Building your own gorilla package in Falcon 4.0 is an answer to some of
the problems we've all encountered flying the canned campaigns. The
questions a lot of pilots ask are 1: how does the real U.S. Air Force
assemble a package and 2: how can it be done in Falcon?
Overview
Air-to-air and air-to-ground combat in most combat flight
simulations to date have concentrated on putting the PC pilot in a
flight of four planes or a two man wing. In past sims we've gotten a
little help from our wingmen, but the idea that a modern day "real"
pilot is going to put on his jet and take on the world by himself is
rare if not fantasy. (Yes, there were some instances where Marine Corp
F/A-18s went out in twos at the end of Desert Storm, but we're
interested in coordinated packages, here.)
The way real wars are waged are with Air Tasking Orders (ATO).
Basically, the ATO is a list of targets that is generated by
intelligence and it determines how available assets are scheduled to
deal with those targets.
A great example that is no longer classified can be found in
two excellent volumes, "Air War in the Persian Gulf" by Williamson
Murray and "Revolution in Warfare: Air Power in the Persian Gulf" by
Cohen and Keaney. Both books closely examine the ATO for the first four
days of the air campaign in Desert Storm. What they reveal is a
complicated ballet that is choreographed with split second accuracy.
It's a team effort
A close examination of the Desert Storm ATO for day one will
explain why a lot of us have had problems dodging SAMs and AAMs in
Falcon's campaign. By the time real F-16s entered the air campaign, a
lot of damage had already been done my many other types of aircraft.
The day one campaign can be broken down into five tactical
stages. They are: 1. Degrading command and control by surprise attack,
2. Creating confusion with electronic warfare, 3. Degrading SAM and AAA
threats, 4. OCA and eliminating A2A threats and finally, 5. ground
attack at the various levels of the enemy's center of mass.
When Falcon's campaign sends out a schedule that has you
attacking ground troops before SEAD and sweep assets have been put to
work, it should be no surprise your flight is cancelled or you find
yourself flying a smoking coffin. That's the way it works in the real
world, too.
To date, the F-16 has found itself as one of the most prolific
ground pounders in the Air Force inventory. Missions you'd normally
find yourself flying include stages 3, 4 and 5. Stage 1 is going to be
handled by F-117s, TLAMS (cruise missles) and low flying AH-64s. Stage
2 is flown by Air Force EF-111s or Navy EA-6Bs.
Even stage three (the A2A) component is usually handled only by F-15s
or F-14s. (Although you'll find few real Falcon pilots who would turn
down an opportunity to fly an F-16 in the A2A role in an ATO.) OCA is
generally handled by F-111s or F-15Es but this is a mission that can be
flown by the Falcon.
The bottom line here is that we've got to coordinate these types of airplanes if we're to avoid getting people shot down.
Timing is everything
Distance to target, time on target, weather conditions and time
of day have a huge impact on how the ATO is put together. Timing is
everything.
The USAF's ability to fight at night is a product of the
cruise missile and STEALTH age. The idea behind the opening round in
Desert Storm was to cutoff Iraq's command and control structure. F-117s
effectively blew up telecommunications facilites before Iraqi radar
sites could report the appearance of visitors on their horizon. TLAMS
targeted decision making facilities and other elements of the air
defense network, cutting off commanders' orders to Iraqi pilots
sleeping through the first round of bombing.
We wish TLAMS were part of the campaign modeling in Falcon
(hint MP), but we do have F-117s and can control low altitude ingress
with AH-64s to break holes through enemy border listening and radar
posts.
Only after command and control facilities have been neutralized in a
sneak attack would jamming commence. Jamming makes a distinct
fingerprint on a radar operator's scope. His first response to jamming
would be to get on the phone and call command that something's up. If
you've cut the phone lines in stage one, he can't report our jamming
efforts. Jamming also confuses local SAM batteries. In an effort to
counter jamming, local radar operators may attempt to boost their
signal to cut through jamming. It's at that point they become very open
to SEAD strike.
SEAD strike is the third stage of the mission. Typically, SEAD
strikers are escorted by F-16s or F-15s. They usually must go across
the FLOT to accomplish their mission. That can draw enemy aircraft into
battle. The early air campaign in Desert Storm assumed air threats
would rise out of certain airfields. Air superiority flights were timed
to arrive in a pincer like move about the time Iraqi flights would
takeoff to challenge our strikers.
