About the Game
TAKE COMMAND OF THE NATION'S AIR DEFENSE
The sky is your battlefield. A hostile contact appears on radar. Is it a civilian airliner off course, or the prelude to a full-scale attack? Your job is to find out.
Air Defender is a high-stakes, real-time strategy simulation that puts you in the command chair of a national Air Defence network. From a top-down strategic view, you are the unseen hand responsible for detecting, identifying, and intercepting airborne threats. This is not a dogfighting game; you are not a pilot. You are the commander with access to the capabilities of multiple roles in the bunker, and the fate of the nation rests on your split-second decisions.
Analyse radar returns, scramble your Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) fighters, and manage your assets to protect your airspace. Every choice matters, and the consequences of failure are devastating.
Key Features
High-Fidelity Command & Control: Take on the role of an Air Defense Commander. Manage a detailed radar network, interpret IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) data, and issue commands to your forces.
Scramble QRA Interceptors: Launch your fighter aircraft to investigate, shadow, or engage hostile contacts. Manage their fuel, weapons, and mission objectives in real-time.
Deep Information Warfare: Utilise authentic-inspired systems to build a complete picture of the battlespace. Monitor flight plans, analyse electronic warfare (EW) intelligence, and stay one step ahead of the enemy.
Intelligent Enemy AI: Face a dynamic adversary that will probe your defenses, launch coordinated attacks, and adapt to your strategy, creating a challenging and replayable experience.
Play Endless or complete Training Missions to become Combat Ready. In Endless, you will be challenged to spot the bad guys, ensure they don't sneak through, if you do, it could lead to all out war.
Welcome to the command center. The watch is yours.
Screenshots
5 images
Version Information
Steam Patch Notes
Official update history
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.7.0.0 - 23 May 2026
A major reliability and polish update covering interceptor behaviour, voice and radio procedure, save and load, map settings, scoring, civilian and emergency handling, and difficulty options.
New: Difficulty-Scaled Fuel Consumption
[p align="start"]Interceptor fuel burn now adapts to your selected difficulty setting.Hard: Realistic period-accurate baseline (unchanged).
Normal: Half rate — interceptor sortie endurance doubles.
Easy: One-tenth rate — extended endurance for 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.
Save & Load Reliability
Saves Survive Process Kill: Saves are now written safely — closing the game (or losing power) part-way through a save no longer leaves a corrupted file behind. The previous slot's contents remain intact until the new save is fully written.
Rapid SAVE Click Safety: Clicking SAVE rapidly no longer risks two saves overwriting each other.
Corrupted Save Entries Visible in Load Menu: Saves with malformed files no longer silently disappear from the Load Game list — they are shown with an error indicator so you can spot them and choose to delete.
Save Game Click Reliability: Loading a save no longer silent-fails when the on-disk filename differs from the in-game display name.
Mid-Mission State Preservation: Save/load now correctly preserves a wide range of mid-flight state: AWACS approach gates, tanker fuel-flow rates, Nimrod departure-leg sequencing, enemy aircraft RTB position, enemy bomber turn state and evasion timers, in-flight missile guidance parameters, nuclear weapon damage profiles, and many smaller details that previously reset to defaults on load.
Chinook Supply Missions Survive Save/Load: In-flight Chinook HC2 supply aircraft no longer disappear seconds after loading a save — cargo, ordnance, and origin-base accounting are all preserved.
Crash Sequence No Longer Loops On Load: Loading a save taken at the exact moment an interceptor was crashing from fuel exhaustion no longer re-fires the MAYDAY voice and squawk 7700 repeatedly after restoring.
Save List Loads Faster: Browsing the Load Game menu with many save slots is now noticeably faster — the menu reads just enough of each file to show its summary instead of parsing the whole save.
QRA Interceptor
Drop Tanks for Tornado F3 & Phantom FGR.2: External fuel tanks are now correctly accounted for in the fuel display and burn rate calculations for these aircraft. Sortie endurance now matches the period-accurate published figures.
Military Fuel Realism Pass: Military aircraft fuel burn rates and tank capacities have been reviewed and corrected against published 1998-era figures across the fleet.
Aircraft Fuel Burn Time-Scaling: Aircraft fuel burn now scales correctly with the in-game time-acceleration setting — running at 5x no longer leaves aircraft burning fuel as if at 1x.
Fuel Display Consistency: The Active Operations panel and the radar track block now show the same fuel percentage for the same aircraft (previously could disagree by 25%+ for Tornado F3).
Wingman No Longer Flies On At Zero Fuel: A surviving wingman of a QRA pair whose lead aircraft has crashed will now correctly declare emergency and divert/eject instead of continuing to fly indefinitely on empty tanks.
Wingman Spawns With Correct Fuel: A wingman scrambled in a CAP pair no longer joins at a stale fuel percentage from a previous sortie.
Solo Sortie Voice Calls: Solo single-ship sorties (no wingman) now hear the full controller AAR (refuelling) voice exchange that paired sorties always did.
Defender Retask Cascade: Manually retasking an interceptor against an inbound shooter now reliably brings the paired mate along too, instead of occasionally leaving them on the wrong target.
Force-Intercept on Low Fuel: Manually retasking an interceptor back onto a hostile after a tanker request has appeared no longer makes the sortie flicker between target and tanker, loop SHOW OF PRESENCE voice, and stack repeated voice rows in ASMA. The auto-divert now correctly recognises your commit-despite-low-fuel choice and stays out of the way until the target changes, the aircraft RTBs, or fuel reaches BINGO emergency.
Track Visibility During Intercept: Some interceptor tracks could drift out of view on the radar display during the intercept procedure — all friendly interceptor tracks now remain visible at all times.
Voice & Intercept Procedure
JUDY Loop Fix: Identifying a civilian after Controller-Confirm tasking no longer causes the JUDY / Controller-confirm voice exchange to loop indefinitely.
Pilot JUDY Timing: The pilot JUDY call no longer fires at scramble time — it correctly fires only when the interceptor reaches radar contact range with the target, which also resolves the duplicated controller "Copy Judy" voice and a premature RTB on civilian intercepts.
ASMA Brevity Expansion: ASMA console messages no longer show duplicated brevity phrasing — JUDY and similar military brevity codes display the expanded explanation exactly once.
Single Voice Source: The pilot JUDY voice and the matching ASMA log entry are now produced from a single source, so they no longer occasionally fire twice when different parts of the game briefly disagreed about who should speak.
Splash Voice Improvements: Splash calls at kill sites no longer report the same target as splashed twice, and the "shooter unknown" case now correctly identifies the shooter where possible.
Splash Per-Channel Exclusivity: Kill-confirmation voice ("splash") now only plays for the sortie currently selected on the radio panel. Other sorties' kills no longer bleed into your audio when you are focused on a different sortie.
Sortie Radio Continuity: Sortie radio comms no longer drop in and out during phase transitions like a tanker rendezvous. The pilot's "vector to tanker" request, the controller's bearing/range response, and the pilot's "proceed to tanker" call now play as a single continuous exchange without silence gaps.
Channel Switch Voice Resumption: Switching the radio panel from a QRA or AWACS sortie to a CAP pair and back no longer leaves you in silence — the original sortie's voice exchanges resume cleanly on switch-back, without bleeding across channels.
Pilot Mayday on Every Emergency: Interceptor pilot mayday announcements now fire correctly for every emergency, not just fuel exhaustion. The pilot's "{callsign} mayday mayday mayday" call is heard first, followed by the controller's response — matching standard radio procedure for scenario-driven emergencies, save/load-restored emergencies, and squawk overrides.
Controller Replies Stripped of Pilot Prefix: Controller-side emergency-airfield replies no longer accidentally prefix themselves with the pilot's callsign.
BRA Channel Cleanup: BRA (Bearing-Range-Aspect) callouts no longer continue to play on a sortie channel after that sortie has been cleared or retasked.
Post-Retask Voice on Repeat Missions: Post-compliance pilot voice ("aircraft now complying", "roger RTB") now plays correctly after retasking the same QRA sortie to a second target of the same type.
Intercept Progression After JUDY: Intercepts now reliably progress through the full procedure (escort, show of presence, show of force, turn-away warning) after the pilot's JUDY call. Previously the procedure could stall silently with the interceptor sitting alongside the target indefinitely — the full sequence now fires through to completion.
Suspect-Mark Pursuit Fix: Marking a contact as Suspect via the ident bar no longer leaves the QRA interceptor unable to close — speeding up, then slowing down, never catching the target — with the escalation procedure stuck. The interceptor now settles into formation and the full escalation runs end to end.
