(REVISED) Operation Balpara 2019

[cf_dallas]

New scenario for testing... very limited use of Lua, since I did most of the build prior to V1.06 release.

Let me know what you think!!!

*******************************

01 February 2019

The island of Sumba, in Indonesia, has been torn by growing ethnic and anti-Western violence. Increasingly well-organized militias have been targeting Indonesian government facilities, outside business interests, tourists, and the civilian population.

Indonesia’s ambassador to the United Nations requested assistance on January 25; The Indonesian President formally and specifically requested Australian armed assistance on January 27. The President hasn’t been seen in public since and subsequent official statements on the situation have been issued from office of the Indonesian Minister of Defense. These statements have been contradictory and stress the internal nature of the conflict.

The militia is not executing civilians wholesale right now, but their public declarations and demands have been growing more strident. The militias are known to have captured at least one heavy weapons depot; any other assistance they are receiving is unknown, though its suspected that the Indonesian military is complicit in their activities and may be passing intelligence. It’s possible that the Indonesian military will act to defend the militias, their intentions are unknown.

The issue of intervention has stalled in the UN Security Council along predictable lines: the United States willing to intervene, France and Great Britain somewhat less so, and Russia and China holding to their long-held stance that nations internal struggles are no business of the UN.

While the UN debates and decides, the Australian govermnet has determined that the Indonesian request for assistance on January 27 is all the mandate that’s needed. On the 28th HMAS Brisbane left Sydney, while HMAS Canberra put to sea from Perth three days ago with an amphibious contingent and an airwing that includes four brand new F-35Bs. Additional assets are available at airbases in northwest Australia. Allied support is not expected.

Your task is to:
- Limit civilian casualties, either from milita action or by collateral damage.
- Identify and eliminate militia forces on Sumba.
- Land Australian troops on Sumba, taking control of both airports and starting the landing of an amphibious regiment.
- Defend deployed Australian assets.

Total Units: >500 units total; 11 ships, 2 subs, 75 aircraft in player control
Scenario Time: 52 hours

Designer’s Note 1: This scenario started with this article (https://medium.com/war-is-boring/austra ... 4519a756ca) and got more impetus from this article (https://www.aspi.org.au/publications/st ... or-the-adf). More discussion on the topic here: (tm.asp?m=3742676). The question at hand is, would a handful of F-35Bs add anything meaningful to the Canberra’s air wing?

Designer’s Note 2: There are a lot of civilians running around… ground traffic and buildings, air traffic, maritime traffic. Identify the target before you pull the trigger!

Designer’s Note 3: I started this under Build 573, I already had most of the event structure built when 1.06 came out, and I am a TERRIBLE coder… so there’s little use of Lua. Hopefully in subsequent releases I can add to it.


EDIT: Release 6 is the latest and greatest.

[tommo8993]

Played a bit into it, not fired a shot yet but plan to play more later. Looks a great scenario.

[gbethel]

I played it all the way through. Congratulations, you have done a very good job.

The only issue/problem I had was starting off the first time. I created an ASW patrol area for group Canberra. When I set the way points as relative I failed to realize that there were some objective waypoints on the island for LZ's that were also active. As the group moved so did the LZ way points. This totally screwed up my first attempt. To prevent this from happening with anyone else I recommend locking the LZ reference points and deselecting them.

There are some other things I noticed that could improve the scenario or make it more challenging.

1. Stationing the Sukhois on a base closer to Sumba. They normally light up their AB's and are bingo before they get to Sumba.

2. Placing some MANPAD's in the LZ's would make things more difficult.

3. There are some scattered groups that never factored into the scenario. The Brisbane group and the allies group. Maybe removing them will make the scenario run faster.

[tommo8993]

Yeah, I didnt really use the subs or any other ships just the Canberra group.

[cf_dallas]

Good feedback, I'm glad you liked it.... anyone else? Anyone get any unpleasant surprises?

I put in the Brisbane because in my limited testing, the Hobart nearly ran itself out of SAMs fighting in to the area, though admittedly I wasnt using the land based air at all. The allied group is the last remnant of the "color" I put into the background... color that soaked up a lot of processing.

I'll make some tweaks and let you know when I've got an update ready.

[Maromak]

Hi. Sorry this scenario is on my 'to play' list but haven't got to it yet. Thanks for your work.

[Vici Supreme]

ORIGINAL: cf_dallas

Good feedback, I'm glad you liked it.... anyone else? Anyone get any unpleasant surprises?

I'm really enjoying it so far and wanted to share my thoughts but I'm not quiet there yet. Please give me one more day! [:D]

Supreme

[cf_dallas]

Take your time... I've got a 60-hour-per week job and a one year old daughter, so I probably won't be making any changes right away.

[Vici Supreme]

Ok, I'm not through yet but here's something like an interim assessment...
First off, excellent work! I'm playing since 3 days as much as time permits and its still a lot of fun to return and having operations going on. This may not be the usual thing to mention here but the setup of the ships and subs in the scenario looks successful. Everything feels like being in the right place (even the Brisbane Task Group). IMAO placing sea assets in the right place has a huge impact on how the scenario evolves, especially with bigger scenarios.

1. First thing I'd suggest changing are the loadouts of the F-35Bs aboard HMAS Canberra. They start off with air-to-air loadouts which is rather rare in practise, given its role as a strike element aboard a LHD (further, there are no air threats in the beginning of the scen). Maybe you can give them some sort of air-to-ground laodout? In my case these F-35Bs were the first thing that hit Sumba and having them available with something to drop on the enemy right from the start would be cool.

