Air to Air Analysis

In your current assignment, NATO wants Serb behavior changed. NATO can apply military pressure to achieve the change, or not. If NATO decides to apply it, it needs to select the form and degree of it. Serbia then can decide to respond, or not. If NATO selects bombing from the air, Serbia can respond with its ground-based defenses, or not. It can also decide to respond with its air force, or not. If Serbia chooses to respond with its air force, it needs to select a means and a degree. One choice is to harass the NATO bombing aircraft when near their ground targets, and another is whether to press attacks by aircraft on NATO aircraft to shootdown, or not. If not, the choice might only be harassment so as to preserve Serbian aircraft to fight/harass other days. (A campaign perspective helps to make this choice.) If Serbia chooses to respond with its air force by harassing NATO aircraft (only), NATO needs to choose how to respond. One possible choice is not to respond — and simply accept such punishment as a small/backward air force can exact. (NATO aircraft carry a small number of AIMs without sacrifice of any air-to-ground attachment points on its aircraft.) So NATO could alternatively respond by using only those AIMs.) Or NATO could go further by using some of its attachment points for AIMs instead of air-to-ground ordnance.   When the bombing campaign starts, NATO has the potential to fill all its aircraft attachment points not specifically designated for AIMs with air-to-surface ordnance. Or NATO could give over some attachment points to AIMs. Or, for some aircraft in the squadron you are advising, it could give all of them to AIMs for some of the aircraft in the squadron.