Celtic bombing of Serbia
General information
Operation "Cupid's arrow" as codenamed by the Celtic union due to the operation taking place on Valentine's day, took place over the night of the 14th February 2024. It involved strategic bomber assets, namely B-52s from the 62nd Strategic Bomber wing of the Celtic Union, composed of 5 B-52 bombers, 3 of these took part in the operation, with 1 being shot down. It also involved a squad of 24 F-16Cs from the Celtic Army Air Corps 1st Fighter wing "Saoradh", of which 11 were shot down by Serbian MiGs. Of the 27~ MiG-29s deployed by Serbia, 20 were shot down.
Events
Initial cruise-missile strikes.
At 20:15PM the Celtic B-52s, escorted by a single F-16, launched over 40 Cruise missiles towards Belgrade over a space of 60 seconds, the bombers then turned away, where 1 was shot down.
The missiles (CALCM cruise missiles), struck the central industrial district, southern commercial districts, government buildings, and an airbase, causing immense damage and an unknown amount of casualties.
Celtic SEAD operations
The escorting F-16 of the bomber wing fired 2 AGM-88 HAARM anti radiation missiles towards Serbian SAMs, destroying both.
Serbian response
The Serbian air force quickly scrambled a large number of MiG-29s, downing the SEAD F-16 and a Celtic B-52.
The air battle
The air battle lasted over half an hour. Celtic F-16s flew in well behind the bombers, and caught the MiG-29s in their response, downing multiple, over the next half hour the Celtic F-16s maintained near total aerial supremacy over Belgrade, downing 20 MiG-29s, and themselves losing 12 F-16s, after obliterating nearly all of the Serbian fighters in the area, the fighting subsided.
