Falcon 4: Mission Report 2

Takeoff: Day 1, 08:15

There have been numerous air-raids in our area, coming from the North West across the bay. We have been tasked for a sweep mission in this area to try to reduce these raids. It is a flight of 4, each of us armed with 6 AMRAAMS.

We take off at 8:15, and upon checking in with AWACS, are informed of enemy aircraft within 40 miles. Wanting to go on the offensive straight away, I use afterburner and race for altitude. Picking the targets up on radar at about 25 miles, I pick one and set my second element after him. I send my wingman after another, and I shoot at yet another one. Once my missile is 'pitbull', I turn away to put a bit of distance between me and the enemy, and also so I can assess what's left after the rest of my flight have finished - the answer: nothing.

Turning back to our flight plan, it's not long before some more enemy aircraft are at about 40 miles. Again we engage. After we have shot most of them down, there is one left at about 30 miles and he is running back North (we are to his South). I am aware that we are all gettin glow on fuel, so I decide not to chase after him (it would probably have needed a good run on afterburner to catch him, and I didn't think we had the fuel).

One of my wingmen calls 'Joker', so I decide to cut the corner off our flight-path and head straight back to base (there isn't a tanker for 80 miles!). Thinking this would be about it for the action, I checked with AWACS one final time before starting my approach, and there were more enemy aircraft at about 30 miles! We turned and engaged yet again, downing them all in the first volley of missiles. It's a good job because my wingmen were all calling 'Bingo' fuel. We contacted the tower and asked for an approach. They were directing us around for ages (the tower doesn't seem to work very well in FF3, don't know if it's better in any other version) but eventually I was directed to finals with the runway in front of me.

I couldn't believe the debrief - I won Air Medal and got promoted to Captain! When I looked at the statistics, it's maybe understandable. My flight killed 11 all together (I got 3, my wingman got 5, the other element got 2 and 1 between them). All in all, a good mission. Lets just hope we can keep this up and start taking the fight to them!