Tours of Duty

The Tours are progressively more difficult and missions must be flown in sequence; you will not have access to the next mission until you successfully complete the first. This allows for a sense of progression since the flow of political and military will is pre-configured in the tours.

Red Sea Tour

After long negotiations, Egypt has bought military equipment from the USA. In 2007 they bought a small number of F22s, and three years later the Egyptian army seized power and has begun to threaten Sudan to the South.

Your mission is to fly an Egyptian F22 on a dry run for planned strikes, probing Sudanese defenses for weak points. Note: your alter ego is Egyptian and you will notice the accents!

Intel: "Prelude"

First, be certain you switch to manual EMCON ONE so that your emissions are minimal. Also reduce your speed to 400 knots or less and climb to about 25,000 feet. This reduces your visibility to ground forces and reduces your IR signature. It also places you in a better position if you need to defend yourself.

Sometimes the best way to succeed is to break the rules. When you have flown about forty miles and can see the reversal waypoint on your situation MFD edit the waypoints that pass directly over the SAM and AAA sites. Move them five to ten miles off the sites so that your F22 will not pass directly over these defenses.

A brilliant flash after taking a missile hit.

Finally, do NOT shoot at the 767s or the ANT-70s. You MAY engage the later Su-27s that pop up. Its also a good idea to resist the temptation of targetting ground forces since opening your bay doors makes you a better radar target. If you are engaged by ground forces drop chaff and flares as necessary and jink like crazy until you loose the missiles they launch.

Do NOT make any sudden changes in aspect or pull high g turns when in detection range of ground based SAMs. If you are targetting and fired on you will be forced to use chaff or flares which will increase your visibility and you may find yourself fired on from more than one direction, increasingly the likelihood of mission failure.

Keep a close eye on the Su-27 that shows up after you have passed over waypoint 6 or 7. He will often turn in your direction when you he is off your left wingtip. Have your AIM9x selected and ready for an over the shoulder shot in case he detects you and locks you up. If you are forced to open your hatch and fire prepare to evade a ground based missile or two.

The second mission is quite a frustration to complete. You MUST wait until you are fired on before you engage or allow your wing to engage. The best way to survive this initial encounter is to perform a DRAG RIGHT manouver, staying about 20 miles distant from the Rafales. They will follow and if you make a sudden move to turn toward them they will usually fire on you.

However, against expectations, this does not mean you can engage the second group. If you do you will get a MISSION FAILURE message, in spite of the fact that the two groups are together. You will have to wait until one of the bandits from the second group fires on you before you engage them. Good luck!

Eritrea Tour

The Eritrea tour is composed of ten missions. The first is "Deny Flight." Here is the briefing:

Ethiopian troops have invaded Eritrea, who have called on the UN for help. Both Somalia dn Sudan have claimed neutrality and have threatened to shoot down any foriegn aircraft who violate their airspace. The UN has pledged French forces in neighboring Djiborah, US forces in Saudi Arabia and British forces to be placed in northern Eritrea.

You will fly a CAP with wingman, preventing any Ethiopian aircraft from violating Eritrean air space.

Intel: "Deny Flight"

When you are dropped in to the mission begin to climb to about 30,000 feet and switch to manual EMCON ONE. After a couple of minutes you will get an AWACS call for a vector to VIS-IDENT some hostiles at heading 325. These bogies are a long way off so go to 100% power and use time compression.

When the bogies are about sixty miles distant go to EMCON 5 and you will get an ID (they are neutrals). Turn back to your waypoint heading and after a couple of minutes you will get an order to VIS-IDENT bogies at 155. Before you are in range to do the ID will appear on your MFD since the bogies are being engaged by allied aircraft to the north and west of you.

After another moment you will receive a vector to engage the MiGs. There are also enemy EF2s in this group. Notice that you have two AIM120Rs which give you extra stand off range. Don't forget to make use of your wingman. When he's done his job call him off or he will continue to wander further away and use up all his stores or get shot down.

After you've helped the allied effort to mop up these bandits you'll get a vector to engage Su25s at a heading around 100. They are fairly distant and likely will all be taken out by F16s and F22s before you get within range. However, if they are not you will have to do the job with your wingman.

Do NOT approach these hostiles head on. Instead, stay stealthy and attempt to take a position flanking the bandits. Call your wingman to sweep loose or use him to perform a bracket manouver (first you must target the bandits in your shoot list). When you are about 25 miles distant switch to auto EMCON and order your wingman to engage while you also launch. This tactic of launching between 20-22 miles from a high altitude and a flanking position will usually get you 80% or better kill rate.

Immediately turn away at 150 degrees or so and wait for the kill reports. If you don't get all the hostiles your wingman will mop up with AIM9x.

Next you will get a vector to MiG 21s at 210 or thereabouts. This sometimes doesn't happen depending on how long you've taken in the last encounter. F16s will also be engaging the MiGs but they are being hounded by attack helicopters and sometimes don't fare well. Help them out!

After this I switched to ILS HUD and was heading for home when I suddenly got a radar warning from 270 degrees. The culprit was a single Su27 who probably had just lifted off an airstrip. I turned and attempted to use threat padlock but it was no go so I went to my attack MFD and locked him up and launched. After this I headed for home. Home will be about two hundred miles away so this is another good time for altitude and time compression....

If you get a vector to another target on the way home (I had two) you can either answer "negative" or take them on. If you get a vector to a target that doesn't exist (invisible MiG 29s most likely) just ignore it...

Saudi Arabia Tour

Like the other Tours there are ten missions in this tour. The major difference in this final tour is that you will have to be a Class One Black Belt Top Gun to complete it! The first mission is "Border Patrol" and here is a cut from the briefing:

The Saudi government retains control of part of the country and is now set, with UN help, to retake the independent area by force and at the same time deal with the increasing border incursions by the three Yemeni armed servies. The US will use this opportunity to reduce Yemen's strike capability.

You will fly a CAP. Rules of Engagement are strict: ALL contacts must be VIS-IDENT and you are not to fire until fired upon. You are not permitted to engage ANY ground targets.

Intel: "Border Patrol"

Mission goals include four MiG 29s and four Su 35s. You and your AWACS must survive and you must land at home plate.

When you are dropped in to the mission begin to climb to about 32,000 feet and change your heading to 160 and switch to manual EMCON ONE. After a couple of minutes you will get an AWACS call for a vector to engage some MiG 29s at heading 165. Acknowledge by hitting Y on your keyboard.

Order your wingman into a sweep loose formation. Then lock your first targets and order bracket left. Increase your separation by pulling slightly right yourself.

Do NOT engage hostiles head on. Instead, you should be heading about 180 or so to take a position flanking the bandits. When you are about 25 miles distant switch to external AIM 120s and vector to intercept, switching to auto EMCON. Order your wingman to engage the other pair of bandits and launch on your pair. If you are locked and launched prior to this dump countermeasures, order your wing to engage and launch on your own targets immediately. You will get the shoot cue if you are within 25 miles or less as soon as you switch to auto EMCON.

Support arrives from Allied A10s

Normally your wingman will survive and all four bandits will go down. If you don't call him off immediately he will continue to engage the nearest target of opportunity. Because you have a high number of mission goals call him off and check in with AWACS for instructions.

This first encounter usually goes fine. If your wingman doesn't survive the mission will be more difficult but is still do-able. Switch to AIM9x if your AMRAAMs are exhausted and prepare for closer encounters. You may get into a knife fight or two, but don't be TOO quick to follow AWACS instructions.

For example, after the MiGs AWACS vectored me to a pair of ANTONOVs fifty miles out, but I only half-heartedly pursued them because there were too many other bandits in their vicinity. Both ANTONOVs were both taken out by allied SAMS.

I then found myself with nothing to do for a short while until I was vectored toward a pair of Su 35s about sixty miles distant. I was able to set up quite nicely on their rear aspect at about 150 degrees and take them both out before they knew what hit them. After I turned for home plate I was vectored onto a MiG on my tail. I was WINCHESTER all missiles and wasn't too tickled to make another cannon run, so I responded NEGATIVE and kept my nose pointed for home. A moment later the MiG was engaged by allied F22s and was taken out.

