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
Version 0.8.16.14
This is a big one. You can now hook and ident a whole group of tracks in one go, send your fighters to dogfight in the 1998 Air Defence training areas, and watch the Hawk T1A and the Red Arrows on your scope. The enemy builds up its raids gradually, fights back with chaff and is called out by your controllers, while your own fighters defend themselves and finish the job. New music marks the moments that matter, other sorties' controllers can be heard in the background, Active Ops shows at a glance what every aircraft is doing, and civil traffic now flies its real 1998 flight plans and runway capacity.
New: Hook And Ident Several Tracks At Once
- Ident Several Tracks At Once: Hook several tracks and press Ctrl+A (or any ident key or ID-bar letter) to set the ident on all of them in one go. If that would move a track between threat and friendly (for example a hostile you hooked by mistake), you are asked to confirm first.
- Right-Click To Unhook: Right-click an empty part of the map (or a track with no right-click menu) to unhook every track. Right-drag still pans the map. The "change hooked tracks?" confirmation reminds you how: answer NO, then right-click without dragging on an empty part of the map.
New: Air Combat Training (TRG)
- Air Defence Training Areas: MAP > AREAS > AD AREAS shows the 1998 UK Air Defence training areas (the ADN, ADC, ADS and W areas), with their names in amber.
- Training Sorties: A new TRG button next to CAP sends a pair - or two pairs from a base - to dogfight inside a training area. Click inside an area (the AD AREAS layer shows while you choose); the jets fight with simulated missiles and never leave the area. Training ends after 30 minutes, at joker fuel, or when you retask the pair. A refused TRG order shows an on-screen message as well as the warning sound.
- On The Radio: Buchan calls the bearing to the opponent, the pilots call Fox and Splash, the lead calls "Fight's on, fight's on", Buchan calls "Terminate" to the flight by name, and the lead calls "Knock it off, knock it off" with the other side answering "Copy, knock it off". A jet reaching joker fuel calls "Joker. Knock it off, knock it off." The console text says the same words.
- Dogfights By Type: In a two-pair fight the more agile type has the edge in the turning fight (the Eurofighter best, the Tornado F3 least).
- Training Pays Off: The first "Fights on" of a sortie inside an AD area gives Player Performance and XP and eases public concern and tension a little (never below the current tension level); the full 30 minutes earns more XP. Every engagement your fighters complete in an AD area makes their missiles more likely to hit enemy fighters, and enemy fighters' missiles less likely to hit them, up to 20% after 30 engagements. ASMA tells you the current figure.
- Under Attack: If an enemy fires a missile at a training pair, both jets break off training together and engage the shooter.
- Saved With The Game: Load a save taken mid-dogfight and the training carries on where it was - same fight, same 30-minute clock, same radio channel. A pair still on the ground waiting to launch takes off after the load.
New Aircraft On Your Scope
- Hawk T1A: 96 armed trainers are based at RAF Valley, Leeming and Cranwell. They fly air combat training at any time and, as in 1998, become point-defence fighters armed with two Sidewinders only when tension reaches Critical.
- The Red Arrows: On the real 1998 show days the nine-ship team transits from its base, displays and recovers on your scope, with a NOTAM in ASMA and Red 1 squawking 7003.
- Eurofighters And Sea Harriers From The Start: Boscombe's two Eurofighters and Yeovilton's eight Sea Harriers are available from the start of every profile. Operation Letterbox still records challenge progress.
A Gentler Start
- Time To Settle In: A new game gives you 30 minutes of real time (20 if you are Experienced, 10 if Veteran) before any enemy aircraft, spoofer or failure scenario. Pausing stops the clock, speeding up time does not shorten it, and a saved game keeps the time left.
- No Instant Start: On a fresh launch, enemy activity and the first scenario no longer begin the moment you log in.
- Traffic Builds Up For New Players: A new player's Combat Ready or Instant Action game starts with light traffic (10% of the usual flow at 0-100 XP), most of it already identified, and gets busier as you identify aircraft and as time passes. Experienced players start busier; from 4,000 XP the traffic starts at full flow.