Decision Dialog Safety Timeout: Decision dialogs that were waiting on something that never arrived can no longer hold the intercept indefinitely — a safety timeout now releases the dialog so the procedure proceeds.
Civilian Emergencies
Emergency Squawks Persist: Emergency squawks (7700 / 7600 / 7500) on civilian aircraft now correctly persist instead of being overwritten by routine controller squawk reassignment.
Correct Procedure for Each Emergency: Civilian emergency intercepts now play the correct voice procedure for the declared emergency type instead of occasionally playing the wrong one.
Emergency Aircraft Identity Preserved: Civilian aircraft with declared emergencies (7500 / 7600) are no longer automatically reclassified to Hostile during intercept.
Procedure Safety Timeouts: Civilian emergency intercept procedures now have safety timeouts so the procedure cannot stall silently waiting for a condition that never arrives.
Active Ops Emergency Row Clears: The Active Operations emergency row no longer stays yellow / red after the emergency has resolved.
Map & Map Overlays
AARA and Danger Overlays Persist: Player choices for AARA and Danger area overlays now persist across in-app menu cycles, matching the airfield, city, strategic, and navaid overlays.
Saved Map View Restored: Returning to the map after a menu cycle no longer clobbers the saved zoom and pan position.
Coastline Visibility on Intel Graphics: The UK map coastline is now reliably visible on systems with Intel integrated GPUs that previously showed a blank background.
Map Display Toggles Saved: Player choices for which map feature categories are visible now persist across sessions.
Russian Deception & Enemy AI
Campaign Continuity Across Saves: Campaign waves now continue to arrive correctly after a save/load mid-campaign, and campaign victory is correctly detected when you have completed the objective.
Civilian Callsign Sync: Civilian aircraft callsigns now stay in sync across all panels — previously some civilian aircraft could show one callsign on the track block and a different one in Flight Info after loading a save.
Civilian Route Restoration: Stationary civilian aircraft, and civilian aircraft with broken or empty routes, now correctly restore on save/load instead of teleporting or hanging in place.
Hostile Cruise Missile Kill Not Penalised: Shooting down an inbound hostile cruise missile no longer triggers the civilian-kill penalty.
Hostile Aircraft Type Hidden Until ID: The Flight Info panel TYPE field no longer leaks the real aircraft type for unidentified hostiles. The TYPE field is blank until the contact is positively identified.
Disguised Aircraft Save/Load Stability: Disguised aircraft tracks no longer flicker in and out of view after save/load.
Visual ID Updates Every Panel: When interceptors visually identify a disguised contact, the revealed type now appears on the track label, the Flight Info panel, and the Aircraft Info tab consistently — no more contradictory readings between panels.
Aircraft Type Display Consistency: The aircraft type now displays the same value across the Flight Info panel, the radar track block, and the ASMA console.
Post-Compliance Turn-Away: Compliant disguised aircraft now turn away on a bearing that actually exits UK airspace from inland positions instead of pointing back over the country.
Show of Force Maneuver Reliability: The show-of-force cross-ahead maneuver now executes consistently on repeat missions, with both voice and maneuver firing together rather than the maneuver dropping silently.
Scoring & Stats
Enemy + Civilian Destroyed Counts Persist: The aggregate destroyed counts shown after a session now survive save/load correctly.
Mid-Campaign State Survives Save/Load: Your campaign progress no longer carries over to unrelated saves, and loading a mid-campaign save no longer resets your progress to the start of the campaign.
Map Content & UI
Keyboard Shortcuts Respect Typing: Hotkeys no longer fire while you are typing in a text field (e.g. the save-game dialog), eliminating the rare bug where the map could pan autonomously after using Ctrl+A in a dialog.
Aircraft Data Tab Updates Live: The Aircraft Data tab on the flight-plan track popup now updates within half a second of a positive identification instead of lagging by several seconds.
Track List Panel Stability: Track List panel no longer briefly flashes errors or fails to draw in unusual configurations.
Tanker Callsign Consistency: Tanker callsigns now display the same value across the Track List, the on-map track block, and the Active Operations panel.
Flight Info Panel Polish: Various Flight Info panel display improvements (TYPE hiding for unknown hostiles, callsign formatting, and status accuracy at mid-mission states).
Stability
[p align="start"]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/load glitches, and frame-rate hitches under unusual conditions.Radar & Track Reliability
- Radar Toggle No Longer Destroys Aircraft: Switching a radar off no longer permanently removes the enemy aircraft it had been tracking. Aircraft state and radar state are now properly independent — turning the radar back on, or another sensor picking the aircraft up, correctly redisplays them on the map.
- EW-Identified Raids Persist: Enemy raids spotted by EW intelligence (e.g. bombers inbound from far north of UK radar cover) no longer disappear after about 20 seconds. The radar map now keeps EW-flagged Hostile raids visible for as long as EW continues to report them.
- Hostile Classification Survives Radar Cycle: Toggling a radar off and back on no longer loses a Russian spoofer's known-hostile classification. A spoofer that has been correctly identified will not silently revert to "Unknown civilian" after a radar power cycle.
Russian Deception
- Spoofers Trigger Full Intercept Procedure: When a Russian aircraft using a civilian airline callsign (e.g. Iran Air) is intercepted, the QRA fighters now correctly run the full Russian intercept procedure (visual identification → challenge → engagement or escort) automatically once they reach the merge. The procedure no longer goes silent if the spoofer's civilian disguise hasn't yet been visually identified.
Engagement Procedure
- Critical Tension Auto-Engage On Hostile Confirmation: In Critical tension, QRA interceptors that visually confirm a contact as hostile now correctly switch to Engage instead of continuing the standard intercept procedure. The "ENGAGING" radio call plays at the moment the interceptor confirms the hostile, not after a manual override.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.6.9.94 - May 2026
A large bundle of fixes covering campaign endings, the end-of-game summary and soundtrack, the identification procedure on Hard difficulty, Russian deception, stuck aircraft, AWACS and interceptor reliability, civilian traffic during airspace closure, and a long tail of quality-of-life issues.
Campaign End & Summary Screen
- Critical Campaign Won't End After The First Wave: Clearing the opening wave no longer ends a Critical campaign early — victory waits until the full assault has been spent.
- "All Threats Cleared" Fires At The Right Time: The all-clear message now waits until every enemy has left the map, every inbound bomb has detonated, and any queued waves have finished spawning.
- Airspace Stays Closed Until It's Really Empty: Airspace no longer reopens while escort fighters are still in the air — it waits for every enemy aircraft to clear, not just the bombers.
- Honest Victory Framing: The end-of-game summary now tells the truth about cost — "DEFENCE SUCCEEDED" only for clean wins, with "DEFENCE HELD — AT GREAT COST" or "NATION DEVASTATED — DEFENCE HELD" for higher-casualty outcomes.
- No More Duplicate Cities In The Summary: Cities hit more than once are listed once with a strike count, instead of repeating with the same casualty number on every row.
- Submarine Debug Panel Hidden During Armageddon: The launch debug panel no longer overlays the formal end-of-game screen.
Hard Difficulty Identification Procedure
- Procedure Bonus Now Awarded For Hostiles: Identifying a hostile aircraft (TU-95, spoofer, military) using the full 4-step procedure now correctly awards the procedure-followed bonus instead of unfairly penalising you. Hostile aircraft don't have a Mode 3 code, so ATC will reply "no Mode 3 code assigned" — that response now correctly counts as the ATC step.
- Procedure Guide Rewritten: The Help / Guide Procedures tab now spells out the full 5-step identification sequence in order, calls out the ATC hotkey explicitly, and explains the "no Mode 3 code assigned" response so you know what to expect.
Russian Deception
- True Speed On Disguised Aircraft: A Russian aircraft pretending to be a slow civilian type (e.g. a Su-27 disguised as a Robinson R44) now shows its true speed on the data block — the speed/registry mismatch is the gameplay clue.
- Cover Identity Consistency: When a Russian aircraft is masquerading as a civilian, ATC chatter and the radar tag now agree on the cover identity instead of contradicting each other.
- Hostile Type Revealed When EW Is Up: When the EW network reveals hostile aircraft during war declaration, the data tag now shows the bomber type (TU-22M, TU-95, SU-24, MiG-31) as expected. Russian spoofers continue to have their type hidden by design.
Stuck Aircraft
- Bombers Egress After Strike: Enemy bombers now egress outbound after their strike run instead of getting stuck circling over the target.
- Civilians Can Be Shot Down: Enemy missiles that hit civilian aircraft now correctly destroy them, with the civilian-shoot-down penalty applied as expected.
