AAR-38 The Next Dance

As the result of an utterly unforeseeable event, Uwanda found itself in a head on confrontation with the Soviet Union. They now faced a powerful new enemy in the middle of a war, in which they had already expended much of their resources.

And... it was only a matter of time before before the first confrontation occurred, maybe taking a little longer than most expected.

As Uwanda's leadership stood its ground, the first dance occurred in the air.   With the Soviets reminding them of how the US abandoned its ally, South Vietnam, not too many years earlier, the Soviets began to apply pressure.

First indication of the presence of the Soviet jets occurred when the radar warning receivers in a pair of F-5Es sounded their alarm.  The Uwandans couldn't see their enemy, didn't even know they were Russian at this point, but they did know that the enemy was out there.

Soviet Mig-23s hunting the enemy.

The Soviet Force consisted of three Mig-23s flying at roughly the same speed and altitude as their targets, Two Uwandan F-5E Tiger IIs.  The "Mugabian" ground controllers vectored the Migs toward their target and informed the Migs when to activate their radars.  The F-5s were right were they should have been; the Migs continued on their path for a moment, then locked onto targets and fired their radar guided R-23 missiles.  One of the missiles failed to lock onto a target and did not leave the rail.  

Missiles represented by counters on the table,

 my miniature missiles have gone into hiding.

The F-5s got the signal that they were being tracked, could not find the enemy, and decided to turn away from the general direction of the Migs.  

All of the aircraft accelerated as the missiles closed on their targets; the third Mig got a lock on and fired its R23.  The Migs had fired too early and the F-5s out-ranged the R23 missiles.  

SARH R-23R missiles chase the F-5s, represented by counters 

on the table top.  I seem to have misplaced my missiles.

The two F-5s now turned into the Migs, seeing the attackers.  As the aircraft closed, all fired missiles, again with one of the Migs having a problem with lock-on.  The Migs fired their IR guided R23s, and the F-5s fired AIM9-L Sidewinders.  

Missiles in the air (well, sort of).

The missiles reached their targets quickly, with the first sidewinder destroying the the lead Mig-23, and an instant later, another Mig and both F-5s were hit.  All of the pilots tried to evade the incoming missiles, but failed.

The pilot of the second Mig was wounded, and he turned away from the fight; while the lead F-5 uploaded into a ball of fire and smoke.  The Second F-5 received damage, but as also able to turn away from the fight.

Explosions and smoking jets.

The remaining Mig-23 fired one of its shorter ranged IR missiles, but the F-5 had enough speed and distance to outrun the missile.  The battle had been fast and lethal.   And the Soviets could afford to do this day in and day out.  The Uwandans could not.

The rules used were Missile Threat modified to mesh with my campaign.