SEAD ESCORT

[spinecruncher]

IS there a way to make a fighter aircraft an escort within patrol SEAD mission? I see for other types of missions in the mission dialogue box when you click on an aircraft, below that list box escort option lights up for selection as escort. But that does not happen for an SEAD mission. Why not? Seems like an SEAD mission would need escorts. Thanks!

[spinecruncher]

Ditto for support missions. they do not allow you to add escorts.

[thewood1]

I wouldn't use the escort function for SEAD and Support if they existed. I use fighter sweeps and separate missions to keep any fighters off of SEAD missions. I don't like having my fighters that close to SAMs while SEAD is going on. In more modern missions for the USN, SEAD aircraft do a pretty good job of protecting themselves.

As to support missions, that is typically jamming, AEW, etc. I again build separate missions with reference points offset from the support aircraft. That way I can put the fighters on the most likely threat axis and keep my support aircraft out of range of longer ranged AAW weapons.

[spinecruncher]

Good to know. What about air intercept vs patrol for a CAP?

[Gunner98]

Air Intercept is an interesting mission.

Pre-1960's I think intercept should be the primary DCA mission because most of your pure fighter aircraft (not all so you need to understand what you have) were designed specifically for this: fast missile launchers but not a lot of loiter time.

Once the late 3rd and 4th generation fighters started coming out (F-4, Mig-23, Mirage SE etc) they had the ability to loiter in an area for a longer time, had mid air refueling, had their own radars, had the weapons load to hold there own etc, they were able to patrol and dominate an airspace and be much more effective air superiority assets. Patrolling is expensive, a lot of wear and tear on airframes and pilots, so you only do it when needed. NORAD for instance still uses intercept because Russian Bears are not as frequent as they used to be.

I think that a good tactic in a modern fight is a mix of the two missions. A light patrol to act as the 'trip-wire' backed up by several layers of intercept with distance limits from the base. The effect here is a layered defence, throw in a SAM belt and you truly make the attackers job difficult.

Its also important to realize that intercept is almost purely defensive in nature while patrol can and in my opinion should be used offensively.

Like thewood1, I would not use escort for support or SEAD missions. Fighters are too valuable to be tied to this rather passive role. Far better to set A2A patrols that can do more than just this one job, cutting the angles by interceding the Ftrs closer to the threat will be much more efficient and effective.

B

[spinecruncher]

Is air intercept meant to be a local event, meaning that it is used to protect home bases and native assets? Otherwise, how is it used to provide cover support for example in the mission of God of War, where the Chinese are trying to protect their air assets while sending in mission assets hundreds of miles away from home-bases? Seems that patrol is used for screen and cover of offensive missions because air-intercept is a more limited mission.

[Tailhook]

ORIGINAL: ballyhoo

Is air intercept meant to be a local event, meaning that it is used to protect home bases and native assets? Otherwise, how is it used to provide cover support for example in the mission of God of War, where the Chinese are trying to protect their air assets while sending in mission assets hundreds of miles away from home-bases? Seems that patrol is used for screen and cover of offensive missions because air-intercept is a more limited mission.

Yes it's a local event. Use the mission editor to set an intercept radius for an intercept mission (say 100nm, so if an unknown or hostile aircraft gets within 100nm of the home base, intercept aircraft will launch to ID/kill it).

In your other thread I created two CAP missions in the scenario i attached showing you how an air patrol can be used offensively as a sweep AND defensively for high value assets. Give it a look.

[SeaQueen]

It all depends.

As was said before, a lot of aircraft that might be tasked with SEAD are pretty good at protecting themselves. If they need help penetrating the enemy fighters, you might consider putting up a patrol mission in front of them but use an engagement area to keep them out of SAM range. One of the things I've come to appreciate in the mission planner is the activation/deactivation time options. This lets you time missions so that you can get everything to arrive in the order and time spacing you want. Sometimes you want things to arrive simultaneously, sometimes you might want them to arrive in sequence. Part of developing your own tactics is experimenting with how you time things, and use them in combination with one another.

ORIGINAL: ballyhoo

IS there a way to make a fighter aircraft an escort within patrol SEAD mission? I see for other types of missions in the mission dialogue box when you click on an aircraft, below that list box escort option lights up for selection as escort. But that does not happen for an SEAD mission. Why not? Seems like an SEAD mission would need escorts. Thanks!