A long-range strike from the UK on a simulated airfield 100 miles southwest of Goose Bay, Labrador by 10 F-111Es from the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing on October 18, 1985.
On the early morning of October 16, 1985 the commander of the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing stationed at RAF Upper Heyford received a message excusing the 20th Tactical Fighter from Exercise Active Edge, a readiness exercise for all NATO and NATO earmarked units. Shortly after another message was received saying an aircraft was inbound to Upper Heyford, landing at 6:00 am local, and requested the commander meet it on arrival.
The team of officers on board delivered a letter directing the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing to bomb a simulated runway in Eastern Canada about 100 miles southwest from Goose Bay, Labrador at 1016 Zulu on 18 October. The mission was to be carried out under the strictest security.
Following less than 46 hours of intense planning and preparation, in the early hours of 18 October 14 F-111Es took off from RAF Upper Heyford with 8 retared Mk82 500-pound bombs each. They would be followed a few minutes later by 7 tankers from RAF Mildenhall. Only 10 F-111s would continue to the target, the other 4 where in air spares that would later return to base.
After rendezvousing the force proceeded across the Atlantic. Two aerial refuelings were conducted over the ocean on the 6-hour flight to the target and another two on the return to England. 17 tankers were used in all, with 6 meeting the force in the mid-Atlantic on the way over, and another 4 from Mildenhall on the way back.
Behind schedule by 9-minutes due to ATC and weather difficulties during rendezvous and a 75 knot headwind, the force increased speed and made up the time by the last checkpoint. After their final refueling F-111s descended to low level 150 miles east of their first land check point at Bell Island, Newfoundland and went into a timing orbit. Each aircraft left the orbit point at 1 minute intervals and flew the night low level ingress as a single aircraft.
Total communications-out procedures were followed all the way to the target. The terrain was mountainous covered by dense forests with lakes and rivers throughout the area that made low level radar navigation difficult.
The target was a simulated runway outlined by five pairs of radar reflectors 250 feet apart and spaced at 2,000 foot intervals. Each aircraft had a distinct aiming point in order to simulate cutting it into segments of 2,000 feet or less.
All the aircraft where close to their planned time on target. The first aircraft was within 5 seconds and the worst being about 15 seconds late. Of the 80 bombs dropped, over 50% impacted the simulated runway. One aircraft had to make multiple passes due to a release malfunction. The control team determined that the simulated runway had been cut at each designated point.
The first 9 aircraft rejoined the tankers on schedule, but the final aircraft with the release problem was late and low on fuel when it finally rejoined. The entire force then returned to England uneventfully. The mission having been a success.
Several important lessons were learned and documented, such as how much time is needed to thoroughly plan such a mission, better fighter-tanker rendezvous procedures, and having each F-111 element stay on one tanker throughout the entire mission rather than moving them around and night in a large formation.
The planning and lessons from the mission, designated OPERATION GHOST RIDER, and other similar missions would later be invaluable to the planners of Operation El Dorado Canyon in April 1986.
This scenario is designed as the exercise that it was. As such, the main objective is to get your strike force to the objective area and back to England. By default, the simulated SAM sites have no weapons. Similarly, the OpFor early warning radars are not actively emitting.
Several scenario options are available to increase the complexity and difficulty of the scenario. These range from adding weapons to the OpFor SAM sites and activating their EW radars, adding additional SAMs, to adding hostile interceptors. To counter these additions, the option to add supporting forces (CAP, AEW, OECM, and SEAD) for the player is available.
You will only get points for damaging or destroying the designated aimpoints. Any other OpFor unit engaged is simply the cost of doing business.
Your aircraft will perform a FENCE (Fuel, Emitters, Navigation, Communications, Electronic Countermeasures) check upon entering OpFor airspace (about 150 nautical miles away from the objective) and at five-minute intervals as they remain there. If they fail the check, they will immediately jettison their munitions and transmit a "FROSTY FREEZER" abort message. FENCE checks for each aircraft will be disabled once it is within five nautical miles of the objective.
Four F-111Es, and one EF-111A if present, will be in air spares. Ninety minutes after takeoff four aircraft will be randomly selected to return to base. The chance is weighed toward the spare aircraft but it is possible for any aircraft to be selected.
These system checks can be disabled during scenario setup.
The area of operations has been divided into three Custom Environment Zones: West Atlantic, North Atlantic, and Eastern Atlantic/Northwest Europe. Global and CEZ weather will be randomized at the start of the scenario. Every hour weather will drift positively or negatively based on the current conditions. Real world average weather conditions are used as the baseline where applicable.