Laser Codes

The Laser tab shows the aircraft's whole lettered laser-code table, and is where you enter the codes of anyone outside the flight who will be lasing for it.

It appears for the two airframes that carry a whole table of codes:

• the AH-64D, with 16 lettered slots (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R -- the letters the cockpit buttons map to; I and O are skipped)
• the OH-58D, with 8 numbered ones

How the slots fill

1. Crew first, by position. Crew 1 takes slot A, crew 2 takes B, and so on, using the Laser Code on the Flight Members tab. A crew member with no code leaves their letter empty rather than shifting everyone up, so a pilot's code is always in the letter matching their position -- in both cartridge formats.
2. Other units next, in the order you list them, filling the slots after the last crew row. That's the last row, not the last row with a code: typing a code into an empty crew row later can't shuffle the other units out from under the brief.

The table shows every slot with what it will hold, so nothing about the upload has to be inferred. What an untouched slot carries depends on the aircraft: on the Apache it reads 1111, the module's own default. On the Kiowa it reads --, because the cartridge always writes eight codes and the ones you don't fill come up as the exporting pilot's squadron laser codes -- so each pilot's cartridge keeps their own.

Other units

Add a row for each outside unit that lases -- a scout flight, a ground tactical commander, a JTAC -- with a label saying who it is and their four-digit code. The row tells you which slot it landed in (→ slot C), or why it didn't: the code isn't finished, isn't a code the aircraft can produce, or there is no free slot left.

Labels are for your reference. The cartridge carries codes only, so name them however reads best in the brief.

Where the codes go

Both Apache cartridges carry the same table, so a pilot finds their code in the same letter whichever they load:

• The in-game DTC (.dtc) writes all 16 channels; untouched ones stay at 1111.
• The DCS-DTC cartridge writes only the slots you set.

The Kiowa's cartridge always carries all eight codes, in the order the table shows them.

See Export for how to get either one.