Middle East

A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side.
 
During the past few years, and even more so during 2012, the international news headlines have been dominated by stories of the suspicion surrounding the nuclear activities of Iran, whether that nation is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and if so, the mortal threat faced by Israel. Slowly but surely the story has been building toward a potential flashpoint, with increasing concern about the possibility of unilateral action by Israel to forestall that threat. To paraphrase the recent words of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu - 'those who refuse to put red lines before Iran have no moral right to put a red light before Israel'. Whether Israel actually has the ability to stop or even delay an Iranian nuclear weapons program in any appreciable way, remains a matter of debate. What is certain that there exists a red line that, once crossed, will compel action. The only question is who will act.

Operation Praying Mantis 1988, All-Out Engagement.
 
Note: This scenario is designed mostly to be played from the US/Blue and it's better to play that side in first place, and to play it later from the Iranian/Red side because it can be a little frustrating and boring, but the victory is also possible.
 
Operation Praying Mantis was the Reagan administration answer to the Irani attacks on neutral tanker shipping and inmediate consequence of the mining deployed from the LST Iran Arj against the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) on 14 April 1988. This operation is often cited as one of the five historical naval actions to decisively stablish the USN supremacy in a determined theater of operations. It also marked the U.S. Navy's first exchange of anti-ship missiles by ships.
In the context of Iran-Iraq War the Tanker War phase (1984-1988) was one of the more complex post-WWII campaigns from the naval viewpoint.
Both Iran and Iraq attacked oil tankers and merchant ships, including those of neutral nations, to deprive the opponent of trade earnings. As higher stage answer the Iranians might close the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, but as United States had threatened several times to go to war if the Strait was closed the Iranians refused to take the risk,, limiting their attacks in retaliation first to Iraqi commercial ships but also extended to neutral shipping. After several Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti and other neutral shipping, the United States Navy started in March 1987 to escort Kuwaiti tankers the United States after had reflagged half of Kuwait's fleet of twenty-two tankers. In April 1987, the then Soviet Navy also started escorting Kuwaiti tankers.
Praying Mantis was a one-day retaliation strike focused in oil rigs and other instalations where the Iranians small forces were based to assault the neutral and Western shipping. Those had included bases for the minelaying operations that damaged the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
The US forces were organized in three groups and with air support and air defence of the CVN-65 USS Enterprise Carrier Air Wing Eleven, escorted by CGN-35 USS Truxtun and FF-1063 USS Reasoner:
VF-114 Aardwarks with F-14A Tomcat.
VF-213 Black Lions with F-14A Tomcat.
VA-22 Fighting Redcocks with A-7E Corsair II.
VA-94 Shrikes with A-7E Corsair II.
VA-95 Green Lizards with A-6E/KA-6D Intruder.
VAW-117 Wallbangers with E-2C Hawkeye Group 0.
VAQ-135 Black Knights with EA-6B Prowler ICAP I (ICAP II from late 1988).
 
Surface Action Group Bravo, targets Sassan and Rahkish/Rahksh oil platforms (renamed Salman and Resalat after the Islamic Revolution):
DD-976 USS Merrill, with 1xSH-2F.
DDG-8 USS Lynde McCormick.
LPD-14 USS Trenton, with 4xAH-1T, 2xCH-46, 2xUH-1, and the USS Samuel L. Roberts SH-60B.
 
Surface Action Group Charlie, target Sirri oil platform (renamed Nasr after the Islamic Revolution):
CG-28 USS Wainwright.
FFG-56 USS Simpson, with 1xSH-60 and 1xUH-60.
FF-1069 USS Bagley, with 1xSH-2F.
 
Surface Action Group Delta, composed partly of former escort ships from the Enterprise group, with target the Iranian warship FFL Sabalan, because her reputation for deliberately attacking the crew quarters of neutral ships:
DDG-16 USS Joseph Strauss.
DD-975 USS O'Brien, with 2xSH-2F and 1xUH-60.
FFG-24 USS Jack Williams, with 2xSH-2F.
 
The rest is history ... or not.
 
