Tanker location

[CaptCanada]

Is there anything in mission planning or WDP that shows where the tanker is located? I’ve noticed that on most of my campaign missions the tanker as at least 160nm away.

Thanks

[Rybo]

It’s been a long time since I’ve used it, but I believe in WDP you can select to have the tanker track boxed with steering lines that will show up on the 2D map and, most importantly, on your HSD.

[Stevie]

Doesn’t the tanker also have an assigned A/A TACAN freq? You should be able to use tanker the TACAN to find and close…like in RL. I think…

[Frederf]

You can always go into the ATO under the supporting category and see the tanker missions down to what they’ll have for breakfast. There is a checkbox to make another flight’s flight plan stay as a dark line even when that flight isn’t actively selected. Make sure the times are right.

In air the tanker is super visible on radar always at 24kft and like a barn door you can see him nearly 80nm away. AWACs will give BE and yardstick that helps a lot. Default tanker placement in Korea means that you really don’t need to use them unless you’re going super super deep into China or you’re trying to stay on station a long time (low intensity part of the war). Usually you don’t need the tanker and trying to shoehorn it into a sortie is for novelty’s sake only.

[arrow19]

You can task one if you need closer, but take care of it watch for enemy CAP.

[Planehazza]

Yes, you can 100% show the tanker in WDP and assign line box around it. You can also set a PPT saying “TANKER” also. I can’t remember how to do it off the top of my head, but I’m pretty confident it’s done on the map page.

[rmax]

My 2 cents:

1. WDP shows tanker tracks, and you can assign a “lines” box so you know where they are
2. Tankers have a A/A TACAN channel that is displayed on the WDP that you can tune to
3. You can ask AWACS to vector to tanker.

In terms of the actual AAR - you are on your own!

[luke777]

@Planehazza:

Yes, you can 100% show the tanker in WDP and assign line box around it. You can also set a PPT saying “TANKER” also. I can’t remember how to do it off the top of my head, but I’m pretty confident it’s done on the map page.

2D pre planned threat drop down menu

[CaptCanada]

Thanks for the great replies everyone!

[MorteSil]

@CaptCanada:

Is there anything in mission planning or WDP that shows where the tanker is located? I’ve noticed that on most of my campaign missions the tanker as at least 160nm away.

Thanks

I’ve always found it easier, or more beneficial, to schedule my own tankers during a campaign. If you are departing from the same base every sortie, and taking the same general route to the FLOT, you can set the tanker track to run parallel to your normal ingress route (Usually N/S) so you always know where it is, and you can be sure to hit the combat zone with a pretty full tank, or you can ditch the external tanks if you want to. You can also adjust station times for tankers in this manner if you need them on station for more than 5 hours. I usually start the campaign, then go into MC and add an additional tanker unit that is NOT AI controlled, so I know there will always be one available for me to task when I want it. Not as helpful when flying most of the F16 units up north, but I often like to move one of them down south, or fly something else like an F15 from further south and enjoy the long flight into the combat zone, so it’s definitely helpful in those scenarios.

[LorikEolmin]

Also, setting up a tanker above, or not too far from, your airbase allows you to fly without external tanks and load more bombs. It can be useful when you want to maximize your impact, by feeding first, then bombing with more ammos, and feeding again if you really need to. In that case, you want to avoid 4 A/C flights to speed the refuel sequence up.

And it makes you refuel, which is cool