- Player Performance Above 1,000: Player Performance is no longer capped at 1,000; hover over the PP box to see your exact score.
- One Penalty Per Spoofer: A disguised enemy aircraft left unidentified inside the FIR costs one penalty, not two.
The Enemy
- Raids Build Up Gradually: Enemy raids come one at a time at first, from the , and grow in size and spread to the and the as the war goes on. Nuclear strikes on cities are held back until it escalates.
- Raids From The : As a war goes on, raids also come in from the , and each raid's approach varies, so the threat axis is harder to predict.
- Raids Keep Coming: In long games the enemy campaign no longer stops for good after a few waves. It keeps sending raids until its aircraft are used up or time runs out.
- Realistic Enemy Altitudes: Enemy aircraft fly at altitudes that suit their type and mission instead of all cruising at 35,000 ft. Backfires and Fencers come in low and pop up to fire, Bears and Blackjacks stay high, and escorts fly top cover.
- Enemy Chaff: Enemy aircraft release chaff when your fighters fire radar-guided missiles at them. It shows on your radar behind them and makes the missile less likely to hit.
- Enemy Tankers: Enemy tankers reused by later waves begin a fresh mission, and tankers that had already completed their mission before a save retire on load instead of remaining as stationary contacts that can prevent a campaign victory.
- Spy Aircraft Nationality: Iranian and Chinese aircraft you intercept are called by their own nationality on the radio, and no longer answer "we will comply" in a Russian pilot's voice.
Your Fighters
- Fighters Defend Themselves: When an enemy fighter fires at one of your fighters, the pilot breaks to put the shooter's radar on the beam and releases chaff, then carries on with the task. Defending cuts the enemy missile's chance of a kill, and Tornados carry a realistic chaff load.
- Chaff On The Scope: Chaff released by your fighters shows on the radar as primary returns behind the aircraft, drifting downwind until they disperse a few minutes later.
- Threat Warnings: The fighter controller warns your fighters when enemy fighters turn on them - their clock position, height, speed and whether they are hot, cold or flanking - keeps them updated, and tells them when the threat turns away.
- Fighters Finish The Job: A fighter that shoots down its target and is sent to help another flight no longer heads home early with fuel and weapons left. It takes the next task or goes back to its CAP.
- CAP Keeps Fighting: Fighters on CAP whose target is shot down by someone else take on the nearest hostile within 100 miles before returning to their patrol point.
- Numbered CAPs: CAPs are numbered (CAP 1, CAP 2 ...) on the map, in ASMA, in status updates and in Active Ops, so you can see which fighters are on which CAP. The ASMA sortie summary no longer shows "Cap: Unknown".
- Radio-Failure Escorts: Fighters escorting an aircraft with a radio failure (squawk 7600) get alongside and stay with it to the airfield, the leader on its left and the wingman about two miles out. After "now following" the aircraft follows them and lands there. A save taken during the escort loads with the escort intact, and the pair's RTB message no longer reads "RTB from unknown track".
- Escorting Out Only After A Turn: Your pilots no longer report "escorting out" when the aircraft they intercepted has refused to turn away; the call comes only once it really turns for the FIR boundary.
- Tanker Trips: Fighters sent to a tanker fly to it after one request instead of repeating the call while the controller stays silent. Fighters that have already refuelled no longer fly back to the tanker after their next task, and their status update says RTB. Fighters too far from home to make it back even with full tanks divert to the nearest airfield they can reach instead of repeatedly calling for fuel.
- Calmer Fuel Warnings: A fighter low on fuel no longer floods the console with PAN PAN PAN calls, and fighters short of fuel no longer re-engage after a kill.
- One Engaging Call: Fighter pairs no longer repeat "engaging" several times in a row when switching targets, and no longer chase contacts that have faded from radar.
- Radar Picture Only: Fighters on CAP no longer receive bearing and range calls to enemy aircraft that are not yet on your radar.
- Fading Friendly Markers: Friendly interceptor radar markers fade after a long loss of radar and datalink contact. Brief gaps during refuelling or return to base remain visible, and the aircraft keeps flying and can be reacquired.
- No Weapons, Clear Message: Ordering an aircraft with no weapons left to ENGAGE shows an on-screen message naming the aircraft and target and saying it has no weapons and is returning to base.
- Hercules Loads At Home: A Hercules supplying from the base it is parked at loads straight away instead of taking off and landing back at the same base first.
Music And Radio
- After The Alert: Once the Emergency Alert System has sounded, a nuclear-tension theme plays.
- Fighter Down: When a friendly aircraft is shot down, an on-screen alert names it and a "fighter down" sting plays, followed by one of three dread themes, played once in full. Another plays only if a further friendly aircraft is lost after it has ended.
- Critical Soundtrack: The Critical-tension soundtrack falls silent under the fighter-down music, and after a dread theme it stays off until tension drops below Critical.
- Other Channels: Other sorties' bunker controllers (the Master Controller, weapons controllers and allocators) can be heard faintly in the background while you are tuned to another channel, with an OTHER CHANNELS volume slider in Settings.
- Quieter FIR Boundary: The loud drone that played when enemy aircraft neared the FIR boundary has been removed.
- EW Contact Sound: A sound plays when a new EW diamond (partial or full) appears on the radar.
- Tanker Crews Speak For Themselves: Tankers report returning to base, JOKER and BINGO fuel in their own crew voice instead of a fighter pilot's, and the odd-sounding "Saintex" has been re-recorded.
- Marham And Waddington Fighters Get Their Calls: HAVOC (Marham) and KESTREL (Waddington) flights have the controller's full set of calls: the visual identification exchange is no longer skipped, and every controller call addresses them by callsign.
- Controller Call Openings: The controller's "Bogey now, bra" and "Bogey, bra" openings have been re-recorded so the last word is no longer cut short.
- Gamecock Pilot Voice: Gamecock pilots no longer slip into an Australian or American-sounding accent on some radio calls.
Active Ops, ASMA And The Map
- Task Filter: A new TASK row in Active Ops (QRA, INT, CAP, ESC, AAR, TRG, RTB, SUP) shows only the aircraft on that tasking, with a count for each.
- Who Is On Which Tanker: Fighters, AWACS and Nimrod heading to or refuelling from a tanker are listed beneath that tanker, indented, and appear under the AAR filter.
- Support Aircraft Messages: Clicking a tanker, AWACS, Nimrod or logistics row in Active Ops filters ASMA to that aircraft's own messages.
- ASMA Sortie Filter: Filtering ASMA to one sortie shows only that sortie: Sortie 1 no longer also shows Sortie 10 to 19 (and the same for every other number).
- Sharper Map Area Names: The AD training areas, air-to-air refuelling areas (AARA), danger areas and custom map outlines draw their names in the same smooth text as the rest of the map, at the same size.
- Zoom To The Cursor: The mouse wheel zooms towards the point under your cursor instead of the centre of the screen.
- Status Panel: The CRITICAL label at the top of the screen lines up with the other status boxes in smaller windows.
Civil Traffic
- 1998 Runway Capacity: Civil traffic follows each airport's real 1998 runway capacity: flights bound for a busy airport wait at their origin until it can take them, and departures are spaced by the runway.
- No More Pop-Up Airliners: New airliners no longer appear out of nowhere in the middle of their route: departures start at their airport and climb out, and inbound flights enter from beyond radar cover.
- Airliners Fly Their Own Flight Plans: Airliners no longer cruise across the country at 3,000 ft, sit at 0 ft, or head for the wrong airport's approach. Loading a save puts any affected airliner back on its own flight plan, climbing to its cruising level.
- Approaches And Holds After Loading A Save: After loading a save, airliners already on approach no longer turn away from final into a holding stack, and airliners waiting in a holding stack leave it one at a time onto their approach instead of descending to land inside the hold.
