Eyes in the Sky

One of the most important assets you have in the campaign is what Falcon calls Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (CCCI). This is your AWACS and JSTARS. AWACS can be land-based E-3 Sentry aircraft or carrier based E-2 Hawkeye. JSTARS is flown by the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System.

In most campaigns that include these aircraft you will rarely have more than four of each type. These aircraft are what puts the HAV in HAVCAP. You absolutely need to protect them. Fortunately I've not found myself with none (unless the campaign is designed as such), but you can imagine how difficult it would be to fly F4 campaign missions with no AWACS support. The 'Sunrise' radio call, indicating an AWACS has arrived on station, is music to my ears.

The ATO does a good job of fragging these support missions. But if you're hands-on, you can make some tweaks to increase the advantages these missions afford. The ATO tends to set these missions up to fly some distance behind the front lines, maybe 70-100 miles. Because each radar system has a certain range of coverage, where they fly determines how 'deeply' in to Red airspace they can detect objects. The further from the front, the more shallow the coverage. I really have no problem with this, as I'd always favor survivability in computer generated missions.

However, this means less advanced warning of incoming threats and less clarity in AWACS response when you are flying missions and asking for picture, threat or declaration calls. There is an example of this occurring in one of my missions in the 'My Falcon Odyssey' thread here at SimHQ. Chalis saw nothing until I found incoming aircraft on my radar.

The same applies to JSTARS. The further from the front, the ssafer they ostensibly are, but at the cost of coverage. The closer to the front they fly, the more and deeper targets they will reveal. This is especially helpful for the ATO to assign targets. Anyone who has flown F4 campaigns for a while has seen the ATO devolve to a steady procession of BARCAPS. Putting up a JSTARS just behind the front can suddenly reveal heretofore unseen targets and wake the ATO up and get strikers outbound.

Of course the catch is that the closer to the front you put them, the more danger they may be in. So it's a balancing act, and just another factor that makes getting hands-on in the campaign so much fun. Be sure to provide CAP when you can. HAVCAP isn't necessary really in my view. But putting BARCAPS some distance to the bad guy side of the CCCI flight will shield them from attacks.

In addition to the range issue, the ATO tends to set up the patrol steerpoints flying perpendicular to the front. Like the BARCAPs I mentioned earlier, I want these missions flown parallel to the front. With CCCI missions, doing so maintains a uniform depth of coverage and eliminates the 'waves breaking on the beach' effect you would otherwise get as the CCCI flight flies toward, then away from, the front lines.

One nice advantage here is these aircraft have exceptional endurance. Back when I was flying AF, we did some decidedly unscientific tests at Frugals. The upshot was we came up with reasonable on-station times of 10 hours for the E-3 and 16 hours for JSTARS. E-2 are much shorter-legged and should be left at default which is 5 hours. Of course that's AF and I have not tested in any way in BMS. But it's safe to add a few hours surely.

Edit: Having played BMS for a few months now the best way to do this is to frag out your CCCI flight, adjust your steerpoints, then click one of the patrol steerpoints. Adjust the station time by adding hours until the flight path turns red. Then just reduce the station time by two hours or so and you've now created a CCCI mission close to max endurance.

Let's talk for a moment about the E-2 Hawkeye. In my opinion they aren't very effective. Shorter endurance and significantly reduced detection ranges means they are not a direct substitute for the E-3. Don't attempt to use them interchangably. But they have a perfect role, and that's carrier protection. Since they are carrier based, it makes sense to get an E-2 up near the carrier. Oftentimes an enemy carrier strike package will take a route that might fall outside of your E-3's range. The E-2 should be there to supplement and give you enough warning (if you're paying attention!) to get some interceptors up. The Superbug can carry a lot of slammers!

So the bottom line is nothing really needs to be done by the player in regards to AWACS and ELINT missions. But doing so can give some marked advantage that could pay off handsomely.



Last edited by DBond; 04/28/17 03:38 PM.

No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!