English Jets over Uganda, 1973 Tutorial (SPOILERS) - AAR by new member

[JCM3000]

Hello All,

This is my first AAR. I was a lurker on this forum for a while now as I've been always been interested in military Sims. However, I was a little put-off initially by the scale and complexity of Command. But anyway, with the Steam fall Sale 67% off I finally decided, what the hell, it looks like fun.

My goal with this AAR is to provide a descriptive narrative that can be used as a learning tool by other relative newbies to COMANO like myself. So I’ll try to talk about why I did things, and point out mistakes and potential take-aways as I go along. So obviously, there will be major spoilers, so be warned!

Anyway, this AAR describes my second attempt at this scenario (the first one didn't go so well as I managed to get my recon aircraft jumped by enemy fighters because of bad-timing (my CAP went RTB bingo before my recon birds arrived on station – First Take-Away!).

The Scenario is based in 1973 where I took command of a the British airforce units at the Moi Air Base in Kenya. We've been ordered to teach the Ugandan government a lesson by establishing air superiority and then striking the airport/airbase at Entebbe as well as several government buildings.

We have at our disposal 3 squadrons of fighters and strike aircraft:
8xLightning F6 interceptors (AAW loadout)
8xPhantom II fighter bombers (4xAAW and 4xStrike loadout w/ SNEB100mm Rockets)
8xBuccaneer attack aircraft (6x w/ 1000lb dumb bombs and 2 w daytime visual camera pods)

We also have a pair of Shackleton prop driven AEW aircraft at our disposal.

The scenario starts in the middle of the night (about 3am local time) and my strike aircraft and recon aircraft are not capable of nighttime engagement, so I decide to begin by trying to draw out and eliminate as many enemy fighters as possible before sending in the strike packages during the morning.

So first I got my AEW up by setting up a Support patrol about 75nm east of the Kenya/Uganda border and assigning both Shackleton's to this mission with the 1/3 rule activated so I'll always have an AEW bird up. From this patrol station the AEW birds can cover all of south eastern Uganda (including the Entebbe area) from the relative safety of Kenyan airspace. To protect my valuable AEW assets, I then set up a CAP (calling it AEW CAP) between the AEW patrol area and the Kenyan border to the west. i also set up a prosecution zone for this mission which overlaps into Ugandan airspace to the west so that my CAP fighters will investigate and engage any targets that approach the border. I assigned all 8 Lightnings to this CAP in flights of 2 with 1/3 rule set to ensure that I would always have at least 2 fighters on station. I turned off “investigation of contacts outside patrol area” so that they would only engage aircraft that approached or crossed the border.

Now I wanted to lure out the Ugandan air defense fighters, so I then set up another CAP patrol zone (I called this mission Offensive CAP), this time inside Ugandan airspace (about 1/3 between the border and Entebbe) with a prosecution zone that covered all of the airspace around Entebbe. I then assigned my 4 Phantoms with AAW loadouts.

I chose to use the Phantoms to penetrate into Ugandan airspace and "poke the hornet's nest" because the Sparrow radar guided missiles on the Phantom are far superior to the Red Top AAMs that the Lightnings employ and would give me a huge frontal aspect advantage over the MiG21 and MiG17 defenders. However, I also launched 2 additional Lightnings (making 4 Lightnings total) and assigned them to the AEW CAP on the Kenyan border so that I would have a few reserve aircraft available nearby in case my Phantoms bit off more than they could chew.

Once my AEW was on station it was able to identify airborne bogeys for my Phantoms to intercept. One of the key considerations in this scenario is that it's technically peacetime and the rules of engagement require positive identification of targets (weapons TIGHT) before engagement. Because the Shackleton wasn't able to give detailed information on bogeys near the edge of its radar range I had to manually vector my Phantoms to illuminate the aircraft with their radar to get hard altitude and airspeed data. I assumed that anything traveling over 400kts inside Uganda airspace was definitely a hostile fighter and anything else was a commercial aircraft.

