MEDC

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB2-170407 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/US side or from the Red/Russian side. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red side.

Image: USS Ross (DDG-71) fires a Tomahawk land attack missile the night 7 April 2017 against the Syrian airbase of Al-Shayrat. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robert S. Price, and in consequence in public domain, took from http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2017/04/07/u-s-navy-destroyers-launch-strikes-on-syria

In the very complex world situation of early 2017, and as consequence of a successive chain of events begun with the taking charge of Vladimir Putin as 4th President of Russia in 2012, USS Porter (DDG-78) was a very busy warship under the command of CDR Andria Slough, former deputy director for the Joint Maritime Ballistic Missile Defence Operations and Training.
After her participation in exercises Sea Shield and Dynamic Manta 2017 (Both depicted in previous Harpoon HCE/HUCE scenarios), on 6 April 2017 she and USS Ross (DDG-71) were called to launch Tomahawk missiles against the Syrian military airbase of Al-Shayrat.
Both were two of the four Burke-class destroyers forward-deployed at Naval Station Rota, Spain, for Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) tasks and SeaRAM, integrated in the new CTF-64, created in July 2015 (It was a crash program, as the four Rota destroyers are equipped with an older Aegis baseline that requires the ship to operate in a BMD mode or switch to the traditional aircraft and cruise missile defence role, and in consequence without SeaRAM are almost without self defence missiles, counting only with the Phalanx) and arriving the first ship at Rota in 24 September 2015.
The Tomahawk salvo of 59 missiles was ordered by President Trump to prevent Syria's President Assad to use again nervous agents against civilians in Syria, as employed previously a few days earlier on April 4 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where several dozen civilians, including many children and women, were killed by what appears to be sarin gas.
As was suspected the presence of Russian technicians in the Syrian base to be attacked, the missile strike was warned with time to Russia, the base evacuated before the arrival of the missiles, and the human victims were scarce or none.
In the attack aftermath, on 7 April 2017, agency news reports informed of the Russian Black Sea Fleet brand-new multipurpose frigate Admiral Grigorovich sailing from the Bosphorus Strait to Eastern Mediterranean, suggesting a possible Russian naval retaliation against the US ships launching the missiles.
The much-hyped in the news Admiral Grigorovich is the first Russian ship of Project 11356, a derivative of the old Project 1135/Krivak, and exported from 2003 to India as Talwar-class/Krivak V.
Of course that was a usual movement of Russian warships going to and fro, but this limited scenario speculates on the possibility of a Russian retaliation on those premises.

Enrique Mas, 9 April 2017.

Exercise Dynamic Manta 2017 (DYMA 17), 13-24 March 2017. Historical Training Scenario.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB2-170308 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO side or from the Red/NATO side. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red side.

Image: The first day of DYMA 17 Cmdr. Andria Slough, commanding officer of USS Porter (DDG-78) seated on her open bridge observes a Sigonella-based P-8A Poseidon of VP-45 "Pelicans" when overflights the exercise ships near Catania. From left to right: Spanish replenishment oiler A-14 Pati^o, Spanish Perry-class derivative frigate F-85 Navarra, Spanish Aegis frigate F-104 Mendez Nu^ez, French ASW frigate D-642 Montcalm and Canadian ASW frigate FFH-340 St. John's. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams, in public domain and took from http://www.c6f.navy.mil/news/exercise-dynamic-manta-2017-begins

From the eventful year of 2014 the World was beginning the so-called Second Cold War, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin (ex-KGB lieutenant colonel) was showing clearly his plan to recover the Russian Empire and later Soviet territories for reinstitute the greatness of his Russia, and to guarantee his passage on the History as saviour of the Rodina.
From May 2014 Putin was provoking in succession the Crimea, Ukraine, Donetsk, Baltic States, October 2014 Swedish submarine incursion, G-20 Brisbane meeting naval crisis, November 2014 Faslane submarine incident, frigate Yaroslav Mudryy February "Channel Dash", April 2015 Finnish submarine incursion (for many observers causing the pre-mobilization of Finland reserve forces), Russian intervention in Syria from 30 September 2015, shoot-down by Turkish F-16 fighters equipped with AIM-120 AMRAAM on 24 November 2015 of a Russian Su-24M as consequence of the repeated unlawful overflights of Turkey by Russian warplanes based in Latakia, and after two months of repeated warning, March 2016 detection by the French of a Russian submarine near Bay of Biscay and the SSBN base, the propaganda stunt of the deployment of the only one Russian aircraft carrier Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov steaming (a lot, literally) from Kola Bay towards Eastern Mediterranean from October 15, 2016, and with constant and
multiple Russian overflies with military warplanes entangled in potential incidents with commercial flights in Europe, so far as at the Portuguese shores.
That without counting in other unrelated naval incidents aside the upcoming Second Cold War, just as the Iranian seizure of the merchant Maersk Tigris in 28 April 2015, the shore-based anti-ship missile attacks against the catamaran transport ex Swift (HSV-2) and US destroyers on the Red Sea in October 2016 and the ulterior retaliation, the first military operation of the Trump Administration on January 28, 2017, the MV-22B tiltrotor raid of SEAL Team 6 operating from USS Makin Island (LHD-8) against Houthi Yemen, and later on January 30, an Al-Madinah-class Saudi frigate was attacked and damaged probably by a Houthi suicide or drone boat off Al Hudaydah, Houthi Yemen. (And neither counting in great landlocked actions, as the counter-Daesh operations in Middle East).
And meanwhile, more towards Far East a less perceived and growing problem was China, as reflected in the transfer of the 60% of the USN and USAF combat forces to the Pacific Theatre of Operations from 2012, move to be completed by 2020.
When the big anti-submarine exercise Dynamic Manta 2017 did begin in 13 March 2015 was not interpreted by many journalists as an answer to the latest Russian actions and menacing postures as in the case of Dynamic Mongoose 2015, as it was actually a yearly exercise. But in the current world situation was legit to think otherwise. Two years later the reality was probably those and other continuous exercises, the NATO Baltic Air Policing, and the deployment of token NATO ground forces in the Baltic States and rest of Eastern Europe, are showing to Putin's Russia the resolution to defend Europe and allies as a whole, and preventing the development of a hot war, despite the situation in Eastern Ukraine.

Of course this is a training exercise and actual shots, torpedoes and missiles aren't fired and nobody is hurt...


And remember, the intelligence estimates ever can be erroneous.

Enrique Mas, 19 March 2017.

Porter, Black Sea and Sea Shield 2017, February 2017. Historical/Alternate History Scenario.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB2-170326 new standard 1980-2025 Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

Image: Number 6305, A Romanian MiG-21MF-75 Lancer C firing S-5 air-to-ground rockets during a training exercise in June 18, 2010. Photo by Miha Zamfirescu, took from Wikipedia Commons.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO side or from the Red/Russian side. To avoid a few spoilers you should play a few times first the Blue side, and only later play the Red side.

With the world on the brink of an open war after four years of impending Second Cold War, just after the take of possession and first days of mandate of Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, another repeated point of naval and military operations popped-up again, diverting in the headlines the situation in Eastern Ukraine. After a new intensification of the Russian operations supporting with GRAD rockets bombardment the separatist actions from January 31, 2017 in the Avdiivka sector, from February 1 to 11, 2017, NATO executed exercise Sea Shield 2017.
The exercise was probably combined with isolated Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations by USS Porter (DDG-78), first of the only four SeaRAM equipped Burke-class destroyers of CTF-64, tasked with Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) and forward based in Naval Station Rota, Spain, from April 2015.
As usual in FON operations, USS Porter was buzzed those days by probably Russian Naval Aviation Su-24M, and the exercise finished without notable incidents, in spite of the international and regional situation in Crimea and Ukraine.
This scenario explores the possibilities of something going wrong as consequence of the buzzing by Russian aircrafts, perhaps an autonomous response of SeaRAM at incoming Russian warplanes, and of a limited military conflict with the present forces: components of Sea Shield 2017 exercise, a few other Turkish elements because the internal problems and international posture of Turkey (Perhaps about change sides, after the fake failed 15 July 2016 anti-Erdogan coup, and the subsequent rarefied relations with NATO, US and Russia), Russian naval and aeronaval forces in the Black Sea, units defending the Russian-Occupied Crimea, and a few Russian Air Force elements.
Worth of remembering is, after the full of naval, military and security incidents year of 2014 the World was beginning the so-called Second Cold War. Mostly as result of President of Russia Vladimir Putin (ex-KGB lieutenant colonel) actions, provoking in succession the Crimea, Ukraine, Donetsk, Baltic States, October 2014 Swedish submarine incursion, G-20 Brisbane meeting naval crisis, November 2014 Faslane submarine incident, frigate Yaroslav Mudryy February "Channel Dash", April 2015 Finnish submarine incursion (for many observers causing the pre-mobilization of Finland reserve forces), Russian intervention in Syria from 30 September 2015, shoot-down by Turkish F-16 fighters equipped with AIM-120 AMRAAM on 24 November 2015 of a Russian Su-24M as consequence of the repeated unlawful overflights of Turkey by Russian warplanes based in Latakia, and after two months of repeated warning, March 2016 detection by the French of a Russian submarine near Bay of Biscay and the SSBN base, the propaganda stunt of the de
ployment of the only one Russian aircraft carrier Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov steaming (a lot, literally) from Kola Bay towards Eastern Mediterranean from October 15, 2016, and with constant and multiple Russian overflies with military warplanes entangled in potential incidents with commercial flights in Europe, so far as at the Portuguese shores.
That without counting in other unrelated naval incidents aside the upcoming Second Cold War, just as the Iranian seizure of the merchant Maersk Tigris in 28 April 2015, the shore-based anti-ship missile attacks against the catamaran transport ex Swift (HSV-2) and US destroyers on the Red Sea in October 2016 and the ulterior retaliation, the first military operation of the Trump Administration on January 28, 2017, the MV-22B tiltrotor raid of SEAL Team 6 operating from USS Makin Island (LHD-8) against Houthi Yemen, and later on January 30, an Al-Madinah-class Saudi frigate was attacked and damaged probably by a Houthi suicide or drone boat off Al Hudaydah, Houthi Yemen. (and neither counting in great landlocked actions, as the counter-Daesh operations in Middle East).
And meanwhile, more towards Far East a less perceived and growing problem was China, as reflected in the transfer of the 60% of the USN and USAF combat forces to the Pacific Theatre of Operations from 2012, move to be completed by 2020.
In this scenario the opposed forces are limited, and in a short time must achieve an overwhelming victory against the other side, to prevent extension of the conflict showing their superior capabilities, or failing it.
The depicted Russia and NATO regional orders of battle are the most historical accurate possible at February 2017.

Enrique Mas, 12 March 2017.

New Battle of Sinop, 23 December 2015. Alternate History Scenario.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2015 era or the new HCDB2-170207 1980-2025 era Platform Databases. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

Image: TCG Goksu (F-497, ex USS Estocin FFG-15) in the BALTOPS 2015 exercise, after the GENESIS-2 conversion, with a Mk41 VLS for 32xESSM forward of the Mk13 GMLS, the helicopter is a USN MH-60R. The US frigates should have been converted in similar lines. Photo by MC2 Amanda S. Kitchner, US serviceperson on duty, and in consequence in public domain, and took from Wikipedia Commons.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/Turkish side or from the Red/Russian side. To avoid a few spoilers you should play a few times first the Blue side, and only later play the Red side.

