Kuril Sunrise, 2018: Russian Side

[gosnold]

So after playing the Japanese and severely beating the russians (the convoy was completely sunk by harpoons, plus a few russians sub were hit by SSK or orions), I decided to try the scenario from the Russian side.

I started by setting a refueling point midway to Japan and sending a A-50 on passive and a few Mig-31 positioned forward to get AEW. That got the attention of the Japanese which sent F-15 to intercept. I sent the R-77-armed flankers to counter, and it resulted in a huge brawl over the sea.
At the end, I had downed 10 F-15s, but I had lost all my planes on the forward bases. I also managed to down a few P-3 despite the F-15 escort, and lost a few Mig-31.

Meanwhile, I had routed the convoy in the middle of the sea, to avoid the subs likely positioned near the islands.

After a while, the F-15 stopped coming to get my forward-position Mig-31. They must have all been standing down to rearm. So I pushed a bit further inland and the AWACS was there flying unprotected. So I shot it down, and a few unprotected P-3s with it. But they kept trying to maintain an AWACS in the air and sending out P-3s, so I shot all of them.

With the skies no clear of any ASW threat, I moved the Oscar II and the Yasen-class forward so that they get in range of the Japanese destroyers and structures. I routed them in the middle of the sea, deep and fast to avoid interception by SSKs. The Yasen destroyed the Japanese forward radars and the Oscar II finally got in range of the destroyers and launched 3 missiles on each, sinking all of them: now the F-15s would have to rely on their own radars for situational awareness, whereas I had an AWACS, the ground radars of the SAMs and Mig-31s acting as mini-AWACS. I also maintained a Bear umbrella a bit forward of the convoy.

One of my SSKs that was on creep was sunk by a Japanese sub at some point. All the SSNs were on stop, because I did not want to risk them: from the Japanese playthrough I had a 1-1 exchange ration between SSKs and Russians SSNs, that was just not worth it.

Eventually, the Yasen got in range of the Northern Airbase and fired at the radar and at the hardened shelters (the satellites saw nothing on the tarmac so all the planes had to be either in the shelters or in the hangars). Some missiles were intercepted but I destroyed a dozens of shelters, and some F-15s that were reloading there.

I decided to forward-deploy some Mig-31 to Burevesntik(?) to have more loiter time and be able to launch intercepts on demand.

Things were going without trouble for a while, with the convoy reaching halfway to its destination. But the Japanese launched F-15s again. With only two Su-33s and the Mig-31 remaining, I had to be sneaky. I put them all under EMCON and thanks to the A-50 tracks, I approached the F-15 pairs from behind to launch missiles at point blank. That way they did not engage me with AMRAAMS and I could keep illuminating the targets for the R-33s. I lost the Su-33s and a few Mig-31, but the F-15 never got to the Bears or the A-50.

That was good and most of my remaining Migs were either refueling or returning to base (were they would not all be reloaded with missiles). Then I saw a lot of Bogeys heading North, with only one pair with F-15 radars. I had one pair a Mig with partial loadouts intecerpt them, they shot down the F-15s leaving the F-4s unprotected, but had expanded all their missiles. They engaged a gunfight but it ended 0 for 1 for the Phantoms, so I vectored a group of 4 Migs that was nearly bingo fuel and was reloading at the tankers to intercept. They downed all 6 F-4s but took one loss, and one F-4 managed to fire its missiles at my frigate. The frigate intercepted them.

With the Japanese air threat now gone, I made my Migs orbit above the convoy and the frigate (which were close enough to cover each other, and in the middle of a dense sonobuoy field). That was a good idea because I was attacked by two waves of 4 Harpoons while coming close to the shore. The R-73s plus the frigate took care of them, and I was really lucky as the last one was successfully spoofed. Since the Japanese subs had launched harpoons under my A-50 coverage, I sent the Bears to the launch point and sunk one of them.

Eventually the convoy, escorted by the frigate and the Oscar II, reached the shore and the scenario ended.

