A weekend’s always more enjoyable with a little Command!
FINAL PREPARATIONS
As the last of our planes are readied, the pilots review their targeting information and launch schedules, and then settle in to endure the last tense hours before commencing the attack. Most of our planes have no night-vision capability, so the plan is for the strike to arrive as early as possible in the full light of day, so the attack planes can actually see their targets. Until then, all they can do is wait.
In the meantime, skirmishing continues over NW Hokkaido, as two more separate pairs of F-15s fall to a four-ship of MiG-23s out of Iturup, unfortunately taking one of my planes with them. Some of my Fencers, hastily launched with ferry tanks and nothing else, also conduct some last-minute radar-reconnaissance off the south end of Hokkaido, looking for more enemy ships. Nothing turns up, but they do detect signals from an E-2 orbiting in the area, and are forced to flee at high speed and low altitude when some F-16s come to investigate.
ADVANCE ON CHITOSE
The carefully timed attack on Chitose commences with multiple streams of fighters lifting off from all my bases: Su-27s, MiG-29s, and MiG-23s. They converge on Chitose, expecting a fierce fight to clear the skies before the strike arrives, but the skies are empty. Nobody’s there… Some of the Su-27s pass around Chitose, and finally find some F-16s to skirmish with south of Hokkaido, eventually chasing them all the way back to Misawa. Our missiles always fall a little short, and we have to abandon the futile pursuit when a HAWK opens fire and drives us off.
In the meantime, my attack planes are en-route, lead by ARM-carrying Fencers and Fitters, followed by long-range (AS-18) and short-ranged (AS-10) PGM carriers, and then Fitters with cluster bombs and heavy rockets. This first SEAD wave is followed by more iron bomb and rocket-carrying attackers, who will hit the soft airfield infrastructure, and then crucially important LGB-carrying Su-24s, who must shut the runways and taxiways to complete the destruction of the base.
The last aircraft to launch have no pilots at all. The 451st independent Coastal Missile and Artillery Brigade turns its launch keys and fires the last four Sepal anti-ship missiles on bearing-only attacks at Chitose! These massive 30-foot-long missiles will act like high-speed decoys, hopefully prompting the SAM gunners in Chitose to open fire, without risking my aircrew to do so. That will give all those ARMs I’m carrying something to shoot at.
STRIKE!
The first shots actually come from a pair of Fencers, firing a salvo of AS-17 ARMs at the Nike site at Yakumo, on the narrow south-western ‘neck’ of Hokkaido. The Nike’s not the most modern SAM any more, but it’s still dangerous enough to restrict maneuver on that flank, and it gives good radar coverage to the enemy. As my missiles roar in the Nike turns on its illuminators – and so does every single other SAM site in the Chitose area! So much for my clever plan to trick them with Sepals…
I’m looking at four active HAWK sites, and two, no, three smaller SAM sites of some sort, all clustered around Chitose. My Fencers deliver a barrage of long-ranged AS-9s and AS-17 ARMs, plus low-altitude AS-18 cruise missiles. Some of these manage to punch through the SAM defences, wounding some, but not all, of the SAM sites. The Sepals arrive, hurtling into the confusion, and some of the smaller SAM sites open fire on them, wasting a number of missiles, and giving a little bit of time for the Fitters to launch their short-ranged AS-12 ARMs.
Most of the radars go down, and AS-10-armed Fitters start engaging from medium altitude, others come dashing in as low as they can to strike the battered defences with cluster bombs and rockets. But we’ve kicked the hornet’s nest, and now the air is full of Stingers! It’s not a good day to be a Fitter pilot, and swarms of the nasty little MANPADS start knocking planes out of the sky. I’m deeply regretting the choice not to load every AS-10 I could, but my brave pilots use what they have. Many of them are carrying huge 266mm rockets, with massive 150 kg warheads, and their crushing impacts turn out to be superb against the dismounted SAM gunners. Mixed in with all this chaos, Vulcans start blazing away, sending ropes of tracer towards my twisting planes.
It’s a horrible mess, and in a couple of short minutes I’ve lost six Fitters and had two more damaged, and almost all of them are my most modern M-3s which were leading the assault. But, the weight of a Soviet assault is an implacable force, and so many planes arrive that the defences are overwhelmed. The LGB-carrying Fencers fly over, and their massive penetrating bombs systematically wreck the runways and taxiways from safe altitude, while streams of lesser Fitters continue to pummel hangars, fuel tanks, and other structures, until the base is a flaming wreck.
FALL BACK
Only now do the enemy start to respond, as we detect radars on F-16s approaching from the south. The last of my attackers drop their bombs and hurry north at low altitude, joining the stream of planes retiring to their bases. As they go, a flight of Fitters finally sinks that patrol boat (a hydrofoil, no less) with a brace of AS-7s, and four Fencers strike the southern ELINT station with heavy 3,000lb iron bombs. (That turns out to be completely ineffective, and the ELINT station remains fully operational for the remainder of the operation.)
Does the approach of the F-16s finally mean my pilots descend on them and engage boldly? Well, no. Almost all my fighters are very low on fuel now, far from home, and poorly positioned to engage. Most of them are forced to withdraw. Eight enemy planes are coming in, and that’s a lot of AMRAAMs for the remainder to face. Fortunately, four of them actually turn out to be attack planes headed north at a really bad time, and my MiG-23s manage to take them in the flank and destroy them, but we only manage to kill one of the F-16s, at the cost of one of our own. The rest disengage south for more missiles, while we’re forced north again when we detect more new F-16s coming in.
Meanwhile, some Su-27s on the flank overfly the damaged Nike site to snipe a reckless E-2, before running away again, and fresh MiG-29s are called south to cover our retreat. Angry F-16s are headed north at supersonic speeds, closing in on our retreating planes who don’t have the fuel to outrun them. The MiGs manage to arrive just in time to concentrate a 3:1 numerical superiority, and this time, when we have plenty of fuel and the F-16s do not, we finally manage to achieve some decisive kills.
REASSIGNMENTS
At 22:00Z our liaison officer salutes the Deputy Commander of the 1st Red Banner Air Army of the VVS, and reports that the Su-24 regiment 302nd BAP has been returned to VVS control as planned. He thanks the Deputy Commander for the VVS’s support for their comrades in arms in the fleet, neglects to mention that the 302nd is actually somewhere over the Sea of Japan, low on fuel, and out of ordnance, and tactfully retires before questions can be asked.
We also have a number of fighters and strike planes bumping down on the wrong airfields all around the theatre, wherever their fuel-starved engines can reach. Lingering on station, chasing down F-16s and outrunning AMRAAMs has taken a heavy toll in fuel. It’s well into the afternoon before all the planes are finally ferried back to their home bases and readied for use again. Some MiG-29 pilots are also assigned to do shuttle runs back to Khabarovsk, where the remainder of their munitions are stored, and then return to the front lines with full loadouts.
LOW-LEVEL HOSTILITIES
The next hours pass at a lower level of hostilities. We hear reports of furious fighting involving the Americans and our comrades to the south in Vladivostok, but fortunately the American navy isn’t active here. Our ships continue to patrol and hunt for mines in the La Perouse strait, but other than some puzzling biological contacts, nothing shows up on sonar.
Shortly before noon the Japanese attempt a strike on our forward base in the Kurile Islands, but the attack planes don’t have any escorts. MiG-23s from Iturup are able to pounce on the strike while it’s still over Hokkaido, and they destroy it without any losses. Our disguised refuelling ship would have made a vulnerable target if they had gotten through, and it is a relief when it finally completes its task and starts sailing north again after lunch.
Our own air activity is kept low key. Su-27s snipe the second E-2, and a few Fitters bomb the remains of the southern Nike site before it can repair itself, but that is the extent of our offensive action. Our ESM planes detect the emissions of patrolling F-16s from Misawa, but I’m reluctant to go so far south and tangle with them where they have the advantage. Instead, we patrol, monitor the situation, and let our pilots rest to prepare for the next stage of our glorious revolution!
Thanks for another excellent scenario!
