CannonSong

That's actually a Guards vehicle, not Especas. You might note the fellows in front of it aren't wearing green berets. I included that shot as a teaser of what's to come :D The Especas probably piggyback on whatever they can get ahold of, especially since nine time out of ten, whatever Rambo shit they're doing likely takes command priority. No dedicated aircraft or vehicles under their command, but if one of the most badass units in your military asks for something, chances are, they'll get to borrow it!

I'd rather give people the choice to use whatever they fancy ;)

Thank you, as ever! Yeah, next planned spotlight is going to be on one of my favorite aspects of the mod: The TONS of fantastic aerial weapons we're lucky enough to have, many of which were made by the legendary RKSL-Rock! You guys have seen some of these already, but we want to spotlight the sheer variety you'll have to choose from- including a few neat toys you haven't likely seen anywhere else ;)

After a long break and a semester culminating in a published piece by yours truly in his college literary journal, we bring you the next spotlight! SLA Forces Spotlight “Hit and Run” As US and RACS forces went on the offensive in the 2006 conflict on Sahrani, their rear lines and supply chains fell prey to perhaps the most iconic unit of soldiers in SLA service: the Especas. Today, we take a look at how these clandestine warriors have evolved over the last decade. Who Are They? The SLA Especas Command. “Especas” is a broad term for a number of units under the broader jurisdiction of the SLA that specialize in reconnaissance, sabotage, and clandestine warfare. They’re somewhat comparable to the GRU Spetsnaz of the former USSR, or the United States’ Green Berets, though generally combat-focused and expected to work in concert with- or in support of- more traditional troops. In SLA Service Ask any veteran of the 2006 conflict, be they American, RACS, or SLA, and they’ll probably have a story to tell about the Especas. Supply dumps going up in flames far behind lines that were supposedly secure, convoys never reaching their destinations, whole squads cut down by highly accurate fire from positions abandoned long before return fire arrived, the ‘Green Ghosts’ were the boogeymen responsible for every bit of bad luck the forces of South Sahrani faced on their push northwards. These men weren’t the poorly-trained ‘Slags’ their enemies encountered during the early stages of the war; well-trained, highly-disciplined, and unconventional, the Especas held the rare distinction of being respected- and feared- by their opponents, and though many of the forces committed to the fight on Sahrani proper were all but decimated in the short-but-intense campaign, the Especas escaped relatively unscathed. What made the Especas so effective in a war practically defined by the incompetence of their peers is a subject of some debate in military circles today. Whether it was their relative freedom in making tactical decisions in the field, their intense training, or some sort of unnatural good fortune, what was clear at the war’s end was that the Especas were a rarity in the SLA hierarchy: they were something that worked. As such, in the last 11 years, the Especas themselves haven’t changed much. Given they’re comprised of an abnormally-high number of combat veterans compared to the rest of the SLA, Especas soldiers are highly-valued as advisors, trainers, and consultants through the rest of the army. An Infantry or even Guards commander that can call upon the experience of veteran Especas advisors is fortunate indeed, and though much of the Especas Command’s work in the interwar period remains highly classified, their use as trainers is well-documented. The only major change to Especas Command- aside from their increased integration into traditional forces- is the addition of the CTU or Counter Terrorism Unit. This group, comparable to the MVD or a more militant FBI, are a sign of the SLA’s reluctant drift towards a more westernized concept of special forces. Though they’re technically under military command, many of the Especas’ old guard don’t consider the CTU ‘true’ Especas, given their more ‘civilian’ role. Features and Use In-Game The Especas of the Project RACS SLA Faction are pretty darn similar to the Especas of old, though we’ve been sure to give them plenty of new toys to play with! Along with the classic Especas troops (green berets and all,) we’ve included expanded Recon troops and the aforementioned CTU, who sport body armor and ballistic helmets, making them well-suited to assault roles other Especas troops may be less equipped for. Generally-speaking, Especas soldiers come with better equipment, and carry modernized firearms and sights. One thing to note is that the Especas are heavily focused on tactical missions and not necessarily strategic ones. Though they operate behind enemy lines, their objectives are almost always intended to be in support of other troops. If you’re looking for lone-wolf, black-ops style DEVGRUCOMFOR, you’ll not find them here. Rumor has it the Especas troops even come with a CTU sergeant modeled after yours truly. This is, of course, merely nonsensical speculation spread by enemies of the state. You know, fake news. ;) Until next time, Viva la Revolución!

Why hello, my number one pet peeve! We have a MASSIVE military sandbox available to us with a universe of mods available, but you wouldn't know it looking at the screenshots sometimes...

Most vehicles have the OD you see, save for fixed-wing aircraft. Guards units (Who will be getting a spotlight very soon!) have a three-tone temperate camo.

To be clear, "So they stay" isn't "oh, but maybe if you try to convince us otherwise we'll change our minds" To be more clear, while speculation is all well and good, please try to keep the 'suggestions' to a minimum of zero. It isn't exactly heartening to work on something, show it off, and have the reveal thread filled with people telling us what we're working on isn't right because it isn't what they wanted. You're free to have your own ideas and concepts about how things should look and what should be included, but take it somewhere else, please.

I think wld said it better than I possibly could have- the SLA in our canon isn't so much concerned with making themselves resemble a 'modern' force, but with fixing the noticeable, problematic holes in their lineup. Where there were obvious deficiencies (lack of modern armor, poor close-air-support options, a loose anti-aircraft net,) they've seeked out and secured replacements, upgrades, or new avenues entirely, but with the stuff that works, (personal equipment, transport options, MOST of the rotary-wing,) there's little strategic sense in spending money/resources reverse-engineering/buying new equipment. Which is all to say- We like the classic brain-pots more. They're more 'proper SLA.' So they stay. (There IS some new stuff coming down the line, personal-equipment-wise, but you'll have to wait on that. It's a es-pecial surprise. ;D)

After years of wanting, waiting, crying out for RHS to finally focus on proper, PVP-balanced assets, I'm pleased to see the team finally taking steps in the right direction. So long I've suffered through unbalanced assets, so long I've barely contained my horror as I struggled to understand how developers who pride themselves on 'realism' could have gotten balance so horribly, painfully wrong. In the nights I've laid, weeping openly, as a mod I wanted to love failed time and time again to see the balance that was so clear, so obvious to me! Apaches that didn't operate exactly like Hinds, Bradleys that failed to match the might and fury of the BMP-1! As I watched Su-25s fail to equip mavericks, witnessed the true terror of artillery assets that weren't just MBT hulls with same-y turrets strapped on and different camo, I cried out to dark and forbidden gods that this could no longer be so! All must be clad in the same remote turret, Iranians must use Israeli arms for some reason, all drones must be the same drone! I've done things in the name of balance. Horrible, monstrous things. The screams haunt me, the wailing and chanting in long-dead languages as I held aloft my copy of American Sniper and lashed myself with bungee cords, kneeling in mechanix gloves before an idol to the defense blogs and Facebook pages that speak to me their truths of balance! PvP, glorious and terrible PvP is the only truth! The lies of cooperation, the hateful falsehoods of mission balance over asset balance, they must be shorn away like knotted, fraying wool of so many sheep made high-speed and low-drag before mighty balance! Only when we understand that all must be the same, all must be one, all must act in similar manner no matter the intended role or actual capabilities, only then will we be free in our servitude to the endless grey, the perfectly generic truth that is balance! esaelp pleh em siht parc saw os drah ot etirw!!!!!

RPG against a fixed-wing aircraft in Arma 3 is... optimistic, to put it lightly. Emplaced ZU-23s or the like would have a better chance, and anyone with an Igla or Strela could get lucky. I imagine such units are available in said faction, given the Strela, especially, is widely available to forces like that. MANPADS are pretty much the only hope such forces have against fixed-wing aircraft anyways.

This is the entire reason I prefer Steam as the distribution method. Yes, it can be temperamental at times. Yes, the initial download might be bad for people who don't have ridiculous space-internet. But at the end of the day, out of all options available, I think the benefits of the platform far outweigh the downsides. To quote one of my favorite DCS developers: Works On My Machine!™

To be fair, I was under the impression you guys just had a big, ENIAC-looking computer with a switch labeled "Add Content" on it. Because that's how it works, right? Just flip the switch? :P

Vests and Spheras and more, oh my! Terrific additions, man!

The Arma 1 incarnation of the RACS left... well, a lot to be desired. PRACS is just... better. Though, as far as I know, all development is currently devoted to the SLA Faction Mod, which is providing a bit more inspiration at the moment.

[ALIEN ACTIVITY] Ohhhhh man, time to be like a quirky minor character in every Roland Emmerich film ever and die horribly!

Oh, awesome! And here, I had just started playing around with your other maps. Thanks for the terrain, man- great area to draw inspiration from, too! C'est bon!

You know, seeing this wonderful spirit of friendly competition, why, I just HAD to try my hand at it! I tried to replicate the assets as faithfully as I could, but you know, I found- Wait- what? That... That's not supposed to- OH S**T! Ohhhhhhh s**t... Knew I shouldn't have tried that on Sahrani... Addons used: RHS, CUP Maps, PRACS SLA Faction (WIP)

I have to say- all of this, the whole package- Everything is awesome.

