Kuril Islands 1999

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p1t1o
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:35 am

Kuril Islands 1999

Post by p1t1o »


Have attempted this scenario several times, with varying degrees of success. One of the main obstacles is a "Grumble" SAM site near the closest enemy AB, capable of shooting down a stunning amount of incoming ordnance and with strong air cover from the AB, renders direct attack of the airfield extremely difficult without tremendous waste, and aircraft from the AB strongly threaten any air operations in the vicinity.

Attacking the airfield or the SAM site with tomahawks results in a very large proportion being intercepted with no guarantee that the few remaining will have the intended effect. The same goes for the limited number of HARMS and HARM-platforms available and none are loaded at the start except for your 4 prowlers which only carry one. Assault with other AG weapons on the airfield is almost impossible due to the strength of air cover and that damn SAM site.

So in this last attempt I have decided that I will concentrate on defensive air operations and operations to deplete their air force (Offensive CAPs) whilst I wait for my smaller surface group to approach to gun range, where it should be able to shell the airfield and SAM site with relative impunity...if it makes it that far...

I almost always merge the two little 3-ship fleets that you get at the start into a 6-ship formation. The little fleet almost always gets tagged by the enemy first and recieves the brunt of their naval missile assault, and this time was no exception. From the CVBG, two very large salvos, one of shipwrecks and the other of sandbox/shaddock-type weapons, and from submarines two further salvos of shipwrecks. With help from F16 CAPs within range, the little 6-ship fleet very impressively makes it through the onslaught totally unscathed - mainly due to the salvos being launched seperately, if just 2 or more salvos arrived at the same time it would be a different story. Still I am always impressed by the little ships' extremely impressive anti-missile capability (though by the end you are left without very much left in the way of ammunition, and down to short range sea sparrows.

As for the air battle, first thing was first, send the 2 B2s North to raid the other enemy AB where they keep their long range bombers. With 16 1000lb JDAMs apiece, they are targetted on the runways and access points, with excess ammo targetted on ammo dumps. The flight takes about a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, all 15 F16s at our AB are tasked with defensive CAP in the space surrounding the airfield the sea area nearby, up to where the Grumble SAMs threat area. These aircraft help with shooting down incoming missile salvoes aimed at my small fleet, and also land a hand in the offensive air operations from the CVBG where necessary.

I found that alpha strikes on the airfield very costly, even with jamming support. The enemy has plentiful MiG29s, Su27s and MiG 31s, with around 10-15 aircraft in the air at any one time...and that damn SAM site. Impossible to strike the airfield, the SAM site shoots down HARMS and very few strike aircraft survive, those that do often do not make it back. The nearby enemy carrier group has so far fielded Su33s in its defence, although Im wary of any strike wings which may be on board. Su33s and MiG31s occasionally attempt intercepts in 2-ships, and other offensive actions involving other types often come in groups of 6-8.

What I have been doing this time around is sending in waves of F14s (4-6 aircraft) to lob AIM54 Phoenixes from long range into the fray. This way I have been able to maintain a very high kill/loss ratio.

As for ASW - This has been problematic. There is at least one missile-armed SSGN out there, given away by its/their missile launches. Unfortunately, dispite my best attempts, the contacts are too close to enemy air cover for any of my patrol aircraft to survive for long. Luckily I have not suffered many losses here as I have good radar coverage and have been able to pull them back when the enemy attempts to intercept, but I cannot get them enough time over the patrol zones to get the subs. So I have pulled in all my ASW craft and am waiting out the air battle first, and relying on shipboard sonar+weapons.

That is the state-of-play at the moment - a ASM-depleted enemy CVBG approaching, B2s struck the bomber AB (success unknown so far), almost all F16s and F14s are on the ground/boat for rearming. My CVBG is still inbound at flank and my other smaller fleet is advancing up the coastline towards the enemy AB. I may bring them out into the water ahead of the carrier to hunt those subs if the enemy carrier group does not approach too close - Im still wary that it may have Sunburns on board with 70nm range. Im also not too confident that the harpoons I carry (roughly 20 aboard each fleet) will be enough to deal much damage to the enemy fleet...but I'll see what I can do about that later.

Anyhoo, I should be able to conclude the scenario this eve.
p1t1o
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:35 am

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by p1t1o »

Unfortunately I could only get back to this scenario in little dribs and drabs over the last few days, but I'll try and relate as much as I can remember...

First off, the B2 strike was not successful, about an hour after the strike, I started getting spikes from Tu22M contacts coming down from the north, a great many of them. I braced for an assault but none was forthcoming...for the moment.
Most of my air assets are being refuelled and re-armed, however the cat-and-mouse game of "can I tag that sub contact before they come get me" is continuing, it gets easier as my carrier group gets closer to the contact. I have a hard read on the sub now from shipboard sonar and eventually I am able to drop on him from S3 Vikings (periodically having to retreat them whilst a brace of F14s chase away any threat)although it takes more than one sortie to drop enough torps to sink him (an Oscar). I feel like the Oscar wanted to approach close enough for a radar contact for the orbitting Tu22s - I still have their spikes wandering around north of the enemy CVBG.

