[Sunburn]

Originally Posted by hellfish6

I remember one of the things that irked me in H3 and JFC was outdated and outclassed aircraft taking on and often beating more advanced aircraft. I remember one scenario from H3 where a couple of Somali MiG-17s took out a dozen US Navy fighters, seemingly due to random die rolls and/or lack of micromanagement of a dozen F-4s on my part... how much of an issue will this be in RP?

Instances such the one you describe are fairly common in legacy wargames due to a combination of factors, such as:
* Absence of realistic kinematics (e.g. you shoot your BVR missile at me, I turn on a dime, insta-accelerate and insta-drop to the deck = I evade a missile I wouldn't be able to in RL)
* Absence of realistic sensor & weapon characteristics & limitations (e.g. I'm an F-111 going supersonic down in the weeds and a MiG-21 can detect and shoot me as easily as if I was a B-52 in the clear blue sky.... yeah right)
* Absence of common-sense AI in fighting priorities (note to F-14 jocks: When out of long-range AAMs, don't wait until you're out of Sidewinders and gun bullets, *head the hell back home*!)
* Simplified modelling of fixed & expendable countermeasures
* Ridiculously simplified air operations (any airbase can launch/recover dozens of aircraft in one go, and you cannot paralyze it by hitting its taxiways or parking spaces as in RL)

All of the above factors, and more, have been rectified in Red Pill and air confrontations are significantly more sophisticated and believable as a result. The little guy still has a chance, but this time not by ignoring the laws of physics.

How will arming planes work? Set loadouts? Can players pick and choose down to the individual platform level?

Yes, and loadouts are more flexible now. You can, for example, load an aircraft with a strike loadout even if it's missing a Sidewinder or a fuel tank.

Any capability to model WX or MX conditions?

Please elaborate.

Will there be a demo/beta demo?

There will almost certainly be a public beta.

How moddable will it be? Can I add/build notional platforms in my database if I want to?

Any provision in the near or far term for 3D ship/plane/structure/etc models? Not important to me, but it'd be a nice "to have" sometime down the road.

These are still TBD items.