Tuesday 07 January 2020

[Flyco]

I try to include in my missions a knock-on effect. That is, if an element of one mission fails, there are consequences. However, I try to make the consequences reasonable, and where an element doesn't fly at all I try to make them more than reasonable. However, I don't know how many statisticians/mathematicians there are in the group, but as many of you will know once you have multiple options these can very quickly build up into very significant deviations in the progress of a mission. I don't believe that my missions are quite this variable, but I haven't flown all the options in multiplayer.

In addition, most of the beartraps are not as dangerous as they seem. I have flown the F-18 low-level lay-down attack a number of times (probably 6 or more times), and only on one occasion has the Strela fired on, and hit, me (I was probably too low), and one other occasion I got some holes from the AAA. I have also flown both F-18 SEAD missions, the one to Mozdok and the one to Deep Valley and have had reasonable results each time - to Mozdok the Harm has only once failed to take out the SAM-6 (and that's why there are 2 ac each armed with a HARM). And thank goodness for stupid SAM AI, which (unlike Tunguska) doesn't shut off it's radar for 10 -20 seconds while the HARM is inbound. (Tor is even sharper, it frequently shoots down incoming missiles.) The JDAMs are bit more iffy, often missing the target, but rarely failing to inflict some damage on the Tunguska or Stela. The trick with the HARM, is to fire it, and to do so well outside the SAMs envelope at height and a reasonable speed - the brief recommended around 20 nm from 15,000 ft+.

In fact, I don't think any of the Mig-21s got airborne from Mozdok, largely because the AI set-up wont allow them to taxi past damaged ac or go via a different taxi route - I find this very aggravating. If any do get airborne the mission includes a warning broadcast on 251.0 by AWACs that Migs are inbound.

I am confused about the problems found with the F-18 set-up. As I say, I have flown them a number of times and never had a problem. Can someone be a bit more specific as to what form these problems took - positioning, weapons, frequencies etc? In confess that a couple of weeks again, I left the F-18s on "hot start" I had set this to make testing a bit easier and forgot to reset them to 'cold start'.

But, what I really want to know, is how the Bl**dy F-14s are able to fly back and forth through that Deep Valley SAM belt with such apparent impunity!

[Mutley]

If we told you that Alan every one would be in the 14s. besides were very good at making like clouds or a flock of birds or we hide behide the fresh meat and get the sam sites to fire there limited missiles, besides Sam avoidance is not fun unless you get 3 of them at once.

[john (scooby)]

We're not immune to the Sam belts.
Mutley often eats them and Shane got 1 the other night too.
I got fired on but evaded it.
I use rwr to dance around them whenever possible with excellent results.
Also were usually at 35k feet+ which helps

[Mr_Sukebe]

Flyco was bang on ref the effectiveness of the SEAD in the valley. Very accurate analysis.
Unfortunately there was just me, and as I only volunteered on the evening, I’d not expected to be conducting JDAM strikes. As such, I was more than a little rusty, and did frankly a pretty piss poor job with them, only killing one of the Tungusta. So my apologies for that

The learning points from my side were:
- Try to get better visibility of the strike plan and weapons to be employed. I’ve already requested earlier visibility of the high level strike plan for the next mission that I’ve not already flown
- Get some practice with the weapon type to be used prior to jumping in a real mission. My understanding is that real pilots do it, and so should we. I was out last night to re-aquaint myself with the JDAMs in the F18 (which are actually dead easy to use, but not when you’ve forgotten one of the buttons to press to define the target).

Looking forward to doing a substantially better job next time!

[Flyco]

OK, Mutley, from here on they all go to 'Excellent' rating and lots 'n' lots of reloads.

Don't worry Sukebe, that's one more than we are used to!

I would dearly like to have an overall map for briefing these sorties, but the DCS map is almost unreadable at a sensible scale, and is covered with green, which totally hides the contours.

[john (scooby)]

OK, Mutley, from here on they all go to 'Excellent' rating and lots 'n' lots of reloads.

Don't worry Sukebe, that's one more than we are used to!

I would dearly like to have an overall map for briefing these sorties, but the DCS map is almost unreadable at a sensible scale, and is covered with green, which totally hides the contours.

thats not a bad idea alan, itl give us more to think about when intercepting the red air coming south.
ps the brief says dont go over the border but in reality that would get very lively for you guys given your proximity to said border. is it ok that we do head north to get the later fighters?

[Mr_Sukebe]

OK, Mutley, from here on they all go to 'Excellent' rating and lots 'n' lots of reloads.

Don't worry Sukebe, that's one more than we are used to!

I would dearly like to have an overall map for briefing these sorties, but the DCS map is almost unreadable at a sensible scale, and is covered with green, which totally hides the contours.

Do any of the other F10 map options help?
If not, the briefing could potentially be done in TACVIEW or Combat Flight Tool. Just a thought?