NFZ Med 7/3/22

[fitzpatv]

In support of imposing the NFZ over Ukraine, NATO moves to sink Russia’s warships in the Eastern Mediterranean and neutralise their bases in Syria, destroying the integrated air defence system (IADS) around Latakia airbase and Tartus port, then disabling both.

Somewhat dubiously, Russia gets the benefit of satellite reconnaissance, while NATO does not. In practice, it makes little difference, as NATO has plenty of good surveillance assets. To avoid escalation, NATO has decided not to use strategic bombers or ballistic missiles. Russia is not so worried about such things. The game starts before the NFZ is declared, so hostilities do not commence immediately.

You are given a large armada of ships as your main striking force. South of Crete, the CVN Harry S Truman is escorted by a US CG, 2 DDGs and a Norwegian frigate. To her NE is an advance group consisting of a DDG, 5 FFGs and an AOR, drawn from a variety of nations. To the WSW of Truman is the Italian helicopter carrier Cavour (which also has a few attack planes), accompanied by 2 DDGs, 3 FFGs and an ammo ship. To Truman’s NNW is the French CVN Charles de Gaulle with 2 DDGs, 4 FFGs and an oiler.

Scattered from Cyprus to the Western Mediterranean are four strong US DDGs and a Greek FFG and PGM. One of the DDGs, the Jason Dunham, is escorting the imaginatively-named AOR Supply in a vulnerable location off the Egyptian coast. Four SSNs and two SSKs are also distributed across the region.

In the air, Truman has three squadrons of mixed Hornet A2A and strike planes, plus the usual SEAD, AEW and ASW support. De Gaulle has 18 Rafales with Meteor A2A missiles and some strike capability, plus support as above. Cavour has limited strike assets and lots of choppers. Plenty more helicopters are carried on the smaller warships.

On land, you have Poseidon patrol planes, Phoenix UAVs and tankers at Sigonella in Sicily. At Elefsis, Athens, there’s a pair of Orions and some limited-use drones and AEW planes. The Greeks also have a squadron of dual-role F-16s at Souda Bay in Crete. The UK maintains a base at Akrotiri in Cyprus housing 6 Typhoons with Meteors, two tankers, an ELINT plane and a couple of American U-2s. As this base is in the firing line, it has some protection from Russian-built SAMs operated by the Cypriot armed forces.

The US has a squadron of F-16s at Incirlik in SE Turkey and this is supplemented by numerous Turkish fighter/attack planes of the same type, tankers and a selection of Turkish recon and combat drones. Incirlik has some SAM batteries for defence.

Russia is known to have a Growler, 4 Gladiators, 3 SA-26 Vityaz and numerous lesser SAMs (including lots of Greyhounds) around Latakia and Tartus. At least one Oscar III and Akula are at sea, along with three improved Varshavyanka Kilos. Surface ships comprise two Slava-class cruisers, 2 Udaloys and a couple of FFGs. One of the latter, the Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, carries innovative weapons, including Zircon hypersonic missiles, anti-torpedo torpedoes and a rather worrying laser weapon which, I feared, might make it almost immune to missile attack.

There are several small squadrons of Russian aircraft at Latakia, including Backfires and Foxhounds with hypersonic missiles and some Su-57 Felon stealth fighters, along with the usual Flankers, Fulcrums and Fencers.

Several batteries of Iskander ballistic and Bastion/Stooge cruise missiles are located in the vicinity of the Russian bases. Syria is not involved to any great extent, but has radars which might be of use to the Russians, plus Gainful SAMs for defence of her cities.

While Russian SAM defence is probably only effective within 40-50nm of the coast, they otherwise have considerable reach. Zircons can reach Greece, while Stooges can hit Cyprus and most of the Turkish bases, Sandboxes from the ships can get to Rhodes and air-launched ballistic missiles almost anywhere. The Oscar III could be anywhere on the map and carries twice as many missiles (48) as an Oscar II – and rather better ones at that. Only RIM-174s have any realistic chance of engaging Zircons, Iskanders or Kinzhals – thankfully we had quite a few of them on the main task force and outlying US DDGs. Unfortunately, the bug with WRA made it impossible to tailor SAM ranges and I had to be content with forbidding anything but a RIM-174 from trying to engage ballistic missiles.

7/3/22 06:00Z: It seemed imperative to use the initial period of peace to close-up the main task forces to optimise RIM-174 protection and get vulnerable assets out of the way. I considered moving either or both of the nearby SSNs Audacious (UK) and Indiana (US) close to the Russian surface action groups (SAGs) to deal a deadly blow once hostilities began, but decided against it, as the sub would be unlikely to survive (see below).

Audacious soon had three underwater contacts, which all turned-out to be biological, as did one found by the Greek SSK Pipinos in the Aegean. A Phoenix UAV, already on station S of Cyprus, fed me plenty of data on the location and composition of the Russian SAGs and IADS.

The Greek PGM Ritsos seemed impossible to save once the shooting started, so I moved her next to Akrotiri to add her modest RIM-116 battery to the base’s defence and vice versa.

All non-essential aircraft were evacuated from Akrotiri and Incirlik, the likeliest Russian targets. One of the U-2s would not be ready in time, so I had to hope to be lucky here. I found that the Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 drones lacked the endurance to re-deploy from Incirlik to Konya or Malatya.

Another issue was the DDG Gonzalez, which had lots of Tomahawks, but was miles away in the Western Mediterranean. She could only arrive in time to be useful by steaming at Flank and, lacking a chopper, would be very susceptible to submarine attack en route. I decided it was best to send her towards Corsica and keep her out of the way.

Dunham closed-up on Supply and the pair headed W as quickly as they could while there was time. This did, of course, have to be balanced against keeping the DDG’s Tomahawks in range of the targets. I covered her with a Poseidon, as she only had one chopper. The detached US destroyers Porter and Mitscher also had no helicopters, so I tried giving them support from the Orions and Poseidons.

05:00Z: With the NFZ due to come into effect at 06:00, ASW choppers detected an Akula hurtling towards the Truman group at 26 knots. Truman altered course away and had two choppers shadow the sub.

06:00Z: As the NFZ came into force, the Akula chased after the US CVN. Although we hadn’t been cleared to initiate hostilities, I wasn’t going to be played for a mug and told a Seahawk to take the shot. The Akula was sunk for 50VP.
It seemed best to use my 212 Tomahawks (excluding those on Gonzalez) while I still had them. Mitscher (NW of Greece) opened fire first, the idea being to have other ships follow suit as the wave moved past them, unless they were actually under attack, in which case they would do so immediately.

Akrotiri and Incirlik didn’t wait to be attacked. The US F-16s at the Turkish base made a HARM strike on Latakia. It didn’t work, but used-up SAMs. Russian CAP scrambled and one Falcon was lost while trying to re-base to Malatya in order to avoid being clobbered on the ground at Incirlik. Aircraft losses cost each side 5VP, high-value aircraft 10-15.

The Oscar turned-out to be just SW of Crete and perfectly positioned to attack the vulnerable rear of the De Gaulle group. Defensive SAMs and fighters from the Truman were only so much help and the Strobile missiles sank the French oiler Durance, the Spanish FFG Juan de Borbon, the Greek FFG Adrias and the Belgian DDG Forbin for a painful 300VP total. Worse, Forbin’s ASW chopper was wrongly deemed a High Value Aircraft (we had literally dozens of them) and cost ten. The De Gaulle herself took a hit, but I was lucky here and she suffered only 20% damage, with no planes lost and the flight deck still operational. The CVN was slowed, but could still make 20 knots. A few Strobiles went the way of the detached Greek FFG Psara and the Cavour group (satellite targeting), but these units managed to defend themselves.

A Poseidon and three choppers homed-in on the Oscar, hunted her down and sank her for 100VP, which was some compensation. It reduced the risk of the Russians being awarded the game due to NATO losses, as had happened in the Baltic.

Russian ships began launching missiles and it became one of those ‘everything happening at once, not too much you can do’ situations that are too common in CMO. Seven ammo revetments at Akrotiri were soon destroyed for 15VP each though, happily, there wasn’t actually any ammo in them.

The Zircons were aimed at Dunham and Supply, as were pulses of Sandbox cruise missiles, but the DDG put-up a stout resistance, seeing-off the attack. In the game, at least, it IS possible to shoot Zircons down. It helped that the enemy lost their aim partway through and missiles started sailing by astern.

Our Phoenix UAV tried to get clear, but was lost to a long-ranged SAM shot.

Akrotiri’s Typhoons got airborne and circled NE of Cyprus, aiming to get at the Mainstays and other support aircraft E of Latakia. Someone had been listening to BobTank (see NFZ Baltic AAR), as the Meteor has now been fixed and is a truly formidable weapon – better than the Chinese PL-15. It can engage targets reliably at 90-100nm, with no overshoot issues. (Incidentally, I had to re-estimate all A2A and SAM ranges for this scenario, as the latest update had made numerous, often radical changes to the database). Anyway, the Typhoons gave the Russians a thorough beating, downing a Mainstay, Tu-214, 4 Foxhound fighters, 4 Su-27s and 4 Su-35s without loss in this phase.

