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Unfamiliar word? Select a dotted-underlined term for its meaning.
Give the order to your aircraft
- Find your interceptor’s callsign in ACTIVE OPS or on the scope. Right-click that interceptor, not the contact you want it to investigate.
- Choose IDENT to investigate a contact or SHADOW to follow it. ENGAGE is a weapons task: use the identification and engagement distinction before choosing it.
- Read TASKING SELECT (ASMA) if it appears; it names the aircraft and the kind of target the game is waiting for. When you choose the order through the other fighter in a pair, this message can be omitted. The order still needs your target click.
- Click the intended contact on the scope, outside other panels. Check the contact’s serial before clicking.
- If TASK ASSIGNED (ASMA) appears, check the named flight and target. This heading can be omitted when you use the other fighter in a pair. Compare both fighters’ current tasks in ACTIVE OPS and follow their response on the scope.
What changes together?
These task commands are issued to the launch group, not just the symbol you clicked. Check the other members before treating this as an individual-aircraft order. Aircraft already in a refuelling sequence may not turn at the same moment as the rest of the flight.
If you click empty space
IDENT, ENGAGE and SHADOW need a track. In the right-click task-selection path, an empty-map click cancels that selection. Reopen the fighter’s menu and choose the task again. CAP is different: it accepts a location.
Cancel before choosing the target
Press Escape while the right-click menu is waiting for a target. This cancels that pending selection. Once a task has been accepted, closing the menu does not undo it; issue the task you now want or order RTB.
Use ACTIVE OPS as an alternative
- Open ACTIVE OPS, match your fighter’s callsign and choose ID to investigate a contact, ENG for a weapons task, or CAP for a patrol position.
- For ID or ENG, click the intended contact’s origin symbol or identity letter, outside panels. Clicking empty map leaves this choice waiting. Pick the correct live contact or cancel; do not keep clicking its old position.
- Read the ASMA response and check the new task. For an accepted airborne ID or ENG order through this route, the heading can be MISSION ASSIGNED. INTERROGATE in its text means the ID investigation task here.
Cancel an ACTIVE OPS target choice
- Before choosing a target, move the pointer over clear map space and press Escape. In this selection path, panels can block Escape while the pointer is over them.
- CANCEL TASK in the ASSETS header is a different cancellation route: it can order that fighter to return to base and land. Use it only with that consequence in mind.
- Escape ends only the waiting choice; it does not order RTB. CANCEL TASK can replace the fighter’s current task with RTB. Check the same callsign’s task and movement afterwards.
If the right-click menu is disabled
Open the selected aircraft’s AC Control tab and use ENABLE RIGHT CLICK MENU. The tab also offers the main task controls directly.
Understand who gets the order
Read pairs and launch groups before treating a selected track as a single-aircraft order. If the aircraft has become unpaired and you want its previous partner back, follow REJOIN and its response messages.
Read the tasking response
| Message | What it tells you and what to do |
|---|---|
| TASKING SELECT | The game is waiting for your target click. The new task has not been assigned yet. Match the fighter callsign, then click the intended live contact. |
| TASK ASSIGNED | The command was accepted. Match the flight and target, then check the actual task in ACTIVE OPS. At Critical tension, IDENT against an already Hostile (H) contact can become ENGAGE; read the Critical-tension exception. The requested button name alone is not a guarantee of a non-firing task. |
| TASK FAILED · target not found | The selected target could not be found when the order was processed. Find its current track again; do not click an old position and assume the fighter has a new target. Read what a faded track means. |
| TASK REJECTED · friendly military aircraft | The game refuses IDENT or ENGAGE against a protected friendly military aircraft. Check which track you clicked. To read a friendly aircraft’s information, use Aircraft Data rather than ordering an intercept. |
| QRA LAUNCH BLOCKED | A group that is still at a base could not complete its preparation to depart. Read the reason and follow the availability and servicing checks. Repeated clicks do not supply missing fuel. |
| MISSION REASSIGNED | The aircraft has changed jobs. Read the full message: it may describe a temporary task, or say that training or a completed refuelling task has ended. Training does not automatically resume after this change. Match the flight and target, then check its current task. |
A menu closing, a selection instruction disappearing or a radio call ending does not prove the new task succeeded. Use the written response and the flight’s current task together.
Check the whole flight after a new order
- Open ACTIVE OPS and find the flight by callsign. Check the new task and target, then compare the other aircraft in its launch group.
- If another member is already taking fuel, an ordinary group target order lets that member finish first. Watch its fuel and task; do not assume the order failed because every aircraft did not turn together. See fighter refuelling.
- A new target order can reach a group member that was returning to base. The order does not add fuel. Check fuel and the return journey before extending its flight.
- Follow the current messages for that flight. A different target can start a new radio exchange; changing IDENT to ENGAGE on the same target need not produce the same “new picture” call. A missing repeat is not proof that the order failed. Use the sortie communications checks.
What happens when a temporary job ends?
| Response or situation | How to read it |
|---|---|
| MISSION RESTORED | The aircraft has taken up its stored earlier task again. This can be CAP or another valid task. It does not mean it has already flown back to its patrol position. Check its movement and CAP status. |
| TARGET LOST | The fighter reports losing its temporary target. The words “Restoring original mission” do not confirm that it has resumed that task. Check the named flight’s current task and target in ACTIVE OPS, then read its next ASMA response. It may resume the earlier task, follow another target, or return to base. If it is returning, follow RTB through to landing. This is a different report from TARGET LOST RADAR. |
| MISSION COMPLETE · returning to base | The temporary job has ended and the aircraft is returning. Its earlier target may no longer exist, or its earlier state may have been waiting at a base. Follow RTB through to landing. |
| A target disappears while the fighter is investigating | The next action depends on the current task and situation. A temporary task can give way to an earlier valid task or the pair’s ongoing task; another case can lead to RTB. A communications-emergency escort has its own behaviour. Read the actual response instead of assuming every missing track means destruction or an immediate return. |
This automatic return to a stored task is different from cancelling a map selection. There is no general “undo my last order” promise. If you want a specific new task, select it deliberately and check the result. Read selection cancellation and emergency handling for those separate cases. A training exercise ended by a new task is not kept for automatic resumption. A refuelling task that has already finished is not restarted just because a later task ends.
Training and Hawk tasking in v0.8.16.0
Use TRG to send an eligible fighter pair on an air combat training exercise. Before its map point is chosen, Escape or CANCEL TASK cancels only that TRG placement. Below Critical tension, the Hawk T1A accepts training and redeployment, while combat tasking such as ID, ENG and CAP is refused. Check the tension level and the refusal message before repeating an order.