1-12-2025 - Damascus Dawn week 19

[Razor]

SITUATION

NATO forces are reinforcing their positions North of the city of Aleppo in preparation for a final push to take the city in the coming days.

To this point, an increasingly desperate Syria has refrained from resorting to chemical or biological attacks on civilians or NATO forces. However, it is still feared that hardline generals within President Assad’s extremist Ba’ath Party may decide otherwise as NATO nears the city limits of Northern Syria’s largest and most important city.

Syrian informants working with NATO have learned that a meeting of top Syrian generals and Ba’ath party members will be taking place today at the Ba’ath Party Headquarters in south-central Aleppo.

Disrupting the meeting and/or eliminating any number of these High Value Targets (HVTs) would severely disrupt the command authority of the Syrian Army and the Assad regime.


MISSION

VFA-41 will launch from USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73) and take up station to the West of Aleppo until called in to strike the Ba’ath Party HQ Compound and/or the HVT’s individual convoys as they travel to/from the meeting.

The Target Compound [WP3] is located south of Aleppo Fort on the western edge of a large city park. The compound consists of two large (presumably reinforced) buildings and is surrounded by other civilian structures. Therefore, precision 2,000# penetrator munitions (GBU or LGB) are desired for this task.

The HVTs will be traveling to the meeting in small convoys consisting of 2-3 Jeeps/Land Rovers, possibly escorted by Scout Cars or BMPs.

A NATO drone (SPYGLASS) will be on station over the city to monitor the Ba’ath Party HQ for activity and search for any HVTs on the move within the city.

NATO command would prefer to wait and attack the compound while the meeting is underway with the HVTs concentrated in one area, but SPYGLASS will have target marking and lasing capability should targeting individual convoys be required.

Pilots should familiarize themselves with the major Aleppo landmarks as identified in the Intel Photos section as they will be helpful if called upon to locate/target HVTs in/around the city.

THREATS

It is possible that Syria will attempt to have CAP up over the city while the meeting is in progress. USAF BARCAP assets will be on station to the west, however due to the unpredictable timing of the meeting and possible short-notice response, DEALER aircraft may need to sweep the area of any Syrian fighters prior to arrival of the rest of the strike package.

The SA-11 site SW of Aleppo is still believed to be operational, but Syrian EWR in the Aleppo area has been severely degraded by previous strikes. Regardless, a flight of Incirlik based F-16s (JEDI flight) will attempt to neutralize that SA-11 threat prior to our arrival (ToT: 10:30L)

Aleppo still contains numerous AAA sites throughout the city and at Aleppo Airport. If prosecuting convoy targets at low level, be on the lookout for AAA in the area.

ROE

Weapons free- All Syrian targets may be engaged.


MISSION OVERVIEW

DATE: 29 May, 2022

TIME: 10:00

SUNRISE: 05:27
SUNSET: 19:42

TASK: Strike against military HVTs

WX: 040@05 kt / Few 8,000 Scattered 24,000 / T25 / Q30.02

FLIGHT DURATION: 300 nm (Plus loiter)

AVAILABLE SQUADRON ASSETS:
Dealer 1: 4 x F/A-18c
Dealer 2: 4 x F/A-18c
Dealer 3: 4 x F/A-18c
Dealer 4: 4 x F-14b


CARRIER:
USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN-73) / BRC 050° / Freq 127.5 [6] / TCN 73X "GWH" / ICLS: 13


SUPPORTING UNITS:
AWACS / E-3D / MAGIC / Freq 266.000 [4]
Mission Tanker / KC-135 / TEXACO / Freq: 251.00 [8]/ TCN 55Y
Recovery Tanker / S-3B / SHELL / Freq 353.00 [10] / TCN:66Y

SEAD / 3x F-16c / JEDI / Freq: 266.0
Target Area Surveillance / MQ-9 / SPYGLASS / Freq: 266.0 / Desig Code: 1688



DIVERT
Hatay AP [WP6]
Rwy: 4/22
VOR: 112.5
ATC: 250.25


BULLSEYE: Hatay Airport [WP6]

[Razor]

DD-19 Overview.png (1.09 MiB) Viewed 143 times

[Razor]

Rhino will be tonight's MC with Hedgehog as the backup.

Rhino's RL got in the way of his mission building for this week so a big thank you to Mr. Bean for helping out with this mission brief. Sorry for the "klunkieness" of the post but I'm still learning my way around this forum. Hopefully, moving forward, I'll get better at this and real life will settle down for our mission builders.

[BammBamm]

Is the loadout at the FL discretion or specifically set?

[Razor]

The a/c will be loaded ahead of time as follows; Dealer 1: 2x GBU-31s DEALER 2: 2x MavE and 2x GBU-12 DEALER 3: Air to Air loadout. However, Rhino may wish to modify that come mission time.