The Best Laid Plans..

Probably my biggest mistake was in not following my own advice. My planning itself was flawed. We intended to take the EW radar out because that was vectoring in the interceptors so that we couldn't take individual SAM's out further to the north. Plan B was in direct contradiction to the purpose of Plan A. In other words, how could I take out any other SAM's when the EW system was still operating? This was strategic stupidity in action!

I also made tactical blunders. AIM120's at Rmax in this sim have a slim kill ratio. While I used my wingmen with a moderate degree of skill, using the AIM120 to try to hold off the enemy didn't work. I hoped they would try to beam and scatter, letting my guys pick them off. The MiG's didn't scatter and my guys didn't score a single hit.

Another mistake was in failing to take account of the time it takes the AMRAAM to go autonomous. Under these conditions, at Rmax, that's about 17 seconds and is far too long to hold the enemy in my radar cone. With the enemy on my nose the closure rate was extremely high, yet under those conditions I sent my guys into a shooting match with arguably superior MiG 29s. I miscalculated the odds.

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Detection and Avoidance

Could we have avoided detection by flying further out to sea, and then going well beyond my IP and doubling back? Since all the interceptors were to the north and east of the target, would this have worked? No, because they would have found me anyway. They could and they did.

The DPRK has no AWACS, but we discovered the hard way that the EW radar can easily pick up targets at 200 feet over open water. On the other hand, taking out a primary EW radar is of critical importance that may well have warranted the sacrifice, at least in a simulation. I tried but failed, and these are some of the reasons why.

Now that we know there are AAA guns at this site, bombing is out of the question. Next time we come in low and fast with Mavericks.

Confused by any terms in this article? See our Glossary

NEXT: Part II where we try again.