NATO has successfully pushed Syrian forces out of Hatay and the province is now securely back under Turkish/NATO control. Allied ground forces have established a buffer zone east of the Syria-Hatay border and are holding a defensive line several miles outside the Syrian cities of Minakh and Aleppo.
Cease fire talks commenced in Amman Jordan late this week, but have not yet yielded any results. Accordingly, allied airstrikes against Syrian targets will continue until further advised.
Syrian troops are still well supplied with munitions and ammunition, allowing frequent counter-attacks along the NATO line. The ammunition plant at Tall-Rifat is still operational and supply convoys have been observed leaving the plant almost daily heading for the front. Destroying this plant will disrupt Syrian supply lines and make Assad’s forces more reliant on Russian-produced munitions that must be transported to the front from Damascus or back-line areas.
MISSION
VFA-41 will be striking the Ammunition/munitions plant at Tall-Rifat, located north of Aleppo.
The weather forecast calls for multi-layered overcast skies with chances of rain so visual acquisition of the target may not be possible from a safe altitude. Because of this and due to the target’s proximity to the town of Tall-Rifat, targeting waypoints [3-7] will be established over the factory buildings to facilitate GPS-guided munitions.
[3] Warehouse
[4] Production Plant
[5] Supplies storage
[6] Supplies storage
[7] Administrative building
COWBOY Flight, a group of F-16’s out of Incirlik will be in the vicinity providing TARCAP as well as other USN/USAF CAP flights on station over the coast.
Secondary Target Note: Should any SEAD assets accompanying the strike not be required to engage active SAMs enroute to or over the target, a Syrian IL13 EWR installation further to the East has been located at WP12. If active/detected at time of strike, SEAD capable aircraft can launch on this EWR (HARM PB code: 101) which will prevent having to target it on a future mission.
THREATS
The runway at nearby Minakh Airbase has been disabled, so any Syrian aircraft will need to originate at back-line airfields. This should reduce the threat from Syrian Migs enroute to and over target. Cowboy Flight will be on station prior to our arrival to sweep the area of hostile aircraft.
The route in and out of the target area just penetrates the WEZ of an SA-2 on the outskirts of Aleppo. Syrian air defenses have generally not engaged at maximum range, but some SEAD capability should accompany the strike package regardless.
Low level IR SAMs are present at Minakh airbase, but will not pose a threat above 12,000’
ROE
Weapons free- All Syrian forces may be engaged as required.
MISSION OVERVIEW
DATE: 20 March, 2022
TIME: 15:00
SUNRISE: 06:45
SUNSET: 18:43
TASK: Munitions production facility strike
WX: 210@12kt / Broken 7,000 Broken 20,000 Scattered 33,000 / T15 / Q29.78
FLIGHT DURATION: 300 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 220° / Freq 127.5 [6] / TCN 73X "GWH" / ICLS: 13
SUPPORTING UNITS:
AWACS / E-3D / MAGIC / Freq 266.000 [4]
Mission Tanker / KC-130 / ARCO / Freq: 253.00 [9]/ TCN 56Y
Recovery Tanker / S-3B / SHELL / Freq 353.00 [10] / TCN:66Y
TARCAP / 3xF-16 / COWBOY / Freq 266.0
DIVERT
Incirlik AB [WP10]
Rwy: 5/23
TCN: 21X
ATC: 360.1
BULLSEYE: Hatay Airport [WP11]
DD-12 Route Overview
- DD-12 Overview.png (867.13 KiB) Viewed 939 times
Target Area Detail
- DD-12 Detail.png (882.52 KiB) Viewed 939 times
Tall-Rifat Town/Factory
- Screen_220314_155016.png (5.36 MiB) Viewed 939 times
Target Facility
- Screen_220314_162832.png (7.02 MiB) Viewed 939 times
DD-12 Mission Datacard
- DD-12 MDC.png (67.58 KiB) Viewed 939 times