Testimonio y referencia

If you are planning a General mission, you will probably have EWR stations, SAM systems and ships at your disposal. To make the best use of them, you should evaluate expected enemy forces, the direction of their possible approach, and competently use terrain. In addition, you should be well acquainted with specifications of weapons and radars. Chapter 8, "Understanding SAMs and Countermeasures", and the 3D Encyclopedia will help you in this respect.

When you are placing the given types of active objects, you should specify the country to which they belong (only when building new missions), their location and orientation, that is, an angle between the object’s longitudinal axis (stern-bow) and due North. For most radars, SAMs, and ships orientation is of no concern, since the radars have a circular scan and launchers are oriented upright or can turn in any direction. However as a purist you might want to position the launcher on a road or in a parking slot where orientation is nice.

You should assign a skill level to the crew or personnel of each EWR station, SAM system and ship. You have the choice of four basic skill levels: Average, Good, High, Excellent. The higher the skill level the less the object’s response time and the less the time spent on decision making when a target appears. If you want that the skill level of a particular system would be assigned randomly at run time, you should specify the “Random” skill level. Note also that if the skill level is set to “Random” there is a chance that the system may not appear in the mission at all.

Su-27 FLANKER

185

Action Meaning

Take-off Take-off point associated with a particular airfield

Landing Landing point associated with a particular airfield

Begin loop Begin flying a “closed-loop” route (for CAP and AWACS tasks). Used in conjunction with the End Loop point

End loop Marks from where the aircraft returns to the Begin Loop waypoint. The aircraft will be flying the loop until the amount of fuel in its tanks reduces to the guaranteed minimum for the return flight. When this occurs, the aircraft will automatically fly to the planned landing waypoint, following the shortest track

Wingmen ON Gather wingmen into tight formation

Wingmen OFF Loosen up the formation

Bombing Deliver bombs to the target specified by the given action point

Missile2Ground Fire an ASM at the ground target specified by the given action point

Missile2Ship Fire a missile at the ship specified by the given action point

Rocket attack Fire unguided rockets at the target specified by the given action point

Lock altitude Disable terrain following mode and force the aircraft to fly at the given altitude. Care should be taken when planning low-level routes with altitude locked to prevent the aircraft from crashing into mountains

Unlock altitude Return to terrain following mode

Note that when an action point corresponds to a target, the real moment for releasing bombs or launching missiles comes significantly earlier. However, situations may arise where the aircraft does not have time to line up on the target correctly. The figure below shows three different

184

Debriefing

After you have placed all the objects, save the mission and start it. Now the success of the mission is in your hands, or at least a part of it is.

A mission is ended in the following events: 1. You have quit by pressing Ctrl+Q;

2. Your aircraft has crashed and you have refused to continue the mission without your participation;

3. Your aircraft has successfully flown the mission and has landed. You refused to continue the mission without your participation

You will obviously be interested in the results of the mission. To get the statistics on the sequence of events, select Flight, Debriefing.

This activates a dialog box in which you will see a chronologically ordered list of all major events that have taken place in the last mission. Among those events are:

• Appearance of a new aircraft in the mission • Launch of an unguided rocket, AAM or SAM • Bomb release

• Gun/cannon fire

For all the events the list shows the side and the name of its initiator, the name of weapons employed and the outcome of such a deployment on the target. If the target has been destroyed then there will an indication of its category (primary, secondary, or random).

Su-27 FLANKER

187

To set up a new SAM system, EWR station or ship, do the following:

1.Click the required icon on the Planning Toolbar. This activates the corresponding dialog box, for example:

Note that when starting to place new objects, the dialog box is shaded until you place the first object.

2.Click on the map where you want to place the object. The default symbol for the object will appear and the dialog box will allow input.

3.Choose a country (allowed only for new missions), the type of system, and a skill level for its crew. If you want to look at a 3D model of the object and its specifications, press the Preview button in the dialog box or click the Encyclopedia button on the Standard toolbar.

4. To set an orientation of the object you can enter the exact angle in the Heading field or use the special circular scale in the form of a clock. 12 o’clock corresponds to due North, 3 o’clock - due East, and so on. To set the orientation, just click in the required place on the clock-face or rotate the ar row by dragging it with the mouse.

5.Repeat steps 2-4 until you set up all the objects of the given class.

All units comprising a SAM system are placed individually. Note that you cannot place launchers further than 1000 meters from their radars. For a particular SAM system, when a surveillance radar (or engagement radar if this is the only radar unit) is placed on the map, it will be surrounded by a circle indicating the area where you should put the remaining units of the given system. If the units are not placed properly, the SAM system will fail to work.

After you have placed all the objects, you can exit from the set up mode by clicking the corresponding sunken button on the Planning Toolbar . Now you can select and move placed objects and change their properties using usual methods.

Note. When building new missions you have the possibility of setting up static ground and naval

objects such as tanks, armored vehicles, submarines and many others. Such objects can serve as targets for attacking or defending. You set them up similarly to radars or ships with the only difference that you cannot specify a skill level for static objects. To place static objects, use the Static Object button on the Planning Toolbar and proceed as described above.

186

Chapter 12.