Scenario for testing - For the Honour of the Republic, 1991 [REMASTERED]

[Scorpion86]

I made "For the Honour of the Republic" for CMANO in 2019 and since CMO came out, I've always wanted to update it, taking advantage of the new capabilities it offers. With the Summer vacations and a new, bold update of CMO to come out soon, I finally got around to it. Before I submit the updated version to the Community Scenario Pack, I'd like to have fresh eyes go through it, to see if there's nothing I've missed.

In terms of changes, I've merely updated the database, turned on AC Damage, tweaked the weather conditions and the names of a few ships, and changed the trigger that randomises the starting position of civilian and enemy ships.

Hope you enjoy this version of an old mission. Feedback is much appreciated, especially if you find a bug!
Thank you in advance.

[WARNING]: This mission was built using Beta 1265.1 and DB3K 495, so it probably won't work in earlier versions.

[Scorpion86]

So, from the absence or response, I gather everything is okay...? Some replies would be apreciated.

[SunlitZelkova]

This is a mix of a play-through report or whatever and a story based AAR.

Ironically, I decided to use Soviet tactics. Based on proposed AV-MF tactics involving Tu-4Ks and IL-28s, I came up with a very simple plan to attack utilizing the ASMs and HARMs simultaneously, which was supposed to distract the air defences while the A-7s swooped in and did their thing with short range munitions.

I began the initial search by using the KC-130s- Mk1 eyeball alone and all- as patrol aircraft, also inspired by the Soviets, when very briefly, they utilized basic Tu-95 bombers as MPAs on an experimental basis. Because the P-3s double as strike aircraft, I was nervous about losing them should they be discovered by the enemy CAP, while I did not anticipate the SAG to be far away for the reason described in the next sentence. I flew them around a little but misinterpreted the briefing as meaning the search zone was bound by east and west as well, so a little bit of time was wasted. I saw nothing with the KC-130s and switched to the P-3s, somewhat reluctantly. I began to identify civilians, and ran a search track along what looked like a shipping lane, but ultimately it wasn't until an ASM slammed into a NATO convoy ship and I began to pick up emissions from a Ka-25 that I realized where they were.

Despite fearing further attacks, I sent the P-3 on patrol back to refuel before initiating the main strike, resulting in a wait of about 6 hours. Finally, the first strike took off.

I had the P-3s up in front, with the escort trailing slightly behind. The rest of the package flew in a fairly random formation, while the two KC-130s brought up the rear. Having the P-3s take off first proved to almost be a fatal mistake, as the enemy CAP moved to attack the P-3s first, but the A-7s made it in time and shot down all of the Yak-38s, while also taking losses. Only a single flight of two was responsible for this, as most of the CAP began refueling as the P-3s began their attack run.

So the Harpoons were fired, and most were shot down, but one succeeded in hitting the Pr. 1134B (Kara class) and damaging it. The P-3s remained on station to provide a picture of the battlefield, while the sole surviving A-7 of the P-3 escort continued with guns only to keep the MPAs safe. The Harpoons mostly did nothing, but did force the enemy to turn on their radars, allowing the A-6s to make their HARM attack. This time, the HARMs actually managed to make it through. All three escorts were hit, with the Pr. 1134B being sunk and the other two escorts being heavily damaged.

Amidst this, the other escorts and short range attack group were refueling. They completely emptied the KC-130s, forcing them to return to base, which may have caused some of the A-7 escorts to crash later following the end of the first strike. The EA-6s continued jamming amidst all of this, keeping outside of SAM range. As the short range attack group began their ingress, new Yak-38s apparently launched from the Kiev and intercepted the P-3s. The escorting A-7 pilot, whose entire family had been killed in the bombing of Lisbon, fought valiantly, buying time for the P-3s to maneuver away, but ultimately was no match for the fresh Yak-38s and their R-60 AAMs.

Meanwhile, the A-7s began their attack run, while the other escorts attempted to engage the swarm of ASW helicopters surrounding the enemy SAG. I severely underestimated the capabilities of the Kiev alone, and it appears that while the other ships were disabled, the Kiev alone managed to defeat the eight strong strike. A single ASW helicopter was downed, but the other escorts were also destroyed by SAMs. As this happened, the Yak-38s tore into the support aircraft, shooting down all three P-3s and two EA-6s, presumably running out of ammo before being able to engage the sole survivor.

Despite the heavy losses, the attack did succeed in neutralizing the Kiev's escorts. Ultimately only two A-7s and one EA-6 survived the assault on the Kiev. The A-6s, which launched at standoff range, all returned unscathed. The KC-130s also did not come under fire.

Hoping that the Kiev would be stuck reloading or perhaps had run out of missiles (the A-7s evaded many before being shot down), I decided to launch a second strike. The configuration of the second strike package was as follows:

A-6 with 4x Harpoon x 1, A-6 with 4x 2000lb bomb x 2, A-7 with 6x AGM-65B x 1, A-7 with 2x AIM-9L-21 x 1 (escort), EA-6 with ECM pod x 1 (escort), KC-130 x 2 (support)

The SAG had defeated the initial Harpoon strike, and thus I was hoping the four remaining would be enough to damage the SAM launchers and let the short range attackers get through. The AGM-65Bs would handle any surviving CIWS mounts, and once the defences were suppressed the A-7s would zoom low across the ship, finishing the hulk off with their 2000lb bombs. I planned to have the EA-6 lay chaff to help distract the radars.

