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As something a bit different, this scenario models a hypothetical United States air strike against apartheid-era South Africa's nuclear weapons program in 1990. The striking force of 16 B-52s armed with iron bombs needs to travel from Diego Garcia, penetrate South Africa's air defences, bomb two facilities located near Pretoria and escape. They are supported by four lightly-armed F-14 fighters and two KC-135 tankers.

I found this scenario to be pretty tough to beat during testing, but just managed to pull off a triumph (after a series of disasters!). Hopefully the balance is now about right, and I'd appreciate and any all feedback.

*bump*

Does anyone have any comments on this scenario? I suspect that it's not perfect [;)]

Gave it a quick go this morning. Like the concept, nice & simple, but I couldn't get my Buff's to drop their bombs for some reason. Anyway it was an unmitigated disaster!

Some comments:
-Side Brief: in the paragraph on Objectives for Advena you have a double (Circle nuclear weapons nuclear weapons research)

-I would adjust your target names a bit - its against the Geneva Conventions (AP1 or 2, can't remember which)to 'unleash natural forces' or something like that. The US hasn't ratified but does respect the specific law except in the case of deliberate nuclear war. The law, which would make nuclear war illegal, was largely a result of the famous Dam buster's raid where the flooding caused significant civilian casualties. The theory is that if you put a hole in a nuclear reactor you would create another Chernobyl. I am in no way an expert but looking at your targets:
--The nuclear weapons storage vault: Not sure about this one, perhaps the access gates to an underground facility
--the missile integration building: I think that's a fair target
--Kentron Circle nuclear weapons research and construction building: Not sure on that one either, but it could be depending on the amount of nuclear material stored there
--The "Y Plant" uranium enrichment facility and the SAFARI-1 reactor: Are both illegal targets
-You could make these targets collateral damage issues an deduct points for damaging them
-Some potential targets to replace these might be:
--Plant control center (which would(should) cause the reactor to SCRAM
--Distribution facilities (rail yard or road bridge for instance)
--Cooling water supply (not sure if this one is legal or not)

- A couple more tankers would be useful to keep the Tomcats in play longer

- It might be interesting if you made the closest airbase, WaterKlop, a real airbase as opposed to the Single unit airfield type

- I think that its unlikely that all 16 Buffs would be available. Not sure if the rotation is the full Squadron or just the manpower but with those old babies I would suspect a minimum of 25% would be down at any one time, probably closer to 35%. But with the right weapons I don't think you need more than a couple

- It was interesting routing the Buffs around the radars and the mountains of Lesotho, but probably not realistic. Its probably a safe bet that Diego Garcia has some AGM-86's in the storage bins, its a precision stand off weapon which is designed for situations like this. If you had 2 Buff's with 8xAGM 86 each, had 6 or 7 targets plus a runway you need to crater at WaterKlop and perhaps a bit more on the SAM side of things, the scenario would be challenging without risking $60+Mil A/C and 5-6 crew each. If you put in some mobile targets and a U-2 it would add another layer of complexity.

Just my thoughts - it was fun until my bombs wouldn't release for some reason and the Buffs started dropping form the sky like flies and the Tomcats went home because they were thirsty

B

Bart < Did you try manual weapon allocation when the Buffs wouldn't drop? If yes, what was the "no can do" message?

Sunburn

I did both the F1 attack and a Shift-F1 attack with different groups. With the manual control the weapons were out of range, the Buffs ran to the end of there course and turned into the target from the final waypoint, they were also climbing from min alt to release alt. All good except they did not release. I did not check if there were any other issues before they got shot down, I think they were up to around 5K AGL so believe that they had reached release alt but am not sure. Not sure what went wrong.

OK I have a save (attached) and checked. Msg is: Aircraft Alt too low. Valid 6158 to 70358, terrain alt 5358. So the first problem is range and they are closing, second is alt and they are climbing. However when I run it through they run through the target twice but seem to stick around 58-5900ft, so they are a couple hundred feet too low to drop - then of course they get smoked.

Did not try to set up a mission which is how I normally attack, that might work better.

B

OK
In the editor mode, I removed the bad guys, and tried again. If I manually adjust the Alt to above 6200 or so, bombs drop OK. However problem persists if I try a mission or continue with any of the F1 attacks modes. They climb from min Alt but stay 1-200 feet below release Alt.

B

Thanks a lot for those comments - especially in regards to the legality of the targets: I'll make some adjustments (especially removing the reactor and other illegal targets), but the South African nuclear weapons program was pretty simple (alarmingly so according to many of the references I consulted), so there don't seem to have been many intermediate targets which could have been have hit to prevent the bombs being used. The bombs were built in pretty simple facilities and were then stored in a nearby underground bunker - one source states that South Africa's equivalent of the US Permissive Action Link was the fact that the bombs were kept broken down into separate components, with key pieces being stored in locked safes which required multiple keys. Once the bombs were assembled there were apparently no further impediments to them being exploded.

That said, as the SAAF's Mirage F1s and Buccaneers appear to have been the most likely nuclear weapons delivery aircraft (the Buccaneers in particular), I might shift the emphasis of the scenario to destroying Air Force Base Waterkloof as this was the home base for both types. But even then the simple atomic bombs could apparently be delivered by any and all of the SAAF's jets - even the Impala trainers if the pilot was willing to become a kamikaze.

I haven't experienced any problems with the B-52s not dropping their bombs which weren't the fault of the aircraft being too low. The high altitude of this region causes some unexpected problems. I'll have a look at your save though.

In regards to the US force levels, I have to confess that I don't think that there actually was a B-52 detachment at Diego Garcia at this time and am unsure what the strength of squadrons was, so this is an invention. I chose to only equip the B-52s with iron bombs so that the scenario was challenging: it's pretty easy to clobber South Africa's air defences with more modern weapons systems. I take your point on the AGM-86s though and will add a few in (as well as increasing the complexity of the South African air bases). The F-14s are intended as a one-shot weapon: they can be used to shoot the B-52s into South African airspace or shoot them out (the latter works better in my experience), and I think that the level of tanker support is adequate for this. I've tried to model a crisis-type situation in which limited US forces are conducting a risky operation because there hasn't been time to deploy a more appropriate force.

Well, according to Wicki, there are 7 B-52 squadrons remaining, 2 in the USAF reserve.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_B- ... _Air_Force

according to the Air force Magazine: http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArch ... igures.pdf

There are 58 Buffs in the active force and 18 in the reserve - so at least today, there are 9/Sqn in the AF reserve and somewhere between 10-12 per squadron in the regular AF. I suspect that there are a few at various flight and maintenance schools, probably a test bed or two as well in that number

Here's a cool shot of Diego Garcia with, what I would guess is a Squadron, 7 present and 2 vacant spots, also supported by a Sqn of KC-135s which I think is fairly normal.

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/bom ... ?service=0

I'm not sure they were ever permanently deployed to Diego Garcia but deployed there fairly often since 1990. This has a quick history:

https://www.stratofortress.org/history.htm

Cool aircraft. I've worked with them several times and they are impressive.

B