Hpasp, thank you for your answers!

There were two major factors which allowed the F-117 to be shot down:
1- The modification made to the P-18 radar allowed the SA-3 crew to get an early warning about the incoming F-117 position and estimated course.
2- "LUCK": The SA-3 crew was lucky in that the route from the F-117 that was shot down basically or almost passed directly above that SAM site position. For example if you notice in that F-117 scenario (just like in real life) a first F-117 passes near the player's SAM site (20Km away) but it's impossible to shot it down since it passes 20Km away and the SA-3 SNR/tracking radar isn't capable (or hardly can) of detecting the F-117 at those distances. It's the second F-117 which passes a distances nearer than 15Km from the player SAM site that we have the chance to shoot down. So don't waste time with the first F-117, concentrate on the second one.

I don't think that shooting down that second F-117 is that hard - The hardest part IMO, is being able to find the F-117 in the SNR display panel in the "A" button console because the F-117 is a Stealth aircraft and therefore its target signal/blip is a very small one. But once you manage to find the F-117 in the SNR and lock it than it's easy to shot it down.

Very interesting Hpasp, thanks for the reply!


Regading the B-52s shot down in Op. Linebaker II, this site shows the looses of US aircraft (not only B-52s but ALL US aircraft) during that operation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Linebacker_II#U.S._aircraft_lost

And you can see that in the 20th of December, 6 (SIX) B-52s were shot down so being able to shot down something like 7 or 8 or even more B-52s in one mission of SAM Simulator is inded a realistic and a plausible feat/possibility.
Besides, I read that some B-52s after taken considerable damage from SAMs crashed after trying to land - Such a situation should IMo be considered a "shot down" but I doubt that statistics count this as a "shot down" but I could be wrong.

Yeah, though this wasn't just luck: as I read, the F-117's used the same route several times, and Colonel Dani's battery was placed on that route deliberately. Indeed, the hardest part is to get that F-117 on the SNR screens, especially since we don't know its altitude, as P-18 is a 2D radar, that does not provide altitude information.

BTW, in previous versions of the sim, I was able to shoot down both F-117's there using Volhov, but since then, it became impossible: the first one, that passes to the east, cannot be detected, even using the narrow beam mode.

15 was shot down, but much more was hit and repaired.

Posibility of a kill against B-52 with one missile V-755SU (warhead V88M) is 0.01-0.59 for alitudes from 1 to 15 km (this apears to be more advanced misile then SA-2F's).
Kill probability depends of many factors (miss distance, war head capability, vulnerability of the airframe - how many engines, pilots, fuel tanks should be destroyed to bring it down- and so on). In many occasions NVA FCO didn't met requirements for succesfull launch (they were "outguned and outnumbered" and under huge presure), so not so surprising they shot down only fifteen... in my first 29.12 mision, I hit only 2 with 12 missiles...

3- The BIG MISTAKE from the Allied part...
... there was some rough weather forecasted for that night.
All the flights were canceled that night, except the Stealth.

They sent the four F117 alone against Belgrade, without any support. (Jamming, Weasels, etc...)

Yes, that's correct and that's why I also put the word LUCK between "Quotes" ("luck"). Luck helped but the mistake of using the same ingress route over and over again also "helped" the Serbians a lot

Yeah, though this wasn't just luck: as I read, the F-117's used the same route several times, and Colonel Dani's battery was placed on that route deliberately.

Another popular urban legend.

Each SAM battery used to have two locations.
One is for peacetime, the other is for wartime.

When OAF started, Serbians decided to spare their assets, as long as possible...
... so on the first night, only two (7th and 8th) battery was activated from the available eight to defend Belgrade.

All the others were moved to their wartime location, and waited their turn.

The 3rd battery peace position was at Jakovo...


... and their wartime "secret" position was an old Dvina site beside Simanovci.
They relocated there few days before the war broke out.
(this picture was made later, when the 6th battery was located and bombed here...)


When their turn came on the third night, they were lucky as the F117 flew the right path, no Weasels were around, and their crew was the best.
(Before the war, Jakovo site stored and used the Akkord of the JNA)

Hpasp, thanks for clarification! There is a lot of myths and legends about any war, coming from both sides and from non-participating sides, as well. Finding the truth is highly complicated process.

I just got my copy of "The 11 Days of Christmas" and found some sections which may help us understand why a relatively small number of B-52s was shot down. Apart from that, it seems that our job, as we play the simulator, is simpler because some operations don't have to be done manually.

"Tension mounted as the missile crews continued trying to track the B-52s passively on their Spoon Rest search radar by following the jamming strobes instead of using their Fan Song radars in the active mode and risk an attack by anti-radiation missiles. But the passive tracking was not working – the jamming was too intense."

" (...) now the difficult process of tracking the return began. Each of the three guidance officers has a small steering wheel under his radar scope, and each slowly and carefully turned the wheel to track the return while twisting their gain control knobs to try to sharpen the jamming strobe into a useable target. The actions of these three guidance officers were critical. When there was no jamming the radar could be set to automatically track the target, but when the target was jamming the return was too unstable and the missile had to be guided manually. They each had to gently turn their steering wheels to keep the return centered in their scopes, so the missile could follow the radar beam to the target."

"It is difficult enough to guide the missiles manually under normal conditions when the targets are clearly seen. It is even more difficult looking at the silky crepe jamming of the B-52 aircraft on the radar screen. An uneven rotation or a mere jerky movement of the control wheel could cause the missiles to deviate from the target by thousands of meters or even detonate in the air."