The calm before the storm: Command PE v2.4.4 is here

May 31, 2026 · Posted in Command PE · Comment

Yes, it’s that time of the year again; CMO v1.09 was released to an enthusiastic welcome to its new features and improvements, and the time is now ripe for a similar update to Command-PE. Version v2.4.4 is now available for download to new and existing CPE users around the world.

Far more than merely “v1.09 for pro users”, however, CPE v2.4.4 offers several significant improvements on both the user interface and the simulation engine, while maintaining the tradition of fixes, tweaks and additions across the board.

On the UI & workflow assets, the emphasis has been on:

Higher-resolution and more accurate coastal terrain modeling
Expanded mission/event scripting flexibility
Faster and more fluid map interaction at scale
Reduced UI friction in scenario design workflows
Improved at-a-glance tactical readability

Some of the main UI improvements:

– A fourth map icon option has been added, for full APP-6 icons.

– The optional high-resolution (DTED-1 equivalent) global terrain dataset has been completely refreshed on the bathymetry side. Using the 2025 version of the GEBCO grid, and enhanced by the EMODNet European coastal bathymetry dataset (https://emodnet.ec.europa.eu/en/bathymetry ), which provides up 115m/cell resolution in its applicable costal areas (Europe + North Africa + Black Sea + Red Sea + Eastern Carribbean). This provides a much higher level of detail for coastal naval & underwater operations. As before, the improved DTED-1 terrain is available through the optional “HD pack” for Premium-license CPE customers.

– The relief + bathymetry layer has been drastically improved, using the above high-resolution DTM as the source, and re-shaded for more finegrained detail up to 600m (maximum depth for vast majority of submersibles).

– You can now assign an event action to a waypoint:

The unit can be obtained by the usual ScenEdit_UnitX().
The waypoint action is a dropdown of the event actions.
The triggering unit and WP IDs are passed as a local Lua table ‘wpAction’. The full details can be accessed thru the SE functions using the unit (wpAction.unit) and wp (wpAction.wp) GUIDs.

– A new “Aggressive Tile Management” option has been added, for a smoother map zoom/pan experience if the GPU hardware supports it.

– You can now search for a specific menu or submenu through a textbox. This can be very useful if you do not remember where a specific menu command is located (“Now, where was that command about jettisoning secondary stores….”). Just type the command text in the textbox and you will jump right into the appropriate menu.

– Range-ring colors have been added as “notches” on the weapons panel, to at-a-glance indicate the target suitability of each weapon.

– Numerous fixes and tweaks have been added on the Area & RefPoint Manager, as well as the Lua API access to it.

The simulation engine has also received a number of significant upgrades:

– Aircraft transported as cargo: You can now load and transport aircraft as cargo, using the existing cargo system and conventions. This can be used to model the transportation of both manned aircraft (as e.g. in operation “Nickel Grass” during the Yom Kippur War) as well as UAVs. For the full details and instructions, see the section “Aircraft As Cargo” on the web-based Command manual: https://command.matrixgames.com/manual/

– Launch speed-dependent variable burnout speed for air-launched boost-coast AAW missiles. In other words: It is now critically important how fast an aircraft is flying when it launches a boost-coast missile (Optional, enabled by default on new-construction scenarios and quick-battles, disabled by default on existing scenarios).
When enabled, the burnout speed (per altitude) of boost-coast AAW missiles now varies according to the launch speed (in addition to the already-important launch altitude). The weapon’s nominal range assumes a M1.5 launch at 36000ft. If the launch speed is lower (which is usually the case), the effective burnout speed and kinematic range of the weapon will be lower; if however the launch speed is higher this can significantly boost both the burnout speed and the reach of the weapon, way above nominal.
A faster burnout speed provides three critical advantages in the BVR “missile joust”, all other factors being equal:
* Your missile flies further out expanding your WEZ and reducing your exposure to counter-fire.
* Your missile flies at higher average speed, which shortens your commit-engage-disengage cycle and may even turn the tide in your favor if the other guy shoots first.
* Your missile will likely arrive at impact with a higher terminal speed, thus improving its hit probability against an alert and evading opponent.

– Numerous new IAMD-related doctrine options have been added, to facilitate a more finegrained degree of control on ABT, BMD and counter-hypersonic engagements.

