Ahlhorn, West Germany. August 16, 1986.My callsign is "Iceheart" and people said I earned it. Besides the usual excitement of anticipating the next flight, I just felt detached from everything. Detached from the fact that they just assigned me fo a photo recon deep in Sovyet Land. Detached from the fact that I merely had two sorties with the F-117A. Detached from the fact that I had to cross two Warsaw Pact countries to reach my objectives. The only thing that stirred my interest was getting the job done. And flying, of course.
Despite this new Gorbachev guy and his 'glasnost' and 'perestroika', CIA satellite had spotted an SS Misille at Sovetsk and the hawks at D.C. were having ants on their pants. Not that I give the slightest damn about politics. As a matter of fact, I don't. Nobody wanted to be politician when they were kids, and being a fighter pilot is one of those things that make me feel lucky with my life. I bet the cops and the firemen feel the same.
The secondary objective was an SA Misille, probably to protect the SS?
The primary and secondary objective.Of course, it was cold war, and the mission was supposed to be secret. As always, had I been caught or killed, the Secretary would disavow any knowledge of my actions. Avoiding detection was crucial; trigger-finger was a big no-no.
Translation: no trigger-finger!Time to survey enemy defenses. My route was not an easy one. There was a radar station at Wittenburg and airbases at Wittstoc, Kolobrzeq, and Stupsk. The one at Stupsk was quite a major threat due to its IL-76. Patrol boats were on my way, and of course, Sovetsk was defended by SAM radar as well.
Overall, the mission was a difficult one. The objectives required me to spent a looong time behind enemy lines, while trying to get undetected. I would be lucky if I could get out of there alive.
With SAM installations and missile boats, it was not an easy route.It was a good thing that both primary and secondary were about taking photographs, so the only mandatory 'weapon' I needed to carry was the 135mm/IR camera --everything else was optional. The briefing said the estimated fuel requirement was 10692 lbs. I almost bailed out at Persian Gulf, so I decided to play it safe and got myself
two extra fuel tanks. Despite the numerous radar stations I was to deal with, experience (or the lack thereof --I merely had two sorties, remember?) told enemy bandits always had better luck in spotting me than SAM radars. Sidewinders were the choice for the remaining bay.
Playing it safe.After all the meticulous flight preparations and cockpit checks, I finally taxied my way to the runway. The sky was dark and I could barely see the stars. It was a good thing. The F-117A may be 'radar-proof', but there is always chance of being spotted
visually.
Taxiing to the runway.The General Electric F404-F1D2 engines whined as I hit full throttle. They called the F-117A 'Wobbly Goblin' for a reason, and even take off was never easy, but I left Terra Firma nonetheless. Keeping my attitude low, I proceeded to the first waypoint.
The excitement had just begun.
According to the flight manual, an attitude below 500' should made you invisible. I learned the hard way to not believing everything you read. Experience told me that 'low and slow' was actually below 200' with no faster than 200 knots. I started my flight at 165 feet and felt like almost touching the tip of the building with the wings.
Whoa!Needless to say that I managed to sneak my way through Wittenburg, Wittstoc, and Kolobrzeq undetected. My flight had been quite uneventful until I spotted a Flanker at three o' clock high.
The F-117A is not equipped with radar. Instead, it has TV and FLIR tracking cameras to scan for targets and lock them. Note that this is
not the same with the camera to take recon photos with --the latter is a 135mm/IR reconnaissance camera, and it needs to be selected as active weapon before you can take any photos.
The tracking cameras were locking on the Flanker, as shown on the right MFD.
Flanker at three o' clock....Now, let me explain about the horizontal bar below the Left MFD; it is called the Electromagnetic Visibility (EMV) scale. My electromagnetic visibility is represented by the thick red bar extending from the right of the scale. Ocassionally, there are thinner bars extending from the left of the scale; those represent enemy radar signal. When the thinner bars from the left overlap the thick red bar from the right, the small red box under the 'EMV' label lits up and it means I am being detected. Brief detection is generally okay, but if I keep being detected, they will start tracking me and it means trouble.
'Low and slow' paid off as usual. I flew at 150' and 206 knots, and note how thin the red bar was. The bandit, of course, could not see me. Had I decided to pull the trigger, he would be down without even knowing what hit him. I had to remind myself that this operation was clandestine.
...and he couldn't see me.Save the Flanker, nothing bothered me for the rest of the trip. Trying to keep a stable flight below 200' provided some distraction, even with the flaps on. Nonetheless, it was a pretty boring flight to Sovetsk. The primary and secondary was pretty close to each other. I could spot the secondary objective at my two o' clock while heading for primary.
Maybe I should have gone to the secondary first.There, the SS Missile I was supposed to photograph. Save the SA missile launcher nearby, it was relatively undefended for a target of such importance.
...and I thought they defended that thing.Taking recon photos requires almost as much patience as landing, and here's why: the lens crosshair is located below the axis of your plane, so if you roll to the left, the crosshair actually goes to the right, and vice versa. Thus, you need to get lined up correctly from the very start. The key is flying low and level while keeping the target horizontally centered at your HUD. It always worked, and it did. Smileee..... Click click click. I got the primary without trouble.
Cheers!Funny, nobody was alerted. Sure I was undetected by radar, but I flew at merely 300' above the radar. They must have visually spotted me, or at least heard my engine noise. I expected enemy fighters being vectored to my location, but they weren't. The F-117A was still relatively unknown at that time, so I was a 'mystery aircraft' as far as they were concerned. But of course, the fact that the aircraft may looked like an UFO should only stirred their curiousity further.
Nonetheless, the secondary objective were actually closer to Sovetsk SAM radar. Much, much closer.
