Iran-Iraq war

[+Menrva 4,200]

no you don't -- go ahead and use it. be advised, it isn't as nice as one would wish

 

Thank you, Wrench ;)  

Even if it isn't that nice, it will do the job. Terrain is progressing well, I really hope I can release something playable next year, it is needed.

[Wrench 9,846]

the item is called, iirc, "dam1" (sort of an in joke)

[+swambast 722]

 

Do we have a 3d dam model? It is needed for targets such as the Mosul Dam and a few others.

 

I’m happy to report Blaze95 and I collaborated on getting an updated dam model into this great terrain. 

 

This one is supposed to represent the Mosul dam with a good degree of quality and accuracy.  However, we didn’t want to make the dam exclusive to just this terrain.  Therefore, I took some creative license and also created sloped end sections that are more generic so hopefully the dam can be used elsewhere (with permission of course).  The dam sections are 100m long and built using a seamless mesh/texture approach so they should align perfectly.  I'm taking full advantage of SF2 capabilities including optimized textures, bump mapping, etc. so this will only work in SF2 series.  Hope you enjoy first sneak-peek.

 

@Wrench:  Blaze95 recommended sending model to you for initial testing, so be on the look-out for PM soon with more details and next steps if cool with you!

 

[stuntman 170]

Wow, very nice model. And nice clouds in the background. Thank you for your work, I'm eagerly waiting for this campaign

[+NeverEnough 78]

Swamblast, that model looks dam good to me!

[+swambast 722]

Thank you guys, I appreciate the compliments...encourages me to do more!

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557]

thats looking realy great!! I love your texture job!

[Stratos 3,188]

Found this today on DCS forums, worth a read, and the original link:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=161690

 