The Battle of Sinop was an 1853 Russian Black Sea naval victory leaded by Admiral Nakhimov against Turkey, and the last major battle between fleets of sailing ships. The battle is today commemorated in Russia as a Day of Military Honour, but was more a shore bombardment against an anchored fleet than a battle, and ultimately just cause for war, and motivation for Great Britain and France to take sides with Turkey in the Crimean War, provoking the ultimate defeat of Russia.
After the full of naval, military and security incidents year of 2014 and the not less eventful first eleven months of 2015, the World was beginning the so-called Second Cold War. Mostly as result of President of Russia Vladimir Putin (ex-KGB lieutenant colonel) actions, provoking in succession the Crimea, Ukraine, Donetsk, Baltic States, October 2014 Swedish submarine incursion, G-20 Brisbane meeting naval crisis, November 2014 Faslane submarine incident, frigate Yaroslav Mudryy February "Channel Dash", April 2015 Finnish submarine incursion (for many observers causing the pre-mobilization of Finland reserve forces), Russian operations from Latakia in the Syrian Civil War from September 2015, a second Russian submarine incident in Scotland in November 2015, and all seasoned with constant and multiple overflies with military warplanes entangled in potential incidents with commercial flights in Europe. That without counting in other unrelated naval incidents, just as the Iranian seizure of the Maersk Tigris in 28 April 2015 (and neither counting in landlocked actions, as the ISIS operations in Middle East).
As consequence of the repeated unlawful overflights of Turkey by Russian warplanes based in Latakia, and after two months long of repeated warning, at last a Su-24M was shoot-down by Turkish F-16 fighters equipped with AIM-120 AMRAAM on 24 November 2015.
Decided to not allow more Russian abuses, Turkey President's Erdogan Islamist government prepared a plan to show his independence and resolution face to Putin and the Russian forces.
The plan is simple: to control the sea lanes of Black Sea, preventing ulterior reinforcements of the Russian forces in Syria, and also limiting the covert Russian campaign in Ukraine, doing the Black Sea a Turkish lake.
But the operation must be executed without NATO back-up, only with a very little and occasional US support, and with the winter preventing shore-based air operations.
This scenario reflects the current Russian OOB of the Black Sea Fleet at December 2015.

Enrique Mas, 21 December 2015.

This is the fifth scenario in the series.

PRELUDE:
Operation “Southern Shield” managed to oust US Coalition forces out of the Azores. With ECON forces leaking their wounds and stretched to the limit it was a rather less joyful Christmas. Once again however the US Coalition unfortunately took the initiative and with it the fight to ECONs front …or rather back door.
The citizens of Tel Aviv woke to air sirens, uncommon sounds since the signing of the peace accords with their Arab neighbours 2 years ago. They looked at the sky in anticipation of Katyusha rockets coming down raining on their ballistic trajectories and caught an unfamiliar glimpse of a new foe: dozens of cruise missiles heading for their targets across the city and beyond. Only moments later waves of aircraft came in from the southwest adding to the carnage. The surprise was complete and the Israel Defence Force suffered horrifying losses in the hands of what seemed to be a joint US-Egyptian attack, while the Egyptian ambassador e-mailed the official declaration of war to Israeli prime minister Dalia Rabin.
It was not over yet. In a surprising move, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan endorsed the attack on Israel and announced that Turkey will be joining the US Coalition. The back door of ECON instantly became a very unpleasant spot.

Battle of the Ligurian Sea, 18 March 1945. Last Stand of Kriegsmarine. Historical Scenario.
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. To avoid spoilers is better to play first a few times the Allied/Blue side, and only after play the German/Red side.
 
Image: Camouflaged Yugoslavian destroyers Dubrovnik (left, then Italian Premuda), and Beograd (then Italian Sebenico), probably at Bocche di Cattaro (Montenegro) after their capture by Italian forces on 17 April 1941. Origin: taked from Wikipedia Commons and from Propagandakompanien der Wehrmacht - Heer und Luftwaffe (Bild 101 I) and German Federal Archives.
 
Battle of the Ligurian Sea was a small little known naval battle, last surface battle of Kriegsmarine executed by the last elements of Kriegsmarine's 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, composed by previously captured foreign warships of diverse origin, and fought near places with one of the world older naval history recorded,
Returning to Genoa after a minelaying action near Cap Corse and Gorgona Island, the small German force was surprised and attacked by marauding Allied light units.
Some months before, on 2 October 1944, the same German flotilla and ships encountered USS Gleaves (DD-423) in a similar minelaying mission towards San Remo (now Sanremo) but they did avoid contact and returned to Genoa undamaged, and this ill-fated encounter is depicted as the labelled LIGURIAN44 bonus scenario.
Both mini-scenarios are introductory scenarios or historical representations more than full-scale scenarios (but probably addictive on his simplicity).
 
Enrique Mas, February 2015.

Eastern Questions
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Mediterranean Battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side only.
 
Some hundred and sixty years after it first ravaged this part of the world, the horrors of a wider war threaten to return to the Crimea. The civil conflict that has been raging in the Ukraine since the early spring of this year had finally shown signs of potentially coming to an end, but the underlying problems and issues that caused the conflagration remain unresolved. The release of a report on the cause of a shootdown of a civilian passenger jet - and the emergence of new information that implicates Russian forces in its destruction - have shattered an uneasy cease fire between the Kiev government and the separatist forces in the Donbass.
 
The cease fire has been broken by the hostile actions of the pro Russian separatist rebels in the southeastern parts of Ukraine. Fighting erupted again in the last several hours. The rebels are refusing to abandon their weapons and are laying claim to the self-proclaimed regions of Luhansk Peoples Republic and Donetsk Peoples Republic for themselves. The Russians have meanwhile strongly protested the assertion that they caused the airliner shootdown, describing it as a subversive and disgusting NATO plot. Moreover they claim the Sea Breeze maritime exercise being undertaken by NATO forces in the Black Sea is a cover for an offensive operation.