When my 4 Phantoms approached within radar range of Entebbe they were able to identify several slow moving aircraft (presumably commercial) but eventually also illuminated a pair of fast movers (500+ kts) flying eastbound towards them. I manually set these bogeys as hostile and set the WRA of the Sparrows to engage at 15nm (well within their targeting envelope). My lead flight of 2 phantoms launched 4 missiles scoring hits with the first 2. They never got within visual identification range (which at night I assume is less than 1nm) but the fact that they were moving 500+kts and accelerating straight at my fighters was indication enough that they were hostile. A quick check of the Losses & Expenditures showed me that they were in fact Ugandan MiG21s.

At this point my ECM gear started getting hits on radar emissions from several more bogeys (presumably scrambled from Entebbe) so I pointed my 4 phantoms in that direction with their radars searching ahead of them. I found 4 more fighters approaching at high speed and launched another spread of Sparrows, taking down 2 of them before the remaining 2 passed head on with my flight of fighters. Unbelievably, one of the MiGs managed to connect with a head on guns shot, taking down one of my 4 fighters. The remaining 3 Phantoms quickly avenged their comrade however and eliminated the last two MiG’s just before another flight of 4 MiGs appeared from northwest. I again manually set these bogeys to Hostile, and my Phantoms launched their last 4 remaining Sparrow missiles, taking down 1 MiG before engaging in a short-range air to air duel with the remaining 3 fighters. All 3 opponents were eliminated without further loss to the Brit side (2 via guns).

Tally so far:
SIDE: United Kingdom
===========================================================
LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x Phantom II FGR.2

EXPENDITURES:
------------------
16x AIM-7E2 Sparrow III
5x 20mm/85 SUU-23/A Gun Pod Burst [100 rnds]
3x AIM-9D Sidewinder

SIDE: Uganda
===========================================================
LOSSES:
-------------------------------
6x MiG-21MF Fishbed J
4x MiG-17F Fresco C

EXPENDITURES:
------------------
1x 23mm Gsh-23L Burst [40 rnds]

**Notice the lone 23mm cannon burst that downed my Phantom (bloody Hell!)

After taking another look around, to ensure there were no more fast moving aircraft around, I sent my Phantoms home relatively low on fuel and ordnance.

At this point it was still only 6am, it was still dark, and my fighters wouldn’t be rearmed for over 2 hours, so I decide to begin planning my daytime strikes but not activating the missions yet until my 3 Phantoms were reloaded and ready to go to provide air cover for the recon and strike missions.

I set up a Support mission with a racetrack course around the Entebbe airport/airbase and assigned both of my Recon Buccaneers to the mission. I set the Station altitude as 6750ft ASL as the weather showed mixed clouds from 7-12k feet.

I then split my 6 Buccaneers armed with 1000lb bombs into two flights of 3 each. 1 flight would target the 4 government bldgs in downtown Entebbe (the State House, the Water treatment plant, the post office and the Ministry of Agriculture bldg.). I set the WRA for the bombs to be released 2 bombs and 1 aircraft per salvo to ensure that my guys would have enough weapons to at least attempt an attack on each bldg, rather than using all the bombs on one bldg. I set the other 3 Buccaneers to target the two runways at Entebbe with their 1000lb bombs. I allowed the auto mission planner to do its thing and didn’t bother changing the waypoints as the terrain here is mostly flat (no mountains to take advantage of to avoid radar). I did set off-axis attack on however.

Lastly I set up a SEAD patrol with an area over the Entebbe airbase and downtown Entebbe and assigned the 4 Phantoms armed with rockets in two 2-aircraft flights. After the recon birds identified targets I intended to manually allocate weapons on these fighters to any air defenses that were identified (Although I didn’t know their precise locations, I knew there were several short range surface-air radars in the area as they were picked up on ECM by my fighters earlier).

Finally when my 3 remaining AAW Phantoms were ready at about 8:30 am I re-activated the Offensive CAP mission and got the 3 planes in the air and headed west. As I side note, I changed the mission settings to be a single flight of 3 instead of 2 flights of 2, as I was now short 1 fighter and the prior mission settings would have prevented the 3rd fighter from launching without a wingman.

