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#3931122 - 03/28/14 03:41 AM Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial  
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BeachAV8R Offline
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With the SEAD flights working over the area around Kuwait, it's time to make sure the Iraqi Air Force is discouraged from taking to the air. The plane and weapons system that has been waiting all its life for this mission is the GR1 Tornado carrying the JP233 airfield denial munition.





The GR1 is one of the best looking add-on aircraft I've seen for SF2. It is just awesome...







Our strike will be accompanied by a CAP flight of Tomcats launching from their carrier in the Gulf...





The skies north of Kuwait are already pretty busy - promising an eventful morning...



We fly at medium altitude over the Gulf until we coast in around the tri-border area of Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia...



An F-4 of some sort. It didn't appear to have weapons so maybe an electronic warfare (EF-4?) aircraft?



From land bases the Marines are getting ready to enter the fray as well...



Things could get pretty busy up there...





As we approach Kuwait and start to get pinged by ground radars, I make my wingman the sacrificial lamb and send him up high for top cover...



Just inland is a mess of enemy armor, anti-air, and dozens of oil derricks and pumping stations...



From a long way out, the F-14s unleash their awesome Phoenix missiles...



I pull back the throttle hoping the CAP flight will push ahead a bit since I've gotten a bit in front of them. Things are looking a bit dicey on the map with multiple enemy flights heading southeast to meet us.



The Marines are next up, sending off a volley of short range missiles...







Smoke trails and fireballs dot the skies all around me as the air-to-air guys mix it up above. I bury my nose in the sand, flip on the ECM, and lean on the throttles...





The ground rush is fantastic and the slightest twitch or a second of inattention could be disastrous. We close on the target area quickly and it seems like time compresses. Of some worry is a flight of four MiG-25s that scream in from the west. Fortunately, they don't appear to spot me down in the weeds, but they go for my wingman flying high cover. I feel sort of bad for hanging him out to dry up there so I quickly radio him the "RTB" command hoping he can reverse course and beat it out of the area.



My plan worked though as he baits the MiGs and they fly right over me. My wingman has some help coming his way as the F-14s in Memphis Flight come zipping up from the south...



With everyone else otherwise occupied, I concentrate on flying low and getting a good lineup on the target airfield. I occasionally see the flicker of a "25" on my RWR, but they never do shoot at me...



I offset a bit to the west, then take a hard right turn to the north to line up on the target runway...





The enemy defenses around the base are coming alive and the RWR is shrieking. I hear some AAA start to bang around the aircraft and I pop flares and chaff and do some limited maneuvering not wanting to screw up my lineup...



As tracers flash by the canopy, I wait for my bomb fall line to cross the threshold then I mash the pickle button and hold it down. It feels like it takes forever for all the sub munitions to eject from the pods...







Reaching the end of the runway I make a bit of a mistake. I pull hard to the right intending to head south. I probably should have just kept screaming straight ahead at low altitude for a few miles as I inadvertently pop up a bit in my break turn...



The runway is cratered for most of the length...(now does SF2 track that damage and prohibit sorties? I don't know?)





The hard pull grays me out a bit and I take a bit of back pressure out so I can see again...



The RWR screams a launch warning and I jab my flare and chaff button but can see I'm already out - having expended them all on the run in to the target. Damn!



I see the SA-8 launch and the missile starts tracking on me. I wait a few beats and then try to pull hard into it, but it has my number.



Live by the sword - die by the sword...



The mission is a success in that the runway is destroyed 100%. But both of our Tornados are lost and I'm reported missing in action. (The campaign will continue though..)

This mission was a ton of fun. Very reminiscent of a very old mission I flew in Falcon over 10 years ago now!... That AAR is still around:

Wow!

A bit more patience would have been better - allowing the CAP flight to do a bit more cleansing of the airspace. It also might have been better to slate this mission as a 4 or 8 ship to overwhelm the enemy air defenses and divide the fire. I'm looking forward to the next mission...

BeachAV8R



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#3931143 - 03/28/14 06:29 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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komemiute Offline
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IIRC that F4 is actually a Recon version. The long nose housing "camera"-like equipment.

But I could be wrong. :P


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Para_Bellum

"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..."
Ice

"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!"
MigBuster

"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands."
Sauron
#3931168 - 03/28/14 09:01 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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toonces Offline
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Might I suggest that you, in the future, compile all of your missions into a single thread? That's how I've always done it, and it seems to lead to a more cohesive story than spreading the segments into individual threads.

Sure you get interruptions in the thread, but ultimately it makes for a more cohesive experience.

Example: http://tactical.nekromantix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21880

I only took this one out to seven missions, but you get the idea. I think (personally) this is a better way to do an AAR.


"A week or even a month for someone basically saying "shucks, this is pants" maybe. But their banhammer only has the forever setting. Gotta set phasers to stun for the localization of female undergarments, not kill yo." - Frederf
#3931179 - 03/28/14 10:39 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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RSColonel_131st Offline
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Serious sim-envy here...