Interceptors, AWACS & Tankers
- AWACS Match QRA Scramble Cadence: AWACS now wait 4 minutes for simulated taxi before the takeoff roll instead of launching instantly.
- Waddington Takeoffs No Longer Stuck: Departures no longer get stuck on "Queued for takeoff" after an AWACS or Nimrod has launched and returned — the takeoff queue now self-recovers.
- Realistic Cruise For Redeploys: Redeploying interceptors between bases now defaults to cruise speed instead of full afterburner. You can still hit BUSTER mid-flight if you want them home faster.
- 4-Ship Intercept Sanity Check: Launching a 4-ship intercept now checks the secondary target before launch — if no second target is reachable, all four go after the primary instead of two circling the airfield.
- Diverted Fighter Comms Work: Retasking an airborne fighter to a new target now properly hands it onto the new target's radio channel, so visual ID, challenge, and escalation calls play through.
- Staggered Tanker Takeoffs: Tasking several tankers from the same base now spaces them by about 25 seconds instead of all rolling at once.
- Sea Harrier Loadout: Sea Harrier FA.2s out of RNAS Yeovilton now carry a realistic 1998 CAP loadout (2 AMRAAM, 4 AIM-9L).
Civilian Traffic During Airspace Closure
- Civilians Land Cleanly After Diversion: Diverted civilian aircraft now descend all the way to the runway instead of vanishing mid-descent.
- No New GA Departures During Closure: General-aviation aircraft are blocked from taking off the moment airspace closes.
Compliance & Tracks
- Compliers Egress Cleanly: Russian aircraft that have complied with show of force and headed home no longer freeze on the radar at 0 knots.
- Multi-Sensor Track Survival: Switching off a single radar no longer makes hostile or suspect tracks flash and disappear when AWACS or another ground radar is still tracking them.
- No Track Number Reuse: When a hostile or suspect track disappears under unusual conditions, the next aircraft to spawn no longer reuses its track number.
Quality Of Life & Stability
- Save File Integrity: Save files with damaged or tampered data are refused cleanly at load.
- Settings Panels Scroll Properly: The keyboard bindings list and the Hercules/Chinook supply window now scroll cleanly so action buttons stay reachable on small windows.
- Button Rapid-Click Protection: Action buttons no longer trigger twice when clicked quickly.
- Steadier FPS On Busy Scenes: Frame rate is more consistent when many aircraft are active.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.6.8.49 - April 2026
This is a major update bringing enemy variety, a comprehensive intelligence reporting system, an expanded Guide panel, intercept status updates, shift handover, supply coaching, and dozens of fixes across interceptors, radar, voice, and training.
New: Enemy Variety System
Enemy aircraft now employ a wider range of deception tactics. What you see on your radar may not be what it appears. Intelligence reports from various sources across the UK will help you identify threats -- pay attention to the clues. Difficulty setting affects how challenging these encounters are to detect.
New: Intel Reports
The ASMA console now posts intelligent, data-driven reports from across the UK.
- Real Aircraft Data: Every observer report -- RAF veterans, air cadets, coastguard, police, North Sea oil rig crews, ATC squadrons, GCHQ -- references the contact's actual altitude, speed, heading, and approach direction. Reports never contradict your radar picture.
- Expertise-Aware Language: RAF veterans use proper military terminology. Civilians describe what they see. Air cadets check their Jane's guides. The source shapes how it's written.
- Contact Positions: Every report includes where the contact is (e.g., "30nm north of Edinburgh"), so you can correlate sightings with tracks.
- ATC Call Intelligence: CALL ATC now includes a RELATED INTELLIGENCE section -- observer sightings, SIGINT assessments, registry checks, and ATC anomalies for the queried track.
- Your Squadron: 849 real RAF Air Cadet squadron numbers and locations across 34 Wings are included. When an enemy aircraft overflies your town, your squadron may be the one to spot it.
- Radar-Gated IDO: The Identification Officer only reports contacts visible on the radar scope. Aircraft beyond coverage are reported by maritime and ground observers, not the IDO.
New: Guide Panel
The Guide panel has expanded from 9 to 12 tabs with comprehensive coverage of game mechanics.
- Overview: Game setting, your role as an Air Defender, the core control loop, and what difficulty affects.
- Scoring: Score meter rules and key scoring mechanics.
- QRA Operations: Scramble procedure, the 4-minute delay, fuel states, how to task a tanker, and RTB.
- ROE: Mission-based weapon authorisation rules, tension state rules of engagement (Peacetime, Heightened, Critical) with the current state highlighted, aspect gating, kill probabilities, ROE violations, and the full escalation sequence -- written in plain operational English.
- Procedures: Reorganised into 7 named scenario types for clearer reference.
- Opens on Overview by Default.
New: Shift Handover
At the start of a new session, some IFR civilian contacts are pre-classified as Assumed Friendly by the previous watch, reducing initial identification workload.
New: Intercept Status Updates
Right-click an interceptor and select STATUS to get a mission update: current phase, bearing and range to target, and fuel state -- posted to the ASMA console with voice comms.
New: Supply System Discoverability
- Low Ordnance Coaching: When weapons run low at a base, the ASMA console now coaches you to dispatch a supply mission. The NO ORDNANCE warning also includes this hint.
- Redeploy Missile Count: When redeploying combat aircraft, destination bases now show their current missile count with colour coding (green = can arm a pair, yellow = can arm one, red = insufficient).
Improvements
- Track Classifications Persist: Your identification work -- Hostile, Suspect, Unknown, Assumed Friendly, X-ray, Zombie -- now survives saving and loading. Previously all classifications were lost on reload.
- Weapon Indicators: Interceptor tracks now show G for guns, R for radar-guided missiles, and H for heat-seeking missiles (e.g. G180/R4/H2). Clearer at a glance.
- Panel Resize from Top: All panels can now be resized by dragging their top border. Side and bottom drag margins are also slightly wider for easier selection.
- Spoofer Cover Integrity: Spoofers now keep their civilian cover presentation much more consistently until visual identification, making deception play out more convincingly on the scope and in Flight Info.
- Military Filter Gating: Enemy-looking contacts no longer leak into the Military filter before you have genuine identification grounds to treat them as military.
- Readable Radar Symbology: Compact labels, leaders, hook boxes, origin circles, and radar/L11 history dots have all been tightened up for a clearer and more stable radar picture across zoom levels.
- Civilian Traffic Recovery: Atlantic and Scottish north-west civilian IFR routes now stay visibly populated, keeping the wider air picture healthier during longer sessions.
- Local Observer Coverage: Local intelligence reports now surface more reliably when unidentified enemy aircraft overfly the UK, with stronger regional coverage and better source variety.
- Show Of Force Presentation: Show of force now reads as a much clearer visible manoeuvre instead of feeling like an invisible state change in the intercept flow.
- Tanker Recovery Flexibility: Tankers returning home can now still be redirected into tanker-to-tanker refuelling before landing starts, then continue their recovery afterwards.
- Interceptor Track Continuity: Friendly interceptor tracks now stay visible more reliably during airborne refuel and RTB transition periods instead of briefly dropping off the scope.
- FIR Escalation Procedure: The complete escalation sequence (escort, show of presence, show of force, turn-away warning) now works correctly for all enemy types approaching the UK. Pilot reports "aircraft not compliant" at the correct time during the procedure.
- Easter Egg Aircraft: Hidden aircraft unlocked through Operation Silent Bunny now carry correct weapons loadouts and can be used as fully combat-capable interceptors.
- QRA Launch Cancellation: Pending QRA launches can now be cancelled during the scramble countdown.
Bug Fixes -- Interceptors
- Escalation Completion: QRA interceptors no longer get stuck after completing the full escalation sequence against Suspect targets. Interceptors now correctly resume shadow or escort formation.
- Visual Identification: QRA interceptors assigned to intercept Suspect contacts now properly complete visual identification before engaging in Critical tension.
- RTB Speed: QRA interceptors on return to base now respect Buster, Cruise, and Eco speed settings from the right-click menu.
- Engage Orders: QRA engage orders no longer refuse when retasking to the same target.
- Refuel from CAP: QRA interceptors ordered to refuel while on CAP now correctly leave the patrol pattern and proceed to the tanker.
- Identify Completion: QRA interceptors on Identify missions no longer immediately return to base after identification. They now continue shadowing the target, allowing the normal intercept and escalation procedure to proceed.
- Redeployed Interceptors: Redeployed interceptors no longer return to base immediately on launch.
