Step into an RAF Control and Reporting Centre in 1998 and work the scope as Identification Officer, Fighter Allocator and Weapons Controller. Real radar heads, real airfields, real 1998 squadron callsigns and authentic 1998 civil traffic. Built by a former RAF Aerospace Systems Operator who worked these systems.

You push through the anonymous bungalow entrance. The air turns cool and dry as your footsteps carry you down a long concrete corridor, the hum of generators rising beneath the surface. A blast door thuds shut behind you.

The ops room opens out of the dark — banks of green-lit scopes, clipped voices on loop, a quiet urgency in the glow of sweeping radar. A chair slides back at the console. This is your station.

You log in, headset live. Unknowns paint the board. QRA is cocked at readiness. In the next minutes you will build the picture, call the scramble, and vector steel to the merge. The decision is yours.

The Autumn Update is the biggest since Early Access launched in November 2025.

• Full re-voice: every pilot and controller call has been re-recorded, with three pilot voices and full BRA calls.
• Visual identification: pilots now describe the operator, registration, escorts and the Russian airframe hiding under a false callsign.
• Real 1998 squadron callsigns for every QRA base.
• Raids that fight back: intercepted aircraft can refuse to turn, Russian crews answer on the radio, and escorts fight to 1998 doctrine with Il-78 tanker support.
• A smarter start: Peacetime plays out differently every game, and Instant Action gives you time to get airborne.
• DIVERT any airborne asset to another airfield, plus difficulty-scaled fuel burn.

• Combat Ready: the full campaign. Start in Peacetime and handle unknowns, emergencies and spoofers as tension builds to an all-out assault. How you perform shapes the size of the raids. Win and you can carry on in Endless mode.
• Instant Action: straight into Critical tension, with bomber raids inbound and weapons hot.
• Basic Training: two introductory missions, setting identities and managing assets.
• Trade Training: four advanced missions covering intercepts, tanking and deception, with a mentor who nudges you when you're stuck.

Easy, Normal and Hard difficulty settings, a coaching feed that adapts to your experience, a written handover brief at the start of every session, and a full debrief when the campaign is won or lost.

Air Defender is built by one developer. Every soundtrack, patch and piece of merch you buy helps fund its development.