[I call this mission easy for Darkstar series because it has basic maneuvers followed by only 1 simplified fly over. The fly over has to be accurate with the Darkstar which is complicated by lack of maneuverability in stratosphere so it may be more complex than a standard tropospheric mission but it’s easy by our standards, men.]
It’s 2035 and the new Cold War has been simmering near a boil for 12 years now. As a veteran of missions over Russia you should know by now that satellites have become unreliable due to ground based laser-optic jammers. The preferred method to recon is the use of the DS-32 (for the year 2032) Darkstar namesake.
For the most part missions are high altitude fly overs, the most difficulty being a correct vector over the target to get sufficient high resolution images.
Occasionally a flight may require multiple stratospheric injections and a lower-altitude approach (typically 40,000 feet. Still above the common folk’s heads.)
This missions isn’t that complex.
The objective is a flyover of Russian-aligned Venezuela.
Venezuela time: 0800hours.
Take off from home base KEDW (Edwards Air Force Base) at 0400 to get to Puerto Rico (TJFA) for refueling around 1000hrs local time.
Climb from TJFA to approach vector for stratospheric injection on a vector that takes you directly over Caracas, Venezuela to inspect Russian Strategic Bomber activities over their airfield. Take several aspect ratio pictures to get better coverage of the area to see other activities such as oil drilling.
We want to see the mountain range in this shot as well. Assume cameras are recording during the entire fly-over.
Once out of Venezuela descend in order to maneuver and vector to Howard Air Base Panama ICAO: MPHO.
Try to be over main target area by 1200hrs local time.
Should be a routine mission. The Russians only have S-400s in Venezuela now.
Keep in mind S-400s have an operational (not test) ceiling of 185km (555,000 feet). At your operating altitude of 200,000 feet the SAM would have to cover half its ceiling in range just to reach you and will spend the rest of its range to catch-up with you as long as you maintain greater than Mach 6.
I know the Russians haven’t hit yet; but that doesn’t mean they have stopped trying. They’ll take the shot if they can get a radar lock so fly safe.
Your vectors should look a bit like this:
