Lock On: Operation Chimera Rising
Day 6, Mission 16

Following in the footsteps of the great BeachAV8R...this was just a great mission that had a lot of elements of air combat mixed within it

Mission:
Despite some successes, enemy ground forces continue to push further and further into Western Crimea, continually overwhelming Allied ground forces by sheer numbers. As NATO tanks regroup northeast of the Ukrainian town Fedousia, the 59th FS from the 33rd FW is tasked with a fighter sweep over the FLOT as allied strikers and bombers provide close air support for our soldiers on the ground, in anticipation of a large scale counter-attack.



Debrief:



Clutching six AIM-120Cs, two AIM-9Ms, and fuel tanks, our two-ship takes off of Oktyabrskoye, Ukraine, and promptly head for our first sweep point. With our AWACs already calling out multiple threats in and around the target area, I drag my wingman along at the fastest speed possible, not willing to miss a single minute of action.



Climbing up to our assigned cruising altitude, it was obvious it was going to be a busy day for NATO air forces today. Among the mass of fighters pushing east with us included this flight of Aviano F-16CGs, armed with what appears to be CBU-97 SFWs...



...as well as Danish F-16As, loaded with Mk-20s. The Vipers were probably one of the numerous CAS flights supporting allied troops further east, near Fedousia.

Approaching the FLOT, we start getting multiple mud spikes all in front of us, including some SA-11 mobile, medium-range SAMs. Those things are scary, and I thought about doglegging around for a while. Then to my surprise, a couple U.S. F-16CJs and F/A-18Cs, the advanced SEAD elements of our strike package, start calling out HARM shots.





Among other things, they manage to knock out this cleverly hidden Buk-M missile launcher, and not too soon from the looks of it. It was obviously tracking something, probably us, because of the way the missiles were being aimed. An AGM-88 put an end to that.



Cruising over the FLOT, the AN/APG-70 in the nose of my Eagle picks up a suspicious contact some 60 nm away. Querying E-3, the female controller confirmed that the bogey(s) were hostile, and we were immediately cleared to engage. Entering TWS radar mode, our flight started to sort through the bandits, which appeared to be a flight of three in two separate elements. The closest pair seemed to be the most threatening, flying faster and higher as the two made a beeline towards us, so I decided to set up a dual AIM-120C shot to take them both out while handing off the trailer to my wingman.



As the distance between us shrunk to less than 40 nm, the Su-27s – confirmed by both NCTR and RWR – open fire from long range. My RWR starts blaring in excitement, and I figure that I probably have a R-27ER Alamo inbound.



With a range of some 50-65 km, they outrange my AMRAAMs by a significant amount, but they have one drawback – they’re SARH missiles, meaning that they can’t turn away. Wanting to close the gap as quickly as possible, I climb to 32 000 ft, giving my missiles a little extra boost. Shooting to kill, I want to kill both the Flankers on my opening volley, so I wait till I’m well within range before triggering off two missiles of my own.

Now this is where things get interesting. With AMRAAM, I still have to hold lock until the missile lights the target up with its own radar, but I have at least one Alamo inbound within 10 nm now. So I start this neat evasive trick I came up with that takes advantage of the over-aggressive proportional intercept profiles of missiles in LOMAC, while I keep not only my energy but also target lock. It begins by putting my threat about 40 degrees off my nose, before pitching down into a 60 degree dive.



The inbounds must also point their noses down to follow me, but they lose loads of energy in the process because not only is it making constant corrections to kill me, its also flying from thin, high air to thick, low air. When I hit 14 000 ft, I first pull across, bringing the target to about 40-50 degrees off the other side of my nose, and then pull straight up. As I pull across, however, I pump out some chaff, hoping that the missile would bite, but it doesn’t really matter. Even if it doesn’t fall for the decoys, any inbound would’ve lost so much energy following me across, then down, then back across, then up that it would just drop below me as I climb back towards the threat.