- Subsonic Speed Limits: Subsonic interceptors no longer exceed their maximum speed when tasked to engage fast targets.
- 4-Ship Radio Calls: In 4-ship launch groups, duplicate radio calls and voice gaps during the escalation sequence are now resolved.
Bug Fixes -- Radar and Tracks
- Track Designation Persistence: Track designations (Suspect, Hostile, Unknown, etc.) now persist when tracks drop off and reappear on radar.
- Civilian Aircraft Names: Civilian aircraft now display their actual aircraft type name (e.g. Boeing 737, BAe Jetstream 41) instead of a generic classification.
- Missile Track Cleanup: Missile tracks disappear immediately from the radar display after a confirmed kill.
- Bomber Track Freeze: Enemy bomber tracks no longer freeze on the radar display when a radar station is toggled off and on.
- Multiple SEAD Tracks: Multiple SEAD aircraft now appear as separate tracks instead of one flickering track.
- Hidden Aircraft Tracks: Hidden aircraft tracks now behave like normal radar tracks and carry the correct weapons loadout.
Bug Fixes -- ASMA Console
- Scroll Stability: The ASMA console no longer snaps scroll to top when new messages arrive.
- Visual ID Spam: VISUAL ID messages no longer repeat excessively during civilian identification.
- Sortie Tabs: Sortie tabs now correctly disappear when flights land and recover at base.
- Premature Identity: Aircraft identity is no longer revealed prematurely in ASMA messages before visual identification has been completed.
- INTEL Filter Tab: GCHQ assessments and SIGINT reports no longer appear in the Aircraft filter tab.
Bug Fixes -- Voice and Radio
- Emergency Squawk Codes: Emergency squawk codes (7700, 7500, 7600) now persist for the full duration of the emergency instead of being replaced after a few seconds.
- Weapons Controller RTB Response: The Weapons Controller "copied RTB, base is BRA" response now only plays when the pilot initiates RTB, not when the Weapons Controller ordered it.
- FIR Escalation Voice: FIR escalation voice calls now work correctly for all approach directions.
Bug Fixes -- Training
- Training Audio: Training intro voice now stops immediately when clicking Back from the selection screen.
- Training Progress Recovery: Training progress now automatically recovers when switching between Proton or Wine compatibility layers on Linux.
Linux and Proton Fixes
- Window Resizing and Panning: Window resizing and mouse panning now work correctly on Linux (Wayland).
- Regional Clock: The regional clock now appears reliably on every game start via Linux/Proton.
- Keyboard Hotkeys: All keyboard hotkeys (F-keys, time controls, numpad, Tab cycling) now work reliably on Linux and Wayland systems.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.6.0.1 - March 2026
This is a major update bringing a completely new coaching and mentoring system, comprehensive ASMA console upgrades, training mission improvements, a hidden easter egg, and hundreds of stability and performance fixes under the hood.
New: Coaching and Mentoring System
Your ASMA console now acts as an intelligent mentor, giving you real-time feedback tailored to your experience level.
FOR YOU Feed: A new dedicated coaching feed in ASMA delivers situation-aware tips based on what is happening in your watch. Hints scale with your XP — beginners get step-by-step guidance, experienced operators get concise reminders.
Controller Handover Brief: When you start a new session or load a save, you now receive a handover brief summarising the current air picture, active sorties, fuel and weapons status, and threat assessment — just like a real controller shift change.
Session Performance Tracking: Your performance is tracked across each session. When you next log in, your handover brief includes a supervisor assessment covering identification accuracy, resource management, and decision making from your previous watch.
Training Mission Mentor: Training missions now feature a dedicated mentor who provides state-aware hints. If you are stuck, the mentor nudges you toward the next step rather than leaving you guessing.
Bear Hunt Tanker Hint: A three-tier hint system now nudges you to deploy a tanker after launching QRA in the Bear Hunt mission, progressing from gentle suggestion to direct instruction.
New: ASMA Console Overhaul
The ASMA console has been significantly upgraded with new filtering, categorisation, and message quality improvements.
Category Filters: Filter ASMA messages by category — Sortie, Intel, Supply, ATC, Alerts, and more. Click the category buttons at the top of the console to focus on what matters.
Sortie Sub-Filters: When filtering by Sortie, individual sortie buttons appear. Click one to see only that sortie's messages, automatically switch to its COMMS channel, and jump the camera to its position.
Live Sortie Summary: Each sortie sub-filter button shows a live status summary — callsign, target information, bearing and distance — so you can assess the situation at a glance.
Filter Tooltips: Hover over any filter button to see a tooltip explaining what it shows.
Jamming and Missile Lock Alerts: ASMA now displays alerts when your aircraft encounter electronic jamming or missile lock warnings, with sortie-aware audio cues.
Improved Message Quality: ASMA messages now use concrete specifics (aircraft callsigns, track numbers, positions) instead of vague descriptions. Brevity codes are automatically expanded for clarity.
ASMA Messages Preserved on Load: Fixed ASMA console messages being lost when loading a saved game from the main menu.
New: Ident Bar Track Filtering
Right-Click Filtering: Right-click any identification button on the ident bar (Friendly, Unknown, Suspect, Hostile, etc.) to filter the radar display to only show tracks of that identity. Right-click again to remove the filter.
Visual Feedback: Active filter buttons show a lighter background so you can see which filter is applied.
New: Operation Silent Bunny (Easter Egg)
A hidden easter egg has been added to the game. Discover letters scattered across the map to unlock secret content. Letters persist across sessions — your progress is saved automatically. We will not spoil the details here.
Training Missions
Pass/Fail Soundtracks: Training missions now play distinct success or failure soundtracks when you complete or fail a mission. Completing all training missions plays a special fanfare.
Completion Audio: All training missions now play completion audio — previously some missions were silent on completion.
Intercept Phase Coaching: Training missions that involve intercepts now show plain English descriptions of what is happening at each phase (e.g. 'Interceptors are climbing to match the target's altitude.').
Bear Hunt Fixes: Interceptors no longer re-engage the TU-95 after refuelling instead of returning to base. The full escalation sequence now includes the shoot-down warning.
Tunnel Vision Fixes: Fixed the Tunnel Vision training soundtrack not playing correctly.
Smarties Fixes: Fixed instructor audio being extremely loud in the Smarties training mission.
Hint Accuracy: Training hints now fire at the correct time and no longer trigger after you have already completed the required action.
Handover Brief Suppressed: The controller handover brief is now correctly suppressed during training missions to avoid clutter.
Bug Fixes
Music Pause/Resume: Music now resumes where it left off when you unpause, instead of restarting from the beginning.
Settings Persistence: Graphics settings (quality, V-sync, resolution, clutter options) now correctly save and persist between sessions.
Forward Slash Key: The forward slash key now correctly triggers Squawk Ident focus.
Critical Tension Auto-Engage: Fixed a bug where Critical tension mode would automatically engage tracks that were not hostile.
Supply Mission Radar: Supply missions (Hercules, Chinook) no longer show radar tracks while the aircraft is still on the ground preparing.
Enemy Aircraft Orbiting: Fixed enemy aircraft getting stuck orbiting their targets instead of proceeding with their attack run.
Civilian Airfield Grouping: Fixed all civilian airfields being grouped under "England" in the Chinook redeployment screen. They now show their correct region.
Pause Menu Stability: Hardened the pause menu resume to prevent occasional rendering loss.
Sweep Line Display: Fixed the radar sweep line being visible on all radar cycle modes when it should only appear on certain modes.
Panel Drag Fix: Fixed panels occasionally losing drag interactivity.
Bomber Movement: Enemy bombers now make gradual turns during egress and turn-away instead of sharp position snaps at waypoint corners.
Number 10 Map Label: Fixed a typo in the Number 10 Downing Street strategic map feature label.
Spoofer Aircraft on Save/Load: Campaign spoofer aircraft now correctly persist through save and load cycles.
QRA Launch in Selecting Identities: The QRA launch options popup is now correctly suppressed in the Selecting Identities training mission.
EAS on Missile Launch: Fixed the Emergency Alert System tone incorrectly playing on missile launch.
New Airfields
Belfast Aldergrove (EGAA): Added to the strategic map.
London Gatwick (EGKK): Added to the strategic map. Fixed an issue where Gatwick could disappear from the map.
RNAS Yeovilton: Added to the strategic map with correct Royal Navy prefix handling.
Performance
Under the hood, hundreds of optimisations have been made to improve frame rate and reduce memory usage. These changes are invisible during gameplay but contribute to a smoother experience across all hardware.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.5.13.15 - March 2026
Bug Fixes
- Linux/Proton Display Switching: Fixed fullscreen display-mode handling so Borderless, Fullscreen, and Windowed preferences remain consistent when switching between laptop and external displays.