Operation El Dorado Canyon, Libya early April 1986. Historical Scenario.
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB-130603 1980-2015 Platform Database.
 
Image: a low-altitude aerial view of an EF-111A Raven (foreground) and an F-111F flying from right to left. The aircraft belong to the 27th Fighter Wing, which transitioned from the F-111Ds to F-111Fs and added EF-111As. Location: CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, NEW MEXICO (NM) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) Camera Operator: MSGT. MICHAEL HAGGERTY, 1992. From Wikipedia Commons.
 
This scenario is designed to be played mainly from the Blue/US side. You should play many times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red/Libyan side. It's a complex scenario with the most historical accurate possible OOBs, including the Libyan SAM placements, probably never showed in another place.
 
Attain Document I, IIA and III were a series of operations executed by the US Navy during the first months of 1986 sailing the Gulf of Sidra, which Kadaffi's Libya claims as internal waters from 1973. Those operations were in support of his Freedom of Navigation (FON) program, challenging territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace that are considered excessive by the United States (as also in the Black Sea or some Far East cases). As a precaution against possible asymmetric or dissimilar Libyan retaliations, it was planned the contingency plan Prairie Fire (nickname after changed to El Dorado Canyon), consisting of air strikes to chosen Libyan targets from which terrorist operations could be planned or executed.
After probing the Libyan response with the phases Attain Document I and IIA in January and February 1986 remaining the USN warships just north of the so-called line of death, came the ultimate execution of the plan. Composed by three Carrier Battle Groups (CVBG of the USS America (CV-66), USS Coral Sea (CV-43, with the first operative F/A-18A in the USN and USMC, Attain Document III was also the first operational use of AGM-88 HARM, the Tomahawks not were yet operative) and USS Saratoga (CV-60)) TF-60 under command of Rear Admiral Frank D. Kelso II executed Attain Document III penetrating the waters of the Gulf of Sidra with a Surface Action Group (SAG) composed by USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), USS Scott (DDG-945) and USS Caron (DD-970), crossing below 32-30 North at 241100Z March 1986 (1200 Libyan time) and exiting the area at 271432Z March 1986, remaining for more than 75 hours sailing in station.
From that very moment the Libyan forces showed an aggressive behaviour towards the US Forces, ratifying the spirit and outcome of certain previous historical skirmishes. The Libyans launched long range SAM against USN planes, realized some offensive CAP and tried to approach his PTM near anti-ship missile launch range.
But this was not the end of the events, the guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and as Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution, more known as Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi (When the 1 September 1969, the bloodless coup d'etat against King Idris was successful, Gaddafi was captain, later accepted a ceremonial promotion from captain to colonel and has remained at this rank since then, as admiration sample to Gamal Abdel Nasser, which never had major grade in his military career) had not said his last word, and he gives orders of retaliation by terrorist actions.
Some days later the end of the Operation Attain Document III about March 27, 1986, contesting the unilaterally proclaimed Libyan rights on the Gulf of Sirta, on April 5, 1986, the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin is bombed by a bomb placed under a table near the disc jockey booth, killing a Turkish woman and two U.S. sergeants and injuring 230 people, including more than 50 American servicemen. Libya was blamed for the bombing after telex messages had been intercepted from Libya to the Libyan East Berlin embassy congratulating them on a job well done (No individual was accused of the bombing until the 1990 reunification of Germany and the subsequent opening up of the Stasi (Communist Germany Secret Police) archives. Stasi files led German prosecutors to an Libyan agent who had worked at the Libyan embassy in East Berlin).
But in provision against a such Libyan terrorist response, had been staged a contingency plan for bombing with only a 48 hours delay selected targets in Libya under the code-name Prairie Fire, and executed as El Dorado Canyon, employing mainly as strike force F-111F of the 48th TFW with the support of EF-111A of the 20th TFW based on United Kingdom, and A-6E from the aircrafts carriers USS America and USS Coral Sea.
This scenario represents the historically present forces, and speculates about the possibility of an higher readiness grade on the Libyan forces, probable use of Pakistani, Cuban, East German and other nationalities loaned or mercenary pilots, a greater fighting will of the Libyan dictator Gaddafi, and less fear to sustain losses by the Libyan side, to later keep supporting his Saharan and Sub-Saharan campaigns.
 
Enrique Mas, October 2013.
 
 

Retake of Gibraltar attempt by Cougar 13, August 2013, alternate history scenario.
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB-130729 1980-2015 Platform Database.
 
Image: Armada Española's LHD Juan Carlos I L-61 with AV-8B+ Harrier II on the deck, Malaga Port 2013. Origin: Wikipedia Commons. Originally posted to Flickr by javicaselli at http://flickr.com/photos/9530856@N02/9167941808. It was reviewed on 8 July 2013
by the FlickreviewR robot and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0.
 
This scenario is better to be played initially from the Blue/Spanish side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red/UK/Portuguese/Moroccan side. It's a complex scenario with the most historical accurate possible OOBs.
 
The permanent crisis between Spain and the United Kingdom because the Gibraltar question was exacerbated in early August 2013 by the Gibraltar authorities planting a concrete reef in the neutral zone, provoking hard protest by the local Spanish fishermen.
In a surprising movement to increase his internal popularity after the imposition of tick and slow border controls the previous weeks, the weak Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy government, stormed Gibraltar with special forces and seize it in a few hours with low casualties in both sides.
As the Cold War was ended some twenty years ago, Gibraltar don't keep his previous strategic importance, and the assault was contemplated with indifference by United States and the European Union, and these countries expressed publicly his not intervention posture.
Also, Spain counts with the strange political support of Argentina and other far-left Latin-American countries because the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, but Spain rival in other commercial issues.
As casually all the British amphibious resources were compromised those days in the exercise Cougar 13, destination Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea, the United Kingdom decides can't wait for another better occasion to retake Gibraltar.
And probably the United Kingdom can count with the local support of the Spanish neighbours, Portugal because the Olivenza question, and Morocco because the conquest of Gibraltar legitimizes the military invasion by Morocco of the Spanish Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla in the Morocco's north coast.
This scenario reflects the very weak current situation of the British forces, without carrier fixed-wing aviation, without ASW and maritime patrol aircrafts, and without air-to-surface antiship missiles (short range and small Sea Skua aside). His main advantage against Spain are his SSN and his very great number of air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
Spain has the advantage of the proximity to the theatre of operations, carrier fixed-wing aviation, a few ASW and maritime patrol aircrafts, and a few air-launched Taurus cruise missiles. But the Spanish submarine force is in transition and weak, and the support of Morocco and Portugal to the United Kingdom side can be decisive.
This scenario is qualified as "alternate history scenario" because the Orders of Battle represent those at the crisis start.
 
Generic unnamed places are:
ZIa Angads-Oujda Airport OUD/GMFO.
ZJa Al Aroui-Nador International Airport NDR/GMMW.
ZKa Marrakech-Menara Airport RAK/GMMX.
ZLa Moulay Ali Cherif-Errachidia Airport ERH/GMFK.
ZMa Mohammed V-Casablanca Airport CMN/GMMN.
ZNa Sania Ramel-Tetouan Airport TTU/GMTN.
ZOa Cherif Al Idrissi-Al Hoceima Airport AHU/GMTA.
ZPa Ibn Batoutta-Tangier Airport TNG/GMTT.
ZQa Ben Guerir air base (The reactivated base for the Moroccan F-16. An old SAC base and old Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing Site) -/-.
ZRp Casablanca City and Naval Base.
AMp Spanish Autonomous City of Melilla and Port.
ANp Spanish Autonomous City of Ceuta and Port.
AOa Melilla Airport MLN/GEML.
APp Alboran Island and Military Garrison.
AQp Malaga Port and City.
ARa Manises-Valencia Airport VLC/LEVC.
ASa Matacan-Salamanca Air Base and Airport SLM/LESA.
ATa Villanubla-Valladolid Air Base and Airport VLL/LEVD.
AUa Alcantarilla Air Base -/LERI.
AWa San Javier-Murcia Air Base and Airport MJV/LELC.
AXa Lavacolla-Santiago de Compostela Airport SCQ/LEST.
AYa El Prat-Barcelona Airport BCN/LEBL.
AZa Bilbao Airport BIO/LEBB.
 
Enrique Mas, August 2013.

Operation Attain Document III, 1986. Historical Scenario.
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB-130603 1980-2015 Platform Database.
 
U.S. Navy chart showing operations of the aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-60) during "Operation Attain Document III", 23 to 29 March 1986. "FIR" stands for (Tripoli) "Flight Information Region". The photos show a Libyan Sukhoi Su-22, a Dassault Mirage F.1 and a Libyan missile boat after having been attacked by U.S. Navy aircraft. Note: The map does not show the real geographical outlines!
Source: Wikipedia from the USS Saratoga (CV-60) 1985-86 cruise book available at Navysite.de
 
This scenario is designed to be played mainly from the Blue/US side. You should play many times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red/Libyan side. It's a complex scenario with the most historical possible OOBs.
Attain Document I, IIA and III were a series of operations executed by the US Navy during the first months of 1986 sailing the Gulf of Sidra, which Gadaffi's Libya claims as internal waters from 1973. Those operations were in support of his Freedom of Navigation (FON) program, challenging territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace that are considered excessive by the United States (as also in the Black Sea or some Far East cases). As a precaution against possible asymmetric or dissimilar Libyan retaliations, it was planned the contingency plan Prairie Fire (nickname after changed to El Dorado Canyon), consisting of air strikes to chosen Libyan targets from which terrorist operations could be planned or executed.
After probing the Libyan response with the phases Attain Document I and IIA in January and February 1986 remaining just north of the so-called line of death, came the ultimate execution of the plan. Composed by three Carrier Battle Groups (CVBG of the USS America (CV-66), USS Coral Sea (CV-43, with the first operative F/A-18A in the USN and USMC, Attain Document III was also the first operational use of AGM-88 HARM, the Tomahawks not were yet operative) and USS Saratoga (CV-60)) TF-60 under command of Rear Admiral Frank D. Kelso II executed Attain Document III penetrating the waters of the Gulf of Sidra with a Surface Action Group (SAG) composed by USS Ticonderoga (CG-47), USS Scott (DDG-945) and USS Caron (DD-970), crossing below 32-30 North at 241100Z March 1986 (1200 Libyan time) and exiting the area at 271432Z March 1986, remaining for more than 75 hours sailing in station.
From that very moment the Libyan forces showed an aggressive behaviour towards the US Forces, ratifying the spirit and outcome of certain previous historical skirmishes. The Libyans launched long range SAM against USN planes, realized some offensive CAP and tried to approach his PTM near anti-ship missile launch range.
This scenario represents the historically present forces, and speculates about the possibility of an higher readiness grade on the Libyan forces, probable use of Pakistani, Cuban, East German and other nationalities loaned or mercenary pilots, a greater fighting will of the Libyan dictator Gaddafi, and less fear to sustain losses by the Libyan side, to later keep supporting his Saharan and Sub-Saharan campaigns.
Note: historically the F-14A Tomcat were limited to employ the AIM-7 Sparrow semi-active radar homing as medium range missile on this and most of his operations in the Mediterranean theater of operations, to avoid an AIM-54 Phoenix active radar homing missile locking accidentally on a neutral plane.
 
