16th August Rafair Group Mission

[Wee Neal 0414]

Hi, 664 Sqn fielded 1 Apache with Saggy as CPG and me pilot. We were able to identify a number of enemy units, however we came under very sustained missile attack from unseen units, we managed to avoid these for awhile whilst we tried various pop up attacks. We were able to provide some target information to 1F, which they successfully engaged.

We unfortunately were shot down twice and had very extensive rotor damage which made Shaggy feel seasick on our return to our nest. Overall a good mission with approx 10 kills. Working with 1F was great; thanks guys.

A great mission duke. Happy to do another setup with you again?

Neal

[Karl1464]

Hi Neal,

would like to get involved in these group missions, can use AI George to back you up if no CPG available ( not practiced much front seat stuff as yet, but again I am willing to learn ) it cant be a bad thing to have another set of eyes ( and hellfires LOL ).

Flew with Shaggy the other day and thoroughly enjoyed following him around the obstacle course.

Have SRS installed but again a little light on using it in practice.

Cheers and stay safe - Karlos

[Shaggy]

Thanks Duke for the fun Mission. As Neal said as soon as we got within 9km of the AO we was being fired upon regardless of our approach. I’m sure was being attacked from a group that we hadn’t spotted that was closer to us than we thought, but with our flares popping off so much it was hard to work out where it was coming from.

@1F, looking forward to another training session together to nail down those 9 line callouts, it was really interesting listening to you communicate over the radio.

[Flyco]

A reasonable night for 97. We got airborne on time and found our targets, and opened our attack 1 minute early. The use of 3 x Mavs, in quick succession, against the 2 Tors proved sound - on each attack one or two Mavs were destroyed en-route, but both Tors were destroyed within 3 minutes. The two Shilka were also destroyed, allowing us to concentrate on the Artillery. All but one Mista was destroyed within 30 minutes, and the final one shortly afterwards, only 3 of the Mista managed to fire before they were eliminated.

Our secondary targets, the tanks proved more problematic. Intell was incorrect, in that rather than stopping short of the Blue tank force, they drove right into them, destroying 5 Blue MBTs before being eliminated. By the time we came to look for them, all their debris had been neatly tidied away!

We suffered from too few aircraft, with a consequently limited fire power, and an extended time to eliminate all the targets. Paul,exhausted all his ordnance and even used cannon fire to good effect, but took a few hits in return. Paul refuelled before RTB, while his No 2 stayed to ensure that all targets had been destroyed before also returning to base.

[john (scooby)]

is it wrong that i can tell who posts things just by reading the post?

[Flyco]

As a fully paid-up pedant, I can sometimes tell, because one of our number has a non-working Caps Key!

[john (scooby)]

As a fully paid-up pedant, I can sometimes tell, because one of our number has a non-working Caps Key!

Touche

[Duke]

Thanks for the replies those that have.

Gonna have a break from doing these group missions for abit.

If anyone else wants to have a crack feel free. Other wise guess just do individual squadron stuff for abit

[Red Rooster]

This was a great mission @Duke and 3(F) thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had a few DCS crashes on joining the mission and 2 of the SEAD/DEAD team were disconnected by the server whilst waiting for the call to take off from CAW but they made it back in, just in time. The SEAD/DEAD flight flew in at low level. CAW did a great job keeping the red air away from us with only one leaker getting through (ultimately dispatched by Jack). The SA-6 and AA sites were destroyed with a mix of HARM, CBU-105s and Mavs, and the call went out to strike force to come in for the armour. Unfortunately some comms issues meant that the message didn't get through for over 5 minutes!

The strike flight took off 5 minutes later than the SEAD/DEAD flight and lost one member crashing on T/O so departed with only two heavily laden F-16s. They flew in at low level to the holding point and missed the call that AA defences were down so wasted 5 minutes flying in circles! Eventually comms were restored and with the message getting through, they accelerated to 550kts towards the IP at low level before climbing to the briefed 3,000' AGL for weapons release. Unfortunately the CBUs' wind correction algorithm was clearly incorrect, and they didn't operate exactly as expected so only half the armour amassed was destroyed but would have rendered them combat ineffective.

Rapidly diminishing fuel reserves in the SEAD/DEAD flight because of the comms delay forced a jettison of remaining stores and RTB. Some misunderstanding on approach patterns then led to wake turbulence issues and a crash on finals for the mission commander (me), but all others survived and safely landed for tea and medals!