I had an issue with HMS Audacious in that, when it got to her turn to fire Tomahawks, I couldn’t load her Block V weapons, as the Weapons screen only had rows for Block IVs and TLAM-Cs, which she doesn’t have). Needs fixing.
The little Ritsos was attacked by cruise missiles but, against all expectations, managed to fight them off.

07:00Z: Ritsos counter-attacked with her Exocets (modern variety with 100nm range), but the Southern Russian (Gorshkov/Ustinov) SAG was able to repel them.

The main Tomahawk strike met with seemingly inexhaustible numbers of SAMs, but did destroy two of the three Tartus piers for 25VP each. Meanwhile, the Typhoons destroyed another Mainstay, 2 Coots and a Tu-214 that the enemy had carelessly left stooging around. The British pilots waited anxiously for Su-57s to show-up, wondering if they would even see them in time...

08:00Z: Having been kept in reserve, Indiana made a follow-up Tomahawk strike, but this was soaked-up by the super-abundant SAMs. Similarly, Dunham’s attempt to hit the Gorshkov group with Multi-Use TACTOMs was unsuccessful.

Rather than waste unused Meteors, I used the spares to clear away some Russian ASW and AEW choppers before returning to base, removing the prohbition I’d imposed on using the weapons on helicopters and missiles.

09:00Z: Helped by F-16s ‘riding the line’, a wave of dual-purpose Tomahawks sank the CG Varyag in the Northern SAG for 100VP and damaged the Udaloy Admiral Tributs, also scoring two hits on the CG Ustinov in the Southern SAG, leaving her dead in the water. Russian 30mm Gatling fire was most impressive – who needs SAMs?. Oddly, though, there was no sign of the Gorshkov’s laser weapon in action.

10:00Z: The Russians mounted a Stooge and Iskander attack on Akrotiri, with another wave of aircraft in support. Typhoons scrambled and butchered 4 Su-30s and 4 Fulcrums, but there was only so much I could do about the missiles. The Akrotiri runway and its taxiway were closed, as were the four access points. It quickly became apparent that the scenario was infected with the runaway runway damage bug and the enemy began to get 10VP every seven minutes of game time. I grimaced and resolved to continue regardless.

Two F-16s tried to finish-off the Tributs with Mavericks, but this coincided unhappily with the Russian strike and the planes made a horrible mess of it. Often, Mavericks can only be used when targeted automatically.

The Typhoons not trapped on the deck were obliged to re-locate to Turkey and, with no loadouts available there, were effectively out of the game. The second U-2 had managed to get airborne in time and made it to Crete.

I probed Latakia’s defences with a single Turkish F-16, but the plane and her HGK glide-bombs were downed by SA-26s.

Tributs took three more Maverick hits, but refused to sink.

11:00Z: Three Greek F-16s from Crete attacked the Ustinov. Despite withering SAM and 30mm fire, the cruiser succumbed for another 100VP. The Falcons had to re-base to Konya in Turkey, take ferry loadouts and then return to Souda Bay.

Tributs died of her wounds, taking a Helix with her for 55VP.

Suddenly, the Greek FFG Psara was torpedoed and sunk by a Kilo while negotiating the Aegean, costing 75VP.

Six strike Foxhounds took-off from Latakia, found no targets and landed again.

Four Turkish F-16s made a HARM strike on Latakia, but the SA-26s could hit the ARMs on 65-70% and defeated the attempt.

12:00Z: More Greek F-16s broke the resistance of the Southern SAG, sinking the Gorschkov for 40VP and the Udaloy for 50. Another flight caught the FFG Admiral Grigorovich with radars off closer to Syria and blew her out of the water for another 40. A stranded Helix was whacked by a US F-16, leaving the way clear for Indiana and Audacious to sweep-up the remaining Russian surface ships. Before she could do so, however, the American SSN encountered a Kilo in her path. She had the initiative and the Russian sub was sunk for 40VP.

A HARM strike on Latakia got the usual treatment (Vityaz count 212).

13:00Z: Truman was now in range and her SEAD planes attacked Latakia, following the HARMs with AGM-154s. Hardly anything got past the SAMs, though a Gladiator site took a hit (Vityaz count 262).

An Orion had been making a mess of hunting the Kilo in the Aegean under AI control, even failing to drop sonobuoys on a regular basis. I took over manually, found and sank the sub. This bought more time against the rash of runway points.

14:00Z: Four more SEAD Hornets hit Latakia and began to make inroads into the SAMs. A Vityaz and two Gladiator sites were now out of action and the Vityaz count was 271 of an estimated 288. I remained anxious to get the job done and hit the runways before any Felons or Backfires got airborne.

15:00Z: Indiana torpedoed and sank the three Russian oilers for 40VP each.

