After Action Report: Operation Persian Freedom Phase 3 Mission 17: Munitions Factory at Aghar Jan 11.14.04 Page 8

By SimHQ on June 22, 2006 in _air6, hide

“Jupiter 11, Panhead 11, picture clean. Cleared a fragged, good hunting.”

With that, my wingmen and I switched our systems over to air to ground mode with a push of the A/G button on the left side of the cockpit dash. The MFDs instantly changed to their default screens, the stores management system on the left, and the silenced ground radar on the right. The JSOW I had selected was programmed in for my assigned target, as were the smart pigs of the other members of the flight. As was our usual tactic, we had assigned the targets to the appropriate JSOW and the programs set up to switch the target to the appropriate JDAM should we miss or should the JSOWs fail. That way we would be able to make a second attack with a simple flick of a switch:

The HUD display showed that we were still a good 15 miles to the launch point, but so far we hadn’t seen any resistance. The only thing was that at such a low altitude, the launch envelope for the JSOW is significantly reduced, so we get a longer launch point and TTMR reading. If we were able to get in closer, we’d be able to launch and get the hell out of Dodge, but at this altitude, it would make it much more hairy. Luckily, this was going to be made a bit easier by our buddies in the EA-6B Prowler that reported that they had arrived on station:

“Hacksaw 21, on station,” came the call as invisible waves of radar noise and electromagnetic bursts clouded the AAA and SAM radars, masking us from detection. With the electronic shroud cast over our aircraft, we were a bit freer to climb up to a higher altitude and increase our JSOW envelope. I led the flight to 10,000 ft and watched the TTMR and LP range shrink away: