beachav8r

I think I'd like to do this. (Prizes for first death?? LOL..) I think you should all do SEAD. I'm gonna haul cargo in the C-130.... BeachAV8R

While I don't completely agree with you about DCS World - I do agree that SF2 has a fantastic balance of realism and fun. You can't just haul off on the stick and disregard the aerodynamics, but nor do you need to bury your head in a book for weeks to learn how to drop bombs. All the discussion of mods and campaigns and stuff is great (and I love the content that is out there and coming) - but good grief..can you imagine how bad ass and timeless SF2 would be with multiplayer? Gawd..it's all already in there as far as content goes (Vietnam, Gulf War, etc...) but the frustration of not being able to cooperatively fly is frustrating. Sigh.. I know I keep bringing it up..but someday I keep hoping some bolt of lighting will come from nowhere and introduce MP to SF2... <g> BeachAV8R

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>

I was just wondering - and looking back on my old post asking about the campaign engine and how it is run - is it possible to have en external program that looks at the campaign status and graphically display the campaign status in a style similar to EECH? It would be cool if we could have a little more data on what is going on as we progress through the campaign as far as how we are doing at winning or losing the battle. Is all that data buried in an exe or is it available in a text readable file after each mission? Edit - And one other question - I was wondering if, after accomplishing the primary mission, going rogue and hitting other targets has an overall affect on the campaign supply status for the enemy. In other words..is it worth the risk of hitting extra targets on the way out? Just curious what the thoughts are on this.. BeachAV8R

