Desert Storm - Mission 02 - Stealth Fighter Wave 1

[beachav8r 360]

Early on the same morning that the opening salvo was fired by the Apache's, one of the newest weapons in the United State's arsenal was roaming the skies over Iraq: the F-117A Nighthawk. Tasked with deep strike missions against high value targets and infrastructure, the mislabeled "Strike Fighter" was a useful tool against targets in the heavily defended Baghdad area.

Our mission will take our single ship F-117A from Qatar to downtown Baghdad...



Though modeled lightly to SF2 standards, the cockpit is pretty cool looking...



Heading into the darkness. Actual F-117A missions required multiple tanker connections. The compressed airspace of the SF2 world and the lack of tanker modeling make this a non-stop flight tonight...





Crossing the coast near the Kuwaiti / Iraqi border...



At the initial point - and not a peep from enemy air defenses...



With the target located, I select a GBU, snap the bomb bay doors open for a brief second, pickle the bomb, then shut the doors...







Direct hit!







As the fire subsides, just a smoking ruin remains where the building once stood...



The enemy AAA wakes up after the attack as more coalition forces start working on areas south of Baghdad...





The F-117A remains invisible to enemy radars, but other flights are not so fortunate. Here an F/A-18 is targeted by a surface-to-air missile...





Other units are taking out enemy air defenses...





..but it is give and take..



The mission is a success. The opening night of hostilities is just a precursor to the extensive air war campaign...



BeachAV8R

Note - Rivet counters be aware - this campaign is only vaguely following history. No doubt some units, weapons, locations, etc, will differ from those actually flown and used in the real Gulf War. Try to suspend your disbelief..<wink>

[Wrench 9,421]

nicely done beach!!

[Stratos 3,166]

I like the way you edit the screens in order to get the NVG effect. It make mre remember the CNN footage of the real war.

[Ironbostik 6]

How you switch on the night vision?...and also my f-117 doesn't have the "scan" thing on the Laser Guidance Display....

[Fubar512 1,350]

How you switch on the night vision?...and also my f-117 doesn't have the "scan" thing on the Laser Guidance Display....

Read the post above yours.  BeachAv8r edited the images using an image editor (ie, photoshop) to achieve the night vision effect, as well as the designator image within the screenshot.   

 

Also, just in case you're curious, there is no way to pan around for targets, other than to find and designate them by toggling through them using the "E" key.  And, the beauty of this series, is that even in easy mode, it still attempts to inject a modicum of realism into gameplay, by simulating real-world physics.  What that means is that you still have to pay attention to your flight path and release point during a bomb run in order to successfully hit a  target with laser-guided bomb.

Edited December 5, 2014 by Fubar512

[Ironbostik 6]

Read the post above yours.  BeachAv8r edited the images using an image editor (ie, photoshop) to achieve the night vision effect, as well as the designator image within the screenshot.   

 

Also, just in case you're curious, there is no way to pan around for targets, other than to find and designate them by toggling through them using the "E" key.  And, the beauty of this series, is that even in easy mode, it still attempts to inject a modicum of realism into gameplay, by simulating real-world physics.  What that means is that you still have to pay attention to your flight path and release point during a bomb run in order to successfully hit a  target with laser-guided bomb.

 

Shame on me...didn't understand it was Photoshopped! Next time I'll read more carefully!

 

Anyway, I replaced the original F-117 with the one from download section of this site...and it looks a bit better, with a better cockpit and a nice designator too. Problem is, once bomb is relased and target hit, I can't find a way to switch the MFD off...  and it gets distracting during landing i.e.

As of the physics thing, of course I am aware I cannot drop my bomb once airborne or whenever/wherever I want  and hope that it flies up to the target  (it's still an un-propelled object)...I flown quite a lot of hours with Falcon 4.0 AF, full realism (except simplified re-fueling).

Till now all F-117 missions I flown, never missed the target with single bomb payload and release range from FL12 to FL18. I'd say the difficult part of flying the F-117 is the landing...

 

Anyway, being an Italian...I fly my Desert Storm one inch from the sand, risking to get my Tornado Fuel Tanks bitten by sand vipers and deliver MK's or CBU's looking at the face of the enemy...!

 

Thanks for reply!