FC2.0: F15C: Campaign Mission 10 AAR (Final)

[Ven]

The final mission at last. This mission had so much action that I took over 100 screenshots and took awhile trimming it down to 40. Still will be my longest AAR so brace yourselves. While it was a success, I made a lot of mistakes in this mission. Some were costly and some... just plain stupid.

 

We're on interdiction once again with 4 Warthogs and 4 Frogfoots. Basically, command wants us to overwhelm them and intimidate them.

 

There goes the A10's flying over just as I began to fire up the engines.

 

I think this excellent shark paint scheme should be enough to intimidate them. AWACS painting me the picture as soon as I take off. 4-ship Flanker CAP as expected with another Flanker group on standby.

 

Wingmen assembles one by one as we're circling around waypoint 2 waiting for the strike package.

 

This time, I decided to approach with ECM on. I believe this was my first mistake. I locked onto one of the Flanker's jamming signal and ordered 3 to engage.

 

Just broke ECM burn through range and they started appearing. Locked one up, ordered 4 to engage and just at Rmax range, I launched one as well. Fox 3!

 

It seems that they saved their best pilots for last. They were very good at evading the missiles. I should try that maneuver next time.

 

4 of us launched total of 5 AIM-120C's but only one found its target!

 

And they go offensive! I believe it was mistake to approach the bandits initially at BVR with ECM on because only one of them fired on me and rest went after my wingmen from the beginning.

 

This obviously was not a good time to try out a new strategy.

 

Wing 2 didn't make it. But fortunately, he ejected safely in friendly territory.

 

Another Flanker launches on wing 3. And he's not going down without a fight.

 

He made the kill but that missile trail is getting awful close.

 

There's no escaping this one. He also ejected safely but now it's 2 on 2. They're putting up quite a fight.

 

I locked up one of the two remaining Flankers and just as I was about to pull the trigger, I noticed the black smoke. Somebody's AMRAAM got there first and I'm not sure who.

 

Just about the same time, 4 exchanged missiles with the last remaining Su-27. Uh-oh...

 

Fortunately, he came out as victor as the smoke trail passed by well below him.

 

That was the last of'em but with a heavy loss. Now 2 of us have to face 4 more Flankers out of Sochi.

 

Was continuing on to waypoint 3 to engage the pop up group but my TEWS was going crazy with all that ground contact. Where the heck are those A-10's? Breaking away until they do their SEAD task.

 

Cont...

Edited April 24, 2010 by Ven

[Ven]

It seems they have their own problems. Enemy SAM's and AAA's were very effective at shooting down the Mavericks.

 

They eventually got the most dangerous air defenses out of commission and Frogfoots also merged to do some damage as well.

 

But not without some sacrifices.

 

While all that's happening on the ground, I spotted the Flanker group on my radar about 40nm out. I switched to TWS because with only one wingman, I'm gonna have to engage all of them myself. I only fired one missile in the first engagement so I had plenty of AMRAAMS.

 

I bugged all 4 of them and waited until they were fairly close to Rtr to launch the missiles. But here's my second big mistake. Missiles wont fire.

 

How stupid I am... I was in NAV mode. After the first engagement, I switched to NAV mode in order to find my way to waypoint 3 and turned on the radar to check the sky. And I thought I was in BVR mode. Yes... you can laugh.

 

Running is only thing I can do at this point. And my 3rd mistake... should've dropped the tanks. It didn't effect the outcome but nevertheless, I should've jettisoned the tanks.

 

But that mistake... trying to fire in NAV mode, although stupid, actually worked to my advantage. Because I went deeper than usual, I faithfully served the purpose of the bait as all 4 Flankers were on my tail. This pretty much gave wing 4 a license to kill. Here he splashed 2 bandits on one pass.

 

I turned back and locked one up. This one will go pitbull very soon after launch.

 

Fox 3!

 

He launches too. At me of course.

 

Meanwhile, wing 4 sneaks up behind the 4th Flanker who was about to engage me as well. And he launches.

 

I also found the same Flanker so I switched target and launched. All these happened very quickly. There's that missile trail from the 3rd Flanker but doesn't look like it's guiding on me. I think that dude went defensive too quickly.

 

Yup, it just flew straight right from the beginning.

 

Mine sure is guiding however. Scratch one bandit.

 

And wing 4's missile found the 4th Flanker before mine.

 

Strike group seems they're finished and reported egress one by one.

 

Now, as mentioned in the briefing, there are 2 more Flankers escorting their AWACS. I thought about going after them but they moved their position behind their air defenses... and wing 4 says he's out of fuel.

 

I was actually glad to come out of it alive with all that mistakes I've made. I hope the search crew found my wingmen.

 

So... here's the final landing of this campaign as the Russians pulled out of the conflict.

 

This was an excellent campaign with lots of challenge and of course, fun. Thanks to EvilBivol and anyone else involved in it.

 

So that concludes my AAR series and thanks for reading. I need to go watch the training videos for Su-25.

 

Mission 3 AAR

Mission 4 AAR

Mission 5 AAR

Mission 6 AAR

Mission 7 AAR

Mission 8 AAR

Mission 9 AAR

Mission 10 AAR

Edited April 24, 2010 by Ven

[McVittees]

Cool report, really enjoyed this one and all the ones before - ta!

[EvilBivol-1]

Congrats, Ven! Nice flying and great reporting. :)

 

I'm glad you didn't go after that last Flanker group. It was really there to discourage the player from trying to knock out the Russian AWACS, which I thought would be rather implausible for this limited campaign scenario. Besides, you are not supposed to be crossing into Russian territory anyway. I didn't think of it at the time, but I should have put another S-300 on their side of the border to really make the point like I did for the southeast side of the map. Seems like it worked out well enough though in any case.

 

Stay tuned for a Flanker pilot's point of view of the conflict. ;)

Edited April 24, 2010 by EvilBivol-1

[Ven]

Stay tuned for a Flanker pilot's point of view of the conflict. ;)

 

I'll be tuning in every day!