Our next series of missions takes a look at one of the lesser appreciated airframes of the Gulf War – the Dassault Mirage F1. The French Air Force sent F1C and F1CR to participate in Operation Daguet while the Kuwaiti Air Force flew their F1CK from bases in Saudi Arabia. Since Iraq also fielded Mirage F1s, the Coalition F1s were held in reserve until complete air superiority was achieved to prevent misidentification and possible blue on blue incidents. * A reminder that these missions are just general representations and are not historically accurate with respects to bases, missions, and loadouts. * The French F1CR was well suited to its reconnaissance role and I believe later in the war they also performed direct bombing attacks. They were also apparently paired up and utilized as pathfinders for the Buccaneers since they had better avionics and navigation capabilities. For our mission today, we will perform a recon flight to assess the strength and disposition of an Iraqi fortified area on the border of Kuwait and Iraq… Heading off with wing tanks and the center mounted reconnaissance pod… Dropping to low level over the Gulf on approach to the Kuwaiti coastline… Elsewhere the Kuwaiti Tornados are gearing up for a mission… That’s not a MiG-29 shooting a missile, that’s a MiG-29 that just dodged a Sidewinder! A-7 Corsairs getting shot off the carrier will add to the mix… Soon we are abeam Kuwait getting ready to turn westbound toward the target area… As we make the turn, we turn our ECM pods on… We have a massive screen of Coalition aircraft to our north acting as barrier to any enemy fighters that might be working their way south… We stray a bit north of the inbound course line in order to keep some distance from some mobile SA-8 sites that appear on the map… Nearing the target area we pop up to a few thousand feet and snap our photos… As soon as we cross the target we drop back down to about two hundred feet for the quick egress to the south, chased out of the area by a couple SAM launches from the compound we overflew… Back at base safely with the recon photos in hand… We hand off our intel to the Kuwaiti pilots who are eager to hit back at the Iraqi forces… Since the F1 is a bit outclassed on the battlefield, it is a good idea to slow down a bit and let the bulk of Coalition aircraft push out ahead to clear out the airspace… Our Kuwaiti fighters reenter their homeland… A few miles out they spot the target from mid altitude and dive down to low altitude to deliver the high drag bombs… The party gets started as the base defenses kick into gear and start launching SAMs… Pickle! A great example of my poor interval setting (I forgot to set it!) versus my wingman who has a better spread on his stick of bombs delivered from a slightly higher altitude… His bombs hit just before mine – he gets good hits while my cluster of bombs goes long and hits just outside the perimeter fence… As we peel off to the south the smoke rises from the Iraqi compound… Not content to let us get away unmolested, the SA-8 opens up on us… My wingman pays the price for lingering at too high an altitude. Safety is found below 200’ or at much higher altitudes. Medium altitudes are suicide… Two went out – only one returns… In a nod to the fact that not all of the air war was uncontested, there were a few brave Iraqi Air Force pilots that flew into impossible odds on impossible missions. Iraq also fielded their own F1 Mirages but many fled to Iran after the onset of hostilities and a few more were shot down. A fairly bold strike was attempted by the Iraqi Air Force on January 24 when a pair of F1s and two MiG-23s were sent on a mission to strike the major Saudi oil refinery at Abqaiq . AWACS vectored a pair of Saudi F-15s toward the incoming strikers and the MiGs turned tail and ran while the F1s tried to press on. One of the Saudi F-15s quickly dispatched both of the F1s, effectively ending Iraq’s offensive air operations for the duration of the war. An Iraqi F1 takes off for a strike against Saudi oil facilities near Dhahran… I flew this mission multiple times and found it was near impossible to work south into Saudi airspace without being detected and promptly hunted and executed. Even getting into the air from some of the Iraqi airspace can result in fairly quick action. Here we’ve just taken off and intercepted an F-18 strike coming toward our base… The Coalition F-15Cs are impossible to defeat or evade. I assume this is fairly true to form since Coalition air dominance was pretty complete throughout the war. If you are patient, and can wait for the bulk of the air activity to calm down, you can pick your way south. Here we try an extremely low attack profile from over the Gulf… Soon the oil complex on the coast comes into view through the HUD… Without a CCIP HUD display, it is a bit of guesswork to release the Beluga CBU cannisters… I get lucky with my guesswork and the CBU bomblets rip across the complex… We break hard to the east and hope the Coalition air defenses are late to the switch… While escaping to the north you had better be careful to avoid the Coalition fleet in the middle of the Gulf… Things don’t end well.. Flying the Iraqi side of the Operation Desert Storm campaign is pretty brutal. I don’t care what side of the conflict you are on – if you take up arms and fight for your country, that takes courage and even though the Iraqi Air Force never had a chance, there were still some moments of extreme bravery shown. The Mirage F1 saw some interesting action in the Gulf War on both sides. BeachAV8R

Just wondering if anyone has the definitive list of campaigns that feature the AV-8B? I know it can be flown in ODS. I don't currently have NATO Fighters installed, but I *think* I recall it being able to be flown in that package as well. Are there any other campaigns? I'd love to fly a somewhat possibly realistic campaign in the Middle East (Syria? Libya? Iran?) or I'm up for suggestions. If not, I can do Europe or ODS..but I was just wondering what the possibilities are. Regards! BeachAV8R

Those are good to know. Dave - no..I don't need anything custom made, don't want to make any work for anyone when there are already existing stuff out there that will suffice. Thank you for the offer though.. <g> BeachAV8R 11 GIGS! <gulp> Time to renew the membership..LOL..! BeachAV8R

Beating a dead horse - but the shame of it is that SF2 with cooperative multiplayer added could have probably rocketed SF2 to the very short list of all time best sims. Heck, it already is in many respect thanks to the modding..but cooperative multiplayer would have really made it incredibly attractive to a ton of people that just want to get in, fly, and blow stuff up. I could envision whole squadrons flying period specific aircraft and campaigns together... <wipes tear from eye> TK broke my heart... BeachAV8R

