Mediterranean Fury 5 - Serbia Right 16/2/94

[fitzpatv]

[b]The Task[/b]
The situation in the Balkans at the outbreak of war is a complex one. Slovenia is friendly to NATO but militarily powerless, while Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are still fairly anarchic. The USSR is courting its traditional ally, Serbia-Montenegro, which still controls North Macedonia and Kosovo in this reality. Albania is neutral but riven with organised crime.

The player controls the 5th Allied Tactical Air Force (5th ATAF) and associated naval forces. On the ground in the former Yugoslavia, matters are in the unsteady hands of the AI-controlled UNPROFOR (UN Protection Force), which includes units from some 40 nations and is there to keep the peace, not to fight the Warsaw Pact. Many of UNPROFOR’s 30,000 personnel want no part in WW3 and some may even sympathise with the Soviets.

For its part, 5th ATAF is responsible for an air and naval blockade of the Balkans, stopping smugglers shipping arms and other contraband in and out. Its forces are dispersed with this in mind, with single warships positioned the length of the Adriatic. The Italian Government is keen to see more effort being made to stop smuggling.

For the first 72 hours of the war, the Warsaw Pact has made no move on the Balkan front and NATO, happy to keep things quiet, has pulled-back fighter patrols to its own side of the Adriatic to avoid incidents. However, indications are that this might be about to change. Reports suggests that the Serbs are cracking-down on dissent and preparing for war. Twenty hours ago, the container ship Hansa Carrier, transporting humanitarian supplies and UNPROFOR materials via the Dalmatian port of Split, was mined in one of the approach channels and 65% damaged. She needs rescuing and a flotilla of minesweepers has been sent to clear the channels for a tug to then haul her out and back to Italy after landing the supplies.

There is also pressure from NATO High Command, who want airstrikes into Hungary or against the Montenegrin port of Kotor tonight (it is 14:00 local time) to divert enemy efforts from the Central European front and maybe destroy Serbia’s small but still dangerous Navy in harbour. Readying times mean that such a strike can only be mounted from around 21:00 to 22:00L.

Estimated Enemy Strength
All approaches to Split have been mined.

The Soviets are known to have a Kilo somewhere in the Ionian Sea, off SE Italy but no other naval assets in-theatre. They have strong formations of Fulcrums, with some Flankers and Flogger Ks in Hungary, supported by Fencers of all types, Fitters, Foxbat SEAD planes, EW and AEW aircraft and protected by SAM sites up to and including Grumbles.

Serbia has four frigates with Improved Styx and Gecko missiles, a number of PCFGs with Styxes, plus torpedo boats and patrol craft, the latter wrongly classed as frigates. They also have three seaworthy submarines of their own design, but these lack an anti-surface capability and are really just for minelaying and coastal defence against enemy subs. In the air, Milosevic has a core of Fulcrum As and large numbers of Fishbeds, plus Orao and Galeb attack planes. Oraos can carry Kerry ASCMs. SAM defences are mostly Goas and Guidelines but it is possible that the Russians have given them some superior systems to supplement these.

Hungary has a large Air Force, with some Fulcrum As and rather more Fishbeds and early-model Floggers. Most of the MiG-21s are expected to be employed in ground-attack mode, along with Fitters and Frogfeet. Air defence systems extend to Grumbles and Gammons.

Also in the picture is Romania, which has more Fulcrums, Fishbeds and early Floggers and Orao attack planes.

The smugglers use ‘Go-Fast’ motor boats and Colt and Cessna transports to convey their wares and operate by night from hidden bases, where they hole-up during the daytime. It is believed that some of their boats might be armed.

Albania is neutral but has a number of weak patrol craft, an old Whiskey V sub and a selection of MiGs 17, 19 and 21. They have no air defence worthy of the name.

Events would show that this initial assessment somewhat understates the scale of the problem.

