dwpenney Posted April 20, 2010 Posted April 20, 2010 (edited) {Bah! Typo in the title! This is #6} I am going to wait to post the AAR for Mission #5, not through of any sense of drama or action but simply because the track for it was somehow corrupted. I usually take only a few screenshots during the mission and rely on a review of the track to grab what seems the most helpful and revealing. That usually means that my tracks (and the actual mission) suck a lot more than it may seem in the heavily edited AAR :-) For Mission #6 I was focusing not only on succeeding and documenting the mission but in trying to make my wingman reach some level of operational effectiveness - other than his effectively practiced tactic of fertilizing of the countryside. Needless to say, I replayed this mission some number of times before I was able to pull it off. In the end I achieved the goal using him to his 'maximum' while keepling him alive. I must point out that each replay I followed the same strategy as that laid out on my first attempt. Although I obviously learned on each replay where the bad guys were situated, sometimes with minute detail, I always pushed myself to follow the plan and assume that I did not know where or how events might occur. Take that disclaimer any way you want but other than the fact the Buster (my nickname for my wingman in hommage to Mythbusters and the fact that he was being used as an AI crash test dummy) repeatedly died and left me cursing and exiting the mission, each replay had it share of variances and kept me on my toes. Warning: This AAR is also quite long. It covers some 37 screenshots and, probably but the time I am finished, quite a bit of text. My goal is to document both the approach that was taken within the mission parameters, describing decisions and approaches, and the organization and deployment of my wingman 'Buster'. ---- Part #1: Mission #6 has us tasked with destroying a supply depot just outside the city area of Nagomari. SAM and AAA threat is moderate. I expect that twp SA-11 sites that have been harassing me in previous missions still exist N of the ridgeline (N of waypoint #6 and NW of waypoint #7). That is going to keep me under 3000ft. I am going to defing low altitude as <1500ft, medium altitude as 1500ft - 2500ft and high altitude as 3000+. I am going to impose a high altitude ceiling at 3000ft and only go above that if I have no choice. Above 3000ft and I expect missles inbound from the N SA-11 sites. Here you can see 'The Plan'. The objective is located at waypoint #5 along the S outskirts of Nagomari. I have adjusted waypoint #2 to pull me farther S and hopefully keep me protected by the ridgeline. The red arrow shows my plan of attack. Since I am not certain of the SAM/AAA locations I am going to pull in to waypoint #5 on the NE side of the waypoint#4/#5 line and hook right to reset aroung or N of waypoint #4. The idea here is to make a cautious approach to the target area at medium altitude with my wingman in tow hoping to lure and SAMs to give away their positions. I know that there are hostile forces in the yellow box and around the target waypoint and that they have a high probability of having local low/medium altitude SAM systems. I want to expost the most leathal of these threats ASAP so that they can be dealt with before the flight engages the target. This is a typical (so I have read) SEAD tactic. With a human wingman/element pair, you would leave the human eyes circling waypoint #4 and watching the approach of the 'bait'. Once the SAM launchers fire, they roll in while the 'bait' evades. I have also customized our loadout to only include standoff weapons - AGM-65's and Hydra rockets. This is another incentive for Buster to not get his lazy arse directly over any threats. Make sure that you select each unit of the team in turn and then select the loadout. Wheels up - we are on our way! Here we are passing over some friendly self-propelled artillery pieces. Heading in to waypoint #3 I send Buster into trail formation. The goal here is to have us manouver as a team with any SAM/AAA threats split between the two of us. Hopefully I will gather the attention while keeping in mind that my wingman is lagging behind me instead of to the side. Think if us as punching a hole in the SAM/AAA envelope. Instead of having him out to the side where he can draw his own threats, behind me we are focusing on a narrow punch-hole with the threat to the flight directly ahead or on the sides. If he is off to the side, the punch-hole is wider we risk drawing fire that puts one of us (or both) in jeopardy where in trail, we should both draw the same attention along out attack vector. About 1-2k out from waypoint #4 I am looking off to the left to draw that mental map that matches the briefing. Here the heavy yellow box is the immediate threat area, the thin yellow box is the target area and the red arrows show the approach path. Note that although the top red arrow appears to the going right-to-left it is really showing a SE-NW approach (depth of field is hard to represent). Turning in toward waypoint #5 and the target area it starts to make a little more sense. Lined up in trail we are off to the E of the waypoint #4/#5 line. A helpful MLRS volley is highlighting the NW of the target area. On the first pass in I got no hits. Throughout the entire flight in to the target area I am inspecting the area in forward arc area in front of the flight (10-2 positions on the clock) and keeping an eye outside the cockpit area to the left (highest threat area). We detect armour at 1-2 - yellow box area - but nothing launches. This armour was a surprise (not in the briefing) and threatens our right hand hook to reset but we draw no fire. I adapt the plan to fly south of the threat area - in essence flying just N of the waypoint #4/#4 line, E to W. This draws a launch! Now because I am not an uber awesome pilot and I can not rely on my wingman to locate and communicate the launch point I sometimes pause the sim to get a good look. Our flight hooks left and back toward waypoint #4. Somehow the missle loses it's lock and explodes harmlessly below us. {in review it appears that maybe the launcher lost LoS (Line of Sight) to us as it is sitting on the back part of a slope - this could explain why we did not draw attention on the orinigal plan pass as we were 'below' his horizon} Time to setup an adhoc attack plan on that SAM launcher. Red arrow is the path that we were taking after the 'right-hook' on the first pass toward the target area. Yellow arrow is the defensive manouver we performed (turning dive away followed by a climing 'beam' on the launcher), followed by our flight extending away from the threat envelope to organize our attack. I keep Buster in trail for the moment because I want to tightly control how close he gets to the threat area. I need to keep this in mind when I am manouvering. In trail he never gets closer than I do. Turning back toward the laun site. Red arrow in the main area shows the flight path as we turn toward the launch area (yellow box - which exists in the S 1/4 of the threat box I identified during planning). Inset is the lineup to the launch area. I have my boards out (speedbrakes extended) and I am using the autopilot 'attitude hold' to hold the hog steady while I tinker with the MAV camera. I find a hot spot N of the buildings on the S edge of my search box. Lock it up and fire. I am pretty sure that the launch was not there however, so I keep searching in case I miss something. I am very aware of how close I am getting and keep in mind that I need to break away soon. Second hot spot closer to where I expect it. This one (on the higher resolution of my monitor) shows more as an H on its side. That looks more like the body of a vechile with a launcher aparatus on top. Second launch {note: make sure that you have a solid view to the target before launch - if the target is partially obscure, say because of a hill side, your MAV may come up shot}. I break left to 'beam' the launch area in case we are close enough for another launch. Here is a view from the launcher. Note that his position on the side of this incline was what 'protected' us in the initial approach to target. Inset is the first shot finding it's target. Weapon #1 explodes on target with the view from weapon #2 and the flight beaming the target area. Weapon #2 finding it's target. Because I grabbed these screen shots after the action at the time I did not know for sure that I had KO'd the launcher. At this point I am 50% confident that I have sanatized that area but I will remain cautious on the second approach to target. The 'H-on-its'side' target identification has me feeling good. Part #2 Fridge _________________________ Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have. Edited April 20, 2010 by dwpenney Added Part #2 link Fridge ---------- Things which do you no good in aviation: 1) Altitude above you; 2) Runway behind you; 3) Fuel in the truck; 4) The airspeed you don't have.
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