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Hi guys, this is VitP here, bringing you another Harpoon AAR. This one is from the Battle for the Norwegian Sea campaign.

In the first scenario (BigFish), the UN (actually, just UK) seized and sank 3 US fishing vessels, which were either peacefully fishing in international waters or carrying WMD into Icelandic territorial waters, depending on who you ask.

In this scenario, #2 (Nordic Light), the US starts to mobilize, and as we will see, escalates the conflict dramatically. So far, there have been no casualties, just some property damage, and you can de-escalate from that quite easily. But once things start blowing up big time and lots of people start dying, it’s pretty hard to get the dogs of war back on the leash.

I do feel the need to say at this point that I hope that this type of sudden escalation could never actually happen, not over the issues in this campaign, but unfortunately I don’t see much historical evidence to support this hope.

This Battleset is somewhat unusual in that the individual scenarios follow each other closely in chronological and causative sequence. Depending on which side gets the most action, the player switches from one side to the other. There are some errors in the scenarios, but the whole campaign seems to be quite interesting.

Force Analysis

United States

The US have a CVBG, plus an amphibious assault group, plus a land-based Hornet squadron, plus several civilian ships that happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The naval forces are rather scattered, so the first order of business will be to bring them together for mutual support.

Compared to the glory days of US naval airpower, when a CV would carry 80 planes, including 24 first-rate fighters, 12 bombers, and 10 ASW planes, this scenario is almost a bare-bones operation. The CV carries only 61 planes. Many roles can only barely be covered. The biggest gap is the lack of any bomber. Having said that, it is still a US CVBG, and is immune to any threat except the Russian heavy bomber, which isn’t present in this scenario, and maybe small animals that eat the eggs. And submarines, of course.

United Nations

In this scenario, the UN forces are still mobilizing. I guess they didn’t expect the US to respond to the loss of their 3 fishing ships. In any case, only the United Kingdom has any substantial forces available. Those consist of 42 fighters, 8 attack planes, and some support units. The UK fighter, the Tornado, scores well in certain categories, but since its best missile has a range of less than 30 nm, I would consider it to be less than second-rate. The UK attack aircraft are good enough, but there aren’t enough of them. Russia does have the first-rate Foxhound, which is almost as good as the Tomcat, but only has 4 of them, as well as some support planes.

There are reports of some UK destroyers wandering around. The UN probably have some first-rate submarines.

Overall

The US can expect to simply crush their opposition by sending the Tomcats to the Russian flank and the other fighters to deal with the UK. The only challenge for the US will be to protect their scattered units until they can be brought together with the main force.

The plan



Broadly speaking, the plan is as follows.

Phase 1 (12 h):

Bring as many of the scattered units as possible to the vicinity of the airfield (Jan Mayen). Some of the civilian ships, those in the west, are just too far away, so they will head west at best speed and hope they will not be detected. Try to lure the enemy fighters into suicidal (for them) engagements. Provide support for our submarines, especially the one in the north, because subs thrive best with plenty of air support.

Phase 2 (12 h):

Move the fleet to the vicinity of Iceland. Conduct electronic surveillance of the Russians from the area NW of Norway. Conduct photographic reconnaissance of Iceland. Provide plenty of fighter and other support for the recon planes. This was not realistically possible during Phase 1 because the fighters would have been too busy providing support for the scattered ships.

Phase 3 (24 h):

Deal with contingencies.

Logistical Details

This gets extremely detailed. Some people may want to skip this section.

ASW assets

The CVBG has 6 Vikings, 4 Oceanhawks, and 6 Seahawks. The amphibious assault group has 6 Seahawks. Since we might be facing any number of first-rate subs, aggressive ASW patrols will be necessary. Treating these 2 groups as one, and recognizing that all 16 helicopters can only provide sub-minimal [:D] coverage for the group, and that at least half the Vikings will be needed to provide ASW support for the scattered units, it is clear that none of the Vikings will ever be available as tankers.

Tanker assets

6 S-3B: As mentioned above, these will be needed for the ASW role.
10 F-14B/D: These are our first-line fighters and are simply too valuable in that role to be used as tankers.
42 F/A-18 C/D/E: These are our main fighter force and essentially our entire anti-shipping strike force, so they can hardly be used as tankers.
CH-53, MH-53J: While these helicopters can technically be used as tankers, their small range and payload makes them generally unsuitable for that role. What they could be used for, with some effort, is to allow planes to avoid spending an hour on the ground. However, helicopters should not be allowed to refuel jets. If the jet tried to slow down to the speed of the helicopter, the jet would simply fall out of the sky. The helicopters might be able to refuel the S-3 variants, which have a very low loiter speed (160 kn).

It can be seen that, for practical purposes, we have no tankers available. However, we will need some tankers, and the only way to do this will be to use some of the F/A-18Cs, which are, relatively speaking, the least capable in their primary roles. The serious, almost damaging, shortage of tankers is one of the reasons we won’t be attempting the required continuous air reconnaissance of Iceland and Russia until Phase 2.

All of the planes can be refueled in the air. Apparently the Hawkeyes should not be allowed to do so, and I will be acting accordingly. This is actually a problem, because we only have 3 Hawkeyes.

Some of the helicopters (the attack helicopters) can actually be refueled in the air.

Fighter assets

Our 10 Tomcats will pwn the 4 Russian Foxhounds. Our 46 second-rate fighters will pwn the UK planes. After that, we still have 8 Harriers with Sidewinders for last-ditch air defence.

Strike assets

If we put every available aircraft on it, we can muster a strike of 104 Harpoons. This is not realistically possible, because too many planes will be needed for other purposes. Some of you will remember the glory days of US naval airpower, when a US CV could put together a strike of 164 Harpoons, while still having 24 first-rate fighters on hand.

In this scenario, almost all our attack planes will be used as fighters, because you have to win the air war before you engage in other operations, so hardly anything will be available for surface strike. Fortunately, there shouldn’t be too much need for this role.

Other air assets

We only have 3 Hawkeyes, and they should not actually be allowed to refuel in the air. Fortunately, a Hawkeye has quite a long loiter time. For every hour on the ground, it should be able to manage 9 h in the air. This means that we can have 2.7 Hawkeyes in the air at all times, on average. If the refueling is properly managed, we should be able to keep at least 2 Hawkeyes in the air at all times, and all 3 in the air for half the time. This is barely adequate, and it will require a fair bit of attention.

We do have a lot of EW planes of various types. They can be used to support the Hawkeyes. They don’t have great radars, but they do have other sensors.

We also have batches and batches of helicopters – 44 in addition to the ASW ones. If anything approaches close enough for these to be brought into play, they will regret it!

Loadouts

1) Immediately shift 4 F/A-18E from the tanker to the intercept role. This will give them 6 more AMRAAMs each.
2) After the Hawkeyes have been in the air about 10 min, shift 4 Harrier plus from the anti-surface to the intercept role, and 6 F/A-18D from the anti-surface to the escort role. This will give them 4 more AMRAAMs each. Cancel this order if enemy ships were detected.
3) After the Hawkeyes have been in the air about 20 min, shift 8 F/A-18C from the anti-surface to the escort or intercept role. This will give them 2 or 4 more AMRAAMs each, and significantly greater range. Cancel this order if enemy ships were detected.
4) Later, shift 4 Harriers from the anti-surface to the escort role. This will give them 2 more Sidewinders each, and greater range. Also shift 4 Harrier (NA) from the anti-surface to the escort role. This will give them greater range. Also maybe shift 6 F/A-18C from the escort to the intercept role. This will give them 2 more AMRAAMs each, with a slight decrease in other characteristics.

This will leave 6 F/A-18D (2 Harpoons each) for the anti-surface role, which is probably not enough to be useful, and 6 F/A-18C as tankers.

Detailed initial deployments

1) Our sub in the Norwegian on-station area looks awfully exposed. A Los Angeles class, it can probably deal with (i.e hide from) any Russian sub it encounters, but it definitely can’t deal with Russian airplanes. Therefore we will need a Hawkeye there to detect Russian airplanes, Tomcats to shoot them down and to defend our airplanes, a Viking to sink Russian subs, and a pair of Prowlers for EW support. We also are ordered to station an ES-3A recon aircraft there, and we are likely to need tankers as well. Maintaining this force will become increasingly more problematic as the CV moves to Iceland. However, the planes could re-base to Jan Mayen, which doesn't move.

2) The pair of destroyers in the SE needs to rejoin the fleet at the best speed that allows a reasonable sonar performance. Traveling through (likely) sub-infested waters, they will need support from a Viking, a Hawkeye, and fighters. Tomcats will be used in case Foxhounds show up. A pair of Prowlers will be sent as well.

3) The cruise ship in the south will head towards the fleet at top speed. Having no sonar, it’s not going to be detecting subs anyway. Send a Viking for ASW support and some fighters.

4) The AOE group 260 nm W of Jan Mayen will head towards the fleet at the best speed that allows a reasonable sonar performance. However, these ships will wait until a Viking, Hawkeye, and fighters are available for support.

5) Specific fighter deployment is 2 F-14D to the NE, 2 F-14D to the SE, 2 F/A-18E to the W, 2 F/A-18E to the S, and 2 F/A-18E to the SE. The fighters will not move to their assigned stations until later, because they fly faster than the support planes.

6) 6 F-14B, 2 Prowlers, and 2 Vikings remain in reserve.

It begins!

I am going do something a little bit different here. I am going to not use direct chronological sequence. Instead, I will present different operational aspects of the scenario in separate sections.


The UN Frigate group

19.5 min after the Hawkeyes are launched, we get the first contact, a small FF/DD group. Since they turned their radars on immediately, we know exactly what they are:

- A UK Type 42/3 DD, which carries 40 nm range Sea Darts;
- A UK Type 23 FF, which carries 80 nm range Harpoons;
- A Horizon class FF, which carries 38 nm range Exocets and 30 nm range SAMs.



Since these ships are right where we need to be, and are heading towards us, they actually do represent a threat. If the contact had occurred just a few minutes later, we would have had 8 less strike planes available. At present, we can put together a 16-plane strike:

- 6 x F/A-18D (12 Harpoon)
- 8 x F/A-18C (16 Harpoon)
- 2 x Prowler (4 ARM)

This weak little attack won’t do much except make the ships use up some SAMs. However, we can’t really allocate any more planes because they are needed for other purposes. Nor can we wait until those tasks are completed, because in a few hours, those ships will be close enough to be a serious threat. (At present, they are about 180 nm from our nearest units.) So we will have to launch repeated attacks.


Political Interlude

Are we really going to do this?

So far, nobody has been killed, and only a few fishing ships have been sunk. But if we kill hundreds of people and destroy ships worth billions of dollars, then this situation is going to escalate out of control.

And make no mistake, we will be the aggressors.

Where is Ron Hunter when you need him?

The debate lasts all of 2 minutes.


Back to the action

The Prowlers, being slower, are launched immediately. The Hornets are launched 10 min later. The F/A-18Cs flying from the CV are near the limit of their range and may require tanker support. They have a range of only 550 nm. The enemy ships are 325 nm away. Subtract 75 nm for the Harpoon range, and these Hornets need 500 nm of fuel for the round trip.

Technical detail: Harpoon won’t let you launch those planes with “attack” orders. They have to “patrol” to a closer location, after which you can reset the orders to “attack”, and you have to adjust the flight altitude for maximum cruise speed.

At 48 min, the first airstrike is about to go in. http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww33/VictorInThePacific/Nor_Sea/2nordic/light2.png In order to get a coordinated strike, the Prowlers and lead Hornets will need to loiter and wait for the following Hornets to arrive. Harpoons are launched starting 5 min later. The Prowlers pop up and start jamming, and the Hornets head home.



As could have been predicted, none of our missiles hit. All we managed to do was deplete the enemy SAMs. Of 40 Sea Dart, 15 were used. Of 64 Aster-30, 43 were used. Of 12 Mistral, 2 were used. That’s about 2 SAMs per ASM. 32 Aster-15 and 32 Sea Wolf also remain. At this rate, it will take 2 more such airstrikes before we do any damage.

After the first airstrike, and remembering how quickly the ARMs were shot down, the Prowlers are re-armed with TALDs instead, so as to give them 12 missiles each instead of 2 each. (Who can say why this is a mistake?)

All 14 Hornets used in the first strike are re-armed for the same mission.

When the Prowlers are ready to go again, we realize that the TALDs can only be used against land targets. So we put ARMs back on these planes, and send only the 14 Hornets.

This airstrike also does no damage. 9 Aster-30, 16 Sea Dart, and 24 Aster-15 were used. That’s about 2 SAMs per ASM. Although our count appears to be incomplete, this depletes all the Sea Dart and Aster-30. The next airstrike will do grievous bodily harm.


Political interlude

So far, only a few fishing ships have been sunk, and 11 Tornados have been shot down. But shooting down the Tornados and killing their crew is already a huge escalation. Perhaps it is already too late to stop this madness. Are the political leaders trying to resolve this?

It is certainly clear that the next hour will cause much pain to the UN. There will be much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And yet, those frigates continue to advance, to their certain doom. Brave, perhaps. Stupid, certainly.


Back to the action

About 4 hours after the enemy ships were detected, they are all on the bottom of the ocean. Only a few SAMs were able to respond to the 4 ARMs and 28 Harpoons of the third airstrike (4 Harpoons were not used), and that wasn’t enough.




Fighter operations

No fighters were launched until the first airstrike was en route. At that point, the 10 fighters allocated in the initial plan were sent out. More fighters were launched later.

58 min after the scenario starts, the first enemy fighters (3 Tornados) are detected. http://s703.photobucket.com/albums/ww33/VictorInThePacific/Nor_Sea/2nordic/light4.png They are headed for the westernmost Hawkeye. We send 6 fighters to intercept. In principle, we only need 6 AMRAAMs to shoot them down, so only 2 fighters will be adequate, but the top speed of a Tornado is higher than the top speed of a Hornet, and I don’t want to be in a situation where 8 AMRAAMs get only one kill, and there’s an angry Tornado chasing my planes.

However, there are no hitches, and the first pair of Hornets is victorious.

About a half hour later, 3 more Tornados are detected. They are also headed for the westernmost Hawkeye. These are also shot down without difficulty.

Sending the Tornados out in penny packets lie this is not an effective approach. But what if all 50 UK fighters and attack planes and the 4 Foxhounds all attacked at once? 25 Hornets and 4 Tomcats could easily deal with this force. This leaves us 6 Tomcats and 4 Harrier plus in reserve, not even considering the 20 F/A-18Cs and a further half dozen F/A-18Ds, although some of those planes are allocated to other roles.

So any way you slice it, we completely dominate the air.

However, our planes cannot stay in the air indefinitely. At some point, they will either need to return to base, or be refueled in place. For certain units, refueling-in-place is the better option. This applies to the 4 F-14s on the Russian flank and the 4 Prowlers supporting them. The technical difficulty is that our F/A-18C tankers only can carry spare fuel out 300 nm from base, and the eastern patrol stations are well beyond that range. So it becomes necessary to arrange refueling rendezvous for these planes. It takes a bit of calculation to do this efficiently, but it is no worse than what the actual pilots would be doing.

Although we control the air, bad surprises can still happen. Shortly after the second Harpoon wave was launched, some Tornados suddenly de-cloak in the middle of our planes, literally 1 nm away from some of them, and 120 nm from the nearest Hawkeye. The Hawkeye radar should detect the Tornados at 240 nm. So it seems to me that we should not be surprised like this. However, if you look at the Reports window, it looks like the UN planes were just as surprised. Radar horizon from a ship to a low-flying aircraft is about 50 nm, so the UN ships never detected my Hornets. Apparently visual detection doesn’t work very well in Harpoon.



In any case, the Tornados turn their radars on and missiles start flying. Fortunately, we quickly pot them with Sidewinders, and their Sky Flash lose tracking. Who needs to be good if you’re lucky.


ASW operations

35 min after the scenario starts, a Viking has arrived to support the AOE group. While the escorting frigate does have a capable sonar, what I am going to do is move the Viking in a zigzag pattern along the line of advance of the AOE group and lay sonobuoys. The ships will move through the pattern of sonobuoys and might get some additional warning of activity ahead of them.





The same procedure will be used with the cruise ship in the south and the DD pair in the SE.





It looked like a good idea at the time, but it turns out that this doesn’t work. The problem is that the ships are only moving at 10 kn, and the buoys only last for an hour, so they are gone by the time the ships arrive. Since a Viking only carries 60 bouys, and about a third of those need to be saved in case a sub is detected, you just can’t lay enough buoys to make this work.



Even with the cruise ship, which is moving at 30 kn, there just aren’t enough buoys to provide adequate coverage. So after this, we will just leave the Vikings nearby to deal with situations as they arise.


The first 4.5 hours

3 UN ships plus 3 of their helicopters plus 11 Tornados have been destroyed for no loss to us. The 2 other helicopters are headed for parts unknown.

And the dogs of war are roaming wild.