– Groundbreaking improvements to the modeling of high-energy laser (HEL) weapons against weapon targets. An Achilles heel on the modeling of HELs in Command until has been the fact that weapon targets (e.g. incoming missiles), contrary to platform targets, have no finegrained/gradual damage model, and thus the often limited damage (in energy terms) dealt to them was frequently misrepresented; the laser shot against them either hit them and always insta-killed them, or missed. A more sophisticated model was necessary, one that took into account the fragility/durability of the weapon target as well as the actual energy delivered to it per successful shot (as already calculated on counter-platform engagements).
Therefore, we developed a system for estimating the durability of each weapon type: for example, a common small-size UAV will be exceedingly vulnerable (most UAVs barely hang in the air), whereas an iron bomb with a precision guidance kit is a much tougher proposition. This “target sturdiness” is then compared against the actual energy delivered by the laser impact (as part of this improvement, the atmospheric absorption model was also thoroughly renovated) and a probability of actually destroying the target is generated. As a result of this change, HELs are now much more faithfully modelled against their primary target set; it now become painfully clear why various armed forces worldwide are in a race for extended ranges and particularly vastly higher power output levels.

– Impact angle / crossing-target as a factor in guided weapon endgame calculations. This has been significantly improved since the original flawed implementation, and takes into account factors such as the target’s LOS bearing-rate toward the shooter, the agility & seeker cross-tracking features of the interceptor, the closing rate etc. So for example under the same difficult circumstances (high LOS rate or high closing speed) the modern ESSM suffers much less degradation than the older Sea Sparrow.

– Plus as always numerous smaller tweaks, improvements and fixes to the UI, simulation engine, connectivity and analysis options.

If you are wondering about the title, the CMO/CPE dev team is already relentlessly preparing a triad of new additions that feature prominently on Command’s development roadmap for the latter half of 2026:

Real-time multiplayer on CMO. Need we say more? This has been announced, is already under testing in a closed-beta environment, and feedback is enthusiastic.
Project Hannibal, a radical renovation of close-combat and ground operations in both CMO and CPE. We gave a glimpse of it on last year’s HOW video, but the whole project is vastly more massive than that. Command already has the best ground ops of any game not focused on them, but Hannibal takes it to another level.
A brand new platform-to-platform comms & datalinks model. If you’ve been noticing that “improved comms & datalinks” is increasingly a major part of the equipment focus on either new or upgraded platforms (“Link-16 and IFDL/MADL everywhere!”), this upgrade will clearly show you what these improved comms give you – and what it means to fight an adversary who out-communicates you.

Stay tuned for updates on these and more developments as the year progresses!

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“Tides Of War” and v1.09 update now available!

March 31, 2026 · Posted in Command · Comment

Info on “Tides Of War” DLC

Info on game update

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Companion to Tides Of War: The Command v1.09 update

March 26, 2026 · Posted in Command · Comment

“Tides Of War”, the new DLC pack for Command, is launching very soon. (Make sure you don’t miss its unique new features, such as the persistent campaign progression!). As is often the case, the new DLC release is accompanied by a major CMO engine update, and in the fine tradition of past updates, this one too packs a wallop. The full release notes for the update are available HERE.

Let’s take a quick look through the major additions & tweaks:

* Explicit GNSS jamming and jammer units: This is effectively the follow-on to the abstract GNSS jamming made possible through the “Side Enablers” feature and introduced in v1.08. In addition to defining “access/no access” to specific GNSS networks (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou etc.) at the side- and area-level, you can now use distinct platforms that have the ability to jam these critical systems. Just like with radar & communication jammers, these platforms tend to be expensive and scarce, so you must position them carefully to maximize their coverage and prioritize the assets you wish to protect (or the area to negate). Also similar to other jammer types, their signal can be detected, localized and used to attack these platforms.

Moreover, the way that GNSS disruption affects terminal weapon accuracy has been tweaked. Instead of measuring the “time without a PNT fix” and using that to calculate the INS drift, the simulation now actually keeps track of the last 50 PNT-fix attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) and uses a simulated Kalman filter to derive the final internal drift. This provides a more true-to-life effect on disruption, as (for example) a single PNT fix is not sufficient to fully “reset” the navigation precision to nominal status.

* Salvo simultaneous weapon arrival: “I wish my cruise missiles arrived at the target area in a nice, strung-out line so that the defences could swat them down one by one” – said no strike planner, ever. The navigation logic on weapons that support TOT has been tweaked so that, within a salvo, all weapons will closely bunch up in order to arrive at the target simultaneously, overwhelming the defences. (Inter-salvo coordination remains the responsibility of the player, either manually or through the MDSP).

* Launch speed-dependent variable burnout speed for air-launched boost-coast AAW missiles. In other words: It is now actually important how fast an aircraft is flying when it launches a boost-coast missile (Optional, enabled by default on new-construction scenarios and quick-battles, disabled by default on existing scenarios).
When enabled, the burnout speed (per altitude) of boost-coast AAW missiles now varies according to the launch speed (in addition to the already-critical launch altitude). The weapon’s nominal range assumes a M1.5 launch at 36000ft. If the launch speed is lower (which is usually the case), the effective burnout speed and kinematic range of the weapon will be lower; if however the launch speed is higher this can significantly boost both the burnout speed and the reach of the weapon, way above nominal.
A faster burnout speed provides three critical advantages in the BVR “missile joust”, all other factors being equal:
* Your missile flies further out expanding your WEZ and reducing your exposure to counter-fire.
* Your missile flies at higher average speed, which shortens your commit-engage-disengage cycle and may even turn the tide in your favor if the other guy shoots first.
* Your missile will likely arrive at impact with a higher terminal speed, thus improving its hit probability against an alert and evading opponent.
If you’ve ever wondered why fighters tend to aggressively punch the afterburners while preparing to launch missiles, this new wrinkle will make it abundantly clear.

* Incremental / timestamped saves: You’ve long asked for an easy way to undo/rollback edits or changes on a scenario, and this it. This new feature saves timestamped copies of the played scenario, instead of overwriting the existing scen/save file. This takes up more disk space, but makes it easy to go back to a past version.

* Vast A2AR improvements: An enormous amount of work has been dedicated to improving the mechanics and experience of air refueling operations:
– General reliability whit high sim speed: Increased reliability by throttling down sim speed (from double flame to single flame) when performing or about to perform AAR.– Prioritization and Reservation: Reworked prioritization logic to better handle concurrency between clients in scenarios with few tankers, taking better consideration of other enqueued clients when calculating availability of fuel and refueling equipment on the tanker. Also fixed various issues such as AAR being cancelled right after being scheduled, wrong tanker selection criteria being utilized in various situations.– Execution: Tankers and clients now follow refuel orders even when unassigned or without a course, forced and manual refuel orders are respected and refueling from a tanker that is being refueled is now prevented.Other fixes resolve issues with AAR triggering on the incorrect flight-plan waypoint, cargo missions not refueling on RTB and various other issues that caused AAR doctrine to not be followed as expected.
– Flight Plan Editor: Various fixes, and QOL tweaks to the Flight Plan Editor in the management of Refueling Waypoints and their doctrine setting

* Improved manual salvo control: An “Execute” button has been added to the Manual Weapon Allocation (aka “Shift+F1”) window. Now when the player creates weapon salvos through this window, by default they are scheduled to be executed “far into the future”. If the player then clicks on “Execute” or closes the window, the created salvos are re-scheduled to be fired as soon as feasible. The change causes salvos that are created when using this form to be scheduled impossibly far in the future. When the user clicks ‘Execute’ or closes the form then the salvos are all updated to fire as soon as possible.

Therefore, the units assigned to these salvoes will NOT start executing them (or even maneuvering towards the targets if necessary) until the execution is signaled. This gives the user the ability to delete the salvo, plot a course of the salvo, etc. without having to try and do it before the assigned units start firing.

* Improved “one-third rule” on patrol/support missions: Ever been frustrated when the patrol logic treats identical aircraft with even slightly different loadouts as “separate” (for the 1-3rd rule purposes) and thus ruins your intended patrol rotation? The logic can now be made much more “relaxed”, accepting different loadouts, different subtypes and even not grouping aircraft by types at all. So, rotating patrols with heterogenous aircraft complements is a lot easier now.

* The Area & Reference-point Manager window gets a whole lot of deserved love: You told us you love the concept but found the execution missing a few things, and we (again) heard you. The Area & Refpoint manager has received numerous fixes, tweaks and enhancements that increase both its usability and power (check the release notes for details).

* Limpet mines revisited: The fundamental mechanics of limpet mines have been reworked and improved. These mines can be placed by their carrier platforms on ships or submarines, as long as the target is not moving. After being placed, the mines remain attached to the target hull and detonate after the delay (default is 2 hrs) has expired. Because of their direct attachment to the target, the damage effects of limpet mines are similar to impact-detonated weapons (e.g. iron bombs or rockets) rather than the underwater-shock damage incurred by other mine types or torpedoes. Because of their nature, these mines are arguably the ultimate “sneak attack” naval weapon.

* Improved map settings UI: The various map-settings menu options have been duplicated on a dedicated “Map Settings” window (accessible through top menu –> Map Settings –> Map Settings Window). This makes it much faster & simpler to change multiple settings in quick succession.

