09/26/04
Falcon 4.0/SP3 Campaign Mission Report #57
OPERATION ROLLING FIRE
DAY 5 – 1100 HOURS

Campaign Status:

Pressure continues to mount to take Wonsan. On the peninsula, Wonsan will be fulcrum from which offensive operations can be mounted.

In order to accomplish the goal of taking Wonsan, we have adjusted the PAK priorities to concentrate our efforts along the east coast of the peninsula:



In order to minimize further damage to airfields and bridges in the area we’ve also changed our target type and mission priorities; setting the sliders for airfields, infrastructure, and OCA strikes all the way to the left:





Attrition of enemy ground forces remains steady with intelligence indicating that DPRK forces are at 50% of their pre-war levels:



Objective:

Our mission is to conduct a battlefield air interdiction (BAI) strike against enemy forces in the vicinity of Kusan:





Planning/preflight:

Specifically the DPRK 4th Mechanized Brigade is moving south and our goal is to stop them in their tracks:



While scanning around the intel map I was interested to find a unit just to the east of our target that is showing phenomenal unit strength. This is the first unit I’ve ever seen that exceeds 100% capacity. Seeing the unit is comprised of 27 BTR-80s, 3 BMP-CMDs and 9 T-80s makes me wish I were flying an A-10 on this mission!



Cont…

Our 4-ship flight will be carrying a full load-out of 8 CBU-89/104 Sensor Fused CBUs:



Debrief:

With the planning done we are soon sitting in our cockpits awaiting our taxi instructions. Since Choongwon was nearly destroyed in the opening phase of the war all player-flown missions must start from the ‘taxi’ position since the runway remains cratered and you have to taxi around the craters for take-off.

After being cleared for take-off I line up on the right edge of the runway and push the throttle into afterburner (image shows 4 CBUs, but 8 are loaded):



Climbing out I pull up the stores page to set up my CBUs for delivery. I set them to come off two at a time, 300’ interval and 2500’ burst altitude:



AWACS circles behind friendly lines, alert to any enemy air activity:



Enroute to the target I glance over my left wing to see my wingman in formation:



Inside of 40 miles to the target I pull up the air-to-ground radar and switch modes to the ground-moving target mode (GMT). I settle the cursors on a blip indicating a moving target and then select the 10 mile EXP mode to give maximum target magnification:



Designating the middle of the pack of vehicles I hand off the targets to my wingman and the element:



Unfortunately my wingmen are still of the “one pass..haul ass” mentality and they drop all of their CBUs at once, resulting in an impressive 24 CBU explosion over the target convoy:



Cont…

Post strike analysis shows they killed 12 vehicles in the first 3 seconds of the attack…not bad, but they could have killed more with multiple passes. The one good thing about my wingmen being “Winchester” already is that I can now concentrate fully on putting in my own strikes. With the smoke from their initial strike wafting up I easily pick up the remaining targets and start making passes of my own:







Pulling off the target I look over my shoulder and use the padlock to find the last remaining targets. The padlock view is an excellent way to find and attack ground targets since the CCIP works perfectly in the 3D HUD view:







As I roll in for my last pass I can see puffs of smoke from enemy AAA dotting the horizon to the north:



Cont…

Pushing my bomb run to a lower altitude I warily watch the threat receiver as several SA-13 sites pop up in all quadrants:





Pulling off I pop chaff and flares until I’m safely above the range of the SA-13s:





With the strike in and over with there’s nothing left to do but go find trouble elsewhere! With 4 Sidewinders and 3900 pounds of fuel I head north-west toward the center of the peninsula hoping to catch a few enemy aircraft straggling down south. After flying nearly 100 miles north of the old DMZ without any contacts I resign myself to the fact that I’m not going to get any action and head for home base.

While heading back to base however, AWACS finally calls out a target at 60 miles over toward the south-west. The target is a J-11 and he is heading away from me in the general direction of Seoul. I pull up my Sidewinders just in case, and lock him in STT mode to try to provoke him to turn toward me:



Unfortunately (or fortunately!) a flight of F-15s is staked out over the FEBA and the J-11 takes interest in them, and the F-15s take interest in him:



The J-11 fires the last of his missiles (I believe that is an ECM pod on his left outboard wing?) before one of the F-15s finally manages to engage him:



Cont…

Eavesdropping on the J-11 I pity the poor guy that is on the receiving end of the AA-12, but am happy it isn’t me for once!



Meanwhile, the J-11 has gone defensive as he tries to evade the return fire from the F-15 flight:



The AMRAAM is no slouch either though, as the J-11 finds out:



With all the action over with, I head for home. After the flurry of action during the first few days of the war it is an odd feeling to have such absolute air supremacy over the battlefield. Where there were once targets thicker than flies we are now lucky to see one or two enemy aircraft per mission.

