Khe Sanh Required Mods

Khe Sanh: Operation Niagara — Required Mods & Modules

The squadron's one-stop install list for Caucasus - Khe Sanh: Operation Niagara. Hand this page to anyone joining op night: it says what you must install, what you can fly, what's free vs paid, and exactly where to download it. Read alongside the Campaign Briefing.

🟢 Provenance — read this. This list is read straight from the campaign + faction files (resources/campaigns/khe_sanh_niagara.yaml, resources/factions/USA 1970 Vietnam War.json, resources/factions/nva_1970.json). The airframes and packs below are exactly what the campaign fields and what its requirements/settings flag.

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How to read this page

Retribution generates one mission each turn that contains every flight and unit — yours, your squadmates', the AI support, and the whole red side. So the rule is simple:

• If the mission contains it, every client needs the mod. A free mod that appears anywhere in the .miz is required for everyone, even if you never fly it — without it the mission won't load and you'll fail the multiplayer integrity check. The OV-10 Bronco is a free mod that's in the mission, so it's required for the whole squadron, not "only if you fly FAC."
• Paid DCS store modules are the one exception. DCS will load a mission containing a paid aircraft you don't own — it just shows up as AI you can't take. So you only need a paid module to pilot that seat yourself.
• Some airframes ship with DCS (core AI units) — nothing to download at all.

Three buckets, in order: §1 install these (required, all free) → §2 what you can fly → §3 comes with DCS.

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TL;DR — op-night install

1. Install every mod in §1. All free, all mandatory for everyone — the mission is built from them.
2. To fly a fast-mover or the Huey, also buy its paid module (F-4E, F-100D, or UH-1H). Everything else flyable is already covered by §1.
3. Match versions across the squadron and load mods with a mod manager (see §4).

💡 No paid asset packs needed. Khe Sanh's required content is 100% free mods + core DCS. The NVA used to pull one half-track from ED's paid WWII Assets Pack; it's been swapped for a core-DCS vehicle, so the WWII Assets Pack is no longer required — don't buy it for this campaign.

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1 · Required mods — everyone installs all of these

Every player on the server needs all of these. They're free, and they're in the generated mission — a missing one means the mission won't load / you fail the integrity check.

Mod / pack	What it adds to Khe Sanh	Download
Vietnam War Vessels (VWV) v2.3.0 — Tetet	Yankee Station ships + the period AI aircraft (F-8E, A-1H, RF-101B, RA-5C, EC-121D, MiG-17F — see §3)	Forum thread · GitHub releases
Russian Military Assets Pack — CurrentHill	The NVA ground OOB: [CH] T-54 & PT-76 armor, ASU-85, ZSU/AAA guns, SA-2/SA-3	currenthill.com/russia
OH-6A Cayuse + Vietnam Asset Pack — tobi-be	The OH-6 scout helo and its bundled period assets	github.com/tobi-be/DCS-OH-6A
OV-10A Bronco — Split-Air team	The FAC(A) "Covey" bird (a flyable seat — see §2)	Forum thread
Community A-4E-C Skyhawk	The carrier Skyhawk (a flyable seat — see §2)	GitHub · releases
A-6E Intruder — CorsairCat	The Naval-2 Intruder (a flyable seat — see §2)	github.com/CorsairCat/DCS-A-6E-Intruder
C-130J-30 Super Hercules — Anubis	The Niagara airlift lifeline (a flyable seat — see §2)	Forum thread
F-111C Aardvark — Warpigs	Deep-strike AI the blue faction can field as reinforcements	Forum thread
VSN aircraft collection	Period AI jets (VSN F-100/F-105/F-4 family) the factions can field as reinforcements	VSN mods thread

ℹ️ Why the F-111C / VSN set is on the required list. The starting squadrons don't include them, but the factions can spawn them as reinforcements as the campaign runs — and the moment one lands in a generated mission, every client needs it. Install them up front so a later turn doesn't lock someone out.

All of the above install into Saved Games\DCS\Mods\aircraft\ (aircraft) or ...\Mods\tech\ (asset packs) — follow each mod's own readme if it differs.

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2 · What you can fly — player seats

These are the seats a human can actually take in this campaign. Everything else the mission spawns is AI (see §3 and the VWV note below).

