Despite small and off the top of my head after a few hours, this one is for Brains.

 

It was a rough dipiction of the first mission flown by the author of Angles of Attack as a part of VA-145 on the first night of Desert Storm.

 

I prepared 2x A-6E TRAM to attack the docks in Umm Qasr. They were both armed with a BAP-100 x6 Cluster Bomb under stations 1,5. An AGM-88 HARM and an AJM-C under stations 2,4. Here the weather was pleasant as opposed to the IR defeating nighttime mist/precipitation thesy faced. For this run through, the port facility was protected by a FCR directed KS-19 battery. There was an EWR-A further back inland.

 

The 2x A-6E came in at T-Level preventing detection until very late "in the game". In the last three turns before bombs away, the air defense battery sharted firing away with Plotted "Area Fire" to no avail. Plotted Area Fire must be secretly plotted early in the turn, disclosed late in the turn and then effect aircraft which fly through that hex and the six hex around it, and one altitude level above and below. The A/C were able to evade this attack, but since AAA pre-empts AtG attacks, the KS-19 battery fired "Plotted Point Fire" causing critical damage to one of the Intruders. Since the critically damaged A/C may not attack and must drop it ordnance, the lone A-6 conducted its laydown attack with 12x high drag CBU's causing 8pts of damage, a 2D. I did not game the egress.

 

It was a pretty simple run through. I was surprised at the KS-19's success. The combination of a straight-in attack and being linked to an FCR cancelled out the defensive benefit of Deceptive Decoy System-B so no modifiers, and it had to roll a zero on a d10...and did.

 

Relatively quick, and fun game.

I prepared 2x A-6E TRAM to attack the docks in Umm Qasr. They were both armed with a BAP-100 x6 Cluster Bomb under stations 1,5.

 

Any particular reason for the BAP-100? Its a French anti-runway bomb.

Hi Brad.

 

No, I was only trying to fit the book's description of 2x HP w/ 6x 500lb Rockeye. The data set gives somewhat generic weapons broken out by US/Nato and Soviet/WP. I chose the BAP-100 x12 cluster since there was a note that Runway cratering waepons have an attack strength x5 against runway, road, or pier hexes. Guess I tried to shoehorn the runway cratering CBU since it gave me the multiple units described in the book.

 

Upon further review, I believe that I could have used a triple weapons rack under each of those two hardpoints to load 3x 500lb AP or AT Cluster. The total is well within the games load points for those stations.

 

Other than that I plead ignorance.

Hi Brad. No, I was only trying to fit the book's description of 2x HP w/ 6x 500lb Rockeye. The data set gives somewhat generic weapons broken out by US/Nato and Soviet/WP. I chose the BAP-100 x12 cluster since there was a note that Runway cratering waepons have an attack strength x5 against runway, road, or pier hexes. Guess I tried to shoehorn the runway cratering CBU since it gave me the multiple units described in the book. Upon further review, I believe that I could have used a triple weapons rack under each of those two hardpoints to load 3x 500lb AP or AT Cluster. The total is well within the games load points for those stations. Other than that I plead ignorance.

 

No problem, just curious why you chose a French weapon.

 

[As an aside, I don't think the BAP-100 has ever been adapted for the A-6E. It uses its own stores carrier for sticks of either 9 or 18 bombs. Standard 14 inch lug spacing for the stick of 9, and 30 inches for the stick of 18).

(As an aside, I don't think the BAP-100 has ever been adapted for the A-6E. It uses its own stores carrier for sticks of either 9 or 18 bombs. Standard 14 inch lug spacing for the stick of 9, and 30 inches for the stick of 18).

 

ok, the Intruders are now re-armed and well within load limits and station requirements. Facing the front of the aircraft stations 1-5 left to right. Each station has a limit of 3,600 pounds and a total load limit of 17,200. The aircraft will be considered "dirty" with a load of 10,500lbs (31 load points).

 

Station 1: 1x AGM-88 (800lbs, 2.5 load points)

Station 2: Multiple Weapons Rack (200lbs, 2.0 load points) with 6x Mk.20 Rockeye (each 500lbs, 1.5 load points)

Station 3: Drop Tank (2700lbs fuel, 4.5 load points, 120 fuel units)

Station 4: Multiple Weapons Rack (200lbs, 2.0 load points) with 6x Mk.20 Rockeye (each 500lbs, 1.5 load points)

Station 5: Active Jammer AJM-C (600lbs, 2 load points) (replicating a ALQ-126)

 

Bombs in this mission were reported in the book to have been dropped "level" at 400 feet (T-Level in GDW Air Support). In RW, are Mk20 Rockeye capable to be fitted with retardation devices for "high drag" effects?

 

Mission to be re-run soon with SA-2 during ingress and AAA point defense, Zu-23, and S-60 batteries.

Bombs in this mission were reported in the book to have been dropped "level" at 400 feet (T-Level in GDW Air Support). In RW, are Mk20 Rockeye capable to be fitted with retardation devices for "high drag" effects?

 

Afaik, Rockeye does not have a retarding device like 'Ballute' for the Mk 80 series iron bombs. It has a time delay fuze so that height of bomblet dispersal can be varied by the pilot.

 

Mind you, you can drop it from as low as 250 feet level flight or down to 100 feet pitch up (with resulting reduction in bomblet coverage, obviously), so I don't think 400 feet would be an issue.

The only thing I'll say is that I can see why the A-6 had a bombardier/navigator.

The release altitude was 400 feet. By all accounts it was a level bombing run, and instead of climbing, they turned "sharply".

 

“The Intruder shuttered and the twelve rockeyes came off their bomb racks, alternating one of the 500-pound cluster weapons from each side until the hammer disappeared from the bottom of the ADI and our A-6 was 6,000 pounds lighter. It felt like an eternity, but it had taken less than a second to release the twelve bombs. I felt the stick come alive with new found agility now that the weight and drag of the big canisters were gone. Instantly I slammed the stick to the right and put us into an 85-degree angle of bank to get us the hell out of the target area.”

 

As they were in that 5G inducing turn. “Pull right! Uuuhuh! Two hundred feet pull up!” Rivers (the B/N) called out.

“The Intruder shuttered and the twelve rockeyes came off their bomb racks, alternating one of the 500-pound cluster weapons from each side until the hammer disappeared from the bottom of the ADI and our A-6 was 6,000 pounds lighter. It felt like an eternity, but it had taken less than a second to release the twelve bombs. I felt the stick come alive with new found agility now that the weight and drag of the big canisters were gone. Instantly I slammed the stick to the right and put us into an 85-degree angle of bank to get us the hell out of the target area.” As they were in that 5G inducing turn. “Pull right! Uuuhuh! Two hundred feet pull up!” Rivers (the B/N) called out.

 

Sweet! I await rippling explosions.