It's 2012, and tensions are rapidly escalating around Iran's nuclear program. With John Bolton leading the Republican presidential primary, the Iranian government decided the only way to deter a US invasion, if Bolton were to become president in 2013, is a serious effort to obtain nuclear weapons in 2012. As the IAEA uncovers Tehran's surge in uranium enrichment and Bolton racks up primary election wins, Tehran decides to go all-in on the dash for the bomb and brazenly unloads fuel at the Bushehr nuclear power plant under IAEA monitoring. President Obama issues an ultimatum threatening force against Iran's nuclear facilities if its program is not pulled back, while straining to avoid an even costlier, larger conflict. Meanwhile, the USS George Washington carrier group prepares itself.
This campaign was an attempt to imagine how tensions in 2012 over Iran’s nuclear program might have broken out into conflict, before the JCPOA but under the shadow of the mistakes of the Iraq War. I particularly try to explore the unintended consequences of such a conflict, as I’ve come to believe such military action is significantly more risky than many Americans imagine.
Included is an ATO PDF for each mission (to serve as the briefing), as well as a preface and epilogue to introduce and conclude the campaign's story. The ATO is added to the kneeboard of each mission, but it's strongly recommended to read the ATO before flying.
This campaign is aimed at relatively experienced DCS Hornet pilots, though of course anyone's welcome to give it a go. It assumes you're at ease with tanking, day/night carrier landings, and so on. Some of the missions require you to follow push times, schedules, procedures in the ATO, which takes some preparation in reading the briefing. And there are some extra challenges here and there.
Also, just fair warning in case you would be disappointed flying around and not actually blowing something up: some missions may not involve using any ordnance. I try to make each mission engaging through the scenario playing out, but I know this isn't every DCS player's cup of tea.
The campaign is MIT-licensed, so you are welcome to modify/improve the campaign. This single player campaign was also adapted to a multiplayer campaign which we used in CSG-8. If other groups are interested in running it or adapting it to their group, please reach out: I’m happy to share the source files, etc.
This version requires the Supercarrier and the mods listed below. If you prefer, you can get the:
* "No Mods" Version here:
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3325785/
* "No Supercarrier or Mods" Version here:
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3325858/
REQUIRED MODS
-------------
1. Military Aircraft Mod:
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3307071/
2. Civil Aircraft Mod (v0.81):
https://cam.em-key.de/
Not required but strongly recommended for taking notes, writing coordinates, etc. (especially for VR):
https://github.com/rkusa/dcs-scratchpad
Acknowledgment (doesn't require user installation): this campaign uses the excellent Skynet script at
https://github.com/walder/Skynet-IADS
Change log
------------
v0.15.1: Fixed incorrect kneeboard for Mission 1
v0.15: Created "No Mods" and "No Supercarrier or Mods" versions
v0.14: First public release
