[Falcon 4 BMS] Mirage 2000-5 : Operation Standing Wave, mission 2

Mission 2 : BARCAP over Zar'it

This mission is another BARCAP in the same area. The difference is that I'm going to be the leader this time.

The briefing is not that different from the previous one,

Briefing

Lead position on threshold

The first part of the flight was really quiet so I could take some pictures :

On the radar, the patrol we will take over

Flying over the shores

Smoke on the battlefield

Landscape

Landscape under my wing

But it seems it is not that quiet on the ground :

Finally we had 4 Mig 29 coming near our patrol area.

My wing-man immediately asked permission to engage. Which I gave her. Unfortunately, she fired all her missiles without hitting any of them. But all the patrol around seemed to come and the 4 hostiles were soon shot down before I even could acquire one.

There was nothing more to report during the flight and we got back home to debrief.

Despite apparent success of the mission, further analysis revealed that 2 Mig-29 could enter my airspace and shot down friend aircraft. I wasn't aware at all of their presence.
And this is the main point of it : situational awareness. It's the critical part of a mission and I was in a total lack of it.

I'll have to find out how to improve this !

[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.