CVW-20 And VFA-180 Teaming Up

Lets talk a little bit about David. Most CVW-20 players today have either met or heard of David. Being the acquired taste that he is, at some point in time he has either offended you or attempted to offend you. He’s had a lot of time to do it though. David has been around since the Roaring Sun Campaign. His earliest appearance was in RS 15 and he was an instrumental part of the finale which, despite being filmed several years ago, is still not done being edited. When DPTST 1 was being put together, David was the one who slowly helped transform the feel of the campaign into a BMS like tactical simulation. In DPTST 2, David led the major recruiting push that shaped the CVW-20 roster into the current era. Most importantly though, it was David who started CVW-20’s long time relationship with the Black Mambas, VFA-180.

Alien has been on the Mamba’s leadership team for several years now. He’s also been flying with 20 since DPTST 1. So when Alien had brought to my attention that VFA-180 was undergoing a leadership shakeup, it was all but obvious that CVW-20 was in the perfect position to help.

TO BE CLEAR: The extent of VFA-180s change in leadership can best be described as a reduction in bloat. I conducted a couple sit down sessions with Alien, where we discussed what VFA-180 needed moving forward, and how CVW-20 could help. We ultimately settled on a strategy of officially partnering CVW-20 and VFA-180. To some in VFA-180 this should seem somewhat familiar. CVW-20 and VFA-180 have been working together in an unofficial capacity since DPTST1, so making things official is really not much of a change at all.

Alien and I spent a lot of time going over VFA-180’s current operations and resources. One of the things that we had brought up was that there were numerous single points of failure where effectively systems did not have backups, were reliant on not presently active members, or were not up to the standards of the squadron. These points of failure had the potential to be showstoppers to VFA-180’s operations. Right off the bat, CVW-20 has already begun safeguarding some of these points of failure. We’re using our cloud storage, and server hardware to make sure VFA-180 does not experience any major interruptions in service.

The next priority that we dug into was rebuilding VFA-180. Alien and I are in agreement that this is an incredible opportunity for the squadron. One of the Mamba’s projects that they’ve been meaning to do for some time is an effective rebrand of the squadron, including logos and liveries. We’re taking the opportunity to move forward and tapping 20’s resources to make this happen. We’re not just slapping on some fresh paint either. These refreshes are being treated with the same care and attention as our previous 20 projects, and the quality will be nothing less than are usual 20 standards.

We also decided to put an increased emphasis on making sure 180 has missions to fly. We expect the squadron to be engaged in regular operations shortly and we intend to supplement that with airwing operations shortly.

All in all the focus of this partnership is largely that of stability. By getting the Mambas back on their feet, we’re not just ensuring that an valued part of the DCS community sticks around for years to come, but we’re also making the 20 family stronger in the process. Ultimately, this is a massive victory for both groups, and we’re excited to see what happens next.