This time, the Alamo bit, falling for a chaff decoy. By the time the missile realizes that its been suckered, there’s no chance for it to reacquire, as I already pulled out of its gimbal limits. Heading almost straight down, it slams into the ground, eliminating the slight chance that it may lock on to something else in the area.

No stray missile, no danger.



My vision starts to grey out as I re-engage, centering the ASE dot for another, WVR AIM-120 shot if necessary. However, my first two missiles are still guiding to their targets, just entering the terminal phase of their flight.



The lead Su-27 tries to break left and low, but the AIM-120 guides true and explodes just over its right wing, tearing it from the fuselage as the big fighter careens out of control. His wingman meets the same fiery fate seconds later.



With two smoke trails twirling down, I push my Eagle forward a bit, sanitizing the airspace in front of me to make sure there are no more bandits lurking around. With my wingman covering my flank (still chasing the third Su-27), I scan the skies while requesting a bogey dope from AWACs to make sure the skies are clear before giving my wingie a hand with his bandit.



Satisfied that the area is clear for the time being, I turn back to see my wingman drop his Flanker with a close range AIM-120C shot, after the first one BVR missed. AWACs tapes will later show in our debrief that this Su-27 was probably stalking the B-1B we were tasked to protect.

I decide to double back east for a while to regroup to regain my SA, before pushing back west across the Crimea for another round. I never get the chance, though. Almost immediately, I get a vector north and slight west, back towards our CAP station. A flight of Su-25s were harassing some Army M1s on the ground, and E-3 had given us a vector prior when we were engaging the Su-27s. As we rushed to engage, the Aviano Vipers, the same ones from before, also heard the call, and smacks each Frogfoot out of the sky with some well aimed AIM-120 shots.



There were still other flights of hostiles in the area, but the closest threat was over 50 nm away, deep in Russian-held Crimea, and I didn’t feel like pushing my luck to engage an enemy so far deep in their territory. There were also numerous enemy radar SAMs in the area, including S300s and more Buk-Ms, so it was probably a good idea.

After a few minutes of doing racetracks over the FLOT, AWACs declared a hostile group taking off from the captured Kerch airfield, 36 nm away. With my radar in RWS mode, I swept the sky for a few seconds longer than necessary to make sure that they were the only threats in the area, before locking up the lead aircraft and handing off the trailer again to my number two. NCTR immediately confirmed that they were MiG-23s. Since we were head-on of each other, it wasn’t long before I loosed my first AMRAAM.



My RWR is suddenly spiked by a dreaded ‘29’ symbol. Cutting my link with my AMRAAM, radar immediately picks up a MiG-29 some 15 nm distant, and without any HOJ indication, I figured it was probably a MiG-29A. Also, MiG-29As carry the much smaller R-27Rs, as opposed to R-27ERs, who’s range is comparable to the AIM-120s. I launch first, hurling my fourth AMRAAM of the mission at him, but breaking left just in case he fired a heat-seeking Alamo in my direction.



As it turns out, the MiG never managed to get a missile in the air, despite locking up my F-15. My AIM-120 doesn’t miss, however, and obliterates the Fulcrum’s airframe, although the pilot managed to eject.



With at least one MiG still behind me, and another possibly still lurking about, I’m not at all happy about how quickly I lost SA. AWACs is no help, because she keeps calling out ‘Merged.’ Punching off my tanks and a few flares in anticipation of a dogfight, I scan the skies for bandits as my wingman makes repeated Fox 3 calls. Assuming that my AMRAAM killed my Flogger, I’m anxious to get back to a higher safe altitude, but then I get another vector to what I later find out are two pairs of cruise missiles streaking west across the winter farmland.



Locking up one of the missiles, I’m surprised when my RWR (above) tells me that something locked up me. Within seconds, an SA-8 SAM is in the air, and I was engaged defensive. Breaking high and wide, I managed to trash the SA-8...



