Sounds like you need some dedicated CAP. Two F-15E with 8 AMRAAMs and AWACS support can deal with anything before it gets to WVR and protect your strike package.
To deal with SAMs I recommend two F-16C with HTS and TGP, two bags and either two HARMs or four JDAMs. If your group manages to get six people for a sortie (2xCAP, 2xSEAD/DEAD, 2xStrike) you can deal with anything if you focus on a single objective.
But even a two-ship F-15E or F-16C flying self escort can deal with this but it’s more difficult and good AWACS support goes a long way for non-datalink aircraft like the F-15E (human GCI/AWACS is worth a lot)
After takeoff we are instructed to climb to 6,000 and intercept the 116 TO radial down to Senaki. The F-5 is a pretty twitchy little plane and requires constant input. No flight director or autopilot…so it is all hand-flying and dividing attention…fun stuff…
We follow instructions and cross the airfield and do the wide teardrop to intercept the inbound radial to the runway while flying speeds and altitudes assigned in the briefing and on the screen…
Training missions 04 and 05 take a quick look at the air-to-air radar and missiles. Very basic functionality that I can see will be a challenge to use effectively on the battlefield…
Success in both missions…very simple with the targets directly in front and good instructions on how to get the radar beam locked on…but using heat seeking missiles…
F-5E is a pretty cool little jet, I’m a Mirage man myself but I can appreciate brilliance when I see it. Though I’m still not sure why they put more than a ranging radar on it to drive the gunsight…
As well as having the bugs fixed I swear they’ve updated the cockpit (or at least the shading in the graphics engine since I flew it last) - it looks great from the inside too!
As you alluded to…the plan was to get to the F-16 training before the Ukrainians started fielding them… Not sure if I will make it before they do. I hope they beat me to it with a first strike tomorrow… I’m fine with losing that race…
So tonight I busted through the remainder of the F-5 training missions. I’m gonna just say it…I’m not a fan of the airplane. I don’t know why. It should appeal to me…kind of old school…kind of simple. But…something…something about it I just don’t like. And I can’t put my finger on it. Like…I’d rather fly the measly C-101CC than this thing. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am. Regardless…
F-5E Training Mission 05 - 09
So we start out with more radar modes and gunnery. Pretty straight-forward stuff. Point the radar at the target…lock it…and then shoot at it with some kind of lead computed reticle…
Then my eyes start to glaze over a bit with the dumb bomb and rocket tutorials. Dive angles, airspeeds, release altitudes. Maths. Lots of maths. Not a fan of the maths.
And it’s not to say the tutorials aren’t well constructed. They are…it’s just a lot of old school (non CCIP) type bombing…which I’m fairly terrible at.
Laser-guided bombs? Really? I had no idea. I mean…you aren’t designating yourself (you can’t)…you are just slinging bombs into the basket with other assets designating. But it was still kind of cool…
So that wraps up the official F-5 training missions. I feel…less than competent. I may (may) try a campaign with it. To be honest…I’m really itching to get in the F-16. But… this is supposed to be a journey… I mean…we’ve tackled the: Yak, L-39, and C-101…so the journey needs to continue in sequence…
I totally agree with the precision flying and maths involved in the ground attack being a chore - but that wasn’t too bad for a manual (non-computer) drop in my opinion!
You are wrong, ever so wrong. To each their own though, but I’m sorry the Aggressor F-5N I saw in person is still one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen on a ramp.
To quote the Tactical Air Command, “With desire, an average mind, intense study, and adequate practice. it IS relatively easy to drop good bombs.” That doesn’t sound that easy.
Shallow is short, steep it’ll be too deep. Fast is far, slow is short. Low is long, high is near. Release altitude is the easiest to be consistent with, or to modify if you’re trying to fix something else. So it’s usually the one I worry about the least. In your case your steep and slow, it’ll probably average out, which it looks like it did.
There is an excellent set of weapon delivery kneeboards for the F-5E somewhere, with tables that make good bombing relatively easy. I find myself picking the easiest to remember profiles and working with them.
A little bit of combination of time travel and artistic license on this one. Let’s assume our Ukrainian pilot is helping out with a push back at the old Soviet aspirations. Using the F-5 Black Sea Resolve campaign…it isn’t too hard to imagine a foray by Ukraine into the Krasnodar region (eventually). In this specific campaign the premise is a low-grade conflict in the area after Krasnodar declares independence from the former Soviet Union. We are part of a small peace-keeping force put in the way as a speed-bump presumably…
Our first mission has us deploying to Krymsk Airfield - escorting a flight of C-130s.
The briefing is solid - I like the format and there are several pages available both in game and with PDF files…
