IT - first weeks - lessons learned

[Spaz]

Recently with the commencement of operations in the Israel theater much of the original theater-specific Korea doctrine has had to be thrown out. With the introduction of much more potent SAM threats, such as the SA-11, SA-13, and SA-8, coupled with an outnumbering Syrian air force, a spike has arisen in the
number of unsuccessful RTB's. It makes me feel like this guy at about 1:16 :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnoPZqC6Bfs

The standard Israel Theater (IT) setting played (locally here at viper connect) are ACE pilot/ADA skill, and VETERAN force levels; and I refer to only the
first Northern Strike campaign here. The total number of Syrian combat aircraft (not including support, heli's or dedicated ground attack) is 252 A/C in 13
squadrons, while Israel only possesses 192 in 14 Squadrons, a ratio against us of approximatley .75:1. As well, out of 252 Syrian A/C, 130 (about 71%) are BVR capable with either SARH or ARH missles. Comparatively, only 92 out of 192 (about 47%) of Israeli A/C are BVR capable, allowing for a considerable gap in AA combat effectiveness, and leaving the bulk of the work to Israeli pilots to establish a high Kill ratios. Unlikely for AI pilots, as they spend the majority of their time doing donuts on the taxiway, or running home without ever having crossed the FLOT.

The introduction of considerably effective surface-to-air threats, namely the SA-11 and SA-8, have attributed to a sharp rise in parachute canopy and ejection seat sales. The SA-11, and upgraded SA-6, consists of multiple launchers with multiple guidance radars. Therefore the standard tactic of destroying only the tracking radar and nullifying the SAM threat is non-applicable here. Each launcher must be destroyed in order reduce the combat effectiveness of the SA-11 battalion.

I therefore propose a change in doctrine:

1) The campaign ATO must be partially human fragged from the beginning. This will allow for more flexible selection of targets and strategic goals, and conserve airframes. Suggestions for this are 1 F-16-C/D Squadron and 1 F-16-I Squadron.

2) As much SEAD and OCA work as possible has to be done at the very start of the campaign. For every airbase the is rendered inoperable, at least 18 enemy aircraft are unable to takeoff, and therefore put out of action. This is similar to the old adage: "Aircraft are easier to destroy on the ground than in the air". Also, considerations must be made for follow-up attacks to ensure runways are kept out of action, and the engineering battalions attending to them are also attrited. This will also allow us to later work interdiction flights near the FLOT without significant Air threats.

3) In one-flight packages, or where an undependable AI escort is fragged, human flown strike flights should work as a "mini-package", with different elements providing SEAD and air-to-air coverage.

4) Escort flights, when possible, should be either F-15's or F-16-I's, allowing them to carrying AIM-120's, and providing a much larger engagement area.

5) SEAD missions on SAM battalions such as SA-11, SA-6, SA-8 need to receive saturated attacks with stand-off weapons, such as AGM-65s or JSOWs to ensure
total battlion destruction. The TACREF specifies that the SA-11 battallion carries only one launcher contains the tracking radar, however BMS battlaions have been seen to carry multiple TELAR-equipped launchers.

6) "Engagement/Support Contracts" between flight members must be established prior to takeoff to provide flight security and reduce the likelihood of separation and loss of situational awareness during critical moments.

7) An Air-to-Air tactical doctrine as well as a SAM escape/evasion plan must be established and rehearsed.

Please feel free to add or dispute any ideas contained herein. I am not a proficient tactical theorist, I just want to land an aircraft some day.

Cheers,
Spaz

[Harlequin]

Great write-up, thanks!

I like the concept and it seems to make lots of sense.

Should we be considering going to Rookie/Ace/Ace to balance the forces a bit? I haven't gotten out of Day 1 on Northern Strike yet (keep running the same failed missions over and over and over again), so i don't know how much everything drops off the next day. Anyone?

[Harlequin]

And another thought...

We shouldn't start using JSOWs as a crutch. It is well documented that they will be nerfed significantly in the future (1 month? 1 year? 1 decade?). Sure they're fun, but maybe we should be focusing on using the mavericks.

[ram22]

2) As much SEAD and OCA work as possible has to be done at the very start of the campaign. For every airbase the is rendered inoperable, at least 18 enemy aircraft are unable to takeoff, and therefore put out of action. This is similar to the old adage: "Aircraft are easier to destroy on the ground than in the air". Also, considerations must be made for follow-up attacks to ensure runways are kept out of action, and the engineering battalions attending to them are also attrited. This will also allow us to later work interdiction flights near the FLOT without significant Air threats.


Cheers,
Spaz

EXCELLENT WRITE UP.

As far as point 2 here that I quote is concerned, engineer BN's are actually obsolete and not a factor in any version of Falcon anymore. Although they are present and do still do their job if in the vicinity of a damaged/destroyed military target, they are totally insignificant.

What is significant, is in every active version of Falcon, i.e. FF and BMS, the runway repair times have been reduced to 1 hour. That is the reason the squadrons become active so fast after the airbase has been hit. It's usually within 2 hrs, depending on what time on the clock you hit the airbase.

The key is not really to re-strike immediately, the key should be focused on reducing war production, which is for the most part, Power Plants and Factories. Chemical Plants, Refineries also play a minor role too.

The 1 hr repair time is based on the fact that Power Plants and factories are producing at 100% capacity. If we reduce some of them early and then strike the airbases shortly thereafter and then continue to pummel the PP's and Factories we can keep the skies for the most part clear.

Once the PP's and Factories are damaged then the 1 hr runway repair time increases as they are not producing at 100%, there is also the chance and I haven't examined the amount of PP's and Factories, that there is an excess or abundance of PP's and Factories on the red side, which would cause us to take quite a few out before we reduced the production below 100%.

The repair time for the PP's and Factories is longer than the runway repair times.

BUT, and this is a huge but, we would have to for the most part fight a significant amount of aircraft in the early hours of the war on Day 1.

As you pointed out Spaz, we could generate the flight to do some of the dirty work for us.

I'll be on Thursday evening and we can discuss if further.

One other point and this exact explanation I have wrote up is for the most part the biggest reason why North Korea cannot win a war in either FF or BMS if the Player is participating. In the campaign files NKorea has too few PP's and factories to sustain the amount of Airbases, Squadrons and Ground Units. It's the phenomenon that you see with the "Wall of Migs" in the first half of Day 1, after you the Player and the AI take out some shit by noon on Day 1, the North seems to be out of operation for a day or two in the sky, then they come back to about half life for a bit but it's never the "wall of Migs" in the war any longer. You basically sail to a win or draw.

Brian

[JBlaze]

Good stuff guys.

Are you guys planning to fly only one campaign all the time? What I mean is that every time someone flies a mission, they upload the campaign save somewhere where others can download it and fly the same campaign later on..?

I think that would be more fun than to fly a "new" campaign everytime..

Or maybe you're already doing that and I'm just late with my suggestions as usual

ps. it was great to fly again with ya guys. Looking forward to fly more often now..

JB out

[Harlequin]

Good stuff guys.

Are you guys planning to fly only one campaign all the time? What I mean is that every time someone flies a mission, they upload the campaign save somewhere where others can download it and fly the same campaign later on..?

I think that would be more fun than to fly a "new" campaign everytime..

Or maybe you're already doing that and I'm just late with my suggestions as usual

ps. it was great to fly again with ya guys. Looking forward to fly more often now..

JB out

We haven't stayed true with a campaign. You're right, it would be more fun. It's easy enough to leave the save files on the TS3 server. It's a little tricky with different people hosting every session, but it's not impossible by any means.

Was really good flying with you again too! Sounds like we're going to try and do it again tomorrow night if you're around. Going back to do some KTO to help RAM out with some framerate issues... as you saw tonight trying to tail him. LOL! That was hilarious indeed. "I'm supposed to be following you... but i can't follow you when you're flying like that..." Classic.

[JBlaze]

[quote=Harlequin]

LOL! That was hilarious indeed. "I'm supposed to be following you... but i can't follow you when you're flying like that..." Classic.
[/quote]

LOL First I though he was just testing me if I'm able to stay on his wing
j/k

Basically for me the hardest part is to fly formation and keep high SA.

About the campaign play we should really give it a shot. We could take more pride from succesful mission when we know it's gonna help us in the furure also.

I'm getting off from work at about 2-3am local so I might be able to join ya.

[ram22]

That was freaking funny as hell when he said that about following me, I was so fecking mad that the system was porking up and was really physically struggling to control the damn bird and he blurted that out and I LMFAO.

I was trying to visualize what he was seeing me do and WTH he was thinking about me. I thought he was sitting back behind me saying "WHO THE HELL IS THIS DOUCHE BAD THEY LET BE LEAD??"

Anyway. I went in a changed a few thing like Object Detail down to 4 and Object Density to 4. I may drop my color settings to Medium also.

The big issue is there are over 6000 objectives in this Israel. I also found out not only did they steal Polak's terrain tiles, these campaign files are the originals also that I fixed. But they went the lazy route and left the 3500+ bad objectives. I'm thinking about exporting my objectives from my Israel theater campaign files and importing them into these. I'll leave the units, air/land/sea that they have.

I can also just take my original work of the three Historical campaigns Shalom Haglil, Yom Kippur and Six Day's Wars and just make a second theater. Also my Israel 2007 campaign. It wouldn't be hard at all. Just a little string variables work and some art files. I could just take the artwork and some other misc. stuff right out of FreeFalcon, most of it's my work anyways.

Brian

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