18 December 2022 - Noble Tempest Week 10

MrBean · Post by **MrBean** » Mon Dec 19, 2022 9:04 am

Yesterday morning, two flights of F/A-18 Hornets from VFA-41 took part in a coordinated SEAD/DEAD mission against 3 coastal air defense sites in Crimea and Russian-held Abkhazia. VFA-41 assets were assigned to suppress two SA-10 installations on the Crimean peninsula in preparation for a ship-launched cruise missile attack on a central early warning radar located in the same area.

Two flights of Hornets launched and proceeded north. Several Russian Migs were observed attempting to intercept the strike package, but CVW-9 Tomcats on CAP duty in the area successfully dispatched any Migs that crossed over into the Black Sea.

Squadron aircraft timed their attack such that their payload of TALDs and HARMs would arrive in the target area shortly before the incoming Tomahawks. At 0940, all squadron assets pushed towards the target area. The initial group launched TALDs when 35nm from target, followed by a second wave of Hornets 20 miles in trail which launched pre-programmed HARMs at the SAM-sites various search and tracking radars.

The TALDs were successful in decoying both assigned SA-10 sites, as multiple missiles were launched to intercept the incoming decoys. Unfortunately, the majority of the HARMs were also successfully intercepted, with only one search radar at the western-most SAM site being destroyed.

Two Hornets from DEALER2 were destroyed when they strayed too close to their target and were downed by the Eastern SA-10. All remaining aircraft safely egressed back to the south to await the arrival of the Tomahawks over the early warning radar.

Fortunately, the SA-10 sites expended enough missiles during the initial attack that they were unable to reload in time to launch agains the cruise missiles and the coastal EWR was destroyed. Dealer 2 performed a post-attack BDA on the EWR site and then both flights returned to the USS TRUMAN for an uneventful recovery.

All three EWR sites were successfully destroyed by CSG/CVW-9 assets, however most of the co-located SA-10 installations remain operational.

DEALER 1
1-1 Mr. Bean - TALDs Launched, trapped
1-2 Hedgehog - TALDs Launched, trapped
1-3 Trim - 1 x Big Bird SR, trapped
1-4 Crash - HARMS launched, trapped

DEALER2
2-1 Rhino - TALDs Launched, BDA obtained, trapped
2-2 Dirty Dan - Destroyed by SAM
2-3 Maniac - HARMs launched, destroyed by SAM