Unnamed places are:
AKr Lampedusa US Coast Guard LORAN-C station, Italy.
YRa Misrata AB, MRA/HLMS, Libya.
ZHa Al Bumbah North AB, -/HL68, Libya.
ZIa Al Jufra AB, -/HL69, Libya.
ZJa Marsa Brega Airport, LMQ/HLMB, Libya.
ZLa Okba Ibn Nafa AB, -/-, Libya.
ZMa Ghurdabiya-Sirte AB, SRX/HLGD, Libya.
ZNa Ghadames East AB, LTD/HLTD, Libya.
ZOa Benghazi-Benina AB, BEN/HLBB, Libya
ZVa Gamal Abdul El Nasser AB (using Sheba), -/-, Libya.
 
Enrique Mas, June 2013.

From 1992. NATO forces try to prevent a Syrian takeover of Cyprus.

Western Sahara Tin Can Sailors, circa 1985:
 
Note: In this scenario, to avoid spoilers, it is better to play the Spanish/Blue side first a few times, and only after play the Polisario Front/Moroccan/Red side, and keeping in mind the special considerations writed in the Red Orders.
 
My aim in this scenario is to capture the flavour of small and very limitated conflicts, almost naval guerrilla warfare. It's also inspired by the recent implementation of the Lepanto/Fletcher class destroyers in the simulation DataBase and of course in the vivid historical events of our recent past.
Historical introduction:
In the first eighties, when the then modern Descubierta class frigate was introduced in the Spanish Navy, the venerable Pacific War veterans Fletcher class destroyers (nicknamed Los Cinco Latinos) were detached from the original Destroyer Squadron 21 (On that time renamed Escort Squadron 21) homeported in Cartagena, and scattered between the different Spanish local sea commands or Zonas Maritimas.
D-21 Lepanto and D-22 Almirante Ferrandiz were from 1980 detached from the Destroyer Squadron 21 and employed on secondary roles as High Seas Patrol ship in the Canary Islands Maritime Zone (Lepanto was later transferred to the Cantabrian Sea Maritime Zone from 1983).
 
This scenario depicts a amalgamation of a series of difficult, confuse, censored and very unknown incidents between the Spanish patrol forces and the Western Saharan Polisario Front and the Moroccan Forces, fighting for the control of the old province of Spanish Sahara.
As examples on 1980 Almirante Ferrandiz was apparently straffed by a Moroccan Mirage F1, and on 1985 in other incidente the Anaga class patrol gunboat Tagomago was attacked from the shore by unknown origin 12.7mm and 106mm recoiless shots, causing one dead, and Almirante Ferrandiz was called on her help.
After Spain the Western Sahara territory was claimed by the own Saharawis integrated in the Polisario Front, Morocco, Argelia and Mauritania.
Both Polisario Front and Morocco were trying to do maritime actions vindicatives of the disputated territory control, basically exercing control of the Spanish and other fishermen traditionally fishing on the Western Sahara bank. Morocco trying it with action as an apparent transnational law enforce, and Polisario Front exerciting attacks with inflatable boats, shore firing and kidnapping of fishermen and his crews.
We must remember Western Sahara economy is bases almost exclusively on fishing which employs two thirds of his labour force, but now they are suspictions about the existence of reasonably exploitable off-shore oil fields, but his explotation is today doubtious because the international law.
The European Union fishing agreements with Morocco include Western Sahara, but they are many doubts about if this is adjusted to the international law and were denonced as unlawful recently.
 
Note about the map: I've chosed the Mediterranean Sea map because I don't think worth to make another specialized map for this scenario with the Canary Islands adding nothing to the scenario and the playability, and so the installation of the scenario is improved and easier. Western Sahara coast and Canary Islands is some 270 nm southwest of the southwest map corner, but the distances and angles between the bases is the same as in the real world, after a vertical rotation over the horizontal axis and a rightward rotation over the vertical axis.
 
Notes about the platforms: The 802 Squadron Spanish Fokker 27-200 Maritime for SAR duties were actually of a older type, without weapons neither ESM, the Blue player must not use them armed. The 462 Squadron Spanish Mirage F1EE were apparently only trained for the Canary Islands air defence, without surface attack capabilities.
 
Generic unnamed places are:
 
ZYa El Aaioun Airport GSAI/GMML, Western Sahara.
ZZa Sidi Ifni Airport GMMF, Morocco.
 
AAs Gando Air Base GCLP, Canary Islands, Spain.
 
Enrique Mas, January 2012

Operation Lancette, 15 May 1981. Historical Scenario.
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for Mediterranean Battleset and the HCDB-140909 1980-2015 era Platform Database.
 
Image: The French aircraft carrier Clemenceau (R98) underway in the Mediterranean Sea. The photo was taken by a U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat from Fighter Squadron VF-84 Jolly Rogers, Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8), from the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) using a TARPS reconnaissance pod. November 1981. Taked from Wikipedia Commons.
 
This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/French side or from the Red/Soviet side. You should play a few times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red side.
 