- Diverted Airliners Land At Stansted And Gatwick: Airliners sent from the Heathrow holds to Stansted or Gatwick when they run short of fuel land there, instead of sitting over the airfield sinking towards the ground. Loading a save brings any already stuck there in to land.
- Dublin Flight Plans: Flight plans for airliners heading to Dublin run all the way to Dublin, so they no longer look as if they have strayed before landing there.
- Hijacks You Can Respond To: Hijacks happen to airliners at cruising height instead of light aircraft about to land, and a hijacked airliner turns for Stansted as announced.
- Emergency Calls: The fighter controller no longer gives the nearest airfield when a civilian aircraft declares an emergency; that call is for your own military aircraft.
- Flight Info Speeds Match: The Flight Info MAX SPD and CEILING always match the Aircraft Data tab, and airliners no longer fly faster than the max speed shown.
Smoother Frame Rate
- Radar Clutter At Speed: Radar clutter keeps sweeping with the beam at x5 and faster instead of freezing, and only the lit returns are drawn, so the game runs much faster with clutter on.
- Busy Games Run Faster: The menu bar, the flight plans panel, airborne AWACS, the radar sweep and the map labels now do much less work every frame.
Bug Fixes
- Paused In The Background: The game pauses while its window is in the background and resumes at the same speed when you return.
- Intercepts Outside UK Airspace: In a QRA intercept of a Russian aircraft outside UK airspace, the Master Controller no longer says the target is inside the FIR, and the warning procedure starts when the aircraft actually enters it.
- Stalled Intercepts Of Russian Probes: After fighters broke off a Russian probe without going home (a CAP pair returning to its patrol, a retask, or the last fighter lost), the next probe's intercept could stall after the visual ident, with the fighters just following the bombers. The merge call and the full warning procedure now play.
- Descriptions After A Missile Kill: When a fighter shot down the aircraft it was describing with a missile, the pilot carried on with the description. It now stops, as it already did for a gun kill.
- Civilian Losses: An enemy fighter firing at a civilian aircraft is reported as CIVILIAN UNDER ATTACK, and its loss as CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT LOST.
- AWACS Redeploy: Redeploying an AWACS no longer stops you tasking another AWACS from the same base, and a refused AWACS or Nimrod tasking plays a warning sound.
- Steady Speeds At High Frame Rates: Aircraft no longer fly faster than their shown speed on high-refresh-rate screens or at very high frame rates.
Air Defender Changelog
Version 0.8.2.0
This update is about how a game begins and how the enemy behaves once you meet it. Instant Action no longer buries you before your aircraft are airborne, a Peacetime start no longer plays out to the same script every time, intercepted aircraft can now refuse to turn, and Russian pilots of every type answer you on the radio. It also brings the enemy escort doctrine and tanker support from the previous batch of reports.
A Slower, Smarter Start
- Time To Get Airborne: In Instant Action, or whenever tension reaches Critical, the first raid now arrives after 30 to 60 game minutes depending on your experience level, instead of 15. Get an AWACS on station with two pairs of interceptors airborne and the enemy comes for you sooner. A message on the console tells you the clock is running.
- A Probing First Raid: The opening raid is small, aimed at your radars and airfields rather than your cities, so your first intercept is a fight you can win.
- Raids That React To You: Later raids are launched when the previous one is engaged, crosses the coast or is dealt with, rather than on a fixed timer. There is a limit to how many raids can be in the air at once, and it grows as the campaign goes on and with your experience. A raid will still come eventually if you sit and wait.
- Peacetime Is No Longer Predictable: The first spoofer and the first emergency now arrive at a different time and from a different place each game, and only one thing happens at a time while you find your feet. Radar and base failures no longer land on the same minute for players who identify traffic quickly, and different airliners turn out to be spies from one game to the next.
- Zombies In Every Game: Every session now carries at least one airliner route from a country of interest, so Zombie contacts can appear in every game rather than only when the traffic draw happened to include one.
