Hornet 1989 - OCA mission. Wingman appears to be useless.

[Hippo]

I really would appreciate a suggestion here. On arriving at the target area, there are two Mig-29s. However, when I ask my wingman to engage (bandits or my target) he refuses, giving a reply "unable" or similar. Also, asking him to "engage mission and rejoin", although he replies that he will, he doesn't seem to attack the mission target.

 

This is turning what should be a fun pastime into an exercise in frustration.

 

P.S. The new forums are awful.

[Oldahpilot]

I've found in the past that a reply of unable has meant I forgot to load the correct weapons on the wingman in the mission editor?

[Hippo]

I've found in the past that a reply of unable has meant I forgot to load the correct weapons on the wingman in the mission editor?

 

Well, I'm just flying the mission as designed with the loadouts provided, and he does have 2 x AIM 7 and 2 X AIM 9.

[FlippingGerman]

Hey, it could be worse - there's a Harrier mission where (last time I checked) the wingman takes off from Tarawa and immediately crashes into the sea.

[KittyVCAW-1]

he's your wingman..... F3 cover me. Game on. You're lead, take charge.

[Hippo]

he's your wingman..... F3 cover me. Game on. You're lead, take charge.

 

If I do that he attacks ground targets (air defences). I want him to attack the Migs.

 

Is there anyone out there who's actually flown this mission and has not had issues with the wingman?

 

[KittyVCAW-1]

Threw the file in the editor. 2's advanced waypoints are programmed as follows

1. Restrict air2air attack/on

2. The targets he is defined to attack are all ground targets.

 

remove those...bob's ur uncle

it appears you have a high CAP of 4 F-14's in this mission. What are they doing the whole time? Four cats with aim-54's, with that around I dunno why you would even consider going near those MiGs w. bombs on your wings.This sounds like their job and you are supposed to hang back and wait till thats done. Are you like in full burner flying way ahead of your strike package?

 

I stole this from wikipedia: Offensive Counter-Air (OCA) is a military term for the suppression of an enemy's military air power, primarily through ground attacks targeting enemy air bases: disabling or destroying parked aircraft, runways, fuel facilities, hangars, air traffic control facilities and other aviation infrastructure.

 

You're playing the wrong role in the mission. You are insuring russia's air power is crippled before your carrier group leaves the area unable to provide air cover in the area. Let CAP handle the Fulcrums, you and wingbro smash up the airfield would be my strategy.

[Hippo]

Threw the file in the editor. 2's advanced waypoints are programmed as follows

1. Restrict air2air attack/on

 

Thanks for replying, interesting. However...

 

The mission is part of the campaign supplied with the F-18 and I am playing it as is - it should not be necessary to be editing advanced actions.

 

You are right that there are F-14s in the mission, but they are not part of the package, and they are too far out to engage. Further the briefing states:

 

Your section (Colt) is tasked with the strike element of this mission, and a second section (Uzi) will provided SEAD support. Both sections will be acting as self-escort.

 

Isn't it then a bit peculiar that the wingman is set to not attack air targets?

 

I don't know if you've tried flying the mission, for me it plays out something like this:

 

Take off, I am soon made aware that there are threats near the target at angels 20. I get to the target area at around the same time as the SEAD package which does do its job. I can (sometimes) then go down fast and low and bomb the target and GTFO, outrunning the Mig29s. This allows me to achieve the objective, BUT then the Mig29s get the wingman who is faffing about in the area. Maybe I'm being too much of a perfectionist, but I would like the wingman and myself to drop our bombs and get home.

 

Alternatively I go in at 20,000ft and try to engage the Migs first. They are pretty tough, beam my missiles, and I am unable to beat both, often I'm unable to kill even one - which is why I need the wingman to help out, and he is utterly useless.

 

All of this happens away from the F-14 engagement zone, so they don't do anything.

 

I take all of your points onboard but it seems to me that the mission designer might need to take another look.

 

 

 

 

[KittyVCAW-1]

It tells you to loiter 5 min before you even push in. SEAD is defo set up to engage A2A. You shouldn't be arriving on station the same time as them.

[KittyVCAW-1]

What is SEAD doing the whole time? Do they RTB as soon as they are winchester? I took a closer look and you are right the f-14's look like they are fleet protection only and never push inland. My strat is like this: Loiter 5 and let SEAD and the destroyers do their thing, turn and burn for the target, send wingbro in 1st while I turn the closest mig over kobuleti defensive. Wingbro pickles, as soon as I hear that order him RTB and I go cold on the mig if he aint dead already, make my run and get the hell outta dodge. Wish me luck..............

