Campaign:Tiger Spirit. All settings at default.
Mission:Strike / Nuclear Power Plant 10nm East of Hamhung
Package:1 x 4 ship Strike flight, target - nuclear power plant
1 x 2 ship SEAD flight, target - SA-2 sites to the East and West of Hamhung
1 x 2 ship Escort flight, task - clear the airspace of hostiles
Roles:Ice - flight lead - target Northern reactor
Crash - 1st element wingman - target Northern reactor
CTR - 2nd element lead - target Southern reactor
AI - 2nd element wingman - target Southern reactor
Payload:2 x GBU-24, 2 x 300gal wing tanks, 2 x AIM-9P, 2 x AIM-120C, jammer, TGP, HTS
This is mission 2 of CTR's Tiger Spirit campaign. Today the flight was tasked with destroying the nuclear power plant near Hamhung. On review, it appeared that there were at least 4 SAM battalions in the area with SA-2 launchers. I had plotted each one with a pre-planned threat steerpoint, but for some reason I kept being kicked out of the campaign just as soon as I was ready. After the third kick, I did not bother to plot them again and instead simply remembered that from steerpoint 2 onwards, we were supposed to be in range of the SA-2s. My mouse has developed the problem of double-clicking instead of single-clicking, so maybe this was the problem?
After a quick brief and changing the egress steerpoint to the south instead of east, we headed out to our aircraft and performed the pre-flight checks and startup. Soon enough we were on the runway getting ready to roll.
*** Ice and Crash getting ready for takeoff ***Takeoff was uneventful and we made our way to steerpoint 2 and I called for rejoin. On the way, we started messing about with the autopilot settings, trying to get used to the F-16's AP system compared to the old-and-familiar DCS A10C's autopilot. We tried our best to be on time, but that required flying at 220-230 knots and with an AoA of about 8-10 degrees, CTR simply wasn't comfortable with how we were set up so I called for a speed of 280 knots at Angels 22 and decided we could deal with being early later on by maybe doing a few 360-degree turns if needed.
*** Flight coming in for rejoin, with the AI aircraft as a tiny speck at the back *** 
*** Ordnance load of the flight *** At about 10nm from steerpoint 2, AWACS started calling out bandits in the air north of Hamhung. A quick check of the HSD showed that the escort flight was well in the area and I wished them the best of luck in their engagement. As the distance from steer 2 to the target area wasn't that great, about 40nm or so, I called for Fence In just before we got to steerpoint 2. We ended up being about 30 seconds early on steer 2, but by this time, only one SA-2 radar site remained, the lone battalion East of Hamhung. As the flight turned northwards to steerpoint 3 and to Hamhung, that SA-2 site blinked out as well. Great work by the SEAD flight!
At this point, I called Crash forward and we accelerated towards the target area on buster and I instructed CTR to slow down to give us some spacing. The target was in the area of steer 4, so I selected that and turned the TGP on, found the power plant a bit to the right of the steerpoint, and started tracking the northern building. Bombs away! I still find it odd not having to turn on the laser myself compared to DCS A10C wherein the pilot had to manually activate the laser. Soon after, Crash called out that he had a problem with his bombs not releasing and he went back to steerpoint 3 to begin his attack again. It turns out CTR wasn't far behind me as our bombs hit in quick succession. Knowing about BMS's quirks, I had to make CTR confirm that he got his target --- there was too much smoke coming from the target site that I could not make out the southern section of the power plant. We slowly made our egress back south as Crash came in for his second attack run, targeting one of the buildings around the power plant complex. On this run, his bombs released without any problems.
As we egressed the target area, Crash radioed that he had problems with his jet and had to fly with the autopilot for some time (read: his little boy woke up and he had to attend to family matters). I instructed him to maintain at least 300 knots airspeed and instructed the flight to form up on Crash. A quick scan of his aircraft showed that the airframe was not damaged, so I hoped Crash could sort out his problems before long.
*** CTR and Ice forming up on Crash's F-16 *** ---- apologies for the warping, that is due to my FOV settings -Ice
*** A shot from the AI wingman's view, looking at Ice and CTR keeping tabs on Crash ***Crash sorts out his problems and soon enough announces that his jet is good once more. That's a relief, as I did not want to call SAR today. We head for home and soon enough, the discussion of the flight's performance ensues even before we were anywhere close to the home base.
*** Soon enough, home plate came into view and Ice comes in for a perfect touchdown ***
*** Flight forming up again on the ground ***
*** Shutdown on the ground... obviously need more training with aligning the jets with the markers. We'll be the butt of jokes from the ground crew for weeks! As punishment, Crash is buying the beer! ***
*** Looks like CTR is only a few feet off the mark. His punishment will be cleaning up the mess afterwards! 
***
*** Mission success! Three birds out, three birds back home. *** All in all, it was a very successful and fun mission. We were credited with a mission success with significant damage to the target site. The BMS Battle Damage Assessment team declared that my GBUs missed the target, but that CTR, Crash, and the AI all hit their targets. My TGP recording shows the northern section of the power plant smoking after my bombs hit, so I eagerly await the results of this investigation.
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A very fun mission and very immersive now that we are playing the campaign. We had to egress ASAP as I was afraid we might be jumped by enemy fighters if we lingered too long. My apologies again and my thanks to Crash and CTR for their patience with me... I suffered some problems with my TrackIR software and also had to reset my flight controls mapping and my BMS exports. We ended up starting about 45 minutes late but the guys were cool with everything. Also kudos to them for keeping perfect formation and excellent flight discipline during the mission. This led to me finding it easy to control and direct the flight on the various portions of the mission.
Apologies for not having any screenshots of the "action" parts of the mission --- obviously we were quite busy!
CTR said he has some MFD shots of the target before and after the strike, so I will let them post their screenshots and AARs themselves.