Intercepts That Can Fail
- They Do Not Always Comply: An intercepted Russian or Iranian aircraft no longer turns away every time. Each raid decides once, with the odds depending on what it is and how tense things are: a lone airliner spoofer usually complies, an escorted bomber often does not. A refusing raid holds its course, the console reports it as not complying, and after the repeated warning it gets one more chance to think again. What happens next is your call.
- Russian Pilots Talk Back: MiG, Sukhoi and Tu-160 crews now answer the interceptor on the radio, not just Bears. Outside our airspace they tell you to stay clear, over land they claim to be on an exercise, and a crew that refuses your order says so, in Russian-accented English, with the words posted to the console.
Enemy Escorts And Tankers
- Fighting By The Book: Enemy fighter escorts now fight the way Russian fighters were trained to in 1998. One pair takes each interceptor, the leader shoots while the wingman covers, they fire two missiles and break away to assess before attacking again. A raid no longer masses its fire on one aircraft.
- Realistic Escort Numbers: Raids bring two to four fighter escorts, the number a regiment could actually put up, instead of up to eight.
- Tanker Support: Enemy raids bring an Il-78 tanker that orbits far out behind the raid. Escort fighters have limited time on station: when they run low they break off, top up and rejoin, and if the tanker is gone they turn for home. Find and kill the tanker and the raid loses its escorts.
Air Defender Changelog
Version 0.8.1.0
A focused follow-up to the 0.8 release, built almost entirely from your reports. Interceptors now go back where they belong after a task, the enemy keeps fighting to the end of a campaign instead of going quiet, and the radio says the right thing about the aircraft you are looking at.
Interceptors Return To Station
- Back To Patrol, Not To Base: A pair pulled off a standing patrol to make an intercept now returns to that patrol once the job is done, whether it ended in a kill or an identification. Previously they would set off home instead, leaving the patrol empty for the rest of the watch.
- No More Shadowing A Cleared Airliner: Once a flight has identified a civilian and cleared it, it breaks away and resumes its patrol rather than staying in formation with the airliner.
- The Right Call On The Radio: A flight heading back to its patrol is no longer announced as returning to base.
The Enemy Fights To The Finish
- Raids Continue Until The Force Is Spent: In a Critical campaign the attack no longer stops once the enemy's bombers are used up. The remaining strike aircraft and fighters now come in on their own and press the attack until the whole force is gone.
- Fighter Sweeps: Leftover interceptors that previously turned for home the moment they arrived now come in together as a fighter sweep, led from the front, and show up properly on your scope.
Radio & Identification Accuracy
- Correct Airline Radio Callsigns: Airlines are now read on the radio by their real callsign rather than their brand name. DHL Air is "World Express", Eastern Airways is "Eastflight", Atlantic Airlines is "Neptune" and Airtours is "Kestrel". Two airlines that were sharing a single spoken callsign now have their own.
- Missile Lock Names The Contact: The missile lock message identifies the track it has locked and gives its actual identification, instead of describing every contact as hostile - including airliners still under identification.
Air Defender Changelog
Version 0.8
The biggest update to Air Defender since release, and everything since 0.7.0.0 is in it. Every pilot and controller has been re-voiced, interceptors now describe what they see, intercepts of formations and civilian traffic run through to a proper conclusion, airborne aircraft can be diverted to another airfield and relaunched, and fuel burn now scales with difficulty. Underneath sits a long list of fixes from your reports plus intercept procedure, radio, radar, save and performance improvements.
New: Full Pilot & Controller Re-Voice
Every radio call in the game has been re-recorded for realism.
- Pilots Speak Naturally: Interceptor pilots now speak their full callsign and flight number in a single natural take, with authentic British accents, across intercept, weapons, fuel, tanker and identification calls.
- Three Pilot Voices: Each sortie is assigned one of three pilot voices, so different flights sound like different people. Fox, RTB, Bingo, Joker, PAN-PAN and MAYDAY calls all use the pilot's own voice.
