FC2.0: F15C: Campaign Mission 4 AAR

Okay, Russians have started the fight in the last mission and they mean to do some heavy damage by sending 4 TU-22 bombers along with 4 Flanker escorts.

I think it is important to note that I do edit the loadout for my flight before every mission as suggested by EvilBivol. Usually go with 6 AIM-120C's and 2 sidewinders. And change fuel as appropriate for the duration of the mission. Certainly helps in survivability of my wingmen and more importantly... myself. Another thing I do while I'm in the editor is to check the skill level of my wingmen. It's good to know in advance who you can rely on.

After I take off, I decide to wait for all of my wing to take off as I have a feeling that this fight isn't going to be an easy one. I need everyone by my side.

AWACS seems to be pressuring me to get going by providing me with some helpful information.

I make one circle around the base and head for waypoint 2 just as 4 started rolling.

Keeping my radar off and only relying on AWACS until I reach the engagement zone.

Wing 4 has just caught up.

Getting close so I switch to BVR and turn on the radar. Look at all that noise! So the bombers have their jammers on and I'm sure the Flankers got theirs on too. Flankers obviously are the priority targets here but there's no way to tell who's who in all that noise. It's gonna be dangerous but I'm gonna have to wait until the burn through range to identify targets. Bombers have more powerful ECM's than fighters I'm told so if I'm right, Flankers should appear on my radar before the bombers.

Just as I predicted. Flankers at around 20nm range and closing. Gonna get busy.

While giving commands to my wingmen as quickly as my fingers can move, AWACS decides to interrupt. Not now! I already figured they're 20nm away and closing.

I managed to get each of my wing to engage 3 separate Flankers and I also fired 1 AAMRAAM per Flanker to put them on defensive.

I counted at least 2 launch warning against me so I'm running as always... I can see some explosion in the distance. Can't tell if its my kill or my wingmen... but who cares as long as they're dead!

There goes the escorts.

Unfortunately, wing 3 didn't make it. And his plane just exploded and evaporated. Didn't even have time to eject. RIP.

Time for some revenge... where are those sitting duck bombers? Doing their best to survive I see.

Sometimes one missile isn't enough to kill these TU-22's it seems.

The bombers are literally sitting ducks so I terrorize them and finished them off one by one. Try flying home in that ejection seat!

RTB

This was fairly short mission but wasn't easy by any means. I really like this campaign as each mission seems to have different challenge. This time, dealing with enemy ECM signals.

Wing 3 shoved an AAMRAAM and a sidewinder in that Flanker before he took one. And the TU-22's obviously wasn't able to do any damage.

Thanks for reading.

Mission 3 AAR

Mission 4 AAR

Mission 5 AAR

Mission 6 AAR

Mission 7 AAR

Mission 8 AAR

Mission 9 AAR

Mission 10 AAR

Nice AAR! (Got to dig up the three before this!) Question: are you using the stock F-15 model? The '15 in your screen shots looks more rounded. Also, did you lock-up each flanker in turn before telling an each wingman to engage or did you just go 'enage bandits'?

Looking forward to your next report!

Thank you! No I am using the Gys-Valerie F15 model. It's a must in my opinion.

And I did lock up each Flanker and gave order one at a time in this particular mission. It takes some time because from what I can tell, I have to lock up one, give order, but cannot unlock and lock next one rightaway. Have to wait until the first wingman confirms the order. Then lock next one, give order, and then wait... In other missions, if I'm only able to lock one or two, I give an order to as many as I can and then use "cover me" command for the rest.

Enemy's first target usually is the lead which is myself and they almost always fire their longest stick which is R-27ER. That's an SARH missile so they have to guide it all the way to me. This is also why I don't use ECM at first. I want them to keep their locks on me and not break it too early so my wingmen have better chance.

Again... not even sure if what I'm doing is proper way. Seems to work so far at least.

Nice job, Ven! AI wingmen are always a bit tricky and it's nice that you are able to use them effectively to take on a substantial portion of the fight. It's always cool to hear them report in the kills. :)

I also struggled for a while to figure out the best way to assemble the flight before heading for the target area, in particular because the mission theatre is relatively tight. Like you, I initially circled the airbase once or twice and then moved on. Later though, I found that simply flying ahead at about 250 kts. works about as well.

Got a question for you EvilBivol. You said before that only the lead in the Flanker group carries ECM. But looking at the difference between 7th and 8th screenshot above, it appears there was more than one jamming signal coming from the Flanker group? Is it because the Flankers were split in 2 by 2 formation and it's considered to have 2 lead?

Yes, I think I had said that will be the case in "most" flights. :) In some missions (really, I think only in this one plus one other), the Flankers are split into 2 flights of 2 and one wing in each will carry ECM. Strictly speaking, this is probably less realistic as in reality this would still be 1 flight of 4 and as such only carry one ECM station. However, given the restrictions of the ME, these had to be made as two separate flights and were given equivalent payloads.