No Iraqi aircraft carrying the SPS-141MVG pod was ever shot down by the Iranians, whether Ground defence system (HAWK Missiles) or Radar guided air to air (Sparrow and Phoenix Missiles) during the entire Iraq –Iran war. 
This ECM pod works on both air and ground threats and it was externally mounted in pods in the SU-22 aircrafts. It was internally mounted in the Mig-23BN and Mig-25RBS. It was designed to affect the missiles homing head automatically once the enemy radar had locked and launched a missile against the aircraft carrying it. No special training was required for the pilots carrying the pod since it was a defensive one. The pilot has only to select the most probable threats in priority. This type of jammer was received by the Iraqis in 1984 from the Soviet Union along with the SU-22M3 aircraft batch. It was used successfully by the SU-22 belonging to the 69 squadron during the first highly successful raid on the Iranian Island of Kharg on the 15th of August 1985, when 6 aircrafts flew over the fortified island and attacked the oil terminals and got out unscathed. The I-Hawk battery in the island did nothing to the Iraqi aircraft neither did the F-4s and F-14s patrolling its skies. 
The Iraqis received their first jamming pod of the SPS-141 type early in 1981.It was designed to counter HAWK MIM-23A, since this system dealt with head on targets only the SPS-141 had a frontal antenna only. That type was less capable than the SPS-141 MVG type, and was a little bit problematic in actual deployment. The SPS-141 MVG came with the SU-22 as a complete package and there was no begging by the Iraqis, but rather a forceful demand for such equipment. That system was designed to jam the MIM23B as well as F-14, F-15, F-16 radars in the lock-on mode. The pod will affect the homing heads of the AIM-7M, F Skyflash as well as the Phoenix missiles. 
The Iranian HAWK operators had no way of countering the work of the pod since they were not aware of its operation. The ECM pod affects the missile homing head after it's launched. The ground operator could do nothing about that. The Iraqis used the pod successfully from 1984 to1988. This is compared with the useless and tragic way of the Iranian use of the AN/ALQ-109 and the AN/ALQ-119 American ECM pods which the Iraqis obtained in large quantities from the Iranians when they shot their aircrafts down since September 23 1988. There was a full warehouse full of these American pods in the Iraqi Air Force Headquarters in Baghdad. Many of these pods were in good condition, some were undamaged. This shows the bad attitude of the Iranians towards the philosophy of Electronic Warfare. 
Again the KH-28, AS-9 was supplied in 1982and was used operationally in late 1982 against the Iranian Hawks with a devastating effect. The missile was usually launched from a range of 70km when the launching aircraft usually a SU-22 M2 was flying at an altitude of 7km and a speed of 750km/hr. To launch the missile to a range of 100km the aircraft has to fly at an altitude of 10km. This would make the aircraft handling a little bit sluggish, something not very popular with the pilots. 
The KH- 28 homing head had a very good coverage in both in azimuth certainly much better that the American HARM/HTS pod which used the same philosophy of missile/pod arrangement. The Kh-28 had a high sensitivity receiver and it could detect the HAWK illuminator sidelobes at a range exceeding 200km. However the METEL pod which has the missile firing envelope programmed in it would prevent the pilot from launching of the missile, unless the aircraft is within the firing envelope of the anti radar missile itself. 
The Iraqis implemented the soviet ECM doctrine with great success. Iran was left with 3-5 HAWK batteries out of 36 originally purchased by the Shah and despite the US/Israeli support both in missiles and ground equipments well as tactics during the Iran-contra affair. The Iraqis didn’t have to employ the mass soviet tactics since they were not confronting NATO forces. The soviet doctrine calls to the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the NATO HAWK batteries to open a gap in their coverage. 
The Iranians started to use the mobility tactic upon the advice of the Israelis in 1986. However the Iraqis implemented a combined tactic of SEAD and conventional bombing to destroy the Iranian batteries. 
I don’t know where the figure of 77 aircraft the Iraqi admitted to lose between February and March 1987 came from. This was part of the Iranian propaganda and was never said by the Iraqis. The contrary was correct. During one incident in February1987 a formation composed of four Iraqi SU-22s equipped with SPS-141 MVG were fired upon by 9 HAWK missiles from three different batteries in the south of Basra sector of the front. All 9 missiles missed their targets although the Iraqi aircrafts were flying at an altitude of 1000 meters only. The Iraqi aircraft which were carrying 6 FAB-500 bombs each bombed their target which was the Iranian infantry in that area and returned safely to base. 
The KH-25MP is something entirely different from the KH-28. The principal of those missiles are entirely different. The KH-28 is an offensive weapon, while the Kh-25 is a totally defensive weapon aimed to protect the carrier aircraft. 
The SPS-141 MVG was supplied by the Soviet Union and the East Germans had nothing to do with it, nor were East German experts ever utilised by the IrAF in the EW arena. 
The SU-22 aircraft that tried to land near an airstrip near Dezful AB (the Iranians call it Vahdati AB) was not running out of fuel but its pilot was having some bad orientation and he figured that he was landing inside Iraq. The Iranian AAA near the strip shot him down and no aircraft or missile or pod was ever captured. The pilot ejected and returned to Iraq in 1990. 
The Iraqi SEAD accompanied every attack on Iran in a continuous basis from 1984 and until August 1988. Every strike package was accompanied by SEAD elements according to the perceived Iranian threat and this led to minimise Iraqi losses to an unprecedented level. The Iraqi packages sometimes exceeded 80 fighter bombers simultaneously. 
The Iranians had the MIM-23B advanced HAWK missile system, both the radar illuminator and the missiles since the seventies and so it was not new to them in 1987. 
Till the end of the war Iranian AD operators never knew what hit them, whether it was KH-28or conventional bombs. They had some very good support from the Israelis and the Americans due to lack of their experience which resulted in loosing such a large amount of HAWK batteries and a very high rate of expended missiles. 
The Caimen Standoff jammer was a standoff jammer against early warning radars and not the HAWK missile system. The Mirage F-1s that were carrying it flew over the Iraqi territory and never flew over Iranian territory. No Mirage F-1 carrying Caimen was ever shot down by Iranian Hawks. 
In describing the events at Dezful AB, our friend Tom resorts to the usage of the highly exaggerated and extremely inflated Iranian stories about the war which has to betaken with extreme caution by any serious person. They look like dream fantasies more than real world facts. 
Iraq never received or operated the Mig-25BM or Mig-25 RBT SEAD aircrafts nor did this aircraft set its foot on Iraqi soil or roamed its skies. Iraq acquired the Kh-58 only with the arrival of the SU-24 after the war. It contracted the Kh-31 but never received it. The Iraqi EW equipment and experience was more than enough in countering the deteriorating the Iranian AD as a whole. 
Tom's stories about the Iranian air defence in the battle of Faw in 1986 were very far from reality, they are based upon Iranian claim stories none of which happened in actual combat. The Iranians never managed to shoot down 12 or 9 aircrafts per day. The maximum they achieved was shooting two aircrafts during one of the days. The two aircrafts were not from the same formation or package. During the battle that lasted from February9th 1986 to early April 1986 the Iranian Hawk batteries claimed more than 71 aircraft shot don by them alone. The truth was that the IrAF performed thousands of CAS and interdiction sorties with the total loss of 23 fighters only, and that was due to all type of Iranian AD. 
No Iraqi TU-22 was ever sent to Kharg Island, how did the Iranians perceived the Iraqis had done so, I don’t know? Maybe the Iranians were so extensively battered and shocked that they never envisaged what hit them. 
Iraq never received or operated the Mig-25BM or Mig-25 RBT SEAD aircrafts nor did this aircraft set its foot on Iraqi soil or roamed its skies. Iraq acquired the Kh-58 only with the arrival of the SU-24 after the war. It contracted the Kh-31 but never received it. The Iraqi EW equipment and experience was more than enough in countering the deteriorating the Iranian AD as a whole.