- Two Weapons Controllers: A second Weapons Controller now shares the watch, alternating with the first from sortie to sortie and heard through his own distinctive radio channel.
- Full BRA Calls: The Weapons Controller now opens every intercept call properly: your callsign, the Buchan station ident, a Bandit or Bogey preamble, then bearing, range, altitude in feet and aspect. Wording varies from call to call, calls pace themselves correctly at time acceleration, and picture calls reach out to 200 nautical miles.
- New Controller Calls: "New picture" when you retask airborne interceptors, a crossing call as fighters close within 30 miles, "Descend to target altitude" against low-flying targets, varied descent reports, and conflicting-traffic advisories to which the pilot responds, searches and reports visual.
- Every Airfield Named: All 61 airfields and diversion destinations, the Leeming, Leuchars and Coningsby ops rooms, all seven tanker callsigns and every compass sector in Track of Interest reports now have their own consistent voice lines.
New: Visual Identification
- Pilots Report What They See: Once a flight has called TALLY, the controller asks for identification and the pilot describes the aircraft: the operator, engines and registration, the number and type of any fighter escorts, or the Russian airframe hiding under a false callsign right down to the aerials on its back.
- Natural Registration Reads: Registrations are read as a single natural transmission for every one of the 633 civilian aircraft in the game.
New: Real 1998 Squadron Callsigns
- Authentic Callsigns: Interceptors now use the real 1998 RAF squadron callsigns for Leuchars, Leeming, Coningsby and Lossiemouth, 57 in total, with full controller and pilot voice coverage.
- Callsign Rotation: Every new sortie takes the next callsign from its base's pool, so no two flights on the same watch sound alike.
New: Formation & Reinforcement Intercepts
- One Raid, One Procedure: A four-ship intercepting a formation now acts as a single unit on the radio, with one merged call, one visual identification and one escalation ladder for the whole raid. The flight lead owns the calls and the whole flight stands down together when the target complies.
- Reinforcements Join Quietly: Later sorties joining an identified raid inherit the identification instead of repeating it. A fresh sortie sent after the first has gone home goes straight to the final turn-away-or-be-shot-down warning.
New: Civilian Landing Escort
- Escort to Touchdown: An intercepted airliner that is landing at its filed destination now gets a proper ending. The controller confirms it appears to be landing as filed and orders an escort, your interceptors follow it down, and the pilot reports the landing before returning to base.
New: DIVERT to Another Airfield
- Alternate Airfield Recovery: Airborne fighters, AWACS, Nimrod and tankers can be sent to another operational airfield with DIVERT from Active Operations or the aircraft's right-click controls, then resupplied and relaunched from the new base. Diverted pairs stay together and relaunch as a pair.
New: Interceptor Fuel & Endurance
Interceptor fuel burn now adapts to your selected difficulty setting.
- Hard: Realistic period-accurate baseline.
- Normal: Half rate, so interceptor sortie endurance doubles.
- Easy: One-tenth rate, for extended endurance in 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.
- Period-Accurate Endurance: Fuel capacities, drop tanks and burn rates have been reviewed across the military fleet and scale correctly with simulation speed.
New: Zombie Classification
- Zombie (Z): Confirmed aircraft from configured countries of interest are now classified Zombie, automatically on Easy and Normal and manually on Hard.
Interceptor Tasking
- SHADOW: The tasking button previously labelled ESCORT is now SHADOW, matching what the aircraft actually does.
- Clear Tasking: Active Identify, Engage and Shadow assignments are shown by a strike-through on both the tasked interceptor and its target.
- Whole-Flight Commands: BUSTER, CRUISE and ECO now apply to the entire flight, including aircraft returning to base. Aircraft refuelling at a tanker finish taking on fuel before automatically rejoining their flight's new tasking, and every member of a four-ship comes onto a new target.
- CAP Tasking: CAP orders now get a proper allocator acknowledgement naming your airfield and aircraft type, and you are told on ASMA if an aircraft cannot accept the task.
Fixes From Your Reports
Thank you to everyone who reported issues on Discord and through the feedback form. All of the following are resolved in this release.
