Northern Fury 8: Hold the Line - a CMANO AAR

Started by Airborne Rifles, April 24, 2016, 01:51:49 PM

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Airborne Rifles

All right gents and ladies, this is the next installment in Gunner98's excellent Northern Fury battle set for CMANO. This one is epic, both in geographic scale and units involved. Here's the setup:



It's day four of WWIII in 1994 and the Soviets are steamrolling south. Over the past two days they have occupied and fortified Iceland and landed a large force at Trondheim in Norway. The Russians have build up significant air and air defense strength at Keflavik and in northern and central Norway, complicating NATO attempts to keep the SLOCs open. One of the reasons they were able to get so far so fast is that all of the US carriers were out of position when the war began. Now the nearest one, the USS Enterprise, which was rushed back into service after an accelerated overhaul and reactor refueling, is headed north protected by two Ticonderoga cruisers to try to hold the line north of the NATO convoys starting to cross the Atlantic. Going north with only one carrier at this point in the war is extremely hazardous, but the Americans have no choice.

Yesterday the two Soviet Kuznetsov CVBGs put in to Reykjavik and Trondheim, respectively, to refuel and rearm. We have lost contact with them, but all indications are that they are coming south. In addition, dozens of Soviet submarines are headed for the GIUK gap en route to interdict the vital SLOCs from North America to Europe, where the epic battle for Germany is raging. Three convoys are currently at sea, two composed of Naval Reserve Fleet RoRos carrying the complete equipment of the US 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, followed by a third convoy composed of merchantmen carrying more general supplies. Overhead, a constant stream of Civil Reserve Air Fleet aircraft are ferrying men and supplies to the front.

To protect these, we have the Enterprise, here escorts, and air wing, supported by the British Tornadoes and AEW aircraft at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. These have been reinforced by the American F-15Cs of the 493rd TFS, recently withdrawn from Norway after helping to blunt the Soviet aerial offensive there. Canadian fighters our of Gander and Goose bay, supported by tankers, are pulling CAP over the central north Atlantic, and US Air National Guard F-16s are running a similar patrol over the southern tip of Greenland. A squadron of Louisiana Air National Guard F-15As are ferrying to Thule in northern Greenland, where the southerners are sure to enjoy the balmy February weather. 

Opposing us, the Soviets have ferried at least one regiment (40 aircraft) of Mig-29s fighters and another of Su-24 attack jets to Iceland, which they have begun to fortify with significant SAM defenses and at least a full airborne division. We can also expect to face 1-2 regiments of Soviet Long-Range Aviation bombers operating from the Kola and North Norway. The Russians are supported by very potent jamming and AEW resources, as they have been in the previous three days of fighting. Taking these out and keeping the Enterprise group hidden will be vital to NATO success. 

We also have numerous subs, a mix of Los Angeles, Permit, and Trafalgars, screening north of the Enterprise and also east of Iceland, to hopefully thin the herd of Russian boats coming south. Finally, we have are at least a dozen Soviet SSNs/SSGNs already in the north Atlantic.

So, here we go...

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Sir Slash

1994? I'm still young enough to serve. I'll be heading that way just as soon as I get off work at 11pm.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Airborne Rifles

Yep, 1994. This is alternate history where the Soviet Union didn't collapse.

Here's the next installment, not too much action but it will get good soon:

Dawn broke across the flight deck of USS Enterprise as the nuclear carrier steamed northeast towards Iceland, surrounded by her escorts. Overhead, pilots flying F/A-18 Hornets were aloft providing close-in CAP for the formations, while farther forward a pair of Tomcat pilots searched for threats to their airbase. The Big E's CAG had ordered an ES-3A shadow ELINT bird aloft at daybreak to sniff for the electronic telltales of Soviet ships and aircraft. Two E-2 Hawkeyes were also aloft over the formation, their radars radiating so that the ships below could maintain electronic silence.

Very quickly the ES-3A's crewmembers monitoring the aircraft's sensors began to detect the distinctive emanations of the search radars and powerful jammers carried by Soviet Su-24 EW birds. Plotting the sources of the Russians' electronic noise over the next half hour, the American airmen were able to deduce that the Soviets had thrown out a cordon of the potent jammers arcing around the entire southern half of Iceland. Now and there a return off of a Russian radar revealed that an unknown number of Mig-29 fighters were lurking within the electronic noise as well.

The previous four days of fighting had shown that the Soviet EW aircraft could render the American AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, with which most of the Enterprise's F/A-18s and F-14s were armed, all but useless in long-range engagements. Immediately the CAG aboard Enterprise began diagraming out a plan to take down the Soviet jammers operating south and west of the island. Above decks, six F/A-18Cs sat waiting, each armed with six of the deadly AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles that had proved to be the allies best air-to-air weapons in aerial combat to date. Below on the hangar deck, crews were loading big AIM-54 Phoenix missiles onto F-14s in anticipation of having to counter a raid of Soviet missile-armed bombers. The AIM-54s were potent missiles, with a range of nearly a hundred miles, but trying to hit a nimble fighter with one was like chasing a Ferrari with a school bus. These weapons would be saved to defend against threats to the carrier itself.

Far to the east, north and west of Scotland, the sensors aboard the British E-3D Sentry AWACS bird were feeding that aircraft's technicians the same story, except with an ominous twist. The AWACS's crew were zeroing in on a separate formation of recon birds, likely Tu-16Ls emanating their own jamming signals, accompanied by one OECM aircraft, transiting the gap between Iceland and the Faroes. The controllers vectored one of the two teams of Tornadoes on CAP to strike out over the ocean to try to intercept them before they could burst into the north Atlantic in search of the convoys. Two more Tornadoes rolled down the runway at Lossiemouth to replace them.

Far to the south, French Atlantique maritime patrol aircraft were rising from western France and heading west to sanitize the sea lanes in front of the foremost convoy, which was carrying advance elements of the US 24th Mech.

Back aboard Enterprise, two Sparrow equipped F-14s lurched forward on their catapults amid clouds of steam and wobbled into the sky while their pilots set a course northeast towards the nearest Soviet Su-24 EW aircraft. They proceeded under radio and radar silence, hoping to take advantage of one thing the Soviets lacked so far, airborne radars.

KyzBP

Let me know when your book comes out.  I'll be buying.  ;)

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Airborne Rifles

For the two Tomcat pilots, the most difficult part of their mission was finding the Soviet EW Su-24. The Russian jets powerful jammers put out an enormous amount of energy. The technician aboard the ES-3A near could only give them fuzzy vectors to the jammers' source through the electronic haze. When the pilots reached the general area where the enemy aircraft appeared to be circling they began a long, banking turn, sweeping the sky with their powerful cameras to find the lone Russian snooper.

After several minutes of searching the back-seater on the lead F-14 spotted a dark shape in his TV scope. Zooming it in the dot resolved into the distinctive boxy swing-wing shape of the Su-24, its pilot flying a racetrack pattern, unaware of the danger he was in. The Americans altered course to come up on the Russian's tail. When close enough, the lead Tomcat jock locked on to the twin-engine Soviet jet and sent a Sidewinder missile straight into its left tailpipe. The Russian crew never even knew they were under attack, but did manage to radio a warning back to Keflavik as they craft spiraled towards the sea. The Americans turned their big fighters east, heading towards the next Su-24 in the perimeter, due south of Iceland.

Relying on vectors still from the crew of the ES-3A, the two American jets entered the general area where the next Su-24 was circling and began another search. After several minutes they were unable to locate the EW aircraft visually, so the lead pilot decided to take the risk of activating his radar. His back seater did so, and immediately their AWG-9 picked up the lone blip of a Su-24 to the east. Both Tomcat pilots flipped on their afterburners and rocketed towards it. 

As the American naval fighters neared missile range of the Su-24, the tables suddenly turned. The lead Tomcat's WSO had illuminated his radar again to get a precise fix on the Russian EW aircraft. In doing so, he had inadvertently given away his aircraft's position to the technician aboard the Su-24 who radioed the information to the pilots of four Mig-29s circling nearby to the north. These turned south and accelerated, illuminating their own radars in the process.

The Russian fighters were within fifteen miles of the Americans and on their flank. They immediately launched missiles at the intruders, forcing the F-14 pilots to jerk their aircraft into violent evasive maneuvers, unable to fire back. The engagement was short. The agile American fighters both evaded the incoming missiles while their prey, the Su-24, fled east. The pilots of the short-legged Mig-29s had been operating at the edge of their effective range and the short burst of afterburner had exhausted their fuel reserves, forcing them to turn back towards Keflavik after only one salvo of missiles. Now the Americans turned and counterattacked, downing two of the fleeing Migs with a volley of Sparrow missiles.

Having survived the ambush by the Soviet Migs, the American aviators turned their radars east to locate their original target, the swing-wing Sukoi trying to escape eastward. This they did quickly, and after a short tail chase downed it with another pair of AIM-7s.

The crew aboard the ES-3A were already detecting the signatures of Soviet replacement jammers taking off from Keflavik, as well as the radar of an AEW Helix helicopter in the Denmark strait of the type carried by Soviet carriers. More ominously, they were seeing intermittent returns from multiple Tu-16L reconnaissance bombers transiting the same area accompanied by an unidentified OECM platform. These would be the responsibility of others, however. The two Tomcat crews, short on both weapons and fuel and far from their base, turned southwest and headed for the safety of the Enterprise. 

Airborne Rifles

Far to the east, in the gap between Iceland and Scotland, things were developing somewhat differently. Here the E-3D orbiting over Scotland had early on detected several Tu-16Ls and an OECM platform on a course to break into the North Atlantic. The technicians aboard the Sentry had also detected the radar of two low-flying Beriev Be-12 ASW float planes. The controllers aboard the AEW aircraft decided to vector two Tornadoes from RAF Lossiemouth out to sea to try to intercept these snoopers. The two interceptors, radars off, spread out until they were separated by fifty miles and then swept west.

The RAF had decided to keep the American F-15Cs of the now-veteran 493rd TFS in reserve at Lossiemouth. Now a draw upon those reserves began to appear necessary. The controllers on the E-3 detected four dangerous Su-27s approaching from the north in the direction of Bodo in Norway. The previous days' fighting around the Shetlands and Faroes had shown these to be more than a match for the Sky Flash-armed Tornadoes. The pilots of a pair of AMRAAM-armed Eagles taxied onto the runway and rocketed into the sky, headed north.

Now the threats started to multiply. Two of the Tornado pilots on CAP duty north of Scotland had been shifting west to try to get a shot at one of recon birds shooting the gap. These had apparently come too close, as several Mig-29s not lit off their radars from the direction of Iceland. More troublingly, numerous Su-33s also illuminated their radars to the west. Several minutes of analysis by the AWACS controllers determined that these were headed east towards the CAP Tornadoes.

To the south, the two Tornado pilots sweeping west into the north Atlantic had outrun the radar coverage of the E-3 and now had to rely on increasingly vague directions from controllers who were tracking the Soviet snoopers solely by the Russians' own radar and jammer emissions. After several minutes flying through where the Russian recon birds should have been the northernmost Tornado pilot decided to energize his own radar to help his search.

The sensor quickly returned several low-flying contacts, helicopters, meaning that a surface task force was nearby. This fact was confirmed soon after when the Tornadoes RWR began beeping to tell the pilot that he had been illuminated and locked on to by either a Kirov battlecruiser or a more modern Slava-class cruiser. Either way, a missile was rising from the threat to the north to meet him. The pilot turned south and dove, turning off his radar as he did so. The shot had been made at extreme range and the Soviet missile burned out before reaching the British jet. The location of one of the Soviet carrier groups was not approximately known by the pilot, who radioed the information to the AWACS over Scotland.

Farther south the second Tornado fighter pilot decided to energize his radar. His sensor illuminated at Beriev Be-12 ASW flying boat directly ahead and low. The pilot dropped below the thin clouds to identify. Once he did, the slow moving Russian bird was downed by a single Sky Flash into its flank which sent it cart wheeling into the ocean.

Back to the north and east the Soviet Su-33s were approaching the CAP to the northwest of Scotland.   

Airborne Rifles

The Soviet naval fighters southeast of Iceland were operating beyond the radar detection range of the RAF's E-3D over Scotland. As such, the controllers new they were there based on intermittent detection of the naval Flankers' own radars. After a while these went silent as well. A pair of American F-15s had been directed that way to intercept, but these were operating under radar silence as well. Neither side's pilots knew where their opponents were.

After passing several dozen miles beyond the radar detection range of the AWACS, the American pilots decided to energize their own radars. What they saw when they did so was a shock. Eight Su-33s were all around them, to the west, north, and south, heading east. The Russian aviators were apparently as surprised as the Americans and were slow to respond. The two veteran American Eagle jocks started locking up Russian fighters and launching AMRAAMs as quickly as they could switch targets. Then, with nearly a dozen missiles in the air radiating outward from the American aircraft, the pilots turned east and kicked on their afterburners, chased now by Soviet return fire.

The outnumbered Americans, having flailed around like a wolverine in a chicken coop, were saved by the chaos of the engagement. Soviet missiles went wild as the aircraft guiding them were destroyed by the AMRAAMs snapshot by the American flyers. When the last missile exploded, the two Americans were being pursued by only two surviving Su-33s. But between them the two Americans possessed only one remaining AIM-120, and another group of Soviet fighters were approaching fast from the west.

The Eagle pilots fled before their pursuers. The pilot carrying the one remaining AMRAAM managed to bring his aircraft's nose around and launch his missile, having to brave and evade a Russian weapon in return, but his gamble paid off with another Flanker going down in flames. However, the Americans couldn't stay on afterburner all the way back to Scotland. Eventually they would have to slow, and then the second flight of Su-33s would be upon them.

Suddenly, to the American pilots' surprise, missile contrails flashed overhead, going west. To the right, the pilots saw more contrails, headed in the same direction. The AWACs informed them they could cut their engines. Their support had arrived. Two more Eagles, supported by four Tornadoes to the north who had been freed to come west when the Su-27s over the Norwegian Sea had turned for home, filled the sky in front of the onrushing Soviets with AMRAAM and Sky Flash missiles. The Soviets twisted and dove to evade the weapons, but one after another the broken shapes of robin-egg blue and grey-painted Russian fighters fell from the sky after flying through the shrapnel thrown by the NATO missiles.

When the sky cleared, only one Soviet fighter remained, escaping back west on afterburner. In the running engagement the NATO pilots had claimed fifteen Sukois, nearly half of a Soviet carrier's air group. To the southwest, however, the Soviets were exacting some measure of revenge on the two snooping Tornadoes, exposed far out over the north Atlantic.

mirth

"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Airborne Rifles

Yes it was. Those AMRAAMs make all the difference. Here's the next (short) installment:

The British pilot on the north end of the two-ship sweep of Tornadoes over the north Atlantic had been acting like a fox in a henhouse. He was at the limit of his fuel endurance and decided to unload his long-range Sky Flash missiles into the screen of Soviet ASW helicopters below him before turning back. This he did, downing three before he was reduced to just Sidewinders for armament. Then he and his wingman, fifty miles to the south, turned back east for Scotland, skirting the last known location of the Kirov/Slava contact to their left.

All was going well until four Su-33s, likely the CAP of the Soviet carrier lurking to the north, lit off their radars ad rocketed south on and intercept course with the Brit. His wingman turned north to support, but both pilots were too far from base and too low on fuel to use afterburners. Soon multiple missiles were inbound. The British pilot evaded one, then a second, but a third blew the large tailfin off his Tornado, sending the jet spiraling towards the sea.

The wingman, still possessing Sky Flash missiles, got some measure revenge by downing one of the Su-33s while it was engaged with his leader. The second Brit then had to turn and run. But he, too, couldn't go to afterburner to escape, and the Russians closed relentlessly on his tail, finally sending two missiles into his tailpipes. That was the unhappy end of the attempt to intercept the Soviet recon birds southeast of Iceland.

Fortunately for NATO, these aircraft appeared to be screening ahead of a task force rather than searching for targets in the Atlantic, as their signatures began racetrack patters between Iceland and the Faroes. The RAF commander at Lossiemouth, pleased with the attrition to the enemy carrier's air group, ordered two more flights of AMRAAM-armed F-15s aloft to sweep towards the estimated position of the Soviet task force in the hope of drawing out and destroying what remained of the Soviet fighters.

Airborne Rifles

After a long hiatus, here's some of the next piece. Might be a few more days until I can get going again, as I'll be travelling this weekend.

Under the sea, the captain of HMS Talent, a Trafalgar class nuc boat, was running his submarine deep to get into the Iceland-UK gap ahead of the Soviet Varyag carrier group. He was late getting here, having tarried in port so as to take on a load of six of the wonderful new Spearfish torpedoes which were replacing the nearly useless Tigerfish weapons. The new torps possessed a top speed of close to eighty knots, far outpacing the pathetic 35 knot speed of the Tigerfish.

"Captain, sonar," called the chief sonarman in the nearby sonar room.

The captain set down his lukewarm tea on his armrest and responded, "What is it, Freddy."

"We've got a faint contact, bearing about zero-three-zero...firming up...it's definitely a submarine, sir."

"Helmsman, slow to five knots," ordered the captain.

For the next several minutes Talent's sonar crew firmed up the contact. After about half an hour the sonarman reported, "Sir, it's a Seirra-class boat. She's making about five knots, just below the themocline. If she maintains course and speed she will pass us near to starboard."

The captain nodded, then altered his boat's course slightly to port in a bid to swing around the flank of the Russian.

While the submarines dueled under the sea, above the waters the flight of F-15Cs from RAF Lossiemouth was playing ferret to the Varyag's air group. Already severely depleted by the early run-in with another pair of American Eagles, the Soviet naval aviators were not eager to venture out from the protective umbrella of their ship's SAM envelope. But when the American pilots dashed in and lofted a pair of AMRAAMs at the Soviet helicopters patrolling the waters ahead of the Soviet carrier group, the Su-33 pilots had no choice. Three of them turned south to pursue and engage the Americans.

The Eagle jocks fled south, drawing the Russians away from their ships, which the Americans still hadn't managed to locate exactly. Then, when the time was right, the two turned back into their pursuers. The Soviet pilots launched their AA-10s at extreme range, forcing the Americans to fly into the face of oncoming missiles to launch their more deadly but shorter ranged AMRAAMs before turning away from the oncoming threat.

The opposing missiles passed each other, going in opposite directions. The Russian pilots were at a disadvantage in that they had to keep their radars pointed at the Americans to  keep their targets illuminated, while the Americans could open the range with their oncoming threats. The American missiles arrived first, downing two of the three Russian fighters, while the Americans easily evaded the less capable Soviet missiles. They then turned and ruthlessly hunted down the lone fleeing Russian, leaving no naval fighters above the Varyag group. The Americans, still armed with several AMRAAMs, were ordered back east by the Scotland AWACS to provide security for a Nimrod to definitively locate the Soviet task force.

Back aboard HMS Talent, the captain had made his turn in onto the starboard flank of the Soviet Sierra, which despite its slow speed had apparently not heard the British boat. The captain intended to disabuse him of his ignorance shortly.

Not only were the Spearfish torpedoes fast, they also outranged anything carried by the Soviet sub. The captain ordered two of the weapons launched, but run above the layer so as to mask their sound from the Russian. The tactic worked. At long range the Soviet sonar operators failed to detect the two fish until it was too late. Both eighty knot weapons dove through the thermocline and detonated against the hull of the Soviet submarine, ripping gaping holes in its hull and sending it and its crew to the bottom of the Faroes gap.

Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Airborne Rifles

For a while now the aerial sparring between the two sides died down as the Soviet naval air groups, what remained of them, retreated to their carriers and the protection of the Soviet escorts' SAMs to lick their wounds and regroup. This allowed the CAG aboard the Enterprise to vector the crew of a P-3, escorted by two F-14s, to reconnoiter the area where he suspected to find the western-most Soviet task group with its long range radar. Simultaneously, two of the airborne F-15 pilots escorted a British Nimrod to the area where the eastern Soviet carrier group was expected. The crews on both aircraft soon detected the blips on their radar scopes denoting the positions of the two Russian battle groups.

As the reports came into the Enterprise's CIC, the picture began to become clear for the American carrier group's commander. The western Soviet group, likely centered on the carrier Kuznetsov, was thundering south through the Denmark Strait at 18 knots, while the eastern group, likely headed by the carrier Varyag, was pushing southwest past the southeastern coast of Scotland on a course that would combine the two Soviet groups in the coming days if maintained. More troublingly, they would both converge approximately on the location of the Enterprise's patrol area, possibly overwhelming the American task force.

The American commander did not wish to risk his ships, and especially his carrier, the only one available in the North Atlantic for at least a couple of days, in a missile exchange with the more numerous Russian ships, particularly if they were supported by missile-armed bombers, as they were sure to be once the American commander was forced to reveal his ships' location. His first inclination was to launch an alpha strike on the nearer Kuznetsov group. The anti-surface strike package was already readying in the hanger deck, but the task group commander was concerned about the weight of the strike. Even with jamming support from his embarked EA-6B Prowlers, would it be enough to overwhelm the defenses of the Soviet group, which he knew by now consisted of at least one Sovremeny-class destroyer, one Slava-class cruiser, and a Kirov battlecruiser, as well as the Kuznetsov's own formidable defenses? And even if the attack succeeded, his planes would need time to rearm for a second strike on the Varyag group.

The American commander considered his other assets and decided on a different course of action. He would turn his task force east, towards the Varyag, and begin to close the range to that more distant threat. Then he ordered an ELF message sent out to the three Los Angeles-class submarines sweeping north into the Denmark strait, ordering their captains to go deep and make speed runs to put themselves astride the course of the Kuznetsov group. The commander hoped at the very least that these potent subs would be able to take a bite out of the Soviet carriers escorts, if not sink the flattop themselves. If they succeeded, then the Enterprise's commander would be free to concentrate his entire air group against the Varyag, hopefully smashing both Soviet carriers in the course of a day.

Over the next several minutes, the captains of the American submarines Portsmouth, San Juan, and Chicago, received and acknowledged their orders, altering course for the Soviet task group. Aboard the American boats excitement swelled as each captain announced to the crew that they would be hunting big game in a few hours.

Back aboard the Enterprise, the task group commander knew that he would need to thin the Russians' ASW screen if his own submarines were to have a chance at penetrating to the capital ships in the center. That meant knocking down the helicopters that would be swarming out ahead of the Soviet task group. The crews of these aircraft had proved to be distressingly effective at hunting down NATO submarines trying to penetrate the various Soviet task groups that had been transiting the Barents and Norwegian seas over the past several days. The commander wanted them eliminated, and his CAG had the plan to do it, a plan that would not only eliminate the ASW helos but might also draw out much of the remaining Kuznetsov Su-33s where they could be destroyed.

Sir Slash

Oh Boy! Some hot Carrier-on-Carrier action. After some hot Sub-on-Carrier foreplay.  :D
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.