US Navy Fighters

US Navy Fighters was first from the stable of Janes Combat Simulations. This sim was the successor to the wildly popular Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat and started a series that ran to the end of the 1990’s. It focussed naturally nough on US Navy operations, set in a hypothetical conflict of the future (1999) in which US forces help Boris Yeltsin. The campaign that shipped with it led you from the F-14 to a navalised F-22 and then to the Su-34 Flanker variant. Get an overview of the series in the Fighters Anthology exhibit. The combat focussed gameplay was enhanced by the atmospheric and user friendly interface. The ability to tweak most aspects of the sim from the graphics to mission waypoints and loadouts made you feel in control without overwhelming you with detail. It still remains a model of good interface design. The first mission of the Ukraine campaign remains for many fans a reminder of just how atmospheric a sim can be. Check out the videos, showing the entire first mission from briefings, through mission planning, arming, carrier takeoff in the F-14, intercept and carrier landing.

Published: 1993