My SF2 never looked so good and I never saw a Gulf War campaign around. Awesome setup!

#3931183 - 03/28/14 10:47 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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komemiute Offline
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Thinking about it...
Campaign usually just have you flying ONE kind of aircraft.

How come there's this wide variety here? Unless it's just a collage of single missions...


Click to reveal..
"Himmiherrgottksakramentzefixhallelujah!"
Para_Bellum

"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..."
Ice

"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!"
MigBuster

"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands."
Sauron
#3931186 - 03/28/14 11:17 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: komemiute]  
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Staniol Offline
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Originally Posted By: komemiute
Thinking about it...
Campaign usually just have you flying ONE kind of aircraft.

How come there's this wide variety here? Unless it's just a collage of single missions...

+1
One thing would make SF2 much better, to see all the flights assigned to a mission, and be able to choose which one you want to participate in.
Obviously, the final perfect solution would be the thing F4 does, with ongoing campaign where you can jump in anytime, but I wanna avoid the well known "we need a dynamic campaign" topic. smile

And the most important thing: Really nice AAR, as usual, thank you and keep it up!

Last edited by Staniol; 03/28/14 11:18 AM.

Freedom of speech is our birth right, but the privilege of being heard needs to be gained.
#3931194 - 03/28/14 11:51 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: komemiute]  
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BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
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Originally Posted By: komemiute
How come there's this wide variety here? Unless it's just a collage of single missions...

These are just single missions strung together. You are correct, as far as I know, in that you cannot jump around and fly multiple types in a single campaign. After a few missions I plan to transition to an all AV-8B campaign and fly it solely with that.. Just wanted to set the stage so to speak.

Originally Posted By: toonces
Might I suggest that you, in the future, compile all of your missions into a single thread?

That's a good suggestion, but by the same token I've often skipped super long threads that are well established because sometimes I feel like I won't get the whole story or feel like there is too much to catch up on. By posting them as single threads I feel like those that want to follow the story can either read each thread, or new eyes can just read an individual thread as an individual story (since each mission is, in effect, a complete short story). I can see the logic of doing it your way too... Thanks for the suggestion.

Originally Posted By: komemiute
IIRC that F4 is actually a Recon version. The long nose housing "camera"-like equipment.

That makes sense. Extra fuel tanks, no weapons that I could see.

Regards,
BeachAV8R



#3931201 - 03/28/14 12:00 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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Last edited by RossUK; 03/28/14 12:01 PM.
#3931286 - 03/28/14 02:28 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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komemiute Offline
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LOL! I was right! That must be one of the few times... :P


Click to reveal..
"Himmiherrgottksakramentzefixhallelujah!"
Para_Bellum

"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..."
Ice

"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!"
MigBuster

"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands."
Sauron
#3931319 - 03/28/14 03:33 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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Para_Bellum Offline
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Very nice.


thumbsup



Makes me realize once again how much I'd love to see a detailed Tornado sim.




sigh


"...late afternoon the Air Tasking Order came in [and] we found the A-10 part and we said, "We are going where!? We are doing what!?"

Capt. Todd Sheehy, Hog pilot, on receiving orders during Operation Desert Storm

#3931444 - 03/28/14 08:06 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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HarryR Offline
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Your crew dogs must have been expecting a long day in the saddle as they've kept their NVGs on! Nice report, takes me back to DIs Tornado. smile


To..
#3931498 - 03/28/14 09:24 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: HarryR]  
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BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
BeachAV8R  Offline
Lifer

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Originally Posted By: HarryR
Your crew dogs must have been expecting a long day in the saddle as they've kept their NVGs on! Nice report, takes me back to DIs Tornado. smile


biggrin Good spot..! Truth be known, of course, is that most of these missions would have been flown, at least initially, in the dark of night. I'm using some poetic license to allow us to see what's going on.. <g>

BeachAV8R



#3931853 - 03/29/14 05:57 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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jenrick Offline
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You are not far off of what happened with the actual Tornado sorties. Ground fire was not kind to them.

-Jenrick

Last edited by jenrick; 03/31/14 03:30 AM.
#3931862 - 03/29/14 06:26 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: jenrick]  
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BeachAV8R Offline
Lifer
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Lifer

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Originally Posted By: jenrick
You are far off of what happened with the actual Tornado sorties. Ground fire was not kind to them.


Did you mean "not" far off? Yes, the Tornados paid a heavy price. If it wasn't the enemy it was the ground. What a dangerous and high stress profile flying so low. I think they lost six Tornados but if my memory serves me right only one of those was lost on a JP233 profile mission. And their treatment after capture was certainly no picnic..

BeachAV8R



#3932361 - 03/31/14 03:30 AM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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jenrick Offline
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Doh! You are correct, I was missing a "not" in there.

-Jenrick

#3943053 - 04/22/14 09:37 PM Re: Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial [Re: BeachAV8R]  
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Whammo Offline
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Very nice! Keep 'em coming!


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