Historical Note:
This scenario represents a What if? scenario, with a full compromise of all the Iranian forces against the US side, without the prudence demostrated in the historical engagement.
In the historical scenario the US side decided to not attack mainland Iran to prevent a escalade, and the Iranian response was limited to a few warships and warplanes and not launching shore-based SSM (they are contradictory reports about that) because the Iranian fears to US retaliatory strikes over mainland Iran, and as in the case of the Gadaffi's Libya on 1981 and 1986, the fear of heavy losses on his own side could weak his position as regional power (In the case of Iran we should remember was in war with Iraq on 1988, and the outcome of Praying Mantis also forced Iran to settle the peace with Iraq).
In the historical aftermath, Iran losed the FFL Sahand, the PTM Joshan (after be notified many times of "stop your engines, abandon ship, I intend to sink you", Joshan launched the last operational Harpoon in the Iranian Navy againts the CG-28 USS Wainwright who decoyed it, receiving in interchange a salvo of six Standard SM-1 and one Harpoon) and some three PG type Toragh/Boghammar based in the Abu Musa Island to attack commercial shipping, and also the FFL Sabalan resulted crippled, but was returned to service on 1989. The oil platforms of Sassan and Sirri, employed as bases for the attacks on commercial shipping, rested unoperative after the previously demanded evacuation and subsequent combined attack of warships, Cobra helicopters and SEAL and USMC teams. The attack against the Rahksh oil platform was called off to ease pressure on the Iranians and denote a desire for de-escalation. The FFL Sabalan not was sunk also because when Defense Secretary Carlucci asked Admiral Crowe, then CJCS, what he thought
about launch another strike to finish she, Crowe responded, "Sir, I think we've shed enough blood today".
 
Enrique Mas, January 2012

Operation Praying Mantis 1988, historical engagement.
 
Note: This scenario is designed mostly to be played from the US/Blue and it's better to play that side in first place, and to play it later from the Iranian/Red side because it can be a little frustrating and boring, but the victory is also possible.
 
Operation Praying Mantis was the Reagan administration answer to the Irani attacks on neutral tanker shipping and inmediate consequence of the mining deployed from the LST Iran Arj against the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) on 14 April 1988. This operation is often cited as one of the five historical naval actions to decisively stablish the USN supremacy in a determined theater of operations. It also marked the U.S. Navy's first exchange of anti-ship missiles by ships.
In the context of Iran-Iraq War the Tanker War phase (1984-1988) was one of the more complex post-WWII campaigns from the naval viewpoint.
Both Iran and Iraq attacked oil tankers and merchant ships, including those of neutral nations, to deprive the opponent of trade earnings. As higher stage answer the Iranians might close the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, but as United States had threatened several times to go to war if the Strait was closed the Iranians refused to take the risk,, limiting their attacks in retaliation first to Iraqi commercial ships but also extended to neutral shipping. After several Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti and other neutral shipping, the United States Navy started in March 1987 to escort Kuwaiti tankers the United States after had reflagged half of Kuwait's fleet of twenty-two tankers. In April 1987, the then Soviet Navy also started escorting Kuwaiti tankers.
Praying Mantis was a one-day retaliation strike focused in oil rigs and other instalations where the Iranians small forces were based to assault the neutral and Western shipping. Those had included bases for the minelaying operations that damaged the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
The US forces were organized in three groups and with air support and air defence of the CVN-65 USS Enterprise Carrier Air Wing Eleven, escorted by CGN-35 USS Truxtun and FF-1063 USS Reasoner:
VF-114 Aardwarks with F-14A Tomcat.
VF-213 Black Lions with F-14A Tomcat.
VA-22 Fighting Redcocks with A-7E Corsair II.
VA-94 Shrikes with A-7E Corsair II.
VA-95 Green Lizards with A-6E/KA-6D Intruder.
VAW-117 Wallbangers with E-2C Hawkeye Group 0.
VAQ-135 Black Knights with EA-6B Prowler ICAP I (ICAP II from late 1988).
 
Surface Action Group Bravo, targets Sassan and Rahkish/Rahksh oil platforms (renamed Salman and Resalat after the Islamic Revolution):
DD-976 USS Merrill, with 1xSH-2F.
DDG-8 USS Lynde McCormick.
LPD-14 USS Trenton, with 4xAH-1T, 2xCH-46, 2xUH-1, and the USS Samuel L. Roberts SH-60B.
 
Surface Action Group Charlie, target Sirri oil platform (renamed Nasr after the Islamic Revolution):
CG-28 USS Wainwright.
FFG-56 USS Simpson, with 1xSH-60 and 1xUH-60.
FF-1069 USS Bagley, with 1xSH-2F.
 
Surface Action Group Delta, composed partly of former escort ships from the Enterprise group, with target the Iranian warship FFL Sabalan, because her reputation for deliberately attacking the crew quarters of neutral ships:
DDG-16 USS Joseph Strauss.
DD-975 USS O'Brien, with 2xSH-2F and 1xUH-60.
FFG-24 USS Jack Williams, with 2xSH-2F.
 
The rest is history ... or not.
 
Historical Note:
This scenario represents aproximatively only the historically engaged forces, as the US side decides to not attack mainland Iran to prevent a escalade, and the Iranian response was limited to a few warships and warplanes and not launching shore-based SSM (they are contradictory reports about that) because the Iranian fears to US retaliatory strikes over mainland Iran, and as in the case of the Gadaffi's Libya on 1981 and 1986, the fear of heavy losses on his own side could weak his position as regional power (In the case of Iran we should remember was in war with Iraq on 1988, and the outcome of Praying Mantis also forced Iran to settle the peace with Iraq).
In the historical aftermath, Iran losed the FFL Sahand, the PTM Joshan (after be notified many times of "stop your engines, abandon ship, I intend to sink you", Joshan launched the last operational Harpoon in the Iranian Navy againts the CG-28 USS Wainwright who decoyed it, receiving in interchange a salvo of six Standard SM-1 and one Harpoon) and some three PG type Toragh/Boghammar based in the Abu Musa Island to attack commercial shipping, and also the FFL Sabalan resulted crippled, but was returned to service on 1989. The oil platforms of Sassan and Sirri, employed as bases for the attacks on commercial shipping, rested unoperative after the previously demanded evacuation and subsequent combined attack of warships, Cobra helicopters and SEAL and USMC teams. The attack against the Rahksh oil platform was called off to ease pressure on the Iranians and denote a desire for de-escalation. The FFL Sabalan not was sunk also because when Defense Secretary Carlucci asked Admiral Crowe, then CJCS, what he thought about launch another strike to finish she, Crowe responded, "Sir, I think we've shed enough blood today".
 
Enrique Mas, January 2012
 
Edited 7 January 2012 because bad characters in the text file.

Battle of Latakia
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the HCE Cold War (HCCW) Database.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side.
 
The Battle of Latakia was a small naval battle fought on 7 October 1973, during the Yom Kippur War. It was the first naval engagement to involve an exchange of anti-ship surface to surface missiles and in which electronic warfare played a principal role. The Syrians were equipped with Soviet supplied Project 183 Komar and Project 205 Osa class missile boats armed with the P-15 Termit (NATO SS-N-2 Styx), a weapon that had already stung Israel almost exactly six years earlier, with the loss of the destroyer INS Eilat on 20 October 1967. The Styx had twice the range of the Israeli Gabriel, and a much larger warhead. To meet the threat, the Israelis would need every ounce of guile, wit and and courage that they could muster.
 
Brad Leyte, January 2011

First Lightning
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the official HCE Database (HCDB).
 
This scenario is designed for play by the RED side only.
 
It is October 1984. A financial crisis in Latin America has led to huge loan defaults in Argentina, Brazil and Chile. American banks, who had heavily financed the development efforts in Latin America, have been caught by surprise and are now in a serious slide. Washington took drastic steps and imposed a freeze upon banking transactions across the nation.
 
Then, a week ago, a terrorist bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, claimed the life of the US ambassador and numerous civilians. At the same time, a guerrilla movement believed to have ties to that terror attack and backed by the Soviet Union, toppled the Omani government in the wake of massive financial losses in its banking sector.
 
American peacekeepers have moved into Saudi Arabia after rebellious elements of the Saudi army moved to occupy the holy city of Mecca. It is the largest commitment of American troops since the Vietnam war. Moscow has bitterly criticised the American presence in the Persian Gulf, calling it a grave act of provocation.
 
Three days ago, the new regime in Oman allied with Tehran to impose a toll on tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. All tanker traffic in the Gulf has now come to a stop.
 
NOTE: This scenario is loosely based on the October 1984 television movie Countdown to Looking Glass. Note as well that you play RED in this scenario, i.e. the Soviet, Iranian and Omanian side.

Note: In this scenario, to avoid spoilers, it is compulsory to play the Israeli/Blue side a few times, and only after play the Iranian/Red side.
 
This scenario also wants to be a study about the feasibility of a strike erasing the future nuclear capabilities of Iran.
My intention in this scenario was also to reproduce the Israel and Iran OOB in 2010.
 
Some months after the political and tactical semi-failure of the Mavi Marmara affair doctored by the IHH, a supposed Turkish Islamic charity, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (May 31, 2010), a new Israeli coalition Government, leaded by the moderate Premier Shlomo Ben-Ami, ex- Foreign Affairs Minister and former Ambassador in Spain, very influenced by his pair of mysterious Spanish counsellors (Code-named Hello Kitty and SpongeBob SquarePants), is impelled by the Western Powers to actuate as a scapegoat and to stop the Iranian military nuclear program, doing the mission the Western Powers are afraid to do because his multiple political implications.
The strike must be realised before the imminent Iranian deployment of the new and powerful S-300/SA-10 SAMs, complement of the previous deployed long-range SA-5 Gammon.
 
Only credible and political admissible action is a conventional attack with Precision Guided Munitions, a limited and surgical strike without collateral damages will be also the only political acceptable Israeli option gullible for the mass-media.
The Heyl HaAvir and the Heyl HaYam are only five days to obtain the victory, before the US and other countries will be forced reluctantly to stop the strikes because the usual pressure of unoccupied demostrators worldwide the week-end after the first strike.
 
And the only possible income of the battle is the Total Victory, with the annihilation of at least all the designated targets: Bushehr comprising his nuclear reactor (ZPa) the Nuke Sites 1 (YSb), 2 (YRb) and 3 (YQb), the Terror Camps 1 (YDa), 2 (YCa) and 3 (YBa), and the TBM Site (YFb) (first you must to localize some of those targets).
 
Is compulsory for Israel to no lose more than 60 planes, to avoid a propagandistic victory by Iran.
 
Also, as a side diversion, the Israeli player must resolve the question of a undetermined number of apparent merchant ships with the manifested intention of repeat the facts of the first Gaza flotilla, supposedly waiting in front the Israeli coast, and a few armed blockade-runners. But in this time, if open hostilities with Iran are opened, the supposed civilian ships can be freely sunken.
 
You can expect also a imminent surface-to-surface missile attack after the breakout of the hostilities.
The pro-Iranian faction Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria can also provide some support to the Iranian side.
 
The air corridors between Israel and Iran are guaranteed (for both contenders) by the disengagement of the conflict by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and mostly Iraq, a sort of terra nullius (also, after the withdraw of the US forces, lefting only a embrionary air force in Iraq).
 
Enrique Mas, August 2010

Hammerfall (Part 4 of 5)
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East Battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side.
 
Thus far, this multi part campaign has witnessed Israel carry out a preemptive strike in defense of the nation, only to ignite a wider regional conflict which resulted in the destruction of both Nevatim and Damascus by nuclear fire. Russia has condemned the action and come to the aid of Syria and Iran, moving troops into both countries to help defend against them against what they have called Israel's bald faced nuclear aggression. Though continuing to put up a vigorous defense, Israel is clearly out muscled by the combined power of its enemies. Though late arriving on the scene, an American carrier strike force is now pushing north through the Red Sea.
 
[Version 2.0]

Scimitar (Part 3 of 5)
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East Battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side.
 
In this third instalment in a five part series, the crisis in the Middle East has deepened and expanded into a regional war in which old superpowers threaten to become involved. The Israelis have struck the Iranian nuclear facility at Esfahan, and have largely decimated the Syrian air force. But the Syrian army has nevertheless managed to seize positions in the Golan Heights, and ominously, appear to be enjoying Russian military support. So called Russian 'peacekeepers' are arriving in force in Syria, and it appears, in Iran as well.

Paralyzer (Part 2 of 5)
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the Middle East Battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side only.
 
This scenario is the second in a multi part campaign. In the first scenario, called Threshold, we examined what happened when the Israelis carried out a preemptive air strike against what they believed to be a Syrian nuclear weapons research facility. In the aftermath of that action, full scale war has now broken out between Syria and Israel, and Iran is vowing to join the cause against the Zionist aggressors.

Threshold (Part 1 of 5)
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition (HCE) scenario for the new Middle East Battleset and the official HCE database (HCDB).
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side.
 
In September 2007, Israel is widely believed to have carried out an air strike that destroyed a partly constructed nuclear reactor in eastern Syria. While much of what really happened remains speculation, the event echoed a previous strike carried out by Israel against Iraq in 1981, when it destroyed a reactor at Osirak. Moreover, it underlines once again that Israel is a nation that feels very much under threat, whether rightly or wrongly, and has shown a willingness to take such action as it feels necessary to defend itself. Continued supposition about whether Israel would carry out a similar strike against long time foe Iran, or if necessary (and it probably would be necessary, to achieve the desired result), a wider military offensive, is alive and well in 2009.
 
This scenario is the first of what will be a multi part campaign examining the possible result of a single aimed pre-emptive strike, and the resulting ever widening conflagration.