Out of sheer laziness I botch my landing back at Choongwon and end up dinging my airplane up a bit:



Conclusions:

The 4th Mechanized Brigade is pretty much completely wiped out on our mission. The post flight intel shows us destroying 27 vehicles:





Overall it was a well flown mission with no losses and significant damage done to the primary target. It would have been nice to exercise more control over the wingman ordnance and perhaps attack more enemy units to the east, but you can’t blame them for focusing on the primary mission.

It will be interesting to see how manipulating the PAK settings to concentrate on the Wonsan area will affect future missions.

BeachAV8R

F4/1.08/SP3
FreeFalcon 2
Aeyes 1600 x 1200 super-pit
Twaelti’s NEW high-resolution tiles
BMS .99

Awesome report, Beach! It is shame that you never have any chance to shoot down that J-11.. Look like that 20mm has finally decided to hide from you.

Great way to start my Sunday, a Beach report!
I am looking forward to seeing the results of your upcoming assult, I am running one day behind you. Now that I have my Beach fix, I am off to the front, thanks, Beach.

Are there no bomber escort missions in SP3/4 or do you just skip them? Some of my most memorable Falcon 4 missions were escorting Lancers into NK.

Nice report btw.

Good stuff as per always, so much here I can identify with! One, I also have decided that Wonsan is the primary focus at this stage of the war, so I set my PAK priorites around that area. I also reset my mission priorities and target types. I'm just plain worn out on hitting highway airstrips, I need something more meaninful in life! Like, well, like a nuclear power plant! Like maybe the Togwon-ni Nuclear Plant. Gee, I hope they don't set out a cardboard Nuclear power plant as a decoy... I still haven't hit the airbase at Wonsan, I may do that as well.

Sure it was an oversight, but you did get positive ID's on those GMT radar targets before you assigned your wingmen to go Beach all over them, right?

Chasing after a J-11 with 4 AIM-9's? Gotta love it, too bad the Eagles got there first!

Graphically, this sim continues to amaze me, that shot of the burned out NK truck, flattened tires on the left side, it even looks like shards of glass remaining around the edges of the windshields!

Oh, and the landing, I just wanna say...

Nah, I won't say it. Yes, I will...Welcome to the club, drinks are on you!

Good report, Beach. Keep them comming. It's always a pleasure, when logging at SimHQ to see a new one from you.

JTL

can't remember how to set burst altitude- anyone care to enlighten me?

thanks...

great report as always beach.

I very much enjoyed your report.

If you're going to do more, I look forward to the next one.

Thanks!

Good Job Beach,

However the CBU 89/194 is a GATOR mine CBU. The sensor fuzed you were looking for is a CBU-97/105

Of course it looks like it didn't mean a thing to F4

Uh-oh..I'm slipping...a Gator instead of a SFW..oops! And I was just guessing on that Russian AAM..I didn't know whether it was the AA-12 or AA-10..I can't remember which one is the "AMRAAMski"?

Ulysses - There are indeed escort missions in F4..plenty of them actually. I did fly one probably 10 or 15 missions ago, escorting a strike flight (OCA) against Koksan highway strip. I like escort missions, but I've always tended to like moving mud more than being an air-to-air guy. If you like sweeps, escorts and HAVCAPs there are plenty of those missions to choose from in F4!

20mm - Yeah..probably a good thing the F-15s cleaned up that J-11..going up against him with Sidewinders was probably going to end up very bad for me! Actually I *did* ID those GMT targets for the very reason you stated..I was operating pretty close to the FLOT...that is always a good idea.. I modeled the landing after my superior officer (see..you are a Captain and I'm just a lowly Lt.)..hehe..

Thanks for the kind words from everyone..I'll be taking a couple weeks off...heading out to California for some hiking..reports will resume probably around October 12 or so..

Take care!

BeachAV8R

.....shudder...Beach mission report withdrawl symptons beginning already...can I hold out that long to see # 58?

Have a great time in California, hey, maybe a hiking report?

I sense sarcasm...we can't have that, to the Spanish Inquistion with him.

Sentence him to blue skies and bikinis I say

Roger. That's an AA-10 (the R-27)

If you keep going at this rate you'll win the war in a week

I wonder how a real limited conventional engagement between the north and south would go today. Do you think we'd be cleaning up this fast?

Well..... we can try to make some educated guesses but I'm not sure about those guesses being 'educated'

Vector88,
I'm guessing that Beach will not agree with your assessment of how fast his campaign is going! I'm about at the same place, Day 5, and I'm wondering if this is ever going to end. Talk about a war of attrition!