Seat	Role at Khe Sanh	What you need to fly it
OV-10A Bronco	FAC(A) "Covey" / light CAS	Free — the OV-10A mod (already in §1)
A-4E Skyhawk	Carrier Strike / CAS	Free — Community A-4E-C (already in §1)
A-6E Intruder	Naval-2 anti-armor Strike	Free — CorsairCat A-6E (already in §1)
C-130J-30	Airlift (the Niagara lifeline)	Free — Anubis Super Hercules (already in §1)
F-111C Aardvark	Deep strike (reinforcement)	Free — F-111C mod (already in §1)
F-4E-45MC Phantom II	Tbilisi Strike	Paid — DCS: F-4E Phantom II (Heatblur)
F-100D Super Sabre	Tbilisi CAS	Paid — DCS: F-100D Super Sabre (Grinnelli Designs)
UH-1H Iroquois	Air Assault / medevac / resupply	Paid — DCS: UH-1H Huey (Eagle Dynamics)

The three paid seats (F-4E, F-100D, UH-1H) are only needed by the person flying them — AI and other players' copies load fine for everyone via DCS. The five free seats need no extra purchase; you already installed them in §1.

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3 · Comes with DCS / AI-only — no action

Core DCS AI units (ship with the base sim — nothing to download): AH-1W SuperCobra · CH-53E Super Stallion · B-52H Stratofortress · KC-135 Stratotanker · E-2C Hawkeye. These are AI stand-ins — not pilotable.

Inside Vietnam War Vessels (installed in §1 — AI-only, don't go hunting for separate mods): the F-8E Crusader, A-1H Skyraider, RF-101B Voodoo & RA-5C Vigilante (recon), EC-121D Warning Star (AEW&C), MiG-17F Fresco-C (red fighters), plus L-1049 Constellation, O-1 Bird Dog, CH-46D Sea Knight and SH-2F Seasprite. They populate the war as AI — you don't fly these in this campaign even though they appear on the role cards as roles.

Red side (NVA) is all AI: the Mi-8MTV2 (a paid ED module, but red AI here — blue players never need to own it) and the VWV MiG-17F.

Several airframes are deliberate modern stand-ins for the period type (AH-1W for AH-1G, A-6E for A-6A, F-4E for F-4B/C, CH-53E for CH-53) — see the briefing's module note.

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4 · Installing & keeping it tidy

• Aircraft mods → Saved Games\DCS\Mods\aircraft\; asset packs → ...\Mods\tech\ (each mod's readme is authoritative if it differs).
• Use a mod manager (OvGME or DCS-Mod-Manager) so you can disable the whole Vietnam set when you play other servers and re-enable it for op night. Loose mods left in Saved Games can trip the integrity check on some MP servers.
• Match versions across the squadron. Everyone runs the same VWV / CurrentHill / mod versions — a mismatch shows up as missing or wrong units mid-mission. Pin the versions in your squadron's pre-op post.
• Launch Retribution before DCS, then generate and fly the mission as normal (see Getting Started).

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5 · Quick "what do I need?" by role

Everyone: install all of §1 first — that's non-negotiable.

If you're flying…	On top of §1, you also need…
FAC(A) (OV-10A)	nothing — free, already in §1
Carrier Strike / CAS (A-4E / A-6E)	nothing — free, already in §1
Airlift (C-130J-30)	nothing — free, already in §1
Deep strike (F-111C)	nothing — free, already in §1
Tbilisi Strike (F-4E-45MC)	the paid Heatblur F-4E module
Tbilisi CAS (F-100D)	the paid Grinnelli F-100D module
Air Assault / medevac (UH-1H)	the paid ED UH-1H Huey module

Roles like Sandy A-1H, BARCAP F-8E, and photo-recon RF-101B/RA-5C appear on the role cards but are flown by AI in this campaign (VWV birds) — there's no player seat to grab and nothing extra to install beyond §1.

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Sources for this page: the campaign's own khe_sanh_niagara.yaml (squadrons + settings flags), the USA 1970 Vietnam War / nva_1970 faction requirements, and the fork's bundled mod support (pydcs_extensions/). If a download link rots, the mod's name + author is enough to find the current host on the ED Forums.