But all of a sudden, a flash lights up the cockpit and my airplane nearly spins out of control. Bit*hn’ Betty’s telling me my ACS is gone, my HUD and worst of all, my radar.

Later, I would find out that a SA-16 MANPAD struck me while I was focusing on the SA-8, and it didn’t trip my warning systems because it’s a heat-seeker.

A second SA-8 missile takes to the air, and I reef my stricken F-15C around to dodge it, but in doing so spin my jet out of control. Now I’m really getting antsy. With only about 5000 ft of altitude to recover, I don’t *nearly* have as much time as I’d like, as I did spin out once at 25000 ft and didn’t recover before crashing. Worse still, the OSA ADS lobs another SA-8 at me, and all I could do is slam the throttle forward while pitching the nose down, simultaneously punching out chaff like crazy in a desperate effort to ward off the incoming missile. Miraculously, I regain control of the F-15 just as the SA-8 explodes in my wake.



Without the ACS, my F-15 is pitching up and down almost uncontrollably in the turbulence, and I have to fight the joystick just to keep the bird flying straight and level. Doglegging around the SA-8 missile launcher, I close in on the cruise missiles for a second run. With my radar gone, I have no option but to Maddog my missiles. With my eyes as my only aiming reference, I loose a single AIM-120, and am overjoyed when it homes in on two of the cruise missiles and swats them both out of the sky.



My second AIM-120 shot, however, is spoiled when my nose suddenly pitches up prior to launch, and my AMRAAM sails high as a result, way above the remaining targets. At this point, my wingman has killed his MiG, but is engaged defensive by SAMs. Thus, there’s no way I can use what’s left of his AMRAAMs, which is the weapon of choice against cruise missiles (and everything else, for that matter) so I accelerate my wobbling jet for an AIM-9 shot.

Because we’re so low – the cruise missiles are only about 15 m above the ground – missiles have an extremely difficult time overcoming the tremendous air density, thus their ranges are very much reduced. Add to this the fact that the AIM-9 can only fly out to about 8 km at altitude on a good day, and the fact that it has to chase down the missiles, you can probably see just how close I have to bring my damaged Eagle to the target before firing. Guess-timating the range, as my radar’s shot, I uncage a missile and shoot it. It drills itself into the earth. Frustrated, I close in for a few more seconds before firing my last AIM-9...



...which swerves a bit to the left before correcting its path and destroying the two missiles in a fiery explosion.



Nursing my injured bird back to base, I somehow miraculously (for the second time) manage to land the nearly uncontrollable plane, after flying some 60 nm back to base, that is! I’d be honest with you, this is the first time that I ever successfully landed a damaged plane in LOMAC – usually when I get hit by a missile, its time eject and ride the nylon let down deep into enemy territory.

WOW! Amazing shots! Great story too. Keep them coming!

Unbelievable! Wow..the screen shots are just TOP notch! What a beautiful sim...great narrative too..looks like it was an exciting mission!

I'm looking forward to more reports!

BeachAV8R

Deathscythe,
Absolutely awesome all the way! Those screenshots are so good, like that HARM shot on the Buk M, all the others...the Hornet, Vipers, etc. The angles you chose are just right.

Btw, terrific skins! I'd ask where you got 'em, but I already know...

You could not have scripted a better mission and the way it played out. The A2A war with the range superior Sues, missle evasion, getting hit out of "nowhere", chasing down cruise missles while damaged, good stuff!

Sheesh, I'm worn out here, keep 'em coming. I'm gonna go fire up LOMAC again, all inspired & everything!

I thoroughly enjoyed that! May I ask if you have the F15 cockpit skin available? Nice work on the reflections in the tews and mfd.

That was a brilliant read!Thanks Deathscythe.Those screenshots are stunning!Excellent work!!Looking forward to some more reports.Your F-15 skins are beautiful btw,I love flying with them.