Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

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ColonelMolerat
Posts: 479
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:36 am

Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

Post by ColonelMolerat »

So, after playing and playing and playing a particular scenario (I'll 'spoiler' it at the bottom), I finally completed it, and wanted to ask people's thoughts and tips on AAW defense against large, long-range bomber strikes.

I'm a little concerned that I played that mission so many times, I won more thanks to knowing the enemy's exact tactics than to developing my own versatile tactics. I suspect I could have won the mission more easily if I had truly 'gamed' it, and played based around exactly what I knew was going to happen, but I try to play each mission as though it's a real situation unfolding before me.

The main problem I ran into was having a large number of planes in the air on AAW patrol, a long way from base, led to huge refuelling queues, and refueling at inappropriate moments (just as the enemy was approaching), as well as arriving on patrol and needing to refuel straight away. (Some of this may be made easier when the update comes out, but mostly it's just difficult to organise!).

The tactic that finally won it for me was having only a two or three of planes on AAW, a loooong way from base, accompanied by AEW and tanker assets. All of my other planes were at base, waiting to be scrambled when an enemy was spotted. The planes in the air could warn of attack and maybe take down a couple of attackers, as well as being far forwards enough that the interceptors could arrive with enough time to fight before the bombers could launch.

I wonder if this tactic is the most sensible though - even a relatively small group of fighters could attack and I'd likely lose my valuable tankers and AEW planes before my defences could scramble. Even worse, if that happened, then the enemy waited an hour or so before sending in their large bomber group, my scrambled fighters would have to return to base to refuel, leaving a huge hole in my defences.

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SPOILER:
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The mission was Northern Inferno, Fox Two - a HUGE fleet of TU-25 Bears, with 310nm-range nukes, arrive to turn Scotland into porridge)
p1t1o
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:35 am

RE: Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

Post by p1t1o »

Hi.
I found the bomber assault overwhelming in this one as well. My one tip would be, instead of maintaining a persistant long range CAP, using your forces as ground based interceptors works a lot better, and makes sense in terms of reacting to an unknown threat. In just isn't possible with the resources present noted to maintain a strong enough permanent CAP. I'm not sure exactly how this tactic compares to the real world, but it does seem to match up with certain things I have heard of. The lightning is a classic interceptor for example and the RAF routinely scrambles ground based aircraft even today, a long range CAP seems not to be the go-to defence regime.

So in my second play through, I kept a minimal 4ship cap, to protect against minor threats from Iceland, the rest waited on the ground.
I sent AEW pickets out as far as I dared to pick up any strikes asap.
I also brought up the other 2 victors and established a refuelling post.
The moment I first detected any jamming far up north I scrambled a large force of phantoms, keeping the lightning's back.
The pha toms took on some fuel above the Shetlands and proceeded to intercept as far north as possible.
The rest played through as you'd expect, in fact the lightning's were practically unneeded.
It still makes sense in realism terms to play this way. Intelligence was solid about an incoming strike, it is known that it will come in force so reacting in this way is still a flexible response under these conditions.
Wiz33
Posts: 148
Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 8:00 pm

RE: Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

Post by Wiz33 »

That is the traditional methods for protecting a CVBG from Backfire strike. You have one or two AEW a couple hundred miles from the CV on a possible threat vector, attended by a couple pairs of fighters that would be another ~100 miles further out. Then you have the alert fighters spotted on deck ready for intercept. IRL, aircraft require many hours on maintenance after each flight so you would not want to have a squadron flying continuously.
ColonelMolerat
Posts: 479
Joined: Wed Sep 23, 2015 10:36 am

RE: Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

Post by ColonelMolerat »

Ah, ok. Up until this mission, I'd been sending a large flight on AAW patrol as soon as there was worry of a threat (ie, as soon as the mission starts, in a case like this). They were using the 1/3 rule, but it was still difficult organising it all.

This mission made me rethink all of that! That's something I'm liking about Northern Inferno - most of the missions are making me make big changes to my normal (sub-par) tactics.
JamesHunt
Posts: 201
Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 6:22 am

RE: Tactics? AAW defence against large bomber raids

Post by JamesHunt »

ORIGINAL: p1t1o

Hi.
I found the bomber assault overwhelming in this one as well. My one tip would be, instead of maintaining a persistant long range CAP, using your forces as ground based interceptors works a lot better, and makes sense in terms of reacting to an unknown threat. In just isn't possible with the resources present noted to maintain a strong enough permanent CAP. I'm not sure exactly how this tactic compares to the real world, but it does seem to match up with certain things I have heard of. The lightning is a classic interceptor for example and the RAF routinely scrambles ground based aircraft even today, a long range CAP seems not to be the go-to defence regime.

So in my second play through, I kept a minimal 4ship cap, to protect against minor threats from Iceland, the rest waited on the ground.
I sent AEW pickets out as far as I dared to pick up any strikes asap.
I also brought up the other 2 victors and established a refuelling post.
The moment I first detected any jamming far up north I scrambled a large force of phantoms, keeping the lightning's back.
The pha toms took on some fuel above the Shetlands and proceeded to intercept as far north as possible.
The rest played through as you'd expect, in fact the lightning's were practically unneeded.
It still makes sense in realism terms to play this way. Intelligence was solid about an incoming strike, it is known that it will come in force so reacting in this way is still a flexible response under these conditions.
Thank you very helpful.

MOD: Use PMs for this please.
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