- Boscombe Down Heritage Fighters: The Lightning F6 and Phantom FGR2 are now available at Boscombe Down from the start of every watch.
- Loading Mid-Session: Loading a save from the pause menu now restores the complete radar picture, keeps sortie radio-channel numbers in their original launch order, plays each radio call once, keeps inbound airliners heading for their destination, and preserves radar outage effects.
- Map Markers Clear: CAP, AWACS and SIGINT markers and range rings are removed from the map once the flight has returned home.
- Enemy Raids: Bomber missile volleys now fire toward their target from the first launch, and bombers no longer re-attack an empty patch of sea.
- FOX 3: Sea Harrier FA.2 AMRAAM shots now use the correct FOX 3 brevity call.
- Panels Come Forward: Clicking anywhere on a panel brings it to the front, not just its title bar.
- Airborne Asset Details: Track data for your own airborne assets stays visible and clickable throughout the watch, and a stray press of the Delete key can no longer hide it.
- Pausing Safely: A long stay in the pause menu no longer causes enemy aircraft to vanish or triggers a spoofer escape penalty.
- Fair Coaching: The ASMA mentor no longer penalises you for a hostile formation that already has an intercept committed against it.
- Automatic Stand-Down: A scramble request is cancelled automatically when its target turns back at the airspace boundary before launch.
- Disguised Aircraft Stay in Play: Deception aircraft flying under a false callsign now always complete their route out of UK airspace before leaving the radar picture, so an escort sortie runs through to its conclusion instead of ending part-way.
Intercept Procedure
- Realistic Compliance: Aircraft that comply after a warning now genuinely turn away, out toward the edge of UK airspace, and must hold that course for a sustained 30 seconds before the pilot reports them complying. Leaving UK airspace still counts immediately.
- Sensible Pursuit: Interceptors no longer chase a departing aircraft deep into Europe. Once it has left UK airspace and is clearly flying away, the flight declares it complying and returns home. Outbound targets remain on radar until well clear, so an intercept in progress can complete.
- Realistic Descents: Interceptors descend at military rates to meet low-flying targets and only call TALLY once they are actually near the target's altitude.
- Hostile Targets Conclude: Aircraft you have marked HOSTILE now get a proper conclusion: interceptors report compliance and return, or the WEAPONS HOT alert fires when the final warning is ignored at heightened tension. At Critical tension, targets already classified Hostile skip the identification calls and go straight to engagement.
- Complete Sequences: JUDY, confirm-intentions, shadowing, show-of-presence, show-of-force, turn-away, complying and RTB calls now run reliably through to resolution in every intercept route, inside and outside UK airspace, and resume correctly after loading a save mid-intercept.
- Pair Coordination: Interceptor pairs stay coordinated through retasking, low-fuel decisions, refuelling and emergency recovery, and intercept decisions no longer leave procedures waiting indefinitely.
Radio
- Live Radio: Switching onto a sortie's channel now joins whatever is being said at its live position, exactly like a real radio. Calls play only on their own sortie's channel and never bleed into unrelated frequencies.
- Once Per Flight: Controller readbacks, RTB acknowledgements, splash calls, entering-airspace alerts and escalation calls play once per flight rather than once per aircraft.
- Accurate Emergency Calls: MAYDAY, PAN-PAN and controller responses use the correct speaker, callsign and sequence across every emergency type.
- Traffic Advisories: Conflicting-traffic advisories cover only genuinely separate aircraft, never the target you are intercepting.
- Accelerated Radio: Voice sequences remain smooth, complete and correctly ordered at 2x, 5x and admin time controls.
Radar
- First-Sweep Contact: A radar contact now shows a triangle from the very first sweep that paints it and becomes the usual track symbol when the track forms, so a raw detection is instantly distinguishable from an established track.
- Track of Interest Accuracy: Reports now come from the correct radar station with the correct eight-point compass sector.
- Missile Tracks: Air-to-air missile tracks display a readable type on the data block.