One of the major events that occurred late in the war was the near total destruction of Iraqi forces retreating from Kuwait. The carnage on the "Highway of Death" is cited as one of the primary reasons the war was soon brought to a close because the Coalition thought international support would waiver with continued decimation of the Iraqi Army. Senior military leaders agree that it was important to destroy Saddam's retreating military hardware. Later investigation would show only a quarter or less of the vehicles were military, however the others were trucks and vehicles stuffed with war loot confiscated from Kuwait. The death tolls vary widely, but I come down on the side of those who think it numbered in the hundreds instead of thousands. If the vehicle in front of me and behind me blows up, I think I'm just going to high tail it across the desert. Controversy aside, the attacks on Highway 80 (and the lesser reported Highway 8) were incredible examples of the devastation concentrated airpower can have on pent up forces. On the night of February 26, an E-8 JSTARS noted columns of vehicles departing Kuwait, retreating north toward Iraq. The first aircraft on scene were A-6 Intruders that spotted the six mile long column running the length of Highway 80. They bombed the lead and trail sections of the column with GATOR anti-tank mines to prevent the column from moving. From then on, it wasn't much more than a static bombing range for Coalition aircraft of every type. Heading for Highway 80... The assembled Coalition fleet in the Gulf... For my strike, I used CBU-87/B instead of GATOR... Picking up the coastline and some vehicles on the radar... In hot! Soon we have the column burning, which makes for an easy reference point... My wingman doing some damage with his Snakeyes... Cont.. An OV-10 loiters and throws white phosphorus rockets at the enemy column (framerate killer!)... Care must be taken not to get too low because there are enemy air defense units in the mix... With the initial strike completed, the entirety of Coalition air power will hit the column for two days, destroying 1500 to 2000 vehicles... I next take up an A-10 to do some damage. Upon arrival on-scene, I order my wingman to make the first attack and he drops CBU on the column making it easy for my subsequent attacks... Hmm..stay in my truck or leave my truck? Leave my truck... The airspace over the column is positively packed with Coalition aircraft. OV-10s, A-10s, F-4s, A-6s, A-7s, AV-8Bs, and others scream in from all directions... Deconfliction is a bit of a problem and disasters almost occur.. We keep repeating passes until we run out of bombs.. The temptation to drift ever lower during your attacks is a problem. Soon you find yourself down in small arms territory and you expose yourself to a lot of fire... The targets are endless... We switch to guns, which in the SF2 A-10A aren't very effective. They seem to have more bullet drop and less of a "laser" fire feel to them compared to the DCS A-10C. Lazing around at low altitude trying to pick of targets with the gun seems hazardous so we pack up and head home. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have been in that convoy for those two days. Once the bombs started to drop, I can't imagine many Iraqis decided to stay with their vehicles. Given the choice of showing up without their vehicles in Iraq and the consequences of that though, maybe some had no real choice. It indicates what a callous disregard Saddam Hussein had for his own forces that he would even put them in that position. BeachAV8R

It's the single play mission that is included with the Operation Desert Storm install - instead of Highway of Death it is titled: Road to Hell... BeachAV8R

So at some point I was hoping to recreate the somewhat controversial Highway of Death mission in a multi-part AAR. I saw the the ODS campaign also shipped with those Road2Hell single missions, but whenever I try to launch it I get to 80% loading screen and then the loading locks up. I've tried selectively deleting units to see what is causing the mission to hang, but I can't seem to hit on it. Anyone have an ideas or other single missions that replicate the Highway of Death? I'm hoping to start it out with the A-6 dropping CBU on the lead and trail vehicles and then bringing in some A-10s. BeachAV8R

I did get this mission working by removing the M113 and M3A1 from the mission - I don't know why that was crashing it because I see them in my OBJECTS directory.. The mission worked great (what a FPS killer that mission is!)... Thanks for all the help.. BeachAV8R

LOL..no..that is just a quick PhotoShop I did to make it look like it.. I exercised some artistic license there.. <g> BeachAV8R I'm using SweetFX - plus a lot of Stary's explosions and effects... I purposely chose SweetFX settings that sort of give a harsh look. I think the Gulf area had pretty stark and harsh lighting (just speculating), so I have my SweetFX settings set to reflect that. I can attach my SweetFX file if you guys want to take a look at it.. BeachAV8R

