Heatseeker/Cargo of Death

Cargo of Death is the fourth mission of the Kamcha chapter, and the penultimate mission of the game as a whole.

Introduction

With the country's long-range bombing force crippled, Kamcha is attempting to smuggle nukes to decentralized locations using transport aircraft, planning for immediate nuclear strikes. Identify the transports and destroy them with the assistance of Eyeball, who is commanding a stolen A-50 Mainstay.

Recommended Loadout

There are no ground targets so your weapon pack should be 100% anti-air. The F-22 Raptor V3's Air Superiority loadout is ideal for this mission. If you do not have it unlocked, the F-15 Eagle's Long Ranger weapon pack is a passable substitute for the LRAAMs.

Take Off From the Carrier

You will start out on the Nemesis's deck. Take off, and after some dialogue, the mission proper will begin.

• Bonus Objective: Destroy the fleeing boats - Near the southwest of the mission area (to your right when you take off) is a green blip on the radar; when you approach, they will be revealed as three PT Boats fleeing an oil rig. Sink them with SRAMs.

Identify the Transport and Whether it is Carrying Nukes

After the next cutscene, Eyeball will call out a transport aircraft a long distance away along with its escorts, all marked as unidentified targets. Hit the afterburners and fly in close for a look. Once you're in range, scan the large transport plane (an An-225 Cossack) by slowing down and zooming in while locked onto the transport to trigger the next objective.

Destroy the Transport and its Escorts

All planes in the formation will be marked hostile. You should be in position behind the enemy air convoy to quickly destroy them. A second wave of Su-34 Fullbacks will attack and will also need to be dealt with.

Defend Eyeball

Turns out the reason Eyeball didn't call out the previous wave of enemies is because he's under attack by a lot of enemy MiG-1.44 fighters, which can very quickly shoot him down if you do not intervene. Multi-target missiles are crucial to destroy enemies quickly, and why the Raptor V3 is basically mandatory - its access to LRAAMs and MRAMs are the only realistic way to relieve the pressure on Eyeball quickly enough to keep him alive. Open fire with every anti-air missile you have on approach to Eyeball, starting with LRAAMs and then MRAMs, to destroy as many planes as possible as quickly as possible, then quickly get on the tail of the enemies closest to Eyeball and take them out with your SRAMs. Once your long-range missiles have recharged, use them to whittle down the reinforcing enemy fighters. Time is absolutely of the essence here because one or two slip-ups can easily result in Eyeball being shot down; note also that the F-22 needs a second to open its missile bays before firing SRAMs, so keep this in mind when engaging and attack with your cannon when possible. If the missile bay delay is causing you to fail the mission too often, the F-15 Eagle V2 can be used instead as it also has LRAAMs, though the main strategy to win is to have extremely tight piloting to stay all over the enemy fighters and keep their attention away from Eyeball. This may require a few attempts to get right.

• Bonus Objective: Destroy the enemy air tanker - The air tanker is slightly to the east of the attacking fighters (to your left when you approach), and only appears in this section. After firing off your initial salvo at the enemy fighters, save a couple of MRAMs for the tanker and then finish it off using SRAMs. If you don't get it on the initial pass, ignore the tanker and focus on the fighters, then come back for it when most of the fighters are down, because Eyeball will go down if left unattended for any length of time.

Determine Whether the Transport is Carrying Nukes (Part Two)

Eyeball will identify a second air convoy in the distance before retreating. Fly out to investigate like you did the previous. This time, however, the Su-34s escorting the transport will attack you first and all planes will be marked hostile.

Destroy the Transport and its Escorts (Part Two)

Use your long-ranged missiles to shoot down some of the fighters as you pursue the transport, destroy the transport, then clean up the rest.

Destroy the Incoming Fighters

A squadron of Su-34 Fullbacks and Su-37 Super Flankers will attack, followed by several more reinforcement waves as you whittle them down. The Nemesis will send up other fighters to assist, though of course you will be doing most of the shooting. This is a simple dogfight objective, though partway through the battle, Rumbler will call out the third and final fleeing transport and order you to intercept. This objective will be marked complete when he does so.

• Bonus Objective: Destroy the remaining fighters - More dialogue will occur between Rumbler and Divot when the previous objective is marked complete; use this time to destroy all remaining enemy fighters before the next cutscene begins.

Determine Whether the Transport is Carrying Nukes (Part Three)

As before, the transport and its escorts will be marked as unidentified targets before the fighters move to engage.

Destroy the Transport and its Escorts (Part Three)

Also as before, fire a salvo at the fighters before pursuing and taking out the transport, then circle back to take out the fighters.

Destroy the Ace Fighter Squadron

A squadron of MiG-1.44 MFIs will move to engage you. The "ace" label means they will be somewhat more adept at dodging missiles, so don't expect a wave of LRAAMs to do a lot of noticeable damage, and the others will harass you as you chase down an individual plane. You'll have to do a lot of circling and firing SRAMs to take them out.

Once at least half the MiGs are down, an enemy ace will fly in, piloting a permanently stealthed Su-47 Berkut. He's not really a challenge despite your missiles being useless from more than 200m away; you should be able to deal with the remaining MFIs quickly and then just chase him while firing your guns until his plane goes down.