Back with another report from Heatblur’s Cold War server. I’ve been flying with a group of friends on the server a fair bit recently and I’ve already documented some of my earlier experiences flying the Frogfoot and Hind. This time around, I’m focused on a single platform and it’s the Mirage F1!
Strategic target striker
Heatblur Cold War server features of a mix of ground targets that help influence the direction of each battle. There are frontline targets largely consisting of vehicles and small bunkers or buildings, there’s the occasional EW tower, and then there are more strategic targets (in this context) with HQ and factory targets. I was inspired by a recent Bullet4MyEnemy video to go after these targets and I’ve really developed a taste for this sort of flying.
Mirage F1 is, in the Cold War lineup, quite a capable and potent as a fighter and interceptor. With high speed, good radar and ample armament, the F1 is a dangerous challenger versus the F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger II. But I’ve had only a couple of aerial engagements so far and the vast majority of my flying has been using the jet in the role of strike fighter. And its pretty good at it too!
I haven’t yet settled on an optimal loadout but I did start with two fuel tanks and gradually found that they weren’t needed for these sorties. More and more it’s been a loadout that included French, Spanish and American general purpose, low-drag, bombs in pairs under each wing and a quad mount under the fuselage. We’ve also been bringing along a Matra SNEB rocket pack with 37 HEAT rockets on the outer wings. And we’ve, of course, been packing the pair of onboard 30mm DEFA cannons and I like putting Magic I missiles on the wingtips.
The results?
After nearly a dozen sorties, I’ve added some additional knowledge to my understandings of the Mirage F1 and flown the jet in single and formations with other Mirage F1s and mixed formations with other jets. And its been terrific fun!
Factories are the easiest targets with large areas to target and dropping a string of bombs on them can bring them down quickly. Supporting buildings are vulnerable to follow-up rocket attacks.
More challenging is when we have to deal with concentrated SAM defenses around enemy airfields, which I’ve strayed into a couple of times, or persistent enemy fighters. In one instance, damage to my flap system made it difficult to get away from a persistent enemy fighter who eventually got the better of me after a protracted battle.
When uncontested, we’ve caused significant damage to both the enemy HQ target and factory targets in the north of the map. A pair of Mirages can travel quickly with a significant payload and, when properly aimed, hit and cause significant damage with fast pop-up and roll-over maneuvers onto target.
In these instances, we’ve been able to significantly affect the frontlines sometimes taking over two or three hexes at a time.
In one sortie, a mixed flight of MiG-21 escort with Su-25A and Mirage F1 strikers laid waste to a factory and the enemy northern HQ. It was highly effective and, as I said earlier, tremendous fun.
I’ve only flown the F1 on a largely fruitless combat air patrol sortie.
I did engage with a F-4 Phantom and even fired a Magic I at it only for the Phantom to crash into the ground just as I fired the missile and for said missile to then track onto my wingman instead. Unfortunate!
So, while my ground attack sortie success rate is relatively high, aerial combat success remains low. Perhaps that will change soon! In the meantime, the Mirage F1 as a strike fighter is just a tremendous amount of fun.
Stormbirds 
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