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One in a planned series of AFRICOM Vignettes:

Operation Lone Avenue

In the near future, the global economy remains stagnant and nations once committed to protecting the shipping lifelines of the world make deep budgetary cuts, particularly in defense spending. As a result, the world's navies have gradually withdrawn from the Horn of Africa, leaving a dedicated few to continue the long patrols.

Japan has become the dominant maritime power in the region. The US Navy's presence is a mere shell of it's former glory. Ashore, the war over Somalia has stalemated. The African Federal Union has finally seized Mogadishu. The Islamic Foundation of Justice is fighting a two front-war against both the Federalists and a hard-core pirate coalition on the coasts. All sides are exhausted from the protracted conflict and have agreed to a temporary cease-fire. But the IFJ has called upon their trump card; surging from the Persian Gulf is a renewed Iran, intent on spreading their militant philosophy to the shores of Africa...

RED SIDE is playable (this one's for you HermanHum! [:D] )

Download it here at HarpGamer.

I would like to credit the USNI "Get the Gouge" H3 ANW scenarios for inspiring part of the base map design.

I accept the challenge!  [:D]
 
Thanks, in advance, for putting it together.

If you downloaded the Zip File on 7/11/2010, please re-download. As a consequence of playing Blue more than Red during testing, I completely forgot to give Blue Side pre-defined Speed and Sensor settings at the start of the scenario. Apologies for the error. [8D]

The LSM group headed for Mogadishu immediately changed course for the open sea in hopes of avoiding most of the NATO patrols.  The game duration was 72 days so I intended to take advantage of every possible path to victory.
 
The AO Nasr group got caught right away by EH101 radar.  As they died under a blizzard of Harpoon missiles, they still managed to do some good by giving me a datum point for some NATO ships.  The survivors spread out as far as possible to get cross-bearings, but they eventually died leaving the PG Kakap as the sole survivor.  He managed to maintain contact with the group.  (I guess they ran out of missiles.)  The Su-25 Frogfoots were called in with their superb Kayak missiles.  The Kakap managed to get ESM contacts on FFG Santa Maria and FFL K130.  The first salvo of 12 Kayak ASMs was easily shot down.  As the Frogfoot ran home to re-load, the Kakap reversed course and matched speed with the NATO surface group to shadow and maintain contact for the subsequent strikes.
 
The flotilla of 4x TNC-45 missile boats ran afoul of a pair of Ingraham frigates.  They exchanged missiles and both sides registered a single victory.  I would gladly trade a few missile boats for a frigate, any day.  Follow up ARM fire from the frigates claimed two more boats.  As well, an F-35 Lightning closed on the Kakap and killed her with a GBU.  For the time being, I would be blind in the area.
 
Pirate ship Changco reported contact with a cruise ship and died shortly afterwards.  Evidently, this vessel must have been under military escort.
A return visit to the FFG Navarra left her sinking while K130 desperately conducted rescue operations.
 
A Ka-30 popped up to check out the area around the airbase and found the Hyuga group closing.  The Su-25s were re-tasked to attack the escort DD Murasame.  SS Taregh moved to pursue, but the targets were moving at 30kts and she would not increase speed and thus reveal herself.  Instead, she hoped that the target would 'zag' back towards her.
 
The AAW coverage of the Hyuga was excellent.  As she closed on the base, the SAM bubble created by DDG Kongo virtually shut down the base.  The Su-25s would pop up, illuminate the targets with a Ka-31, and then release missiles before hurrying back to base to re-arm.  The repeated attacks finally wore down the defenses until a flight of Kayak penetrated and slammed into the Hyuga turning her into a pyre and victory was granted.
 
Another very challenging scenario.  Thanks for putting it together.  The only suggestion I have is that you might warn the Red player that the Hyuga is operating EH.101 AEW helos as it is not a country mentioned in the description.

Not a bad AAR at all. I'm surprised at the Changco - those civilian ships are exactly that, no escorts or anything. Interesting that it died; I'll have to check to see if one of the formation patrols overlapped her start points. Thanks for playing it out!