Part 13: Mission 13 – Operation Blindman's Bluff, May 7th, 2005

Safe Return

Mission 13: Operation Blindman’s Bluff – May 7th, 2005


Overview: An ISAF U-2 spyplane is returning to Los Canas from Erusean territory with vital intelligence on both the Eruseans’ defenses around San Salvacion, and on their ballistic missile launch fortress, Megalith, in the Twinkle Islands. However, the plane has suffered engine trouble en route and is returning to ISAF territory at extremely low altitude via Gnome Ravine in the Lambert Mountains.

Mobius 1 is dispatched alone to escort the spyplane back to Los Canas, and clear out an Erusean-laid aerial minefield of radar jamming blimps in the ravine to allow for the U-2’s safe return.



Guest Commentator: Joining me for this inaugural mission of the back half of the game is Cooked Auto, marking yet another guest commentator who is racking up an Ace Combat hat-trick with this game.





MEGALITH

The bulk of the intel the U-2 spyplane “Leopard” is returning to ISAF GHQ with concerns the Erusean ballistic missile launch facility codenamed “Megalith”. Located in the Twinkle Islands, much of Megalith’s operational specifications are classified, as it was developed in relative secrecy by the Erusean government during and after the first Usean Continental War as part of Erusea’s own proprietary spaceguard program, should Stonehenge prove in effective or fall victim to the endless bickering politics of the FCU and the UTO.

The facility was ostensibly shuttered by the Erusean military government following Ulysses Day to maintain its secrecy from the FCU and the Independent States, though with the loss of Stonehenge, the Eruseans are now scrambling to reactivate the facility. ISAF and FCU Intelligence believes the facility to be a first- and second-strike capable ICBM launch facility, capable of striking targets both on Mainland Usea and within the Osean Federation across the Spring Sea to the west. A potential maximum firing umbrella is still being calculated, with speculation being that it can even strike targets within the Union of Yuktobanian Republics or the Republic of Emmeria to the east.

Given the general opaqueness of the Erusean military government since Ulysses Day, it is unknown exactly how much of its nuclear arsenal exists following the global nuclear disarmament agreed upon in accordance with the Treaty of Lumen. It is also unknown how far along the Eruseans are in their efforts to reactivate Megalith as a launch facility.

Megalith coming into play has forced ISAF GHQ to advance its plans for liberating San Salvacion significantly. If the Eruseans bring Megalith online before ISAF reaches Farbanti, it will spell disaster for the rest of Usea.



NOISE JAMMERS

This mission sees the Eruseans resorting to unconventional tactics in order to thwart ISAF, particularly their use of airship mounted noise jammers. These unmanned helium-lift blimps could be deployed quickly and effortlessly by Erusean ground troops and remain tethered in place via guidewires. The balloons were equipped with high-intensity electronic countermeasure equipment designed to output excessive radar noise in order to render an aircraft’s radar useless at a given range. They also acted as a potential collision hazard for any blinded aircraft that might wander into their jamming field.

The Eruseans “mined” several hazardous stretches of the Amber and Lambert mountain ranges along their border with large numbers of airship noise jammers in order to impede ISAF’s advance into the Erusean homeland via air.

A similar tactic was used by the US military in the real world during World War II, only minus the radar jamming capabilities. The US Army would often employ so-called “Barrage Balloons” (which Cooked Auto briefly mentioned in the video) over battlefields like the D-Day beaches to discourage strafing runs on Allied troops by Luftwaffe fighters. The idea was that the steel guidewires tethering the balloons to the ground would severely damage any attacking plane that crossed their path. The tactic was ultimately abandoned, however, after it proved ineffective, as the balloons had a very low coverage ceiling and were largely useless against high altitude bombers and rocket-powered artillery.

Gunn

• Plane: F-15E Strike Eagle
  
• Mission 13
  
• Spawn conditions: Appears in the far north of the map at the start of the second half of the mission, past the 4 enemy planes that spawn with the mission update.

Tracks featured in Mission 13:

DISC 2

• 1. Second Strike
  
• 2. Prevail
  
• 3. Safe Return
  
• 4. Enemy Attack

The mission map production sketch: