Our next series of missions takes a look at one of the lesser appreciated airframes of the Gulf War – the Dassault Mirage F1. The French Air Force sent F1C and F1CR to participate in Operation Daguet while the Kuwaiti Air Force flew their F1CK from bases in Saudi Arabia. Since Iraq also fielded Mirage F1s, the Coalition F1s were held in reserve until complete air superiority was achieved to prevent misidentification and possible blue on blue incidents.
* A reminder that these missions are just general representations and are not historically accurate with respects to bases, missions, and loadouts. *
The French F1CR was well suited to its reconnaissance role and I believe later in the war they also performed direct bombing attacks. They were also apparently paired up and utilized as pathfinders for the Buccaneers since they had better avionics and navigation capabilities. For our mission today, we will perform a recon flight to assess the strength and disposition of an Iraqi fortified area on the border of Kuwait and Iraq…
Heading off with wing tanks and the center mounted reconnaissance pod…
Dropping to low level over the Gulf on approach to the Kuwaiti coastline…
Elsewhere the Kuwaiti Tornados are gearing up for a mission…
That’s not a MiG-29 shooting a missile, that’s a MiG-29 that just dodged a Sidewinder!
A-7 Corsairs getting shot off the carrier will add to the mix…
Soon we are abeam Kuwait getting ready to turn westbound toward the target area…
As we make the turn, we turn our ECM pods on…
We have a massive screen of Coalition aircraft to our north acting as barrier to any enemy fighters that might be working their way south…
We stray a bit north of the inbound course line in order to keep some distance from some mobile SA-8 sites that appear on the map…
Nearing the target area we pop up to a few thousand feet and snap our photos…
As soon as we cross the target we drop back down to about two hundred feet for the quick egress to the south, chased out of the area by a couple SAM launches from the compound we overflew…
Back at base safely with the recon photos in hand…
We hand off our intel to the Kuwaiti pilots who are eager to hit back at the Iraqi forces…
Since the F1 is a bit outclassed on the battlefield, it is a good idea to slow down a bit and let the bulk of Coalition aircraft push out ahead to clear out the airspace…
Our Kuwaiti fighters reenter their homeland…
A few miles out they spot the target from mid altitude and dive down to low altitude to deliver the high drag bombs…
The party gets started as the base defenses kick into gear and start launching SAMs…
Pickle!
A great example of my poor interval setting (I forgot to set it!) versus my wingman who has a better spread on his stick of bombs delivered from a slightly higher altitude…
His bombs hit just before mine – he gets good hits while my cluster of bombs goes long and hits just outside the perimeter fence…
As we peel off to the south the smoke rises from the Iraqi compound…
Not content to let us get away unmolested, the SA-8 opens up on us…
My wingman pays the price for lingering at too high an altitude. Safety is found below 200’ or at much higher altitudes. Medium altitudes are suicide…
Two went out – only one returns…
In a nod to the fact that not all of the air war was uncontested, there were a few brave Iraqi Air Force pilots that flew into impossible odds on impossible missions. Iraq also fielded their own F1 Mirages but many fled to Iran after the onset of hostilities and a few more were shot down. A fairly bold strike was attempted by the Iraqi Air Force on January 24 when a pair of F1s and two MiG-23s were sent on a mission to strike the major Saudi oil refinery at Abqaiq . AWACS vectored a pair of Saudi F-15s toward the incoming strikers and the MiGs turned tail and ran while the F1s tried to press on. One of the Saudi F-15s quickly dispatched both of the F1s, effectively ending Iraq’s offensive air operations for the duration of the war.
An Iraqi F1 takes off for a strike against Saudi oil facilities near Dhahran…
I flew this mission multiple times and found it was near impossible to work south into Saudi airspace without being detected and promptly hunted and executed. Even getting into the air from some of the Iraqi airspace can result in fairly quick action. Here we’ve just taken off and intercepted an F-18 strike coming toward our base…
The Coalition F-15Cs are impossible to defeat or evade. I assume this is fairly true to form since Coalition air dominance was pretty complete throughout the war.
If you are patient, and can wait for the bulk of the air activity to calm down, you can pick your way south. Here we try an extremely low attack profile from over the Gulf…
Soon the oil complex on the coast comes into view through the HUD…
Without a CCIP HUD display, it is a bit of guesswork to release the Beluga CBU cannisters…
I get lucky with my guesswork and the CBU bomblets rip across the complex…
We break hard to the east and hope the Coalition air defenses are late to the switch…
While escaping to the north you had better be careful to avoid the Coalition fleet in the middle of the Gulf…
Things don’t end well..
Flying the Iraqi side of the Operation Desert Storm campaign is pretty brutal. I don’t care what side of the conflict you are on – if you take up arms and fight for your country, that takes courage and even though the Iraqi Air Force never had a chance, there were still some moments of extreme bravery shown. The Mirage F1 saw some interesting action in the Gulf War on both sides.
Awesome Simply Awesome work BeachAV8R...love the report and Screenies
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Great report, I agree with your anlysis about Desert Storm scenario. It was pretty complicated for both sides. Mainly for Iraky pilots because it was pretty complicated to hide from E-3 or E-2 airplanes.
This shot is my favourite! I love the naked drama and aggression. The Mirage is powerful, purposeful, and full of character. Y'know, Beach, it could be the start of an awesome painting.
Cheers
R
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So the Thunderhawk would come screaming out of the sky at mach ohmygod! and as soon as the struts hit the ground they would rip off.
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You're trying to apply scientific principles to 40k. Do you not see the problem with that?
When did Strike Fighters start looking like this? I thought it was DCS for a minute.
"From our orbital vantage point, we observe an earth without borders, full of peace, beauty and magnificence, and we pray that humanity as a whole can imagine a borderless world as we see it, and strive to live as one in peace." Astronaut William C. McCool RIP, January 29, 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia
It's Strike fighters 2 (full merge install). He is using the Desert Storm mod. You can download it for free in combatace.com You can also download many aircraft, missions and campaigns.