MiG-21bis

This is a beta module. This module is still being developed and may still be missing some features and equipment options. It is playable and most of the content is there, but some final touches and fixes for minor bugs are still in the works. It is probably safe to buy unless you crave absolute fidelity and/or very few bugs.

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In DCS World, the MiG-21bis is the logical continuation of the MiG-15bis (and also, in the real world, except the actual lineage between the two have many more intermediate steps). The MiG-15 was designed to intercept high-flying B-29 strategic bombers, and as those bomber designs evolved into the B-52, the interceptors needed to evolve as well. The MiG-21 is designed to quickly scramble, climb to high altitude, and either catch up with or rapidly close with incoming aircraft. Operational range was not a huge concern, nor were sensors since GCI radar stations would guide the interceptor to the target. The on-board radar in the bis variant depicted in DCS is more for the employment of radar missiles than for detecting anything.

Features

The MiG-21bis is as old as they come in DCS without being hopped-up prop planes (or just regular prop planes), and as such comes with all kinds of old-timey toys:

• СПРД-99 (JATO) rockets and a drag chute for (some semblance of) STOL operations.
• The even-simpler-than-normal СПО-10 RWR.
• A very temperamental (but strong) engine that will stall out, flame out, or just starve if you try anything fancy.
• The even more temperamental РП-22СМ «Сапфир-21» radar that lacks look-down capability and gets easily confused by chaff, clouds, or the ground.
• A whole slew of IR air-to-air missiles, but also the R-3R and RS-2US SARH missiles. Sometimes, they even track.
• Kh-23 and Kh-66 radar beam-riding AGMs.
• Nukes. When temperaments just get too high.

Comes with the built-in campaign Stillness in Time.

Missing features

In spite of being quite old at this point, the MiG-21bis remains marked as “early access” in the DCS shop for the simple reason that it was never actually finished for complex business-splitting reasons. It is sold and maintained as a Magnitude 3 product; early presentations and previews talk of it as being made by Leatherneck; and it often comes up in discussions with the Heatblur developers. So… yeah.

At any rate, this early-access:ness reveals itself in a couple of ways:

• Alterations are made very slowly, and bad ones tend to stick around for a very long time. In particular it has been plagued with numerous art issues, such as 3D mesh errors and overly enthusiastic shaders.
• The manual is laughably lacking in actual in-depth description of how to operate much of the MiG-21bis' equipment.
• Some custom features (kneeboard, RSBN navigation suite) are not updated to be fully compatible with more recent features and modules or to make use of new generic solutions that have built into DCS since the MiG-21bis' initial release.

Of these, strangely enough, the ones that seem to be the biggest bother are the art problems, especially the (currently) famous over-smeary and over-reflective canopy shader that can make it more difficult than usual to see far away targets from inside the cockpit. There are numerous mods to fix this, and plenty of community resources to fill in the other gaps. It is still a fully working aircraft with a proper flight model, unlike such disasters as the C-101 or Hawk modules.

Links and files

• Chuck's MiG-21bis guide.
• DCS: MiG-21bis by Magnitude 3 LLC in the DCS shop.

More information

• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 on wikpedia.
• MiG-21 FISHBED on globalsecurity.org
• Bunyap's Test Flight Preview - DCS: MiG-21 Bis Fishbed video series.