NATO Forces
At the outset, you have the option of employing the Garibaldi task force, which consists of the eponymous carrier, two destroyers and a frigate. They have long-ranged Otomat missiles for use against ships, reasonable SAMs and a small group of Harriers with Sidewinders, short-ranged missiles and bombs. There are plenty of helicopters for ASW, though they totally lack sonobuoys and some choppers have an anti-shipping capability with Marte missiles. As I’d not used the group in Scenario 5, I was obliged to have them here and forego the 250VP you get if you dismiss them within the first five minutes of game-time. They start off SE Italy, approaching the Straits of Otranto between that region and Albania and moving to link-up with the supply vessel Stromboli, 35nm to the NNW.

A total of eight frigates and destroyers of various capabilities are strung-out across the length of the Adriatic. Some have Otomats or Harpoons, some have decent SAMs or effective ASW choppers while others are limited to guns and recon helicopters.

In the port of Brindisi in SE Italy, there are four Sparviero-class hydrofoil PCFGs with two Otomats each and reloads in port, but they won’t be ready for an hour-and-a-half.

Italy has two subs at sea, with the Leonardo da Vinci patrolling off Kotor and the Gianfranco Gazzana Priaroggia (if you please) near the Straits of Otranto.

The minesweeper group consists of six sweepers and a German AOR, the Rhein, which serves as a depot ship. They start 83nm S of Split and the tug, the Resolve Carl, is 108nm SW of the port. Four freighters have been engaged to run further supplies to Split once the channel is clear and NATO liaison teams need to be delivered to them by chopper.

There are a lot of NATO air bases in Italy, many of them unoccupied and lacking in munitions stores. Several are home to squadrons of Starfighters, which are fast but lack endurance and are in most cases unable to sustain patrols over Yugoslavia for any length of time (they can’t refuel in-flight, either). Carrying two Aspide missiles, they will struggle against front-line Pact fighters, as their shots will be evaded as they go blind from the F-104s evasion of the answering Alamo, leaving them with no choice but to run like hell – at least they’re good at this.

At the North Italian bases of Ghedi and Piacenza, there are numerous Tornado attack planes, earmarked for the evening’s proposed strikes. They start on Reserve loadouts but can typically be equipped with Mavericks, GBU-16s or anti-shipping Kormorans or put in a SEAD role with HARMs.

Italy also has several squadrons, or Gruppi, of lightweight Ghibli and Gina attack planes. These can carry bombs and rockets and (if you play in the right spirit) can’t be used at night. You don’t dare commit them against unsuppressed SAM systems.

France has stationed a few Mirage fighters and recon planes and Jaguar strike aircraft at Treviso and Cervia in NE Italy. The fighters have the usual Super/Magic combination and the Jaguars are stuck with bombs (and are day-only).

Some Spanish Hornets are located at the main NATO air base at Aviano in NE Italy and have Sparrows and Sidewinders. At the same base is the principal fighting force of 20 F-16s and six Eagles, with AMRAAMs. There are also 17 Block 25 Falcons, which are limited to Sidewinders or attack-plane duties and ten OA-10 Thunderbolts, which despite their weird classification as fighters are best used in a ground or shipping attack role.

In Southern Italy, a squadron of 18 Tornado ADV fighters resides at Gioia del Colle, armed with Sky Flash missiles, which theoretically have a good range but suffer from being SARH and prone to lose lock in flight. This group has a lot of ground to cover, with no other reliable fighter squadron nearby.

Across the bases, there are sufficient numbers of AEW planes, tankers, EW aircraft and transports (some of the latter being under UNPROFOR control). Some Breguet Atlantics are on-hand for ASW and maritime patrol work.

In the former Yugoslavia, AI-controlled UNPROFOR transports are scattered across a number of bases, all on timed missions to evacuate police and soldiers from countries that want out of the war.

Finally, NATO has some Patriot and HAWK SAM batteries positioned around Italy, some guarding key bases and others too far back to be of any likely use.

Assessment
It seemed best to halt the freighters bound for Split until the channel was cleared of mines, parking them close to the Italian coast. I decided to get on with the task of putting the liaison teams aboard and began immediately.

Assuming that the smugglers would have airfields and piers up and down the Italian and Yugoslav coasts, I sent a couple of recon Mirages along each seaboard to look for them. If we could find the bases, we could hit them in harbour or on the ground.

As the Serbian Navy lacked long-range missiles, I felt confident that the Italians could handle them should they attempt to sortie from their base at Kotor.

The Soviet Kilo was clearly a threat to Garibaldi and Stromboli so, given the lack of buoys, I sent a Breguet to escort the two groups, while trying to link them up as soon as possible.

The situation with the evacuation flights wasn’t very clear, so it seemed best to keep the NATO-controlled transports on-hand should any missions be assigned to them by High Command. Things would be easier if Serbia (which starts Unfriendly) stayed out of the war for a while.

It seemed likely that the enemy would bomb UNPROFOR and a survey showed that, even discounting the Single-Unit airfields as unlikely, they had plenty of targets. A real issue was that they knew when and where they were going to strike and their bases were closer to the targets than ours. Unless we tried to maintain a large, tanker-supported standing CAP, we were likely to be caught-out when the raids came. I gave each capable fighter squadron an area to protect, but it was clear that the Tornadoes at Gioia would have to take primary responsibility for everything from Split to Dubrovnik and Sarajevo, which was an ask. At least they had good endurance.

As for our evening strikes, I quickly decided that attacking Hungarian bases, as suggested, would be too risky, given the likely heavy fighter and SAM defences. Kotor looked a much more feasible proposition, so I fitted the planes out with plenty of HARMs, Mavericks and GBU-16s, with eight Tornadoes given Kormorans to deal with anything that managed to get to sea. It would be possible to fly most of the length of Italy in a safe approach route and there were plenty of dispersal airfields for emergencies. Tanker support would not be needed.

I decided to keep the minesweepers on course for Split for now and be ready to cover them against air and PCFG attack. They could begin operations in six hours, by which time things might well have changed appreciably. The scattered destroyers and frigates were ordered to concentrate to seaward of Split and cover the operation.

As for the smugglers, I saw no reason why we couldn’t deal with them using aircraft alone. They were unlikely to avoid detection by our AEW and we had enough night-time capable planes to take them out. We just needed to pay attention and ensure that we didn’t target innocent civilians or Albanians by mistake.

The Action
16/2/94 14:00L: Four Soviet Flogger Ks, evidently based in Serbia, crossed into Bosnian airspace and made to blockade Sarajevo airport. Various intel reports began to arrive, giving more detail on enemy strength and basing.

USS Moinester’s Seasprite landed a liaison team on the nearby freighter Andromeda for 10VP. More teams were landed on the Constanta and Tempest Sun.

Two Italian Tornadoes engaged the Floggers, downing one for a generous 1VP. How the AI rolled two spoofs in three shots at 15% remains a mystery, but it keeps happening, game after game. Getting one Tornado to disengage was murderously difficult. The Serbs then decided that they were hostile and sent a posse of MiG-21s to cut-off the Tornadoes’ retreat. Another six Tornadoes reinforced but their Sky Flashes were hopeless at 50% Max range and the eight sorties accounted for just the one Flogger, two Fishbeds and a couple of Serb choppers that the AI attacked with Sidewinders on its own initiative. In the process, we found that, surprise, surprise, there was a Grumble site protecting Kotor. All planes got clear and I adjusted Sky Flash engagement range from 27.5 to 15nm.

We were told that G.222A transports readying at Pisa could take F-104 ammo to various Italian bases, but none would be ready for a while yet. I was already ferrying Starfighters from Cameri, W of Milan, to Rivolto, just E of Aviano, as quickly as they became ready. Rivolto already had stores for them.

Sabotage at Pratica di Mare air base, near Rome, wrecked two empty hangars for 3VP each.

Serbian ships began issuing from the fjord of Kotor (a place I visited in 2019 as part of an excellent holiday in Montenegro) and the nearest destroyer, the Orsa engaged, sinking a Mirna patrol boat then, after two malfunctions, a stronger Beograd-class frigate for 5VP each. The Italian then took-out another Mirna, leaving herself with one Otomat.

While all this was going on, the Soviet Kilo picked-off the Stromboli before it could join the Garibaldi group, costing us 25VP.

