Atlantic Convoy Duty, 1985

[SeaQueen]

I love this scenario. It's a classic fleet air defense scenario they built the F-14 for, with Backfire bombers striking from over the horizon.

For my initial set up, I set up four CAPs centered about 215 NM out from the carrier along the primary threat axis which I take to be somewhere roughly in the center of the Norwegian Sea (about the average position of each of the Soviet bomber bases). The 215 NM distance corresponds to the maximum range of the AS-4 Kitchen. I filled each station with a section of F-14s in a 4x2x2 configurations (4 Phoenix, 2 Sidewinders, 2 Sparrow). The idea is that I want to turn the Tomcats loose on the bombers and destroy them before they launch. Every bomber shot down is worth 2 missiles. Behind the F-14s, I set up the A-7s loaded only with Sidewinders and guns to sponge up whatever leakers manage to make it through. In the event that something tries to sneak around, I created two additional sets of four patrols on either side of primary threat axis, slightly overlapping the edges of the primary threat axis prosecution areas, but did't fill them. The idea is that if I need to, I can pivot around to those stations should I need to. Those are backed by similar stations for the A-7s. Behind the A-7s CAPs, I put an AWACS orbit for a Hawkeye, and a tanker orbit behind that. All my A-6s besides two are configured as tankers, and I'd put the last two in tanker configurations if it'd let me. It won't, so I left them alone with the Harpoons. The point of this scenario is to defend, not attack, but if I run across anything I might take a pot shot at it. The KA-6s also are tasked for tanking. Off along the primary threat axis is an orbit for jamming aircraft which I filled with a single EA-6.

That's the outer air battle. For the inner air battle, I decided that I can accept a little more risk to my carrier and a little less risk to the convoy, by detaching an FFG and a CG and adding them to that formation. I set those about 2 NM out from the convoy center along the primary threat axis. That adds a layer of SM-2s and SM-1s to protect my convoy, beyond the ASW oriented old Knox FFs.

For WRA, I did a quick calculation on my spreadsheet (one should never play the game without one opened) and decided that shooting 2 missiles at an AS-4 yielded an insufficient Pk / engagement for me, so I set it to shoot 3. That gets my Pk / engagement up to at least 90%. My theory is that if I shoot 3 I'll be more likely to knock a missile down at the first engagement and less likely to shoot total of 4 in two engagements. That ought to lead to lower overall missile consumption and better survivability. I also set the engagement range to ~2/3s max range for each of my SAM systems, as well as the Phoenix and Sparrow missiles. That'll mean they have plenty of energy to maneuver when attacking the dodgy high performance bombers.

That tells me where to put my ASW screens. I position Knox FFs well inside the SM-1/2 SAM bubble of the convoy, about 12NM out from the front of the convoy in a nice row. I do similarly with the Spruance DDs in the CV's formation. I'm a little less worried about keeping the Spruances in close because they have their Sea Sparrows. All platforms are active with their sonars and radars. I don't have any illusions that I'll go undetected for long. Surface ships simply aren't very sneaky platforms. The one advantage surface ships do have over submarines is speed, though, so I set them all to clip along at a brisk 15 kts. Hopefully, that'll limit who can intercept my convoy and carrier. In front of the ASW screens I put set any available Seasprite helos to ASW patrols in front of their respective formations. In front of those helos, I set up another area for the S-3s to patrol. In the CV's formation I set up an additional layer for the Sea Kings to do a dipping sonar barrier in front of the carrier between the surface screens and itself. Now, any approaching submarine has to make it through at least 2 layers of aircraft before being able to attack a single surface combatant and physically can't get within range of the convoy without passing within weapons range of at least one surface combatant, assuming it makes it past the ASW aircraft.

With all that thinking done, I pushed the "play" button.

Shortly my aloft Hawkeye detected an ingressing Soviet Bear reconnaissance aircraft, probably looking to relay targeting information. He was quickly shot down by an F-14. Not far behind comes the first attack; a regiment of Badger bombers. With that, I launch a second Hawkeye to better cover my task force, and more tankers. I want to keep those fighters in the air as long as I can. Next, I launch a second section of F-14s to cover each CAP for a total of 4 F-14s at each CAP. By the time I'd detected the bombers, the first set was getting low on gas, and I didn't want them hitting the tankers and leaving their CAPs gapped while there were bombers ingressing. With two sets, they'll rotate between the CAPs and the tankers, hopefully not leaving any holes in the wall I'd built. The first wave of Badgers was quickly shot down with no missiles launched.