- Resolution Selection Reliability: Graphics Settings now includes a direct selectable resolution list. On Linux/Proton, selecting a non-native resolution while in Borderless mode now automatically switches to Windowed so the selected resolution applies reliably.
- Resolution Picker Usability: Moved the resolution selection layout higher on the screen for better visibility.
- AWACS Redeploy Active Ops: Redeploying multiple E3 Sentry aircraft from the same base before takeoff now correctly creates a separate queued redeploy entry for each aircraft in Active Operations.
- AWACS Redeploy Selection: Queued AWACS waiting on the 30-minute redeploy countdown can no longer be selected again as if they were unused parked stock.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.5.13.11 - March 2026
New Features
- Multi-Weapon Missile System: F3 Tornado interceptors now carry two distinct missile types — 4x Skyflash (radar-guided, Fox 1, 24nm range) and 2x AIM-9L Sidewinder (heat-seeking, Fox 2, 10nm range). Fighters use a phased engagement: firing Skyflash head-on at long range, then converting to tail chase for AIM-9L shots from behind.
- Improved Missile Guidance: Missiles now use proportional navigation (predicting where the target will be) instead of flying directly at the target's current position, significantly improving hit rates against maneuvering targets.
- Smart Firing Range: Fighters now account for target speed and direction when deciding to fire. Missiles won't be launched at targets that are receding too fast to catch within missile range.
- Accurate Fox Calls: Radio calls now match the actual missile type — Fox 1 for Skyflash, Fox 2 for AIM-9L Sidewinder. Fox 3 calls removed (F3 Tornado does not carry AMRAAM missiles).
- COMMS Panel Button Layout: Radio channel buttons in the COMMS panel now have a consistent fixed size instead of stretching to fill the panel width. More columns appear as the panel widens, keeping buttons neatly arranged.
Bug Fixes
- AWACS Dynamic Follow: AWACS aircraft tasked to support a track now follow it at 100nm standoff distance instead of flying to a fixed point. If the target moves, the AWACS repositions its orbit to maintain coverage.
- AWACS Display Names: The Active Operations panel and ASMA console now show the target aircraft's callsign and track number instead of internal identifiers.
- Post-Kill Hover Fix: Fighter aircraft no longer stop mid-air after destroying a target. They now continue flying in a gentle orbit while waiting for their next task or return-to-base order.
- Missiles Missing in Tail Chase: Fixed an issue where all missiles would fly past fast-moving targets (Tu-160, MiG-31) because the effective missile range was dramatically reduced in tail-chase geometry but the firing logic didn't account for this.
- Fighters Always Tail-Chasing: Fixed fighters always hooking round behind targets even when ordered to engage. Fighters now approach head-on when armed with radar-guided Skyflash missiles, only converting to stern for heat-seeking Sidewinders.
- Nimrod Ferry RTB: Nimrod aircraft now correctly fly to their destination base after redeployment instead of flying straight indefinitely.
- Countdown Timer Format: All aircraft countdown timers now display consistently in minutes:seconds format (e.g. 29:28) instead of some showing only minutes (e.g. 29m).
- Phantom Stock at Destination: Redeployed AWACS, Nimrod, and Tanker aircraft no longer appear at the destination airfield in the Assets panel before they arrive. Stock only increases at the destination once the aircraft lands.
- Premature Radar Tracks: Hercules and Chinook supply flight radar tracks no longer appear while the aircraft is still on the ground preparing to depart.
- Tanker Redeploy Delay: Tanker redeployments now correctly use the standard 30-minute departure delay. The aircraft is no longer visible on radar during the ground preparation period.
- Hercules Redeploy Delay: Fixed Hercules redeploy using a 45-second delay instead of the correct 30-minute preparation time.
- Redeploy Countdown in Active Ops: Tanker, Hercules, and Chinook redeployments now show a "Redeploying → destination (mm:ss)" countdown in Active Operations, matching the AWACS and interceptor behaviour.
- AWACS/Nimrod Stock Accounting: Redeployed AWACS and Nimrod aircraft now remain visible at the source base while preparing to depart. Stock only moves once the aircraft takes off, not at the moment redeploy is initiated.
- Redeploy Hijacking Active Aircraft: Redeploying aircraft from the Assets panel no longer hijacks airborne aircraft on active missions. AWACS, Nimrod, and Tanker redeploy now correctly uses ground stock only, producing a visible ferry flight to the destination base.
- AWACS Retask Clone: Retasking an AWACS to support a specific track no longer creates a ghost duplicate aircraft on radar.
- Arrow Keys Menubar: Arrow keys no longer accidentally trigger menubar actions when pressed during gameplay.
- AWACS Redeploy Stock: Redeploying an AWACS no longer removes 3 aircraft from the source base inventory. Only 1 is now correctly deducted.
- CAP Pair Retask: Tasking interceptors on CAP to identify or engage a raid now correctly sends both aircraft in the pair, not just the one that was selected.
- Radio Channel Bleed: Radio calls from one intercept no longer bleed into another channel when switching between sorties. Intercepts no longer appear stuck after switching channels — a Judy cue plays automatically on return, and intercepts auto-resume after 90 seconds if not acknowledged.
- Interceptor Redeploy in Assets Panel: Redeployed fighter aircraft now correctly appear at the destination airfield in the Assets panel after landing.
- Panel Overlap Input: Overlapping panels no longer let you resize or drag the panel underneath through the one on top.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.5.12.14 - March 2026
Improvements
- Community recommendation - Redeployment Preparation Time: All military aircraft now require 30 minutes of preparation before taking off when redeployed to another base. ASMA messages now indicate the departure delay.
- Weapons Hot / Decision Popups: Removed (redundant) blocking popup dialogs from normal QRA intercept flow. Weapons Hot now appears as a high-priority ASMA alert instead of interrupting gameplay.
Bug Fixes
- Interceptor Communication Sequence: Fixed a bug where, after visual identification (Tally and PosID), Judy and all subsequent controller calls (escort, presence, show of force) would never play. Interceptors now correctly proceed through the full communication sequence.
- Shadow Escalation Stability: Fixed shadow escalation getting stuck if a warning clip fails to play. Interceptors no longer keep post-warning voice follow-ups running after they have already gone RTB.
- Interceptor Post-Refuel Behaviour: Fixed interceptors returning from a tanker refuel not resuming their intercept at the proper altitude. Previously they could get stuck at the tanker's altitude and trail without re-engaging the target.
- 4-Ship ID/Engage/RTB Commands: Fixed tasking or ordering RTB for one aircraft in a four-ship formation only affecting two aircraft instead of all four. All commands now correctly cascade to the full four-ship formation.
- Interceptor Altitude Matching: Fixed interceptors not climbing to match hostile raid altitude during engagements.
- Emergency Squawk Codes: Fixed aircraft with non-emergency squawk codes (such as 7000 VFR) being incorrectly classified as emergency. Also fixed random code generation occasionally producing reserved emergency codes (7500/7600/7700), and emergency status never clearing even if the squawk changed.
- Spoofer Save/Load: Fixed spoofer aircraft vanishing after loading a saved game if they had previously been intercepted and turned away.
- Spoofer Despawn: Fixed spoofer aircraft endlessly flying back and forth after completing their route. They now correctly despawn when reaching the end of their route or after being turned away.
- ASMA Console on Load: Fixed ASMA console messages not being preserved when loading a saved game from the main menu. The console was showing empty after loading.
- ASMA Redeploy Messages: Fixed ASMA incorrectly showing "QRA RTB" messages during redeployment. It now correctly shows "QRA REDEPLOY" and "REDEPLOY COMPLETE".
- Redeployed Aircraft QRA: Fixed aircraft redeployed to a different airfield immediately returning to base when launched for QRA. They now correctly fly to their assigned target.
- International Civilian Traffic: Fixed international civilian aircraft (from France, Spain, Germany, North Atlantic, etc.) not spawning after loading a saved game. Traffic now correctly continues after load.
- Civilian Aircraft Altitude Limits: Fixed civilian aircraft exceeding their real-world service ceiling. All aircraft types now respect their maximum altitude, and each type climbs and descends at its own realistic rate.
- Civilian Flight Plan Altitudes: Fixed civilian flight plans showing unrealistic cruise altitudes. Plans now use altitudes based on each aircraft type's actual service ceiling (e.g. a Jetstream will no longer show FL320 when its max is FL250).
