Real Naval Gaming

[decaro]

From today's NYT:

... In the days since the encounter with five Iranian patrol boats in the Strait of Hormuz, American officers have acknowledged that they have been studying anew the lessons from a startling simulation conducted in August 2002. In that war game, the Blue Team navy, representing the United States, lost 16 major warships — an aircraft carrier, cruisers and amphibious vessels — when they were sunk to the bottom of the Persian Gulf in an attack that included swarming tactics by enemy speedboats.

... “The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack,” said Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, a retired Marine Corps officer who served in the war game as commander of a Red Team force representing an unnamed Persian Gulf military.

... In the simulation, General Van Riper sent wave after wave of relatively inexpensive speedboats to charge at the costlier, more advanced fleet approaching the Persian Gulf.

... According to Pentagon and Navy officials, five small patrol boats belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps charged a three-ship Navy convoy, maneuvering around and between an American destroyer, cruiser and frigate during a tense half-hour encounter. The location was where the narrow Strait of Hormuz meets the open waters of the Persian Gulf — the same choke point chosen by General Van Riper for his attack.

The above "game" was not called Harpoon, but does it resemble anything in it?

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Bucks]

Joe,
If you'd like Harpoon to resemble the exercise, then you have the tools to build it. Harpoon ANW contains a highly detailed scenario editor that will allow you to design and play out either the entire exercise in a single scenario or you could model various smaller actions from within the exercises' overall plan. As far as I'm concerned, imagination is the only limiting factor when it comes to using Harpoon ANW as a simulation of real world naval affairs.

Cheers

Darren

[decaro]

I didn't realize that the judges had over-ruled Gen. Van Riper and that he resigned in protest; this info wasn't in the NYT article! Good analogy between this and the so-called wargaming aboard the Yamato, which was nothing but a rubber stamp on Yamamotto's Midway plan.

Wasn't there another war game recently where another Marine general used asymetrical tactics -- i.e., couriers instead of electronic transmissions -- to beat a superior land force.

Millenium Challenge 2002 was the name of the game, although it sounds more like a Win Op syst or a gaming convention, and not software.

[Vincenzo_Beretta]

ORIGINAL: Joe D.
Millenium Challenge 2002 was the name of the game, although it sounds more like a Win Op syst or a gaming convention, and not software.

If I recall correctly, the Red Team used unusual tactics to simulate the fictional land campaign, too (like clerics inserting "code-words" for guerrilas in the daily prayers) and those were overruled too. While the first phase of operation Iraqi Freedom actually went according to the "conventional idea" of a land campaign, I have the feeling that Van Riper's ideas were employed - or could al least have been food for thought for the Coalition - during the follow up (2003-2008).