Other bits & pieces:

* New doctrine option: “Threat Max Distance” (Default: 50nm). This specifies the distance at which units will actively manouver against incoming missile threats. You asked for this to be user-customizable and per-unit configurable, and now it is.
* “Agressive Tile Management” option (available on Game Options). This improves the speed and apparent transition “smoothness” when zooming in/out the map.
* In addition to helicopters, now ships too can use dipping sonar – either manually or autonomously on patrol.
* Numerous new additions to the Lua scripting API. Check the release notes for the gory details.
* Search text-box for menus and submenus. This can be very useful if you do not remember where a specific menu command is located. Type the command text in the textbox and you will jump right into the appropriate menu.
* Effects of natural coolant circulation on nuclear-powered submarines (signaled via the submarine flag “Advanced Propulsor”). Ever heard of the term “quiet as a mouse fart”? These subs are it.
* A regularly-requested QoL add: You can now load a scen/save file simply by drag-&-dropping it into the main map window. (A message box will show up for confirmation (in case the file was dropped by mistake)). NOTE: This is possible only if Command is NOT running in Administrator context.
* If your AU count is exploding: New ability to convert an airbase installation to a single-unit airfield (Right-click –> Scenario Editor –> Convert to single-unit airfield). This can be useful during scenario creation to keep the unit count manageable in large scenarios.
* The quick-battle window and templates have been improved in appearance.
* Tooltips have been added in various aspects of the UI (e.g. scenario realism & features).
* Sinking ships stick around for longer: A sinking ship needs to receive 500% of its original DP value in order to “disintegrate”.
* The “Set orientation” menu item is now available also in normal-play mode, if the selected unit is a non-fixed facility.
* The “Jettison” button now gives you more options of weapon type for you to drop.
* Improved the way images are fetched on-demand from the server and populate the unit image thumbnail on the unit status panel (It is no longer necessary to select another unit and then back the original one in order to see the downloaded image)
* Units tasked with SEAD patrol will engage not only detected radars but also jammers (both radar- and GNSS-jam emitters)
* Units that are within the relevant engagement range of another unit (e.g. aircraft inside nominal range of SAM site) and are being illuminated (for weapon fire control / guidance) by that unit will consider themselves under attack (and take relevant action, e.g. evade if allowed) even if no distinct weapon is detected incoming. This faithfully mirrors the real-life practice of “reacting to being painted”.

And as always, the new update benefits from the updated official scenarios and the most recent releases of the DB3000 and CWDB database.

With the decks now clear, the dev team is racing ahead to continue and complete the development of several new explosive features that are set to transform the Command experience within 2026. Stick around!

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End-of-year bonus: Command PE v2.4.3 released

December 16, 2025 · Posted in Command PE · Comment

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and the Command dev team has one last gift in the stocking for its global professional userbase. After a bit of a delay, but still meeting the intended cadence of two update releases per year, the v2.4.3 update for Command-PE is now finally available for download, for new and existing CPE users.

After the massive v2.4.2 release last August with its smorgasbord of brand new features, v2.4.3 adopts a more conservative approach with an emphasis on reliability, performance and user quality-of-life (QoL) features. Some of the major new features include:

* Explicit GNSS jamming and jammer units: This is effectively the follow-on to the abstract GNSS jamming made possible through the “Side Enablers” feature and introduced in v2.4.2. In addition to defining “access/no access” to specific GNSS networks (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou etc.) at the side- and area-level, you can now use distinct platforms that have the ability to jam these critical systems. Just like with radar & communication jammers, these platforms tend to be expensive and scarce, so you must position them carefully to maximize their coverage and prioritize the assets you wish to protect (or the area to negate). Also similar to other jammer types, their signal can be detected, localized and used to attack these platforms.

More over, the way that GNSS disruption affects terminal weapon accuracy has been tweaked. Instead of measuring the “time without a PNT fix” and using that to calculate the INS drift, the simulation now actually keeps track of the last 50 PNT-fix attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) and uses a simulated Kalman filter to derive the final internal drift. This provides a more true-to-life effect on disruption, as (for example) a single PNT fix is not sufficient to fully “reset” the navigation precision to nominal status.

* Salvo simultaneous weapon arrival: “I wish my cruise missiles arrived at the target area in a nice, strung-out line so that the defences could swat them down one by one” – said no strike planner, ever. The navigation logic on weapons that support TOT has been tweaked so that, within a salvo, all weapons will closely bunch up in order to arrive at the target simultaneously, overwhelming the defences. (Inter-salvo coordination remains the responsibility of the player, either manually or through the MDSP).

* Improved time synchronization and time acceleration control: The logic of sim-loop execution has been tweaked in order to more precisely match elapsed sim-time and wall-time when running in realtime (1x). This fixes a reported problem where e.g. a 1-minute of sim time could take 1m6sec of wall-time while running in real-time mode. This can be important for real-time exercises & federated simulations (e.g. when using DIS).