Enemy AI & Deception
- Role-Based Flight Profiles: Enemy aircraft and missiles now fly profiles that match their role and weapon type.
- Campaign Continuity: Enemy campaign waves and victory progress continue correctly after loading a mid-campaign save.
- Identification Discipline: Unidentified hostile aircraft remain concealed until positively identified, then update consistently across the interface.
- Deception Behaviour: Disguised and compliant aircraft restore and manoeuvre reliably after a load.
Civilian Traffic
- Dublin Airport: Irish-bound airliners now descend and land at Dublin.
- Airspace Closure: Closing civilian airspace now halts every new scheduled and offshore-shuttle departure and diverts only physical aircraft, leaving CAP markers and radar ownership untouched.
- Airborne Diversions: Civilian aircraft divert if their destination becomes unavailable while airborne, and arrivals continue sequencing normally after loading an earlier point in a busy watch.
- Civilian Emergencies: Emergency squawks, aircraft identity and radio procedures remain correct throughout an incident, and emergency intercepts clear their operations alerts when resolved.
- ATC Rundowns: ATC rundowns keep their identification choices concise.
Training Missions
- Realistic Pictures: Tunnel Vision and Needle in a Haystack now start with normal civilian traffic on the radar, so the raids and the spoof aircraft have to be picked out from real contacts.
- Reliable Progress: Training missions save and resume correctly at every stage, Weapons Hot kills are scored correctly, and mission instructions no longer carry over into the results screen or a retry.
Save & Load
- Safer Saving: Save writes, rapid save requests and damaged-file handling are more dependable, and the Load Game list opens more quickly when many saves are present.
- Operational State Preserved: Aircraft, weapons, campaign progress, emergency state, support missions, AWACS range rings, civilian aircraft identities and intercepts saved during TALLY or the warning procedure all restore and resume correctly.
- Clean Loads: A loaded watch remains paused until the menu closes, then resumes at the saved speed. Loading a different watch clears effects and alerts left by the watch being replaced, and named saves preserve scenario pacing.
Scoring
- Cruise Missile Kills: Destroying an inbound hostile cruise missile is rewarded as an enemy kill.
- Accurate Rewards: Radar-evasion rewards show the exact XP awarded for the selected difficulty.
- Persistent Statistics: Destroyed-aircraft totals and campaign progress stay attached to the correct saved watch.
General Improvements
- NADOC Critical Briefing: Plays once when Critical is first reached in each watch.
- Settings Remembered: Volume levels, map overlays, zoom, position and line width are kept as you left them between sessions.
- Interface: Escape closes only the active popup or surface, gameplay shortcuts stay inactive while typing, tasked AWACS show their departure countdown, QRA launch closes cleanly, and track, tanker, flight-information and minimised-panel displays are clearer and more stable.
- Nuclear Alerts: Nuclear missile launches now use the Emergency Alert System warning once rather than a looping alert.
- Steam Continuity: Steam and Steam Cloud remain available after returning to the main menu and beginning another watch.
- Graphics Compatibility: The UK coastline displays reliably on Intel integrated graphics.
- 1998 Accuracy: Aircraft identities, callsigns, airfields and civilian operations are aligned to a consistent July 1998 setting, period-authenticated satellite activity can appear through Fylingdales, Tornado F3 and Sea Harrier AIM-9L shots reflect their all-aspect capability while the Lightning's earlier missiles remain rear-aspect, and radar clutter positions have been reviewed.
Performance & Stability
Busy watches now spread radar, airborne surveillance, asset panel, civilian traffic and clutter work more evenly across frames, with far less memory churn during large raids, for noticeably steadier frame pacing. 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 and load glitches, and frame-rate hitches under unusual conditions.
And finally, as always, thank you so much for your support and feedback. Together we'll make this the best air defence simulator on the planet. Per Ardua, Ad Astra.
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).
Current Release
Build 25378621
Uploaded Oct 02, 2026
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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
Needed when extracting (WinRAR / 7-Zip) — not a site login.
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