Thanks to everyone for turning out for last night's training event. Thanks especially to Boomer for putting a LOT of time and work in on all the training and campaign stuff so far. Thanks also goes out to Laser and our friends at the 16th for making our campaign and training nights at least twice as fun.
Classroom training last night covered the TFR, which is mercifully straightforward to use, but somewhat more complicated to implement in actual combat missions. Following classroom training in Vyew and a bit of Weapons Delivery Planner information, we were in the pit and on our way...several minutes behind out TOS as it turned out. This is going to become an issue in some campaign missions that require strike packages ingressing from different directions with only seconds between them in order to avoid AAA/SAMs/etc., and I think the solution mostly comes to being at the hold short line 2 minutes prior to takeoff time.
We seem to get held up in taxiing, which may be partially to blame on an unfamiliar airfield last night. Total ramp start time takes time (aligning INS mainly), but flight leads need to be proactive about having flight members and element leads notify when they're ready to taxi. Then, we get to the hold short line ASAP; then...we wait...hopefully.
Following takeoff, the TOS was delta'd to accommodate the delay. Fury flight (SEAD) ingressed over the target area at FL180. Boomer successfully engaged and destroyed the SA-2 radar station, while Doc took out the FireCan radar controlling the ZU-23 on the field.
Circling above the field, Fury flight had a great vantage point to observe some of the prettiest coordination strikes I have yet seen in simulation. Cowboy flight made passes on their targets with only one flight member having a failure to drop. A mere 15 seconds later saw the arrival of Falcon flight with a (nearly) perfectly timed durandal strike on the runway installations.
Both flights egressed successfully and landed safely. If we can do this in campaign missions when it counts, we should be successful. TOS will become more and more important, so flight leads will need to be ever-vigilant.
Posted by WH_Doc
Again - Thanks to the War Hawks for hosting another GREAT Training Session!
