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Okay, so I'm not exactly sure where to post this AAR (This is my first), but I guess I'll just leave this here. Mods used: Kuril terrain by Gepard JASDF F-15CJ_Kai by ace888 Kuril F-15 Shootdown Incident 1985. (Please bear in mind, this is a totally ahistorical what-if scenario for fun. absolutely nothing was paid attention to the accuracy of paint jobs, markings, and units operating in the area.) Background: The Soviet Union has occupied the Kurils since August 1945, a major, lasting irritant to its proud island neighbor, Japan. In the 1970s, with Japan's ascension into the world stage as a major Global economic power, nationalistic sentiments grew. The Status of the The Kuril Islands is once more brought into question. In response, the Soviet Union denounced Japan as a "superstitious feudal puppet", closed its Embassy and fortified the island with surface to air Missiles and a Naval infantry brigade. To add insult to the injury, they re-named the Kurils "Ponomarev Islands" in 1982 after the Soviet naval commander that oversaw the Kuril invasion operation who died in the same year. Japan's military build-up has commenced in the 1970s with the modernization of its Air Forces. The high mark came in 1981 with the acquisition of the unmatched F-15C Air Superiority Fighters. There were also talks of acquiring F-16 Fighter-Bombers, an act that would ultimately imperil Soviet control of the Area in case of an open conflict. This so-deeply disturbed the Soviet Politburo, especially the new General Secretary Yuri Andropov (still recovering from his kidney transplant surgery) that they rushed the development and production of the first Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker squadrons to December 1984. Then they were immediately rushed to the Far East Military District in April 1985, along with the new Buk Surface-to-Air Missiles, ignoring the loud protest of Soviet commanders in East Germany. (due to the extreme remoteness of the Kurils and the severe logistics problems, by the time the shootdown happened in May 1985 however, most of the Flankers were still in crates, waiting to be assembled.) Pilots: Pilots 2nd Lieutenant Nishikawa, Yuuji. A native of Saga prefecture. Graduate of National Defence Academy class of 1981. Flew F-4Js, training for the F-15J with the 16th in 1985. 2nd Lieutenant Kana, Haru (wingman), Kanagawa prefecture, a graduate of the National Defence Academy class of 1983. Training for the F-15J with the 16th in 1985. Unit, 16th Flight Training Squadron (with the color and markings of the 23rd Hikotai). Nakashibetsu Airport. Suspected of conducting low-level reconnaissance and intel gathering flights over Kurils since 1982. The Shootdown: (based on incomplete fragments recovered by the Soviet Union, as the official data has allegedly been "lost" by the Japan Air Self Defence Forces headquarters.) On May 11, 1985, at approximately 10:30 am when two F-15Js, Piloted by 2nd Lt. Nishikawa and his wingman, 2nd Lt.Kana took off from Nakashibetsu Airport on a routine familiarization flight. Upon takeoff, they were immediately tracked by Soviet radars. For some reason, the two pilots continued on their path. A single missile was fired when they entered the Soviet Airspace, the two F-15s dipped down below radar. 2nd Lieutenant Nishikawa, pulled up to avoid a mountain. the radar was back on tracking him but the RWR beeped another missile fired. 2nd Lt. Nishikawa attempted to evade once more but the missile was clearly not a Sa-2 like it was before. (Soviets would later reveal that it was their new Buk Missile System that shot him down.) 11:05:39, 2nd Lt. Nishikawa was hit by an unknown Surface to Air missiles on his right-wing, the shrapnel peppered the jet canopy, instantly killing him. He crashed near the Mendeleyevo Air Defence Base No. 1. With the lead pilot dead, the inexperienced 2nd Lt. Kana immediately panicked and slammed forward the throttle, (unwittingly flying further north, deeper into Soviet territory.) At 11:07:59, Anti-Air artillery open fires on 2nd Lt. Kana, putting the inexperienced pilot in a hard position: rise and get shot down by SAM or get shot down by AAAs. The panicked pilot then regained his senses and decides his only chance at survival is to veer east, exiting through the Pacific Ocean while dropping chaffs to avoid SAMs. The Soviets scrambled several dozen MiG-23 interceptors just as 2nd Lt. Kana exited the Pacific Ocean. he found himself swarmed by MiGs. An ensuing air battle erupted and 2nd Lt. Kana fought bitterly to the end, managing to shoot down 2 MiG-23s, one with a head-on AIM-7 sparrow kill and another with AIM-9 Sidewinder. (3 claimed by a U.S E-2 Hawkeye, observing the battle.) 2nd Lt. Kana was overwhelmed by a salvo of R-60M Aphid Infrared missiles and he was hit in the engine on 11:19:50. His F-15J burned and finally broke apart and crashed in the Pacific on 11:20:22 off Iturup Island. Soviet pilots claimed they saw 2nd Lt. Kana eject and a chute but his body was never found. (Damn! it seems that I've reached the 1.9MB limit so I had to cut this short, unfortunately.) Aftermath: Mid-1985. The Soviets were put on the highest alert and the Politburo recommended a massive retaliatory strike on Hokkaido, but General Secretary Andropov dismissed the idea. The shootdown of two F-15J, by their Buk surface to air missiles and MiG-23 interceptors still proved that the Soviet Air Forces, with its aging but vast air inventory could still overwhelm Modern but thinly stretched western air forces in an open battle. The Soviets basked in the political victory and the technical knowledge gained from salvaging the F-15Js. By April 1985, Su-27 Flankers have begun to patrol the Kuril Islands and further Japanese Air Self-Defence Forces incursions were discouraged. Secretary-General Andropov died in 1996 and Soviet-Japan relations were not restored until 2000. Late-1985, Early-1986. Both 2nd Lt. Nishikawa and Kana were awarded the wound medal posthumously. The shootdown was a massive scandal in Japan. Japanese leftist opposition politicians accused the Prime Minister of violating Japan's pacifist constitution. The nationalist Japanese cabinet collapsed with the Prime Minister's resignation. The planned acquisition of the Japanese F-16 was suspended indefinitely, until the introduction of the Mitsubishi F-2A (Japan's homegrown tactical fighter based on the F-16) in 2001. The entire JASDF general staff was put on inquiry and forced to early retirement, while the 16th's wing commander attempted seppuku, only to be rescued by enlisted personnel wandering in the woods.

After being a fan of SF2 series for a very long time, i decided to do an AAR on one of my campaign playthroughs here. The requisites are; Desert4+ map 1959 - Operation Burning Sands start SF2 Israel, Europe, NA, Vietnam and Exp 2 merged install Modded planes are only allowed if they were extant or were being exported historically, (courtesy of their respective modders) Realistic/Hard difficulty settings. No mission restarts/refly's. Background My name is Fuad Bahri. I'm a Parani. As long as i remember. I always wanted to be a pilot. People have smirked at me. Fuad, son of a struggling fisherman from Riqdur, a pilot? I was born in a forgotten place, in a forgotten time. Before the revolution, people like me, could only dream about moving as far as the next village, not even flying. It was a sport for the very rich, and the occupying British. Shah Komar rose up to correct the injustice, the wrongs they have done to us.Now a son of a simple fisherman like me, or even a son of a bedouin can attend schools. Women are not bound by the old ways anymore. Education, is not only for the rich now. And thus, i was able to apply for the cadet school for the fledgling Parani Air Force. Apart from several bomber squadrons of big Ilyushins, manned by Soviet crews, we only have left-over Hunter models, from the time of the British protectorate and a couple of squadrons of new Mig-17s, small, slow but nevertheless nimble fighters. But cadets like me are not trusted with the new and valuable equipment. We were given even older planes! Meteor is an old plane. It was used by the British for "air policing", our flight leader told us. Mostly just to prevent incursions from other super-powers, and sometimes flying low to scare off unruly bedouin tribes. It borders on obsolescence, but it is a plane with ... a soul. You can feel every bolt and surface panel when you make a hard bank, and can kick you like a camel on a rough landing. Some say, Paran has recently become a backdrop of a global chess-game: The Cold War. Other nations accuse us for getting help from the Soviets. They say we are unable to see the "big picture", and will only be pawns for global domination. There are garbled up news reports from the other side of the border. Many advanced US jets are starting to reinforce our despicable neighbour, Dhimar. There are even rumours of a rag-tag band of mercenaries, paid for by Dhimari King himself, to use newest aircraft against us. This morning, an aide ran into the squadron HQ, as if he is one of the mosquitos troubling us around. Special orders, we have been told, and i have seen our technicians attaching long-range drop tanks, never needed during our training flights. I have very mixed emotions... my lifelong dream was to fly, and now my dream could very well spell the end of my life. It sounds like a folly to fight against an enemy, no, two enemies even, with obsolete aircraft. But may the mountains of Kerman be my witness! Wars are won with bravery and blood! I'm a Parani, and as our country rises from the dustbin of history, i will do everything to protect it from our enemies!

I was quite heartened by the positive comments received about my previous Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam comic strip, title A Long Day, posted by MigBuster on the news forum. It made me want to finish another comic strip that I had left on the back burner due to lack of time. Well, I've finally finished it, and I guess it'll be nice to post in on here as my very first topic on the CombatAce site. Some information on what I used to make this comic strip, and my previous one as well, is that I used the Comic Life 3 comic builder program, which is payware. For both comics, I flew the mission and took screenshots using Strike Fighters 2 Vietnam with full merged installs of all the SF2 titles, excluding the TW expansion packs. The mod I'm using is SF2V Air Ground War Expansion Pack, before the 2014 update for the first comic, and for this comic, the last two pages uses the updated 2014 Air Ground War Expansion Pack. The Huey's are from Yankee Air Pirate, and the LRRP's, and the ground combat portion basically in this comic, are from ARMA II, an awesome sandbox military simulator. The mod I am using for ARMA II is the UNSUNG Vietnam War mod version 1.5, the second last version of the awesome mod. I also took the liberty to attach the CombatAce logo, along with a cheesy tagline, to make my comic strips a sort of CombatAce only comics. I hope it does not infringe into any copyright or anything. I am not making money from these comics. The idea of doing this was inspired by the Commando comics series. I just thought it might be cool. It's time to join the Wild Boars of the 390th TFS as they fly to the help of a LRRP team in trouble in South Vietnam. Hope you guys enjoy this comic adventure!

By Damian Teo Join the 354th Bulldogs on a difficult mission over North Vietnam portrayed in this comic strip adventure!