@legionof1: Thanks, found it.
Another day, another question(s)...
Those !Missions! are said to start appearing on the next month after you research them. I miscalculated and researched a bunch of them right at the turn of a new month (00:00 on the 1st). Have I royally blew it or will they unlock for the current month?
Found a first ENEMY HIDEOUT (lucky auto-intel report). It has a small radar range so approaching with a slow ship is impossible without detection (and consequent destruction). I also can't defeat the interceptor 1v1 with current AIRCAR (although Pilot is a beast) even after extensive loading. Is it possible to gang up multiple of your own craft to defeat a single interceptor? I reckon your ships would have to have higher top speed for that to work, if even possible.
Alternative way is using a CONVOY which I believe would do the trick (triple health and firepower), but can it attack airborne targets? Enemy ship looks like typical GOVT FIGHTER, minus the lights, with 5000 top speed. Another alternative is using AIRCAR to land instead of BLOWFISH but I'm wary of attacking with only half the crew.
It's gonna come up sooner or later but... how to reinstate finances of a country in PROTECTION screen (after infiltration or whatever it's called here)? I mean completely undoing it mechanically after it's happened. There's gotta be a way to modify a save do accomplish that. I'm already rearranging base facilities as the game keeps throwing curve balls at my direction. Devs, no matter how hard they try, can't win vs my OCD!
UPDATE: It happened while I was completely powerless to stop it. Easiest way to undo: save game just before end of month (funding country signs pact) -> open save file in text editor -> remove "newPact: true" line bellow affected country. Section you want to edit is near the top: countries -> type. County name in save differs from Geoscape. For example IRON TRIBE is called STR_UK, so use logic when making changes (and backups). It probably best gameplay-wise to do this after you destroyed enemy hideout in that area. Hopefully "Sway Local Govt" BootyPedia entry (which I discovered after the fact of course, not that it would matter) about shooting down Courier preventing this proves truthful. Although best case scenario is having ability to undo such matters after they happen, via built-in game mechanics. We can hope.
Thanks y'all.