Nope, it is not. Goals are:
Primary: "Protect the Parracombe, Jooyun, and Avila"
Secondary: "Destroy all enemy fighters"
Secondary: "Destroy all enemy bombers"
Bonus: "Destroy all sentry guns"
However, the 2 secondary goals are flagged as +Invalid, so they won't show up until the Fighters and Bombers show up, making their erradication an objective. (Since Command wouldn't know for sure that any would actually show up, they're not fixed pre-launch objectives such as Protecting the 3 vessels are.)
**Edit - And to answer the awarding of medals question: There's nothing in the mission file or campaign file that suggests any medals at any difficulty level.