A strike from Truman took-down both Iskander launchers at Latakia for 10VP each, also hitting a runway and further eroding the SAMs. Mercifully, the runway penalties had stopped. NATO did not get similar points for damaged Russian runways.

Turkish F-16s got the breakthrough at Latakia, closing one of the runways for 50VP.

16:00Z: Indiana cleared away a Buyan-class PCFG and a Natya MCM for 25VP each, completing the destruction of the Russian surface fleet.

Charles de Gaulle’s Rafales did more runway damage and destroyed 3 Fullbacks and (joy) 2 Felons on the ground.

Turkey brought her vaunted Bayraktar drones to bear, closing the second runway and killing the other two Felons and a pair of Fullbacks. Oddly, Felons are not High Value Aircraft.

USAF F-16s destroyed two radars (no points) and damaged the Growler site between Latakia and Tartus, which was long since out of ammo. At 405, the score was now Average, despite the runway bug.

Turkish F-16s used cluster munitions on the occupied tarmac spaces at Latakia, wiping-out a Gladiator site (10VP) and wrecking an Su-27, 3 Fullbacks, 11 Fencers, a Backfire and 3 strike Foxhounds for a heap of VP. Unfortunately, I blinked and one plane just had to fly directly over a known Greyhound site in the Cilician mountains while RTB’ing. It was lost and I only just reacted in time to save another aircraft.

17:00Z: Cavour joined the party and her four strike planes destroyed the other three Foxhounds and damaged the air defence control centre at Latakia.

18:00Z: Turkish F-16s with Mavericks finished a Gladiator and Vityaz.

19:00Z: Two Poseidons from Sicily used AGM-84s to destroy the control centre for 50VP. At 600, the score was still only Average.

As the focus switched to Tartus, the Turks hit a Gladiator with HARMs.

A message from special forces in Syria warned of ‘large TELs’ moving about near Latakia. I assumed this was a reference to the Iskanders, which we thought we’d destroyed.

20:00Z: The Italian SSK Pietro Venuti found a Kilo N of Cyprus (a Poseidon had been searching just to the E). Keeping his nerve, the skipper opened fire and put an end to the Russian submarine threat.

Greek and US HARM strikes did damage to the SAMs at Tartus. However, the enemy had produced two more Gladiator battalions from somewhere – one at Tartus, one at Latakia – which explained the message about the TELs.

22:00Z: A seven-plane US HARM and AGM-154 strike severely degraded the Tartus SAMs, hit the new Gladiator at Latakia and destroyed both Stooge/Bastion batteries at Tartus.

23:00Z: Truman’s next strike (with AGM-84s and 154s) wrecked the last pier at Tartus, the new Gladiator at Latakia and destroyed a Fencer and Su-27 on the ground. A U-2 then reported that the remaining three Backfires were at the S end of the runway. The destruction of other airport installations scored no points (nor do SA-22 Greyhounds).

Turkish F-16s duly destroyed the Backfires (High Value) and damaged some Greyhounds, but lost a plane to the latter on the way out. There were now no Russian aircraft left.

8/3/22 00:00Z: French Rafales hit Tartus, destroying two Gladiator sites and severely reducing another and a Vityaz. Hornets then finished-off the third Gladiator, but still encountered viable IADS there and around the Growler site.

01:00Z: Bayraktars eliminated the last Vityaz site at Latakia and the Italian Harriers and F-35s did the same for its counterpart at Tartus.

02:00Z: Greek F-16s attacked the Growler site, but did only slight damage as three Greyhounds put-up stiff resistance.

03:00Z: Rafales and US F-16s chipped away at the Growler site and destroyed several Syrian radars, which scored nothing.

04:00Z: A Turkish F-16 with cluster munitions finished-off the Growler now that the Greyhounds had run out of ammo. The score was now +805, still Average, but there were no more points-scoring targets, so I ran down the clock. The AI had scored 390 points for runway damage when it should only have had 20, or maybe 60 if access points count, so the true score was either 1,135 or 1,175, which was surely some kind of victory. Beyond doubt, the Russian base in Syria had been well-and-truly neutralised, though not without cost.

NATO lost a DDG, 3 FFGs, an AOR, 4 F-16s, a chopper, a UAV, 21 ground elements and the Akrotiri runway.

Russia lost an SSGN, SSN, 3 Kilos, 2 cruisers, 2 DDGs, 2 FFGs, a PCFG, 3 AORs, an MCM, 62 aircraft, 7 choppers, 136 ground elements including all major SAMs and SSMs, the Latakia runways and ADC and the Tartus port facilities.

Russia fired an astonishing 1,259 SAMs over the course of the game!

[Gunner98]

Sounds like that was one heck of a fight for a while! I'll check those points you mention when I get a chance later in the summer.

Thanks