Conclusion: it was very tense, I had to micromanage lot the air war to avoid being wiped out by AMRAAMS. Active missiles really do make a difference against SARH ones. The AI made a few mistakes by sending all its planes in the first wave, and keeping sending high-values planes without escort.
On the Russian side, the Yasen class is really a monster with 32 cruise missiles that are hard to intercept, it was very useful. I think I could have managed the initial air brawl better, as my Migs and Su-27s were just targets and did not hit anyone I think.
Overall, the scenario is really good, and even better on the Russian side.

Here are the losses at the end

SIDE: Russia
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LOSSES:
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10x MiG-29SMT Fulcrum C
10x Su-27SM/SM3 Flanker B
4x Su-33 Flanker D
5x MiG-31BM Foxhound
1x PL-877M Kilo


EXPENDITURES:
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54x RGB-NM-1 [Passive Omni]
157x RGB-2 [NATO BM-2, Track, Passive Bearing-Only]
2352x RGB-1 [NATO BM-1, Search, Passive Omni]
23x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
45x AA-12 Adder B [R-77-1, RVV-SD]
36x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
1x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27ER, LR SARH]
59x AA-9 Amos [R-33S, SARH]
2x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R, MR SARH]
32x SS-N-26 Strobile [P-800 Onyx]
1x TEST-71M [NATO TEST-83]
9x SS-N-19 Shipwreck [P-700 Granit]
20x SA-N-11b Grisom [9M311K-1]
23x AA-11 Archer [R-73]
3x 23mm Gsh-6-23 [50 rnds]
7x 100mm/59 A-190 Frag
2x AK-630M 30mm/65 Gatling Burst [400 rnds]
3x AT-2M
4x SA-N-4b Gecko [9M33M3]
1x 30mm Twin Gatling Gsh-6-30KD [375 rnds]
4x PK-10 Chaff [SR-50]
2x APR-1 Kondor



SIDE: Japan
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LOSSES:
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29x F-15J Eagle J-MSIP
10x P-3C Orion Update III
3x E-767 Sentinel
4x Radar (J/FPS-4)
1x SS 590 Oyashio
2x DE 229 Abukuma
1x SH-60K Seahawk
1x DD 122 Hatsuyuki
9x A/C Hardened Aircraft Shelter (1x Large Aircraft)
8x F-4EJ Phantom II Kai
2x SS 501 Soryu


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
84x AAM-4B Kai [Type 99]
52x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
33x J/HQS-12 DIFAR
33x J/HQS-33B DICASS [AN/SSQ-62]
4x RIM-7M Sea Sparrow
1x Type 89 [G-12]
5x 20mm/85 Mk15 Phalanx Blk 0 Burst [200 rnds]
8x Mk182 SRBOC Chaff [Seduction]
4x 76mm/62 Compact HE Burst [4 rnds]
9x SAM-4 Chu-SAM [Type 03]
17x MIM-104F Patriot PAC-3 MSE
7x MIM-104E Patriot PAC-2 GEM+
16x UGM-84D Harpoon IC
4x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
2x 20mm/85 M61A1 Vulcan Burst [100 rnds]
5x AIM-7F Sparrow III
2x ASM-2 [Type 93]
6x Generic Acoustic Decoy



SIDE: Russian Satellites
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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SIDE: Neutral
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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SIDE: Russian Defensive Batteries
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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4x SA-20a Gargoyle [48N6]

[Amnectrus]

I just posted my Kuril Sunrise Russia AAR... I wish I had thought of using the Yasen to knock out land targets; it didn't occur to me to check the valid target types for the SS-N-26, I just assumed they were antiship only. I also didn't find out until afterwards that the MiG-29s can be rearmed with antiradar missiles. That would have come in handy too.

[Galahad78]

Good job! Does the MiG-29SMT mount R-77 missiles? Those are active too and roughly equivalent to the AMRAAMs.

Eager to try this scenario!