As a final note, I also found this about the pod's modes.
Four modes are avaiable.
Mode 1: "Individual Protection"
Self-protection for the carrier of the pod.
Mode 2: "Group Protection"
Protection for a group of aircraft (two or more) with one pod.
Mode 3: "Doppler Noise Mode"
Having two carriers with one SPS-141 each working together.
Mode 4: "Low Level Flight Mode"
Flying below 300m using "terrain-bouncing". Proved problematic over large woodlands.

I hope you enjoyed, it definitively represents the Soviet passive ECM technology, impressive to know they worked so well, not because they're the strongest, but because they were unnoticed.

Links: http://www.acig.info/CMS/
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/foru...hp?topic=713.0
http://www.manfred-bischoff.de/SU22....4lter%20SPS-14

[Gatling20 753]

I am mostly a WW2 and Korean War-era  type, but I have recently started reading a book about this war ("The Iran-Iraq War" by Pierre Razoux, Harvard University Press 2015, a good solid read), and it has got me interested, so I am keen to see this mod completed and released.

[+FLOGGER23 3,063]

I have several ideas...

[stuntman 170]

Good job; I'm really looking forward this campaign

[jeanba 1,920]

It's a pity centurion left

Is there anything available from his work ?

[jeanba 1,920]

Just to add on Iranian chaffs and decoys use :

I asked on acig, and here is the answer I got from Tom Cooper :

http://www.acig.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7131&p=200739#p200739

jeanba wrote:

Hello

I have been reading the french "Avion" special issues on the Iran-Iraq war.
It is very interesting as it gives a global view of the conflict in the air I never had.
I have a question about the IRIIAF : it is written that they were "not enough" advanced in the field of countermeasures, but did they use chaffs and flares ?
Because there are some comments on IRAF planes using decoys, but none about IRIIAF ?

Thank you in advance

What was meant with this was that none of fighter-bombers in service with the IRIAF during that war has got any chaff & flare dispensers. That is: the F-4D/Es, RF-4Es, and F-5A/B, RF-5As and F-5E/Fs haven't got any; only F-14s have got them.

The IIAF did purchase some containers (can't recall their exact designation right now), that could be installed into one of the rear Sparrow bays of its F-4Es, in the 1970s. But, there was only a handful of these (I think there were 9 in total), and they were never used operationally. Essentially, the IIAF expected that (and there seem to have been corresponding agreements with Washington) that - should there be a war - it would receive similar kind of help from the USA like the IDF/AF received during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. 

Of course, when Iraqis invaded, in October 1980, this didn't happen, and thus major fighter-bomber types of the air force went into the war actually poorly equipped for electronic warfare: except for ALQ-101s, even all the 120 ('or so') ECM-pods the IRIAF has got were obsolete. This cost the IRIAF dearly during the war.

In comparison, from 1984-1985 period, the IrAF wasn't operating over the battlefield if it couldn't provide suitable ECM-support. I.e. if it couldn't provide support from Caiman-equipped Mirages for formations of its aircraft, and if involved aircraft haven't got chaff & flare dispensers. The few times it did, it always suffered heavy losses (one example would've been the Tu-16 shot down by Iranians over Faw, in 1986: this should've got support from Caiman-equipped Mirages, but these failed to appear because of a technical snag, and then the command failed to recall the Tu-16 on time).

 

 

Edited July 13, 2016 by jeanba

[+Menrva 4,200]

I'm back, the terrain is still alive and I have backups, just in case.

 

Original DS terrain:

 

 

Original IR2003 terrain:

 

 

Revamped KuwaitWA terrain:

 

 

I need some advise now.  I still have to fine tune many targets with Mue's TargetAreaEditor, then I can start flattening/reworking the heightfield.  Below, I'm attaching a list of airfields included in the revamped terrain.  Tell me if I should add other ones, there are so many.

 

Unfortunately, it turns out that if I place Prince Sultan Air Base and Shiraz Airport in their RL locations, these are beyond the wall, so they are not usable.  At the very least they could work as Off Map Airbases with the function introduced in SF2NA, or I could place them in non-RL coordinates (problem is Prince Sultan is paramount for the DS campaign).  If I knew about it before, I would have expanded the terrain's area, damn me!