Why did they have to sit reaaaally close to each other? Damn!I approached the secondary a lot closer this time, below 200'. The SAM radar aside, there were some ground installations cluttered nearby, so I had to cycle between those targets until it found the SA missile launcher.
I wasn't sure what was wrong, but the tracking camera automatically switched to a nearby SAM launcher when I was less than a kilometer from the secondary objective.
Blasht! I thought. Maybe there was a bug in the on-board system. There was simply no time to cycle between targets again, and I passed through the damn thing without taking any photos. I had to make a second pass. which means increasing my radar profile since turning reflects more radar signal than flying level (note the EMV bar below the left MFD). And Sovetsk SAM radar site was soooo near. Of course, it was inactive, but it was manned by elite units. They could activate the radar anytime, and probably at the very wrong time (mine, not them).
Making the second pass.Funnily enough, they were not alerted. It was as if those elite units were all sleeping! Nonetheless, secondary objective was achieved. I have finished my job here and it was time to go home. Very carefully (especially since the SAM radar was RIGHT AHEAD), Very carefully, I pulled a left turn while trying to not gaining altitude...
...only to see a bandit passing by, really close above. Whoa.
Now THAT was what I would call 'close encounter'.Later identification showed that the bandit was an SU-27 Flanker, apparently heading to the SS launcher I previously photographed. It seemed they heard my engine noise anyway, and alerted the local CAPs. It could mean good thing, though, because it could mean the Flanker was so preocuppied to investigate whatever UFO had passed above the SS launcher that it overlooked the alleged UFO below! However, I couldn't be too careful...
Alas, I wasn't. The Flanker went its way while completely ignoring me. I thought I had been too careful during my trip, so after gaining a safe distance from Sovetsk, I decided to get relaxed a bit on the stick and hit autopilot. Of course, the autopilot could not fly as low as manual flying, and gaining attitude means raising the radar profile, but what the hell.
Turned out I was wrong, as I got tracked by a MiG-25!
The punishment for getting lazy.I could explain that the flashing TRAK warning light on the left of the EMV bar means that enemy radar is tracking me, but I was too busy lowering the altitude to get disappear again. I never really love rock music (my favorite genre is
always electronica), but if the F-117A was equipped with stereo system, I would probably have played Metallica's
I Disappear at that time. Yeah, I know the song hasn't even been released in 1986, but what the hell. Anything that would help me disappear would be appreciated.
Too late, damage had been done. I released a decoy; they are supposed to be the magic bullets to escape enemy radar, but in this case, they weren't. Elite units are not easy to get fooled by decoy anyway. My left MFD showed five boogeys inbound, swarming to my position. I released another decoy while hoping it would distract them.
Not only it wasn't, but the Foxbat fired an AA-6 at very close range. I was already flying at 150' and less than 200 knots at that time, so violent evasive turn would mean either crashing, raising my radar profile, or both. The most reasonable thing at that time is to launch another decoy, and there went the last one.
Missile inbound!Fortunately, my gamble paid; the missile missed and the bandit eventually stopped bugging me. It didn't mean the rest of the route was easy. In fact, my left MFD showed I was flying between a patrol boat and an IL-76 patrolling over Stupsk. I could go around the problems, but I have fuel to worry about.
I was pretty careful to fly below 100'. Yup, below a hundred feet. That didn't stop the patrol boat from firing an SA-N-7. So here I was, out of decoy, and my chaff supply was getting thin.
Between a rock and a hard place --and one of them just fired a SAM.Fortunately, they fired the missile when my flight path was perpendicular to it. Needless to say they missed.
The rest of the flight was quite uneventful save another Su-27 that persistently followed me until I reached West Germany. I was practically invincible to his radar, and too far for visual ID, yet the pilot just kept following my tail. Probably he just followed instinct. I have to say he's a damn good pilot, and I'd really like to have a beer with him if we were not on the opposing sides.
The persistent #%&*$#.Finally! I arrived at Leck without further problems, and made the final approach. People said I was such a show off for never using ILS to land, but the truth is, I was just trying to keep a habit of not relying on the damn thing.
Making final approach.
Nice landing!Time for debriefing. Generally, they were very pleased with my perfomance. Stealth or no stealth, Sovyet air defense system was supposedly impregnable, and sneaking into Warsaw Pact airspace was dangerous indeed. They said it was quite an achievement to
merely completing the mission. And going back home in one piece, of course.
Nonetheless, nothing is perfect, and nor was the mission. I got tracked
twice, and almost lost my life in both cases.
Nothing is perfect.Days passed. I was relaxing in the officer's lounge when someone mentioned my callsign. "Iceheart?"
The Colonel never use callsign unless we had done something either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. I immediately raised from my chair and saluted.
"As you were," he said. Smiling. So it wasn't probably a bad news. The Colonel continued, "son, you been awarded the Medal of Honor."
At this point, I wasn't sure what to say.
The ceremony...
...and the celebration!And here's me on the pilot's scoreboard.
The squadron bulletin board.Now, I already said that I love flying, so people may wonder why I'm not flying anymore now. Well, here's the story; some time after the cold war mission, a man wearing black suit and sunglasses approached me. He introduced himself, "son, my name is Smith. John Smith, and I came from Langley. I know you love flying, but I wonder if you're interested in
completely different challenges...."
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Systems:Microprose F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0
DOSBOX 0.72
ykhwong's CVS build.
Logitech Attack 3 joystick.
Old Toshiba M20 laptop.
The entire flight was recorded by DOSBOX movie recorder (CTRL+ALT+F5). Pictures were taken from Windows Media Player.
Thank you.