Northern Fury 39 Anvil 14/3/94

[fitzpatv]

Situation

The Nimitz and Vinson carrier groups (TF20.2) aim to neutralise the Bodo, Evenes, Andoya and possibly Bardufoss airbases in Northern Norway and also destroy the HQ of the Soviet Archangel Corps (near Evenes). Given the Russians’ frustrating ability to replace losses of aircraft and SAMs, it has been decided that wrecking their airbases would be a more effective strategy, so the main VP awards reflect this. TF20.2 needs to move NE by the end of the 24-hour scenario in order to be in position for Phase 3 of the NATO offensive (a ‘Phase 3 Sp Zone’ is marked on the map).

Nimitz is escorted by three cruisers, three destroyers and two frigates, while Vinson has two cruisers, two destroyers and a frigate. The SSNs Boston and Trafalgar are cruising off the Norwegian coast opposite the targets. Some 140 TLAMs are available for use. You also have some tankers, Sentries, EW and ELINT planes, operating from UK bases.

As so often, munitions are an issue. There are just nine SEAD Hornets and Intruders with HARMs and, while there are 22 of the same aircraft types for conventional strikes, they are all lumbered with short-reached GBU-24s, GBU-10s and AGM-123s (at best). These weapons are highly suitable for ploughing-up runways, but you’ll be lucky to get them close enough and they all need buddy illumination for good measure. The weather is very light rain, which technically invalidates the use of the GBU-10J (or, at least, makes it very borderline).

There are no Soviet surface ships in this one, as the PCFGs lack the reach to attack US carriers far out to sea and stay hidden when they’re around. Submarines remain a threat, with a Victor, Sierra and (more worryingly) an Oscar II in the offing.

For once, there is no danger of Russian airstrikes against the fleet, with no Backfires, Badger bombers or Fencer attack planes present. On the other hand, the Briefing warns of 8-12 Foxhounds, 12-20 Flankers and 60-90 Flogger Ks, plus unknown numbers of Foxbat fighters, defending the targets. By comparison, you have 52 fighters, some of which need to be kept back against the risk of a Shipwreck strike from the Oscar.

Backing this up, the Soviets have plenty of SAMs protecting their bases. No Gargoyles, but Grumbles, Gladiators and Gadflies, plus less-effective Geckoes, Gauntlets, Gainfuls and Ganefs. Perhaps uniquely for a Fury scenario, there are no MANPADs or AA!.

Assessment/Planning

The SAMs aren’t initially visible, so you will need to do some recon unless you are content to find-out during the strikes themselves. TF20.2’s best recon assets are the slow and vulnerable Intruders, which have 150nm ground search range, while the faster Hornets can see up to 80nm away.

The SAMs can be provoked into illuminating using either TLAMs or HARMs on Bearing Only Launch. You then have a maximum of 36 HARMs with which to knock them out, which might not be enough, even for one of the four bases. There will, however, be time for at least one more SEAD strike, possibly two.

TLAMs could then be used to overwhelm the remaining defences at a given base and, maybe, take-out planes on the ground.

Fighter sweeps could be used to thin-out the Soviet CAP, though losses are likely.

The GBU-24s and 10s and AGM-123s can only sanely be used once the fighters and SAMs have been dealt with. Some strike planes only have Mavericks.

On this basis, taking-out all four bases is aspirational only – typical of the over-ambitious orders you are habitually given in the Fury series (such things DO happen in reality, of course). Bodo and Evenes have two runways and three taxiways between them and each would need 5-6 hits from the GBUs and AGMs, so 25-30 successful missile launches. You have a maximum of 52 per strike (and eight of these are Mavericks which, like TLAMs, are of little use against runways). I decided to start with Bodo to avoid fatally dividing my strength, then see where that took me.

TF20.2 can reach the Ph3 zone comfortably in the time limit, moving at a Cruise speed of 15 knots. There are plenty of ASW aircraft to smother the surrounding sea with sonobuoys, even if too many are deployed at the outset. The low-capacity Viking tankers can be re-armed with ASW weapons in four hours.

The two SSNs need to move slowly and carefully, watching for their Soviet counterparts, but Boston can contribute five TLAMs to the strikes (these start on magazines and need to be moved to the tubes via the Weapons window).

