Briefing:

Your task today is to neutralize Zinder Airport. The word neutralize is important, airports are almost impossible to destroy from the air. To properly destroy an airport would likely involve heavy machinery ripping up the airstrip and taxiways or nuclear weapons. Bombs will put holes and craters in tarmac, and with cement those can be filled quite easily. Buildings can be blown up, but tents and weather shelters can replace them in hours. Fuel and munitions can be destroyed but can be quickly replaced. Your job is to close the airport for as long as possible, thereby preventing enemy aircraft from using it.

What makes up an airport? Click on Zinder Airport, hit "V" or "9" on your number pad to change to unit view, and zoom in so your scale is in meters and not miles. This is what this very small airport has:

Target

No

DP

Effect of damage/destruction

Remarks

Runway

1

900

AC cannot take off or land

Special munitions only

Cannot be destroyed

Runway Access point

1

1000

AC cannot taxi to runway

Cannot be destroyed

A/C Hanger

1

600

AC inside can be destroyed

Vulnerable to most weapons

Tarmac Space

3

300

AC parked can be destroyed

Cannot be destroyed

Avgas Tank

1

20

No effect but usually points

Vulnerable to fire

Ammo Pad

1

300

Ammo lost

None

Ammo Bunker

1

1600

Ammo lost

Needs penetrator

ATC Radar

1

1

Radar destroyed

Very vulnerable

Control Tower

1

75

No effect but usually points

Has weather radar

Terminal

1

1200

No effect but usually points

Open Parking Spot

1

300

AC parked can be destroyed

Cannot be destroyed

Now let's take a look at your assets:

Your next step is to figure out your plan. What do you want to destroy, why and when? Timing is important! There are ways of making everything arrive at the target at once, but this would be complex and quite unrealistic. The commander of the attack would only want a maximum of 2 or 4 aircraft directly over the target at any one time, otherwise the risk of collision is way too high. Command does not model midair collisions, nor does it model shrapnel from one strike hitting aircraft from another but it does model the time it takes for aircraft to do things like take off, assemble, etc.

Coordinating complex strikes is one of the most fun and satisfying aspects of the game. In this scenario you will have a few aircraft to coordinate. Imagine that you have aircraft from several different bases, some needing refueling to reach the target. Now add surface and air launched cruise missiles flying programed routes. Layer in some helicopters, artillery, Surface to Surface Missiles (SSM) and you have an interesting problem to handle. You can worry about that later, right now you need think about timing your reconnaissance and strike assets.

Do you want to close the runway first? Kill the radar first? Destroy the ammo and fuel first? Kill parked aircraft first? These are all good answers, your job is to choose one.

Reconnaissance:

First let's take a better look at your reconnaissance aircraft. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and this is the weapon that will inform your plans. And even though it is virtually unarmed (this one has some defensive air to air missiles) it is still a useful weapon. The Su-24MR Fencer E is equipped with multiple sensors. Open the "Database Viewer" and take a look:

What do with do with this aircraft? That depends on what you wish to achieve. You could put it on an area surveillance task, through it up to 40,000 feet and let the ELINT pod do the work. But that won't find where the enemy aircraft are located on your target airbase.

For this mission you need to get down and dirty! The task here is to locate where the bad guy's aircraft are so you can better direct your bombers. This means you will be looking for them in the visual spectrum not the electronic because those aircraft won't be emitting anything. You will need to see the target with your eyeball, cameras and IR. It's unlikely that your radar is good enough to pick them up, but many modern radars will be useful in this role. To do this you need to be low and to survive when you're low you need to be fast. There are two ways of doing this:

Strike:

You could handle this attack manually, it's really not that big but I would advise employing missions, the process I use is this: