Today we’re going to be taking a look at the first in a series of missions flown in one of the greatest tactical flight sims available (and sadly one of the only), Flight Commander 2. If you’re not familiar with the title I highly recommend checking out:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/flight-commander-2
I found this title back in 1999, and played the heck out of it as a college student. To this day I still fire it up, and can as easily kill 20 minutes as a afternoon. If any one ever offered an updated version of it, I’d be the first buyer. Think of it as turn based flight simulator and you won't be far off.
So with that said, lets jump into our campaign.
The Aéronavale or French Naval Aviation is currently equipped with one of the most modern fighters in existence. The Dassault Rafale M. A solo project pursued by the French after they withdrew from the Eurofighter consortium, it in many ways resembles the other fighter. The Rafale, is equipped with advanced sensors, countermeasures, and is extremely maneuverable as well. While lacking the purpose built stealth characteristics of the F-22 or F-35, it is designed for a different role, and is MUCH cheaper to manufacture as a result. Historically the Rafale fired it’s first shot in anger on March 12th 2007 in Afghanistan, dropping a GBU-12 in support of Dutch troops in contact (how’s that for multi-national? French plane, American bomb, Dutch troops). Since then it has continued to provide air support to troops on the ground in Afghanistan, as well as conducting strikes in Libya and Mali.
Flight Commander 2 allows the player to embark on series of linked missions together that create a campaign. There is no dynamic campaign, but honestly it doesn't lack for one.
The campaign briefing for the Rafale’s newest assignment:
Terrorist bomb blasts have continued to occur in France, from islamic extremists. It has now been proved that these extremists are trained mainly in Pakistan; so France has decided to take action against them at the source. The Charles de Gaulle carrier group has been sent into the Indian Ocean and is ordered to take any opportunity to suppress the training facilities. On the carrier, together with your brand new Rafale squadron is a good old Super Etendard squadron, for strike and recon missions. From the French airbase in Djibouti, a Mirage F1 squadron and a Mirage 2000 Squadron can provide some assistance, but the distance and the lack of KC 135 tankers allow only small formations to come and help you.
Mission briefing:
The weather report, provides us an important detail. Cloudy weather, as well as night time, can play havoc on your ability to fight if you don’t pay attention to the weather brief. As it’s clear, IR missiles are the prefered choice for a few reasons I’ll get into in the arming section in a moment.
Next up is pilot selection. Each pilot is rated from 1-7 in regards to their A2A and A2G ability, they also have a style (defensive, neutral, aggressive) and a toughness rating. A pilots style has several effects, aggressive pilots do not defend against missiles as well, but on the other hand get more gun snap shot opportunities, and are usually better at making high-g maneuvers. Defensive pilots, are the opposite, while neutral pilots have no pro’s or con’s. The toughness rating is used to determine both the pilots resistance to G induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC), as well as their ability to remain fit to fly multiple sorties day after day. It’s usually best to pick a mixture of top-tier pilots and lower level pilots to fly on their wing. This way you’re not stuck trying to perform a crucial mission with all your top shelf pilots grounded due to fatigue. Also as pilots gain experience they gain skill, so in long campaigns you can cultivate your lower level flyers into aces.
In this case I have elected to take two of the top tier pilots, one mid tier, and one of the lower level pilots. This will give me two pair of fighters, each led with a very competent pilot.
The arming screen screens several different functions. It first and foremost allows you to arm your aircraft as you see fit for the upcoming mission. Secondly it allows you to check the remaining munitions levels you have available to you in stores, and lastly it allows your the ability to divide your aircraft up into 4 different packages: lead, sweep, strike, and weasel. Munitions first.
As we have to make visual ID of the bogies, and we can only return fire, there’s no point in going radar homing heavy on the missiles. I can choose between the venerable Super 350 with Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH) that requires me to maintain lock all the way from launch to impact, or I can use the newer MICA(R) Active Radar Homing (ARH) missile. I only have a limited stock of MICA(R)’s, but I’d hate to lose a kill or worse a plane do to taking a less capable missile, so with the MICA(R) it is. As there’s probably not going to be a ton of BVR shooting, each plane is equipped with only 2 MICA(R)’s. The Pakistani’s are probably going to be fielding late model Mirages, or F-16 A/B’s as their top of the fighters. Neither is something to not be worried about.
The same choice for IR missiles exists, with the older, but still capable Magic II or the newer deadlier MICA(H) being my options. I again elect for the more capable missile, loading each fighter with 4 heat seekers. If it turns into a furball, we’re not coming in under loaded.
All planes are going out fully fueled, and I elect not to add any fuel to their loadout as they are close to home. Night and laser pods are for ground attack work and are not needed, along with the variety of A2G ordinance listed. The ECM pod can be taken for A2A work, to help provide another layer of protection, but they are heavy and cut into performance. I elect to leave them off for today.