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.5.10.2 - March 2026
New Features
- Instant Action Game Mode: New main menu option that drops you straight into Critical tension with a Scared public. Bomber raids, ballistic launches, and weapons-hot rules activate immediately — no Peacetime buildup required. Perfect for players who want high-intensity action from the start.
- Victory Debrief Screen: The victory screen has been replaced with a full mission debrief showing watch duration, enemy aircraft destroyed, cities struck (with timestamps and warhead yields), operator performance with tier labels, XP earned, and a summary verdict. Navigate with NEW WATCH, ENDLESS, or MAIN MENU buttons.
- Defeat Debrief Screen: The defeat screen has been replaced with a full mission debrief showing civilian casualty count and UK population percentage, cities struck chronologically, operator performance rating, enemies destroyed, a verdict naming the first city struck, and partial XP awarded. Navigate with NEW WATCH or MAIN MENU buttons.
- End-Game Soundtracks: Victory and defeat screens now play dedicated soundtracks that fade in when the screen appears and stop when you navigate away.
- Armageddon EAS Warning: An Emergency Alert System tone now plays when the Armageddon protocol is triggered.
- Track Category Filter: Added filter buttons next to the time controls: \ Military only, \ Civilian only, \[!] Alerts only (unknown, suspect, hostile, or deviating tracks), \
Bug Fixes
- Civilian Mode 3 Codes: Fixed an issue where all civilian IFR aircraft displayed the same SSR code (5200). Aircraft now receive varied, realistic squawk codes drawn from the UK's domestic ORCAM code pools, matching the 1998-era allocation system.
- Flight Plan Deviation Detection: Fixed a bug where nearly all aircraft on the radar showed as deviating (yellow altitude/speed text) even when flying their planned route normally. Deviation detection now correctly compares against the planned altitude at the aircraft's actual position along its route, properly accounting for climb and descent phases. Also added detection for IFR aircraft flying without a filed flight plan.
- Aircraft Teleportation: Fixed a bug where enemy aircraft and civilian IFR tracks would visibly jump or teleport around the radar display, especially at higher time acceleration speeds. Most noticeable during retasking, evasion, and route changes.
- Intercept Escalation: Fixed a bug where pressing CONTINUE in the intercept decision dialogue did not restart the escalation sequence (presence, show of force, etc.). Interceptors would just continue shadowing the target instead of re-escalating.
- Enemy Aircraft Destruction: Fixed a bug where enemy aircraft (including Tunnel Vision training mission bombers and campaign enemies) would re-appear on radar after being shot down by missiles.
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Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.5.5.4 - March 2026
This is a major update introducing an entirely new Aircraft Register with real historical data, authentic airline callsigns across all traffic, a fully reworked intercept system, a moveable panel system for every panel in the game, and unified visual styling from top to bottom. Alongside these new features are significant save/load reliability improvements and dozens of bug fixes.
New: Moveable Panel System
Every panel in the game can now be freely arranged to suit your workflow.
- Moveable Panels: All panels can be dragged, resized, minimised, and pinned in all screen modes.
- Layout Persistence: Your panel layout saves automatically per player profile, so your arrangement is waiting for you every session.
- Edge Resizing: Drag any panel edge or corner to resize it. Resize cursors appear on hover so you always know where to grab.
- Panel Borders: All panels display a light grey border so boundaries are always clearly visible.
- Front Focus: Opening or restoring a panel automatically brings it to the front.
- Aircraft Info Panel: The aircraft information panel (shown when clicking a track) can now be dragged, minimised, pinned, and resized. Opening other panels no longer closes it.
- Airfield Panel: The Airfield panel supports dragging, minimising, pinning, and closing, matching all other panels.
- Airspace Control Panel: The Airspace Control panel (Open/Close Airspace) is now a moveable panel with a title bar. Drag, resize, or minimise it as needed. It automatically appears during Critical tension.
- Training Objectives: The Training Objectives panel is an independent moveable window. It cannot be closed during training missions to ensure objectives remain accessible.
- Cursor Feedback: Hovering a title bar shows a move cursor. Resize grab areas on edges and corners are larger and easier to grab.
- Minimised Bars: Minimised panel bars have uniform width, visible borders, and properly aligned buttons for a clean stacked appearance.
New: Aircraft Register
A brand new panel giving you access to a database of 640 UK civil aircraft with authentic 1998-era data.
- Aircraft Register Panel: A permanently available docked panel that lets you browse and search 640 UK civil aircraft with authentic 1998-era data. Search by registration, Mode S hex code, type, operator name, country, or any other field. Click any row to see full specifications: serial number, year built, passenger capacity, weight class, cruise speed, ceiling, and range.
- Authentic 1998 Data: UK civilian turbine aircraft in the game carry genuine 1998-era identities — real registrations, Mode S hex codes, ICAO type designators, actual operators, and published performance figures.
- Real Mode S Hex Codes: Aircraft in the register display their correct real-world Mode S transponder hex codes. These appear in the Flight Info panel, Track List, and ASMA responses.
- Track List Mode S Column: The Track List now includes a Mode S column showing each aircraft's transponder hex code alongside the IFF column. Tracks are ordered by Track Number (newest first).
- Expanded Fleet: 22 new aircraft types added, including Boeing 737-300/400/500/800 variants, the Avro RJ family, BAe Jetstream series, ATR family, and Dassault Falcon business jets.
- CALL MODESCHECK: New ASMA command to look up any Mode S hex code on demand.
- Auto-Search: The Aircraft Register automatically pre-fills the search field when you have a contact selected on radar.
- FIR Corridors: International traffic now arrives via 5 realistic FIR entry corridors.
New: Realistic Callsigns
All traffic on your radar now displays the correct, historically accurate callsigns it would have used in 1998.
- Airline Callsigns: Commercial aircraft display their correct ICAO callsigns (e.g. "BAW436" for British Airways, "LOG241" for Loganair). Each airline uses its proper ICAO prefix with historically accurate flight number ranges.
- Spoken Callsigns: The ASMA controller briefing shows the spoken radio callsign (e.g. "Speedbird 436") as a real controller would read it.
- Service Helicopters: Police helicopters only appear on the correct aircraft types (Bo 105, AS355 Twin Squirrel). Air ambulance uses the real UK callsign "HELIMED". Coastguard helicopters are restricted to the Sikorsky S-61N.
- Offshore Operators: Offshore helicopter operator codes use their correct 1998 ICAO designators (Bristow, Bond, British International, KLM Helicopters).
- VFR Traffic: VFR aircraft continue to show their G-registration as before.
New: Intercept System Overhaul
The intercept system has been fundamentally reworked. You now have much better visibility into what your interceptors are doing, and the escalation flow is more reliable and realistic.
- Intercept Stage Tracking: ASMA now shows each stage of an intercept in real time — TALLY, JUDY, POSID, MERGE, escort, show of presence, show of force, and turn away warning — so you can follow exactly what your interceptors are doing at every moment.
- Decision Popup: The intercept decision popup's middle option has been renamed from SHADOW to CONTINUE. Choosing it keeps your interceptors in an active escalation flow rather than switching to a passive shadow mission.
- 4-Ship Coordination: Orders (CAP, ENGAGE, IDENT, ESCORT) now cascade to all aircraft in a launch group. A 4-ship scramble acts as a single unit.
- Post-Kill Target Chaining: After destroying a target, interceptors automatically continue pursuing remaining hostiles in the raid rather than returning to base.
- Wave-Level Compliance: Enemy raids turn away together as one formation after the final warning. All aircraft in the same wave respond in unison.
- Full Civilian Intercept Procedure: Interceptors now follow the correct civilian intercept procedure — questioning intentions, waiting for compliance, classifying as friendly, and RTBing. Oil rig helicopters are correctly recognised as civilian.
- Unique Mode 3 Squawk Codes: Each interceptor sortie is assigned a unique Mode 3 squawk code. Both aircraft in a pair share the same code, matching real-world Weapons Controller practice.
- Engagement Priority: Interceptors no longer break off to visit a tanker during an active engagement.
Intercept Bug Fixes
- Fixed interceptors not continuing the intercept after pressing Continue at POSID — they would follow the enemy indefinitely instead of resuming the escalation sequence.
- Fixed only 2 of 4 aircraft in a 4-ship sortie returning to base when the enemy complied — the second pair now correctly RTBs with the first.
- Fixed spoofer targets not reliably complying after the final warning.
- Fixed voice communications continuing to play after a target was destroyed.
- Fixed paired interceptors RTBing prematurely after completing a show-of-force.