The -35M just looks... wrong anyways, in my opinion. Fixed gear, stubby little chicken wings; that is not the Hind I fell in love with! HUGE upgrade to the platform for sure, but... I dunno. My heart will always belong to the 80's. On an unrelated note- I was wondering something. With the main distribution source being the Steam Workshop, now, has the release pipeline changed at all? Not in regards to content, per se, (obviously the time it takes to get models, textures, coding and all that working isn't going to change no matter how it's released,) but if, say, something needed a hotfix or had been looked over on a major release, are there any plans to release smaller patches to fix these things in between major ones? I may be wrong, but isn't one of the major advantages of Steam Workshop the ability to patch mods without having to make the end user re-download the whole package? I'm pleased as punch either way, but I'm genuinely curious as to how that all works.

More variants of each- time constraints and workload depending- gives a mission maker (or screenshot-taker >.>) more options. Options are good! Even if they don't necessarily find a unit to be equipped on, please, don't restrict yourself to dropping planned variants just because they were or weren't used at such-and-such time by such-and-such unit. If I have a vote, here, I say anything you want to include, (I can speak for myself in saying) I'd be grateful for! And variety is the spice of life, y'know. :P

They're loadouts. AT is an anti-tank setup, CAS is a close-air support loadout, and UPK is equipped with gunpods.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=853743366

(Maaaaaaaybe~)

This mod gets better every time I see it! Already adore the KLMK suits added with the last update, and now here you are, appealing to my love of SSh-68s with covers. Have you stolen my dream journal or something? :P

SLA Forces Spotlight “The Sukhoi Steamroller” Welcome to another PRACS SLA unit spotlight! Today, we’ll be looking at the close air support options available to SLA forces, in the form of two iconic Sukhoi aircraft. What Is It? The SU-22MK “Fitter-K” is the export version of the Russian SU-17 swing-wing fighter-bomber. Simplistic, rugged, and dependable, it has seen wide use in a number of air forces. The SU-25 “Frogfoot” is a single-seat, twin-engine attack aircraft of Russian design. Similar to the American A-10, it is notable for being able to carry a large quantity of ordnance and for its initial inception as a dedicated tank-hunter. Armored, stable, and solid, it can loiter in hostile airspace and provide on-call fire support to ground forces at a moment’s notice. In SLA Service By now, it should be apparent that the modern SLA is as much an extension of the old SLA’s successes as it is a reaction to the old SLA’s failures. After failure in the 2006 invasion of the Kingdom of Sahrani very nearly lead to the collapse of the Republic, there was nothing in the forces of the SLA that wasn’t up for review, not a single institution that wasn’t picked over. Nothing, it seemed, remained sacred in military doctrine- save for one stalwart. If there was one thing the Army Air Force knew was worth preserving, it was their CAS aircraft. Though they saw little use in the 2006 invasion, the SLA was well-equipped with squadrons of SU-25 and SU-22 fighter-bombers at the time, and the reticence to commit them to a fight where it was assumed (wrongly,) that they wouldn’t be needed was seen as one of the great failures that ultimately lead to capitulation. After the war, the Republic knew such mistakes would not be repeated. If the SLA ever went to war again, it would be beneath a steel dome of attack aircraft. Features and Use In-Game As any good commander knows, troops with close air support are bound to be happy troops. And when it comes to the Army Air Force of the Sahrani Liberation Army, you couldn’t ask for better CAS options than these! The newcomer to the faction is actually quite long in the tooth. The SU-22MK is a direct descendant of the first swing-wing aircraft to serve with the VVS, and boasts updated avionics and an ability to carry modern weaponry. Given its increased payload over the likes of the MiG-27 and the stability of the platform, it is an aircraft well-suited to supporting the men on the ground for however long it takes. To this end, it comes with a wide variety of loadouts; everything from masses of dumb bombs to rocket pods, air-to-ground missiles, and just about anything else you could want to kill someone deader than dead with are well-represented! Of particular note are the two specialized roles the “Fitter-K” can fill. The first sees the aircraft equipped with anti-radiation missiles and turns it into a dedicated SEAD bird. With the new radar functionality introduced by the Jets update, the hope is to make these missiles act as they’re intended to, giving SEAD a real value in a game where it has traditionally been overlooked for more ‘glamorous’ roles. The second specialized loadout is my personal favorite. Equipped with RBK-500-ZAB incendiary cluster bombs, this variant can turn verdant fields, peaceful villages, and anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby into one big fireball! (Including the cameraman, if he isn’t careful…) The Fitter’s big brother is a bit more familiar, but has its own unique twists. Where the SU-22MK is suited for tearing lighter targets to shreds, the SU-25 is an absolute sledgehammer; it’s here to do one thing and one thing only: cracking open anything the -22 can’t! Big missiles with big warheads, cluster bombs, HEAT rockets: if it can turn a tank into a pressure cooker on the spot, the SU-25 has it. Neither aircraft are what you’d call “subtle,” but if the SU-22MK is an axe, the SU-25 is a chainsaw. Both aircraft are sturdy tools that will serve well in the kit of any revolutionary warrior, and they’re sure to be a blast wherever you field them! Until next time- Viva la revolución!