As soon as the Offensive CAP fighters were airborne I also sent up the pair of recon Buccaneers on the Airbase Recon Support mission.

I then waited exactly 15 min and activated the SEAD Patrol mission. I figured 15 minutes would be long enough for the recon birds to identify targets and complete their mission right before the SEAD aircraft arrived.

I then waited another 10 minutes and activated the 2 strike missions. The 10 min lag should provide my SEAD guys enough time to take out the AA guns and any SAMS that are spotted by the recon birds.

The timing of all of this went pretty well. My 3 fighter CAP got on station just to the east of Entebbe just minutes before the 2 recon Buccaneers began descending to 6750 ft on approach to their recon station.

The radars on the buccaneers detected several bogeys rising up from the airfield at Entebbe and so I sent my Phantoms to check them out. Yup, definitely fast-movers. So, I marked them hostile and they were quickly eliminated. I kept the Phantoms nearby as the Buccanneers soon began identifying AA guns, as well as aircraft on the ground in the runway access points. More MiG 21s!

For the most part I was able to vector my Phantoms in to take out the aircraft almost immediately after they launched. Eventually however 2 MiGs managed to get airborne and started chasing my recon birds at low altitude. I rushed my phantoms in and another short range air duel erupted at low altitude. While this dogfight was going on, my Buccaneers had completed their recon mission and started heading home. I noticed that a lone MiG21 had managed to escape the furball and was chasing the buccaneers, so I detached one Phantom from the twirling dogfight over Entebbe and sent him scooting southeast to chase the MiG that was closing on the escaping Buccanneers. I also vectored my 2 AEW CAP Lightning interceptors from the Kenyan border and sent them west into Uganda to intercept. At this point my SEAD aircraft were also approaching Entebbe and the last thing I wanted was for that lone MiG to be able to jump my incoming SEAD package before they reached their targets!

Luckily my phantom was able to catch up to the MiG and although the MiG dodged all FOUR of my missiles, his evasive maneuvering allowed my Buccaneers to get away, and the SEAD Phantoms to get by and into Entebbe. Finally when the 2 other CAP phantoms arrived they were able to down the final MiG after some lengthy air-to-air maneuvering. I ended up expending 6 missiles to kill that last MiG.

At this point, despite being low on missiles I sent the Phantoms back over Entebbe to cover the SEAD strike and the incoming Buccaneer bombers that were now about 15 minutes away.

Just as the SEAD fighters were approaching Entebbe I paused the game and manually allocated 16 rockets from the flight of 4 phantoms to each of the 6 Anti-aircraft radars that were spotted along with their anti-aircraft guns. I also directed 16 rockets for the air search radars at the air base. The southern flight of 2 phantoms focused on the airbase and its defenses and radars, while the northern flight focused on the defenses around the center of the city.

I was quickly able to take out the main air search radar and 3 of the fire director radars for the AA guns (along with some of the guns themselves) with the first pass of rocket fire from my SEAD aircraft. The southern flight had more luck as they completely eliminated all 3 of their primary targets in the first pass.

The Northern flight wasn’t so lucky. After eliminating 2 of the 4 AA gun fire control radars, a 37mm AA cannon managed to take down 1 of my Phantoms after it missed with its rockets. The 2nd Phantom of the northern SEAD flight then attempted to avenge his wingman, but was shot down by the same guns less than 40 seconds later. Ugh.

So I vectored the southern SEAD flight north to attack the two remaining AA radars and guns. The flight was able to destroy one of the two remaining fire control radars and take revenge on the AA gun that had killed their comrades, before running out of ordnance and heading home.

At this stage the strike aircraft were about 5 minutes away but my CAP fighters were running Bingo fuel. After taking one more pass over the area I decided to send the 3 CAP Phantoms home along with the SEAD fighters and instead vectored the two Lightning CAP from the Kenya border in to cover the bombers.

In then end no more fighters came up from the airfield and my bombers were able to make their bombing runs mostly unmolested (except for some meager AA fire from the last remaining AA gun battery).

However, despite the lack of opposition, the bombers were only partially successful. They managed to score hits on 3 of the 4 government buildings. However, they were only able to destroy 2 of them, the State house and the Post Office, while heavily damaging the Water Treatment Plant. Unfortunately they also took out 2 small civilian bldgs, which cost me points.

Further south, my bombers hitting the airfield were even less successful as most of their bombs missed the runway and those that hit only effected 55% penetration on one of the runways while taking out only 1 of 6 runway access points. That sucked. I should have gone after the AvGas tanks instead or focused on hangers or the runway access points and ignored the runway.

Regardless, destroying the State house gave me a lot of points and I ended up with a Triumph. I thought about sending another strike package to clean up the last 2 gov’t buildings and the airbase, as I still had 9 hours left in the scenario, but in the end I decided against it. A Triumph was good enough.

Final Tally (also see Notes below):
SIDE: United Kingdom
===========================================================
LOSSES:
-------------------------------
3x Phantom II FGR.2

EXPENDITURES:
------------------
33x AIM-7E2 Sparrow III
12x 20mm/85 SUU-23/A Gun Pod Burst [100 rnds]
9x AIM-9D Sidewinder
288x SNEB 100mm Rocket
24x Mk13 1000lb GPB
2x Red Top

SIDE: Uganda
===========================================================
LOSSES:
-------------------------------
12x MiG-21MF Fishbed J
6x MiG-17F Fresco C
11x 37mm/63 M1939
1x Radar (Generic Air Traffic Control)
12x 14.5mm/73 Twin ZPU-2
2x Vehicle (Fire Can [SON-9])
3x Binoculars (Visual)
1x Building (Small)
1x Building (Very Large)

EXPENDITURES:
------------------
3x 23mm Gsh-23L Burst [40 rnds]
88x 14.5mm/73 Twin Burst [20 rnds]
120x 37mm/63 M1939 [5 rnds]

SIDE: Neutrals
===========================================================
LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x An-2T Colt
1x Building (Small)
1x DC-3

One Side note:
When I was creating the strike mission on the government buildings, I selected the whole area and added those into the mission planner, intending to remove the non-target buildings from the target list after they were all copied into the list. Unfortunately, by putting neutral side targets into the target list, this resulted in me accidently declaring the entire Neutral side as Hostile!!!!! Oops. Because of that mistake, my AEW CAP Lightning accidently shot down a civilian DC-3 that strayed into its patrol zone right at the end of the mission as my bombers were flying home.

I have no clue what happened with the neutral AN-2T Colt.

Overall Impressions:

As this was only the second scenario (other than tutorials) I’ve ever played I thought it was a well designed introduction for new players. The big advantage in Air-to-air that my Phantoms enjoyed, allowed me to concentrate on learning about strike and SEAD missions and the difficulty of the scenario was low enough that I was able to try out a few strategies. Hats off to the scenario designer, and I would highly recommend this tutorial scenario to any other newcomers to COMANO.

Also, I took a few screenshots, but I wasn’t able to figure out how to embed them in this post, so oh well…

This has been fun and I’m pretty sure I’m going to get hooked on this game!

[Gunner98]

JCM3000 Great AAR! For a newbie you seem to have a great feel for the game. The 'head on' gunshot from the MiG is exactly the trick that killed dozens of Phantoms in Viet Nam, that 23mm cannon hurts - just be glad that your RAF versions have guns.

The An-2 was probably smoked on the airfield. As for what to hit on an airfield, your 1000lb bombs were probably not penetrators back then so not much chance on a runway - but they are hanger smashers, and you can target occupied parking areas as well.

Great job. Good read. Thanks

B

[mikkey]

Welcome aboard JCM3000. Nice AAR, thanks!

[JCM3000]

Thanks guys for the kind words and advice!

I actually played this scenario almost a month ago but couldn't post it due to the 10 post + 1 week restriction. I'm now putting the finishing touches on a Midway vs Cuba AAR (a scenario I played about 2-3 weeks ago). So keep your eyes peeled for that!

I'm going to continue to create AARs of any scenarios I play that I think were particularly fun and/or good learning scenarios. Canary's cage which I completed last week will be next on the list.