31/08/21 Operation Dengizich, the second son, V2

[0405 Andrew]

31/08/21 Operation Dengizich, the second son, V2

This will be the first proper running of Dengizich, but it will be a V2. A slightly altered intel map will be provided on Friday.

Numbers please:
1F: 5
3F: 5 with 2 possibles
11F: 4
41F: between 6 & 12
97 Sqn: 4
892 NAS:

[0405 Andrew]

Here is tomorrow's mission for checking. With the problems of last week's mission, I hope I have updated your new flights correctly, but please check

Please check your loadouts and target points are all correct, especially target heights.

[0405 Andrew]

Updated FRAG, please check to make sure T/O & TOT times are achievable.

[Flyco]

Andrew, new mission looks good for the A-10s - nothing worth changing.

I flew the first 20 mins of the mission, and it works - rather too well; I had become a bit casual about that SA-8 - it really has sharpened up its act in this version. I will ensure that I send my SA-8-busters in first on the night!

[0405 Andrew]

Great news, I've tested it on my server also and all seems working. I got hit by the manpads.

[0405 Andrew]

Slight change to the FRAG, weather has shifted round a bit and is now heading 086 or in DCS 266.

97 TOT has been brought forward 3 min.

[Flyco]

Not a great night for the A-10s I am afraid. We lost 4 aircraft to the enemy, and one due to a poor connection.

The big problem was the number of man-pads, together with the cloud base. We were never able to get above their reach, and the location of some of the targets meant that we could not get close enough to keep our laser on the target before we were inside their range. The convoys on the eastern side, were well into very deep and wooded gorges before we could set about them, and searching again made you prey to the invisible man-pads. Some of the targets were reachable, but you did not know which until the man-pad fired.

The only way we could have made a better impact would have been if we knew the man-pad locations, used Mavericks rather than the APKWs, or had a slightly higher cloud-base. The presence of blue forces in the area (and the fact that it was 'friendly' country) precluded the use of CBUs except for a couple of targets.

Even flying at 170 kias and launching the APKW at the maximum range of 5.5 nm, the requirement to maintain lasing for up to a minute invariably meant that you entered the man-pad range.

I am not sure that the task is sensibly do-able, with the cloud-base and the man-pads as they were.

[0405 Andrew]

I had hoped I'd put just enough room between the max height of the manpad and the cloud base. Sorry about that one.

[0405 Andrew]

41(F)Sqn AAR

Some technical glitches hindered a couple of guys (some didn't have desimm mod) and we flew with 9 in the end.
The flight went well, CAP must have worked as we weren't hassled by redair at all, thanks chaps!
The SEAD guys did a good job and cleared the path for us and called "Geronimo" for the SA-6's, nicely done. Then later in the flight, as we had to pass through an SA-6 threat zone, one of the F16's (Kitchen) flew into the zone and drew fire from the 6 to leave us a safe passage through. Our hats are off to you Kitchen, bloody fine job!!
RTB for RIAB went as per and all was well, tea and medals all round.
We did manage to damage the power station fairly well, but lofting over a 4k ft hill from low-level was a challenge and some weapon releases were not as they should have been, often only the first two of six came off in the sequence....we are having an enquiry...bloody armourers.

A good night's flying in challenging terrain, thanks to Andrew and all involved!
Sometimes stuff is supposed to fall off....sometimes not.
I still can't be sure which...

Officer Commanding F18 OCU
Wing Commander Ade Rhoney - RAF Air UK

[309 Geoff]

Andrew,
Just had a look at the For-check miz you circulated, and the location of the manpads. There were 7, with the highest at 2344ft AGL. The threat database gives the max altitude of manpads as 12000ft. To be safe, we needed the cloud base at 15000ft.

I suffered two "connection timed out". I'm sure that if my Virgin internet would have worked, I would also have been shot down by the manpads.

97Sqn were concerned about the threat during the mission planning stage. In future, if I think it's going to be a suicidal mission, I will raise my concerns.

I agree with Alan's idea, that we need our targets to fire back. Likewise, you have to give us a chance to succeed.