Jane's Fighter Anthology: The USNRaptor campaigns

17 hours ago
5 min read

A guide to the fan-made USNRaptor campaigns for Jane's Fighters Anthology (JFA). Those old-hands of JFA are probably already well aware of the dedicated work by USNRaptor in creating some of the premier fan-made JFA campaigns available.

For those that are new to JFA or to those that have only played the official campaigns and are looking for more JFA, the USNRaptor campaigns provide a huge amount of high quality extra JFA. This is a quick guide on what's available, where to find them and some hints on running fan-made campaigns.

Website and Discord

For those interested in USNRaptor's campaigns, it is highly recommended to visit USNRaptor's Jane's Fighters Anthology for more information and many other resources related to JFA.

For those that frequent Discord, the Combat Flight Sim Tavern server hosts a number of Jane's Fighters Anthology channels.

Existing game preparation

If JFA has already been installed then there is some preparation work to ensure the campaigns will work properly. This advice applies to any JFA fan made campaign not just the USNRaptor campaigns.

Standard game library timestamps

The issue is described in USNRaptors Installation Guide for Win10/11 Users. To summarize:

If JFA has been recently installed, the timestamps on the standard JFA game libraries will match the installation date, e.g. 1st August 2026.

Fan made campaigns created prior to this date, will use libraries with an earlier timestamp, e.g 1st March 2020.

JFA will use data from the latest library it can find. This means that incorrect data could be used, if taken from a standard library (with a later timestamp, 1st August 2026) rather than from the intended campaign library (with an earlier timestamp, 1st March 2020).

If you wish to use your existing game installation with these campaigns you may need to change the standard game libraries timestamps to a much earlier date. Fortunately this is straightforward using the Win10/11 PowerShell.

Note: Powershell can be found in the Start Menu. It should be run as Administrator.

Assuming D:\Fighters Anthology is the installation folder then:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cd "D:\Fighters Anthology"
PS D:\Fighters Anthology> (Get-Item FA_1.LIB).creationtime=$(Get-Date "1/1/1998 1:00am")
PS D:\Fighters Anthology> (Get-Item FA_1.LIB).lastwritetime=$(Get-Date "1/1/1998 1:00am")
...
PS D:\Fighters Anthology> exit

Changes the creation and last modified date of the FA_1.LIB standard JFA library to a much earlier 1st Jan 1998 at 1:00am timestamp.

This should be repeated for the other standard JFA libraries listed below:

FA_2.LIB
FA_3.LIB
FA_4B.LIB
FA_4C.LIB
FA_4D.LIB

FA_7.LIB
FA_10.LIB
FA_10B.LIB
FA_11.LIB
FA_11B.LIB

This ensures fan-made campaigns will always be using the correct data from campaign libraries, if required..

Shapefix library

This library uses aircraft models imported from some of earlier games comprising the anthology to improve aircraft models in JFA. This library is not compatible with the USNRaptor campaigns and should not be used.

Campaigns

All campaigns are stand-alone, and only require a properly installed JFA, patched to v1.02, and libraries properly time stamped using the year 1998.. All missions playable as both single and campaign missions.The campaigns are listed alphabetically.

Aegean Campaign 1997

Aegean Campaign 1997 is a 40 mission fictional campaign. Missions involve seven different mission types flying eight different aircraft.

The campaign includes new aircraft and vehicle textures.

A great campaign for beginners and returning players.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Ukraine Campaign 1994.

Available from Aegean Campaign 1997.

Baltic Campaign 1976

Baltic Campaign 1976 is a 40 mission NATO campaign and a 40 mission USSR campaign, based on a customised JFA Baltic 2009 campaign.

Missions involve six mission types flying nine aircraft for NATO and seven mission types flying ten aircraft for the USSR.

The campaign includes a wide range of shapes/textures from many other user mods and improved aircraft, ordnance, ships, and weapon systems. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player.

Available from Baltic Campaign 1976.

Egypt Campaign 1995

Egypt Campaign 1995 is a 40 mission campaign, based on a customised JFA Egypt campaign.

Missions involve six mission types flying eight aircraft. A great campaign for beginners and returning players.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Israel Campaign 2001.

Available from Egypt Campaign 1995.

Israel Campaign 2001

Israel Campaign 2001 is a 40 mission campaign based on a highly customised version of an earlier USNRaptor Israel Campaign 2001.

Missions involve eight mission types flying nine aircraft. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Egypt Campaign 1995.

Available from Israel Campaign 2001.

Korea Campaign 2024

Korea Campaign 2024 is a 40 mission campaign. This campaign is a culmination of 20 years of work from various JFA modders across a multitude of projects.

The campaign uses modified aircraft, weapons, ships and SAMs in addition to all new terrain.

Changes include Chinese Aircraft Carrier, armed Guard Towers, IRBMs, M48 Patton Tanks, Trains, and suicide-bomb Trucks. Modified AN-2, IL-76, MiG-19, and P-3.

Missions involve thirteen aircraft and a driveable M163 Vulcan AAA vehicle, updated Korean Map & In-Flight Map, new information files for the MIM-104 and S-300, six new voice-sound files, and several new scenery objects.

Expert missions, suitable for seasoned FA players.

Available from Korea Campaign 2024.

Kuril Islands Campaign 2018

Kuril Islands Campaign 2018 is a 35 mission campaign featuring a new Su-27 Flanker, improved SAMs and an F-35B with stability and texture improvements.

Missions involve seven mission types using three aircraft, AV-8B+, F/A-18D, and F-35B. A mix of fairly easy and very challenging missions.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Taiwan Campaign 2014.

Available from Kuril Islands Campaign 2018.

Taiwan Campaign 2014

Taiwan Campaign 2014 is a 40 mission campaign. It features new aircraft, ships, and self-propelled AAA units, improved AT-3, F-CK-1C/D, C-2A and P-3 textures.

Missions involve eight mission types using eight aircraft. Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Kuril Islands Campaign 2018.

Available from Taiwan Campaign 2014.

Ukraine Campaign 1994

Ukraine Campaign 1994 is a 50 mission campaign. It is a completely new campaign drawing inspiration from the original JFA Ukraine campaign. Missions involve seven different types flying four different aircraft, A-6E, F-14B and F/A-18C/D.

New and improved aircraft, ships, and weapon systems including C-2A, Su-27, P-3 and F-14.

Moderately difficult missions, making it suitable for the experienced JFA player.

Note: This campaign is bundled with the Aegean Campaign 1997.

Available from Ukraine Campaign 1994.

Vietnam Campaign Set

This is a compilation of all four USNRaptor Vietnam Campaigns: Rolling Thunder, Linebacker and Yankee Station 1964 & 1972, packaged together into one set. It comprises of 130 missions across the entire duration of the war.

Eight different mission types flown with over a dozen aircraft. An advanced campaign suitable for expert players.

Available from Vietnam Campaign.

Finally...

Credit and huge thanks goes to USNRaptor for all the hard work in creating this extensive set of campaigns and for allowing their use in this article.

Good hunting!