On Time On Target

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I merely did that to maybe give some hope to Sacha, in what manner I do not readily know, but I guess I wanted her to hear my voice?

I must not think about affairs of this manner as I flew along the valley floor searching for smoke trails of a mujahid gunner. I was too close to the border to not look. It was not the time to be pursuing matters of the heart.

Once I was 41 kilometers from the target bridge — well inside the engagement circle of the two HAWK systems — I pulled the aircraft up leaving my Kh-31ps active, as I was going to engage them first.

You must unfortunately expose yourself to the hostile radar system in order to engage it. Unlike the British ALARM, which allows you to fire it into the sky, then when it itself detects a hostile threat, it will engage it. Surely our scientists can come up with something similar?

I started to hear the tones on the TWD, and I maneuvered the aircraft to align the Kh-31p's seeker head towards the first threat, the one system at Ochamchira.

I got launch authorization, and fired.

The Kh-31p had been modified from the earlier variants, to take an upward launch profile. This is more akin to the air-to-air missile launch. This reduced the chance of buildings, or other obstructions from preventing engagement, as well as increasing range.

I then turned east, and dove for the protective cover of the mountains. While I may have been outside it's engagement area, I did not want to take the chance.

After waiting, I oriented towards Tkvarchelli, using the TWD as my sniffer for my remaining missile.

Upon detecting the second hostile HAWK, and pressing the lock button...

...I got authorization, and my last anti-radiation missile left my aircraft.

Again, I brought my aircraft into the protective shroud of the mountains, and after a minute, ejected some flares and chaff for any other systems that may be lurking about, particularly mujahid gunners.

I waited some more, then I oriented to the two bridges that were my first set of targets.

Ironhand missions require patience and thinking in order to survive. You may think you have the target system, but what the Americans call "Uncle Murphy" comes into play. You must wait, flying a generally safe profile, then come back up and see if your weapons have engaged the target. If successful, then it is nothing. If however, they miss, then it will be interesting indeed!

I shed the mountains, and bore in on the first bridge.

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