Sunday, June 28, 2015

DCS Black Shark - Supporting a Raid at the Inguri Dam

In this single player scenario,  I am commanding a flight of two Russian Ka-50s. The storyline is simple: Russia is supporting Abkhazian irregulars in the frontier with Georgia. After a lackluster performance by the irregulars, Russia has launched a raid into the Inguri Dam. Surprisingly, during their exfiltration, the Russian raiders found themselves outgunned against the Georgians, who quietly have been building up an outpost near the dam. From the heights of the dam, the Russian raiders can see the Georgian forces, which include one tank, two BMPs and infantry. One hell of a Georgian reaction force is teaming up at the foothill of the dam ... A flight of Russian Su-25Ts and a flight of Ka-50s is called in support. The mission is to clear the exfiltration route of the raiders.

Takeoff from FARP Torba .



On route, the wingman is on its station.
The moving map of the ABRIS, showing our exact position. We are zooming in at high speed (278 kmh).

Approaching waypoint #4. This is our fence-in point. The Su-25Ts are already in the target area and their calling SAMs. This is going to be interesting.

A SAM zooms past our flight path. We are not the target, for the time being. When did the Georgians bring up a SAM battery?
After bringing the Shark to a complete stop and using the hills in front of the enemy position as cover, I raise up just enough to snipe the SAM battery out of commission with Vikhr missiles. Getting a visual on their position was easy enough as they were shooting so much. The Su-25s have left the target area after jettisoning their weapons.
Another view of the engagement against the SAM launchers. Note the hill in front of the Shark. The engagement range was 6.1 km, which is some 2 km short of the maximum range. I was not able to take advantage of the maximum range because I I didn't want to be too far away from that hill in front of my helicopter.
To re-engage the remaining targets in the area I turn back and start over from a previous waypoint.

Now heading back into the target area and at a higher altitude, I start picking ENY contacts. This Georgian tank in the Shkval targeting system burnt viciously to one of my Vikhr missiles. 

Trucks, BMPs, and that MANPAD that shot one heat-guided missile. All gone. It was utter devastation.

I didn't even spare the infantry, which I engaged with the cannon. 
My flight had weapons and fuel enough to stay on station for more, but we have been called back to FARP Torba. In this picture, I am tuning my AM radio into Torba's frequency (127.5).
That's FARP Torba. I am slowly approaching it. With all the stabilization systems of the Ka-50, it is difficult to miss a landing if you take it easy.

A perfect landing.

Cheers,






3 comments:

Johan said...

One great thing about the upcoming DCS World 2 is that a lot of AI frustrations will be adressed, one of them being the ability to stop them from jettisoning all weapons at the first hint of a SAM. Something to look forward to!

JC said...

Hi Johan,

Thanks for reading and for your comment.

That's great news. In this mission it was not too much of a bother because IIRC, the Su-25s are not supposed to engage into SEAD missions. Well, neither is the Ka-50. :)

Cheers,

Tor said...

Nice job! In my experience, the Ka-50 can be a challenging bird to master.