The two recon Mirage flights down the coasts found nothing and RTB’d.

15:00L: Because we had gone near their airspace, two Albanian MiG-21s preposterously flew all the way to Gioia and circled over the airport (without attacking). I left them alone and they flew off later. I was very careful to keep well clear of Albanian airspace for the rest of the game.

A Lynx from the Danish frigate Triton dropped-off a liaison team on the last freighter, the Eastern Star and then had to re-base to Bari, where it remained for the rest of the scenario.

Three Tornadoes returned to Sarajevo, using some Sidewinders on a Haze and Hormone that the Serbs were trying to fly to Split for (presumably) recon purposes.

After much searching, a Breguet and two Sea Kings tracked-down and destroyed the Kilo for a miserly 10VP. No doubt the Russians considered it a small price to pay for the Stromboli. With the submarine threat removed, Garibaldi headed into the Adriatic at Flank.

The Tornadoes engaged the Floggers at Sarajevo, quickly downing one. Unfortunately, they were insisting on turning away after firing, particularly when out of Sky Flashes, despite being ordered to follow missiles straight in. They soon ran-out of missiles and doctrine had to be ordered to allow engagement with guns to prevent this behaviour. One was then downed by a Flogger that randomly evaded into a shooting position and was then missed by another Tornado on similar chances. The other two Italians had to flee as more Fishbeds tried to cut them off.

More Serbian warships sortied, so Orsa and the destroyer Libeccio engaged them with Otomats. We suffered a malfunction and a 25% spoof against our five shots, but sank a Kotor-class FFG, an Osa and a Mirna.

Relieving Tornadoes found their Sky Flashes as useless as ever, as any turn away seemed to ‘beam’ them. Instead, they got stuck into the Fishbeds with Sidewinders with contrastingly gratifying results, butchering eight without loss.

16:00L: High Command allowed me discretion over the evening strikes, given the ‘developing situation’, which was a relief.

Two Oraos and eight more Fishbeds went after the retiring Orsa, so CAP from Gioia intervened and broke-up the attack, downing both strike planes and five MiGs, despite more under-performance from the Sky Flashes. Another Fishbed ditched on the way home and a Tornado broke off from escort duty to dispose of another Haze and Hormone.

The four Sparvieros sortied and engaged the Serbian fleet, sinking a Kotor, two PCFGs and a Mirna.

We were informed that some UNPROFOR documents had fallen into Serbian hands, though what effect this actually had I never found-out.

The Serbs mounted search-strikes with Oraos, which cost them nine of the attack planes to the hard-worked Tornadoes. The score was now +102 and a Minor Defeat.

Things had been very quiet to the N, but some recon flights started coming-over. A Spanish Hornet intercepted and downed two Hungarian Fishbeds near Ljubljana, Slovenia.

More PCFGs issued from Kotor and the Sparvieros sank two.

More Oraos approached and the Tornadoes shot four down. Other Tornadoes tried to do something about the Floggers at Sarajevo and killed four for one loss. The AI’s luck was staggering.

17:00L: More aerial skirmishes between Dubrovnik and Sarajevo saw Tornadoes down a Romanian recon Fishbed and six Oraos. Two Tornadoes were ordered to take-down a Hormone with cannon, but kept flying away from it.

While I wasn’t looking, four Soviet Fulcrums went after the Zagreb-Ljubljana CAP and picked-off a Spanish Hornet. A MiG-29 was damaged in return and RTB’d.

A Tornado with Sidewinders dealt with the Hormone.

Two F-15s and two F-16s engaged the Fulcrums over NE Italy, eventually downing all three for one Eagle damaged. It was really hard work, despite help from Patriot batteries and some F-104s en route from Cameri to Rivolto.

While this was going-on, massive enemy strikes were inbound to Sarajevo, Split and Zagreb, altogether too many to stop. Meanwhile, Oraos kept intruding over the Adriatic. The three fighters left available at Gioia were detailed to deal with the latter. It wasn’t possible to get anything to Sarajevo in time, which left Split and Zagreb. We only had a few Mirages to succour Split and fuel was an issue here, so the only viable option was to make a stand at Zagreb with the Aviano contingent.

