By now your Recon bird should be telling you something about the airfield, otherwise there is no point risking an aircraft for this task. Reconnaissance is a vital part of the game, and it is not always easy to do. Novice players often make the mistake of ignoring recon assets because they are generally vulnerable and carry either no or very few weapons, or if they use their recon asset, not making the most of the results .You should gain at least three things from a good reconnaissance.

1. Understanding of the general target area. On an airfield and many other infrastructure type targets, you will have a very good idea of where buildings are and how things are laid out, it is hard to move a building or runway. New buildings or other structures could have been built since you last gained intelligence on an area; look for temporary structures, parking spaces turn to revetments, vehicles etc. You will note that this airbase has something you didn't know about before. What is it and what does it mean?

2. Identifying any defenses. As a general rule, if something is set up to shoot at you it will probably want to hide until it does, it's an important safety tip for defenders! And if you aren't using your reconnaissance assets properly, chances are the first time you find these defenders is on your final bomb run. which at a minimum will make your pilots pull up quick and probably miss their target but it could mean casualties. If you find a defender early, you can adjust your plan and kill or neutralize them first.

3. Identify how the enemy is deployed. This is a large subject; in larger scenarios you want to know the layout of ship formations to find a gap or weakness, or where his electronic jamming is weakest etc. In this scenario your interest is where he is parking his aircraft. No real point hitting an empty parking space, it just wastes ordnance. If his aircraft are in a revetment, perhaps a guided bomb is needed, if in the open and cluster munition is all you need, etc. In Command this is a very common piece of information that you will want to know, so remember that you can use the "Contact Report" to help you out. Once you have run your Recce bird over the base:

- Go to Unit View.
- Pick an enemy facility with the yellow square and black triangle in the lower right-hand corner.
- Click on "Contact Report".
- There are two tabs: "Emissions" and "Spotted hosted units", choose the 2nd tab.
- Here you should see a list of what you have seen parked on this facility and how long ago you saw it. Not particularly relevant in this scenario but consider a target base with both F-15s and A-10s, which is more important to hit at that time in your situation. Decisions...

Adjustment: Once your recon aircraft finds out where the bad guys are parked, you should adjust the target list of any strikes that hit the parking spaces. But remember, you cannot see inside the hanger so assume that it has something in it.