Lastly packages. Lead and sweep, arrive at the same time but from different bearing followed by strike and weasel who arrive together but at different bearings. The end result if you have aircraft in each package would be to have 2 waves of aircraft (lead and sweep, with strike and weasel following) coming in from 2-4 different bearings (sometimes you end up with everyone on a different bearing, other times it’s only 2). The computer does the spacing and arrival bearings at random, so sometimes it’s more helpful than others. For today, we’ll put one pair of fighters in lead, and 1 pair in sweep. This way the bogies will have to deal with at least 2 pair of maneuvering problems if they get froggy.
So with the click of the launch button here we are. I have one group of fighters at altitude 4 ( approximately 7100 ft) and the other flying high cover at altitude 15 (approximately 26.7K) ft. From here on out I’ll just reference the in game altitude numbers (each square on the map, and altitude block is approximately 1780 ft if you want to do the math yourself though). Everyone starts out at 450 knots TAS. The arrow line shows their current direction of movement, and end of phase location.
Everyone’s RWR is silent, so the bandits are at least not emitting, so their no help. I have Rafale #2 of the high cover group (the Northernmost pair composed of Dutertre and Wattier Rafale’s #2 and #3) turn on his radar on his current heading. I end the phase and it advances, to show nothing has changed. The radar is clear with the RWR clear as well, so time to do a little searching.
Here’s the in game data file for the Rafale. If you look on the bottom right side it lists the Rafale as having a radar with strength 9 (out of 10), with look down capability, and Track While Scan with up to 4 contacts. The Rafale should be able to pickup pretty much any no stealthy enemy aircraft above or below it without to much trouble. In early generation aircraft with worse radar, I might have had the low level group reveal themselves, as they would have most likely been looking level or up to find the bogies.
With that said, I have the high cover group, each turn 45 degress off their initial heading, one left, one right, to begin searching for the bad guys. I end the phase…
Radar contact!
The bogies have been located to the North of the high cover group.
The high group turns towards the bogies, with Wattier #3 falling back a little due to having to come around. The low group also heads that way, but stays radar silent for the moment.
Dutertre, Rafale #2, gets a solid track on the bogies allowing him fire a RHM at them if I so choose (indicated by the red cross over the bandit selected, and the golden border on the one to the north, the one with just a red border is basically not generating a good enough radar return to fire off of). While this could be considered a hostile act, the bogies have already penetrated the perimeter around the carrier, so let them worry not us. We have a 11 unit or so height advantage, so we’ll maintain that for the moment and just overfly them.
As an aside, I could go ahead and start shooting missiles. The computer doesn't keep track of ROE issues like this, it’s up to the player. However it’s much more interesting (please not I didn't say fun) to operate under them for a given scenario. Though throwing it out the window and going AIM-7 BVR crazy in Vietnam has it’s perks too…
The high cover group is still closing, and you can see that Wattier, Rafale #3, has gone to full throttle to get back into position after having to make a 180 from his earlier search heading. The low group continues on radar silent.
Things have just gotten real tense here in the Arabian Sea. The low cover group has been detected and Rodec, Rafale #1, has been locked onto by the bogies. Their getting really close to being labeled bandits at this point. The ROE is the ROE though, and we can only return fire. The low cover group lights their radar’s off, and pushes the throttles full ahead as the high cover groups barrels.
And then it all goes south….
With a frantic call of “Missile Inbound!” France and Pakistan are in a shooting war.
Bandit #0 (the southernmost) has fired a missile at Wattier, Rafale #3, unfortunately the least skilled pilot, from pretty close range. Fortunately it’s a head-on shot which is lower percentage shot, the missile is coming from WAY below (about 9 height units), and the missile is probably an AIM-9J or equivalent rather than a newer ultra lethal dogfighting missile.
Bandit #0, is going to climb and and break hard to his right, ending up with a final heading of approximately 090. This is shown by the movement arrow, with a white arrow indicating a climb, grey no altitude change, and black a dive. If you have a visual or a radar lock, you can mouse over to see exactly how much of an altitude change will occur.
Wattier, decides to snap off a quick ARHM shot at Bandit #1 (marked with the red cross hairs). As the MICA(R) is active radar homing, it will force Bandit #1 to be defensive even as Wattier deals with his own problem. There is no way for you to know if a given missile in flight is IR/ARH/SARH until it loses guidance. So it’s a wise plan to honor all missiles (and the AI is good about this).
You can see in the data line above the main game screen that the info for Bandit #1 (for some reason reading Bandit #0 in this shot) is at 533 knots, and is climbing from -9 to -8 reference the currently selected player aircraft (Wattier Rafale #3 in this case).