 

The terrain as of now contains targets for the Iraq/Iran war plus Desert Storm. Desert Storm targets and locations will only activate during their relative period, and they will deactivate soon after February 28, 1991.  I might add post-OIF airbases and targets like in the IR2003 terrain, using the same trick.  This will sort of double the targets number, and Iraq will turn Blue, while Iran turns Red, despite the fact Iraq will remain enemy in the _nations.ini.  So a dedicated version of the terrain post-OIF will have to be made.

 

Here's the list of airfields/airbases, keep in mind that the listed Iraqi airfields use/should use the pre-OIF names (the Yanks renamed and/or decommissioned some of those). So let me know if I made such mistakes.

 

KuwaitWA_airbases.txt

 

[Wrench 9,846]

make sure you remove Ras Assanya --- it's totally ficticous

[+Menrva 4,200]

Actually it's called Ras Safaniya in the revamped terrain, and it seems it is real, or at least it was at some point. I just have to re-brand it, it's an airport, not an airbase. Just have a look at Google Earth, or here: http://airportguide.com/airport/info/AG3219

More info I gathered shows that today Ras Tanajib airport serves both Tanajib and Ras Safaniya, so Ras Safaniya is more likely a decommissioned airport (Google Earth images of it are not pretty). I better add Ras Tanajib then.

 

In other news, I missed the H1, H2 and H3 Iraqi airbases, they are a must, they will be added ASAP.

[+Menrva 4,200]

Can anyone provide me with info regarding Iraqi positions during Desert Storm? Also, I need info regarding expeditionary airfields built in support of Desert Storm.

[+Soulfreak 6,524]

Can anyone provide me with info regarding Iraqi positions during Desert Storm? Also, I need info regarding expeditionary airfields built in support of Desert Storm.

 

Check out this:

http://www.dstorm.eu/

If there are not the needed infos contact the side admin there. ;-)

[+Menrva 4,200]

Check out this:

http://www.dstorm.eu/

If there are not the needed infos contact the side admin there. ;-)

 

Not what I was looking for, but has a lot of other useful infos, many thanks!

Edited September 6, 2016 by blaze95

[+Menrva 4,200]

I found interesting material regading the USMC ops during ODS, I was able to estimate the location of two expeditionary airfields, Lonesome Dove and Al-Kabrit. Still I am not sure about Tanajib Expeditionary Airfield, I placed it a bit southwest of Tanajib Airport (some info confirms the existence of an expeditionary airfield, before the Saudis conceded the airport). I also added other Iraqi airfields that were missing. More airbases will be added just for eye-candy or for post-ODS missions. Gotta leave for some RL duties, I'll be back in two weeks.

[+Crusader 2,101]

Get this file here, it (iirc) contains some Iraqi OOB data besides alot of other related stuff.

ADA484530 Iraqi Perspectives Project Phase II. Um Al-Ma'arik (The Mother of All Battles).pdf

 

Tanajib/Tanijib is 42 NM from the Kuwaiti border.

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557]

Thats a fantastic read! Thanks

[+Menrva 4,200]

Get this file here, it (iirc) contains some Iraqi OOB data besides alot of other related stuff.

ADA484530 Iraqi Perspectives Project Phase II. Um Al-Ma'arik (The Mother of All Battles).pdf

 

Tanajib/Tanijib is 42 NM from the Kuwaiti border.

 

Thanks Crusader, I remember the infos you gave me for the terrain. If I miss you in the credits list, kill me!

 

BTW, I have no problem with the location of Tanajib, thanks to Google Earth and gerwin's TFDtool, I managed to be extremely accurate given the limitations of the terrain engine.  I simply don't know if the USMC effectively built an expeditionary airfield near Tanajib, and if so, where precisely (of course, I guess it should be near Tanajib itself).

Edited September 8, 2016 by blaze95

[+Menrva 4,200]

Thanks to the recent support of Spudknocker, the new Iran/Iraq terrain is in its final stages of development. I plan to release the terrain by the end of the month. In case of delays, NLT (no later than) mid-February. I will release two terrain packages, one for the Iran-Iraq war, ODS and OEF/OIF; the other terrain, post-OIF 2003, with Iraq set as Friendly and Iran as Enemy.

 

I'm sorry for the lack of updates during this long time, guys, but RL is a PITA sometimes. Well, see you soon! 

[Viggen 644]

Great news! Looking forward to the new terrains and the eventual campaigns!