In addition, the optional HighSimSpeedTimeSync setting in Command.ini allows throttling of flame and double-flame sim speeds to stay in sync with clock time while running in the GUI, making them equivalent to 30x and 150x respectively.

* Vast A2AR improvements: A enormous amount of work has been dedicated to improving the mechanics and experience of air refueling operations:
– General reliability whit high sim speed: Increased reliability by throttling down sim speed (from double flame to single flame) when performing or about to perform AAR.– Prioritization and Reservation: Reworked prioritization logic to better handle concurrency between clients in scenarios with few tankers, taking better consideration of other enqueued clients when calculating availability of fuel and refueling equipment on the tanker. Also fixed various issues such as AAR being cancelled right after being scheduled, wrong tanker selection criteria being utilized in various situations.– Execution: Tankers and clients now follow refuel orders even when unassigned or without a course, forced and manual refuel orders are respected and refuelling from a tanker that is being refuelled is now prevented.Other fixes resolve issues with AAR triggering on the incorrect lightplan waypoint, cargo missions not refueling on RTB and various other issues that caused AAR doctrine to not be followed as expected.
– Flight Plan Editor: Various fixes, and QOL tweaks to the Flight Plan Editor in the management of Refueling Waypoints and their doctrine setting

Other bits & pieces:

* Land-strike weapons that nominally have only fixed targets as valid (e.g. JDAMs) can also be used against mobile vehicles if they are stationary
* The various map-settings menu options have been duplicated on a dedicated “Map Settings” window (accessible through top menu –> Map Settings –> Map Settings Window). This makes it much faster & simpler to change multiple settings in quick succession.
* When evaluating chaff effectiveness (probability to successfully seduce) against a given radar seeker, the target’s apparent radar size (RCS) is taken into consideration. So, for example in a very large (RCS-wise) target the chaff becomes less effective at spoofing the missile, whereas with a very small or stealthy target the chaff will almost always be effective.
* Units that are within the relevant engagement range of another unit (e.g. aircraft inside nominal range of SAM site) and are being illuminated (for weapon fire control / guidance) by that unit will consider themselves under attack (and take relevant action, e.g. evade if allowed) even if no distinct weapon is detected incoming.
* Flight plans are now drawn as orthodromic lines (ie. correctly curving over the globe; most clearly evident on long-range routes)
* Added the ability to change the color of borders, coastlines and the sea ice.
* Various tweaks and improvements to DIS support.
* Units tasked with SEAD patrol will engage not only detected radars but also jammers (both radar- and GNSS-jam emitters).
* On mission types that utilize the “1/3rd rule” and “number of class” settings (e.g. patrols), these settings now include new unit grouping options. Players can choose to group aircraft by Loadout (same class + same loadout), group all units by Unit Class, or use No Grouping, which allows grouping strictly by flight size without filters.
* You can customize the expiration time of any contact type. This can be useful if e.g. you wish to keep submarine contacts around for longer after their last detection.
* Players in an RTMP session can be restricted in certain powers (for example blocked from having Absolute Control mode, or loading autosaves, or changing the time acceleration).
* You can now load a scen/save file simply by drag-&-dropping it into the main map window. (This works only if Command.exe is running under a non-admin context).
* Nuclear submarines with natural circulation on their reactors get significant noise-reduction benefits at shaft speeds up to 15 knots.
* On anti-weapon engagements, if the target’s speed is much higher than the weapon’s max design target speed, PH drops to 1% (pure luck).
* The “Jettison” button now gives you more options of weapon type for you to drop.
* New Lua API abilities: Display satellite-specific data (e.g. launch date), send a unit to refuel, retrieve the current sound level of a naval unit, handle flight plan properties, and display detailed sensor properties.
* Lua calls (not interactive) are now cached when first compiled (string parsing and compilation of a script is one of the worst offender for Lua performance); this should significantly improve performances for recurring calls (such as events) especially long chunks.
* Ability to convert an airbase installation to a single-unit airfield (Right-click –> Scenario Editor –> Convert to single-unit airfield). This can be useful during scenario creation to keep the unit count manageable in large scenarios.
* Improved the way images are fetched on-demand from the server and populate the unit image thumbnail (on the unit status panel) (It is no longer necessary to select another unit and then back the original one in order to see the downloaded image)

And as always, the new update benefits from the updated official scenarios and the most recent releases of the DB3000 and CWDB database.

NOTE: The previously slated for v2.4.3 “Aircraft as Cargo” feature was not ready for inclusion and thus has been delayed. The dev team remains committed to including it on the next CPE update release, in early 2026. Stay tuned!

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