[Falcon 4 BMS] Mirage 2000-5 : Operation Standing Wave (modified)

Theater : Israel

Campaign :  Operation Standing Wave (modified)

Situation : After years of civil war, a weakened Syrian army deploys in Lebanon in order to cut off supply to opposition forces - alarmingly close to Israel's borders.

Side : NATO

Squadron : 235th at Akrotiri Airbase (Mirage 2000-5)

SItuation

Mission 1 : BARCAP over Ramat HaSharon

My first mission in this campaign was a BARCAP over Ramat HaSharon to prevent further incursions from hostile aircraft.

Briefing

Map

As it's the first time I will fly in a campaign mission, I'm going to be wing-man.

Ready for departure

During the briefing I used the previously gathered data about fuel management to calculate my Bingo (see previous article about fuel management). I know that I have 1000 lb unavailable and 1000 lb to save in case of missed approach. There is no airfield around so I can't plan an alternate landing site. Finally, the farthest point of the mission is 186 nm away and I plan to fly à 480 kt (TAS) at FL200 so I would need 186 x 14 = 2604 lb. My Bingo is then 4600 lb.

Before taking-off I could admire the 4th squadron's C-17  with whom we share the airbase.

Taxi behind a C-17

Finally we take our turn :

Runway hreshold

The flight was absolutely quiet. Mainly because of my leader who never answered to orders of the AWACS. This one ordered us a couple of time to engage bandit aircraft but he seemed to never cooperate. Fortunately no hostile came in our area and the mission was a success. But once more I come to the conclusion that I need to take the lead and never let the AI be in charge...

Note that during the final course, the ATC ordered me to execute a missed approach and I could then see that my fuel calculation were right. I landed at around 1200 lb left!

Next time I'll keep on that kind of mission but I'll endorse the flight leader role.