with remaining work mostly on the animations, lights, skins, weathering, and damage model.
3- The flight model without SCAS is quite close to where it needs to be, so, much of the FM work is on SCAS and the hold modes. When complete and SCAS engaged, the AH-64D should be the easiest whirly bird to fly in DCS.
4- The cold start procedure is coming along, but it will probably be one of the last items we complete prior to early access launch. All of the sub-systems like the APU, engines, fuel system, electrical, etc. must first be complete.
5- AWS and rockets are nearly complete, with the bulk of the weapons work now focused on the Hellfire 2 (SAL2).
6- Defensive systems like the ASE and CMWS are complete.
7- Initial sounds are integrated, but much tuning and adding of VMU sounds remain.
8- MTADS, IHADSS, MPNVS are well underway with most of the work on clean up and adding some remaining display items.
9- TSD and navigation are complete and undergoing debugging.
There are of course many other items that comprise the larger project, but I hope this will provide you a general overview of where we are in August 2021.
This article is based in part on Will Laidlaw’s excellent book, ‘Apaches Over Libya’, Pen and Sword Books, 2016, 2021.
Night off the coast of North Africa. A sliver of moon helps the AH-64 D Apache’s night vision system bring the darkness to light. The outline of the Royal Navy helicopter carrier HMS Ocean jumps out in ghostly shades of green and grey. One deck slot back, our wingman, Jonty H, is also ‘turning and burning.’ Armed with a max war-load of 16 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and fuelled to the gills, both helicopter gunships are ready for action. The Apache has demonstrated its fantastic firepower, versatility and robustness on front-line operations in Afghanistan; but operating from the deck of a warship on the open sea is a whole new challenge. No radio comms before launch. Everything is done by hand signals and with minimal use of light. Any last-minute change is communicated by paper and pencil. A quick flash of the strobe and a thumbs-up from the deck marshal. Ease the powerful Rolls Royce engines up to full power. Much of the information needed to fight and fly the Apache is projected from the helmet mounted display (HMD) onto a special lens in front of your right eye. Learn to switch instantly between this and your left, which looks out at the real world and scans the controls. Symbology looks good, script looks good: Thunderbirds are ‘Go’. Tonight, I am in the front, lower seat, working the weapons systems. Above and behind me, ‘Dags’ Dageurro is flying the bird – but our roles are interchangeable. Four quick pushes of a multi-function display (MFD) button activate the nose-mounted ‘look to shoot’ sensors. You can slave either the M230 30mm automatic chain gun to follow your eye movements, or the sights for the Hellfires or the rockets if we are carrying them. Choose, and one or other of the weapons fires where you look. It is June 2011, and our two-ship is part of Operation Ellamy, the British contribution to a U.N.-sanctioned mission to prevent Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi killing civilians. Tonight’s mission is simple – and extremely dangerous. The primary target is a large building and associated structures at Okba airfield. This is a covert staging and logistics post for pro-Gaddafi (pro-Gad) forces. Okba lies approximately 70km south of the Libyan coast, right out in the desert and on one of Libya’s few metalled roads to the Nafusa Mountains. A large Free Libyan Forces (FLF) contingent is holed up in this redoubt. If we can clear their route north to Tripoli, the Nafusa mob have sworn to hit Gaddafi hard in the seat of his power. Our secondary target is a vehicle checkpoint (VCP) on the coast road between Tripoli and Zuwara. One of many set up by the regime, the VCP is also blocking FLF movements. Certified targets of opportunity are legit under prevailing rules of engagement (ROE) Lift off and crab sideways clear of the ship. Hover for a moment and then nose down and transition into forward flight. Wind up to 140 knots. We are going in as low as we dare. First up, we need to be extremely careful of our fuel usage. The Apache has a combat range of 260 nautical miles, but for tactical reasons HMS Ocean is a good distance north of the coast. The round trip across the Med to feet dry, the attack itself and the return leg will draw every drop from the tanks bar a safety reserve. We must not get target fixation: hanging around will leave us at risk of ending up in the drink instead of recovering to Ocean. This is not a good look: helicopters sink – fast. Flying low over Libya means multiple threats to our lives. The main one is enemy ground fire. Pro-Gad have hundreds of ‘technicals’ – flat-bed trucks and jeeps with various types of AAA mounted on them. Most of these guns are variants of the Russian-designed ZSU system. The tracked, light-armoured ZSU 23-4 ‘Shilka’ is an especially vicious, quad-barrel, 23mm nightmare pro-Gad tend to use in the anti-personnel role. What it is really best at is destroying helicopters. The system’s fast-acquisition ‘Tobol’ (NATO designation ‘Gun Dish) search radar identifies a target. The radar locks on, then the quad barrels blast out three-second bursts of about 150 rounds at the target’s predicted bearing and elevation. High-explosive/incendiary tracer shells drench the airspace out to five kilometres. If we are caught in that withering cone of fire, then even in the AH-64 D, which is armoured to withstand gunfire up to 23mm, we will most likely die. The ZSUs are not even the greatest threat to our health and wellbeing. Pro-Gad also has a large inventory of man-portable, high-spec, heat-seeking surface-to-air missiles. These include the SA-7,14, 16, 18, and – the latest, most efficient and most dangerous MANPAD of all – the SA-24 NATO designation ‘Grinch’. This optically-guided, shoulder-fired, supersonic IR homing missile has a 2.5 kilogram HE-FRAG warhead and a range of between 500 and 6,000 metres. Night vision on the system is standard, as are anti-flare decoy countermeasures. Then there are all the Pro-Gad foot-soldiers armed with PKM, DshK and other heavy machine guns. And AK47s. These guys lie concealed in the coastal sand dunes, waiting and watching. When the scouts see or hear us on the way in, they will a]: open fire; and b]: report our ingress point and heading to their MANPAD-equipped mates – and any nearby SAM sites. We have top cover in the form of fast movers, French Mirage 2000s in the present case, but from 25,000 feet the jets cannot see individual enemy soldiers hidden in cover. Happy days. We are nearing the coast now. The FLIR shows a white line of breaking surf. The coastal strip contains nearly all of Libya’s infrastructure, including the next threat, forests of electricity pylons. We are below these at feet dry, we pop up to 200 feet to avoid the first line of wires. Over them and back down on the deck. The Target Acquisition and Designation Sights/ Passive Night Vision System (TADS/PNVS) brings the landscape to vivid life. I arm the countermeasures to decoy incoming missiles and radars. Set the multi-flare dispenser to automatic. Pro-Gad forces are getting smarter at setting SAMbushes - hiding launchers in copses, or masking terrain. Flick the left MPD to the situational display. A thin green line now stretches from the Apache icon at the bottom of the screen to the target. The text tells me distance and time to run. Our Radar Frequency Interferometer searches passively for enemy radars, anything unwise enough to transmit will become a target.
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