Save/Load Reliability
- Fixed 4-ship launch groups splitting into separate sorties after loading a save.
- Fixed CAP missions losing their patrol markers, countdown timers, and callsigns after save/load.
- Fixed background audio (console hum, radio ambience, aircon) not resuming after loading a saved game.
- Fixed destroyed radar station state leaking between different saves.
- Fixed parked and landed tankers becoming airborne again after loading. Tanker aircraft type (e.g. "VC10") now shows correctly instead of generic "Tanker".
- Fixed AWACS not appearing at their new base after being redeployed and landed.
Traffic and Airspace
- Fixed domestic civilian aircraft appearing mid-flight at cruise altitude. They now depart realistically from airfields.
- Fixed general aviation traffic disappearing during longer sessions. Light aircraft and helicopters now replenish continuously.
- Fixed VFR traffic not reappearing when airspace reopened after a closure.
- Fixed airspace not reopening automatically when all threats were cleared in smaller encounters.
- Fixed launching QRA at one group of a split raid blocking QRA at the other groups. Each contact can now be independently intercepted.
- Fixed false peacetime airspace closures triggering across repeated play sessions.
Voice and Audio
- Fixed volume settings (especially music) resetting on startup. Setting music to zero now persists correctly between sessions.
- Fixed Master Controller and launch sequence voice lines being significantly louder than other voices. All voice categories now play at consistent volume levels.
- Fixed audio bleeding across radio channels when switching. Channel switching is now instant with no overlap.
- Fixed duplicate callouts in the compliance RTB voice chain (aircraft complying, copied, debrief, RTB).
- Fixed ASMA notifications for fuel-triggered RTBs being silently skipped in certain scenarios.
Visual Consistency and Scaling
- Unified Button Style: All buttons across the entire game share a consistent style: light grey borders, dark grey backgrounds, and 1px border thickness.
- Hover Highlights: Every button highlights on hover, including menus, panels, the identification bar, time controls, flight info panel, and the pause menu.
- HUD Scaling: HUD elements (status bars, track counts, speed controls) scale proportionally with screen resolution. Elements are noticeably smaller for a cleaner, less intrusive display.
- Subtitle Scaling: Training and voice transcript subtitles scale with screen resolution instead of staying at a fixed size.
- Fixed non-standard blue and green tints from the Aircraft Register and Flight Info panels.
- Fixed "PAUSED" text wrapping to a second line or getting cut off at certain screen resolutions.
Tanker Improvements
- Fuel Exhaustion: Tankers now crash when they run out of fuel — Mode 3 switches to emergency 7700, the track flashes red on radar, and the tanker is destroyed after 10 seconds.
- Emergency Lockout: A fuel-exhausted tanker declaring MAYDAY can no longer be retasked.
- Fixed tankers flying hundreds of miles past their landing airfield on the downwind leg.
- Fixed old tanker track lines persisting when loading a different save.
QRA Launch
- Launch Options Popup: Launching QRA from the Assets or Airfield panels now opens the Launch Options popup, letting you choose your base and force size before committing.
- Realistic 4-Minute Scramble: All QRA launches now use the realistic 4-minute scramble delay.
- Fixed the Launch Options popup not honouring your base and force size selection.
- Fixed singleton QRA launches registering a duplicate callsign in COMMS.
- Fixed interceptor over-deployment during overlapping launch timing windows.
Training Missions
- Fixed the completion voice line being cut off mid-sentence on the Selecting Identities mission. The results panel now waits for audio to finish before appearing.
- Fixed instruction dialogue not playing when retrying a training mission.
- Fixed training objectives overlapping with the COMMS and ASMA panels.
- Training selection screens now show a note directing players to the Discord server for the latest Early Access guidance.
Gameplay and Simulation Fixes
- Fixed the escape menu not pausing the game. Radars, aircraft, and timers now all stop when the escape menu is open and resume at the previous speed when it is closed.
- Fixed all aircraft (Nimrod, AWACS, tankers) disconnecting from the tanker at 95% fuel instead of 100%, meaning aircraft already above 95% would appear to take on no fuel at all.
- Fixed Nimrod R1 refuelling — it now correctly joins the tanker, maintains formation during transfer, and manages altitude throughout.
- Fixed the CANCEL TASK button in the Assets panel accidentally tasking the asset to the map position behind the button.
- Fixed the Redeploy and Supply chooser panels not responding to mouse wheel scrolling.
Other Improvements
- AC Control Callsign: The Aircraft Control tab now shows the selected aircraft's callsign at the top so you can confirm at a glance which aircraft you are commanding.
- Fixed enemy tracks in Hard mode not gaining aircraft type information after interceptor visual identification.
- Fixed the victory screen appearing repeatedly in Endless Mode after choosing Continue Playing.
- Fixed MAP submenu F-key back navigation cascading multiple levels instead of one.
- Fixed intercept decision popups appearing during pause, with the menu open, or when alt-tabbed.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.4.8.12 - January 2026
New Features
- QRA Launch Command: The player now has the option to choose how many (1-4) interceptors to launch and from which base.
Improvements
- Nimrod: Aircraft Control tab has been added and loitering orbit size reduced. Nimrod trackblocks now show fuel percentage (e.g., F65%).
Bug Fixes
- Pause Track Removal: A fix has been applied to stop tracks from being removed when the game is paused.
- Backspace Sound Amplification: The track removal when using the backspace key no longer amplifies audio notifications.
- Airport Approach Holding: Improvements have been made to EGPH and EGLL holding procedures to prevent recurring permanent hold issues.
- Sortie RTB Comms: A fix has been applied to sorties in the middle of an intercept but RTB and still continue with the intercept voice procedure.
- Pair Split: Pairs now RTB together instead of getting split if the RTB command is given to the wingman and not the leader.
- Right click menu commands: Commands now apply to both aircraft in a pair.
- Nimrod Refuel: Improvements have been made to ensure Nimrod aircraft join tankers, take on fuel, and no longer snap back to orbit after refuelling.
- Nimrod Refuel Altitude: Nimrod now joins tankers at the same altitude.
Air Defender Changelog - Version 0.4.5.7 - January 2026
This update represents a significant overhaul of core systems since version 0.3.6.3. We have focused on deepening the simulation mechanics, refining the user interface, restructuring the Critical Tension gameplay, and improving overall stability.
User Interface Redesign
A comprehensive UI update has been applied to improve readability, usability, and consistency across all resolutions from 1080p to 4K.Panel System Overhaul
Active Operations Panel: Now a dedicated standalone panel showing all active sorties with real-time status updates. Includes jump-to-aircraft buttons, sortie filtering, and integration with the COMMS system.
COMMS Panel: Radio channel buttons have moved to a dedicated right-side panel that shares space with ASMA. Click any sortie to focus on that channel's communications.
Panel Responsiveness: All panels now scale properly based on screen resolution. Text, buttons, and spacing adapt from 1080p to 4K without becoming too large or too small.
Panel Exclusivity: Opening certain panels now automatically closes overlapping panels for a cleaner view.
Visual Improvements
Consistent Styling: All panels share a unified design language with standardised typography, zebra striping for row readability, and consistent button sizes.
Scrollbar Redesign: Clean, flat scrollbar design with dark track and light thumb for better visibility.
Tab Styling: Removed distracting borders from info boxes and tabs, using subtle background highlighting instead.
Close Buttons: Added CLOSE buttons to all panel headers for quick dismissal.
High-Density Tracking
Ident Bar Improvements: The Ident Bar and Track List remain legible and usable even when tracking 100+ contacts.
Ident Filtering: Track List and Active Ops now have clickable ident badges (I/K/E) to filter by identification status.
Emergency Highlighting: Emergency squawks (7500/7600/7700) and PAN/MAYDAY calls are now visually highlighted in red/amber in Track List and Active Operations.
Emergency Sorting: Emergency tracks automatically sort to the top of the Track List.
New Features
CALL ATC Buttons: Track List and Flight Plans panels now have CALL ATC buttons to quickly query the relevant controller via ASMA.
Squawk Ident Triangles: When jumping to a track, visual triangles highlight the target for easy identification.
Sortie Numbers on Datablocks: Track datablocks now show sortie numbers for friendly and tasked target tracks.
Ctrl+Ident Shortcuts: Use Ctrl+A/U/X/S/H to quickly set track identification.
Delete Declutter: Press Delete to hide all tracks (so it only shows RADAR contacts) except selected/hooked tracks.
Backspace Focus: Press Backspace to remove all trackblocks except the selected track.
Airfield Panel Improvements
ICAO Codes: Airfield panels now display ICAO codes (e.g., "EGXC (RAF CONINGSBY)").