If you play in low or medium difficulty level its easy to identify mission goals both in your HUD and on your Attack, Defense and Situation displays. Remember also that the size of the missile steering circle indicates Probability of Kill - launch when the circle is largest.

Intel: "Air Rebels"

The second mission finds you on the ground at the hangar and you need to get to the runway with three wingmen. The first time I tried this I found myself on the trip all alone!

The best way to get into the air with your wingmen in tow is to use Takeoff Autopilot. Wait for the minute or so til the tower gives you taxi clearance then go to your ap mfd and select takeoff ap and engage it. (You can also use SHF S to time skip to the runway).

While this system is smart it ain't perfected so keep a close eye on the F15 in front of you around 8 minutes into the mission. The AP will attempt to to mate you in a smoking ball with said F15... Disengage the AP and engage your brakes until the F15 starts moving again. Then you can re-engage the AP system. The AP will take you right into the air with your wingmen and then you can disengage and call a formation of your choice.

You have two tasks on the way to waypoint four. Get past the SAM site halfway to waypoint 3 and kill the four Su30s that will cross your path before waypoint 4. The first task is easy... just drift to the right about five miles once you cross the first ridge about two minutes into the flight so that you are out of range of that nasty SAM. If you don't do this you may take a hit yourself or lose a wingman.

Wait until the four Su30s have crossed your path and are about 11 miles away and then order your wingmen to engage. Easy kills and you are back on track.

The trick now is to kill all the aircraft necessary for the mission to be declared a success. The troublesome goals (two F15Es) are sitting in front of a hangar on the enemy airbase near waypoint 4. They will show up on your attack mfd as a large + sign if you are playing at low or medium difficulty. Save two mavericks to make this kill easier. After you have finished these off you may encounter some random action by MiG 29s. About five minutes later the final mission goals will show up in the form of four Fu35s. Use DEL to bring up the map and mission goals list before you land. Voila!

The third mission is Sea Cap. There is nothing terribly difficult about this one, but there are a few niggling bugs in the wingman command system. If you have three ships targetted and order ENGAGE HOSTILE you will usually only have the ship at the top of your shoot list fired on. You then have to order ENGAGE again on the next ship. And the two container ships near to waypoint two and screened by the two enemy missile frigates are the ones you will likely miss on your first attempt.

How do you know when you have completed the mission goals? If the goals do NOT include landing at an allied base you will receive the MISSION SUCCESSFUL message when you have met the requirements. Otherwise use DEL to bring up the mission map and scroll down to see if the checklist is complete.

In keeping with increased difficulty the first mission in this tour must end by your landing at the airbase to the north. The second mission both begins and ends on the ground.

Gameplay in the Tours is challenging. However, its not necessary for you PERSONALLY to accomplish all goals. If your wingmen can take a few and a few are lost to other allied sources (air or ground) they still count as completed goals. However, you have to also SURVIVE long enough for this to happen!

General Notes

Wondering what the difference is between the AIM120c vs the AIM120r? Simply put, the 120R is enchanced with a ramjet, increasing its range from 31 miles to 44 miles. You will often find both types in your loadout. If you need the extra standoff ability use the 120Rs.

You can watch your wingman engaging a target in battle by going to wing padlock and then using SHF F4 to reverse the view.

While its often a great idea to approach an encounter from a higher altitude its sometimes better to approach low, especially if you are forced to approach from the front aspect in a VIS-IDENT situation. Many older radars have look down deficiencies and you can take advantage of that weakness by coming in low.

Remember to PUSH 2 in order to listen to other allied comms in the theatre. This really works well when you jump in to fly a mission in the AWACS component but you still want to know how the other flights are faring.

ACMI has two options. You can use ALT R to start a recording at any time during a flight, but you can also use SHF A to bring up the AWACS screen while IN FLIGHT and continue flying while you monitor the action. If you use this latter option you can use "5" to record a message that will act as a bookmark later. For example, type 5 then "at this point I first had an IR contact," or "at this point I was first locked by hostile radar."

