In This Guide:
- Red Sea Tour
- Eritrea Tour
- Saudi Arabia Tour
- General Intel
- EMCON Notes
- Quick Combat Notes
- F22 ADF Review Summary
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!
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!
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Last Updated January 4th, 1997