Modelling future A2/AD offset strategies.

[Araner]

Appendix to my earlier notes RE:Untethered Operations...
The Mitchell Institute published an interesting hypothetical circa 2026 involving the use of expeditionary airfields titled Fifth Generation Air Combat: Maintaining the Joint Force Advantage

An excerpt-

During the initial days of the conflict, F-35s
occasionally return to their bases—only to discover
several are heavily damaged from enemy missile
attacks. Executing contingency plans, they divert
to a nearby civilian airfield and use pilot swapout
procedures to reposition aircraft to another
F-35 operating location, allowing these assets to
continue fighting despite heavy airfield attacks.
In one instance, a USAF F-35 is forced to recover
at an Australian F-35 airbase after an inflight
malfunction makes it impossible to return to its
original deployment location. Royal Australian
Air Force (RAAF) maintenance technicians are
able to quickly repair, rearm, and refuel the USAF
F-35 in a manner similar to US maintenance and
regeneration practices. The F-35 in question rejoins
combat operations the next day

[mikmykWS]

ORIGINAL: Araner

interesting..... but very complicated....

My thoughts exactly... I think I tried to set up a crude "Rapid Raptor" deployment by adding a flight of F-22s and a single C-17 to a one-way ferry mission and then manually arming the F-22s after a certain period of time had elapsed since the C-17 landed. Modelling true "Untethered Ops" as currently envisioned would be much more complex. You would have to change the home base, weapons loadout, mission plan etc... for entire squadrons as an event condition that would need to be triggered after a C-17/KC-130/MV-22 lands at a small airfield and a period of time has elapsed.
What makes the Untethered Ops concept such a potential game-changer however, is not so much in the platforms or weaponry involved but rather in the novel use of logistics as a force multiplier. So just as the wars of the past 20 years have blurred the boundaries between tactical, operational and strategic warfare, the wars of the next 20 years may blur the distinction between logistics and tactics. Such an approach would certainly fit the current "Third Offset" line of thinking as logistics have traditionally been an area where the US Military has excelled.
In terms of game mechanics, this may mean more fine-grained control over magazines and vessel/aircraft loadouts. Especially if it allows for transferable payloads, which as I mentioned previously would also open up more possibilities for amphibious scenarios. After all, when it comes down to it, amphibious ops are really about how much stuff/people you can drop off without the enemy disrupting it. Without such capabilities, all those hundreds, if not thousands, of support ships, landing craft, cargo planes etc... in the database serve little purpose more than to provide something for the opposing side to shoot at.

Do you like reading what you write?

Moving stuff is coming soon.

Mike

[Araner]

ORIGINAL: mikkey

Araner, you can upload only your scenario *.scen file from Scenarios folder.

I've tried this method too with no such luck.

[Araner]

ORIGINAL: mikmyk

Do you like reading what you write?

Moving stuff is coming soon.

Mike

Is that a comment on grammar?
Great news about moving stuff in any case! I realize this can't exactly be easy to program, so its good to see the effort is being made.

On a related note... My current WIP scenario is attempting to simulate a campaign wherein US-led forces are attempting to locate and destroy mobile SSM launchers across central mainland China under presumed conditions of air superiority. As the alleged locations of UGF storage facilities and launch pads operated by the PLA Rocket Forces are relatively well documented, I'm trying to simulate actual conditions as closely as possible. This would presumably require hosting land-based units like SSM batteries inside stationary assets like underground ammo bunkers and UGFs with the former having the ability to independently sortie along a fixed route (e.g road or rail)to a designated launch position. After launching their missiles, the empty TELs would then need to either return to their base of origin or move by road to a specified ammo depot where they could be reloaded after sufficient time has passed.
All in all the process would be similar enough to that of an aircraft launching from a home base, only the movement on land would need to be much more limited by terrain features.

Would any of this be possible to program using special actions and/or LUA scripting at present? Or would the game not support such actions in its current iteration?

[mikmykWS]

ORIGINAL: Araner

ORIGINAL: mikmyk

Do you like reading what you write?

Moving stuff is coming soon.

Mike

Is that a comment on grammar?
Great news about moving stuff in any case! I realize this can't exactly be easy to program, so its good to see the effort is being made.

On a related note... My current WIP scenario is attempting to simulate a campaign wherein US-led forces are attempting to locate and destroy mobile SSM launchers across central mainland China under presumed conditions of air superiority. As the alleged locations of UGF storage facilities and launch pads operated by the PLA Rocket Forces are relatively well documented, I'm trying to simulate actual conditions as closely as possible. This would presumably require hosting land-based units like SSM batteries inside stationary assets like underground ammo bunkers and UGFs with the former having the ability to independently sortie along a fixed route (e.g road or rail)to a designated launch position. After launching their missiles, the empty TELs would then need to either return to their base of origin or move by road to a specified ammo depot where they could be reloaded after sufficient time has passed.
All in all the process would be similar enough to that of an aircraft launching from a home base, only the movement on land would need to be much more limited by terrain features.

Would any of this be possible to program using special actions and/or LUA scripting at present? Or would the game not support such actions in its current iteration?

Its mostly tone. We are the folks that can actually add stuff you might need you know[:)]

Land units do currently change speeds due to elevations. We can't do terrain types yet (other than water/land) but will look at it when we expand to land operations.

Garages/hides are not in the game. This is first time we've seen a use case so might be some merit in looking at it.

Until then there are some creative solutions. You can add mounts/weapons records to units and Assign/Unassign missions is part of the event editor and lua.

We are working on Cargo which you will see hopefully in the next few releases. You might get a lua function to help with ammo too.

Thanks!

Mike