F3 accesses the threat/missile lock. However, its from the perspective of the cockpit so the missile will not be in visual range until the last moment. Don't wait til then to dump countermeasures and jink!

When a missile is inbound switch to minimum sensor range so that you have the best perspective on your defense MFD.

The "s" key is used to make manual shoot list entries. If you have already generated a shoot list but now have a high priority targetting need use "u" to clear the list and then padlock your target (F3 or F4) and then use "s" to designate. I have all three of these functions on my T1 key on my TQS.

The declutter function is very useful since at this point its possible to padlock targets BVR. The 'J' key removes clutter from the HUD in favor of the target at the head of your shoot list. Declutter is a toggle on/off function for the following symbology in the air-to-ground and air-to-air HUD modes:

* Velocity vector
* The HUD Terrain following box
* Targets that are not currently at the head of the shoot list
* The radio frequency indicator
* The EMCON indicator

Looking for a way to jettison internal fuel? This is not possible in ADF.

You jumped into an F22 in the AWACS mission, took out the hostiles, and then jumped back to AWACS to see how other units are faring but still want to keep a close eye on the flight you just left? No problem, just stay logged on that flight or click on it again if you have accessed another flight and you can watch and listen to the ongoing sortie.

Difficulty in the sim has three levels:

EASY=you can take more damage, easier to spoof missiles, more stealth, extra cannon shells

MID=you can take a little extra damage, your missile PK still a bit high, extra cannon shells

HARD=realistic cannon load, more realistic weapons and stealth parameters.

At low and medium difficulty levels you also have some additional help in terms of targetting. Targets that are required to be destroyed in order to complete the mission are shown with the letter "T" adjacent to them in the HUD display, but only on the Easy and Medium difficulty levels. Mission objectives can also be viewed from the in-game map by pushing the "DEL" key on the numeric keypad.

At easy and middle difficulty targets that are required to be destroyed are shown with the letter "T" in the target information on a MFD. The target information is shown when you position the mouse cursor over an aircraft symbol in the Situation, Defense or Attack displays. The flight call sign is also shown, as given objectives.

The size of the missile steering circle in your HUD relates to the probability of kill. As you approach a locked target the circle will grow larger and then eventually start to grow smaller. The larger the circle the higher the likelihood of a kill. Launch when the circle is largest.

Handing off a target is equivalent to locking a target and calling ENGAGE. If you lock up a likely target, put your wingman in a sweep formation, and then perform a manouver like DRAG yourself, you can call ENGAGE on that target with one keystroke (M).

The weight of cannon shells is modelled so if it looks like you will be in close in a fight fire off shells down to 600 or so for better manouverability.

Unfortunately, blast effects were not modelled for ADF and this means that A2G missions are more challenging than they should have been. In many cases you will have to score a direct hit on a target to get a kill.

There is no lag between a SAM lock on your aircraft and the launch time. In reality SAMS need about a minute between their lighting you up and the actual launch. You won't have much reaction time so be prepared!

If your gamma settings on 3dfx are not working in ADF try ALT F7/F8. But you may have to wait for a patch....

EMCON Notes

Note the cut above from a screen shot of the on screen MFD repeater. In this shot I am moving between the estimated detection ranges of some ground based SAM units. If you increase your throttle up and down you will see the size of these circles change. This is because as you increase your IR signature your IR cross section also increases. Reduce emissions to stay stealthy.

The Defense MFD (left) will provide info on the effect of your current EMCON level upon enemy electronic detection ability. When you raise your EMCON levels you will notice the enemy area of detection as displayed on your MFD increases with the increase in your EMCON level. In the same way the RCS of your F22 increases if you are passing the width of a detection source as opposed to a direct approach since the surface exposure of your aircraft is greater. However, ADF does NOT model doppler as opposed to pulse effects.

