OCA Strike: A Falcon 4 Air to Ground Mission Report

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	The tower clears our flight for departure and I push the throttle to the stops and the afterburner kicks in as my wingman looks on.
	My heavily laden aircraft eats up runway and staggers into the air under the heavy load. Maybe the extra fuel wasn’t such a good idea!
	I glance back over my left shoulder at Osan and see my wingman rolling down the runway behind me.
	I throttle back to about 75% to allow my wingmen to catch up and set up for a gentle climb-out over the Yellow Sea. The mission length is actually a relatively short one so I busy myself setting up for combat. I start by reaching down to my left side panel to turn off my navigation and strobe lights. Though this is a daytime mission, it is a good habit to get into.
	Looking down at my left sub-panel I change my knee-board so that the high resolution map is showing. Whatever happens during the mission I’ve pounded into my head the mantra “Safety Is South”. At any point during the mission a turn southbound will put the most distance between me and enemy territory.

Turning to my air-to-ground weapons setup I select the air-to-ground master mode and set my Durandals to ripple one at a time, with a 990 foot interval, 6 bombs total, with one press and hold of the pickle button.

Continuing my set-up I reach over to the left sub-panel and flick the RF switch to “QUIET” which should squelch most of our radar emissions. One thing to note is that in “QUIET” the downward and slightly forward looking terrain-following radar and radar altimeter still function. When the switch is in the “SILENT” position, ALL radar emissions cease and TFR will not be available.

Flying high overhead I can hear the F-15C CAP flight chattering away as they keep an eye on the airspace ahead of our strike.

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