MANPAD Groups

Medusa manages MANPAD groups as crews that must detect an aircraft, prepare their equipment, and become ready before DCS AI can engage. They can use IADS tracks, but they can also detect and engage hostile aircraft when the IADS has no track.

Mission setup

Give the group the same network prefix that you use for other IADS assets:

red.1div.1bde.manpad.alpha

No MANPAD role token is required. Medusa identifies MANPAD units from the DCS MANPADS unit attribute.

A managed MANPAD group must contain at least one MANPAD unit, no launcher, TLAR, or TELAR, and at least as many MANPAD units as AAA units. You may include ordinary infantry in the group. If AAA units outnumber MANPAD units, the group may become a managed AAA group instead. See AAA Groups for the complete classification rules.

Place and orient each MANPAD unit in the Mission Editor. Medusa uses each unit’s heading for visual detection. It refreshes the group position and headings during the mission, so moved groups continue to use their current location and orientation.

Detection and cueing

MANPAD behavior uses modeled audio and visual detection. It does not depend on the DCS sensor result for the MANPAD unit.

Source	Effect
IADS assignment	A new target assignment elsewhere in the IADS schedules sleeping MANPAD groups within 10 km of the track to wake.
Nearby MANPAD group	When a MANPAD group becomes HOT, it schedules sleeping MANPAD groups within MANPAD.FieldRadioRangeM to wake.
Audio	A nearby aircraft immediately moves a sleeping or preparing group to ALERT. Each group has an audio range sampled between 0 and MANPAD.AudioRangeM.
Visual	In HOT_WAR, a sleeping group can visually detect an aircraft and move directly to ALERT. A group that is already preparing or ALERT can use visual detection in every posture.
Autonomous search	Medusa searches for hostile airplanes and helicopters near MANPAD groups. This path works when no IADS track is available.

IADS cueing provides awareness, but it does not bypass local visual detection. An ALERT group becomes HOT only after it visually acquires an eligible aircraft inside its weapon range.

Missiles, anti-radiation missiles, and tracks that have not been assessed as aircraft do not wake MANPAD groups and do not keep them alert.

Visual coverage

A newly encountered crew in HOT_WAR starts with a narrow visual sector for each MANPAD unit:

• Range: 8 km
• Horizontal field: 30 degrees to either side of the unit heading
• Relative altitude ceiling: 3,048 m above the group

An alerted or previously alerted crew also receives a wider sector out to 4 km and 90 degrees to either side. Terrain and line of sight are not modeled by this feature.

Crew states

State	Behavior
ASLEEP	The group is cold. Audio, IADS cueing, field radio, or HOT_WAR visual detection can wake it.
ALERTING	The group has received an IADS or field-radio cue and is preparing. The first IADS wake takes 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Later IADS wakes take 10 to 30 seconds. A field-radio wake takes 15 to 60 seconds.
ALERT	The group is watching for aircraft. Visual acquisition inside weapon range moves it to HOT. It returns to ASLEEP after 15 minutes without nearby aircraft.
HOT	Medusa sets the DCS group to weapons free. The group remains HOT for 5 to 15 minutes, and each missile launch extends that period.
COOLDOWN	After the HOT period, the crew rests for 15 minutes and then returns to ALERT.

Medusa does not command a specific shot. It activates the group and, for autonomously found aircraft, gives the DCS controller target knowledge. DCS AI decides whether and when to fire.

Ammunition and rearming

Medusa tracks MANPAD missiles from DCS ammunition data. Rifle ammunition carried by the same unit or other infantry in the group does not count as MANPAD ammunition.

When the group fires its last missile, it enters the shared rearming lifecycle. After DCS replenishes its missile ammunition, Medusa returns the group to ALERT so it can acquire another aircraft.

Doctrine settings

Place the MANPAD table in Medusa_MM_Doctrine or in a network’s inline doctrine:

MEDUSA_CONFIG = {
    Networks = {
        {
            name = "RED",
            coalition = "red",
            prefix = "red",
            doctrine = {
                MANPAD = {
                    AudioRangeM = 6000,
                    AlertnessDecaySec = 14400,
                    FieldRadioRangeM = 5000,
                },
            },
        },
    },
}

Field	Default	Behavior
MANPAD.AudioRangeM	6000	Maximum audio detection range in meters. Each group samples its current sensitivity between 0 and this value. Valid range: 0 to 6,000. Set to 0 to disable audio detection.
MANPAD.AlertnessDecaySec	14400	Seconds asleep before retained alertness and audio sensitivity reset. Set to 0 to retain alertness for the rest of the mission.
MANPAD.FieldRadioRangeM	5000	Field-radio range in meters. Valid range: 0 to 50,000. Set to 0 to disable wake communication between MANPAD groups.

Medusa still accepts the deprecated flat fields MANPADAlertnessDecaySec and MANPADFieldRadioRangeM for compatibility. New configurations should use the nested fields.

See the Doctrine Field Reference for the complete doctrine schema.