Proper Scaling: Buttons and text properly scale on 4K displays.
Click Detection: Improved click detection so clicking airfield names reliably opens the panel.
New Asset: Nimrod R1 (SIGINT)
The Nimrod R1 has been added as a fully simulated intelligence platform, expanding your strategic options for airspace monitoring.
Full Flight Simulation: The Nimrod follows complete flight logic, including taxi, takeoff sequencing, cruise climb, instrument approaches, and proper landing procedures.
Persistent Tracking: SIGINT tracks are maintained accurately throughout all flight phases.
500nm EW Coverage: Provides emitter detection over a wide area to enhance your situational awareness.
Redeployment: Redeploy Nimrods to forward airbases to adjust your surveillance coverage as the threat evolves.
Fleet Size: 3 aircraft are available at RAF Waddington to support sustained operations.
Callsigns: SIGINT aircraft use the GADGET callsign series (GADGET01, GADGET02, etc.).
Communications & Audio
The radio and voice procedure systems have been tightened to ensure accurate, reliable feedback during high-tempo operations.
Sortie-Based Communications
Sortie Channels: COMMS channels now correctly bind to specific sorties, ensuring you are always listening to the relevant traffic.
ASMA Filtering: ASMA can now filter messages by sortie, syncing with COMMS channel selection.
Sortie Labels: ASMA headers, Active Ops, and panel labels now use consistent sortie labelling (01, 02, AW01, TK01, etc.).
Voice Procedure Improvements
Channel Separation: Controller calls no longer bleed into unmonitored frequencies.
Civilian Intercepts: Proper voice procedures are now implemented for civilian suspect intercepts (intentions questioning, compliance confirmation).
Spoofer Intercepts: Distinct voice procedures for spoofer intercepts including outside-FIR and inside-FIR sequences.
Combat Intercepts: Full hostile engagement voice sequence with proper escalation.
Duplicate Prevention: Radio calls no longer duplicate when multiple pairs are in the same sortie (4-ship formations).
QRA Communications
Launch Persistence: QRA launch communications now persist correctly through spawn delays, ensuring the full scramble sequence is audible.
Pending Launches: Active Operations now shows pending QRA launches with countdown timers before aircraft appear.
Channel Stability: COMMS channels stay alive during takeoff even when there's lag in contact registration.
Core Systems & Simulation Improvements
Significant work has gone into the stability and logic of the underlying simulation.
Save/Load Stability
Major improvements to save/load reliability:
Interceptor Callsigns: Fixed issues where interceptors would receive civilian-style callsigns after loading.
Paired Sorties: Interceptor pairs now stay together in the same sortie/channel after load.
Asset Persistence: AWACS, tankers, and other assets no longer disappear after loading or exiting training missions.
CAP Patrols: CAP interceptors now resume patrol patterns correctly after loading instead of stalling.
Raid Contacts: Critical raid aircraft persist correctly through save/load cycles.
Track Identification: Track ident status is preserved correctly (hostiles no longer revert to pending).
Traffic & AI Logic
IFR Approaches: Arrival sequencing has been smoothed out to prevent unnecessary holding on final approach.
Edinburgh Fix: Edinburgh (EGPH) arrival holds now clear properly instead of circling indefinitely.
VFR Landings: Solved issues where VFR traffic would stall at low altitude instead of completing the landing roll.
Airspace Closures: Inbound civilian traffic now correctly diverts or turns back when airspace is closed at Critical tension.
Airspace Reopening: Civilian airspace reopens automatically when all enemy threats are cleared, with a prominent notification.
Mode 3 Codes: International IFR flights now keep correct ORCAM transit Mode 3 codes across the UK.
Friendly Fire Prevention
Improved Protection: Enhanced safeguards to prevent accidental engagement of friendly aircraft.
Intercept Improvements
Show of Force Compliance: Enemy aircraft respond to interceptor presence with realistic compliance behaviour.
Pair Separation: Interceptor pairs now maintain proper line-abreast separation so both aircraft are always visible.
Asset Behaviour
AWACS L11 Coverage: AWACS L11 datalink now correctly uses each ground station's actual coverage radius.
AWACS RTB: Fixed AWACS getting stuck in the circuit during RTB - they now complete landings properly.
Tanker Redeploy: Redeployed tankers now take off and climb properly instead of jumping to cruise altitude.
Destroyed Airfield Handling: Assets now divert to surviving airfields when their home base is destroyed.
Single-Ship Tasking: ID/ENG tasking can now launch a single interceptor when only one is available.
Training Mission Fixes
Several training missions have received targeted fixes to ensure they work correctly:Bear Hunt
Complete Voice Sequence: The mission now plays the full intercept voice sequence.
Refuel Flow: After the bomber complies and exits UK airspace, QRA interceptors correctly proceed to the tanker for refuelling.
RTB After Refuel: After refuelling, interceptors RTB instead of resuming the escort mission.
Duplicate Audio Fix: Suppressed duplicate "now complying" voice lines.
Tunnel Vision
Full Voice Procedure: The mission now runs the full interceptor voice procedure before weapons release.
Engagement Fix: Fixed interceptors circling instead of properly engaging targets.
Needle in a Haystack
Proper Completion: Mission now requires QRA Launch and Positive Identification (PosID) after user identification.
PosID Recognition: Fixed issue where the spoofer ID wasn't recognised for mission completion.
Assets Training
Background Traffic: The Assets training mission now includes normal civilian traffic for added realism.
Keyboard Shortcuts
New and improved keyboard shortcuts for faster operation:
[table equalcells="1" colwidth=","][p align="center"]Key[p align="center"]ActionG
Toggle Active Operations panel
M
Toggle ASMA console
\\ or #
Call ATC for selected track
/
Squawk Ident focus (centre, zoom, call ATC)
Delete
Hide all tracks except selected/hooked (shows just the radar contact)
Backspace
Remove all tracks except the selected track
Ctrl+A
Set ident to Assumed Friendly
Ctrl+U
Set ident to Unknown
Ctrl+X
Set ident to Suspect
Ctrl+S
Set ident to Special
Ctrl+H
Set ident to Hostile
Quality of Life
Cancel Task Buttons: Assets and Airfield panels now have Cancel Task buttons to abort pending selections.
Full Aircraft Names: Assets panel now shows full aircraft type names (e.g., "Tornado F3" instead of "Torn").
ASMA Starts Unfiltered: ASMA console now starts showing all messages by default.
Refuel Status: Active Ops refuel status and ASMA messages now name the specific tanker being used.
Redeploy Status: Redeploying aircraft now show "Redeploying -> Base" with distance in Active Operations.
Give Feedback Button: Added a Give Feedback button next to Discord on the front page for easier community input.
Endless Mode: Once all inbound enemy aircraft have been destroyed and victory is achieved, you're given the option to play in Endless mode.
Windowed Borderless: Added new borderless option for better windows management.
Offshore Helicopter Operations (New)
Realistic North Sea oil rig helicopter traffic has been added:
CAA-Based Traffic Volumes: Offshore helicopter traffic now reflects real-world volumes.
Operating Hours: Offshore helicopters operate between 6am and 8pm, matching real-world schedules.
Realistic Routing: Helicopters now fly to any oil rig within their operational range.
Combat Simulation Improvements
Improved Interceptor Behaviour: Interceptors now behave more realistically during combat, including proper weapon employment and target tracking.
Airspace Closure Logic: Airspace closures are now triggered by confirmed threats rather than tension level alone.
Other Bug Fixes
Save/Load Fixes
Panel Styling: Panel buttons now keep their standard styling after loading a saved game.
Traffic Fixes
Heathrow Arrivals: Arrival holds at Heathrow are now distributed more realistically when congested.
Gameplay Fixes
Shadow Mission Popups: Shadow mission decision popups now appear at the correct time.
QRA Launch Warning: A warning sound now plays when QRA launch is blocked.
Interceptor RTB: Fixed interceptors freezing mid-air during return to base.
Duplicate Radio Calls: Fixed duplicate radio communications during intercepts.
Full changelog from version 0.3.6.3 to 0.4.5.7
Current Release
Build 23379840
Uploaded Jul 01, 2026
System Requirements
How to Install
Air Defender.exe to play
Troubleshooting tips
• Run Redist/_CommonRedist installers if game won't start
• Add folder to Windows Defender exclusions
• Run as administrator
Download
Direct link available
257 MB
23379840
5E748379
2237a5b66d91294736acfb15e3b46fd087572cf2b47f692fac1ee6427684f5cb
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