The Tornadoes dealt with the Orao threat and nibbled at the edges of the strike on Split, as did the four Mirages from Cervia. At Zagreb, I committed every available F-15 and F-16, lost two of each for 3VP apiece but shot down 16 Soviet and four Hungarian Fulcrums, four Flankers, three recon Fishbeds and six Fitter attack planes.

There was, however, no stopping the avalanche of strike planes, which piled-up 300VP for bombing defenceless UNPROFOR targets at 5VP each. Four Transalls and C-130s at Sarajevo were wrecked on the ground for 20VP more. These were marked as UNPROFOR on the Sarajevo Air Ops window but I discovered too late (by reviewing my base save file) that they were actually under my control, so I might have saved some during the interval when the Floggers had been cleared away.

Meanwhile, the Dutch destroyer Tjerk Hiddes engaged the two Serbian PCFGs at sea with her Harpoons and sank one Osa with four shots. I never saw what happened to the other three.

The score was now -153 and a Major Defeat, with yet more strikes coming-in and Fulcrums pursuing my exhausted CAP back to Aviano.

18:00L: Reserve F/A-18s with Sparrows covered the retreat of the Eagles and Falcons, helped by the Patriots. One Hornet was lost but the enemy forfeited three Fulcrums and three Flankers. Some SEAD Foxbats counter-attacked the SAMs and nearby radars, but the Patriots thwarted this.

Further S, Tjerk Hiddes sank the other PCFG but was left with one Harpoon.

Floggers, far more than indicated by intel, made an aggressive sweep towards Italy, endangering a Tornado and two F-104s (re-based to Bari) which took-off on missions without manual orders. Partly because the AI insisted on launching the Starfighters as a pair, reducing my visibility and distorting Doctrine, one was lost but did down a Flogger in return.

In general, there were far too many enemy aircraft to fight and their front-line fighters have become very good at fleeing and diving at Afterburner, much as players do to them. It also takes a lot of effort and Unassignment to get fighters to disengage these days, particularly if they are on missions. There was some small consolation in the usual quota of enemy aircraft crashing on the way home.

Another volley of stand-off missiles hit Split, scoring the AI another 35 easy VP. While it made sense for it in game terms, I have to question the wisdom of what the Russians were doing. Attacking the troops of neutral nations, some of whom they were actively courting, was only likely to lead to political fallout for them, including declarations of war. A better policy would have been an offer to repatriate any UNPROFOR units that surrendered to them.

Despite their losses, the Pact were able to reconstitute their CAP over Slovenia as if nothing had happened. I sent four Starfighters from Rivolto to catch some RTB’ing, but they were simply relieved. Instead, the Italians fell back and acted as bait for the Patriots, which downed six more Fulcrums, only for two more, plus two Flankers to appear.

Two Tornadoes ventured over Split and engaged more Soviet Fulcrums, downing one before cautiously pulling-out.

Turning my back on events further N cost me an F-104, the Patriots responding by downing a Flanker. A wave of SEAD Foxbats then attacked the radars and depleted SAMs. Two radars were lost for 3VP each, while the Patriots stopped the wave of Kilters sent at them, only for one to be left out of ammo.

19:00L: Slovenia offered Ljubljana, Maribor and Cerklje (Celje) as forward bases for F-104s only. C-130s and G.222As would be required to deliver munitions and supplies to the bases, with Maribor considered too exposed to be viable. The exact cargo delivery requirements were vague and mystifying, listing non-existent loadouts. Given the enemy fighter presence, it was a total non-starter.

There was a strong sense of ‘what the hell can we do about this?’. Having to watch for smugglers was an additional overhead and our own air strikes were still 2-3 hours away.

More Kilters came-in and those that survived the Patriots silenced both sites.

Having read AndrewJ’s AAR in search of inspiration, I sent-up two F-16s with an EF-111 in support, the idea being to turn the latter’s jammers on just after the enemy fired their Alamos to cause them to lose lock – I’d never have thought of this independently. Seven Fulcrums and Flankers engaged but, sure enough, the tactic spoofed the first volley of Alamos. Unfortunately, our return AMRAAM salvo failed to score a single hit and I then forgot to turn the jammers off again. Even firing from some way below my Falcons, which were fleeing on Afterburner, the enemy were still given 71% chances to hit and both fighters were lost. The EF-111 escaped but I concluded that it just wasn’t worth taking-on the endlessly-regenerating Russian CAP. I estimated that the Pact had something like 150 front-line fighters in the North alone. Sadly, the only sane course was to abandon UNPROFOR to its fate and play cautiously, not that it was likely to save the game.

In accordance with this policy, I withdrew the minesweepers towards Brindisi, discovering that the depot ship Rhein had been hit during the strikes and was down to eight knots, so that I had to detach her.

20:00L: On cue, UNPROFOR reported heavy shelling around Dubrovnik, Osijek and the Croatian-Hungarian border. At 20:15, the Serbs mounted an airmobile operation at Osijek. We were advised to do something about it, but the place was 257nm from Aviano across hostile airspace and we wouldn’t have gotten past Ljubljana. Word then arrived of an impending Hungarian paradrop at Maribor. A strike to neutralise the base was urged, but our strike planes still wouldn’t be ready for another hour or two. It was another non-starter.

21:00L: Some of the UNPROFOR civilian evacuation aircraft were getting to Italy, while others were falling foul of enemy fighters, but mercifully didn’t cost us points. As yet, there was no sign of any smugglers – were they sneaking through somehow?.

A Serb torpedo boat sortied from Kotor and was sunk by Tjerk Hiddes’s last Harpoon. The Dutchman moved to reinforce Garibaldi, now in position with Libeccio and the re-armed Sparvieros.

At 21:30, we heard that Italian ground forces were deploying to Slovenia.

Another torpedo boat sallied-forth and a Sparviero’s Otomat sailed wide. This got the Serbian Air Force excited and a pair of Fishbeds came tearing across the Adriatic on Afterburner, to be downed by the Garibaldi group’s SAMs.

22:00L: Leonardo da Vinci intercepted and torpedoed the torpedo boat.

Two more Fishbeds appeared in the S, apparently escorting a smuggler Colt. I’d assumed that the smugglers were running contraband from Italy to the former Yugoslavia, not the other way around. Regardless, the F-104s at Bari dealt with all three hostiles and the smuggler plane scored 5VP.

A second Colt then tried to cross the Central Adriatic to Ancona and was downed by the F-104s at Cervia.

Eighteen HARM Tornadoes from Piacenza hit Kotor, neutralising the defending Grumble and two Gainfuls, blinding the radars on several Styx batteries and destroying a radar for a whole VP. The Goa and Guideline battalions refused to illuminate, so some Tornadoes were kept circling.

23:00L: Albanian smugglers sortied a Cessna Citation, which fell to a Harrier from Garibaldi. A smuggler go-fast tried to run the Straits of Otranto, but Priaroggia had been left there with this in mind and torpedoed it.

An 18-plane Maverick strike then hit Kotor, wiping-out the Serbian surface fleet and a docked sub (which scored 10VP) while also destroying several SAMs, Styxes and other installations. Four Russian Fulcrums tried to intervene and the escorts from Gioia kept them at bay, downing one without loss. All strike aircraft returned safely, though one had to re-base to Bari.

17/2/94 00:00L: Continued skirmishes between Tornadoes and Fulcrums around Dubrovnik saw two Russians eliminated without loss.

We received more out-of-touch orders urging re-basing of aircraft to Bosnia and Croatia, which we ignored.

01:00L: Smugglers sent a Cessna Skymaster on the Ancona route and it was duly disposed-of by an F-104. A go-fast then tried to cross from Istria, so I sent two OA-10s after it from Aviano. Two Fulcrums got wind of the attack planes and chased them towards two HAWK sites S of Venice. The SAMs drove the MiGs off but, unfortunately, the enemy had some SEAD Foxbats within range and one of the SAM sites was destroyed for 3VP. As the Fulcrums withdrew, one of the Thunderbolts dealt with the smuggler.