After a brief pause where I rearmed and refueled my Tomcats on deck, the aloft Hawkeyes detected a second wave of bombers inbound. This time it was tougher; two regiments of bombers attacking on multiple axis. I'd have to take advantage of my Eastern CAPs in addition to the ones along the primary threat axis. The problem is that I don't have enough Tomcats to keep them all filled! As the second wave of Badgers entered my primary CAPs, some Tomcats remained unengaged. I redirected them to the off axis CAPs and was able to shoot down a portion of the ingressing Backfire bombers before they fired their missiles. Sadly, those Tomcats quickly winchestered out and the Backfires were able to get close enough to fire their missiles. The A-7s did their job, whittling down the inbound leakers further. With all my Tomcats now rearming and refueling on the deck, revenge fell to the A-7s, which I directed to form a wall to prevent the Backfire's escape. More Backfires fell as the ASCMs moved into SAM range, but others got through and headed home.

The detached CG did its job well, knocking down the ingressing leakers against the convoy and its screens. The Spruances with the carrier defended themselves. My idea, about shooting an extra missile to get the Pk / engagement above 0.9 leading to decreased over all weapons expenditures seems to be bearing fruit. The last time I played this scenario, my cruisers both exhausted their magazines. Total expenditures: 8 SM-2s and 23 Sea Sparrows. The Sea Sparrow numbers were driven by a single DD. Things got a little tight with an inbound ASCM and he let fly. In the end no ships hit. I'll call that a win.

After the multi-axis raid, I reconstituted my original CAPs along the threat axis. By this time, though, I'd begun to run into the submarine barriers. Most of them never made it past the MPA and the one that did was struck by the helos. I never had to fire a single ASROC.

The final Badger raid was a single axis attack, right into my primary CAPs. While a lot of my Tomcats were still on the deck, I was still able to keep enough in the air to knock them down without any missiles getting off.

End of mission: No ships lost. A couple S-3s and helos ran out of gas and crashed, but those were my only losses. I need to look into what happened there.

This scenario is interesting in the way it really amounts to a numbers game. It's all about keeping enough aircraft in the air at any given time to knock down the ingressing bombers before they can shoot their ASCMs. One of the things I'm thinking about to make it a little easier is to set up 3 CAPs instead of 4 along each axis in order to free up some fighters that I could then put on alert. 4 didn't seem to do badly, though. The Soviet bombers are so far out, they have no fighter cover, so it's basically suicide. They're gambling that they can overwhelm the carrier's CAPs and catch them while most of their fighters are on the deck. Then fire off more missiles than you can possibly shoot down with SAMs alone. If you can keep your airplanes in the air and in the right places to intercept, you've won, because the bombers are unprotected.

The submarines weren't really much of a threat in this scenario. I'm thinking I might go into it and rethink how they're operating. There's not any sense that they're coordinating or that there's an operational concept behind them. They're just kind of thrown in there for ceremonial purposes. I'm thinking I want to go in and redo that portion of the scenario.

[Gunner98]

Great AAR SeaQueen.

How much time was there between the three bomber strikes? I'm suspecting that if all 4 Regts had hit you at once from multiple angles the story would be different as well.

An Oscar from the opposite direction would also make things interesting.

Its been years since I played this one, need to take another look.

B

[SeaQueen]

ORIGINAL: Gunner98
How much time was there between the three bomber strikes? I'm suspecting that if all 4 Regts had hit you at once from multiple angles the story would be different as well.

That's an interesting point. With two regiments coming along different axis, I could barely handle them. I think the Soviet tactic in this scenario was that the first raid was to get you to exhaust your missiles, then the big raid comes while you're stuck with planes on the deck. The fourth was just a follow on drive a nail in the coffin. If all of them arrived at once I'm certain I'd have shot down a lot of them, but there'd have been a lot of leakers as well. Could my SAMs defend adequately? I don't know. It'd be interesting to redo the scenario with a revised Soviet tactic.

An Oscar from the opposite direction would also make things interesting.

I'm thinking less along those lines and more like a better sense of how SSGNs and SSNs could compliment each other. I felt like their approach speeds were way too high. They basically were compromising their positions to get close. No sub captain should be so over-eager! There wasn't a sense that the torpedo shooters were closing in at the same time as ASCM shooters were letting fly. It was more of a one-after-another sort of thing. I'm going to definitely take a look at this one and rethink it.

[mikkey]

Nice AAR, thanks SeaQueen!