At this point my smaller fleet is converging on my own CVBG, I figure they are stronger together, especially since the smaller fleet is heavily depleted missile-wise after repelling those earlier ASM volleys, as the smaller fleet converges, it will also sweep the area ahead of my main fleet for subs. Lucky thing two as an Akula was lurking around and got pinged by the shipboard sonar, couple of Helo sorties later and he is gone.

As F14s and F16s come back on-line, I continue the offensive air war, depleting the enemy air force slowly but surely, my better AAMs and judicious use of Prowler ECM keep my kill/loss ratio high.

As the two main fleets converge, I pass through the range rings of several types of enemy ASM, weathering their volleys without a scratch. The more modern soviet missiles are a threat, but the ones they have left over now are easily handled by the Aegis system - even the supersonic, sea-skimming Sunburn missiles are not able to overwhelm my outer defenses.
It is during this series of volleys when the Tu22Ms finally make their play and launch - I assume because I crcossed into enemy surface radar coverage, it turns out they have been topping off from a nearby tanker and waiting me out. None of those missiles make it through either. I launch 4 F14s around the back of the enemy fleet to engage the Tu22 flock, they do not get there in time to stop any missiles from launching but they do down 8 or so bombers.
Another event is the launch of a large grouping of MiG29Ks from the enemy carrier, supported by Su33s and a coordinated grouping of land-based Su24 Fencers. These missiles do not pose much threat either, but I am unable to score very many kills against them as the Su33s keep what few air assets I currently have available busy.

The next event is my own Harpoon volleys. The main weakness of the enemy has so far been the lack of coordination in missile strikes. Even the more obsolescent weapons, if they all arrived in one group, could have posed a significant threat. My main fleet carries ~40 Harpoons and the smaller fleet ~25. I fire ~30 weapons from the main fleet and add ~15 to it as the salvo flies over the smaller fleet. Targetting the grouping of ships surrounding the Kuznetsov, mainly on BOL trajectories.



Several escorts are sunk, but several "heavies" remain. My smaller fleet had some Japanese IR-guided ASMs which were surprisingly effective, I think their more stealthy approach makes them less vulnerable to defenses and they also had an effective search pattern (BOLs). If I had forseen that I would have chosen heavier targets for them but as it was they were used to sink a small group out outer-picket ships.
I use the remaining ASMs I have to cause as much damage as possible to the remaining ships. Seveeral survive, but there is enough damage spread around that the enemy fleet is by now almost completely mission-killed. The carrier attempts to launch the odd aircraft, but they are too close now and are tagged by my SAMs or orbiting F14s very quickly.

I approach to gun range and finish a few small escorts and have a crack at sinking the Kuznetsov. He is still afloat after taking a stupid number of 127mm shells...

I disengage and set course for the vicinity of the land-based airbase. My own land-base sends a group of Orions to finish a few stragglers as well.

Approaching the enemy AB it is clear that they must have almost no aircraft left as the skies are suspiciously clear. With heavy jamming support I test the air with a few Tomahawks.
Mud-Spike! Their SAM emplacements are definitely still there, however the jamming at this range, unfettered by enemy air, appears to be effective as the missiles get all the way through to their targets.
At this point I remove the SAM threats with approx 10-20 more tomahawks (expensive, but effective) and just for kicks, send the rest up North to the still-intact bomber base.
Then it was simply a case of "What gound attack assets do I have?" and throwing them at the nearby AB. Once those aircraft have unloaded and RTBd and the Tomahawks have struck I foigure that I have air and sea superiority and that there is no more enemy threat. As it turns out, I did not need to engage any land based targetes with naval gunnery, however, if it came to that, it would have been effective at clearing the SAMs away as I originally intended. Scenario concludes.

Lessons:
Coordinating missile salvoes is easier with BOLs, as they do not apparently suffer from OODA-loop limitations, they fire immediately. Firing on a set target means that missiles can all have different OODA-delays, spreading out the launch timings and diluting the salvo.

Airbases can be robust! It appears to me that you must Identify a weak point (runway access points, ammo or runways?) and put everything you have into just destroying/damaging those as much as possible. Do not spread your weapons across any other targets (hardened aircraft shelters) unless your objective is to kill aircraft on the ground, rather than close down the AB.

Jam Jam Jam!!!
Zaslon
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:52 am

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by Zaslon »

Nice AAR dude!
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magi
Posts: 1533
Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:06 am

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by magi »

Cool....
msinnot1
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:43 pm

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by msinnot1 »

Great AAR! It was both enjoyable and informative. Thanks for sharing. Now, for a "dumb" question... Is the Scenario title "Kuril Islands 1999" or is it listed as something else? I looked in the most recent community pack and the standard scenarios but could not locate it. Can you provide a link to the scenario file?
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mikkey
Posts: 3173
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 1:04 pm
Location: Slovakia

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by mikkey »

MikeSinn, Kuril Island scenario is part of the Community Scenario Pack.
msinnot1
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:43 pm

RE: Kuril Islands 1999

Post by msinnot1 »

Well, I'll be.... I thought I had the most current scenario pack but I see now that another was released recently. Thanks for the pointer. Going off to download now
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