In ADF the actual RCS of the F22 is not modelled, being slightly downgraded for the same of gameplay. Nevertheless, stealth is important. You can stay stealthy but what will your wingman do? He will follow your lead and use the EMCON settings you choose unless you order him to ENGAGE. Be aware! This means that if you go to EMCON ONE he will too and this will disable his auto chaff and flare and ECM and MAW.

At EMCON TWO and EMCON THREE your MAW is inactive and you will have no warning of missile launches. At EMCON ONE, TWO and THREE auto countermeasures is off. At EMCON ONE your radio will not transmit.

Page 71 of the manual will lead you to believe that you can cue an AMRAAM by off board (IFDL) information and then launch while in EMCON 1. This is not correct. AMRAAM is disabled in EMCON 1 and you must switch to EMCON 3 minimum for a launch. However, you can launch the AIM9x in EMCON 1 and 2 using IRST cueing.

The workings of the integrated sensor systems can be confusing. Most plane's avionics are made up of several independant systems, so the pilot can use either the IRST, or the radar to obtain a lock on another plane. But the F22 works in a very different way. The information from all the different systems, (IRST, radar, etc...) is pooled together and displayed on the situation, defence and attack MFDs.

The idea behind this is that the pilot does not need to know which of his on-board systems is supplying the positional information for a target, he only needs to look down at one of his MFDs to get the whole picture. This lowers the workload placed upon the pilot. The advantage of this is that it stops the situation where the defence display is showing a threat which is not shown on the radar because it is outside the radar area. All displays present the pilot with the same situation, it is only additional information, (radar ranges, weapon range etc...) that is different.

Test this out in F22 ADF by switching to Emcon 1, (radar off), and looking down at your MFDs. Planes ahead of you within IRST range, will still be shown in your MFDs, even though your radar is not active. They can also still be targetted, and AIM9Xs can be fired at them. Basically, the MFDs do not just show objects picked up by your radar, they show everything that your avionics can locate, whether that info comes from your radar, IRST, or by picking up radar from another object.

As a result, damage in one system may appear to limit another system. In reality it does not, but the integration of systems can give you that impression. Also, if you have taken damage to radar and your up front MFD you may assume that your IRST is damaged also, but it may not be the case and you may still be able to target with AIM9x.

Quick Combat Notes

F22: ADF is one of the most sophisticated simulators ever released for the PC. However, there are times when you just want to dive in and engage some enemies, and for that reason ADF DOES include a Quick Combat interface.

Quick Combat is an intense and lengthy mission lasting five hours. You must follow the waypoint route destroying targets as you find them, and then renewing your weapons. At each waypoint you will find a target on the ground which must be destroyed, while ever more dangerous waves of enemy aircraft and SAM's will rise to attack you along the route.

At each waypoint, you will find a ground target that carries a high points score for destruction. Points are awarded by a points multiplier system; i.e. the more points you earn the more the points multiply. However, should you hit your own side there will be a corresponding loss of points.

In general, higher points will be given for higher score targets; e.g. a tank is worth more than a truck, but a greater score will be given for a specified ground target within the mission. The highest scores will be displayed in the Quick Combat Hi Score table.

Fuel will be limited to what you can carry externally, and a refueler will stand-by before the last waypoint - just in case. One weapon of each type carried will be automatically replaced every fifteen seconds.

You will fly under a time limit and the counter will be obvious in the lower left hand corner of your screen. You have twelve minutes to reach the second waypoint and destroy your allocated ground targets (there are two). Any remaining time will then be added your time to the next waypoint.

The refueller is not available in quick combat (the comms messages are "Greened Out"), but in case you have taken damage (a good possibility because of the AAA at waypoint 2) when you score 5,000 points your aircraft is repaired back to A1 condidtion.

You will notice massed flights of enemy aircraft, as many as forty will appear but they don't attack you. This is basically a duck shoot opportunity. Take some shots then move on.

Remember to make use of solid tactics in Quick Combat. Go to EMCON ONE when approaching more sophisticated enemies and don't approach them head on. Its also wise to climb to an altitude that allows you to launch at greater distances.