It shouldn’t really be necessary to use the UK-based tankers, while the various ELINT planes aloft tend to duplicate each others’ efforts – you only really need one, unless there’s something I don’t grasp. I sortied the one Compass Call EW plane, just in case it might make a difference.

Note that strike planes’ turnround times are six hours, suggesting that three SEAD and 1-2 conventional strikes are possible in the 24 hours (the latter depending on when, if ever, the first one is launched).

Events

14/3/94 06:00Z: One of the otherwise next-to-useless Maverick F/A-18s was sent towards the Lofotens to try to locate the enemy SAMs.

Our Aries ELINT plane spotted about a dozen Floggers on CAP over Andoya and four Flankers at Bodo. These were supported by ELINT/EW planes, with a Mainstay aloft E of Bodo. Yet more Floggers were airborne further NE, near Tromso.

The recon Hornet eventually provoked a reaction from the Soviet CAP before getting close enough to detect any SAMs. It headed home, covered by four F-14s and a Prowler. About a dozen Flankers rose to pursue, joined by several Floggers from Andoya, all hurtling along at Afterburner. The F-14s engaged with Phoenixes at 40nm and, as the enemy evaded and dived to 80’, all 16 of our missiles went wide. We then had to flee as the enemy chased us halfway to the carriers before giving up for lack of fuel. It is a recurring problem that we can’t engage Soviet fighters at a range where we can outreach and still hit them. This wasn’t the case earlier in the campaign, when the missile dynamics rules were different.

07:00Z: On the positive side (I hoped), the Russians had committed a reckless number of fighters, which would now have to re-ready. So I sent-in the nine-plane SEAD strike, escorted by four AMRAAM Hornets and another Prowler, while also loosing six TLAMs at Bodo to wake-up the SAMs and another 20 at the Archangel Corps HQ, just in case.

A Grumble, two Gadflies, two Gauntlets and two Geckoes lit-up and the Intruders’ radar detected another Grumble or Gladiator, two Gainfuls and two Ganefs, which did not. Cleverly, the Russians had set-up a two-tier SAM defence, capable of defending against successive strikes. The HARMs disabled the Grumble, both Gadflies and a Gecko but, as none of these sites was obliterated, this scored nothing (possibly, VP should be given for killing the fire control radar, not the entire site). The two Intruders lagged behind the Hornets and, lacking illuminated targets, withdrew. I fired another batch of TLAMs against the non-emitting SAMs.

At Evenes, there appeared to be a Grumble or Gladiator, a Gadfly and a couple of Geckoes and Gauntlets. Helped by swarms of Floggers, these were enough to stop my 20 TLAMs with something to spare.

08:00Z: I adjusted the firing distance for all my Phoenix F-14s to 30nm.

Having to operate some 350nm from the carriers was putting our fighters at a disadvantage against the massed Soviet CAP, who could use Afterburner freely, whereas we couldn’t.

I thought that the strike was withdrawing safely, but a posse of Foxhounds and Foxbats then came screaming down from Bardufoss on Afterburner (did they really have the fuel to do this?) and we couldn’t outrun them. Two Hornet escorts and a slow-moving Intruder were lost for 5VP each. Some reinforcements arrived from the carriers just as the enemy turned for base and an F-14 destroyed a Foxhound for 2VP.

A Sierra was then detected at a safe distance to the SW of the carriers and a Viking sank it for 20VP. The Message Log told me that this was the elite boat ‘Mars’, which I’ve now sunk at least three times in the campaign…

Hoping, again, that enemy CAP had largely been committed, I launched big TLAM strikes on Bodo airbase and the HQ. Clearly, though, the Soviet fighters were all on (very) quick turnround and, possibly, more numerous than the Briefing had suggested, so the all-powerful CAP once again swarmed the cruise missiles. Eight Tomahawks got through anyway and disabled a revetment each for 40VP total but, unluckily, none had any parked planes on them and the missiles aimed at the higher-value hangars and control towers were all stopped. The attack on the HQ was as futile as the previous one – there were just too many fighters. Trouble was that I could see no other way of attacking this top-priority target and had to at least try as an act of faith. On the other hand, firing those TLAMs at Bodo would have scored more points, but you can’t know in advance.

09:00Z: It would be 5-6 hours before our SEAD planes could attack again and sending-in the other strike planes would have been suicide, as they would have been downed as easily as the TLAMs. There seemed no way of beating the Soviet CAP, given the numerical, fuel and missile range disadvantages. Perhaps I could have flown tankers up from Mildenhall and stationed them halfway from the carriers to Bodo, re-fuelling our fighters there before battle, but the KC-135s might then have been caught by the Foxhound and Foxbat surge. Committing large numbers of fighters might have worn-down the defenders, but the massed battle would have had to have been Mission-controlled and this would have meant heavy casualties, with the VP ratio being 2:5 the wrong way.

We were running low on TLAMs and both time and the need to reach the Ph3 zone mitigated against doing something desperate like sailing inshore and bombarding Bodo with the ships. We could only hope to score for subs, incautious enemy aircraft and reaching that patrol zone.

The Nimitz group fired their remaining TLAMs at the HQ, but there was no apparent limit to the enemy fighter cover. Vinson retained a handful of Tomahawks to support any further SEAD strikes.

I noted that any kind of attack tended to bring fighters down from the Lofotens at top speed, regardless of whether there was anything for them to fight. They surged, ran low on fuel, returned and were then relieved. Interestingly, no Soviet aircraft were lost to ditchings in this scenario, by contrast to many of those that had gone before. It suggested that the phenomenon was related to strike, as opposed to CAP activity.

14:40Z: The SEAD planes were ready again. There seemed little point in using them, but I tried anyway. Even with radars off, they were detected well short of Bodo and, as fighters came Burnering at them, they had to withdraw.

15:00Z: Two of the pursuing Floggers hung around halfway to the carriers, so a pair of light-armed F-14s sortied and shot them down.

16:00Z: This seemed worth repeating, if only to alleviate the tedium, so I sent a Maverick Hornet out as bait. Two Flankers came after it, so it jettisoned its redundant weapons and fled, luring them onto two F-14s, which did the necessary. Phoenixes were effective at 30nm.

17:00Z: I repeated the exercise. This time, poor shooting made it a near-run thing, but both Flankers were downed without loss.

18:00Z: Rinse and repeat but, this time, the Flankers were missed by all eight Phoenixes and Sparrows fired at them and one squeezed-off an IR-guided Alamo, which bagged a Tomcat. I extricated the second F-14 with difficulty and threw-in another. The Flankers pulled-out and one ditched for lack of fuel. Overall, I’d downed five Su-27s for one F-14, but finished just 10-5 up on VP. Even at this intensity of operations, Vinson was running out of Phoenixes and was having to ready returning F-14s with Sparrows. I suspect that the Russians did not labour under such difficulties.

19:00Z: Despite all precautions (I’d been manually steering Vikings to drop sonobuoys ahead of TF20.2), a Victor III still managed to ambush the frigates Groves and Kauffman at the head of the wedge, firing two torpedoes at what must have been kinematic range. Kauffman was far enough away to get clear, but no amount of running at Flank or alteration of course could save Groves, even after our ASW planes had sunk the Victor. As so often, the enemy only needed the one hit to sink a ship (it happened every single time on both playthroughs of Charge of the Light Brigade and I’d needed two hits to sink the Sierra earlier). This cost me an appalling 100VP – there is no way that a moderately-useful frigate could be worth five SSNs!. We might have been finding ships hard to replace by this stage (as per the Briefing) but the Russians have lost a phenomenal number of subs in the campaign to-date and must, by now, have been under similar constraints. These scenarios are hard enough without having the scoring system this heavily tilted against the player.

15/3/94 02:00Z: Some time after getting there, I received 50VP per CVBG for reaching the Phase 3 patrol area.

06:00Z: This improved the score a bit and it ended in a Minor Defeat on +76. I suspect that another 100 for not losing Groves would have made no material difference to the result, as I probably needed +200 for a draw.

NATO lost an FFG, a fighter and three attack planes.

The Soviets lost two SSNs, 8 fighters, 13 SAM elements and damage to 8 aircraft revetments. They expended exactly 300 A2A missiles and 260 SAMs, which gives an idea of how tough this scenario is.

If it were only possible, I’m sure I would benefit enormously from watching a better player than myself show me in detail how to beat this one if, indeed, it is remotely possible to do so with the current game rules and mechanics. As it is, I can’t be optimistic about the next one (Tongs), which looks like more of the same.