Air Defender · public · first seen
The biggest update to Air Defender since release, and everything since 0.7.0.0 is in it. Every pilot and controller has been re-voiced, interceptors now describe what they see, intercepts of formations and civilian traffic run through to a proper conclusion, airborne aircraft can be diverted to another airfield and relaunched, and fuel burn now scales with difficulty. Underneath sits a long list of fixes from your reports plus intercept procedure, radio, radar, save and performance improvements.
Every radio call in the game has been re-recorded for realism.
- Pilots Speak Naturally: Interceptor pilots now speak their full callsign and flight number in a single natural take, with authentic British accents, across intercept, weapons, fuel, tanker and identification calls.
- Three Pilot Voices: Each sortie is assigned one of three pilot voices, so different flights sound like different people. Fox, RTB, Bingo, Joker, PAN-PAN and MAYDAY calls all use the pilot's own voice.
- Two Weapons Controllers: A second Weapons Controller now shares the watch, alternating with the first from sortie to sortie and heard through his own distinctive radio channel.
- Full BRA Calls: The Weapons Controller now opens every intercept call properly: your callsign, the Buchan station ident, a Bandit or Bogey preamble, then bearing, range, altitude in feet and aspect. Wording varies from call to call, calls pace themselves correctly at time acceleration, and picture calls reach out to 200 nautical miles.
- New Controller Calls: "New picture" when you retask airborne interceptors, a crossing call as fighters close within 30 miles, "Descend to target altitude" against low-flying targets, varied descent reports, and conflicting-traffic advisories to which the pilot responds, searches and reports visual.
- Every Airfield Named: All 61 airfields and diversion destinations, the Leeming, Leuchars and Coningsby ops rooms, all seven tanker callsigns and every compass sector in Track of Interest reports now have their own consistent voice lines.
- Pilots Report What They See: Once a flight has called TALLY, the controller asks for identification and the pilot describes the aircraft: the operator, engines and registration, the number and type of any fighter escorts, or the Russian airframe hiding under a false callsign right down to the aerials on its back.
- Natural Registration Reads: Registrations are read as a single natural transmission for every one of the 633 civilian aircraft in the game.
- Authentic Callsigns: Interceptors now use the real 1998 RAF squadron callsigns for Leuchars, Leeming, Coningsby and Lossiemouth, 57 in total, with full controller and pilot voice coverage.
- Callsign Rotation: Every new sortie takes the next callsign from its base's pool, so no two flights on the same watch sound alike.
- One Raid, One Procedure: A four-ship intercepting a formation now acts as a single unit on the radio, with one merged call, one visual identification and one escalation ladder for the whole raid. The flight lead owns the calls and the whole flight stands down together when the target complies.
- Reinforcements Join Quietly: Later sorties joining an identified raid inherit the identification instead of repeating it. A fresh sortie sent after the first has gone home goes straight to the final turn-away-or-be-shot-down warning.
- Escort to Touchdown: An intercepted airliner that is landing at its filed destination now gets a proper ending. The controller confirms it appears to be landing as filed and orders an escort, your interceptors follow it down, and the pilot reports the landing before returning to base.
- Alternate Airfield Recovery: Airborne fighters, AWACS, Nimrod and tankers can be sent to another operational airfield with DIVERT from Active Operations or the aircraft's right-click controls, then resupplied and relaunched from the new base. Diverted pairs stay together and relaunch as a pair.
Interceptor fuel burn now adapts to your selected difficulty setting.
- Hard: Realistic period-accurate baseline.
- Normal: Half rate, so interceptor sortie endurance doubles.
- Easy: One-tenth rate, for extended endurance in relaxed sessions.
- Warnings Unchanged: Joker, Bingo, PAN-PAN and MAYDAY warnings still trigger at the same fuel percentages. They just take proportionally longer to reach.
- Period-Accurate Endurance: Fuel capacities, drop tanks and burn rates have been reviewed across the military fleet and scale correctly with simulation speed.
- Zombie (Z): Confirmed aircraft from configured countries of interest are now classified Zombie, automatically on Easy and Normal and manually on Hard.
- SHADOW: The tasking button previously labelled ESCORT is now SHADOW, matching what the aircraft actually does.
- Clear Tasking: Active Identify, Engage and Shadow assignments are shown by a strike-through on both the tasked interceptor and its target.
- Whole-Flight Commands: BUSTER, CRUISE and ECO now apply to the entire flight, including aircraft returning to base. Aircraft refuelling at a tanker finish taking on fuel before automatically rejoining their flight's new tasking, and every member of a four-ship comes onto a new target.
- CAP Tasking: CAP orders now get a proper allocator acknowledgement naming your airfield and aircraft type, and you are told on ASMA if an aircraft cannot accept the task.
Thank you to everyone who reported issues on Discord and through the feedback form. All of the following are resolved in this release.
- Boscombe Down Heritage Fighters: The Lightning F6 and Phantom FGR2 are now available at Boscombe Down from the start of every watch.
- Loading Mid-Session: Loading a save from the pause menu now restores the complete radar picture, keeps sortie radio-channel numbers in their original launch order, plays each radio call once, keeps inbound airliners heading for their destination, and preserves radar outage effects.
- Map Markers Clear: CAP, AWACS and SIGINT markers and range rings are removed from the map once the flight has returned home.
- Enemy Raids: Bomber missile volleys now fire toward their target from the first launch, and bombers no longer re-attack an empty patch of sea.
- FOX 3: Sea Harrier FA.2 AMRAAM shots now use the correct FOX 3 brevity call.
- Panels Come Forward: Clicking anywhere on a panel brings it to the front, not just its title bar.
- Airborne Asset Details: Track data for your own airborne assets stays visible and clickable throughout the watch, and a stray press of the Delete key can no longer hide it.
- Pausing Safely: A long stay in the pause menu no longer causes enemy aircraft to vanish or triggers a spoofer escape penalty.
- Fair Coaching: The ASMA mentor no longer penalises you for a hostile formation that already has an intercept committed against it.
- Automatic Stand-Down: A scramble request is cancelled automatically when its target turns back at the airspace boundary before launch.
- Disguised Aircraft Stay in Play: Deception aircraft flying under a false callsign now always complete their route out of UK airspace before leaving the radar picture, so an escort sortie runs through to its conclusion instead of ending part-way.
- Realistic Compliance: Aircraft that comply after a warning now genuinely turn away, out toward the edge of UK airspace, and must hold that course for a sustained 30 seconds before the pilot reports them complying. Leaving UK airspace still counts immediately.
- Sensible Pursuit: Interceptors no longer chase a departing aircraft deep into Europe. Once it has left UK airspace and is clearly flying away, the flight declares it complying and returns home. Outbound targets remain on radar until well clear, so an intercept in progress can complete.
- Realistic Descents: Interceptors descend at military rates to meet low-flying targets and only call TALLY once they are actually near the target's altitude.
- Hostile Targets Conclude: Aircraft you have marked HOSTILE now get a proper conclusion: interceptors report compliance and return, or the WEAPONS HOT alert fires when the final warning is ignored at heightened tension. At Critical tension, targets already classified Hostile skip the identification calls and go straight to engagement.
- Complete Sequences: JUDY, confirm-intentions, shadowing, show-of-presence, show-of-force, turn-away, complying and RTB calls now run reliably through to resolution in every intercept route, inside and outside UK airspace, and resume correctly after loading a save mid-intercept.
- Pair Coordination: Interceptor pairs stay coordinated through retasking, low-fuel decisions, refuelling and emergency recovery, and intercept decisions no longer leave procedures waiting indefinitely.
- Live Radio: Switching onto a sortie's channel now joins whatever is being said at its live position, exactly like a real radio. Calls play only on their own sortie's channel and never bleed into unrelated frequencies.
- Once Per Flight: Controller readbacks, RTB acknowledgements, splash calls, entering-airspace alerts and escalation calls play once per flight rather than once per aircraft.
- Accurate Emergency Calls: MAYDAY, PAN-PAN and controller responses use the correct speaker, callsign and sequence across every emergency type.
- Traffic Advisories: Conflicting-traffic advisories cover only genuinely separate aircraft, never the target you are intercepting.
- Accelerated Radio: Voice sequences remain smooth, complete and correctly ordered at 2x, 5x and admin time controls.
