This is the singleplayer, Growling Sidewinder remake of the Operation Ilois multiplayer mission, which can be found at https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3342387/.

Operation Ilois was a secret, off-the-books, Special Boat Service mission to capture four Taliban commanders in the Lower Sangin Valley in Helmand Province in 2006. The mission was a failure and the SBS convoy was ambushed by 70+ fighters on its return leg. Out in the open with only irrigation ditches for cover, the SBS and Special Recon Regiment fought for over an hour while a make-shift Quick Reaction Force was dispatched from Gereshk some 10 miles south of them. Nearby air assets - namely British Harriers and American A-10s - were re-tasked to provide Close Air Support.

## Background ##
Conducted in secrecy, Operation Ilois was an off-the-books Special Boat Service (SBS) mission to capture four Taliban commanders in the Lower Sangin Valley, north of Gereshk in the summer of 2006. Against a backdrop of a Taliban resurgence in the area, the mission became undone when their convoy of poorly equipped Snatch Land Rovers was ambused by some 70+ fighters. Fighting at close quarters with bayonets fixed, the unit was aided only by the nearby irrigation ditches as they waited to be rescued. As the mission was planned in secret, neither Camp Bastion or the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) at FOB Robinson in Gereshk were aware of their whereabouts which severely hindered rescue efforts. A make-shift QRF consisting of 3 PARA and Ghurkas was dispatched fr om FOB Robinson to search for the stricken convoy, while nearby British Harriers and US A-10s (flown by you today) were re-tasked to provide Close Air Support. Eventually the QRF arrived under the escort of an AH-64. but once they got back to FOB Robinson they realised that 2 men were missing. The bodies of Cpt Dave Patton and Sgt Paul Bartlett were later discovered by a AH-64 and CH-47.

This operation, and how desperate the situation became, sums up the British experience in Helmand Province in 2006.

The British entered Helmand at precisely the worst possible moment. First, Helmand had received an influx of foreign-trained fighters shortly before this operation. But, worse than this, the Taliban had managed to secure the support of many of the local militias and families from this precise area north of Gereshk (known as Qal'eh Gaz). This was due to the abuses of a US-backed government  "official" (read "warlord") - Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, a friend of Hamid Karzai, and whose militias had been backed by US Special Forces since they arrived in Helmand in 2002. Stealing land, securing narcotics nodes, and persecuting his old mujahadeen rivals, he alienated much of the local population and minimized any rival miltias that could have opposed him. This included the once powerful 93rd Division who will join the QRF in this mission. Meanwhile, the British and Afghan government decided to conduct a poorly time poppy erradication programme (which, as you might have guessed, didn't target the poppy fields of Sher Mohammed). The "Taliban" that the British were fighting were in fact local people with a grudge, who were now equipped by the real "Taliban."

As if this wasn't bad enough, the British [realising the negative effect he was having] dismissed Sher Mohammed in the months before this mission, causing a power vacuum and a resurgence in mujahadeen rivalries many of whom were backed by state actors in Iran and Pakistan. Without local allies, the British became the easy enemy of just about every militia in the area - spurred on by the memory of the Battle of Maiwand wh ere Afghan militias had defeated British India some 130 years before. And, in one last act of defiance, Sher Mohammed sold his US-equipped militias over to the Taliban.

And so this 16-strong SBS unit, deployed to this strange land that they knew little about, found themselves at the literal and metaphorical centre of a new civil war, fighting at close quarters against militias backed by Pakistan, militias based by Iran, militias backed by the Taliban, and even militias backed by the US.

Qal'eh Gaz is littered with the rusty remnants of old Soviet vehicles. Today, it's littered by the remnants of 2006 also.

## The Mission ##
Your mission is the safe extraction of troops in contact south of Sangin.

You will spawn over the town of Gereshk, having been re-tasked midair to provide CAS. You will fly east to connect with the River Helmand. There, you will turn north, follow the river, and attempt to locate friendlies, who will check in on your frequency.

You will first provide CAS for a QRF as they fight their way north from Gereshk, and help them locate the lost SBS unit which is believed to be circa 10 miles south of Sangin. They will provide cover while a rotary package, C/S Dodge (AH-64 and CH-47), evacuates the troops.

Note that the QRF is made up a combination of British IFVs and Taliban-era Toyota Hiluxes being operated by remnants of the 93rd Division - a friendly militia. Be sure to ID the enemy before engaging.

Your mission will end once the CH-47 has embarked the troops and started to RTB.

## ROE ##
You must postively ID hostile elements before engaging them. Note that both the QRF and the Taliban are using Taliban-era Toyota Hiluxes.