Meanwhile, night or not, the Pact resumed unanswerable strikes on UNPROFOR and quickly scored another 20VP despite the diminishing numbers of targets.

02:00L: More attacks on Split wasted Kazoo stand-off weapons on helpless targets, but it paid well for the AI in VP terms.

At 02:30, orders arrived to consider passing seven squadrons of assorted Starfighters, Ghiblis, Ginas, Block 25 F-16s and OA-10s to UNPROFOR, the idea being to move most of them through the enemy aerial blockade to bases in Slovenia and Croatia and then support Italian ground forces. The idea was crazy but an analysis showed that, even if I lost every plane, the cost would be offset by the 100VP I was being offered for each squadron, so I approved all the requests. Doing so, I found that various Hercules and Transall transports would be accompanying the combat aircraft on their road to Hell. There was, incidentally, some confusion as to exactly which aircraft were involved, with the message quoting the wrong squadrons and bases in several places. Needs looking at. Can’t be more helpful than that, as I still don’t know what was really intended.

03:00L: All this meant that I needed to do something about the Fulcrums and Flankers, so Aviano’s fighters rose to the challenge. The result was a large-scale dogfight and significant losses for both sides, ours coming to ten fighters, 13 UNPROFOR fighters and attack planes and two transports, which flew mindlessly at enemy fighters and cost me 25VP each. At least the other UNPROFOR planes, rightly or wrongly, cost nothing. The many that arrived then stayed grounded for the rest of the game, apart from the transports, which were on cycling ferry missions. A couple of F-16s had to re-base to the Rimini/Cervia area after nearly being cut-off by fresh Soviet fighter reinforcements at the end of the battle.

A feature was the performance of the Alamo A. Fulcrums and Flankers seemed to be able to turn away and dive on Afterburner and sling the things over their shoulders without losing lock and this partly explained the numbers of fighters I lost – they were behaving like AMRAAMs.

Meanwhile, the smugglers tried to run two go-fasts from Dalmatia and Dubrovnik and these were respectively sunk by a Harpoon from the German destroyer Emden and an Otomat from the Sparviero Condor.

The score was now up to +537 and Average.

Those fighters that remained at Aviano were now almost out of ammo, some having to be fitted with Sidewinders and, despite total enemy front-line fighter losses standing at 63, we could still see about twenty airborne in the North alone. I decided to reduce the vulnerability of Aviano by evacuating all non-combat aircraft further West.

04:00L: Some Flankers swept worryingly close to Aviano, interrupting the evacuation and driving-off the two F-15s on CAP. Happily, they didn’t linger.

Another smuggler appeared W of Split but, oddly, made no attempt to cross the Adriatic. A recon Mirage positively identified it and outran two Fulcrums, whereupon Emden did the necessary. That was the end of the smugglers’ involvement.

A large raid hit Split, mostly made-up of Fishbeds with day-only loadouts, not that the AI cared. It just scored some more easy VP. I sent four Tornadoes to try to offset the damage, but they were opposed by eight Serbian Fulcrums and prudently withdrew.

06:00L: Returning to join Garibaldi, the Leonardo da Vinci encountered a suspicious subsea contact. When it altered speed, I declared it Hostile and loosed two torpedoes. As I hoped, it was a Serbian Heroj-class sub and went into Auto-Evade mode, which did it no good at all.

The Hansa Carrier sank, but cost no VP which, I guess, is a bug.

Enemy planes bombed Celje but did no important damage. UNPROFOR had no planes there.

07:00L: One of the UNPROFOR transports took-off from Rijeka, got itself killed and allowed the AI to steal another 25VP. Much of the scoring in the game is frankly out of the player’s control.

08:00L: The two OA-10s that had been on anti-smuggler duty made a delayed run to Croatia and paid the price. I couldn’t afford to defend idiots that weren’ t worth any VP. One actually hit two Flankers with Sidewinders but failed to down either.

12:00L: Lost another tanker when it insisted on a second run from Cervia to Zadar, having returned safely earlier.