 

UPDATE: 1st try got wingbro to pickle and got mission complete RTB but the MiG's got me BVR like 3 seconds after. My fox1 missed and I blew the notch trying to steer that 1st shot all the way in. I shoulda tossed a second one at him no escape but I really wanted to try save it for #2. On the 2nd try I bagged the 1st two MiG's. 1st one took me two aim-7's and I got a kill. I engaged at 30,000ft+ maybe 33,000 at 4-500knts fox1 and dove negative g pushover to 20K co-altitude.( I think that's frowned upon IRL? I heard they like to keep positive g on the airframe i dunno.) I don't know what range I fired the 2nd shot but that's the one that hit. I notched at least one shot I don't know where it came from. A long range fox 1 so I assume the second MiG. I never saw it come off the rail but RWR wasn't happy. I merged with Fulcrum#2 and pulled hard. I didn't watch my speed I probly coulda got a faster turn if I slowed down a bit after the merge. I wanted to go two circle but I saw he wasn't turning after the merge. I knew he was going for my #2 when I saw that so I knew I didn't have much time as he was starting on his run in. I lost him in the ground clutter, got a lucky radar lock AACQ mode 1st try at close range probly 3-5 Nm. We both fox 2'd at the same time. 5 seconds sooner I woulda had him I think. Both missiles fired hit their targets. I'm pretty sure mine was dead but I instinctually fired a second fox 2 for insurance. I'm out of missiles, I was panicking and hauled ass out to sea and dropping like 10,000 feet straight down in full burner to about 3,000 ft. I was doing like 700 knots! That's fast for a hornet pilot i guess haha. I was hauling ass but I pulled out of it somehow without ripping all the bombs off the pylons.. Got my head together and realized I gotta make a bomb run NOW! I turned for my run into the target. This is where I had trouble, I fumbled around getting mk84's set up and lost some airspeed. Looked up and saw 2 contrails high above me headed out to sea. It was the other 2 MiG's! They had turned and got into the fight. I thought my high cap had engaged them and they had by the looks of the SA. All four contacts were nose hot on each other while I was flanking to the north right thru the middle of them. I felt I was safe for my run in, I had a few seconds with the MiG's tied up. Fumbled around again finding the target while I was trying to designate it, one of those high MiG's broke into a split S, dove about 10,000 ft and slipped in right on my six but I didn't see it. I looked at SA for a split second at one point and saw he was close but didn't notice what way he was pointing or which way I was going. At this point I was overloaded and short circuiting. I thought surely he was engaged by CAP, I didn't look close enough and had no visual. I was tunnel vision on the MFD's and HUD trying to do a bomb run. He fox 2'd me, no radar lock. I never saw it coming. It was badass, straight up merc'ed(Rick James: Coldblooded!) I watched for about another 90 seconds. My high CAP bagged his MiG that stayed up top. The leader who got me bugged out. This is totally doable IMO. It's all about disposing those 2 MiG's ASAP and getting on the bombing run quick. I got overloaded and slowed way down. That was the busiest I've ever been in the cockpit. Gimme a day or two I feel like I can get this with a better BVR/ACM game. More energy for the 1st BVR shot defo. All you can bottle up. like 35K @ Mach 1.2, lofted, at a AOA of45 lol. I'm not the most competent in A2A and I haven't flown in about 2 weeks, I need to practice with the mk-84's a little I don't use 'em much. I'm thinking of telling wingbro to hold at waypoint 2 until I can get the 1st 2 MiG's killed. One AMRAAM and this is a cakewalk, did they have em in '89?

 

UPDATE2: Tacview-20201031-184717-DCS-Hornet 1989-OCA.zip 1st try. Wingman got the ground kills. My BVR/ACM was shit. 3 shots, 3 misses, Lost sight, dead. That was my bad. Look how different it was than I remember. I shot everything at one dude. I only remember the 1st one.

 

 

UPDATE3: Tacview-20201031-191719-DCS.zip

Look what my #2 did when I told him to engage and RTB. He got fired on and went defensive I think. I didn't get out in front enough to protect him like last time. Look who got shot it wasn't my #2 he went home lol (fuck this shit!). SEAD was fighting down on the deck, firing up at the MiG's. Look how slow and dumb I'm flying on my bomb run trying to figure shit out. If wingman ran in like the 1st time and I wasn't doing 180Knts in a straight line I think I might have beat it with 3 out of the 4 ship still alive. Who really knows though? I'll try again tomorrow.