Northern Fury 9.5: Here Comes the Cavalry - a CMANO AAR

Started by Airborne Rifles, January 05, 2017, 08:51:18 PM

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Airborne Rifles

Two hours before dawn, both American carriers began launching their fighter sweeps. First off the deck were the support aircraft. S-3 Vikings configured as tankers went up first, followed by more EA-6Bs, and another E-2C. Next, each carrier launched a single F-14 equipped with a TARPS recon pod. The pilots of these special mission birds stayed low, and headed for the rugged south coast of Iceland. Next up were half a dozen F/A-18s and F-14s carrying TALD decoys. Their mission would be to coax the Soviet SAM operators around Keflavik and Reykjavik to turn on their radars and reveal their location. Once these aircraft were off the deck, flight after flight of Phoenix, AMRAAM, and Sparrow-armed Tomcats and Hornets began to thunder down the steam catapults and into the brightening sky.

Three hundred miles to the north, the Russians were launching as well. The Soviet commander, after his interceptors' disastrous failure to find the American carriers, had correctly surmised what would come next, and he intended to be ready. Modern MiG-29 fighters and MiG-31 interceptors began to launch from the two main airfields, followed by older MiG-23s. The Soviet pilots flew north and circled over Iceland's northwestern Westfjords as the sun rose in the southwestern sky.

The two TARP-equipped F-14s streaked north at little more than wavetop level. Several dozen miles behind, at ten thousand feed, came the TALD-carrying jets. Behind them, being careful to stay beyond the margins of Soviet radar detection range, circled the squadrons who would engage the Soviet air forces. Even farther south, the new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mitscher, one of Carl Vinson's escorts, began to launch twenty Tomahawk cruise missiles from its VLS cells. The weapons rose atop their pillars of flame and smoke, then nosed over to the north.

The first aircraft that the Russian radars detected were the TALD birds. The pilots of these fighters flew north in what looked like a strike formation, with the TARP birds to the front and low. The Soviet fighters north of the Icelandic southwest peninsula turned south at the direction of their controllers and went to afterburner to intercept the supposed inbound strike. The Soviets led with their MiG-29s and -23s, with the Foxhounds following in support. More Soviet jets began to launch from their airfields as fast as their pilots could taxi onto the runway.

The two formations approached each other over the waters south of Iceland. At sixty miles from the coast, the American jets released their TALDs, which to the Russian radar operators looked for all the world on their screens like standoff cruise missiles. Now the Soviet pilots had to choose: pursue the American jets, which were even now turning back south, or engage the standoff weapons that they had launched. In the end, the Russians opted in favor of defending their airbases, and vectored towards the TALDs. The Soviet pilots began to light off their fighters' radars to target the incoming missiles.

This was all the encouragement the American fighter jocks, circling to the south, needed to wing into their own attack. As the Soviet fliers dove at the TALDs, they heard their radar warning receivers begin to chirp that American radars were tracking them. Once the RIOs of the American F-14s began to detect their opponents, they locked their powerful radars onto the Soviet jets.

The Russians were now between a rock and hard place. They had just begun to launch against the TALDs, and could not reorient against the American aircraft without abandoning their semi-active radar homing  missiles. To make matters worse, they had just detected the twenty Tomahawks flashing underneath at wavetop level. Forty plus American missiles heading for the southwest peninsula was not a threat they could ignore. So they continued with their original attacks.

At that moment, the Americans engaged in their first real attack of the day. From half a dozen Tomcats flying in line abreast, the pilots rippled off two dozen AIM-54C Phoenixes, then followed the big missiles in to get within AIM-7 Sparrow range.   

Sir Slash

This really should be a movie. Or mini-series.  :clap:
"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

Over the noses of their fighters, the American pilots could watch their Phoenix missiles as firefly like dots dropping seemingly straight down into the Soviet formation against the dark blue background of the early morning arctic sky. Then the missile warheads began to detonate. Broken Soviet jets began to fall out of the sly like fiery comets even as the Russians used their own weapons to knock down the TALDs and Tomahawks. The AIM-54s took a heavy toll. They had been all been targeted against the dangerous MiG-31s in the Soviet formation, and they did very well against those blazingly fast but unmaneuverable interceptors.

TALDs, Tomahawks, Phoenixes, and MiGs crisscrossed the sky ahead of the oncoming American pilots. As the last AIM-54 detonated, the surviving Soviet pilots, who had done what they could against the American cruise missiles, turned south to close the distance with their assailants. They were just in time for their RWRs to announce that another wave of missiles, these ones AIM-7 Sparrows, were inbound from the advancing line of Tomcats. This second attacks swept in among the gaggle of oncoming Russian aircraft. The American RIOs had targeted these weapons against the maneuverable but short-ranged MiG-29 Fulcrums. Several of these were smashed down into the water below over the next few seconds, but still the Russians came on, knowing that they had to close the distance if they wanted any chance to strike back. Powerful jamming from EA-6s to the south was hindering the Russians' attempts to lock their own radars and missiles onto the American aircraft.

The Soviets had now lost nearly two-dozen aircraft the Americans. The remaining pilots were enraged by their impotence, and rode they afterburners in pursuit of the withdrawing Tomcats. The two surviving Foxhouds began to volley off their AA-6 Acrid long-range missiles in a desperate attempt to gain some measure of revenge. But just when it looked like the Soviets might catch the nearest F-14s, the next wave of American fighter pilots lit off their radars.

A squadron of F/A-18Cs had been coming on behind the initial sweep of Tomcats. The pilots of the Hornets now began to volley off their active-homing AMRAAMs at the approaching Soviet jets. The missiles flashed past overhead of the withdrawing F-14s, forcing the Soviets to break of their pursuit and evade. This new attack swept in among the Soviets, and in just a few moments the few surviving Russian pilots were fleeing back towards Iceland with the Hornets in pursuit.

In the meantime, the surviving TALDs and Tomahawks had been nearing the Icelandic coast. The Soviets were forced to energize the radars of their defending SAM batteries, revealing their location. The strength of these defenses were sobering to the technicians aboard the ES-3B Shadow ELINT bird that was monitoring Soviet emissions several dozen miles to the southeast of the air battle. They logged enough the locations for enough radars to indicate at least four battalions of potent SA-20 SAMs defending the southeast peninsula. The US Navy fliers would need to avoid the respectable bubble that these systems protected over the major Soviet bases, into which the few surviving Soviet pilots of the air battle were withdrawing.

The engagement of the past several minutes had been an unmitigated disaster for the Soviets. They had lost dozens of fighters to the American sweep without exacting any sort of revenge. That was about to change, however. The sacrifice of initial engagement had allowed time for another squadron of MiG-31s as well a half a squadron of Su-27s to get off the ground, and more MiG-29s and -23s were joining these every minute. The elite pilots of these Foxhounds and Flankers now headed out of the relatively safe skies over Keflavik to engage the oncoming squadron of American Hornets.

Airborne Rifles

The American Hornet jocks had over-pursued the few survivors of the initial sweep, and the MiG-31 pilots now turned the table. Racing south at almost Mach 2, the back-seaters on the Soviet interceptors locked their powerful radars onto the an F/A-18. Once they had a solid target, the Soviets launched their own big, long-range AA-6 Acrid missiles. These air-to-air weapons, the biggest such missiles in the world, were the Soviet equivalent of the AIM-54 Phoenix, and they far outranged the AMRAAMs carried by the American Hornets.

The US naval aviators, belatedly realizing their peril, turned back south, becoming now the pursued rather than the pursuers. A fresh half squadron of F-14s had been following behind the Hornets. The RIOs of these fighters now locked their own missiles onto the Russians and began loosing more AIM-54s northwards. Phoenixes and Acrids passed each other in the upper troposphere on their long-range, Mach 5 arcs towards their targets. The Soviet missiles, launched first, also began to arrive at their tagerts first, but not by much since the American Hornets were fleeing away from the threats as fast as their afterburners could take them. The F/A-18 pilots now twisted and turned their fighters in violent evasive maneuvers. Even so, several Hornets went down, shattered by shrapnel from the big missiles' warheads.

Next the Phoenixes arrived among the Foxhounds, and the results were devastating. In seconds, only a pair of the big interceptors were still flying, out of what had been a full squadron. But the Foxhounds had provided a vital service. Their long-range missiles had provided sufficient cover for the Flankers, Fulcrums, and Floggers to finally close with the dangerous American jets. Now a massive furball developed about seventy miles off the Icelandic coast, with Hornets and Tomcats twisting and turning with the MiGs and Sukhois. AMRAAMs, Sparrows, and Sidewinders lept of the launch rails of the American fighters while the Soviets responding with their R-77s and R-27s. More and more aircraft joined the fray, with the remaining US Navy squadrons of the sweep arriving to support their comrades, and more pairs of MiGs joining as fast as they could take off from the southwestern airfields.

Several more American jets went down in flames, including a pair of F-14s, but despite this the Americans' numerical advantage and better organization proved decisive. Over nearly a half hour of aerial combat, nearly every Soviet fighter fell victim to an American missile. The few survivors worked desperately to extract themselves from the unfolding disaster, but in the end only a very few of the nimble MiG-29s and blazingly fast MiG-31s managed to make good their escape. The Americans could pursue these only so far before they were in range of the formidable Soviet SAM defenses, which had minutes before swatted down the last Tomahawk cruise missiles with contemptuous ease. Reluctantly, the Americans turned back from their query.

The CAG of Carl Vinson's air group, who had been controlling the American side of the fight from an E-2C Hawkeye to the south, saw that the Soviets were ceding the skies south of Iceland and ordered his fighters to withdraw. The Americans had expended most of their long-range Phoenixes, Sparrows, and AMRAAMs, and with them most of their offensive potential. They had lost nine aircraft, including seven Hornets and two Tomcats. In return, the naval fliers could claim over a hundred Soviet jets, the core of the Soviet aerial defense of Iceland. Included in these losses were entire squadrons of the best fighters the Soviets could put into the fights, the dangerous MiG-29s, -31s, and Su-27s.

The American pilots recovered aboard their two flattops after their battle, and the deck crews aboard both ships immediately began feverishly rearming and refueling the fighters for the next mission. The American plan called for two more sweeps before nightfall, when the US Air force would take over the air offensive over Iceland's skies. The pilots themselves went to their ready rooms for debriefing, after which they would be provided a meal in the galley before their mission briefings for the next sweep.

At the Soviet Reykjavik and Keflavik bases, most of the Soviet ground crews waited in vain for their aircraft and pilots to return. For the few survivors of the battle, their own squadron ready rooms were depressingly empty.

In the waters south of Iceland, yet another American advantage began to tell. The Los Angeles-class subs of the American naval screen, who had been proceeding quietly north throughout the night, had come to communications depth at the scheduled commencement of the American sweep. The captains of these vessels now directed their boats towards the rescue beacon of several of the downed American fliers, trying to rescue them before they succumbed to exposure in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. For the dozens of Soviet pilots who had bailed out of stricken aircraft, there would be no rescue. 

nelmsm

Quote from: Sir Slash on January 13, 2017, 10:42:37 PM
This really should be a movie. Or mini-series.  :clap:

Actually I think it would be a good candidate for this generation's Red Storm Rising.

Con

Is there an option to rescue downed aviators with subs or is this poetic license.  Either way its a damn good read

Con

Airborne Rifles

Quote from: Con on January 14, 2017, 08:04:43 PM
Is there an option to rescue downed aviators with subs or is this poetic license.  Either way its a damn good read

Con

Thanks Con. In this case it's poetic license on my part, though Gunner98 (the scenario creator) has incorporated SAR missions like this into some of his other scenarios.

Con

Interesting. I wonder what the official USN sub protocol is for rescuing aviators from certain death. I suspect that the downed pilots are royally screwed since a sub is such an important asset and giving up its stealth to surface in a shooting zone would be a big no no.


Airborne Rifles

With the US air groups back aboard their carriers and the surviving Russian pilots back at their bases, the battle off the southern coast of Iceland settled into a late morning lull. The US electronic surveillance aircraft and jammers remained aloft, as did the CAPs for the two carriers. The Russians, with the heart ripped out of their air regiments based on the southwest peninsula, opted to keep their aircraft on the ground until another threat materialized.

Aboard Ike, the CAGs biggest concern was the carrier's stocks of air-to-air munitions. Many had been expended fending off the Su-27s the night before, and the fighters in the sweep against southwest peninsula had expended even more. Eisenhower's magazines had enough ordnance for one more battle of the type the combined air groups had just fought, after which Ike would be down to the bare minimum stocks necessary to safeguard the carrier against air attack. Vinson's air group, who had not taken part in the previous night's jousting, was in better shape, with enough ordnance for at least two more maximum efforts.

The carriers were in much better shape in terms of aviation fuel. After the flattops had launched the first sweep, the oilers Supply and Detroit had pulled up even and run fuel lines across. Striking Fleet Atlantic had mandated that these valuable support vessels not operate above the sixty degree northing, and with both battle groups approaching this line the carriers' commanders elected to suck as much avgas out of these vessels as possible before sending them south. The carriers would continue north to close the distance their fighters would need to cover in the next two missions. With the fuel transfer now complete, the commander of the Vinson CVBG detached his Canadian ships to escort the supply south, while Ike's detached the nuclear powered cruiser USS Virginia long with two Perry-class frigates to escort the Detroit. Both battle groups continued to steam north, angling towards each other to improve their mutual support.

The initiative of the battle in the north Atlantic had now passed decisively to NATO with the losses they had inflicted on the Soviet air forces in Iceland earlier in the day. Now the Americans pressed their advantage. Just before noon, the second sweep of the day began to launch from both carriers, which had not closed to within three hundred miles of the island.

The plan for the midday sweep differed from that conducted earlier. The first mission had concentrated both of the carriers' air groups in one massive punch against the Soviet air wings based around Keflavik and Reykjavik. In this mission, Vinson's pilots would continue to put pressure on the survivors of southwestern air regiments, while Eisenhower's fighters would push up towards the Soviet dispersal field at Hornafjordur, on the south-central coast of Iceland, to try to draw out whatever Soviets were there.

The Americans opted not to repeat their earlier tactic of launching decoys and cruise missiles against the Soviet ground defenses. The magazines only held a limited number of the TALD decoys, and the battle groups would require these and as many Tomahawks as they could hoard in order to dismantle the Soviet SAM defenses tomorrow. Instead, a half squadron of Ike's fighters, composed of both F-14s and F/A-18s, configured themselves into something resembling a strike formation and went to low altitude, making for Hornafjordur. Further south, a pair of EA-6Bs continued to provide EW support to the sweep.

The Soviet fighter regiment at Hornafjordur was composed entirely of older MiG-23s, some of which were airborne over central Iceland at the start of this latest attack. As the American formation crossed to within radar detection range of the Soviet A-50 Mainstays orbiting over northern Iceland, the Russian controllers vectored these towards the Americans. The Russian pilots knew they were outclassed, particularly after the stunning defeat of their first-line fighters a few hours before, but with their airfield under threat the Soviet pilots had no choice but to engage.

Soon the controllers aboard the E-2C directing this eastern part of the battle called to report multiple bogeys approaching from central Iceland and many more rising from the runway at Hornafjordur. Soon the Soviets had put a respectable force of Floggers into the air, and these flew out over the water to meet the American strike. A word from the controllers aboard the Hawkeye prompted the American pilots to begin ascending to meet their adversaries.

The Americans fired first. AIM-7 Sparrows lanced out from the American F-14s in the formation as they passed through twenty thousand feet. At that moment, the Russians played the one card they had left. Hornafjordur airport was defended by a battalion of SA-20 SAMS. The battalion's commander had kept his radars on standby until American aircraft entered his missiles' engagement envelope. That had now happened. The Soviet radar operators energized their systems and locked onto the ascending Americans. In seconds, the multiple missiles rose into the cold arctic sky from the battalion's launchers.

Now the Americans were in a difficult spot. More than a dozen MiG-23s were approaching from the north and northeast, while SA-20 missiles were streaking in from the direction of Hornafjordur. With their RWRs screaming into their ears, the Tomcat crews now had to decide whether to play chicken with the SAMs in order to keep their Sparrows on target, or break off and evade while abandoning the missiles they had launched. The Americans opted for the latter option.

The Americans dove for the deck, trying to put the curvature of the earth between themselves and the ground-based radars that were guiding the SA-20s to them. Robbed of their radar guidance, the American AIM-7s failed to guide to their targets and became a non-factor. The maneuver paid off, however. As the American jets dropped down to below a thousand feet, the radars at Hornafjordur lost them, and the Soviet missiles lost their lock as well.

Now, however, the US Navy fliers were in something of a fix. They were down at low altitude, unable to ascend for fear of the SA-20s, with an ever-increasing number of MiG-23s bearing down on them. The Americans turned south and fled over the water, screaming for support from the rest of the fighters of the sweep. The help wasn't long in coming. AIM-54s Phoenixes, fired by supporting Tomcats to the south, began to tear into the Soviet formation as they drew closer to the fleeing American jets, then American Sparrows began to do the same. Finally, once the initial group of American jets had cleared the projected radius of the SA-20s, the F/A-18s turned about. Once their radars had picked up the approaching Soviets, the Hornet drivers began targeting and launching their AMRAAMs as quickly as they could shit between contacts. Once all their missiles were in the air, the Hornet drivers winged over once again and dove for the deck.

More and more missiles smashed into the Floggers. Broken jets tumbled from the sky, and still the Russians' radars could not lock onto the American aircraft through the electronic haze thrown out by the distant EA-6Bs. The Soviets' fleeting advantage created by the SA-20 ambush was developing into yet another disaster. In minutes, AMRAAMs, Phoenixes, and Sparrows had nearly annihilated the fighter regiment based at Hornafjordur, and those American pilots who still had missiles oriented to the northwest to engage the tattered remains of Soviet airpower that was now approaching the south central coast from the bases on the southwestern peninsula. 

Gunner98

Fantastic read as always AR.  Thanks for another write up on Northern Fury.

I think I'll need to go back and put some A2A missiles on those AOE's so the flat tops can restock while filling the AVGAS tanks - they're going to need it :knuppel2:

B

Airborne Rifles

Quote from: Con on January 14, 2017, 08:52:37 PM
Interesting. I wonder what the official USN sub protocol is for rescuing aviators from certain death. I suspect that the downed pilots are royally screwed since a sub is such an important asset and giving up its stealth to surface in a shooting zone would be a big no no.

Con, I honestly don't know the answer to that. I'm an Army guy, but if the Navy views their people like we do then they would go to great hazard to save downed pilots and not abandon them to the elements. Since the Americans have air superiority over this part of the ocean, it would be relatively safe for the subs to surface briefly for the rescue.

Airborne Rifles

Quote from: Gunner98 on January 15, 2017, 07:58:20 AM
Fantastic read as always AR.  Thanks for another write up on Northern Fury.

I think I'll need to go back and put some A2A missiles on those AOE's so the flat tops can restock while filling the AVGAS tanks - they're going to need it :knuppel2:

B

That would be a huge help! The biggest challenge for this scenario was managing the weapons expenditures. You blow through missile pretty fast shooting down dozens of Soviet jets.

Airborne Rifles

The Soviet survivors of the first sweep against the southwest peninsula had opted not to repeat their mistake of engaging the Americans to the south. After taking on to meet the new American threat, they had remained loitering to the north of Reykjavik and Keflavik, waiting for the American fighters of the Carl Vinson air group to come to them. As the American fliers would not risk their jets against the dense SAM defenses that the Soviets had set up over this part of Iceland, the aerial battle to the west never materialized.

Instead, what few Russian jets that did manage to rise from the two main airfields turned east and flew towards Hornafjordur to assist their comrades over the central coast. But after having the formations gutted earlier in the morning, the Soviet showing was pathetic. A few flights of MiG-29s and -31s came out from the protection of their SAM defenses to try to engage the rampaging American fighters from Ike, but the results of these tentative jabs was several more downed Soviet first-line aircraft. In exchange the Russian pilots only managed to shoot down a single additional F-14.

What finally forced the American fighter pilots to withdraw from the central coast was not so much Soviet resistance as the depletion of their long-range missiles. The naval aviators, dashing in to launch their weapons and then withdrawing to clear the airspace for their comrades, were now almost entirely down to short-ranged Sidewinder missiles, and another well-organized Soviet squadron of MiG-23s was coming down from their dispersal field at Akureyri on Iceland's north coast. While these older jets had so far proven to be no match for the more modern American fighters, they did carry the R-27 (AA-10 Alamo) missiles that far outranged the AIM-9s. The Americans would have liked to bring Vinson's air group, which had encountered no opposition in the earlier kill zone south of Keflavik, around to the east for support, but these jets lacked the fuel for this maneuver.

Instead, Ike's CAG, controlling the fight from a seat aboard one of the E-2Cs from the south, decided that his air group had done as much as they could in this sweep. They would deal with the fighters out of Akureyri on the next and final sweep of the day. Obeying orders, the Eisenhower's squadrons turned their noses south for home, leaving the skies above central Iceland tenuously in the hands of the Soviet pilots, who had not lost upwards of one hundred fifty of their number in a day of brutal aerial combat.

As both carriers recovered their respective aircraft, the tired deck crews immediately began working to prepare the jets for a third surge at the end of the day. Onboard Eisenhower, the major concern was an acute shortage of all air-to-air munitions other than AIM-9 Sidewinders. Because of this, Vinson's group would have to bear the brunt of the final sweep. In a brief radio conversation, the two CAGs of the respective air groups discussed a gap that had presented itself in the Soviet SAM defenses that could allow the American fighters to actually dominate the skies over Iceland itself. They hatched a combined plan to exploit this weakness, and then went to their ready rooms to finalize it with their squadron officers. Meanwhile, the rest of the pilots were debriefed and then released to rest and eat some chow. They had a mere two hours before they needed to be in their ready rooms to receive the briefing for their third mission of the day.

Sir Slash

One Hundred and fifty fighters downed? Looks like the taxes in the U.S.S.R. will be going up. A whole lot.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

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