A simple and introductory scenario based on historical facts.
In the heydays of the Cold War at a time of particular tension, two days after the Pope John Paul II assassination attempt in Rome instigated by the Bulgarian/Soviet Secret Services, was the moment of one of the most scaring naval situations in the Cold War,
Just when the Clemenceau CVBG and his reduced peacetime escort was sailing from Toulon for the exercise Coriolan, was detected a submarine contact by the ASW picket (DDs Georges Leygues and Guepratte) only 50 nautical miles from Toulon and actively stalking the carrier group.
The subsequent Operation Lancette was launched, resulting in the chase of the unknown submarine continuously for more than eighteen hours and with the submarine alternating creep speeds with peaks of 28-30 knots and even passing below the Georges Leygues towed sonar array. La Royale (French Navy) employed both forward escort destroyers, Lynx helicopters and Atlantic ASW planes based in the very near BAN Nimes-Garons, and at last forced she to surfacing. Ultimately she was visually identified on surface at night from a Lynx helicopter of the Georges Leygues as a Soviet Victor-type SSN and compelled to quit the area.
But this scenario represents the possibility of the things going wrong and hot, and both sides firing in anger at the enemy forces.
This scenario also could gives an idea of the difficult submarine hunting, the difficult of hunting surface ships with submarines without long range target determination, the limited sonar ranges and convergence zone feasibility on a sea with high levels of salinity and density, the high limitations of small diesel-electric submarines employed as hunter-killers against SSN (the French SSN force was then yet two years on the future), and about the necessity of employing half of the French Aeronavale ASW forces to catch only one submarine, even when she was fortunately emplaced very near to a main ASW air base.
 
Key of the unnamed Air Bases:
AGa BAN Nimes-Garons LFTW, France (closed on July 2011).
 
At Nimes-Garons on this time period were based two Aeronavale ASW units, the Flotille 21F equipped with Atlantic and the Flotille 6F with Alize.
 
Enrique Mas, December 2011.

Part 2: Meatgrinder in the Med
 
In the summer of 2019 Iran's nuclear weapons program was finally about to bear fruit. Israel used nuclear weapons to halt it. Outraged, the world imposed a complete embargo on Israel. The United States decided to break the embargo, by force if necessary.
 
In a stunning display of martial prowess, the US Navy and Air force blasted their way across the Atlantic Ocean, sweeping all opposition from their path as they shepherded a relief convoy through the Straits of Gibraltar. Spain an Morocco have been knocked out of the fight. But as the ships of the relief convoy pass the Straits, their crews know that the hard part of the mission is just beginning. Everything Europe, Russia, and northern Africa can muster to stop them will be waiting for them, and the Mediterranean is never more than a few hundred miles wide at best. With no place to hide, what has already been an horrifically bloody fight looks to get much, much worse.
 
Inspired by, but not quite based upon, a series of posts by Christopher Irvine on the HULL mailing list a few years back. Thanks, Chris!

A Mediterranean basically ASW scenario inspired by the old scenario booklets of the Harpoon 3 series of the late 1980s and early 1990s, good for easy gameplay and for testing generic tactics and weapons. Actually is a mix-up of individual naval scenarios as only the Computer Harpoon can provide. And reflecting all the knowledge adquired the last years in some matters, as about Soviet/Russian platforms and forces composition.
The scenario is also a tribute to the USS Cabot CVL-28/SNS Dedalo R01 and her American and Spanish crews. Dedalo/Cabot was a Leyte Gulf veteran, survivor of two Kamikaze impacts and many more suicide attacks, and called by Admiral Halsey "Iron Lady". Serving in the Spanish Armada from 1967 as helicopter carrier and equipped with Harriers from 1972, historically Dedalo was decommisioned contemporary to the scenario timeline, traversed the Atlantic Ocean the last time from 12 July 1989 towards New Orleans and was sadly scrapped on 2002 after some failed attempts to preserve she as museum ship.
 
The scenario reflects the start of the conventional WWIII as was forecasted for about 1989, the first movements in the Mediterranean Sea to determinate the early control of the sea lanes, and the first days of open combat after the previous period of Phoney War.
Modification 18 April 2011: missing ASW patrols in the Dedalo group added.
Modification 9 May 2011: 1xalternative starting point changed for Agosta, to prevent running aground.
 
Enrique Mas, April 2011

Antaeus
 
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 MEDC battleset.
 
This scenario is designed for play by the BLUE side only.
 
Having become engulfed in the protests and demonstrations cascading across Middle Eastern nations, Libya is now in full revolt. Benghazi has fallen to, some might say been liberated by, the anti-government movement which is sweeping west toward Tripoli. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, leader of this North African country for more than 40 years, refuses to leave power and is instead tightening his grip. Although many have abandoned the regime, a considerable number of forces still loyal to Gaddafi have been conducting arrests, abductions, and killings to try and stop the tides of change. It is reported that Gaddafi is promising wealth and position to local officials, political leaders and armed forces commanders in an effort to guarantee their support and obedience. With the military now taking an active role in suppressing the rebels, launching air strikes and ground attacks, the country is slipping rapidly into civil war.

From 1992. The Sea Sparrow incident escalates.

Evacuation through the Alboran Sea 2012:
 
This scenario is modified for employ the new planes and ships included now in the Data Base reflecting the composition and modernization of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. But it's compulsory to do mention of the historical facts: After I wrote this scenario (February 2011) the theorically moderate islamist Justice and Development Party won the November 2011 polls, and his candidate Abdelilah Benkirane was appointed First Minister of Morocco. As consequence, now in Morocco the government is clearly islamist and the facts below narrated as scenario background are only fiction, but not is fiction the current islamist government of Morocco ...
 
I've some good friends in Ceuta and Melilla and also in Morocco. This scenario is inspired from and dedicated to them. I hope it will not scare them too much ...
 
Note: In this scenario, to avoid spoilers, it is better to play the Spanish/Blue side first a few times, and only after play the Moroccan-Islamist/Red side.
 
Spring 2012: As a last backslash to the 2011 turmoils in the North Africa and Middle East Muslim World, in Morocco the moderate laicist Government of National Unity of Abdelhadi Boucetta (With the decisive support of his intellectual and glamorous wife) replacing for less than a year the deposed King Mohammed VI (Exiled to the ONA-Managem luxury mining facilities in Equatorial Guinea), has been overthrowed by the Islamic extremists after a long and painful agony.
The new Moroccan islamist Government of the now named Muslim Brotherhood in the Islamic Maghreb, counts with the opposition of a important sector of the Moroccan people, basically the most literate and pro-Western sector. Preventing a possible unrest, remembering the internal public reaction to the ill-fated Moroccan invasion of the Spanish Perejil Island on 2002, the new Islamic government has fixed as national target for amagalmation of the public opinion the seizure of the North-African Spanish Automous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, a long-time Moroccan claim.
As both cities are very vulnerable without room for a possible in depth military defence, and the other new strategic targets and ambitions of the Spanish Government are now well known and the last years was retiring troops and police corps from both Ceuta and Melilla, there is a window of vulnerability the Islamic faction has well exploited.
With a Moroccan Police and Secret Service organized human waves of thousands of desesperate low-class Moroccan people jumping, breaking through, bending and for last tearing apart the divisory fence between both cities and Morocco, in face of the passivity of the Spanish security forces to avoid the loss of human lives (Action and reaction very similar to the Moroccan Green March occupation of the Spanish Sahara on November 1975, against a confuse Spanish government when Franco layed dying), the Moroccans had de facto occuppied both cities.
Facing a not-return case, the Spanish citizens are assembled by the authorities in the cities ports, waiting for maritime evacuation (Only Melilla counts with a very small airport).
Remembering the success of the current Somalia pirates, and the success of the traditional historical activity of the Barbary Coast pirates (Only finished with the French conquest in North Africa in the XIX Century, after the previous famous actions of the USN and USMC), and for enforce more the moral of the Moroccan People, the Islamic government has decided to prevent the evacuation and the loss of richess and qualified manpower. In the tradition of their ancestors the Barbary pirates, they want capture them for ransom, or if not destroy and sunk the merchant ships carring them, to shown the weakness of the Spanish government and his incapatility to protect his own nationals.
 
In Spain, after the 2012 polls, the unstable socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his long-time Defence Minister Carmen Chacon, has had to suffer the pressure of the peripherical nationalistic parties of his coalition of government, and to lend to his desires.
After the resignation of General Felix Sanz Roldan as head of the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and his replacement by a puppet civilian, nothing can be opposed to the nationalistic parties desires.
As their first demand is the recuperation of the old territories of the Kingdom of Aragon, most of the surface forces of the Spanish Navy and a great number of his air assets are deployed in forward bases in the Balearic Islands and in the Central Mediterranean.
As a result of it, facing the worst-case possible scenario, only limited forces are available for escorting the evacuation of Spanish refugees from Ceuta and Melilla.
 
Generic unnamed places are:
ZMa Ben Guerir (The reactivated base for the Moroccan F-16. An old SAC base and old Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing Site).
ZLa Ibn Batoutta-Tangier Airport.
ZNb Casablanca City and Naval Base.
ZIa Al Massira-Agadir Airport.
ZHa Inezgane-Agadir Airport.
ZGa Cherif Al Idrissi-Al Hoceima Airport.
ZFa Sania Ramel-Tetouan Airport.
ZEa Ben Slimane Airport.
ZDa Mohammed V-Casablanca Airport.
ZCa Anfa-Casablanca Airport.
ZBa Moulay Ali Cherif-Errachidia Airport.
ZAa Mogador-Essaouira Airport.
YZa Saiss-Fes Airport.
YYa Ifrane Airport.
YXa Marrakech-Menara Airport.
YWa Al Aroui-Nador International Airport.
YVa Ouarzazate Airport.
YUa Angads-Oujda Airport.
YTa Sidi Ifni Airport.
 
AVb Spanish Autonomous City of Ceuta and Port.
AUb Spanish Autonomous City of Melilla and Port.
AWa Melilla Airport.
AXb Alboran Island and Military Garrison.
AZa Son San Juan-Palma de Mallorca Airport
BAa Manises-Valencia Airport.
AYb Malaga Port and City.
BBa Mahon Airport.
BCn Mahon Port and City.
BDa Matacan-Salamanca Air Base and Airport.
BEa Villanubla-Valladolid Air Base and Airport.
BFa Alcantarilla Air Base.
BHa San Javier-Murcia Air Base and Airport.
BIa Lavacolla-Santiago de Compostela Airport.
BJa El Prat-Barcelona Airport.
BKa Bilbao Airport.
 
Enrique Mas, February 2011
 
P.D.: resolved the unspected issue of both transport task forces running aground in Malaga Bay. Updated 27 February 2011 10:43
Updated: July 1, 2012, to include the new Moroccan ship and planes now included in the Data Base, specially the Mirage F1EM VI with MICA AAMs.

From 1992. Airpower:a Balkan alliance against Turkey.

From 1992. The USSR vs. Israel.

This was only meant to be a minor revision of my previous "Back Door" to correct a minor 'undesirable', but the scenario has become quite different to play so I thought I'd post it separately.
Generally similar to 'Back Door' but this should be (usually) less hectic at the start but with with more action spread through the voyage and a couple of possible possible surprises at what might be the end?
Don Thomas

For EC2003, continuing my saga of UK/French fisty cuffs. The (I think last) third in the saga.
Your British carrier group has to cruise to port in Gibraltar and dodge one or two French nasties.
Depending on your luck with the groups initial (variable) positions this can end in a naval gunnery battle, or rather nasty sub attack (or both). Hope you enjoy it.
Don

By request, a modified "Breakout", with a saner starting position and more friendly assets. Upgraded to HCBD100208, with a new obstacle (guess what!). 3 days added to time. Sorry for my lousy playtesting. Duck.

From 1998. Vertical assault, and more.

Like "Breakout", but MUCH harder- same opposition, less assets. For brave boys only. DUCK. Difficulty has been reduced, a little.