On the second day of Operation Desert Storm, in an attempt to draw Israel into the war and perhaps fracture the Coalition alliance, Iraq started launching Scud missiles at Israel. Politics aside, it was one of the few smart moves by Saddam Hussein's military planners because it accomplished two things: 1) It diverted a significant portion of assets away from striking more critical targets and 2) Had Israel responded there was at least the possibility of the war taking on a different regional tone. In response, Coalition planners were forced to divert A-10 and F-15E assets to "Scud boxes" in parts of Iraq including the vast western areas close to the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
* These AARs are fictionalized accounts loosely based on history. F-15Es on Scud missions primarily operated at night.Our mission has a long flight out to Western Iraq. It is a shame that SF2 doesn't allow for air-to-air refueling. The addition of air-to-air refueling and multi-player capability would make SF2 one of the greatest sims of all time in my opinion. (Come on TK - please!!!)
The F-15E for SF2 is another brilliant 3D model and a nice cockpit. I'd give credit but I think the list of contributors to the project is really long. You guys know who you are...fantastic job!
Heading out with GBU-10s, AIM-9Ms, and a few extra gas tanks...
After takeoff we fly past one of the Royal compounds...
Heading across the vast nothingness...
Bringing my wingman in close... A hint of what multi-player would be like...
Running a parallel course to us is our CAP flight of F-15Cs. I don't know - personally I think being a strike pilot in the Gulf War would have been more interesting than the rather limited air-to-air that was available...
The late afternoon sun streams into the cockpit setting up an awful glare though the HUD..
About twenty miles out we start to let down slightly to get beneath the cumulus bases that are hovering around 15,000'...
Finding mobile Scud sites in real life proved to be extremely difficult. The ratio of sorties to actual successful Scud strikes was fairly high. The vastness of the desert and the fairly good camouflage techniques (parking them under highway overpasses or in buildings) meant that a lot of time was spent searching and very little time was spent bombing. Coalition Special Forces groups were sent in early to roam the Western desert on ATVs to find and direct strikes - a pretty interesting job if there ever was one. SF2 makes it easy to find targets with the "padlock" commands, so our search was no search at all. The LANTIRN pod displays a targeting diamond on the HUD...
Passing the IP we roll in on the attack...
Pickle!
Ka-rhump!
My wingman pulls off from his strike when his target (my target) is vaporized...
I visually acquire another launcher and direct my wingman onto that target as I circle overhead and observe...
Nice job!
I come back around three more times, targeting additional mobile Scud launchers and support vehicles. There doesn't appear to be any anti-aircraft defenses set up around the site, but we stay fairly high anyway...
With the job done we head east away from the setting sun toward our base in eastern Saudi Arabia...
An hour later the airfield comes into view...
Mission accomplished. As you can see, the variety and types of missions you can fly in SF2:ODS are pretty good. I'm basically running individual single campaign missions for different types of aircraft, but be aware that if you fly a full campaign you are stuck with one type of aircraft for the duration of the campaign.
Pssst..TK..we will pay good money for just the added MP capability..really!BeachAV8R