NATO reinforcements have arrived safely in Hatay, and for the time being a buffer has been established around Hatay Airport, which is expected to be back in operation soon.
Despite heavy losses last week, Syria continues to flood the region with ground reinforcements which are staging along the border with Hatay each night. Defense analysts believe that a large quantity of arms and vehicles are being supplied to Syria by the Russians through Azerbaijan and Iran. This influx of equipment is troublesome as it looks to prolong president Assad’s venture into Hatay, despite NATO coalition opposition.
Because of this, SecDef and the JCS have authorized deeper strikes into Syrian territory against infrastructure and targets of economic or strategic value to the Assad regime. It is hoped that damage to such targets will affect Syria’s ability to purchase Russian arms and convince President Assad that the cost of continued aggression in the region will come at a price that is too high to pay.
MISSION
VFA-41 has been assigned to conduct a night-time simulated strike mission via a low level, nap of the earth valley ingress in the mountains of Turkey, 100 nm west of Incirlik.
The waypoints trace a rough path through the mountains to take to hit the strike area, and mission planners have set up signal flares along the route to guide aircraft along if they get lost.
WHITE signal flares mark the correct and valid path to take.
RED signal flares mark DO-NOT-ENTER zones. Invalid path, you will get lost. Turn around.
GREEN signal flares mark the entrance to the valley for the NOE run.
ORANGE signal flares will be marking the target area, bracketing it on each side.
A ship at the very end of the path on the southwestern coast of Turkey firing all four colors to mark the end of the route.
THREATS
Mission planners have placed "simulated" Russian-made air defences along the route on higher elevations than your waypoints. If you fly too high you may be fired upon and "shot down" by enemy radar missiles. Maxing out your aircraft chaff countermeasures is recommended.
AAA sites are also expected to be active in the area so watch out.
TARGET
At waypoint 14 is a collection of ammunition storage and workshop buildings. These are the available for targets for any exercise aircraft that survives the valley ingress. High drag bombs recommended to avoid fragging yourselves.
- target march6.jpg (1.18 MiB) Viewed 932 times
Weapons free on exercise strike targets.
Weapons hold on everything else.
MISSION OVERVIEW
DATE: March 06, 2022
TIME: Midnight
TASK: NOE Strike
WX: 010@12 / Broken 8,500 Few 19,000 / T40 / Q29.85
FLIGHT DURATION: 370 nm
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 066° / Freq 127.5 [6] / TCN 73X "GWG" / ICLS: 13
SUPPORTING UNITS:
Mission Tanker 1/ KC-135 / TEXACO 1 / Freq: 251.00 [8]/ TCN 55Y
Recovery Tanker / S-3B / SHELL / Freq 353.00 [10] / TCN:66Y
DIVERT:
Incirlik AB
Rwy: 5/23
TCN: 21X
ATC: 360.1