Thanks for the suggestions guys... Dave - No idea because the loading screen just freezes, I don't get an error message or a CTD..just a freeze.. KJ - That sounds like a good idea, except my damn SF2 + ODS install is so heavily modded that I doubt we could pin it on any one thing. I'm using Razbam cockpits, ODS models, a whole bunch of Stary's effects..etc..etc.. So that would probably be more trouble than its worth.. eburger - Thanks for the updated files. The Road2Hell one still freezes at 80%, but I just did a workaround and used the OP-08 mission to represent the Highway of Death. Granted, the units are advancing further into Kuwait instead of retreating, but the concept is the same for illustrative purposes. It works for me.. Tanker - That must be a pretty incredible experience. I see a lot of photos of the carnage and devastation and am always amazed that they let people sort of poke around that area so soon after the fact. I'd imagine there was a lot of unexploded ordnance (CBU) laying around and it could be pretty dangerous. I'd imagine that the military has quite an extensive collection of photographs and video of the destruction that might never see the light of day. The whole affair was rather controversial but I sort of come down on the side of destroying the enemies equipment. Also, the death toll, by many accounts, seems to have been inflated because it is widely believed most of the Iraqis fled into the desert once the bombing started in earnest. By the way - anyone interested in a detailed chronology and analysis of the Gulf War air war should check out these five documents that comprise the Gulf War Air Power Survey. I think they published the document in 1993 and over the course of time it seems that the US Government decided that didn't want so much of that information out there and apparently they removed it from the government hosted websites. They can still be found on the Federation of American Scientists library website: http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/ Scroll down to the 6-part Gulf War Air Power Survey to download them. Fascinating reading... BeachAV8R

Thanks guys - just showing off what you guys do - you make it possible. I probably should have made a mission pack with these missions...but I didn't really think about it ahead of time, so I've not been real diligent about keeping them together. Basically most of them are started campaigns, then saved the invidual missions and tweaked them up a bit to make them track the historical missions. Probably wouldn't be too difficult to eventually put them together as a package, but people would have to understand they'd be flown as just single missions and not a campaign where each mission affected the campaign. Good idea though! BeachAV8R

On the second day of Operation Desert Storm, in an attempt to draw Israel into the war and perhaps fracture the Coalition alliance, Iraq started launching Scud missiles at Israel. Politics aside, it was one of the few smart moves by Saddam Hussein's military planners because it accomplished two things: 1) It diverted a significant portion of assets away from striking more critical targets and 2) Had Israel responded there was at least the possibility of the war taking on a different regional tone. In response, Coalition planners were forced to divert A-10 and F-15E assets to "Scud boxes" in parts of Iraq including the vast western areas close to the Syrian and Jordanian borders. * These AARs are fictionalized accounts loosely based on history. F-15Es on Scud missions primarily operated at night. Our mission has a long flight out to Western Iraq. It is a shame that SF2 doesn't allow for air-to-air refueling. The addition of air-to-air refueling and multi-player capability would make SF2 one of the greatest sims of all time in my opinion. (Come on TK - please!!!) The F-15E for SF2 is another brilliant 3D model and a nice cockpit. I'd give credit but I think the list of contributors to the project is really long. You guys know who you are...fantastic job! Heading out with GBU-10s, AIM-9Ms, and a few extra gas tanks... After takeoff we fly past one of the Royal compounds... Heading across the vast nothingness... Bringing my wingman in close... A hint of what multi-player would be like... Running a parallel course to us is our CAP flight of F-15Cs. I don't know - personally I think being a strike pilot in the Gulf War would have been more interesting than the rather limited air-to-air that was available... The late afternoon sun streams into the cockpit setting up an awful glare though the HUD.. About twenty miles out we start to let down slightly to get beneath the cumulus bases that are hovering around 15,000'... Finding mobile Scud sites in real life proved to be extremely difficult. The ratio of sorties to actual successful Scud strikes was fairly high. The vastness of the desert and the fairly good camouflage techniques (parking them under highway overpasses or in buildings) meant that a lot of time was spent searching and very little time was spent bombing. Coalition Special Forces groups were sent in early to roam the Western desert on ATVs to find and direct strikes - a pretty interesting job if there ever was one. SF2 makes it easy to find targets with the "padlock" commands, so our search was no search at all. The LANTIRN pod displays a targeting diamond on the HUD... Passing the IP we roll in on the attack... Pickle! Ka-rhump! My wingman pulls off from his strike when his target (my target) is vaporized... I visually acquire another launcher and direct my wingman onto that target as I circle overhead and observe... Nice job! I come back around three more times, targeting additional mobile Scud launchers and support vehicles. There doesn't appear to be any anti-aircraft defenses set up around the site, but we stay fairly high anyway... With the job done we head east away from the setting sun toward our base in eastern Saudi Arabia... An hour later the airfield comes into view... Mission accomplished. As you can see, the variety and types of missions you can fly in SF2:ODS are pretty good. I'm basically running individual single campaign missions for different types of aircraft, but be aware that if you fly a full campaign you are stuck with one type of aircraft for the duration of the campaign. Pssst..TK..we will pay good money for just the added MP capability..really! BeachAV8R

The RAF brought a diverse selection of aircraft to the Gulf War including the Jaguar GR.Mk 1. The Jaguar is definitely one of those cool looking, rugged airplanes that looks the part of being a rubble bouncer. Primarily flying daylight interdiction sorties, the Jaguar flew over 600 sorties with no losses. Our mission for today replicates some sorties that the Jaguars were tasked for several times during the war: the destruction of coastal anti-ship Silkworm batteries that posed a threat to Coalition naval forces. With the extremely short flight distance to the combat area, I elect to lighten our loads and give myself a 50% fuel load and my wingman a 75% fuel load. The Jaguar normally carried the CRV7 rocket and later in the war was cleared to carry the CBU-87 cluster bomb. In my SF2 install I could not find either of those weapons as available (I'm not a skilled modder, but I'm sure you can edit the weapons.ini file to fix that or something), so I improvised and used CBU-52/B and a different type of rocket pod for my wingman. Off we go..! The unique top wing mounted Sidewinders give the Jaguar an unusual silhouette... ( Note: Sundowner's Jaguar Package: HERE! ) Further inland the Iraqi Air Force is sending up MiG-29s. In reality, they were just as likely to flee east over the border to seek asylum in Iran, but in the early days of the war they were a little more game to engage... But the kill ratio was always skewed to the extreme toward Coalition air power... As we work our way east toward the coast we are circumventing some of the air defense units that have been set up in Kuwait. An SA-8 searches for us just to the north. I do notice that the Jaguar seems to have a more aggressive fuel burn than what I was expecting, and the fuel totalizer ticks down at a fairly rapid pace... Meanwhile the Tornados continue to pay a high price for their mission tasking... At the IP we prepare to turn north. I set pull up my CBUs, set them to drop in a pair, and set the maximum ripple interval. I'm not sure if the interval works for opposite side releases or if it only works for paired releases... Nose art... Coming up the coast we soon spot the Silkworm missile site... To keep my wingman safe, I put him into high cover while I make the initial attack run... I set up to make the attack down the axis of the missile revetments... Though the RWR is only showing distant search radars, I use flares as I pull off in case there are any MANPADS down there... The bombs ripple across the site destroying three of the four missile launchers... I pull hard to the south over the relative safety of the Gulf and look over my shoulder. I see the remaining missile battery is undamaged so I give my wingman the command to strike. He rolls in with his rockets but his aim is a bit off as his rockets come up short... I send him back again and this time his rockets damage some support buildings, but again miss the Silkworm launcher... Sometimes you just have to do the job yourself... A quick flyby BDA shows all the missile launchers are destroyed and some of the support vehicles and buildings are damaged too... As I order my wingman to rejoin I take a glance at my fuel gauge and am surprised to see how little I have left..I guess that 50% fuel loadout was a mistake! In order to shave a bit of flight time off, we cut the corner on the way back to base, but that takes us across occupied Kuwait... I climb and pull the throttle back to try to reduce the fuel flow to an economy setting... Even though home base is only about 30 miles away, it is a bridge to far so I'm forced to divert to another airfield that is closer. The squadron mates will never let me live this one down... The divert field appears out of the haze. I order my wingman to RTB since he has more fuel (presumably)... I pull up to the ramp to beg, borrow, or steal some fuel... Another fun and unique mission. The designers of the ODS theater did a good job of populating the region with interesting and historically significant target areas. BeachAV8R

