Russia has started a full blown war against Finland, Norway and Sweden. You are a part of a coalition force called Polar Shield, consisting of these countries. As a Viper pilot, you have been sent to Evenes Air Base to be a part of the RNoAF 334 squadron.
Defend Northern Europe against Russian aggression. Get to flight line and see what missions we have for you today.
Installation:
Extract "Polar Shield.zip" to:
C:\Users\%username%\Saved Games\DCS\Missions\Campaigns\en
If you have any questions, please go to this forum thread, rather than asking here in the comments:
https://forum.dcs.world/topic/380270-polar-shield-free-viper-campaign-for-the-kola-map/
Example of a canyon run mission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2IEYLP4Oc
Example of a sea patrol mission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHZnb9qd2A
Changelog
27 NOV 2025
- Added voice over mayday call by the AWACS if it has an incoming missile
26 NOV 2025 - UPD ATE 2
- You will be advised if the AWACS spots too many threats, regardless of what mission you're on. The AWACS will also TRY to scramble an additional two-ship of jets from both Sweden and Finland. If the jets are in shape to fly, they'll help out. (Thanks, RubberDogSh1tOutOfHKG)
- Some other bug fixes as well.
26 NOV 2025
- Added 2 extra tankers (Shell-2 and Texaco-2)
- Added kneeboard with general info
- Minor adjustments to mission texts
25 NOV 2025
- Fixed a bug so you can't be committed for fratricide if you hit yourself with a bomb explosion
18 NOV 2025
- Minor bug fixes and improvements
15 NOV 2025
- Replaced the player's AI generated voice with the voice of forum user KirkaFordis Rex (Kirk Ford). Thanks a lot!
13 NOV 2025
- Added Evenes VHF frequency on VHF CH4 (so you can monitor UHF CH2 the whole mission)
- Minor tweaking of bandit spawn time, made the spawn window a bit smaller
- Removed "Tango Delta" report. It conflicts if "Allied Flight Reports" are on.
6 NOV 2025
- Fixed a rare bug
5 NOV 2025
- Minor improvements
3 NOV 2025
- Minor tweakings and bug fixes
2 NOV 2025
- New mission type available : Urgent Delivery. 462 random routes. You need to pickup a random item at airport A and deliver it to airport B within a time frame se t to match the distance you need to travel.
- Increased number of available mission to pick from up to 4
28 OCT 2025
- New mission type available : Canyon Run - DEAD. 7 different bases to be engaged
22 OCT 2025
- Added more targets for Pinpoint Strike. 28 in total
- Fixed a sneaky bug in the shooting handler. Very rare
21 OCT 2025
- Increased the number of AI CAP fighters in order to reduce the probability of player aborting current mission
18 OCT 2025 - Fixes and improvements
- Improved loading time during startup
- Some mispelling fixed
16 OCT 2025 - Fixes and improvements
- A bugfix with Cowboy radio transmission - fixed
15 OCT 2025 - Fixes and improvements
- Added voice over for Cowboy rally point
- Tweaking of tanker corridors
- Other minor improvements
14 OCT 2025 - Fixes and improvements
- Reduced spawn chance for bandits, it was a bit too much in the first iteration
- Removed soldiers walking around player plane at startup since the player could accidentally kill one of them if they walked in front of the plane.
- Added a lot of new voice overs
- Fratricide. Player gets message that he has killed a friendly ship when he has killed a friendly tank - fixed
12 OCT 2025 - Fixes and improvements:
-pinpoint strike escort - AB restrict off if reassigned to CAP - fixed
-comm tower to use to boresight mavericks - done
-add missile defense wingman in datalink to player - done
-awacs bug. player don't get message that awacs gone south and mission is failed - fixed
-in case of reassignment to CAP, player gets coordinates for the racetrack of the dead CAP flight - fixed
10 OCT 2015 - Initial release
Defend Northern Europe against Russian aggression. Get to flight line and see what missions we have for you today.
Polar Shield is a 24 mission campaign spanned over a year (march 2016 - feb 2017) in a fictional war between Russia and Northern Europe.
This campaign consist of 6 main types of mission (CAP, CAS, Missile Defence, Pinpoint Strike and Sea Patrol). When you start a mission, you will get the option to pick fr om 4 different mission types, wh ere CAP is always one of them, and the last three is a random mix of the last six mission types.
Each mission type consists of a variety of different sub missions (which will be generated randomly), so you will never get the same mission, since enemy and allied spawns are random.
Overview:
Each time you start a mission there will be randomly spawn X number of Bogey Groups coming fr om north west all down to south east of the map with X number of planes in each group (random of 2-4). Their spawning time is also a random time between mission start and 1 hour out. Expect Su-27/33, MiG-29, MiG-31 and occasionally Su-23 and Su-34. If you pick a mission type which is NOT CAP, both the north and east CAP will be taken care of by AI, also random what planes, but it's a mix of Finish F/A-18, Norwegian F-16 and Swedish JF-17 (sorry, the only stock DCS Swedish jet is Viggen, and it will be a little too old for the rest of the field. JF-17 is somewhat the closest I could find in DCS which can resemble the JAS 39 Gripen).
