AAR: DCA MiniEx 2012

[SeaQueen]

This little scenario has quickly become one of my favorites. It's not one of the more elaborate ones, but part of what makes it fun is the simplicity. If I want to get up and playing quickly, this is definitely one of the better scenarios. In many ways I think it's probably one of the more realistic DCA scenarios out there. If you wanted to build on it, it'd be fairly easy to do. Some fun things one might do with it would include adding Blue SAMs and beefing up the Red side with TBMs and cruise missile carriers. One might also consider adding in a NATO SAG with AEGIS or a similar system off the Jutland peninsula. The goal is to defend a set of targets dispersed around Denmark from raids by Russian-style "Red" forces flying out of Norway using a combination of US and Danish F-15s and F-16s.

I set up a series of twelve orbits creating a three layered defense in front of the already aloft AWACs. I filled the forward layer with American F-15C elements, and the middle layer with 2-ship Danish F-16s and the hind most layer as a "fall back" position. Behind the AWACS I also created a "reserve" position for sending singles back to where I can pair them up with another similar aircraft as they suffer attrition. I set their engagement areas to prevent them from running off into the opposing SAM rings. The forward most stations were set to engage targets within range. The rest were confined the their engagement areas more strictly, that way the forward stations would behave a little more aggressively. I also overrode the default RTB weapons state from "Shotgun" to "Winchester," and the shot doctrine to "1" versus 4th and 5th Gen fighters. That would ensure that my aircraft would stay in the fight longer. I also set the more advanced AMRAAM version's engagement range down a bit in order to improve their Pk due to the energy advantages. That would hopefully compensate a bit for the decreased net Pk caused by shooting fewer missiles.

The first Red wave was a Su-27 fighter sweep which ran straight into my F-15s. I lost an element but their entire sweep was shot down. I re-shuffled my aircraft between orbits and then back-filled the empty position with the ground alert F-16s. Several minutes behind the sweep came a multi-axis attack of Su-24 strikers with Su-27s and MiG-29s escorting. This is where the battle really started to heat up. The Su-24s were basically just targets, but their escorts managed to knock down another element of F-15s and an element of F-16s, forcing me to re-direct aircraft from the adjacent orbits to keep my "wall" of fighters from developing holes. The down side was that it made me collapse in my orbits so that I had less time to engage strikes emerging from the east and west. As the F-15s got rolled back by escorts, I pushed F-16s in to plug the holes. In the end I shot down all the Red strikers and their escorts, with no losses to my defended ground targets, and my exchange ratio varies between 3:1 and 5:1, which roughly means a minor-to-major victory.

The scenario is not super complex, but to play it well, it requires a fair amount of thought. It brings together the essential elements of the game, including WRA, prosecution areas, deciding how to integrate disparate platforms, weapon systems and their capabilities, in a way that is easily playable in a short period of time. It's important to pay close attention to what's going on and keep "building the wall" that you need to repel the enemy aircraft. It's not a scenario you can play entirely "hands off" and just let your plan execute. Its the kind of scenario where to play effectively you need a good initial plan and then start adjusting as you suffer attrition. I keep coming back to it because in spite of it's simplicity, it's always interesting to see how different the outcomes can be, largely due to luck and timing. I recommend this one to people interested in defensive fighter tactics as a laboratory to play.