By Kurt 'Froglips' Giesselman

This would provide the opportunity for some CAS, SEAD, and Strike missions to provide coverage and protection for the retreating battalion until the helicopters can make the pick up. Step one completed, we have the mission objective.

The Pupo-ri Naval Base, the Unho-ri Radar Station, a few bridges on the peninsula and the Ongjin Airbase is nearby. The idea occurred to me that an assault with a retreat to a waterside pickup was just what the doctor ordered here (with apologies to Sleepdoc). Hence the mission would be to pickup an Air Mobile battalion after they capture a North Korean decoding machine temporarily setup in the Unho-ri Radar Station. The Air Mobile would retreat across the peninsula to the docks at the Pupo-ri Naval Station.

Step two is planning. The DPRK will be aware of the failed attempt to capture a radar station. They will probably send some type of response to capture or destroy our battalion. The Ongjin Airbase is the most likely location for armor and CAS reinforcements to be located. These would not be front line units so there will be a delay before they are mobilized. We will need to keep our troops alive long enough for the choppers to attempt a pick up.

And the choppers are hardly going to survive if they have to land in the middle of an enemy armor battalion or a CAS strike. The mission will take place in the early morning because I love watching the 'fireworks' at night. The mission could include a scramble flight to allow the Air Mobile Battalion to survive long enough for the Blackhawk's and all their support aircraft to arrive.

The sequence of events could be:

• 1. Attack on Unho-ri Radar Station fails.
• 2. Air Mobile Battalion (AMB) retreats and calls for pickup.
• 3. DPRK mobilizes armor to cut off AMB's retreat.
• 4. Joint Forces Air Command (JFAC) assembles package for extraction.
• 5. JFAC notes DPRK armor movement and scrambles deep strike to cut DPRK armor's access to extraction point.
• 6. JFAC tasks package with full electronic and air cover support (ECM, AWACs, HAVCAP, Sweeps, etc.).
• 7. DPRK sends CAS with CAP support to eliminate AMB.
• 8. JFAC package arrives at extraction point and successfully protects package.
• 9. Blackhawk's extract AMB.
• 10. DPRK scrambles intercept for Blackhawk's.

Click to continue

Additionally, DPRK BARCAPs will be patrolling their side of the DMZ (this will conveniently put the BARCAPs directly in the path of the incoming package.) Based on the above sequence of events we will need the following flights (in no particular order):

Put every type of flight in your list that you might want in your mission. When you build a mission it is easy to delete flights that you determine are unnecessary but impossible to add them (after you complete a package). If you determine that the second sweep swings the balance of power too strongly (too easy a mission) to the Joint Forces side then just delete it. You might add an additional F-16 SEAD or CAS flight to play with. I prefer to limit the number of 'flyable' flights in my missions so I can build a mission that really focuses on just one or two flights but has lots of action.

Try to mentally group the flights into packages which have no more than five flights. In the above list, for example, the AWAC and ECM are a natural combination (both are stand off support), as are the two sweeps. The enemy BARCAPs can be grouped together. The reason for this limit is that the steerpoint editor drop down menu will only show five flights. You can have more flights in a package but errors in editing the steerpoints happen more frequently if you can't check the flights callsign as you edit.

Now we need to look at the map again to decide where the friendly and enemy squadrons will be located so we can calculate air miles. When we take a look at the map and remember that squadrons can only be stationed at airbases, the closest Joint Forces airbases are Kimpo International, Seoul, and Suweon. I avoid using Kimpo because I thought I remembered that the Joint Forces tried to limit the military use of that airport. That leaves us with Seoul and Suweon for the Joint Forces. We have already chosen Ongjin for the DPRK, so let's add Haeju for the DPRK too.

Use more than one airbase to task your flights. It reduces the mess on the runway at take-off and it is more realistic. This is one of the reasons for assembly steerpoints.

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