New scenario for testing: Operation von Buxhoeveden, Russian attack on Finland and Sweden 2021

[Anzu]

Hello

This is the first scenario I have ever made for CMO, so I would be very happy if you could test it out and provide some feedback before I upload it to Steam. I would particularly like to hear your thoughts on the scope, the events and the scoring, as this is the part I have the least experience with.

I have tried to make the setup as close to correct and realistic as humanly possible, and kept tinkering on the setups for several hundred hours. The setup is as close the correct for the date as I have been able to find using OSINT. The DB is updated to v.488, but quite a few units have still been tweeked manually or incorporated from other countries's OOBs.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Anzu
-------------------------------------
Operation von Buxhoeveden - Russian Attack on Finland and Sweden, 2021

Date: Jan 6th 2021
Location: Northern Europe
Playable Side: Finland or Sweden (against Russia)
Duration: 24 Hours


During the autumn of 2020 the political situation in Europe grew more and more unstable.

After Alexander Lukashenko declared himself winner of the Belarusian elections the Belarus people refused to accept the result, citing massive electoral fraud. Russia however reluctantly gave its full support to the regime. This, together with a nerve agent poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, resulted in limited EU sanctions towards politicians in both Russia and Belarus.

Meanwhile, NATO was distracted in the Mediterranean Sea by a dispute over prospecting rights for natural gas between the two NATO countries Turkey and Greece, with France openly taking the side of Greece.


-On the 25th of September the Russian Navy corvette 311 Kazanets collided with a Swiss-owned cargo ship in the Öresund strait between Sweden and Denmark. Both ships sustained hull damage above the water line, but could limp back to their respective ports without further damage.

The incident occured on Swedish territorial waters with the Russian AIS transponder switched off and the Swedish Government lodged a stern protest to the Kremlin. The Kremlin denied all responsibility, claiming the right of free passage through the strait, but the situation deteriorated further when the Swedish Government announced an increased military budget.



-On the 21st of October, during a joint Finnish-Swedish mine clearing exercise in the Finnish archipelago the Swedish MCM vessel HMS Ulvön detected a naval mine on the sea floor inside Finnish territorial waters. Officially the mine was classified as a WWI contact mine, but in reality the mine was recognized as a Russian MDM-6 modern bottom mine that only could have been laid by a modern submarine.

The situation was silenced by the Finnish and Swedish Governments to not further provoke the volatile situation, but covertly some preparations were put in place, such as snap exercises for the Swedish Navy and Air Force and further mine clearing exercises in Finland.

Germany, to protect their relations with Russia, strained by the Navalny poisoning and the incompletion of the controversial Nordstream 2 gas pipe in the Baltic, through diplomatic dispatches reported that they would not take any side a crisis not directly involving them.

NATO, led by the Pentagon, reported that since neither Finland nor Sweden were members, they could not take any part, except to defend member territory against incursion or direct attack. At the same time the major European power: the UK, France, Italy and Spain, though sympatethic, were too preoccupied with the Corona epidemic and Brexit fallout to give any more than tacit support.


-On the early morning of the 2nd of November the Swedish Navy ordered performed an un-announced readiness control where the 3rd and 4th Naval Warfare Flotillas were ordered to sea to perform enhanced sea surveillance. The 311th Missile unit also grouped for anti-shipping. A few days later most ships returned to harbour.

-On the 3rd of November Joseph R. Biden defeated Donald J. Trump in the US presidential election, with neither party gaining control of the Senate. The sitting POTUS however refused to accept the result and launched a series of law suits and obstructions. Even if the all the court cases have failed, they have delayed the peaceful transfer of the administration and distracted the US from all European escalation.

-On the evening of the 4th of January (two days ago) the Swedish Navy reconnaissance ship HMS Orion was struck by a mine outside of Karlskrona naval base, while returning from a mission monitoring Russian naval exercises off Kaliningrad. The damage was extensive and only the close proximity to the base and tug assistance kept the ship from being lost. The Russians again have denied any responsibility but the Swedish Defence Forces have been put on high alert.

-On the 5th of January (yesterday), the US State of Georgia held a run-off for the US Senate, with the two senators being the deciding factor for controlling the Senate and the Congress as a whole. The results have not yet been confirmed, but they will likely be very close. Also, later today the Congress will vote to confirm Joe Biden as president. Sitting President Trump has however woved to challenge this transition and a large protest in support of Trump has been planned outside the Capitol, with some signs of possible violence. These events will likely be the attention of the media of America and the World for the next few days and weeks.


-At 06:14 this morning (about five hours ago) an Aeroflot Il-96-300 from Murmansk to St Petersburg sent a Mayday about engine trouble and started an emergency landing towards Kajaani Airport. When emergency response units on the field tried to assist the plane on the apron they were attacked and killed by heavily armed men in unmarked uniforms, but were able to alert authorities through VIRVE, the state security communications network.

A Russian escalation is now expected at any time.



[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

-I have tried to set up the different Orders of Battle and the situation as realistically as possible can be done from open sources, but in some situations just used what was available. Unfortunatly, some types of equipment (particularly for the Finnish Army) are not available in the database, so I have extrapolated a bit according to existing chassis and mounts, combining some to create otherwise unavailable combinations.

-Many parts of the situation described above were real events that did take place during the last year, but some obviously are fictional.

-The troops on vacation in Greenland and Siberia are event units that may or may not be teleported in if certain triggers are met, so ignore them until that.

-The title of the Operation is named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden, the Russian Commander-in-Chief during the Finish War of 1808-09 where Sweden lost Finland to the Russian Empire.

[Blast33]

I posted a thread a while ago in the update section which may be useful for your scenario. As you can see it is already in the database under #193.

<type>Update</type>

<summary>Reactivate #193 - SAM coy (RBS 23 Bamse) (Sweden-2010) </summary>

<detail>
The Swedish Armed Forces has reactivated the country’s air defence missile system 23 and will be stationed in Gotland.
The ‘reintroduction’ of this missile system comes after it was put in the materiel reserve for a few years.
The medium-range air defence system was developed in the 1990s and completed in the early 2000s.

According to the Swedish Armed Forces, the unit in the materiel reserve trained at the Air Defence Regiment (LV6) in the Swedish city of Halmstad.

The part of Missile system 23, which launches the surface-to-air missile, is called ‘Launch unit 23’.
Launch unit 23 is a missile vehicle that can be towed by any type of pulling vehicle. The roof of the vehicle is mounted with a gun carriage with six launch-ready missiles, an extendable 8m-long mast with command radar and an infrared camera.
The unit can be connected to the central reconnaissance radar called as ‘Intelligence unit 23’. It can also, however, operate independently if needed.

Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) Army Materiel head Mikael Frisell said: “The system has now been tested at Saab in Karlskoga, and it is working.</detail>

<evidence>
https://www.forsvarsmakten.se/en/news/2 ... einforced/
https://militaryleak.com/2021/03/20/swe ... n-gotland/
https://www.airforce-technology.com/new ... n-gotland/
</evidence>

I will need some time to play your scenario, looks promising!

[Anzu]

ORIGINAL: Blast33

I posted a thread a while ago in the update section which may be useful for your scenario. As you can see it is already in the database under #193.

Yes, it is actually included in the scenario, but I do appreciate the comment never the less. There is a SAM unit named "Luftvärnsgrupp Gotland" (this is likely not the correct name, no official name has ever been released as far as I'm aware) consisting of 3x EldE 23 (RB 23 BAMSE Missile Control Centers) and one UndE 23 (Giraffe AMB). At the start of the scenario it is located on the high ground southeast of Visby (about 4 NM south east), guarded by a platoon of home guards.

The actual number of launchers on Gotland is classified, but I have extrapolated and guessed that it might be half a battery's worth of three, to get a working unit. In total only a battery of six launchers were ever produced and were not made operative until 2019, after being put into reserve since 2010. In addition there are two platoons of 4x Lvkv 90 SPAAG.