The strike took off as soon as the last aircraft was readied, with the A-7 with AIM-9s bringing up the front this time. Transit occurred without incident, and this time I configured the aircraft to ignore the tankers to prevent the package from splitting as occurred in the first attack.

The Ka-25 and ASW helicopters were picked up by passive sensors, and then the EA-6 turned on its radar to begin searching for the SAG. The ships had not traveled far from their last location, but it took awhile to get a detailed fix. Two Yak-38s rushed to engage the formation. The lone A-7 escort took them in a head on, successfully downing one with its longer ranged AIM-9, however the second missed and thus the pilot proceeded to engage with guns, however, the A-7 was apparently no match for the Yak-38 with its thrust vector assisted maneuverability, and was eventually shot down, but it did evade long enough to buy time for the A-6 to make its Harpoon attack and the EA-6 to begin laying chaff. The A-6 then escaped, as the Yak-38 focused on the EA-6. The EA-6 and A-6 together laid around 11 bursts of chaff at high altitude. This apparently had a positive effect, as later when two Yak-38s took off to replace the other, which apparently ran out of ammo, they fixated on the retreating A-6, which was ahead of the chaff clouds, and completely missed the A-7 and two A-6s, which were behind the chaff cloud. The enemy fighters were presumably being directed by the Kiev, as it was evening at the time of the attack and lacked their own radar.

Once they reached the chaff cloud, the A-7 and A-6s dove down to the deck. One of the Yak-38s still noticed them, but for some reason, despite diving to engage, he later turned around and disappeared. Around this time the Harpoons neared the Kiev... and every single one was downed. One appeared to make it through, but at the last moment was shot down by the CIWS. This left the short range attackers to do the job. For reasons unknown (perhaps the undetected sudden presence of a Tu-16 ECM aircraft), communication was lost with the air base and the squadron, but just prior to the loss of comms, the group leader in his A-7 was purportedly heard shouting "for the honour of the Republic!" over the radio to his brothers in arms. As a result of the loss of communication, what follows is instead a testimony from the sole survivor of the attack group, who ejected from his A-6 and was captured as a POW.

The A-7 and A-6s, despite having contacts all around them- including a lone Yak-38 prowling for them- neared the group completely undetected. It was only when they were within visual range that the Soviet response began. Two Yak-38s were immediately scrambled to support the one already up, which for some reason was unable to engage (the official PoAF history of the Third World War later postulated that the guns jammed). But before the new Yak-38s attacked, the Kiev began launching SAM after SAM. The Maverick armed Corsair almost made it to launch range, but was downed by SAM fire, killing the pilot. The bomb armed A-6s fought longer, evading the SAMs and Yak-38s, which finally joined the fray. The Corsair, just prior to being shot down, got off a Sidewinder shot on an ASW helicopter, but it missed. Ultimately all of the short range attackers were destroyed, with the final one- an A-6- being picked off by an R-60 fired from a Yak-38.

The KC-130s were sadly unneeded, as every aircraft that would have needed to refuel was shot down. Only the lone A-6, which had fired off the Harpoons, returned from the strike. Nonetheless, the strike was later deemed by historians as successful, as the damage to the escorts forced the Kiev to slow its speed, allowing British attack submarines to enter the area and then sink it two weeks later. The strike also eliminated all of the Soviets' conventional ASM power in that SAG, and apparently Moscow was too reluctant to utilize nuclear weapons as no further attacks from the SAG against NATO shipping occurred. A monument was later built to the pilots of the ragtag international group at the rebuilt Alfragide air force headquarters, while a statue of the A-7 escort pilot, who fought on armed only with his guns, was erected in the neighborhood where he hailed from.

The End

Note- I assumed that this war ends in a vague Red Dawn (1984) style conventional victory with no apocalypse

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This was a tricky one. I'm not sure what more I could have done, as if I had targeted the Kiev instead of the three escorts with the higher speed, more effective HARMs, one would still be up, likely leading to heavy aircraft losses preventing me from finishing them off. If it is intentional though it is still fine, this was great fun as is! But if you were aiming for a victory it may be something to consider. There is still the possibility that someone else is a better tactician than me and was successful though.

Another thing to take into account though is that I did utilize what are basically Korean War era tactics, and that may be what is behind my failure. I would be interested to see anyone else's results.

I don't really particularly have any suggestions beyond providing the above comment in case a victory was actually intended. There are only two things I might recommend, but it is entirely up to you rather than a vital missing thing-

1. Check the doctrine to allow the Yak-38s to utilize their guns (if they had them... IRL I think it was an optional gun pod and I forget if that is modelled in the game or not). The A-6s and even the A-7s are rather low performance and if the fleet is at risk, the Yak-38s would probably use them.

2. I don't know if it was your intention to have them that way or not, but the NATO ships use their stock names. It may be a bit more immersive to give them names. For the container ships, what I would do is just pull random ones off MaritimeTraffic.com in the region, and for the cruise ships you could look up lines and see their inventories in 1991, or also just pull names from existing cruise ships. If not their actual names, you could give them simple call signs.

This was fun! Thanks for the remaster!