Miltech Simulations MH60, Dev Blog #3

Hello everyone, and welcome to our third MH60 Dev Blog!

Project Status

As of today, April 20th 2025, the project is now officially in Early Beta testing:

99% Completion on MH60S Art and Liveries
⁠95% Completion on MH60R Art and Liveries
⁠95% Completion on MH60T Art and Liveries
⁠100% Completion on flight physics
⁠93% completion on systems, avionics and final integration
⁠99% Completion on sounds

(FS20)

Our initial quality assurance pass identified 210 bugs, approximately half of which have already been resolved. This number is expected to increase as Subject Matter Expert (SME) testing progresses.

Please note that aircraft testing will remain fully internal until launch. We are not currently seeking additional testers. The testing team includes two U.S. Navy pilots with MH-60 experience, as well as a USCG MH-60 maintainer who are now getting full access to the product, and providing useful feedback to ensure accuracy and maintain a high standard of quality.

Testing will continue for the next few weeks to come, until we are content with a release candidate.

Mission System: Introducing Miltech Mission Hub

Around the same time as the successful release of Supercarrier Pro and the subsequent launch of the CH-47, we recognized the need for a flexible, expandable, universal, and aircraft-agnostic Mission/Campaign Editor within Microsoft Flight Simulator. The CH-47 served as our initial attempt at implementing a basic mission system—one that relied on predefined, hardcoded missions developed specifically for that aircraft alone.

With the announcement of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and its new built-in “Career” mode, we initially believed that a custom mission system might no longer be necessary or viable. However, after reviewing the features and limitations, it became clear that—while undeniably fun—it lacks the flexibility and depth needed to support the wide range of mission types and gameplay modes we envision. As a result, we’ve revisited our original concept, aiming to build a system that will remain fully independent from FS24 Career Mode, modular, and adaptable across aircraft types and mission profiles.

Drawing inspiration from other campaign-oriented games such as DCS and Arma 3, we’ve developed a mission system built around a flexible trigger-action framework. This system allows users to define triggers—such as area entry, time elapsed, speed thresholds, or altitude levels—and link them to specific actions like displaying a marker, playing a voice line or message, advancing mission stages, or ending the mission altogether. Miltech Mission Hub enables both developers and users to create and share missions and campaigns for MSFS20 and 24, both on PC and Xbox.

Please note, Xbox users: Mouse and Keyboard are highly recommended, though not mandatory.

Capabilities

This will be a long-term, iterative development effort. Given the upcoming release of MH60 series and our expanding portfolio of naval carriers, the initial focus is on naval-oriented mission types, with a strong foundation of flexibility and expandability. At launch, the system will support the following mission categories:

Firefighting

Predefined Missions: Missions whose routing and actions has been designed by a team of developers, with little room for flexibility.
On-Demand, Custom Mission: User-created missions, fully customizable.
Randomized Location: Simple missions consisting in extinguishing a fire at a random location nearby.

Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations

Predefined Missions
On-Demand, Custom Mission
Randomized Location

External Transport Operations (Sling Loads)

Predefined Missions: Land-to-Land, Land-to-Ship, Ship-to-Land, Ship-to-Ship
On-Demand, Custom Missions

Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW)

Mission types designed around maritime patrol, sonar operations, and sub-surface engagement, integrated with the sonodipper and sonobuoys functionality on the aircraft module.

Shipborne Missions

Dynamic deployment of missions from naval vessels, anywhere in the world

Please note: This list is subject to change. We may add or remove mission types prior to release based on what we determine to be stable, reliable, and ready for launch.

Compatibility and Future Capabilities (Tied to Upcoming Products)

At launch, all Mission Hub scenarios and missions will be specifically tailored to the MH-60. A total of over 30 custom-made MH60 missions will be included, along with infinite playtime hours of random or user-created content.

However, the system has been built with future expansion in mind, and upcoming updates will extend full mission functionality to the CH47, MV22, and M2K (along with corresponding mission packages).

As development continues, the mission system will evolve to support a broader range of operations across different aircraft and mission profiles, including:

Aerial Refueling
Tactical Campaigns
Heavy Cargo Operations
Surveillance and Reconnaissance Missions
Multiplayer Compatibility (more on this below)

These capabilities are being developed with future aircraft and system modules in mind, ensuring long-term integration and cross-compatibility within the ecosystem.

An SDK will be made available to third-party developers at no cost, requiring only a straightforward licensing agreement to define usage terms. We are already collaborating with two well-known developers who intend to leverage Mission Hub to expand the functionality of their aircraft.

Miltech Mission Hub can also be used with any aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator to design and share full mission environments, including custom campaigns, scenery object placement, and naval asset integration. Compatibility modes for firefighting, search and rescue (SAR), and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) will be provided for aircraft that are not natively integrated.

Please note: Pre-Release UI. Subject to change (or potentially, even a complete redesign and rebranding)

Mission Assets

Mission Hub is not only a campaign sandbox, but also a library of assets. Several assets are included with Mission Hub to enhance the creation of realistic scenarios, with more to come progressively in future updates. Assets include:

New Detailed Naval Assets: USCG Cutters, LHD Juan Carlos I, HMAS Adelaide, HDMS Triton
Maritime Rescue Scenes: Sinking Ship, Cruise Ship Patient rescue scenes, Antipiracy Scenes
Misc Vessels: Hospital Ship, Cargo Ships
Submarines: Russian, American, and Contraband Submarines
Miscellaneous SAR Scenes: Mountain Rescue, Sea Rescue. Astronaut Rescue
Sold Separately: Full compatibility with Supercarrier Pro, UK Carrier Strike and Amphibious Ready Group naval assets.

Instructions on how to add custom objects will also be included along with the product. In general, any SimObject can be spawned using Mission Hub.

Naval Assets, Anywhere, Anytime

For the first time in MSFS, naval assets (Including all carriers released with Supercarrier Pro and UK Carrier Strike) will be fully spawnable anywhere in the world, at any time, on demand.

Mission Hub allows for the placement of both moving and static carriers and naval assets anywhere in the world. We think that speaks for itself—it’s a game-changer.

Challenges and Constraints, Multiplayer

At this point in the DevBlog, I’ve spent the last couple of hours writing about the “mission miracle” and highlighting all the exciting capabilities of the system. But as with many things in MSFS, not everything comes with a simple solution.

Mission Hub (MMH) will launch as a fully single-player experience, with no multiplayer-compatible features at release. You may have noticed a prominent “MULTIPLAYER” button in the UI screenshots above—yes, it’ll be there, but it’ll be grayed out on day one. And there are several good reasons for that.

Miltech Mission Hub is a technically complex product, built on new APIs and deep integrations with various aircraft. Ensuring stability and reliability in single-player mode alone requires extensive testing. At this stage, it’s simply too early to pursue multiplayer functionality.

Market surveys indicate that most time in MSFS is spent in single-player flight, investing a massive amount of resources into a multiplayer solution is just not a feasible or maintainable strategy at this time.

And finally, whenever we talk about multiplayer, we inevitably run into the hard limits of the simulator itself—an impenetrable wall of technical restrictions that make multiplayer integration nearly impossible. We are limited to sync aircraft status variables ONLY (full list of variables available is here, under "Note On SimVars In Multiplayer" - it's a very short list, and tied to aircraft). Clever developers in the past have found ways to sync boolean-type variables (eg. On/Off) using "empty light variables" to sync positions of doors or visibility of weapons, but this is insufficient and just not applicable for MMH.

This leaves us with a single, expensive, and complex option: External server infrastructure. Far too early to say anything definitive, but that Multiplayer button is there for a reason.

Pricing and Distribution

Our strategy is: Make it simple.

FS24 is already confusing enough for many - updates and compatible versions and non-dev approved versions and upgrade fees for the native version. We don't want any of that.

We are working towards a synced release of MH60 and Miltech Mission Hub, for PC and Xbox, FS20 and FS24 on the exact same day, across all our distribution networks. This does have an impact on timelines, as there are a lot of moving parts to align, but it's the best viable strategy for a successful launch of the product, and provide the very best user experience possible. Even when that probably means we won't sleep much for a few weeks.

Pricing-wise:

Single purchase for MH60 S/R/T
- Price in the mid-high 30s USD$ (Tax included on our website, may vary on other distributors)
- Including all 3 variants, weapons systems, all liveries, cabin setups, and 4 mini-sceneries.
- FS20 version and native FS24 Version from initial release
- No upgrade fees, no separate "enhanced versions" for FS24.
Single purchase for Miltech Mission Hub Base
- Price in the low-mid 10s USD$ (Tax included on our website, may vary on other distributors)
- Including over 30 Missions, 4 new highly detailed naval assets, submarines, and all other assets mentioned above
- Bundles will be available with MH60, and with other carrier offerings.
- FS20 and FS24 versions, no upgrade fees, no subscriptions.

That is it.

Please note: While our mission—and in our best interest—is to achieve a synced release across all platforms, we may adjust our release strategy if circumstances present significant external challenges.

MH60, Mission Hub, and the challenges of releasing these days

Okay, here is where I reflect back and regret announcing working towards a synced release of MH60 and Miltech Mission Hub, for PC and Xbox, FS20 and FS24, blah, blah.

Reality is - the Flight Sim industry is going through a very complex environment to navigate. The arrival of MSFS 2024 has significantly impacted the market, bringing both exciting opportunities and notable challenges. Many of you are likely aware of the ongoing “Marketplace saga,” with native FS2024 content facing long delays in the release pipeline, progressing at an extremely slow pace. We are starting the marketplace ingestion process TOMORROW, MONDAY 21st for FS20 and FS24, with the hopes of making this possible.

Additionally, navigating the dual-platform days introduces a much more resource and time-intensive development and QA process. Each project must first be developed in MSFS 2020, then converted to MSFS 2024, followed by separate testing on both versions. Avionics, and especially navigation systems and map displays. require specific adaptations for each platform. It’s a complex, costly, and time-consuming process that demands a great deal of effort across development and QA teams.

You may now scroll back up to the first section of this (very long) post and notice that the current development status—and all ongoing testing—is focused on MSFS 2020. The MSFS 2024 conversion has not yet begun. While we don’t expect it to take more than a week to convert to the new Sim, it may introduce unforeseen bugs or compatibility issues that will need to be addressed and resolved before release.

One day closer to release, and we promise it won't disappoint.