2. Having some 3-4 CH-47F aboard HMAS Canberra wouldn't hurt the scenario. (look the picture -->http://www.navy.gov.au/fleet/ships-boats-craft/lhd)

3. You could clean up the map by making all single-unit airports - non-essential to scenario operations - invisible.

4. Distance seems to be too great for the T-50 strike mission. They approach on Afterburner all the way from where they came from and then RTB Bingo before reaching anything that could be a possible target. I suggest putting a tanker somewhere or making small adjustments in the mission editor.

5. I wouldn't change the homebase of the Su-27/30s as previously requested by other players. In reality, Hasanuddin is the homebase to the entire Indonesian Sukhoi fleet (I guess this is why you already placed them there). It's rather unlikely that they deploy detachments to airfields more south or east as these don't have the facilities to operate those aircraft. I'd say the Su's are just fine where they are. +1 tankers instead.

[Maromak]

ORIGINAL: Supreme 2.0

4. Distance seems to be too great for the T-50 strike mission. They approach on Afterburner all the way from where they came from and then RTB Bingo before reaching anything that could be a possible target. I suggest putting a tanker somewhere or making small adjustments in the mission editor.

5. I wouldn't change the homebase of the Su-27/30s as previously requested by other players. In reality, Hasanuddin is the homebase to the entire Indonesian Sukhoi fleet (I guess this is why you already placed them there). It's rather unlikely that they deploy detachments to airfields more south or east as these don't have the facilities to operate those aircraft. I'd say the Su's are just fine where they are. +1 tankers instead.

There is a similar 'RTB Bingo' issue in my own similar scenario with the Su-27/30 aircraft. Indonesia reportedly has at least two C-130B tankers but would they be compatible with the Su- aircraft, let alone the aircrew have enough proficiency to actually perform A2A refueling??

The issue can be solved using Lua to assign the strike aircraft to a transit mission (i.e. no afterburner) once the 'strike' has been initially triggered. Once the strike aircraft enter a predefined area closer to the RAN task group, using Lua once again, the strike aircraft could be re-assigned to a strike mission.

I haven't implemented this in my own scenario but it's on the 'to do' list for the next week or so.

[Vici Supreme]

ORIGINAL: Maromak

Indonesia reportedly has at least two C-130B tankers but would they be compatible with the Su- aircraft, let alone the aircrew have enough proficiency to actually perform A2A refueling??

Good point! About the compatibility, seems to be no problem.
And I think by 2019, Indonesian aircrews will be experienced enough to perform In-Air Refueling.

http://defense-studies.blogspot.de/2009/06/sukhoi-uji-coba-air-refueling.html

[Maromak]

I stand corrected!

Edit: The article doesn't mention if the Su-27s are capable of A2A refueling or not. For the scenario, the article mentions the KC-130s are based at Abdurrahman Saleh air base in Malang, East Java. From memory, this airbase is already present in Command.

[cf_dallas]

ORIGINAL: Maromak

There is a similar 'RTB Bingo' issue in my own similar scenario with the Su-27/30 aircraft. Indonesia reportedly has at least two C-130B tankers but would they be compatible with the Su- aircraft, let alone the aircrew have enough proficiency to actually perform A2A refueling??

The issue can be solved using Lua to assign the strike aircraft to a transit mission (i.e. no afterburner) once the 'strike' has been initially triggered. Once the strike aircraft enter a predefined area closer to the RAN task group, using Lua once again, the strike aircraft could be re-assigned to a strike mission.

I haven't implemented this in my own scenario but it's on the 'to do' list for the next week or so.

Damn, I didn't know you had something similar cooking.... I hope they aren't too similar. I apologize, I didn't even look for similar before I started building.

[Maromak]

No need for apologies. Mine was released in the first community pack as Ex Pitch Black 2017. It's good to see more scenarios set in SE Asia.

[gbethel]

And the F-35A's on base are not capable of operating off ship. My understanding (maybe incorrect) is that Australia is purchasing a version of the F-35B's.

[cf_dallas]

ORIGINAL: gbethel

And the F-35A's on base are not capable of operating off ship. My understanding (maybe incorrect) is that Australia is purchasing a version of the F-35B's.

They're on contract to buy A models... In fact, the first two Australian jets delivered to Luke AFB in Arizona in December, for initial pilot training. They're currently not buying B models, butapparently they've kicked around the idea, for operation off the Canberra class.

[Vici Supreme]

cf_dallas, any comments on my suggestions? Just curious what you're thinking.

[cf_dallas]

I like the suggestions, I'll be incorporating most of them. I've actually got a tanker track set up, I'm not sure why it's not being used. I'll check on that, and I've got a plan to make the Flankers more... useful.

I'm also planning to fold in more unpredictable/hidden Militia units, and more dynamic behavior from Militia and Indonesian units.

[cf_dallas]

Oh... and about the Chinooks. I didn't include them because I was adding four large fighters to the Canbera's air wing, and wanted to keep it realistic. Off the top of my head, I think I've got:
4 F35B
6 NH90
4 MH60
4 MQ8 (not currently in Australia's inventory, but seemed a reasonable addition)

Edit: and a few Tigers, I've got some of them on board too.

Do you think a couple CH47s could be added without unduly crowding flight ops?

[Vici Supreme]

ORIGINAL: cf_dallas

Oh... and about the Chinooks. I didn't include them because I was adding four large fighters to the Canbera's air wing, and wanted to keep it realistic. Off the top of my head, I think I've got:
4 F35B
6 NH90
4 MH60
4 MQ8 (not currently in Australia's inventory, but seemed a reasonable addition)

Edit: and a few Tigers, I've got some of them on board too.

Do you think a couple CH47s could be added without unduly crowding flight ops?

I forgot taking the F-35s into account... Took the picture from the RAN website as a reference but having the additonal F-35s, MH-60Rs and UAVs in the hangar does already dramatically decrease the space for amphibious equipment.

Agreed, no Chinooks here!