Litening in 20 – A bane of my existence

Targeting pods, targeting pods, targeting pods. Guess what I have heard way too much of lately. Yes everyone want’s their Targeting Pod waifus. Tell ya what. How about you all target yourselves some bitches. My rage however is not without logic. Let’s take a look at some changes coming to 20 that should at a minimum get you to leave me alone.

TGPs have been in the US arsenal for a while. All the way back to the 1960’s with Pave Knife on the F-4 and A-6. This is gonna come as some level of a shock to those of you who I have effectively lied to by saying that targeting pods didn’t come around until the 90’s. Well to some degree I’m still right. I said the Litening pod didn’t come around until the 90’s. The Lantirn pod actually was a product of the 80’s, entering IOC with the Air force around 88 for the F-15E and F-16C.

Well wait a second. The F-16C? But that is in DCS right now! Indeed it is. Although it is missing it’s lantirn pod. Now we’re gonna come back to that in a second. The Lantirn effectively a 2 pod system, combining a NAVFLIR pod and a Targeting Pod. In 1991, TARPS had shown the US Navy that the Tomcat could be very successful in the overland mission. This resulted in the decision to outfit the cat, with the Lantirn targeting pod to give the Tomcat A2G capability, as the Intruder was phasing out.

You may be screaming loudly at me now about the Hornets. Because that’s what you do. You yell at me, and we never talk anymore, it’s just you yelling. Anyways, The Hornets. At some point during your abusive screaming you may have yelled out Nite Hawk! Well fun fact: The Nite Hawk was not introduced until 1993. So that means that the F-18 did not actually launch with a targeting pod.

In 1995 Northrop Grumman teamed up with Rafael and brought the Litening pod to the US, hitting IOC the same year. Lantirn didn’t live much past that (With the exception of the tomcat) since Litening turned a 2 pod solution into 1, and Sniper replaced Lantirn altogether starting in 2001.

But back to that tiny bit of foreshadowing with the 16. The 16 DID have targeting pods in the 80s, wouldn’t it be more realistic for TGPs to be available? Well, kinda. I’ve come around a lot to the idea of analogues lately. Using certain aircraft or weapons as notional stand-ins for what isn’t currently in DCS. Analogues aren’t a bad thing, but they have to be done correctly. My criteria for the Litening pod on 20 as a stand in for the Lantirn is dependent on a couple factors:

1.      Are the 2 pods significantly different for the pilots

2.      Does it affect pilot gameplay in a significant manner?

3.      Does it affect immersion in a significant manner?

4.      Does it affect the overall campaign gameplay in a significant manner?

1 is probably the hardest to test, but I was able to get my hands on IRL footage from both the Litening and Lantirn Pods in action. My conclusion was that the Litening definitely had a better camera, and the displays are recognizably different. Capabilities may be slightly different, but that’s about it. 2 is harder to test, because we haven’t had them on the server for very long. In terms of what I’m theorizing, I think it’s probably not going to change that much. It opens the 16 up to more strike, but not by much. The absolute most the 16 can carry in terms of LGBs is 4x GBU-24s. Now that sounds like a lot, but that loadout is gonna slaughter range. So a more practical setup would be 2x GBU-24s and 2x External tanks. The 16 just isn’t a bomber, you would still leave that to the 15E. So I think we’re still clear on 2.

3 has to be based of off the visual aesthetics, and I think in that regard it’s probably passable. You’re only missing one pod of the combo, and in flight, It’s unlikely that anyone will notice.  As for 4, I don’t know. I have no idea. So I’m implementing this very much on a trial basis. Based off user feedback we will determine whether or not the 16 keeps its tgp.

So tell us what you think. Get on the server, try out the tgp, and when you’re done, fill out this form here. This will give us an idea of whether or not the pod stays.