Only until these threats had been neutralized would you see
F-16s employed in Desert Storm. Stage five Falcon gorillas typically
contained up to 32 F-16s (carrying dumb Mk-82s) in the strike role, and
an additional local CAP with 4-8 Phantom F-4s as local SEAD escort, 2
EF-111s providing jamming and another 4-8 F-15s providing top cover.
(Note, as of today, all the USAF's F-4 Phantoms have been replaced by
F-16s in the SEAD role) (Also, LGBs have reduced the number of strikers
required to hit fixed targets).
Creating a Gorilla in Falcon 4
There are two or three different ways to build packages in
Falcon 4.0. A sample five-stage package, Gorilla One, can be downloaded
here.
To best understand how gorillas are constructed, open the TE
mission with the edit button. Go to mission builder and left click on
the map to display fighters, bombers, support and helicopters. Now, go
to the ATO and click the display box for each unit. Return to the
mission builder screen and advance the time in the upper right hand
corner by clicking on the minutes and then holding the forward button
down. As time advances, you'll see various flights takeoff and navigate
their waypoints.
You'll see all five of the stages discussed above played out in
Gorilla One. You can return to the TE mission selection screen and fly
any of the SEAD, SEAD escort, OCA or deep strike missions. You'll
notice that the last Deep Strike mission, (as opposed to the first) is
filled with many A2A threats, now that the strikers have lost the
element of surprise.
Building Your Custom Gorilla
First off, ask yourself what you're trying to learn in flying a
custom mission. Most often, I'm interested in evaluating how a
particular target can be neutralized in the face of particular threats.
No target worth destroying will go undefended. Your mission should
begin by first creating the enemy's air defense system. If you're
attacking across a FLOT, that may mean only putting in a few MANPADS
and local AAA. If you're going downtown, you'll see coordinated use of
SAMS, A2A and AAA.
In Gorilla One, you are tasked with taking out two bridges in
downtown P'Yongyang, similar to some of our missions over Serbia last
summer. Turn on just Ground Units (battalion and air defense) in the
mission builder and you'll see how SAM and AAA were placed to defend
the bridges. You'll notice that I have placed some SA-2 and SA-3 units
over the map's fixed DPRK SAM sites. This tends to make them a little
more realistic and nasty, as well. AAA is used as point defense at the
bridge itself.
Strategic enemy airfields are next populated with squadrons of
Su-27s, MiG-29s and MiG-21s. In Gorilla One you will see that some
flights are always on BARCAP guarding the skies around the capitol on
an hour by hour schedule. (And you thought Falcon's campaigns were
tough!)
Next, evaluate your threats. This information is typically gathered
by E-3s, JSTARS, EC-130 Compass Call and satellite. You can look at the
map. But how do you go about defeating a target within a ring of seven
SA2 sites? Again, that's where our five stages of the ATO come to play.
It's unreasonable to expect any one aspect of the plan to defeat an
entire defensive array. You'll have to schedule multiple flights and
time those flights to arrive at the correct moment.
How It's Done
This can get confusing, so I like to start at the beginning,
one squadron at a time. Using the mission builder, place the squadron
on an appropriate airfield.
Next, create a package by clicking on the package button in the
toolbox. Set the time you want the package to arrive on station (TOS)
and lock it. Disregard takeoff time. Select new and begin placing
aircraft flights on the map. You'll notice in Gorrila One I placed an
AH-64 squadron at an airbase close to the border. Those flights were
then targeted at individual SAM sites and radar installations. You can
adjust waypoints and altitudes for individual flights at this point.
If you run out of airplanes, place another squadron at the same or another airfield before building your next package.
In tasking SEAD flights, it's important to make sure they are
firing their AGM-88s before your strikers arrive within the lethal
range of enemy SAMS. Again, set the TOS for SEAD flights to occur
before your strike F-16s get within SAM range. You can determine range
for various types of SAMS by examining their performance numbers in the
reference area of the main menu.
One of the shortcomings of the campaign is that we're not
really sure who wins at what point or what is actually the objective of
the campaign. In TE missions, we set objectives.
In Gorilla One, you should examine victory conditions. You'll note you
must destroy both bridges to gather 600 points to win the campaign. You
lose if you lose four F-16s in your deep strike missions. A little
known key command can be pressed, Alt and R, and you can toggle an info
box with your current points level at each stage of the flight. Ignore
the words, GAME OVER. The info box will update your score (and the
enemy's) as events occur.
