Editor's Note: Due to comments and suggestions from readers, the author has decided to add additional details and insights to this after action report. What follows is the second edition of the article which was published in its original form on Sunday, September 23rd.

July 10, 1983

Cruising off the coast of Libya

Personal Log of Squadron Commander Dan “Cherub” Verssen

Looks like Colonel Gaddafi is at it again by declaring another “Line of Death” across the Gulf of Sidra. Word has it we’ll be testing that line over the next couple days. The squadron is feeling good and ready for action.

Mission orders have been cut. We’ve been tasked to take out a large arms factory defended by both sites and bandits. I’ve selected 6 pilots for the mission: Spider, Banzai, Wedge, Dino, Lightning, and Griffin.

From the intel report, it looks like the factory is ringed by a fair number of long range sites. They have a 23mm gun set-up in the factory’s parking lot.

On the good side, the target is located near the coast, so we’ll be able to carry almost a full weapon load.

Its 3 Victory Points will also advance me toward a Great outcome for the campaign.

If I can destroy this target and not suffer too much stress, I should be a good position to take on a major target tomorrow and win this campaign.

Now comes the tricky part of the mission. How do I defeat this layered defensive network?

The large number of long-range SAM (Surface-to-Air-Missile) sites makes this a complicated mission. Also, the high number of hits that need to be scored on the target doesn’t help. Luckily, Bandit should be minimal. I’m expecting to have roughly 3 bandits in the target area.

Here’s a couple general attack plan ideas…

Aircraft – I’d like to arm 2 Hornets for air combat. This leaves me 4 hornets to suppress the sites and score hits on the target.

Air Combat – The 2 air combat hornets will be armed with Sparrows and Sidewinders. This will let them attack the bandits and provide suppressing fire if any of the Bandits try to shoot at the air to ground guys.

Shrikes/Mavericks – I could load up with AGM-45 Shrikes, AGM-62 Walleyes, and AGM-65 Mavericks, take out the sites from Pre-Approach, and then volley the Walleyes/Mavericks from an Approach area. This keeps me from having to enter the center area where all the long-range sites can get me, but I’m not sure I can score enough hits. I would need to fire maybe 16 to score 10 hits. I’m not sure I can afford to devote 32 weight points.

Shrike/Bombs – I take out the sites with Shrikes, then fly over the target and hit it with bombs. The nice part of this plan is I get a lot of hitting power with bombs. The bad part is, I need to fly over the center of the target. This plan will either leave me vulnerable to long-range sites, or I will need to carry extra Shrikes.

Special Option Weapons – I can spend some special option points to buy some of the high-tech weapons, but I’d like to save them for the next mission.

Defense Pods/Bombs – Another option is to take pods instead of Shrikes. In this plan, I would take the site attacks, and hope the pods can keep me safe. I’m not sure about this one. I would need to take the ALQ-119s to protect me from the long-range sites. This would use 2 weights per plane. With the 5 remaining weight point, I could probably get 3 hits per plane with bombs. This would give me 12 hits, but if even a single plane gets damaged I’ll come up short on hits.

Approach Paths – I can either divide the planes and hit the target from different angles, or group up everyone and hit it from one direction. If I come in from different directions, I can take out a good number of sites on the first turn. If I group-up, I can punch through one side easily, but I might take a lot of fire from the adjoining approach areas.

I’ve decided to arm-up with a mix of Shrikes and bombs for the air-to-ground guys, and Sparrows and Sidewinders for the air guys. The major challenge we’re going to face is the shear size of the complex. It’s going to take a lot of pounding.

While heading for the target, we’ve been notified that the powers-to-be have decided this is a Vital Target.

I’ve sent Wedge and Dino to come in from the North. From there, they should be able to provide air cover for the 2 strike groups coming in from the West and East. Everyone is coming in at high altitude. We’ll do our best to take down their long range SAM sites before they can get too many shots at us.

Looks like the walls and roofs of this place were a little thicker than we thought. We did not need this. I was already concerned about not carrying enough bomb tonnage.

As we close in on the factory, we start to see the tactical situation. We’ve got a few bandits, but Wedge and Dino should be able to take care of them. Or at least fire enough missiles at them to keep them too busy to attack our strikers.