Desert Storm - Mission 04 - Tornado / Airfield Denial

[beachav8r 360]

 

With the SEAD flights working over the area around Kuwait, it's time to make sure the Iraqi Air Force is discouraged from taking to the air. The plane and weapons system that has been waiting all its life for this mission is the GR1 Tornado carrying the JP233 airfield denial munition.

 

 

 

The GR1 is one of the best looking add-on aircraft I've seen for SF2. It is just awesome...

 

 

 

 

Our strike will be accompanied by a CAP flight of Tomcats launching from their carrier in the Gulf...

 

 

 

The skies north of Kuwait are already pretty busy - promising an eventful morning...

 

 

We fly at medium altitude over the Gulf until we coast in around the tri-border area of Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia...

 

 

An F-4 of some sort. It didn't appear to have weapons so maybe an electronic warfare (EF-4?) aircraft?

 

 

From land bases the Marines are getting ready to enter the fray as well...

 

 

Things could get pretty busy up there...

 

 

 

As we approach Kuwait and start to get pinged by ground radars, I make my wingman the sacrificial lamb and send him up high for top cover...

 

 

Just inland is a mess of enemy armor, anti-air, and dozens of oil derricks and pumping stations...

 

 

From a long way out, the F-14s unleash their awesome Phoenix missiles...

 

 

I pull back the throttle hoping the CAP flight will push ahead a bit since I've gotten a bit in front of them. Things are looking a bit dicey on the map with multiple enemy flights heading southeast to meet us.

 

 

The Marines are next up, sending off a volley of short range missiles...

 

 

 

 

Smoke trails and fireballs dot the skies all around me as the air-to-air guys mix it up above. I bury my nose in the sand, flip on the ECM, and lean on the throttles...

 

 

 

The ground rush is fantastic and the slightest twitch or a second of inattention could be disastrous. We close on the target area quickly and it seems like time compresses. Of some worry is a flight of four MiG-25s that scream in from the west. Fortunately, they don't appear to spot me down in the weeds, but they go for my wingman flying high cover. I feel sort of bad for hanging him out to dry up there so I quickly radio him the "RTB" command hoping he can reverse course and beat it out of the area.

 

 

My plan worked though as he baits the MiGs and they fly right over me. My wingman has some help coming his way as the F-14s in Memphis Flight come zipping up from the south...

 

 

With everyone else otherwise occupied, I concentrate on flying low and getting a good lineup on the target airfield. I occasionally see the flicker of a "25" on my RWR, but they never do shoot at me...

 

 

I offset a bit to the west, then take a hard right turn to the north to line up on the target runway...

 

 

 

The enemy defenses around the base are coming alive and the RWR is shrieking. I hear some AAA start to bang around the aircraft and I pop flares and chaff and do some limited maneuvering not wanting to screw up my lineup...

 

 

As tracers flash by the canopy, I wait for my bomb fall line to cross the threshold then I mash the pickle button and hold it down. It feels like it takes forever for all the sub munitions to eject from the pods...

 

 

 

 

Reaching the end of the runway I make a bit of a mistake. I pull hard to the right intending to head south. I probably should have just kept screaming straight ahead at low altitude for a few miles as I inadvertently pop up a bit in my break turn...

 

 

The runway is cratered for most of the length...(now does SF2 track that damage and prohibit sorties? I don't know?)

 

 

 

The hard pull grays me out a bit and I take a bit of back pressure out so I can see again...

 

 

The RWR screams a launch warning and I jab my flare and chaff button but can see I'm already out - having expended them all on the run in to the target. Damn!

 

 

I see the SA-8 launch and the missile starts tracking on me. I wait a few beats and then try to pull hard into it, but it has my number.

 

 

Live by the sword - die by the sword...

 

 

The mission is a success in that the runway is destroyed 100%. But both of our Tornados are lost and I'm reported missing in action. (The campaign will continue though..)

 

This mission was a ton of fun. Very reminiscent of a very old mission I flew in Falcon over 10 years ago now!... That AAR is still around:

 

Wow!

 

A bit more patience would have been better - allowing the CAP flight to do a bit more cleansing of the airspace. It also might have been better to slate this mission as a 4 or 8 ship to overwhelm the enemy air defenses and divide the fire. I'm looking forward to the next mission...

 

BeachAV8R

[+Hans Topp 115]

Really nice, a great serie of missions over Desert Storm..... (the Phantom its a RF-4, look at nose)

[stuntman 170]

nice, you should release these missions

[Antares81 16]

Really god ... I've this pack , I would like to fly whit Tornado but refuse because cockpit sucks , please someone can re make this cockpit ?

[Stratos 3,192]

While flying Hornet Strike missions, I always fly as slow as possible in order to let the CAP and Sweep clean the air space in front of me. Nice missions!!