- First-Sweep Contact: A radar contact now shows a triangle from the very first sweep that paints it and becomes the usual track symbol when the track forms, so a raw detection is instantly distinguishable from an established track.
- Track of Interest Accuracy: Reports now come from the correct radar station with the correct eight-point compass sector.
- Missile Tracks: Air-to-air missile tracks display a readable type on the data block.
- Role-Based Flight Profiles: Enemy aircraft and missiles now fly profiles that match their role and weapon type.
- Campaign Continuity: Enemy campaign waves and victory progress continue correctly after loading a mid-campaign save.
- Identification Discipline: Unidentified hostile aircraft remain concealed until positively identified, then update consistently across the interface.
- Deception Behaviour: Disguised and compliant aircraft restore and manoeuvre reliably after a load.
- Dublin Airport: Irish-bound airliners now descend and land at Dublin.
- Airspace Closure: Closing civilian airspace now halts every new scheduled and offshore-shuttle departure and diverts only physical aircraft, leaving CAP markers and radar ownership untouched.
- Airborne Diversions: Civilian aircraft divert if their destination becomes unavailable while airborne, and arrivals continue sequencing normally after loading an earlier point in a busy watch.
- Civilian Emergencies: Emergency squawks, aircraft identity and radio procedures remain correct throughout an incident, and emergency intercepts clear their operations alerts when resolved.
- ATC Rundowns: ATC rundowns keep their identification choices concise.
- Realistic Pictures: Tunnel Vision and Needle in a Haystack now start with normal civilian traffic on the radar, so the raids and the spoof aircraft have to be picked out from real contacts.
- Reliable Progress: Training missions save and resume correctly at every stage, Weapons Hot kills are scored correctly, and mission instructions no longer carry over into the results screen or a retry.
- Safer Saving: Save writes, rapid save requests and damaged-file handling are more dependable, and the Load Game list opens more quickly when many saves are present.
- Operational State Preserved: Aircraft, weapons, campaign progress, emergency state, support missions, AWACS range rings, civilian aircraft identities and intercepts saved during TALLY or the warning procedure all restore and resume correctly.
- Clean Loads: A loaded watch remains paused until the menu closes, then resumes at the saved speed. Loading a different watch clears effects and alerts left by the watch being replaced, and named saves preserve scenario pacing.
- Cruise Missile Kills: Destroying an inbound hostile cruise missile is rewarded as an enemy kill.
- Accurate Rewards: Radar-evasion rewards show the exact XP awarded for the selected difficulty.
- Persistent Statistics: Destroyed-aircraft totals and campaign progress stay attached to the correct saved watch.
- NADOC Critical Briefing: Plays once when Critical is first reached in each watch.
- Settings Remembered: Volume levels, map overlays, zoom, position and line width are kept as you left them between sessions.
- Interface: Escape closes only the active popup or surface, gameplay shortcuts stay inactive while typing, tasked AWACS show their departure countdown, QRA launch closes cleanly, and track, tanker, flight-information and minimised-panel displays are clearer and more stable.
- Nuclear Alerts: Nuclear missile launches now use the Emergency Alert System warning once rather than a looping alert.
- Steam Continuity: Steam and Steam Cloud remain available after returning to the main menu and beginning another watch.
- Graphics Compatibility: The UK coastline displays reliably on Intel integrated graphics.
- 1998 Accuracy: Aircraft identities, callsigns, airfields and civilian operations are aligned to a consistent July 1998 setting, period-authenticated satellite activity can appear through Fylingdales, Tornado F3 and Sea Harrier AIM-9L shots reflect their all-aspect capability while the Lightning's earlier missiles remain rear-aspect, and radar clutter positions have been reviewed.
Busy watches now spread radar, airborne surveillance, asset panel, civilian traffic and clutter work more evenly across frames, with far less memory churn during large raids, for noticeably steadier frame pacing. Many smaller fixes have been folded in along the way, invisible during normal play but cumulatively reducing the chance of rare crashes, voice cutouts, save and load glitches, and frame-rate hitches under unusual conditions.
And finally, as always, thank you so much for your support and feedback. Together we'll make this the best air defence simulator on the planet. Per Ardua, Ad Astra.
| Depot | New manifest | Previous manifest |
|---|---|---|
| 3985031 | 2185274523228144473 | 8489025195769931618 |