I had to Google "BL-755" and was pleasantly surprised to see this video (NSFW): Right on..those definitely need to be in my SF2 install..! BeachAV8R

Thanks - I'll have to look for them. In that vein - didn't the guys doing Yankee Air Pirate finagle some sort of psuedo air refueling for SF1? I seem to recall reading something about that..but I could be mistaken.. BeachAV8R

Thanks for the brief history lesson there Streakeagle - it is interesting and slightly depressing to read. I really appreciate all that TK has done for the flight sim community and even if he walked away totally I can't begrudge him the fact. He did leave us with an awesome sim(s) and even though they aren't everything to everyone, they are still damn fun. It would be really cool if he someday decided to release the source code to allow others to give a shot at improving and expanding the sim. I mean, look how much has been done with the EECH source code. I think Falcon 4, EECH, and SF2 could really be the standout legacy sims for a long time coming. BeachAV8R

This mission approximates a strike that occurred later during the air war when Saddam Hussein, in an act of desperation, opened the oil manifolds that pump crude oil to ships waiting at an oil loading terminal off the coast of Kuwait. Instead of pumping the crude oil into ships, the oil was spewing into the Gulf, creating an enormous environmental disaster. War planners were tasked with coming up with a plan to stop the oil from flowing. After careful consideration, a strike against the pumping station that provided the positive pressure to the pipeline was slated. The strike was performed by F-111s using electro-optically guided GBU-15 bombs. Codenamed "Duck Mission", the strike was ultimately successful in stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf. I utilized Fastcargo's awesome F-111 Super Vark Pack (Version 2.4) in order to get the LGBs I used in the mission. I could not find an EO capable bomb such as the GBU-15, so I went with GBU-16s instead. Heading north over the Gulf on the short flight to the island housing the pump station... The skies south of Kuwait are quiet as the coalition air cover pushes all enemy activity to the north... Soon the ground mapping radar starts to pick up the island... At around 30 miles out, we transition from low level to 15,000' and turn on the ECM gear... I select the GBU-16/B and the "Pave Penny" locks on to the target building... At about five miles out, I hit the pickle button twice, sending two one-thousand pounders on the way... For good measure I order my wingmen to attack as well. About 15 seconds later my bombs hit..followed a few second later by my wingman's... It looks like we nuked the island! There is not a peep from the RWR and the entire mission was uncontested. I drag the flight down to low level and exit the direction we came. Wingman #3 screams past the smoking wreckage of the facility... The mission is an easy success. The F-111 is another awesome aircraft that saw action in the Gulf War and a personal favorite. I'm sure we'll see more F-111 action in future AARs. BeachAV8R

LOL..I thought you were going to offer me pre-Gulf War Iraqi Dinars (someday they will be worth a fortune I tell ya!)

Damn..impressive level of service and speed. With that said..uh..can a mod please deposit one million dollars into my Paypal account? * It was worth a try... BeachAV8R

Can mods change thread titles? I mistaken labeled this one Mission 04 and it supposed to be Mission 05.. Doh!

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