Falcon 4: Mission Report 5

Takeoff: Day 1, 09:48

This mission is an escort. A flight of F-15E's are attacking an airfield just behind the front-line. Again, same as the last mission, I don't expect too much opposition, so I sacrifice 2 AMRAAM's for the sake of 2 AGM-88 HARM missiles (I leave the rest of my flight with 4 AMRAAM's and 2 Sidewinders).

The flight is very straight forward. After making the turn at waypoint 2, the closest enemy aircraft is 50 miles away to the North-East, and AWAC's can't see any threats. As we approach waypoint 3, I call up my HARM's, hoping to see a radar belonging to a missile system, but there is nothing apart from search radars. I send one missile at the radar on the airfield the F-15E's will be attacking, and another at a search radar nearby. No sooner have I done this than AWAC's declares a pair of SU-17's 30 miles away. I send the second element after them. We get a bit of AAA over the target airfield, so I turn on my jammer, jink and turn away South, towards the next waypoint.

After landing, I see that I killed 1 radar and a runway (my missile to the airfield's radar must have missed the radar but hit the runway instead - oh well, it still counts as a kill!). One of the SU-17's must have either got away, or killed by someone else, as our flight just gets credited with 1 air-to-air kill.

I suppose the most important thing about the mission was that the F-15E's survived and hit the airfield - hard. The results from the debrief say "East Incheon has been completely shut down and will be unable to launch any sorties in the near future."

Falcon 4: Mission Report 4

Takeoff: Day 1, 09:48


We have been assigned yet another sweep mission, but this time further North. There are again 4 of us and we have 4 AMRAAMS and 2 Sidewinders each. Bearing in mind the last couple of missions - how we seem to have achieved air superiority round the front-line, I decide to leave my 2 Sidewinders behind and take along 4 cluster bombs. There are some T-62 tanks between waypoints 3 and 4, so I'll see if I can take a few of them out.

After take-off, AWAC's declares all clear. By the time we get to waypoint 3, there are some enemy aircraft, but nothing that AWAC's thinks is a threat. I call up my air-to-ground radar and find some targets. AWAC's confirms they are enemy. I line up on them and drop all 4 CBU's. Meanwhile, we are closing in on some enemy aircraft (I think they are transport-types). We all pick and engage targets. We have already over-shot waypoint 4 and are supposed to be starting to head back South. The closest enemy aircraft are about 40 miles away now, so we head back.

At the debriefing, I am credited with1 air-to-air kill, as are numbers two and three. Number four gets 2 air to air-to-air kills, so that's 5 between us. The big news is, is that I got 19 air-to-ground kills! For that, I was awarded the Air Force Cross!

Falcon 4: Mission Report 3

Takeoff: Day 1, 09:06

This was another CAP in exactly the same area as Mission 2. It was a flight of 4 and we had 6 AMRAAM's each, so we were looking to do some serious damage to the enemies strike capability.

We took off and checked with AWACS - no bad guys anywhere near. We followed our planned route, but the whole way round, AWACS was reporting clear. After we finished our patrol, I wondered about just going North towards the border looking for a fight and did indeed go a few miles. However, it quickly became apparent that all the aircraft near the border were friendly and there were no obvious enemies nearby.

We went back to base feeling slightly disappointed that we didn't get any action, but at least we seem to have achieved air superiority around the front line. Lets just hope for some more action on the next mission - might have to adjust the mission priority sliders to generate more air-to-ground missions.

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!

Falcon 4: Mission Report 1

Day 1, 06:39

I am told that the planners are wanting to concentrate mainly on gaining air superiority, and reducing the SAM/AAA threat, so we can expect a lot of air-to-air and wild-weasel missions.

The first batch of missions that are tasked to our squadron are all DCA, covering the West coastal area (South-South-West of our airfield). I take the lead slot on the first mission, take-off 06:39.

As our take-off time approaches, there is an unforeseen development - enemy special forces capture Seosan Airbase (our Alternative Field for this mission, which just happens to be right underneath our patrol area) and a radar station nearby on the coast (you might be able to make it out on the map). Needless to say I changed our Alternate. Recon suggests that both sites are fully intact. I have a word with my Commander, and he agrees to me taking 6 x Mk-82 bombs (dumb, 500lb, general purpose bombs) along to try to make sure they can't use the airfield. My main priority is to knock out the radar at the airfield, then damage the runway. I let my wingman go with just 4 AMRAAM's and 2 sidewinders - I have the same, but also the 6 Mk-82's.

We take off on time and climb to altitude. Querying AWACS, it sounds like an enemy strike is inbound to our area. Turning towards them, I quickly pick up targets on my radar, and AWACS confirms them as hostile. Aware that I am more heavily laden than my wingman (and not wanting to just ditch my bombs), I lock up the closest enemy (about 25 miles) and give my wingman the Chainsaw command. I switch targets, confirm with AWACS, and shoot at another. I slow right down and turn so that the enemy are right on the very edge of my radar until the missile acquires the target itself, then I turn away and try to put some more distance between me and the enemy. Listening to the radio calls, it sounds like there are some other friendly fighters going after our bad guys, which I was completely unaware of - a good job I was verifying targets with AWACS before shooting! Turning back towards the action, I now identify a couple of friendlies, but manage to find another enemy. Locking him up, I shoot another AMRAAM. I miss, but AWACS tell me there are no more bad guys anywhere near our area, so maybe someone else got him.

We finish our patrol period with no further sign of enemy aircraft. My wingman calls low on fuel, so I send him home - I still need to attack the airfield. I make sure I have selected CCIP and have it set for just 1 bomb to come off the rack. Going down to low level and high speed, I line up on the radar and pickle the bomb. Pulling off target I go around and come in a second time. I am lined up fairly well with the runway, but also not too far from the radar, so I can decide at the last minute whether to re-attack the radar, or attack the runway if the radar's already destroyed. Closing in, I can see the explosion just next to the radar, but it still looks to be intact, so I drop another bomb on it. This time I kill it, so on my third pass (there are no SAM's and practically no AAA, so I'm relatively safe) I drop my last four bombs down the length of the main runway. I know these weapons aren't designed for anti-runway (as I said, my main target was the radar), but looking over my shoulder as I head back to base, I see four explosion marks down the middle of the runway - it's bound to have done some damage!

Looking at the debrief after the mission, my wingman and I got one enemy plane each. I also destroyed the radar, and damaged four sections of the runway. Not sure it will make much difference to the war effort (I doubt they would station planes there anyway), but it was a bit of good practice if nothing else (my only fear is that we recapture it, then have to repair it before we can use it, thus hindering us more than them!).

Falcon 4 - Configuration

I have been playing Falcon4 for a few years on and off. I have started a few campaigns, but never actually completed one (win or loose) and I'm not very good! However, I'm just about to start a new one and thought I would try to write up my mission reports.

The campaign is Korea 2005 and the situation is:

"The DPRK has launched an all-out attack on South Korea. The Combined Forces of the ROK, the Us 8th Army and 7th Air Force must stop and repulse the invaders."

I am flying an F-16CJ with the 248th FS out of Osan. This is the situation map at the start of the campaign (Day 1, 05:00):



The version I am using is FreeFalcon 3.1 + Cobra 1.1.1 and have been using Frugal's Falcon 4 forum and FreeFalcon as my main sources of information.

Wish me luck!