August 15th, 1987, Persian Gulf:
Over an hour ago we received reports that a Kuwaiti tanker reflagged as the MV Erie had struck a mine between Sir Abu Nuayr and Sirri Islands. Rushing to assist, the USS Samuel B Roberts hit another mine nearby. Both ships are struggling to stay afloat. We have other ships on the way to help, but they are taking their time because of the mine risk. It also appears the Iranians are sending their own ships with an unknown purpose. We are trying to talk to Iran's leadership, but haven't received a reply.
You (Colt 1-1) and GasCan (Colt 1-2) will take off immediately and fly to the USS Roberts. Colt 1-1 will fly with afterburners on for most of the flight to deal with the boats. Colt 1-2 will follow at full military power to provide backup and allow 1-1 to refuel.
We have an E-2 in the area (Wizard), with an F-15E coordinating everything (Overlord) south of Sir Abu Nuayr Island. We are scrambling a tanker and escort to join them and provide refueling services to your group. There are 2 Perry class frigates inbound from the southwest, but they won't get there before the Iranian boats.
Take off immediately and fly level at military power until 400 knots. Then go full afterburner and climb at 30 degrees until 30,000 feet. Once at 30k feet, level off and hit Mach 1, and then pull back to Stage 2 afterburner (still in afterburner, nozzles pointed to 2). Check in with Overlord at Waypoint 1, and proceed to the USS Roberts.
WP1: Fujairah Airport
WP2: USS Samuel B Roberts
WP3: Refuel Point
Ingress Point (IP): Al Dhafra Airport (Divert Airfield)
Surface Target (ST): Sirri Island
Fixed Point (FP): Bullseye/Sir Abu Nuayr Island
Colt Flight: 253.000
Overlord (F15E): 133.000
Stennis: 127.500, 76X, BRC 302
Texaco (Tanker): 263.000, 63Y
Wizard (AWACS): 134.000
Al Dhafra (Divert): 251.000, 96X
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Designer's Notes:
Created and tested on the Stable build (as of 2020/3/1 -> 2.5.5.41371)
***Updated 2020/3/1: Added a vanilla version that removed any units from the Civilian Aircraft Mid. There are 2 missions in the zipped file: one that uses the Civilian Aircraft Mod (F14_3_USSRoberts_CivAirMod.miz) and one that requires no mods (F14_3_USSRoberts_NoMods.miz). ***
If interested in the Civil Aircraft mod:
More info:
https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3268436&postcount=89
Download:
https://cam.em-key.de/
They are there just to fill the skies with other traffic, and have no direct bearing on the mission itself.
This is the 3rd mission in a potential campaign I'm scripting out. If dialogue or briefings reference random things that seemed to happen in the past, that's because it did. :)
This is a hot start mission due to the timing of it all. If you don't immediately take off and fly as directed, odds are you will either fail the mission or run out of fuel.
Speaking of fuel, this mission requires an air to air refuel. Because not everyone loves AAR as much as I do, I'm not enforcing the Unlimited Fuel option. If you want to try the mission without refueling, you can do it with Unlimited Fuel checked. You will still need to head to the tanker and fly formation (within 2000 ft or so) for a bit. When you see a reminder to call Overlord, you can leave the area and head back north.
If you try to refuel, you will need at least 10k lbs to finish the mission (and that will be a slow, fuel-saving flight home). 15k lbs would be if you don't want to worry about speed/fuel for the return to the carrier. 20k lbs and you're just showing off.
This mission also requires you to tune the correct radio channels, although there are really only 2 that require it. If you check in (or attempt to communicate at all) with Overlord through the F10 menu, you must be on 133.000. Failure to be on that channel will mean missed instructions. The other main channel is 253.000, but that's for your wingman who will only give updates and help if requested.
Many thanks to Popchar for the excellent work on the Civilian Aircraft Mod.
Also thanks to Funky Franky, Flight Control, Pikey, and everyone else who has worked on scripting, MOOSE, RAT, and answered questions on the ME in the forums.
This is my first published mission, so please let me know how you liked it and if there's anything broken, missing, unclear directions, etc.
I hope you enjoy!