Anyhow, if you're doing, for instance a CAS mission, and either the AI south or north CAP goes down, you will be asked to abort your current mission and be reassigned to do CAP. AWACS Overlord will tell you on UHF CH2 if that happens. (In testing I feel this scenario can happen 1/10 of the times). If you're doing a missile defence mission, and the above scenario occurs, you will not be reassigned to CAP unless you and your wingman has taken down all incoming cruise missiles.
When you pick a mission, you will get a briefing text with everything you need to know. You can view this briefing from the F10 menu anytime.
Note : you can safely compress time whenever you want. Whenever something important comes up, the mission itself sets time compression back to normal.
Note 2 : any mission will fail regardless of what you have achieved if the AWACS goes south
Note 3 : steerpoint 1 will always be bullseye and steerpoint 2 will always be homeplate (Evenes)
image.png
The 7 mission types
1. Combat Air Patrol
This is your go-to A2A mission. You will be randomly sent to either EAST or NORTH. You will always fly as wingman #3. You must take your own decisions, you will not get any direct orders from wing lead. It's DCS AI, so don't expect them to be super smart. The bandit spawn odds will be multiplied by 1.8 if you pick i CAP mission, just to stir things up a bit. There will also be in total 7 friendly planes (including yourself) doing CAP, rather than the normal 4 (2 planes on each front). There's a magnitude of randomness that can happen here, so stay sharp. CAP is also the only mission type you really need to use the tanker. The other mission types will normally not require air-air refueling as long as you fly economically
The CAP mission will always be available to choose, so A2A-only pilots at least has one A2A mission to pick.
2. Close Air Support
There are 12 different locations on the map wh ere you can be sent, as well as what kind of enemy units that can spawn is also random. There can be AAA and SAMs amongst those units. The JTAC/AFAC will prioritise those, if any. Hopefully ????
Use the in game JTAC-feature to get MGRS unit coordinates and such. The JTAC will always be on VHF CH3
3. Pinpoint Strike
25 different buildings you can be tasked to destroy. All are within Russia border, and all are most likely guarded by SA-300 (which also spawns at random places every time). Due to a bug in the Kola map at the moment, it's not possible to detect whether a building on the map is destroyed or not, so I've putted a COW on the roof of the building you're expected to destroy. You will be escorted by 4 F-16s with Harms and AMRAMS, trying to act as a more attractive targets than yourself when you fence in. AWACS can ask you to go for another more important building midflight, so you need to pay attention to UHF CH2.
4. Sea Patrol
Either you will be tasked to check out suspicious Russian wessels near one of the oil rigs/gas fields of Norway, or you will be tasked to take out a Corvette (which will fire at you if you come close enough). You will regardless of what kind of sub type be given a picture of the ship type you're about to destroy. There can be a lot of civilian wessels (random spawns) out there, and shooting at one of them will automatically fail the mission.
5. Missile Defence
5 random different cities on the west coast of Norway can be attacked. You will fly lead with one wingman. You can change the ROE of your wingman with F10 menu, but it will not act as a "real" DCS wingman.
Anyway, you need to take out in total of 6 cruise missiles (Kh-65) before they hit land. They fly very slow (around 3-400 knots?), but extremely low. You will get the radial to intercept the missiles in the mission briefing. Don't panic/rush, you have plenty of time to take them out.
6. Canoyn Run - DEAD
You will fly as wingman, low level formation through the fjords. Meet up at rally point and follow lead to targets. Your job is to clean up the SAM site after lead has provided SEAD support.
7. Urgent Delivery (non-combat)
You will be tasked to pick up an important item from airport A and deliver it to airport B. Make sure you've mounted a travel pod. Fly as fast as you can and make sure to refuel/rearm fuel bags when you pick up the item. You need to deliver the goods within a time frame set to match the distance you need to travel.
General tips
Unless you're flying CAP or Urgent Delivery, there's absolutely no need to use the burner at all. Kola is a big map, and there are some pretty far stretches you need to fly. Use time compression and autopilot rather than the blower. Just my 2 cents. CRUS page is fantastic at telling you how to endure the longest, giving you both altitude and optimal speed.
Credits
-A big thank you to forum user Don Rudi. I really appreciate your valuable insights during beta testing.
-Also a big thank you to forum user KirkaFordis Rex who added voice over for the player's dialogue lines.
Skins you should really get, which fits the campaign are:
Skins
334sqd tail 666
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309062/
334sqd tail 659
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309962/
334sqd tail 667
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309140/
334sqd tail 665
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309137/
334sqd tail 664
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309035/
331sqd tail 677
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309185/
331sqd tail 686
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3309067/