Fox 3! Wattier, Rafale #3, MICA(R) comes off the rail. You can only fire one missile per phase per plane (and each plane goes in only one phase, so basically once per turn). Wattier pulls hard left with a slight dive, hopefully over-g-ing the missile. You can see next to the control stick a red box marked 58%. This is the change Wattier has of pulling off this high-g 90 degree turn. If he fails, he’ll only make a 45 degree turn, and be left with little speed or even stalled.
The missiles start flying as the low cover group gets involved. Mercier, Rafale #0, fires off a MICA(R) at Bandit #0 (the southernmost bandit, and the one who fired first). Dutertre, Rafale #2, gives Bandit #1 another problem to worry about with a MIRA(R) headed his way. The low group keeps the throttles forward, but other then that doesn’t do much maneuvering. Dutertre, begins a shallow dive aimed at Bandit #1, leaving Bandit #2 off to his 3 o’clock way low. The low cover group should be able to peel him off before he becomes an issue.
Wattier, Rafale #3, meanwhile is still dealing with a missile. It has managed to make a 90 degree turn almost immediately after lunch and is still a threat. Fortunately it’s still off his nose, so it’ll be much easier to deal with.
Wattier, Rafale #3, has a IR missile shot at Bandit #0 as shown in the screen above. I elect to take it, and Fox 2!. Wattier is still carrying a decent bit of speed, and plenty of altitude so we can convert that to hopefully dodge the missile that’s still in bound. A left turn combined with a shallow dive to keep speed up will hopefully do the trick.
Bandit #0 fires off another missile at missile at Wattier, Rafale #3, and it desperately trying to figure out exactly where he can go to dodge Wattiers MICA(H). Rodec, Rafale #1, fires off a MICA(R) at Bandit #0 to keep him on the defensive (hopefully he’ll be shot down), and Mercier, Rafale #0, fires off a MICA(R) at Bandit #2 (far North). Rodec and Dutertre dive and turn slightly to keep lead pursuit on their prey.
Wattier managed to dodge Bandit #0’s face shot, so maybe he can get in a better position now. It was a good theory until Bandit #0, fired off another missile.
Wattier, Rafale #3, again breaks hard and dives. He’s beginning to run out of speed even with the burner on with his chance of the high-g maneuver being completed being only 44%. The fight has been joined in earnest at this point.
A dirty orange fireball erupts as someones missile detonates close enough to Bandit #0. Wattier, meanwhile manages to dodge the second missile sent his way. Mercier, Rafale #0, has a missile headed his way courtesy of Bandit #1, so he maintains his heading to beam it at his 9 o’clock. His wingman, Radec Rafale #1, falls in.
Meanwhile, Wattier gets the nose down and turns north to get some energy back and get into the fight. Dutertre, fires off another MICA(R) at Bandit #1, before diving right to avoid being tailed by Bandit #3.
Splash 2 as Bandit #1 falls to one of Dutrertre’s, Rafale #2, missiles. Before he went down, Bandit #1 fired of a missile at Rodec, Rafale #1, leaving each of the lower group aircraft with a missile inbound. Looking at the distances and speeds involved, now is the time to attempt to break lock. Both Mercier and Rodec, Rafale #0 and Rafale #1, pull hard left. The last threat, Bandit #2, fires off a missile at Dutertre, Rafale #2.
Dutertre, dives and pulls to get his nose around onto Bandit #2, while Wattier, Rafale #3, pulls around to get into the fight as well. Bandit #2, fires off another missile this one at Wattier, again.
Taking advantage of the Rafales superb maneuverability and some good piloting, everyone is able to avoid their inbound missiles. Dutertre, has gotten close enough to Bandit #2 to make a visual ID, a Mirage III.
Flight Commander 2 has a database entry for every aircraft in the game, featuring a lot of useful details like wing loading and top speeds.
Everyone who can get their nose around turns in on Bandit #2, who soon enough won't have anywhere to run.
Three all aspect MICA(H)’s are in the air headed for Bandit #2. This is probably not going to end well for him…
And it’s over. For whatever reason Flight Commander 2 doesn't show you the final bad guy going down. Turns out the other two bandits were F-16A’s, so even a tight turning fight might have been ugly. HQ is happy at least: “You splashed them out of the air like sitting ducks.The first real combat mission of your new Rafale formation is a great success and provides good hopes about the following of your mission.”
To evaluate my own flying: I got lucky. I dodge a LOT of missiles. Sure the Rafale has great maneuverability, ECM, and some good pilots, but I trusted luck a little more than I should have. I let the high group get engaged before the low cover group could do much. I should have held them back a bit, until both groups were within range.
However when it’s all said and done, three kills, no losses. That’s a good day.
-Jenrick
