How Do You Neutralize Airfields?

[Tester28]

I'm pretty new to using CMANO and I'm trying to figure out how to effectively attack airfields. I haven't found any detailed tutorials on this. If any exist I'd appreciate getting a link to them in addition to answering my questions here. I've been playing the Tutorial scenario "Uncle Mark's Tutorials - 2 - English Jets over Uganda, 1973" to get a handle on airstrikes and CAP. I'm still a novice at those things. One way I want to improve is by learning how to neutralize airfields. To do that I need to know how airfields work in CMANO. What is required for an airfield to operate? What needs to be damaged (or destroyed) for an airfield to stop working? For instance I'd assume you need an operable runway to launch planes. I've found destroying runways to be very difficult in the aforementioned scenario, as most of the 1,000 lbs bombs dropped seem to miss, and the ones that hit don't do enough damage to destroy the runway... much less the airfield's second runway! Is there a better way to neutralize the airfield than expending tons of ammunition on destroying the runway?

A better question I could ask would be: what role do each of the parts of an airfield serve in CMANO? Are there structures scenario editors often include that doesn't actually do anything in-game?

Edit: I should mention that I am currently playing v1.13, build 972.11.

[Cik]

the runway structures do exactly what you would think- that is exactly what they're supposed to do.

tarmac/parking spaces/helipads (etc.) store aircraft when re-arming, repairing or while inactive.

taxiways convey aircraft to runway access points and runways.

runway access points allow access to runway(s)

runways allow takeoff (technically some subcategories of taxiways do too)

ammo facilities store the airbase magazines

generally there is a "weakest point" to attack depending on the airfield's design. often it will be the taxiways or access points, but sometimes it's the runways themselves- if the ammo facilities are unarmored it can be these too- if you can wipe out all the enemy ordnance they will only have the sortie contained on the plane (IE, one loadout of A-A missiles etc. for each plane that's currently equipped with them) if you can then force a launch as a reaction to an attack to bait that sortie out and then roll in with a much larger strike package that might work.


further looking at entebbe it seems to me that it's a fairly resillient airfield- two runways, lots of access points. if you can locate the aircraft on the airbase it might be better to just attack them directly by bombing the tarmacs and hangars they're in- the ammo storehouses also appear vulnerable- there's four of them and 1 or two bombs each will do the trick if you can get your strikers in over the top of them.

tl;dr it just depends on the structure of the base and what you have available. hitting the runways is much easier if you have standoff weapons that are specialized for the task, but alas just GPBs in the scenario.

keep in mind that runways can't be destroyed (though 99% damage, the maximum value will keep them out of action entirely for a long time) not only that but their "damage" from your perspective will only be updated if you do BDA- it's quite possible to knock out most of that airfield and not actually know that it's knocked out unless you specifically send some surveillance to look at it.

[Dimitris]

Hello,

Have you looked at the manual? Beginning from p. 123, there is an entire section describing how airbases work and what their vulnerabilities are.

[Tester28]

ORIGINAL: Dimitris

Hello,

Have you looked at the manual? Beginning from p. 123, there is an entire section describing how airbases work and what their vulnerabilities are.

I was not sure how applicable the manual still was. I've read elsewhere on the forums that the information in the manual has changed over the years of being updated. But thank you for drawing my attention to it.

[Primarchx]

The last time this was done en masse, the Coalition first disabled the runways as best they could then dropped PGMs on individual HAS'.

[Rory Noonan]

Cik covered the basics really well above; I like to go for the aircraft wherever possible. If you knock out a runway or an ammo dump they're slowed down or *might* be out of the game for a while, but if you can destroy an aircraft it's gone for good.

Make good use of the 'aircraft spotting' feature to identify open parking spaces or revetments that are occupied, and then let the CBUs rain.

[Tester28]

Have you guys found any particularly potent ways to spot aircraft in occupied buildings? Tarmacs and whatnot? I seem to only see them if I fly over with a visual search. Is there a trick to it?

[LMychajluk]

I don't think there's any way to see into the covered aircraft shelters (Hangers, Weather Shelters, etc....), only the open spaces (Revetments, tarmac, etc...). Maybe someday thermal sensors / imaging can be used to see which of the aircraft shelters are 'active'?

[Phoenix100]

Gunner98's tutorials cover some of this and they're brilliant. They're here: tm.asp?m=4300402 Scroll to near the end of the whole thread somewhere to get the last packed link with all current up to date tutorials. I struggled with some basic ideas for a long time before playing through these. I also played EjoU many times before I got to these tutorials, and I wish it had been the other way round! Though mostly in that scenario I struggled with air losses rather than knocking out the airfield facilities.

[LMychajluk]

+1 on Gunner's Tutorials. Forgot to mention them earlier.

BTW, the manual says that fuel is not modeled w/ air bases. Is this still true? Is it pointless to try to destroy a base's fuel supply?

[Cik]

yes it's true. you can script it but it's not a default feature.

ignore AVGAS facilities and go for hangars, tarmacs, parking spots, taxiways, runways and access points according to which is the weakest link in the chain.

[Dimitris]

ORIGINAL: Tester28
Have you guys found any particularly potent ways to spot aircraft in occupied buildings? Tarmacs and whatnot? I seem to only see them if I fly over with a visual search. Is there a trick to it?

You can spot them IF you have an observer within sight right at the moment when an aircraft goes in/out of an enclosed structure. This is why having persistent surveillance (e.g. a SOF team with binoculars or a stealthy aircraft loitering nearby) is invaluable for OCA strike planning.

[Tester28]

I've been trying Gunner's tutorials. They really are fantastic. I feel I need more knowledge of how vision and radar work at different altitude levels and with objects of different sizes.

[Wasicun]

If you want to neutralize an airbase, the fastest/best way is (usually) to bomb runways AND taxiways. (NOTE: if you bomb only the runways, the aircraft will still be able to take off from the taxyways).