In the above example the MIG-29’s intercepted a pair of Shrikes with missiles. Unlikely, maybe, but not impossible. I’d be curious in a real world example, can an IR missile lock onto a Tomahawk?
Only from behind i reckon. And even then at shorter range than a jet fighter with the burners going.
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Not something I’d expect a pilot in the Iraqi Air Force circa 1991 could do. But certainly easier to push Tomahawks in through un-patrolled airspace than to risk a potential interception.
The Tornado’s have a 6 hour refit time. I think we’ll send them along with the evening strike to knock out some more air bases.
A Foxbat is patrolling south of Baghdad but staying to itself.
I decide to be a bit ahistorical and use a few of my remaining Tomahawks to knock out the southern radar and also saturate Al Jarrah AB. Once they go down the Iraq’s launch from Al Jarrah and race to where my Tomahawks struck but, as they now lack eyes down south, don’t notice the F-16’s nearby. I decide to let them waste fuel and airframes.
It seems like my decision to put out ASW paid off! An SH-60B picked up a goblin and managed to kill it. That could have been a rather unfortunate event.
Huh. That’s unexpected! But I guess for the scale of the mission that makes sense. I’m playing just the mission version and not the campaign (which would now send me to the next mission). So I’ll run it a bit more.
Iraqi Losses
7 x MiG-29 Fulcrum A
8x Mirage F.1EQ-6
4x MiG-21bis Fishbed L
1x MiG-25P Foxbat A
1x PL-877 Kilo
2x Mirage F.1EQ-5
Coalition Losses
2x F-16C Blk 25 Falcon
2x F-14A Tomcat
2x F-14B Tomcat
1x F/A-18A Hornet
2x A-6E Intruder
2x F/A-18C Hornet
2x F/A-18A Hornet
1x Tornado GR.1
1x F-16C Blk 30 Falcon
In hindsight I should have assumed I’d be dealing with a more reactive Iraqi air force. The Coalition air force did and was better prepared than I to deal with it. The Iraqi Air Force in 1990 was, on paper, pretty damn big. 236 MIG-21’s, 88 Mirages, 24 MIg-25’s, 37 MIG-29’s, and a whole mish-mash of MIG-23’s and Suhkoi’s.
A pretty good scenario overall. It’ll be interesting to see the next one.
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I’d be curious if they could find a Tomahawk even…I’d guess not on radar anyway, but if they somehow acquired it daytime visual, perhaps a heat seeker might work…
The MiG-29’s radar and maybe the mirage F1’s as well has a look-down capability. It should be able to detect incoming tomahawk. I’m going to give it a go in DCS, see if I can play valiant defender of the holy republic from the imperialist cruise missiles of doom.
A great issue for discussion. 
The “sticky wicket” is the intercept itself. The fighters would have to know when and where the cruise missiles were. Typically this is done by AWACS or GCI. An E-3A might be able to see cruise missiles at altitude, depending on the terrain and the geometry. A-50? GCI - not likely.
The Mig-29s them selves would likely never detect cruise missiles flying at low altitude. True, SLOT BACK is a look-down’shoot-down radar. However, the issue is Radar Cross Section (RCS) and altitude. Modern missiles typically have a small RCS. Combine that with ground clutter interference, the probability of a Mig-29 actually detecting a cruse missile let alone getting a lock and firing solution is low…which is pretty much the whole idea behind cruise missiles. Not impossible but highly unlikely.
That said, your question about an IR lock is good and brings into play the use of the Mig’s IRSTS. Technically, if everything is working correctly, it should be possible to get a IRSTS lock and then an IR seeker lock on a cruise missile. So far so good. Assuming the Mig is within LAR, a successful hit would depend on the missiles fuzing. Typically all AAMs have some type of proximity fuze and typically the fuze is set to detect a “normal” fighter-sized aircraft and up (bigger). The fuze programing has to take into account an estimated closure rate to determine the correct detonation distance give the size and type of warhead (frag, expanding rod, etc). How will it work agains a much smaller sized target? No idea…but I think it should have some the of detrimental effect on the missile.
That’s an awesome response @Hangar200, thanks man!
The fusing is an interesting point, I could see a premature detonation not conclusively knocking out a smaller target.
IRST was what I was pondering, IF they could be put into the missile stream in a timely manner (which I think would be the major issue). With Desert Storm opening in mid January a TLAM would certainly stand out over the desert on IR if you could be in the right place to spot it. Not being an expert on Soviet A2A missile fuzes, I would hazard that they would be effective. Older missiles that used a contact fuze would of course be effective assuming the missile intercepts (which on a non-maneuvering target I would give them a reasonable chance of success with). Newer missiles with proximity fuzing, based on my reading, will active within the determined range gate if the target starts to move away rather than close. A non-maneuvering target, should again result in a contact activation.
An interesting question.
The key word being “should” 