yeah furthermore, besides homing in and killing the FCR’s AFAIK the main reason for launching (loitering) HARMS is to make sure those FCR’s are off. This makes them inherently unsuccessful when looking only at SAM kill ratio. Still they make a lot of people in the air pretty happy I would guess.
Secondly, there are quite some examples of comm transcriptions in Dan Hampton’s Viper Pilot where magnum shots are faked during OIF in 2004(?) which is post balkans. I doubt that something like that would be considered effective if HARMs were such a low threat like some people claim.
Yep, I remember that as well. A few authors talked about firing more HARMs than needed and even faking the radio calls, just to make sure the radar operators never feel safe.
So while one might call it a money sink, compared to even a handful of shot down planes it is rather cheap.
And they did kill basically all static air defenses in those engagements.
In Kosovo I think they shot around 800 HARMs and killed around 80% of the Serbian air defenses. Only two (or was it three?) Allied planes were lost. I’d call that a success.
Hornet Mission of the Week Situation
Over western Iraq on day one of Operation Desert Storm, United States Navy F/A-18C Hornets operating off the USS Saratoga in the Red Sea racked up the first air-to-air kills by Hornets. This mission also showcased the Hornet’s ability to rapidly transition from an air-to-air engagement to delivering bombs on target. This mission is not a recreation of that mission, but rather takes inspiration from it.
An outstanding insight into the historical engagement can be found here on the Fighterpilot Podcast:
Ahead of you at waypoint 1 is Shiraz airbase with the Sector Operations Command (SOC) as your primary target. Bullseye MANNY is 20 nm to the northwest at your waypoint 4. The second element is assigned the POL facility. Fight your way to the target and destroy it with Mk-84 bombs to accomplish your mission. Bringing up the rear is a flight of Hornet’s with AGM-88 HARMs to suppress SA-6 SAMs in the area.
Objective
Destroy the SOC at waypoint 1, ref briefing images.
Multiple SA-6 SAM sites are situated in the Shiraz area. These will be targeted by the SEAD flight. Short-range air defenses in the target area include 23m AAA and SA-13 SAMs.
@Cib - without a TGP, you essentially can’t get the laser. However, there are a few options for now:
Pre-programmed target waypoints built into the mission, so long as they are close enough a drop should get your GBU to the laser. I have done this with @WreckingCrew in his Back of the Hand mission on the Hollo Pointe server with success.
Program/change a waypoint in flight.
Use another visual marker & talk-on (not always an option with the AI JTAC).
Carry a AGM-65E Maverick, this has a laser seeker head. Use it to spot the laser, note the where it’s marker sits on the HUD, then switch to the bomb and move it’s aimpoint to the same location.
I think part of the C upgrade, in that the A/B’s had monochrome but the ‘Night Attack’ upgrade and all that added some color MFDs? In the C/D’s they seem to be a monochrome CRT with a shuttered LED to provide limited color.
This is a really cool mission with what sounds like historical mission comms. I’ve flown it twice taking out the SOC both times and getting a MiG on the second one. But a SA-6 has gotten me on the egress each time as well. I think that the trick might be waiting for the SEAD. Highly recommended.
I also wondered whether it will be possible to turn off the colors. I love how ED did the MFDs of the Hornet. They have this very nice old-timey CRT feel to them and look fantastic in VR (especially compared to the yellow displays of RAZBAM^s Harrier). These new colors stick out like sore thumbs.
Im having more success going higher, but getting tagged by an SA-6 on egress. Will try taking the flight West and waiting for the SEAD, then egressing East.
The Hornet’s DDI are three colors (green red and yellow) but still CRT. These pics are realistic to the real Legacy Hornet.
on the radar screen there is a color option it is there since day 1 iirc but does nothing in our build.
