Pacific Fury 6 - Priorities 20/2/94
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2025 4:24 pm
Situation and Available Forces
This one assumes that Scenario 4 worked-out much as it did in my playthrough, with the Endeavour convoy making it intact to Brunei and the Soviet convoy to Camranh Bay coming to grief. As a result, the Soviet forces in Vietnam have been passive in the interim and their hosts have stayed out of the war. Meanwhile, Indonesia has sided with the West and both Malaysia and Singapore have stepped-up their involvement.
There are now two priorities. On the one hand, Camranh Bay needs to be neutralised, even if this antagonises Vietnam. However, the Abraham Lincoln CVBG, which was intended to do the job, is now urgently required to shore-up the situation around Japan, Korea and the Philippines and will only be able to make a fleeting contribution in passing, with the onus falling on the Australian-led CTF 165.
On the other, there is a perceived need to bolster the morale of the people of Hong Kong, who are feeling isolated and exposed. While it is deemed unlikely that China will make a grab for the colony that it has been promised anyway in three years’ time, a show of resolve like getting a convoy there will do much to ensure that the PRC stays neutral. So the Endeavour and her consorts must sail again…
Lincoln, cruising off Sarawak, North Borneo, will provide 8 F-14s, 22 F/A-18s and two Prowlers for the first 23 hours of the 84-hour scenario, though they won’t be ready for fifteen-and-a-half of those hours. The Briefing suggests that these assets are used to mount a SEAD strike, which makes sense, as there are plenty of HARMs available. The CVBG will otherwise sail under AI control, with the CVN accompanied by 3 cruisers, 2 destroyers and 2 frigates.
Also under AI control is a Replenishment Group, consisting of two frigates and three oilers, which is in the process of re-supplying Lincoln. The frigate Sydney will be released for the player’s use 18 hours in, once this process has finished. Additionally, the SSN San Francisco is screening well in advance of the CVBG and is also under AI control.
Leaving Brunei is the first echelon of the Hong Kong convoy, designated BR-HK01. The destroyer Hobart and frigates Chatham and Newcastle (NSW variety) are responsible for the Endeavour, another oiler and two freighters. Collectively, they can make a speed of 12 knots and have a long way to go, passing Vietnam on the way.
Approaching the now-pacified Languyan island group off Eastern Borneo is the second echelon, DW-HK01. This is desperately weak, with two old escorts warding two tankers and two freighters. The frigate Southland has an Ikara for ASW, but there are no SAMs and sub-standard sonar and helicopters.
Otherwise, the gun-armed Malaysian corvette Lekir is patrolling off Brunei, the Indonesian frigate Ahmad Yani is just N of Languyan and the Aussie diesel sub Onslow is sitting nervously some 150nm off Camranh Bay.
Two more merchantmen are readying at Manila with a view to joining the convoy en route to Hong Kong. Not much is available to escort them, with a gun-armed Filipino destroyer escort in the Visayas, the old, under-equipped British SSN Spartan 233nm SSW of Hong Kong and the Sturgeon-class SSN Hawkbill 142nm NE of Luzon, the latter carrying the four TLAMs allocated for use in the scenario.
Lincoln aside, most of the air strength is in Australia. At Curtin, there are 16 strike F-111s and two recon models. As with almost all of the Western aircraft, the player is left to select loadouts, with a lengthy ready time ensuing. In this case, the only decent choice was to use GBU-15s, which have a tolerable stand-off range of 15nm but are day-only weapons. I couldn’t see much point in using the recon planes.
At Tindal in Northern Territory, there are 24 F/A-18s. Unfortunately, choice of loadouts for these is not encouraging, with only Paveways or iron bombs available. The former have a range of just 4nm and are subject to buddy illumination restrictions, with each plane needing another one to spot for it in order to fire, but they were the lesser of two evils. Even then, there were only enough GBU-12s and 10s for half of the aircraft, so the others had to be equipped as escorts, with two Sparrows each. The Paveways were loaded without optional weapons to optimise endurance on the long flight ahead, leaving them with two Sidewinders each for defence (which was more than the F-111s carried).
There are two tankers at Darwin, which won’t nearly suffice to support strikes at this distance with this number of planes. Also at Darwin are four Orions, with another five at Learmonth, Western Australia, while there are two more and a DHC-8-202Q patrol plane at Christmas Island. These MPAs are a long way from where they might be needed and re-basing options are very limited.
Since Scenario 4, the New Zealand Skyhawks at Brunei have been reinforced and now number eight, but they are chronically short of Sidewinder reloads. The base also has a few basically useless support aircraft and two Hercules tankers.
Malaysia now allows Australia to base four Orions at Butterworth, Penang and these are in place, along with eight Tigers which can carry Sidewinders and iron bombs and only have enough range to reach some Vietnamese airfields SW of Ho Chi Minh City. The Malaysians also have 16 Skyhawks at Kuantan, with a Hercules tanker. The old chestnut of probe vs drogue re-fuelling applies here and I was far from certain that the Skyhawks could use the tanker. If they couldn’t, they had the same range restrictions as the Butterworth squadron and only a few could be used at a time if they could.
Singapore has quite a large air force, but it cannot mount operations over Vietnam without tanker support. There are four tankers, but the probe vs drogue question again applies. In all, Singapore fields 6 F-16s with Sidewinders, 36 Skyhawks, 24 Tigers, two Hawkeyes and a couple of support planes. Strike weapons amount to short-ranged AGM-65s (6nm) or iron bombs.
At Bautista air base on Palawan, the Filipinos have four F-5s and an MPA. The fighters have rear-aspect Sidewinders, short range and no radar.
All of the allocated Indonesian aircraft start in Java. They have 8 Tigers and 16 Skyhawks, with two Hercules tankers (that question again) and an MPA. Strike weapons are limited to iron bombs and they have only Sidewinders for air-to-air combat. To be of any use, they need to ready, then move up to empty airfields (Hang Nadim near Singapore and Ranai-Natuna on an island off the NW coast of Borneo).
At Guam, there are 10 tankers in varying states of readiness, which could potentially be used to support the Australian strikes. There are also 8 B-52s, but only one has AGM-86 cruise missiles, the others being stuck with iron bombs, which it would be suicidal to try to use. They are good for one strike, after which they effectively revert to AI control. You also have a U-2, which is too vulnerable to use and two Orions, which start with surveillance loadouts and are remote from anywhere they might be of use.
There are numerous basing restrictions. Owing to the ongoing security situation (mercifully, no insurgent units in this one) only the aircraft starting at Brunei and Bautista can be based there. Singapore will allow Australian strike aircraft to use Tengah air base, but only during the hours of darkness. Otherwise, unarmed aircraft can use Changi East at any time and Seletar can be used in emergencies. The player is left to respect this or not as they choose, of course. No foreign aircraft can use Indonesian bases, but overflight is now allowed except over Timor, which isn’t a real issue.
As for the enemy, they no longer have any major surface warships in the region. Vietnam has a selection of frigates, corvettes and torpedo-carrying hovercraft and there are some minor Russian warships and AGIs using Camranh Bay, but none of these constitute much of a threat.
The USSR still has a strong air group at Camranh Bay, estimated at a dozen Fulcrums and a similar number of fighter-model Foxbats, with a few Blinders, some Bears and Mays and other support aircraft. Should Vietnam enter the fray, they have Fishbeds, Frescos and Fitters, with a few Mails.
It appears that the lone Soviet merchant ship that slipped into Camranh Bay ahead of the doomed convoy brought a Grumble and other SAMs (Gadflies, Gauntlets and Gophers) while more might have been flown-in via China. Vietnam has several Guidelines and a Goa near the targets, along with the usual AA (including heavy 130mm guns) and MANPADs.
Several Soviet submarines are still at large and can be expected to be lying in wait for the convoys.
Another factor is China. Submarines and patrol planes are known to be active around Hong Kong and it is imperative to avoid any incidents that might draw the PRC into the war. As Russian submarines will also be in the area, great care needs to be taken before prosecuting any contacts.
Assessment and Planning
BR-HK01 starts 975nm from Hong Kong and can make 12 knots, so it will need nearly 82 of the scenario’s 84 hours to get there. This allows no variation of course, beyond straightening the one you start with.
DW-HK01 begins 1,183nm from Hong Kong and also has to weave around Palawan. However, it can make 18 knots and this will suffice. The problem is that it is very weak and MPA support will mostly be impractical. It can only be hoped that BR-HK01 will run interference for it (as might Lincoln). Otherwise, Ahmad Yani can join the escort, with Sydney perhaps catching-up later. While no use for anything else, Lekir can scout the strait between Palawan and Sabah and flush-out anything lurking there.
The Filipino destroyer escort Rajah Humabon is all that is on hand to support the two merchantmen readying at Manila and she isn’t much use for that. I sent her to act as a pit canary at the entrance to Manila Bay.
Spartan, with her Tigerfish torpedoes, is no match for a Victor. I told her to approach Hong Kong at Creep and scout for hostiles. Hawkbill (not much better) moved deep at Flank to support her, also aiming to provide TLAM support for the attack on Camranh Bay.
I decided that using the Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft on the main strike was impractical, reserving the option of using them against secondary Vietnamese airfields should circumstances so warrant.
Similarly, the Indonesian planes were not going to be able to strike Camranh Bay in any force or survivability, even from Ranai-Natuna, so I outfitted them as fighters and envisaged an advanced base there to cover retiring strike planes heading for Singapore.
The forces at Brunei could do little more than defend it and attack incautious enemy patrol planes. Similar considerations applied to Bautista.
As Christmas Island’s full capacity might be needed to stage strike planes, I planned to evacuate the existing MPAs, sending the DHC to Learmonth and doing what I could for DW-HK01 with the Orions before flying them on to Darwin.
It seemed that the F-111s could make it all the way to Tengah, so the plan was to fly them there, arriving in darkness, readying, then leaving shortly before daybreak to hit Camranh Bay. As they would hopefully be unarmed after the strike, they could use Changi East on the way back.
As for the F/A-18s, the Briefing implies that they should go via Christmas Island, but with just two Boeing tankers in support, it seemed very doubtful that they could get there. It seemed much more practical to use the KC-135s at Guam to bridge them to Camranh Bay and back. Even then, supporting twelve fighters as well as the dozen strike planes promised to overload the tankers, so I decided to go without escorts. It looked as though three re-fuelling stops would be needed, with four tankers at each and those at the first returning to Darwin to re-stock while awaiting the returnees.
It was only sane to use the one B-52. Hopefully, once the carrier strike, F-111s and F/A-18s had done their work, there would be little left to stop her dozen AGM-86s wreaking havoc.
All the carrier strike aircraft were loaded with HARMs apart from two with AGM-84s, intended (with the TLAMs from Hawkbill) to induce the SAMs to light-up.
The Reality
20/2/94 04:00Z: After a quiet start, there was a report on Vietnam’s capabilities. Apparently, they had over 550 aircraft!. Fortunately, a lot of these were in the North around Hanoi or otherwise remote from the zone of operations, but that still left about 40 Fishbeds, 40 Fitters and 40 gun-armed Frescos to contend-with. Getting in and out quickly seemed like a good idea, especially given how few A2A weapons our strike planes mounted. Hopefully, the Fitters lacked the range or radar to engage the convoys...
05:00Z: As the DHC headed for Learmonth, the AI decided to interfere by declaring a fuel emergency and sending it back to Christmas Island. It had 515nm to go at 291 knots with 2 hours, 28 minutes’ fuel left, so do the sum. I wish the AI could do basic maths and mind its own business. Overruled it and the plane arrived safely.
At 05:30, there was a briefing on China. It mainly stated the obvious, but informed that the PRC was helping keep North Korea (for now), Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar out of the war but was also restraining Thailand from supporting the West and might be behind some of the insurrections in the Philippines, as well as in Taiwan. They might also pass intel to the enemy.
Onslow, moving carefully away from Camranh Bay to get out of MPA range and run interference for BR-HK01, met a Vietnamese Dai Ky frigate. It was not ASW-capable and an easy kill, but we didn’t want to provoke Vietnam prematurely and the sub avoided contact.
06:00Z: Not long before 07:00Z, four unescorted Blinders were detected heading either for Brunei or BR-HK01.
07:00Z: The eight Kiwi Skyhawks scrambled in two waves and engaged the bombers before they got close enough to attack, downing three and damaging the fourth, which had the speed to escape. Each Blinder scored 4VP as a high-value aircraft. However, one of the A-4s was left with no Sidewinder reload. The convoy felt safer, with a major threat largely removed.
Indonesian fighters began forward-deploying to Ranai-Natuna.
Indications were that there were no active SAMs or radars at Camranh Bay, so we were going to have to provoke them, as expected.
Meanwhile, the AI sent one of Lincoln’s Vikings, carrying a Harpoon, to harass Vietnamese ships off the port, asking to have its head blown off by the Fulcrums.
08:00Z: Orions checked-out the Languyan area and found no sign of any subs. Ahmad Yani steamed through the narrows unmolested. I’d tried using one of the Butterworth Orions to cover BR-HK01, but it couldn’t stay overhead long enough to justify the effort and returned home.
09:00Z: Despite the assurances in the Briefing that Ranai-Natuna could accommodate all the Indonesian aircraft and despite the base being shown as only 65% full, it began refusing Indonesian planes permission to land. Fortunately, I noticed this in time and diverted the last six to Hang Nadim. It left me wondering whether this was why so many WP aircraft crash in the Fury series. Possibly, the air base capacity calculations are buggy and the losses are the ones that exceed the limit on those huge enemy strikes?. The base can actually hold 17 Tigers or Skyhawks.
Meanwhile, the rogue AI-controlled Viking circled until it crashed for lack of fuel, costing me 3VP.
10:00Z: The 16 strike F-111s set-out for Tengah. I also decided to move three Orions from Learmonth to Guam via Scherger on the Cape York peninsula. Another, having switched to an ASW loadout, headed from Guam towards Hong Kong to look for lurking subs. Perhaps these planes could escort the merchantmen at Manila later?
11:00Z: Ahmad Yani joined DW-HK01.
13:00Z: A call from the Air Marshal in Darwin (my virtual boss) informed me that Lincoln was needed to combat a feared Soviet amphibious operation in the Western Pacific. Another convoy was forming at Darwin (outside scenario scope) with a couple of old frigates. We would later have to release Hobart and either Newcastle or Sydney to 7th Fleet.
14:00Z: All 16 F-111s arrived at Tengah in darkness, leaving the base 30% full, allowing for Singaporean occupants. The Aardvarks now faced a six-hour turnround, which was not a problem.
Distance defeated the attempt to have the Orion scout Hong Kong (you can’t base planes there) and she had to RTB. We were clearly going to have to rely on the subs and the convoy escorts…
Lincoln’s ASW aircraft, evidently and worryingly on Weapons Free, torpedoed a wreck off Sarawak. I had to hope they wouldn’t meet any Chinese later.
15:00Z: Tankers began leaving Guam at intervals to support the F/A-18 strike.
18:30Z: The 12 F/A-18s left Tindal. I decided that the strike would only go in if circumstances were propitious.
20:41Z: The first re-fuelling stop for the Aussie Hornets concluded E of Sulawesi and the planes continued towards the next set of tankers at Languyan. The first quartet of 707s and KC-135s returned to Darwin to take-on more fuel – they were all on Quick Turnround.
21:30Z: USS Hawkbill loosed two Block III TLAMs at the Soviet port at Camranh Bay. Meanwhile, the F-111s launched from Tengah, straightaway switching home base to Changi East.
22:00Z: HMAS Sydney was released upon completion of the replenishment exercise. After adjusting her Doctrine, I sent her at Flank to catch-up with DW-HK01, now approaching the Sabah-Palawan strait. Lekir had checked-out the narrows and found nothing, so she was sent back to Brunei, lacking the endurance to go with the convoy or the weapons to be of any real use to it.
The second re-fuel stop for the F/A-18s was completed. I found it useful to alter the Hornets’ Doctrine so that they picked tankers between themselves and the target (or base on the return). However, there was still the bug whereby all planes choose the same tanker, which can only be amended manually. There also remains the tendency for a plane to constantly change its mind about which tanker to use and end-up using none, which also needs manual selection to overcome.
The carrier strike launched.
23:00Z: An intense hour’s fighting ensued. Hawkbill’s two TLAMs arrived a little too early and the Grumbles shot them down without revealing their location, then went dark again.
Lincoln’s eight Tomcats overwhelmed the initial CAP and early reinforcements, destroying a number of enemy aircraft as Vietnam went actively hostile. This gave the SEAD Hornets and Prowlers a window in which to attack in safety. The enemy SAMs only illuminated with considerable reluctance, with lots of AA radars coming-on first, including a great many heavy 130mm batteries (iron bombs, anyone?). The Grumble site turned-out to be an overstrengthed, 14-component monster and it loosed 45 shots before being struck several times and probably put out of action. There were several Gauntlet sites and at least one elusive Gadfly and not all came-on, which was canny of Bart. At least one Gauntlet was destroyed and we also disabled the nearest of the Guideline sites. SAMs, especially Guidelines, kept zipping about, but they weren’t very accurate and I’m pretty sure they didn’t hit any planes.
Most of the Hornets switched to combat duty with their Sparrows. The two with AGM-84s annoyingly went Bingo on their attack runs and, though I overruled this, the SAMs had already been engaged and it seemed best to fire their missiles at any target that presented itself, then RTB. One plane sank a Vietnamese Petya corvette for 10VP, while the other fired at two more unidentified ships that turned-out to be spy junks, which sank, but scored nothing.
Enemy fighters kept coming and the F-14s and SEAD Hornets began to run low on fuel and ammo. Destroying some 20 hostiles (1 VP each) made no perceptible impression on their numbers and, in staying as long as possible to screen the Aussie strikes, five of the Tomcats were lost, three while withdrawing with no ammo and dwindling fuel.
Sadly, their sacrifice was in vain. The F-111s were in the invidious position of not strictly being allowed to return to Singapore in daylight with weapons and having no other alternative base. Despite only flying from Tengah, they were all very close to Bingo as they came-in. Fulcrums and Fishbeds swarmed all over them and downed the whole force for 3VP each, none of the Aardvarks getting close enough to fire.
In the hope that the enemy were sufficiently distracted to give them a chance of success, I’d sent-in the Hornets in a parallel stream to the Aardvarks. It was no use, as there were Fulcrums with ammo left after downing the F-111s and yet more fighters arriving all the time. The F/A-18s managed a couple of kills with their Sidewinders, but ten were lost in short order before they could get into Paveway range and I called the last two stragglers off.
Overall, we lost 5 Tomcats, 16 F-111s and 10 Aussie F/A-18s, the enemy losing 2 Foxbat fighters, 5 Fulcrums, 13 Fishbeds, the corvette and 15 SAM elements (30-93 in VP terms). The Russians alone fired more than 130 SAMs during the strike (hitting only missiles). I’d have done better by ignoring Camranh Bay and going after ships instead.
All-in-all, one suicide mission too many. I’d managed the logistics and gotten the strike to come together in the right order and timing without recourse to Mission Planner, but the defences were just too damned strong, especially the fighters, which did all the damage.
While this was going on, a Soviet Charlie SSGN surprised the Lincoln CVBG and torpedoed the frigate John L Hall, which sank, costing 50VP. I was forced to leave the retaliation to the AI but it did, at least, make a competent job of it and sank the sub for an equalising amount.
21/2/94 00:00Z: A force of 17 Indonesian Tigers and Skyhawks arrived after the main battle, hoping to engage some Fishbeds. Unfortunately, they met yet more Fulcrums instead. Not more than three or four and I hoped to swarm them, but the ensuing dogfight was appallingly one-sided. Every enemy shot seemed to score a kill while the Indonesians were making two or three Sidewinder hits on the same MiG without bringing it down. We lost 14 planes for two Fulcrums and a lone Fishbed – and a Tiger or Skyhawk (rightly or wrongly) is worth three Fulcrums.
The best advice about the whole Camranh Bay situation is ‘don’t do it’, but I felt I had to try. I’d have been better-off ignoring orders.
01:00Z: The 12 AGM-86s from the B-52 came-in, but the enemy STILL had enough ready Fulcrums to down them all easily, completing the fiasco.
03:00Z: All CVBG units reverted to 7th Fleet AI control. No more carrier strikes.
About 150nm from Hong Kong, HMS Spartan met a sub. It was identified as an SS and its speed of 4 knots indicated that it was a Chinese Ming, not a Soviet Tango, which creeps at 3. I marked her as Neutral and headed away at Cruise. This gave away my position and, so predictably, the Chinese boat was on Weapons Free and came after me. Spartan dove deep and went to Flank, leaving the Ming behind. Clearly, any Chinese sub athwart the convoy’s path is going to attack it and I won’t have the option of defending myself without taking the political consequences. I might even take them if I don’t.
It seemed best to send Spartan and Hawkbill to escort the convoys and get them away from Hong Kong for now. In Hawkbill’s case, she could divert to Manila and cover the two merchantmen, now ready and sitting in Manila Bay awaiting the convoy’s approach.
04:00Z: As the game moved into Day 2, the remains of the F/A-18 strike returned to Darwin. The four tankers on the second re-fuelling rendezvous only made it back with a couple of hours’ fuel, so I was right to leave the fighters at home. Had it not been for the losses, I might not have been able to get all of the attack planes back, either, but going via Christmas Island was an even worse option for the tankers.
So, at the moment it is a Major Defeat, with a score of -95. The only hope is to get the convoys to Hong Kong and score enough points thereby for a better outcome. Given the limitations of the escorts and the bug with the Ming, I am not hopeful.
Attacking Camranh Bay was a mistake and I can’t think of any way I could have done it better apart from not committing the Indonesians or aborting the strike planes altogether. I had to try to keep within the spirit of the scenario, but did not know in advance quite how strong the defences were.
Opinions welcome.
This one assumes that Scenario 4 worked-out much as it did in my playthrough, with the Endeavour convoy making it intact to Brunei and the Soviet convoy to Camranh Bay coming to grief. As a result, the Soviet forces in Vietnam have been passive in the interim and their hosts have stayed out of the war. Meanwhile, Indonesia has sided with the West and both Malaysia and Singapore have stepped-up their involvement.
There are now two priorities. On the one hand, Camranh Bay needs to be neutralised, even if this antagonises Vietnam. However, the Abraham Lincoln CVBG, which was intended to do the job, is now urgently required to shore-up the situation around Japan, Korea and the Philippines and will only be able to make a fleeting contribution in passing, with the onus falling on the Australian-led CTF 165.
On the other, there is a perceived need to bolster the morale of the people of Hong Kong, who are feeling isolated and exposed. While it is deemed unlikely that China will make a grab for the colony that it has been promised anyway in three years’ time, a show of resolve like getting a convoy there will do much to ensure that the PRC stays neutral. So the Endeavour and her consorts must sail again…
Lincoln, cruising off Sarawak, North Borneo, will provide 8 F-14s, 22 F/A-18s and two Prowlers for the first 23 hours of the 84-hour scenario, though they won’t be ready for fifteen-and-a-half of those hours. The Briefing suggests that these assets are used to mount a SEAD strike, which makes sense, as there are plenty of HARMs available. The CVBG will otherwise sail under AI control, with the CVN accompanied by 3 cruisers, 2 destroyers and 2 frigates.
Also under AI control is a Replenishment Group, consisting of two frigates and three oilers, which is in the process of re-supplying Lincoln. The frigate Sydney will be released for the player’s use 18 hours in, once this process has finished. Additionally, the SSN San Francisco is screening well in advance of the CVBG and is also under AI control.
Leaving Brunei is the first echelon of the Hong Kong convoy, designated BR-HK01. The destroyer Hobart and frigates Chatham and Newcastle (NSW variety) are responsible for the Endeavour, another oiler and two freighters. Collectively, they can make a speed of 12 knots and have a long way to go, passing Vietnam on the way.
Approaching the now-pacified Languyan island group off Eastern Borneo is the second echelon, DW-HK01. This is desperately weak, with two old escorts warding two tankers and two freighters. The frigate Southland has an Ikara for ASW, but there are no SAMs and sub-standard sonar and helicopters.
Otherwise, the gun-armed Malaysian corvette Lekir is patrolling off Brunei, the Indonesian frigate Ahmad Yani is just N of Languyan and the Aussie diesel sub Onslow is sitting nervously some 150nm off Camranh Bay.
Two more merchantmen are readying at Manila with a view to joining the convoy en route to Hong Kong. Not much is available to escort them, with a gun-armed Filipino destroyer escort in the Visayas, the old, under-equipped British SSN Spartan 233nm SSW of Hong Kong and the Sturgeon-class SSN Hawkbill 142nm NE of Luzon, the latter carrying the four TLAMs allocated for use in the scenario.
Lincoln aside, most of the air strength is in Australia. At Curtin, there are 16 strike F-111s and two recon models. As with almost all of the Western aircraft, the player is left to select loadouts, with a lengthy ready time ensuing. In this case, the only decent choice was to use GBU-15s, which have a tolerable stand-off range of 15nm but are day-only weapons. I couldn’t see much point in using the recon planes.
At Tindal in Northern Territory, there are 24 F/A-18s. Unfortunately, choice of loadouts for these is not encouraging, with only Paveways or iron bombs available. The former have a range of just 4nm and are subject to buddy illumination restrictions, with each plane needing another one to spot for it in order to fire, but they were the lesser of two evils. Even then, there were only enough GBU-12s and 10s for half of the aircraft, so the others had to be equipped as escorts, with two Sparrows each. The Paveways were loaded without optional weapons to optimise endurance on the long flight ahead, leaving them with two Sidewinders each for defence (which was more than the F-111s carried).
There are two tankers at Darwin, which won’t nearly suffice to support strikes at this distance with this number of planes. Also at Darwin are four Orions, with another five at Learmonth, Western Australia, while there are two more and a DHC-8-202Q patrol plane at Christmas Island. These MPAs are a long way from where they might be needed and re-basing options are very limited.
Since Scenario 4, the New Zealand Skyhawks at Brunei have been reinforced and now number eight, but they are chronically short of Sidewinder reloads. The base also has a few basically useless support aircraft and two Hercules tankers.
Malaysia now allows Australia to base four Orions at Butterworth, Penang and these are in place, along with eight Tigers which can carry Sidewinders and iron bombs and only have enough range to reach some Vietnamese airfields SW of Ho Chi Minh City. The Malaysians also have 16 Skyhawks at Kuantan, with a Hercules tanker. The old chestnut of probe vs drogue re-fuelling applies here and I was far from certain that the Skyhawks could use the tanker. If they couldn’t, they had the same range restrictions as the Butterworth squadron and only a few could be used at a time if they could.
Singapore has quite a large air force, but it cannot mount operations over Vietnam without tanker support. There are four tankers, but the probe vs drogue question again applies. In all, Singapore fields 6 F-16s with Sidewinders, 36 Skyhawks, 24 Tigers, two Hawkeyes and a couple of support planes. Strike weapons amount to short-ranged AGM-65s (6nm) or iron bombs.
At Bautista air base on Palawan, the Filipinos have four F-5s and an MPA. The fighters have rear-aspect Sidewinders, short range and no radar.
All of the allocated Indonesian aircraft start in Java. They have 8 Tigers and 16 Skyhawks, with two Hercules tankers (that question again) and an MPA. Strike weapons are limited to iron bombs and they have only Sidewinders for air-to-air combat. To be of any use, they need to ready, then move up to empty airfields (Hang Nadim near Singapore and Ranai-Natuna on an island off the NW coast of Borneo).
At Guam, there are 10 tankers in varying states of readiness, which could potentially be used to support the Australian strikes. There are also 8 B-52s, but only one has AGM-86 cruise missiles, the others being stuck with iron bombs, which it would be suicidal to try to use. They are good for one strike, after which they effectively revert to AI control. You also have a U-2, which is too vulnerable to use and two Orions, which start with surveillance loadouts and are remote from anywhere they might be of use.
There are numerous basing restrictions. Owing to the ongoing security situation (mercifully, no insurgent units in this one) only the aircraft starting at Brunei and Bautista can be based there. Singapore will allow Australian strike aircraft to use Tengah air base, but only during the hours of darkness. Otherwise, unarmed aircraft can use Changi East at any time and Seletar can be used in emergencies. The player is left to respect this or not as they choose, of course. No foreign aircraft can use Indonesian bases, but overflight is now allowed except over Timor, which isn’t a real issue.
As for the enemy, they no longer have any major surface warships in the region. Vietnam has a selection of frigates, corvettes and torpedo-carrying hovercraft and there are some minor Russian warships and AGIs using Camranh Bay, but none of these constitute much of a threat.
The USSR still has a strong air group at Camranh Bay, estimated at a dozen Fulcrums and a similar number of fighter-model Foxbats, with a few Blinders, some Bears and Mays and other support aircraft. Should Vietnam enter the fray, they have Fishbeds, Frescos and Fitters, with a few Mails.
It appears that the lone Soviet merchant ship that slipped into Camranh Bay ahead of the doomed convoy brought a Grumble and other SAMs (Gadflies, Gauntlets and Gophers) while more might have been flown-in via China. Vietnam has several Guidelines and a Goa near the targets, along with the usual AA (including heavy 130mm guns) and MANPADs.
Several Soviet submarines are still at large and can be expected to be lying in wait for the convoys.
Another factor is China. Submarines and patrol planes are known to be active around Hong Kong and it is imperative to avoid any incidents that might draw the PRC into the war. As Russian submarines will also be in the area, great care needs to be taken before prosecuting any contacts.
Assessment and Planning
BR-HK01 starts 975nm from Hong Kong and can make 12 knots, so it will need nearly 82 of the scenario’s 84 hours to get there. This allows no variation of course, beyond straightening the one you start with.
DW-HK01 begins 1,183nm from Hong Kong and also has to weave around Palawan. However, it can make 18 knots and this will suffice. The problem is that it is very weak and MPA support will mostly be impractical. It can only be hoped that BR-HK01 will run interference for it (as might Lincoln). Otherwise, Ahmad Yani can join the escort, with Sydney perhaps catching-up later. While no use for anything else, Lekir can scout the strait between Palawan and Sabah and flush-out anything lurking there.
The Filipino destroyer escort Rajah Humabon is all that is on hand to support the two merchantmen readying at Manila and she isn’t much use for that. I sent her to act as a pit canary at the entrance to Manila Bay.
Spartan, with her Tigerfish torpedoes, is no match for a Victor. I told her to approach Hong Kong at Creep and scout for hostiles. Hawkbill (not much better) moved deep at Flank to support her, also aiming to provide TLAM support for the attack on Camranh Bay.
I decided that using the Malaysian and Singaporean aircraft on the main strike was impractical, reserving the option of using them against secondary Vietnamese airfields should circumstances so warrant.
Similarly, the Indonesian planes were not going to be able to strike Camranh Bay in any force or survivability, even from Ranai-Natuna, so I outfitted them as fighters and envisaged an advanced base there to cover retiring strike planes heading for Singapore.
The forces at Brunei could do little more than defend it and attack incautious enemy patrol planes. Similar considerations applied to Bautista.
As Christmas Island’s full capacity might be needed to stage strike planes, I planned to evacuate the existing MPAs, sending the DHC to Learmonth and doing what I could for DW-HK01 with the Orions before flying them on to Darwin.
It seemed that the F-111s could make it all the way to Tengah, so the plan was to fly them there, arriving in darkness, readying, then leaving shortly before daybreak to hit Camranh Bay. As they would hopefully be unarmed after the strike, they could use Changi East on the way back.
As for the F/A-18s, the Briefing implies that they should go via Christmas Island, but with just two Boeing tankers in support, it seemed very doubtful that they could get there. It seemed much more practical to use the KC-135s at Guam to bridge them to Camranh Bay and back. Even then, supporting twelve fighters as well as the dozen strike planes promised to overload the tankers, so I decided to go without escorts. It looked as though three re-fuelling stops would be needed, with four tankers at each and those at the first returning to Darwin to re-stock while awaiting the returnees.
It was only sane to use the one B-52. Hopefully, once the carrier strike, F-111s and F/A-18s had done their work, there would be little left to stop her dozen AGM-86s wreaking havoc.
All the carrier strike aircraft were loaded with HARMs apart from two with AGM-84s, intended (with the TLAMs from Hawkbill) to induce the SAMs to light-up.
The Reality
20/2/94 04:00Z: After a quiet start, there was a report on Vietnam’s capabilities. Apparently, they had over 550 aircraft!. Fortunately, a lot of these were in the North around Hanoi or otherwise remote from the zone of operations, but that still left about 40 Fishbeds, 40 Fitters and 40 gun-armed Frescos to contend-with. Getting in and out quickly seemed like a good idea, especially given how few A2A weapons our strike planes mounted. Hopefully, the Fitters lacked the range or radar to engage the convoys...
05:00Z: As the DHC headed for Learmonth, the AI decided to interfere by declaring a fuel emergency and sending it back to Christmas Island. It had 515nm to go at 291 knots with 2 hours, 28 minutes’ fuel left, so do the sum. I wish the AI could do basic maths and mind its own business. Overruled it and the plane arrived safely.
At 05:30, there was a briefing on China. It mainly stated the obvious, but informed that the PRC was helping keep North Korea (for now), Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar out of the war but was also restraining Thailand from supporting the West and might be behind some of the insurrections in the Philippines, as well as in Taiwan. They might also pass intel to the enemy.
Onslow, moving carefully away from Camranh Bay to get out of MPA range and run interference for BR-HK01, met a Vietnamese Dai Ky frigate. It was not ASW-capable and an easy kill, but we didn’t want to provoke Vietnam prematurely and the sub avoided contact.
06:00Z: Not long before 07:00Z, four unescorted Blinders were detected heading either for Brunei or BR-HK01.
07:00Z: The eight Kiwi Skyhawks scrambled in two waves and engaged the bombers before they got close enough to attack, downing three and damaging the fourth, which had the speed to escape. Each Blinder scored 4VP as a high-value aircraft. However, one of the A-4s was left with no Sidewinder reload. The convoy felt safer, with a major threat largely removed.
Indonesian fighters began forward-deploying to Ranai-Natuna.
Indications were that there were no active SAMs or radars at Camranh Bay, so we were going to have to provoke them, as expected.
Meanwhile, the AI sent one of Lincoln’s Vikings, carrying a Harpoon, to harass Vietnamese ships off the port, asking to have its head blown off by the Fulcrums.
08:00Z: Orions checked-out the Languyan area and found no sign of any subs. Ahmad Yani steamed through the narrows unmolested. I’d tried using one of the Butterworth Orions to cover BR-HK01, but it couldn’t stay overhead long enough to justify the effort and returned home.
09:00Z: Despite the assurances in the Briefing that Ranai-Natuna could accommodate all the Indonesian aircraft and despite the base being shown as only 65% full, it began refusing Indonesian planes permission to land. Fortunately, I noticed this in time and diverted the last six to Hang Nadim. It left me wondering whether this was why so many WP aircraft crash in the Fury series. Possibly, the air base capacity calculations are buggy and the losses are the ones that exceed the limit on those huge enemy strikes?. The base can actually hold 17 Tigers or Skyhawks.
Meanwhile, the rogue AI-controlled Viking circled until it crashed for lack of fuel, costing me 3VP.
10:00Z: The 16 strike F-111s set-out for Tengah. I also decided to move three Orions from Learmonth to Guam via Scherger on the Cape York peninsula. Another, having switched to an ASW loadout, headed from Guam towards Hong Kong to look for lurking subs. Perhaps these planes could escort the merchantmen at Manila later?
11:00Z: Ahmad Yani joined DW-HK01.
13:00Z: A call from the Air Marshal in Darwin (my virtual boss) informed me that Lincoln was needed to combat a feared Soviet amphibious operation in the Western Pacific. Another convoy was forming at Darwin (outside scenario scope) with a couple of old frigates. We would later have to release Hobart and either Newcastle or Sydney to 7th Fleet.
14:00Z: All 16 F-111s arrived at Tengah in darkness, leaving the base 30% full, allowing for Singaporean occupants. The Aardvarks now faced a six-hour turnround, which was not a problem.
Distance defeated the attempt to have the Orion scout Hong Kong (you can’t base planes there) and she had to RTB. We were clearly going to have to rely on the subs and the convoy escorts…
Lincoln’s ASW aircraft, evidently and worryingly on Weapons Free, torpedoed a wreck off Sarawak. I had to hope they wouldn’t meet any Chinese later.
15:00Z: Tankers began leaving Guam at intervals to support the F/A-18 strike.
18:30Z: The 12 F/A-18s left Tindal. I decided that the strike would only go in if circumstances were propitious.
20:41Z: The first re-fuelling stop for the Aussie Hornets concluded E of Sulawesi and the planes continued towards the next set of tankers at Languyan. The first quartet of 707s and KC-135s returned to Darwin to take-on more fuel – they were all on Quick Turnround.
21:30Z: USS Hawkbill loosed two Block III TLAMs at the Soviet port at Camranh Bay. Meanwhile, the F-111s launched from Tengah, straightaway switching home base to Changi East.
22:00Z: HMAS Sydney was released upon completion of the replenishment exercise. After adjusting her Doctrine, I sent her at Flank to catch-up with DW-HK01, now approaching the Sabah-Palawan strait. Lekir had checked-out the narrows and found nothing, so she was sent back to Brunei, lacking the endurance to go with the convoy or the weapons to be of any real use to it.
The second re-fuel stop for the F/A-18s was completed. I found it useful to alter the Hornets’ Doctrine so that they picked tankers between themselves and the target (or base on the return). However, there was still the bug whereby all planes choose the same tanker, which can only be amended manually. There also remains the tendency for a plane to constantly change its mind about which tanker to use and end-up using none, which also needs manual selection to overcome.
The carrier strike launched.
23:00Z: An intense hour’s fighting ensued. Hawkbill’s two TLAMs arrived a little too early and the Grumbles shot them down without revealing their location, then went dark again.
Lincoln’s eight Tomcats overwhelmed the initial CAP and early reinforcements, destroying a number of enemy aircraft as Vietnam went actively hostile. This gave the SEAD Hornets and Prowlers a window in which to attack in safety. The enemy SAMs only illuminated with considerable reluctance, with lots of AA radars coming-on first, including a great many heavy 130mm batteries (iron bombs, anyone?). The Grumble site turned-out to be an overstrengthed, 14-component monster and it loosed 45 shots before being struck several times and probably put out of action. There were several Gauntlet sites and at least one elusive Gadfly and not all came-on, which was canny of Bart. At least one Gauntlet was destroyed and we also disabled the nearest of the Guideline sites. SAMs, especially Guidelines, kept zipping about, but they weren’t very accurate and I’m pretty sure they didn’t hit any planes.
Most of the Hornets switched to combat duty with their Sparrows. The two with AGM-84s annoyingly went Bingo on their attack runs and, though I overruled this, the SAMs had already been engaged and it seemed best to fire their missiles at any target that presented itself, then RTB. One plane sank a Vietnamese Petya corvette for 10VP, while the other fired at two more unidentified ships that turned-out to be spy junks, which sank, but scored nothing.
Enemy fighters kept coming and the F-14s and SEAD Hornets began to run low on fuel and ammo. Destroying some 20 hostiles (1 VP each) made no perceptible impression on their numbers and, in staying as long as possible to screen the Aussie strikes, five of the Tomcats were lost, three while withdrawing with no ammo and dwindling fuel.
Sadly, their sacrifice was in vain. The F-111s were in the invidious position of not strictly being allowed to return to Singapore in daylight with weapons and having no other alternative base. Despite only flying from Tengah, they were all very close to Bingo as they came-in. Fulcrums and Fishbeds swarmed all over them and downed the whole force for 3VP each, none of the Aardvarks getting close enough to fire.
In the hope that the enemy were sufficiently distracted to give them a chance of success, I’d sent-in the Hornets in a parallel stream to the Aardvarks. It was no use, as there were Fulcrums with ammo left after downing the F-111s and yet more fighters arriving all the time. The F/A-18s managed a couple of kills with their Sidewinders, but ten were lost in short order before they could get into Paveway range and I called the last two stragglers off.
Overall, we lost 5 Tomcats, 16 F-111s and 10 Aussie F/A-18s, the enemy losing 2 Foxbat fighters, 5 Fulcrums, 13 Fishbeds, the corvette and 15 SAM elements (30-93 in VP terms). The Russians alone fired more than 130 SAMs during the strike (hitting only missiles). I’d have done better by ignoring Camranh Bay and going after ships instead.
All-in-all, one suicide mission too many. I’d managed the logistics and gotten the strike to come together in the right order and timing without recourse to Mission Planner, but the defences were just too damned strong, especially the fighters, which did all the damage.
While this was going on, a Soviet Charlie SSGN surprised the Lincoln CVBG and torpedoed the frigate John L Hall, which sank, costing 50VP. I was forced to leave the retaliation to the AI but it did, at least, make a competent job of it and sank the sub for an equalising amount.
21/2/94 00:00Z: A force of 17 Indonesian Tigers and Skyhawks arrived after the main battle, hoping to engage some Fishbeds. Unfortunately, they met yet more Fulcrums instead. Not more than three or four and I hoped to swarm them, but the ensuing dogfight was appallingly one-sided. Every enemy shot seemed to score a kill while the Indonesians were making two or three Sidewinder hits on the same MiG without bringing it down. We lost 14 planes for two Fulcrums and a lone Fishbed – and a Tiger or Skyhawk (rightly or wrongly) is worth three Fulcrums.
The best advice about the whole Camranh Bay situation is ‘don’t do it’, but I felt I had to try. I’d have been better-off ignoring orders.
01:00Z: The 12 AGM-86s from the B-52 came-in, but the enemy STILL had enough ready Fulcrums to down them all easily, completing the fiasco.
03:00Z: All CVBG units reverted to 7th Fleet AI control. No more carrier strikes.
About 150nm from Hong Kong, HMS Spartan met a sub. It was identified as an SS and its speed of 4 knots indicated that it was a Chinese Ming, not a Soviet Tango, which creeps at 3. I marked her as Neutral and headed away at Cruise. This gave away my position and, so predictably, the Chinese boat was on Weapons Free and came after me. Spartan dove deep and went to Flank, leaving the Ming behind. Clearly, any Chinese sub athwart the convoy’s path is going to attack it and I won’t have the option of defending myself without taking the political consequences. I might even take them if I don’t.
It seemed best to send Spartan and Hawkbill to escort the convoys and get them away from Hong Kong for now. In Hawkbill’s case, she could divert to Manila and cover the two merchantmen, now ready and sitting in Manila Bay awaiting the convoy’s approach.
04:00Z: As the game moved into Day 2, the remains of the F/A-18 strike returned to Darwin. The four tankers on the second re-fuelling rendezvous only made it back with a couple of hours’ fuel, so I was right to leave the fighters at home. Had it not been for the losses, I might not have been able to get all of the attack planes back, either, but going via Christmas Island was an even worse option for the tankers.
So, at the moment it is a Major Defeat, with a score of -95. The only hope is to get the convoys to Hong Kong and score enough points thereby for a better outcome. Given the limitations of the escorts and the bug with the Ming, I am not hopeful.
Attacking Camranh Bay was a mistake and I can’t think of any way I could have done it better apart from not committing the Indonesians or aborting the strike planes altogether. I had to try to keep within the spirit of the scenario, but did not know in advance quite how strong the defences were.
Opinions welcome.