14:00Z: The Warsaw Pact ground offensive began, with columns heading for Ljubljana and Zagreb, Sarajevo and Dubrovnik with varying degrees of success. All of this was conveyed via updates, with no ground units actively involved in the game. We were asked for ‘immediate and continuous air superiority over all of Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia and continuous ground support in the Northern sector’. At Aviano, I had 8 AMRAAM and 6 Sparrow-capable fighters with no replacement AMRAAMs, so I did nothing.

15:00L: I found that a Sentry, based from the outset at Frosinone, couldn’t take-off from that base after returning from its initial patrol. The runway was long enough and the problem might be down to a missing taxiway. It mattered little, as NATO only requires one AEW plane up at a time to cover the whole area of operations in safety.

17:00L: The remaining UNPROFOR transport kept shuttling on a safe route between Ancona and Udbina, Croatia. I suspect that the fact that it was Canadian was no coincidence…

18/2/94 02:00L: I sat back and defended my way through a dull finish to the game and nothing else of note happened, so it ended with an Average score of +453.

NATO lost an ammo ship, 20 fighters, 4 transports and 19 ground elements

UNPROFOR lost 3 fighters, 10 attack planes, 3 transports, 7 civilian aircraft, a freighter and 91 ground elements

The USSR lost an SSK, 64 fighters and 3 recon planes

Serbia lost 2 subs, 4 FFGs, 10 PCFGs, 7 torpedo boats and 6 patrol boats, plus 54 attack planes, 7 choppers and 47 ground elements

Romania lost 3 Fishbeds and Hungary 10 fighters, 19 attack and 4 recon planes

The smugglers lost 5 boats and 4 planes.

Total air losses were 47 friendly and 168 hostile.

This was a major effort to play and my notes run to 20 sides of A4. At times, it was highly exciting stuff and, at others, decidedly depressing as I felt like a punchbag for the massive enemy air force. In the end, it was a draw and this seems fitting, as most of the scoring revolved around gaining points for releasing squadrons and losing them for having UNPROFOR bombed. Anything else I did seemed peripheral. As with other scenarios in the series, there are a few bugs and the scoring needs looking at.

I hesitate to mention this, but it has been an eventful last few weeks for me. I have been diagnosed with prostate cancer though, mercifully, it has been spotted very early and I’m told that it poses no short-term danger to me. For now, I feel fine and have been put on a monitoring programme, with regular check-ups and the option of surgery should matters deteriorate. All-in-all, it’s a rather strange feeling to know that I have this condition, but I’m staying calm and won’t be ending my AARs anytime soon. My advice would be to get checked if you have any suggestion of symptoms, which is my main reason for mentioning it, really.

[Gunner98]

Thanks Vince

I missed this AAR earlier; I should have replied a while ago. Hope you're feeling well and beating the Big C, I had a similar scare last year, but it was a false alarm. Best of luck.

Thanks for the AAR. I recall that this was a tough one to design, precisely for the reasons you mention. There is so much happening that is totally out of your control. The parallel and overlapping command structure with built-in confusion and conflicting demands was alive and well in NATO in the 90's, especially in the Baltics. National priorities (smugglers), international imperatives (UNPROFOR), unrealistic demands (rebasing), impossible orders (CAP over UMPROFOR), tactical crisis (the supply ship in the minefield), peripheral problems (smugglers), and political risk areas (Albania) are all competing for attention. The result was, and in many cases still is, overly large and ponderous HQ trying to manage way too much and tying down the commander with non-core issues. This is the main reason that doing anything on the central front scares the boogers out of me.

The other aspect that I wanted to show was the impact of being on the back burner, even for a few days, can mean that your resources get dangerously depleted. I believe you made the correct decision with the Garibaldi, she is far better and more valuable here than being added to the mix in the larger Med. Having very few front-end squadrons and a bunch of 2nd and 3rd line aircraft that you have to juggle is another symptom of this.

I've got your points and when I get CMO loaded up on my new machine, I'll take a look. The 'to do' list is piling up.

Thanks again

B