Command Live! - Spratly Sprat

[Tailhook]

Played from the perspective of Task Force Guardian.

I suffered heavy losses of older aircraft against a modern foe, but my more contemporary forces faired better.

China has pushed it's luck. The US has once again prepared for a Freedom of Navigation Passage through the Spratly Island region. USS Chung Hoon leads Task Force Guardian comprised of Frigates and Corvettes from Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, The Philipines, Vietnam, and Malaysia backed by a Taiwanese AOE. Some of the SE Asian ships in this force are some of the newest ships in the region, bought specifically to stand up to China's much larger PLAN. Supporting this I have aircraft from the same nations including a squadron of USMC Hornets backed by KC-130s and Prowlers*, a detachment of USN P-3Cs, a pair of Filipino MP aircraft, a squadron each of Malaysian Hawks, Hornets, and Su-30MKM Flankers, and the Vietnamese Air Force consisting of older SU-22s, and newer SU-27SKs and SU-30MK2Vs. Also lurking around is the USS Hawaii, a Virginia Class SSN, and the RSS Archer SSI of the Singaporean Navy. My mission is to conduct a peaceful Freedom of Navigation passage with TFG. If the PLAN wants to come out to play, I am to respond appropriately and force their withdrawal.

(*Not going to lie, I COMPLETELY forgot about these for like the first 90% of the scenario when I really needed them... It ended up not mattering, but still, rookie mistake for sure.)

Opposing me is a PLAN Carrier Group centered around the Liaoning, backed by a handful of modern Frigates and Destroyers plus an oiler. There are also an unknown number of submarines in the area, as well as some land based fighters. Of note, none of the airfields in the Spratlys are yet operational, so the Chinese will be forced to fly from Hainan and Woody Island, stretching their legs quite a bit.

Compared to my last foray into a Command Live scenario, the forces are a bit more modest. On the other hand, without a US Carrier Strike Group, I'm definitely on closer to equal footing with the Chinese forces in the region.

TFG started off on the southern edge of the South China Sea, with the objective area to their north. USS Hawaii started in the NE quadrant of the area, with Archer in the WSW. There was merchant shipping scattered around, but it starts pre-identified thanks to the wonders of the AIS tracking system. The first order of business was to launch my Maritime Patrol aircraft to see what the Chinese would be sending my way. The Orions focused on laying sonobuoys throughout the area (they were still affected by the bug that is going to be fixed so I mostly did this manually) while the Filipinos went about searching for the PLAN. Before long they had found a large formation of 7 ships soon identified as Liaoning and her escorts, plus a pair of Frigates operating independently. TFG starts on a neutral footing with the Chinese, so they didn't fire. Meanwhile, their own MP aircraft made the rounds.

I re-armed my aircraft as I saw appropriate. The Hawks couldn't carry any standoff munitions so they were given dumb bombs. The Fitters were given AS-12 ARMs. Although short ranged missiles, I hoped that I could send in a quick rush of Fitters if need be to get the ARMs into the air and hopefully weaken the Chinese. The Malaysian hornets loaded up on Harpoons while the Marine Hornets were loaded up to the max capacity of AMRAAMs. With the exception of two pair of Marine Hornets and a tanker, I held my jets on the ground, counting on the surface based radar network scattered around the region to give me enough warning of Chinese trouble. If the Carrier wanted to launch a strike I could use the CAP to buy time for the rest to scramble. I would focus the Marines on the eastern side of the PLAN CSG, above the Spratlys themselves, with Malysian Flankers ready to launch to the west, between Vietnam and the CSG in order to intercept anything coming down from the mainland. I kept TFG emissions secured, but was ready to energize and fire off SM-6s if need be in the south.

Things were peaceful for a few hours. Hawaii got a sniff of a Chinese SSN, and I maneuvered her into her baffles while a P-3 kept watch overhead with sonobuoys. Unexpectedly, the SSN fired off a pair of torpedoes at Hawaii who responded in kind. I dove beneath the layer and ran from the torpedoes, evading successfully. The Shang class SSN was not so lucky and he was lost with all hands. This set all Chinese forces to hostile. Chung Hoon knocked the Chinese MP aircraft from the sky and I launched my Malaysian Hawks. Split into two groups of 5, each group was to engage one of the isolated Chinese frigates by skimming along the waters edge until the last possible second. The Chinese only had short range IR defenses but they proved highly effective. One Frigate was ultimately destroyed by a pair of direct hits, while the other suffered a near miss before J-15s from Liaoning came to the rescue to finish the slaughter of the small jets. The Marines got revenge, however, swatting the Flying Sharks, the ASW and AEW helos off of the CSG while dodging return fire.

This gave me a brief lull to gather my strikers (here is where I screwed up by not remembering the Prowlers...). More on accident than through careful timing, most of my forces arrived fairly simultaneously. From the east a quartet of Marine Hornets rippled off AARGMs while skimming the waves. Unfortunately, none made it through and a Hornet was shot down. From the south, the Malaysians fired Harpoons at long range however this too was unsuccessful. The Vietnamese tried from the west, with the Fitters screaming low over the water, firing their AS-12s hoping for better luck. It was not to be, with the missiles getting knocked down (I took solace in that CIWS knocked out two) while being shot down to a man by SAMs and J-15s. Their more modern cousins in Flankers came for revenge, trading 3 SARH slinging Flankers for 4 PL-12 wielding Flying Sharks, as well as giving time for more Flankers to release supersonic AS-17 anti-ship missiles at the Chinese. A pair of these strikers fell to the deadly SAMs onboard the 052D, but a missile found home and slammed into the Type 052C DDG Shenyang, damaging him but he remained afloat. On their way out the Flankers splashed another round of Chinese MP and AEW aircraft before outrunning pursuing J-15s and J-8s from Hainan.

The Marines returned and splashed the last round of J-15s, neutralizing the Chinese air wing with the exception of a lone J-15 who ducked beneath the Marines while they were turned defensive. This J-15 flew just above the wavetops, heading straight for TFG. As luck would have it, a P-3 returning to base caught a sniff of his Radar. Chung Hoon lofted a single SM-6 into the air and it flew along the bearing line, searching with it's own radar. Before long it found the bandit, knocking him into the sea a mere 100 feet off the waves. The J-15 managed to get a pair of missiles off at the task group, but the Taiwanese Destroyer Ma Kong backed by the USS Chung Hoon took care of these easily. During this excitement I launched a quartet of Malaysian Flankers backed by a KC-130 to their station off Vietnam. USS Hawaii maneuvered in the layer on an intercept course for the Chinese CSG which had slowed to lick the wounds of it's second most powerful air defense asset. The Archer took up position ahead of TFG in order to assist the hunt for any remaining submarines (no more would ultimately be found by scenario end).

The Malaysians gave me my next and possibly largest stroke of luck. Right as they finished topping off their tanks, ground control detected a formation of aircraft in tight formation heading from Hainan. Soon ESM gear from a P-3 confirmed that these were H-6M Badger bombers, likely heading for TFG. The Flankers were in the perfect position. The Badgers did their best to get within weapons range, but far out to sea and unescorted they were no match for the Adder slinging Flankers. All 7 were killed without launching a single missile at my forces.

The final act took place in two parts. Hawaii reached a point straddling the Liaonings path and waited. Once the ships were about 15nm away I launched a spread of 4 torpedoes, manually keeping them inside the layer until they were detected [The F2 depth setting does not give numbers here like it does for aircraft. This would be a handy addition because otherwise you're left guessing depth settings and checking once they reach the depth]. One each was aimed at the ASW frigates leading the group, one for the Type 052D Air Defense DDG, and a single one at Liaoning hoping to cripple him. The Chinese spotted the torpedoes at only 6 nm, so I brought them above the layer. The Frigates were sunk, Liaoning took a hit (it attempted anti-torpedo depth charge attacks but they missed), but the DDG dodged the fish at the last second. The group ran in the opposite direction but before long I detected the previously hit Type 052C dropping out of formation and burning up, and the Liaoning herself slowed to 4 knots, forcing her escorts to sit with the wounded flagship. Hawaii reloaded her tubes and spent the next few hours getting back into position. The next 4 fish were targeted at the two remaining Destroyers with a pair for Liaoning. The group actually managed to fire a salvo of ASMs at TFG during this attack, but Hornets overhead spotted them early and helped the ships shoot down the Vampires. The torpedoes closed the distance in the meanwhile. Liaoning could only make 8 knots of steam, catching a pair of torpedoes and slowing further to two knots. The Destroyers were faster but Hawaii had launched at 8nm. The Mk 48s had plenty of fuel left when they broke the back of one and blew the stern off the other. All that remained of the Liaoning strike group was the wounded Carrier and her oiler. Hawaii reloaded her last two fish while TFG raced north to get withing missile range. Two final torpedoes were needed to sink the pride of the PLAN and humble Chinese ambitions in the region. With a final joint missile strike launched by the Vietnamese and Singaporeans, the Chinese AOE was sunk and I ended the mission.

All in all a lot of fun. I might have had enough missiles to get through any remaining SAMs amongst re-arming jets and the Task Force itself, but the success of my submarine attack made this unnecessary. I think if I had realized I had prowlers earlier I would have had better luck with my air strikes, although the Vietnamese would still have likely faired poorly given that they were attacking from the exact opposite side of the formation and it would have been difficult to get a Prowler all the way out there and properly synchronized. Still, they got their revenge by sinking a Chinese Frigate and helping sink the AOE so I hope they are happy. I wonder, politically, if after I sank the two Frigates in Liaonings group and damaged the Carrier itself if China would have called for a cease fire. I think at that point they got the message, but I gave no quarter.

Excellent scenario, thanks for the good time.

Butcher's Bill:

Triumph - Your score is: 3250

SIDE: PLAN
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x Y-8X Cub
1x Type 093 Shang
8x J-15 Flying Shark [Su-33 Copy]
2x Type 056A Jiangdao [593 Sanmenxia]
4x Z-18YJ Super Frelon [Black Bat]
3x Y-8Q Cub [High New 6]
4x Z-18FQ Super Frelon
4x J-15S Flying Shark [Su-33 Copy]
7x H-6G Badger [H-6M]
3x Z-9C Dauphin 2
2x Type 054A++ Jiangkai II [576 Daqing]
6x J-8F Finback B [J-8II]
1x Type 052C Luyang II [170 Lanzhou]
1x Type 052D Luyang III [173 Changsha]
1x Type 052B Luyang I [168 Guangzhou]
1x Type 001 Shi Lang [16 Liaoning, Ex-Varyag]
1x Type 903A Fuchi [889 Taihu]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
41x Generic Passive Directional Sonobuoy
27x Generic Active Directional Sonobuoy
2x Yu-6
4x Generic Acoustic Decoy
58x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
18x HQ-10 [FL-3000N]
8x 30mm China H/PJ-17 [20 rnds]
13x 76mm/60 China H/PJ-26 HE Burst [2 rnds]
39x PL-12
12x LT-2 LGB [LS-500J, 500kg HE]
48x HQ-9A
48x HQ-9B
64x HQ-16A [SA-17 Copy]
32x SA-N-12 Grizzly [9M317]
1x 100mm/55 H/PJ-87 HECVT
1x 130mm China H/PJ-38 HE
2x 30mm China H/PJ-12 [Type 730, 240 rnds]
8x Generic Chaff Rocket
2x C-803K [YJ-83]
4x FQF-6000 Anti-Torpedo Depth Charge Salvo [10 rnds]
20x C-803 [YJ-83]



SIDE: Task Force Guardian
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
10x Hawk 208
1x Ammo Shelter
1x F/A-18C Hornet
10x Su-22M-4K Fitter K
5x Su-30MK2V Flanker G


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
8x AN/SSQ-62E DICASS
30x AN/SSQ-77B VLAD
15x AN/SSQ-53F DIFAR
5x RIM-174A ERAM SM-6MR Blk I
12x Mk48 Mod 7 ADCAP CBASS
6x Mk82 500lb LDGP
41x AIM-120D AMRAAM P3I.4
18x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
10x Generic Flare Salvo [3x Cartridges, Dual Spectral]
12x AGM-84D Harpoon IC
1x AIM-7M Sparrow III
8x AGM-88E AARGM
72x Generic Chaff Salvo [4x Cartridges]
9x AS-12 Kegler [Kh-25MP, ARM]
12x AA-10 Alamo C [R-27RE1, LR SARH]
16x AA-10 Alamo A [R-27R1, MR SARH]
9x Generic Flare Salvo [4x Cartridges, Single Spectral]
8x AS-17 Krypton A [Kh-31A, ASM]
2x RIM-66K-2 SM-2MR Blk IIIA
3x RIM-162A ESSM
27x AA-12 Adder A [R-77, RVV-AE]
17x Aster 15 PAAMS [GWS.45 Sea Viper]
8x SS-N-25 Switchblade [Kh-35 Uran]
2x Sea Wolf VLS Blk 1
1x SA-N-24 Grouse [9M337 Sosna-RA]
4x RGM-84G Harpoon ICR



SIDE: Neutral Traffic [AIS Connected]
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------

[Primarchx]

Well done! I haven't heard of anyone doing an SM-6 BOL before. Nifty trick.

[Tailhook]

ORIGINAL: Primarchx

Well done! I haven't heard of anyone doing an SM-6 BOL before. Nifty trick.

That's not exactly what happened. The P-3 gave a long but narrow zone of ambiguity for the J-15. This zone was entirely located within range of the SM-6 and I guess was precise enough that the AI launched the missile. Due to the fact that the angle pretty much perfectly aligned the P-3, DDG, and J-15 in a straight line, the missile flew along the entire length of it with it's radar active until it found the target. I don't know if this was a lucky break or superior AI logic but it worked great. I didn't do a thing.

[mikmykWS]

Thanks for the great AAR Tailhook! Always learn something from them.

Mike