Chris21wen
Posts: 6249
Joined: 1/17/2002
From: Cottesmore, Rutland
Status: offline
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This scenario is my first were a large strike is required and it didn't go well. This is the briefing against two bridges in Hanoi.
'Execution
Launch all available aircraft and conduct an Alpha Strike on the above targets. In this particular case, the air raid will be coordinated with aircraft from U.S. Air Force flying from airfields in Thailand. The plan is for the Air Force to strike first and the Navy to strike its targets 15 minutes later.
Alpha Strikes, also referred to as air wing-size strikes, are organized along the lines of USAF strikes. Jammers patrol off the coast, blinding enemy radars down the strike's line of approach. A number of SEAD aircraft fly ahead of the main strike to blow a hole through the NVA SAM and radar network. The strike element comprises 12, 16 or 18 bombers in flights of four or six. These are preceded by F-4 Phantoms on MiG CAP. Navy CAP fighters operates in two-aircraft flights that have proven more effective in combat than the USAF four-ship fuid four CAP. At the rear flies a USN recon aircraft.
The USAF strikes should draw off any MiGs in the surrounding area. The Yankee Station Patrol Area is marked on your charts.'
Reading this I thought a strike mission set up would follow the execution plan with SEAD flying ahead followed by the Phantoms then the strike. The EW and Recon would follow behind. It didn't this is what happened.
My first attempted produced a BIG mess. Basically I did not understand 'Flight size' correctly thinking it applied to individual types of a/c and not to general types. What I got was lots of individual a/c. As I said a mess. My EW a/c never turned on it's Jammer I had to do it manually but this was me failing to turn on OECM in the side EMCON.
My second attempt seemed to be Ok except for the SEAD flights. In my first attempt I'd only got 3 SEAD a/c set as escort but they were ineffective so I added 3 more but forgot to mark them as Escorts. They all got shot down as they got close to the bridges. Again my EW a/c never turned on it's Jammer but this time it was me again failing to notice the separate Escort EMCON. I could have used the Reset affected units/mission button but didn't.
Third time lucky. I set up the strike like this. All except those you can see are set as escorts. Strikes are set as two sections, fighters/SEAD as one section and others as single a/c flights.
The first a/c was airbourne after 2min 19sec. The whole strike was airbourne after 12min.
2 x SEAD, 2 x SEAD
1 x SEAD, 2 x F, 1 x Recon
2 x F, 2 x F
1 x SEAD, 2 x F, 1 x Recon
1 x EW, (1 x Tanker, 1 x AEW - Not part of strike)
4 x Att (Corsairs). Once they took off the first course to target was set. All escort elements started to follow.
4 x Att (Intruders). New course set. All escort elements stopped following the Corsairs, did a 360 before continuing.
4 x Att (Intruders). New course set. All escort elements stopped following these Intruders, did a 360 and before continuing. By this time the fighters were 11-12nm behind the Corsairs with the SEAD next followed by the other support.
What happened
During the ingress the SEADs broke off to attack SAM sites but in two of three attempts they all went after the same one. They also did not RTB once they had expended their ARM but they still had bomblets. These I saw dropped on non-radiating sites.
The Phantoms burned to overtake the Corsairs to attack enemy fighters, problem was all four Phantoms flights seemed to go after the same enemy. I lost two Phantom during the ingress.
The EW a/c just kept following the strike. It didn't hang back as I thought it would and in the second attempt it decided it needed to refuel after 15 mins despite still having over 5hrs fuel left.
The Corsairs hit the first bridge at 29:34. No Corsairs were lost during ingress. Instead of following their egress path they turned in to attack again despite having no bombs and with a/g strafing set to No. At this point the EW an recon a/c circled 12-14nm out from the target. Not a good place to do that as they were in range of SAM site.
The first Intruder group lost one a/c in the approach run to the second bridge and one after it released both to AAA. They destroyed it at 32:42. At this point the Corsairs dropped the target and headed home losing one a/c as they left to a SAM. The Recon and EW a/c also headed for home all intact.
With no targets left the second Intruder group headed home (engage opportunities was set to No). They got bounced as they turn back all being shot down. The last was lost 12nm over the sea. The remaining 4 Phantoms initial failed to intercept but only had a few sidewinders left and once these had gone all remaining Intruders, and the Phantoms, were sitting ducks.
The Corsairs lost all their a/c to AAW before they reached the coast and although they had Sidewinders made no attempt to defend themselves that I could see.
Only one of the four remaining Phantoms managed to get back to. All other a/c were shot down by AAW.
When the strike was over I'd lost:-
8x A-6A Intruder
4x A-7A Corsair II
1x EKA-3B Skywarrior
5x F-4B Phantom II
1x RA-3B Skywarrior
1x RA-5C Vigilante
I can't tell how many Ememy losses the strike caused as there was an USAF strike that went in before mine but the total enemy losses were:-
4x 23mm ZU-23-2
1x Ammo Shelter
2x Bridge (Two-lane 60 Tons)
9x J-6 Farmer
14x MiG-17PF Fresco D
6x MiG-21PF Fishbed D
4x SA-2d Guideline Mod 1 Single Rail
2x Vehicle (Fan Song C [SNR-75M])
3x Vehicle (Spoon Rest A [P-12])
General Observations
Although the strike hit the targets I lost too many a/c. Most of my loses occurred after my Phantoms ran out of weapons. It didn't help with them all going after the same target and often using two many weapons.
My SEAD was not very effective. They didn't attack SAM sites that were in the Strike path.
The Corsairs should have headed home once there'd run out of bombs. They would probably have been safe.
The EW a/c should not have gone as close as it did to the strike target.
I left the game to run on it's own but I would not do so again. I'd specifically control the SEAD and Phantom flights and set up a separate EW support mission outside of SAM range.
At the moment I do not think the mission AI is good enough to use on complex raids but there again it's my first so maybe it was me.
One miniscule interface observation. In EMCON settings the order they are in is Radar, OECM, Sonar. Pressing the Sensor button shows them in this order Radar, Sonar, OECM.
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My first large strike - 
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