Mission 2

In addition to Bomber #5 with the GAF Recce Pod, you have a second aircraft Bomber #6 set up with Mk82 AIR Lo-Lo-Lo. We're going to set up a couple of missions that will work together, a recon mission and a strike mission.

Note the nasty looking red unit with the number 29 next to it. That's an SA-5, a fairly common Cold War Era SAM (Surface to Air Missile), it's been around since the 50's but this is an updated "c" version, and the missile is the size of a telephone pole, so it will hurt if it hits you. It has 18 missile launchers, 5 radars and 6 close in AAA gun systems. Too big for us to handle and that AAA makes it tricky to get close to anyway.

You will also note that the red ring around the SAM completely encompasses the Mission 2 RPs, what to do? In most military situations you need to pit your strengths against the enemy's weaknesses. This is a classic case of the right tool for the job. What is a key strength of a Tornado IDV? Low level flying!

What is a key weakness of an SA-5? This leads to the military principle of know your enemy, let's check the database. Click SA-5 and then on the blue hyperlink to go to the database. Beyond the nasty picture you find a bunch of things about the unit, like its got 36 reload missiles in its magazine! The important bit though is the missiles themselves. Click on the missile name to go to the SA-5C Gammon missile database entry. Notice anything useful? Target altitude perhaps? 650 ft AGL up to 130000 ft AGL. This thing could shoot down a U-2 at 95000 ft but it cannot shoot down a Tornado at 200 ft! We have a plan!

Next Setup the Recon mission:

- Select the RPs for Mission 2.
- Hit "CTRL + F11", name your mission, this is another "Patrol" mission, "ASuW (Ground)".
- Add Bomber #5, the one with the reconnaissance pod on it.
- You should get a warning message about flight size. Remember that you have it set to the default of 2, and you have only added 1 aircraft. Change the Flight size to a single aircraft.
- Uncheck "1/3 rule", "Investigate unknown contacts outside the patrol area" and "Investigate unknown contacts within weapons range".
- On the right-hand side of the box (Very Important) set Transit altitude to 600ft, station altitude to 200ft, this aircraft has no weapons to attack but just in case you have the doctrine set to strafing, set the attack altitude to 200ft as well. Put a check in all three terrain following boxes. Speeds are fine at default.
- This mission will use a lot more fuel because of the altitude but hopefully you find your target quickly.

Now if you find a target there is no point allowing it to live, so you need to set a strike mission. Remember back in Tutorial 1, I mentioned that NATO bombs had some attachments you could add. This is an example; the Mk 82 is a standard 500lb dumb bomb, but can you imagine what might happen if you drop a low drag bomb at very low altitude, all that shrapnel could be very bad for your aircraft's complexion! Also, a good rule of thumb for dumb bombs is to drop them low to improve accuracy, stabilizing them helps accuracy even more. The AIR (Air Inflatable Retarder) slows the bomb down to allow your aircraft to egress a little further before it explodes, and it helps to stabilize the bomb in flight. Both are good things in this situation. When your recon flight finds a target, you want to launch your strike aircraft loaded with Mk 82 AIR bombs, fly low and fast, drop your bombs and stay well under the SA-5 engagement envelope.

Let's set up a strike mission:

- Hit "CTRL + F11".
- Name your mission, this is a "Strike" class mission, "Land Strike", leave as "Active".
- This page is a bit different but has many of the same features of the patrol mission, which you are now familiar with.

1. Change "Flight size" to 1.
2. Just above the Flight size is a dropdown which selects the level of identification to trigger the mission, select "Hostile".
3. Assign Bomber #6 to the mission.
4. Leave the "Target" tab blank.

- A couple important points:

1. We will leave "Allow off-axis Attack" unchecked, we don't want the strike to wander into the SA-5 range too much, and this would allow the AI to select an off-angle attack direction that may stray too far for our current intent.
2. There are no tankers or escorts for this mission but you can get pretty specific here.
3. The way this is now set up, the mission will launch on ANY hostile target whenever detected. Problem! We have that nasty SA-5, which is both detected and hostile: But we don't want to go near it, our target hasn't been found yet.
4. Not an issue. Measure the distance between the base and the SA-5 ("CTRL + D" & click or select the base and watch the cursor data to see the range as you move the mouse (XXXnm from Sel). I read the SA-5 as 340nm, and the outer limit of the mission 2 box is about 320nm so put in a maximum strike radius of 320 halfway down the center column.

You're now ready to launch your second set of missions.