New Command scenario: Northern Fury 1 – H Hour

April 6, 2014 · Posted in Command · Comment

Database – DB3000
Author – Bart Gauvin ‘Gunner98’

H Hour!

This is the first scenario of a 20-24 scenario campaign. See the Northern Fury background document for further insight on the background and happenings so far. The key nuggets:

· Cold War continued, no thaw in relations. Germany still divided, WP still alive and doing very well. (and while we are dealing with fantasy – the Soviet ships actually work ;-))

· Yesterday, 12 Feb 1994, the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, opened with ominous indications of trouble brewing. Soviet and Eastern Bloc countries were represented at the opening ceremonies but many of their athletes were not present at the start of the actual events this morning. The Russian Olympic village was empty and initial investigation found that many of the athletes had simply disappeared, while only a few had flown home. Norway ordered the IOC to cancel the games and evacuate the Olympic Village.

· Norway has called up its reserves, deployed forces to forward bases and has requested support from NATO. The request for support was submitted to the North Atlantic Council (NAC) 4 hours ago.

· It is now early afternoon on 13 Feb 1994.

You are the commander all forces in Northern Norway. Allied Forces North Norway (AFNN) HQ is in Bodo Norway, this is a ‘dual hat’ organization which maintains National Command of Norwegian forces North of Orland and reports to Allied Forces North (AFNORTH).

Over the past 6 hours you have deployed 2^nd Battalion of Brigade Nord, forward to garrison Banak, Kirkenes and other airports in Finmark province in order to facilitate a limited evacuation of the civilian population. Naval and Air forces have also staged forward and have gone to a high readiness posture.

The NATO AWACS flight normally allocated to AFNN has been deployed for the past two weeks in preparation for the Olympics and is ready to support operations in all respects.

It is a cold day off the North Cape, it is unlikely to stay that way!

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Designer’s notes:

This is a complex scenario so to assist the player – and to replicate routine operations; there are some missions already in play. The player can chose to use these or delete them as s/he wishes.

You should turn ‘special messages’ ON, there is quite a bit of information fed to you during the scenario, and you will want to see it. Later in the scenario updates will give you a better idea on what is going on around the world and will give you an idea where subsequent scenarios will lead.

Please respect the initial ready times for aircraft. There are many aircraft with a long ready time, this is to replicate the staging of aircraft to forward bases and general maintenance.

Points are allotted for destruction of air and sea forces. No points are lost for destruction of land installations, the penalty is losing their capability.

The ‘No Fly Zone’ around the northern border with Sweden has been modified to prevent A/C being trapped along the border area. Also one Norwegian radar (S-600 Gapfiller) has been moved so it sits outside the modified zone.

Decision Brief to Comd AFNN, 1200hrs 13 February 1994

J2 Brief: Indications of hostile intent have ramped up significantly over the past 2 hours. We expect a major offensive engagement within the next 4 hours. Situation:

Naval: The bulk of the Red Banner Northern Fleet has departed Kola Peninsula ports, likely intent is head into open waters and breech the GIUK Gap. Unlikely that major surface units will engage in our Area of Operations (AO); however, we can expect significant activity from light forces and short range amphibious elements.

Land: Highly unlikely that we will see a significant push overland, this is just not the right time of year and all of our past evaluation show we can stop any land thrust in the passes North East of Bardufoss. Our analysis shows that the 6^th Combined Arms Army (CAA) with six Motor Rifle Divisions (MRD) will likely move South to form the 3^rd echelon of a thrust along the Baltic coast. Indications are that the 26^th Army Corps has been assigned to the Northern Fleet, this formation will likely assume control of Naval Infantry units and become the Land component of any operations in North Norway. 26^th Corps consists of: 69^th MRD, and 77^th Guards MRD, it has probably been reinforced by the 76^th Guards Airborne Division, 36^th Independent Landing-Assault Brigade, 61^st and possibly the 175^th Naval Infantry Brigades and two Separate Naval Infantry Battalions (317^th & 318^th). We can expect air mobile, airborne and amphibious operations throughout our AO.

Air: It is unlikely that Long Range Aviation or Air Defence forces will be involved within our AO. That leaves the 149^th Bomber Aviation Division with a Regiment (~40 A/C) each of Su-24, MiG-29, MiG-23 and Su-17s supported by Naval Aviation with a Regt of MiG-27 and one of Su-25. Further, we have received ELINT to indicate that Su-27s are operating out of the Severomorsk Air Base Complex, probably in Regimental strength. Combined with support, OECM, AEW, ELINT and Recce plus enough rotary wing aviation to lift a Brigade and enough transport A/C to lift another Brigade, there are probably in the order of 350-400 airframes facing us, with at least 130-180 of these being first line combat capable.

Special Forces: We can expect to be completely infiltrated by Spetzntz and Long Range Reconnaissance forces. It is unlikely that these forces will become directly involved in combat but will provide intelligence and targeting information to other forces.

J3 Brief: Sir, to counter all of the tidings of cheer and hope provided by the J2, we have the following:

· Frigates Bergen and Oslo sortied 2 hrs ago and are heading North

· S318 Kobben sortied 6 hrs ago and is performing a slow sweep North past Tromso

· S 302 Ulstein is on patrol off the North Cape

· 8 Missile boats in three groups are operating off the North Cape, a 9th boat is steaming to meet them

· Coast Guard Cutter NordKapp has departed Kirkenes and is heading out to sea

· Brigade Nord is fully operational and has deployed the 2^nd Battalion forward

· Mobilization of the Home Guard is ongoing, Region 4 is reporting 70% strength already

· 331 Sqn is forward deployed, its been reinforced by 4 ‘B’ model F-16s put together from the training wing. Located at Banak, Tromso, Bardufoss, and Evenes it is on 50% immediate call or airborne, 30% on 15min and 20% on 30 min call.

· 332 Sqn remains here at Bodo with 25% on immediate status, remainder within 2 hrs.

· 338 and 340 Sqns are at Orland and ready to deploy North. 338 has 6 new Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) Falcons and is at 30% immediate call with the remainder in 2hrs. 340 is struggling with its F-5s, although its at 25% readiness, we can only get 2/3rds up quickly, the remainder will take some time.

· The NATO AWACS flight is up and operational out of Orland.

· 717 EW Sqn has one of its two Falcon20’s supporting 331 Sqn and the other has moved up here to Bodo ready to relieve it.

· Several fixed and rotary wing Maritime Patrol and SAR birds are also available.

We have been working with AFNORTH to get more forces, they are only keeping one Sqn of F-5’s in the South, and are pushing hard with NATO to get some of the designated reinforcements moving towards us.

Finally sir, all commanders have re-read ‘The Directive‘ to all troops.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directives_for_Military_Officers_and_Ministry_Officials_upon_an_Attack_of_Norway)

J4 Brief: Sir, all bases are stocked with enough munitions to last the first 24 hrs and we are working on getting limited stocks pushed forward as laid out in the defence plan. Stocks of the new AIM-120 AMRAAM are limited, Bodo has sufficient stocks for a Squadron, Bardufoss, Evenes and Tromso have very limited stocks. All national stocks of the 120’s are committed but we expect a C-5 with an emergency allocation sometime tomorrow.

J9 Brief: Sir, three points:

· The evacuation of the sick, elderly and school children from Finmark is proceeding well and at the current pace will be complete in another day or so.

· Indications are that Finland will not participate, nor will it prevent Soviet intrusion, in any conflict. I anticipate that the Finish Government will fold under pressure and become a vassal state of the USSR shortly after hostilities begin.

· Sweden on the other hand will staunchly defend its territory. We don’t think the Soviets have the capability of knocking them out quickly, so will likely leave them alone. At least initially.

J5 Brief: Sir, as you directed this morning, we have dismissed the option of pulling back and holding Central Norway only. That leaves us with two choices: Forward defence provides the advantage of hitting them hard as he is coming at us, causing heavy casualties while supporting the land forces and population in Finmark province. The disadvantage of course is that he can afford to take casualties and we cannot. The second course of action is to pull our air defence forces back to the area just East of Bardufoss, this will force the Soviet air forces to be at maximum extent of their fuel range while we are sitting almost on top of our bases. The problem with this is that we will have nowhere to go, if he gets a good hit at Tromso or Bardufoss – Evenes and Andoya do not have enough munitions to hold him off for long, plus we would be sacrificing the 2^nd Battalion and the population of Finmark to capture.

Chief of Staff Summary: Sir, its approaching 1300hrs and we need to issue orders shortly. I think its a given that we’ll need to move 338 Sqn North, I’m not sure about 340, those F-5’s will be nothing but MiG-bait unless we can get them in among the 2^nd string bombers and transports. The Navy is gathering its forces and grouping with STANAVFORLANT to counter a potential amphibious operation further South, so we can’t hope for much help from them. The Army is committed, we have what we have. The air force is our flexibility, and as the Americans would say, we have ‘a target rich environment’.

You stand up, slowly walk over to the briefing map, ponder your options, turn around and issue direction to your staff.

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And now for something completely different

April 1, 2014 · Posted in Command · Comment

Some time ago, one of our users requested some specific WW2-era platforms that were not already present in the CWDB (meaning they likely did not see post-war service). We were happy to oblige.

Here is what he used them for: