Beargrowlz

I'll be reallydisappointed if they take the infantryman's best friend - the titanium bathtub armed to the teeth - the A-10 Warthog out of service. I can see many uses for a multi-role fighter like the F-35, but for CAS you need a hammer and anvil, not a stealthy fighter with a limited payload. I had optimistic hopes for the JSF to replace the ageing Harrier fleet on Marine Corps LHD's, but with what appears to be their reduced CAS capabilities the "multi-role" is shrinking more and more. Cheers, -Bear

Where's Silver Tower When You Need It? An AAR By Beargrowlz Scenario: Silver Tower Battleset: HDSC-HDS III-IOPG Scenario Author: wombat1417 I loved the book "Silver Tower" by Dale Brown when I read it some 25 or so years ago so this scenario peaked my interest. I was excited to play it and despite a somewhat disappointing finish, found the experience well worth the effort. This would be the first scenario I played with The Ultimate Edition - but as my HCE had been up to date, I don't believe there were any differences in play. My orders were simple - prevent the Russian invasion of Iran. Diplomatically my hands were tied behind my back. In order to prevent the spread of conflict beyond Iran, National Command Authority forbade me from striking the Russian air base at Dallyar - a base which would not refrain from striking me. I was also tasked with destroying a Kusnetsov Class Carrier and getting three transport Starlifters to Bandar Abbas. My assets were outnumbered, especially when one coniders the apparent uselessness of the Iranian Air Force. Predominatly flying the M-238N Flogger, Iranian aircraft would have to adopt a wait and attack policy once Russian aircraft entered a four mile zone of their airfields. Iranian Air Force MIG-238N-Flogger My main force was a CVBG centered around the CVN Nimitz with an air wng of F/A-18E Hornets which would serve in both a CAP and strike capacity. I also had 18 B-52G's - minus the nifty toys the H upgrade would give in in the 2000's, a dozen F-16C Eagles, all at Diego Garcia. Finally, at the USAF base in Riyadh I had 6 F-15C Eagles and 18 F-16C Falcons at my disposal. Silver Tower theater opening map. With poor Iranian C3I, my two AEW E-2 Sentries at Riyadh and my three E-2C Hawkeyes on Nimitz would require constant fight protection if I were to have any C3I in theater. Before I could do anything about finding the Kusnetsov (which turned out to be the Varyag), I had to significantly bolster the poor Iranian air defence - remember, I needed to keep Bandar Abbas in play to bring in relief from the three Starlifters. I immediately sent 12 of the Nimitz's Hornets to Bandar Abbas. I then sent 6 F-16's from Riyadh to Tehran and 6 to Bandar Abbas, keeping 6 Falcons and 6 Eagles at Riyadh with the Sentries. The 12 Eagles made the long ferry haul to Bandar Abbas from Diego Garcia. It was crucial to get American fighters into position to supplement the weak Iranian Air Force. Now if the Iranian Air Force could hold out for an hour or so, my active half an air wing from the Nimitz should have been been able to fly CAP over BandarAbbas while the ferrying fighters arrived and got reloaded. Bad news right from the start. Three lightly armed Iranian Navy class PG Boghammers got torched by the Russian CVBG way up north in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait City. The good news however, was that the srategy of holding the Iranian Floggers on the airfirleds until Russian bombers were close to thee four mile distance of their AA-2 Atoll worked smashingly well. We did llose a small number of Floggers but a very manageable number while limiting the damage to 20% at Tehran with no damage to Bandar Abbas as the Nimitz air wing did a superior job against inferior Russian strike assets. As the ferried Eagles, Falcns and Hornets readied, I used the Hornets to launch a strike on the Kusnetsov CVBG in the Northern Persian Gulf. It managed to kill three Russian cruisers/destroyers and I followed it up quickly with a V-22 Osprey strike, which took out one more escort ship. Still no joy on killing the Kusnetsov, but I could feel I was getting close. At this point I recovered the Hornets I had sent to Bandar Abbas and began moving the Nimitz CVBG through the Guulf of Oman and into the Indian Ocean. My ferry of Eagles had discovered a Russian battle group and I had attempted a strike with 6 B-52's to no avail. So I began the hunt anew. Still in range of the Kusnetsov, I launched three simultaneous Hornet raids on the Kusnetsov - limiting the aircraft in each strike because they would be flying at the very margis of their strike range. All three groups - a total of 14 Hornets - fired their Harpoons almost simultaneously and the Kusnetsov stood no chance, especially with her escort gone. A Hornet strike finally caught up with the Kuznetsov Class CVN Varyag. We finally broke the back of the CVN Varyag ad sent her to the bottom. While the Nimitz headed into the into the Idian Ocean, the raiders from Dallyar were being repelled easily and at this point, we were suffering zero air losses with the Iranian airfields being defended by USAF Eagles and Falcons. So I took the opportunity to launch aother B-52 raid on the distant Russian CVBG near the horn of India. I was shocked to find the group had three carriers but managed to take out the CVH Kiev before being chased off, a second carrier kill - this one for the B-52's. A stern note of protest was received at the State Department in Washington from the Indian Government for my violation of their neutrality with an overflight of B-52's in Indian air space. By this time the Starlifter transports were safely at Bandar Abbas and i had killed two carriers. After killing the Varyag, I had received noticew of a minimum victory. I though getting the Starlifters to BandarAbbas and having killed a second Russian carrier would give me a total victory, but received no message to that effect so I continued south, althought it would be extremely unlikely for me to get the Nimitz CVBG into strike range before time ran out. This is where the tide turned, and I am not exactly sure why. With very little tie left in the cenario, still well out of distance of the Russian CVBG, with no warning of an aircraft, sun, torpedo or incoing missile all of a sudden one of hy Perry Class escorts just mysteriously sunk. I continued to proceed south not having any idea what happed to my escort, when all of a sudden from the west came a large barrage of missiles including 8 nukes. Despite the valliant attempts of my airborne Hornets and escorts the nukes got the Nimitz - a first for me as I have never seen nukes actually used in Harpoon. Nukes got the Nimitz. So the huge aircraft loss is the result of my very disappoointing loss of the Nimitz. In the end I still don't know what hit me, and despite achieving a minimum victory at game end, I can't help but be very disappointed in myself for losing the Nimitz. I sure could have used Silver Tower's Armstrong Space Station with the laser star wars defense from the novel in the sky today, that's for sure. Minimum victory aside, I have to rate my play as a D or an F for losing such a major asset. It really was inexcusable. And it's even more inexcusablke as I still don't know what hit me. Silver Tower final map. If there was any lesson I took away from this performance it was the huge value of long range recon aircraft. Having none in my force prevented me from searching the Indian Ocean for other threats - though I might have countered this by sending more limited range fighters on recon missions to make up for the lack of long range assets. I want to thank wombat1417 for the work he put into this scenarior trying to recreate one of my favorite thrillers from the 1980's. It was difficult to recreate the frenetic activity in the Iranian Theater of the book without the use of land forces. A remake of this scenario now that HUCE has moveable land units might capture the thrill of the book even more. But in the end, it was still very enjoyable to play, though disappointing in my play at the very end. Many thanks wombat1417.

Yes, those long range missiles are certainly a huge advantage. I can see how I could get a bit lazy depending on them.

World War in the Pacific An After Action Report By: Beargrowlz Scenario: Third Idea Battleset: WestPac Scenario Author: Brad Leyte I received orders to protect a number of Japanese surface groups, the Japanese mainland and destroy enemy presence on Naha (the southwestern tip of the Japanese islands) and the Kurils (Northeastern tip). (One note here, the orders call for retaking objective YYb in the Kurils, but there is no YYb. I assume the author meant objectives YYb and or ZOa, also in the Kurils). The tasks looked daunting at first. With only one United States CVBG available, and at that over 1000 miles from the Japanese Home Islands and to the west of Guam,and two distant American bases - AndersonAFB on Guam (1300 miles away) and Shemya (1400 miles) in the Aleutians and no South Korean or Taiwanese assistance, all of the heavy lifting early on in the battle would have to be borne by the forces of the Japanese Self-Defense Force, under strength units compared the the joint Sino-Russian forces and platforms I had little familiarity with to boot. The "Third Idea" Battlemap. This would be a challenge operating outside of my comfort zone. My first task was to prepare my aircraft with the various loadouts I thought I would need in the short haul. I started with my strategic assets. At Erickson I armed the eight (8) B-52H's I had with a Precis-LR loadout comprising of ten (10) AGM-86C CALCM's and ten (10) AGM-86C Blk 1 CALCM's, both of which have a range of 1100 miles. This would put these powerful and extremely versatile aircraft in play against Naha (an objective) and southern Chinese bases within thirty (30) minutes without having the need to move them into a staging area on the Home Islands. These eight (8) Stratofortresses would give me enormous strategic theater capability as two of them alone armed with the CALCM normally are enough to destroy an enemy base. I also has six (6) B-1B Lancers and four (4) B2-Spirits at my disposal aon Guam and I armed all ten (10) with a Precis-LR loadout of AGM-158 JASSM's, twenty-four (24) for each Lancer and eight (8) for each black beauty. At this point I made a significant error in judgement - fortunately it did not end up hurting me. Instead of staging the Lancers and Spirits to Tokyo or Hamamatsu on the Home Islands for use against far eastern Chinese or Russian bases, I kept them on Guam, thinking I would use them against southern Chinese bases,, forgetting the eight (8) Superfortresses gave me more than ample trhrow weight to take care of southern China. The B-52H Stratofortress carries 40 cruise missiles with a firing range of 1100 miles. The deadliest platform in Harpoon? At Shemya, I had two (2) more Lancers, which I eqipped with the same payload as those at Anderson. Their early campaign targets would be Petropovlovsk and Yelisovo in far eastern Russia and later against the Sino-Russian bases in the Kurils. I armed my twelve F-16C/D Blk 50's the same as the Lancers. I armed my twelve (12) F-15E Strike Eagles with a Precis-LR loadout of two (2) AGM-130's and four (4) AMRAAM's. The six (6) F-22 Raptors I kept with an Intercept package of six (6) AMRAAM'S and two (2) Sidewinders. The plan was to utilize the Strike Eagles in tandem with the Lancers against the Russian bases as well as the bases in the Kurils because of their long range abilities. I did not think clearly about how I was going to use the F-16's, and again made the mistake of not staging them to a base in the Home Islands, reducing both my strategic and defensive firepower. Finally, the Home Islands' defense was going to be simple - in loadouts, not in ease of accomplishment. I set the F-15J's to an Escort loadout which loaded them with four (4) AIM Sparrow's and four (4) AAM-3's. Whomever's decision it was - the Japanese or American government's - not to arm the Japanese F-15J's with AMRAAM's makes the defense of Japan significantly more difficult than it should be. The F-2(FS-x)'s were set with Intercept packages of four (4) AAM-4 (Type 99)'s and two (2) shortrange AAM-3's. Finally the F-4EJ Kai's were loaded with an Intercept package of four (4) AIM-7F Sparrows and four (4) Sidewinders. The burden of defending the Japanese Home Islands would rest primarily with the Mitsubishi F-2(FS-X). I would be using the entire Japanese Self-Defense Air Force for defending the Home Islands and utilizing the offensively superior American air and naval forces to strike at China and Russia. This would leave me with no ability to conduct offensive strikes from the Home Islands, but I was seriously concerned about haing the inferior Japanese air assets overwhelmed by the combined Sino-Russian air forces. As for the carrier group, the CVN USS George W. Bush, as it turned out it would play no part in the conflict. But I armed it's thirty-two (32) F-18E Block II's with mixes of Precis-LR Slammers or with Intercept packages of AMRAAM'S. The F-18C's I had I loaded with ASuW packages of Harpoons, AMRAAM'S and Sidewinders. The Flag of my CVBG, the CVN USS George H.W. Bush Here as well I made a critical mistake. The carrier group as a whole would turn out to be too far to play a significant part in the action, but I could have ferried a significant portion of it's Air Wing to the Home Islands and made the defense of Japan that much easier. Instead, the CVBG was limited to running wild weasel (SEAD) missions in front of the B-52 strikes, mostly unsuccessfully. Once I determined loadouts, my first priority was getting my AWACS eyes up in the air over the battlefield. I covered the entire Japanese chain of islands with a mixture of E-2C Hawkeyes and E-767 AEW's as well as fighter escorts. I had the fighters flying High CAP with sensors on, in addition to the radar blarng AWACS. As expected on came wave after wave of Russian and Chinese hostiles. They were sperior to my fighter defense net and I was losing too many fighters. I resorted to flying into their AAM range to draw their fire and using afterburners to disengage with the goal of equalizing their attack ranges with my fighters, and then reengaging on more favorable terms. This worked to some extent as I sufferred fewer loses, but still more than I found acceptable. I would need to rethink my air defense strategy if I wanted to reduce the level of losses to an acceptable number and still protect my AWACS. Meanwhile, I launced a strategic bombing raid on Petropavlovsk across the Bering Strait from Shemya of two (2) B-1B Lancers armed with twenty-four (24) AGM-158 JASSM'S - enough firepower to destroy the base if both made it through, or so I thought. I complicated matters a bit by flying CAP with my F-22's over Shemya, as this brought the unwanted attention of Russian fighter craft over the Bering Strait. Still, with some skill maneuvering the stealthy Lancers managed to avoid detection and their JASSM's hit home. Unfortunately I slightly iscalculated and the strike managed to only damage 98% of the base, memaning another strike would be required. The stealthy B1B Lancer performed well against the Russians in the North Pacific. At the same time I was raiding Petropavlovsk, I launched three (3) seperate B-52 strikes against southern China and one (1) against one of my primary objectives, Naha, Japan. Each strike consisted of two B-52's armed with forty (40) CALCM's. The strikes took out Naha, Japan as well as Yiwi and Daishan China, but did only 12% damage to Ningobo Zhangqiao. I would begin prepping another B-52 strike as soon as they returned to Erickson. While these offenive actions were taking place and my carrier group slowly meandered it's way towards Tokyo where it planned to engage the CVBG northwest of Misawa that had taken out Surface Group AMS (one of the groups I was charged with protecting) by flying strikes across the Home Islands - something I could have achieved by ferrying part of my airwing to aJapanese base but failed to do - my defense of Japan was frenetic as ever. I still believed I was taking far too many loses in fighter defense. I had to find another way to countervail the superior firing range of the Sino-Russiian aircraft. I decided to gamblew on a new tactic. I would leave my AWACS aircraft up as bai, hoping they would be enough to detect all incoming hostiles and send my fighters to the deck at VLow and turn off their radars. I was hoping to then be able to maneuver into my firing range, which was well inside hostile firing range, without being detected. It orked magnificently. Red losses began to mount and the rate of downed friendlies drastically decreased. I was very pleased with this result and the battle over the Home Islands turned in faor of the good guys once and for all. Having failed to protect Task Force AMS I did manage to chase away all hostile raids against orces AOS and even fought a successful sea engagement with Force AKS centered around the DD Asagiri Class Setagiri, resulting in eight (8) destroyed hostile ships and one (1) damaged while losing none with two damaged. The Japanese Naval Self-Defense Force aquitted itself quite well on the day with it's losses coming due to the lack of successful CAP. Having turned the tide over the Home Islands, I turned back to offense in the Aleitians and southern China. My F-22 Raptors out of Shemya fought a successful fighter engagement over the Bering Strait, chasing Russian CAP back to base. With Petropalovsk damaged at 98% I decided it would be a waste to risk the B1B's so instead I sent an Alpha Strike of six (6) F-15 Strike Eagles, armed with AGM-130A's with a firing range of forty (40) miles. The F-15E Strike Eagle proved largely ineffective. Despite flying VLow with radar's off, the Strike Eagles were detected well out and thew Russians scramblewd hostile fighters. The F-15's, unlike the B1B's, were unable to avoid detection and engaged them and drove them off but at a loss of three (3) of the six (6) Strke Eagles. The F-15's then proceeded to carry out their bombing run, but were unsuccessful as either Russian CAP or AAM's took out the entire strike package, leaving me with three (3) downed Strike Eagles and a hostile base still a 98% damage. Basically a costly waste of time and resources. Meanwhile to the south, I finally woke up and began the long ferry of sending my six (6) Lancers and four (4) B-2's to Tokyo in hope of getting them involved in the action. However, I would end up winning the scenario before they could be of any use. I also launched four more strikes against southern China, but the log travel time of the CALCM's meant they would not hit their targets prior to achieving Total Victory. Hostile losses continued to mount over the Home Islands with the new fighter tactic of keeping my defensive fighters VLow with no radar emissions. I have to admit that aside from being very pleased at beig able to turn the tide of battle like this, I was quite surprised at the success of the tactic. I have always flown my defensive fighters at high with radars on, but I am also used to managing mainly American or Isreali fighters with superior ranges than the OPFOR. Despite the successful long range bombing strikes, this was where the battle was won, and the victory resulted out of sheer frustration and desperation that resulted in my trying a tactic I had never before usen defensively. Just goes to show, you learn something new every day. With the defense of the Home Islands now assured, I did what I should have done in the first place instead of sending the Strike Eagles against Petropavlovsk. I sent another B1B Lancer strike, flying VLow with radars off. Again they avoid detection and destroyed Petropavlovsk and also damaged nearby Yelisovo 59%, returning home to Shemya safely. Endgame map. After already declaring that I had met the minimum victory conditions it was at this point that I received communication that I had achieved total victory. It was a rewarding victory as I particularly found the defense of the Home Islands quite challenging at first and was pleased my change of tactics on the fly had a significantly positive outcome. Despite the total victory, there were a number of lessons to be learned. First among these is to further explore the use of defensive fighters at VLow altitude with radars off. The success of this tactic merits further study on my part. Second is to get offensive assets where they can be put to use as soon as practicable. I could have used the six (6) B1B's and four (4) B-2's offesively if I had gotten them to the Home Islands sooner. A little forethought as to where critical assets could best be used would have gone a long way to making victory that much easier. Third, if you can't get the carrier there quickly, at least get some of it's air power in place to project it's power. I could have gotten a number of F-18's involved in offensive and defensive operations on the Home Islands while still having enough to adequately defend the CVBG. Air assets are not tied to a carrier but can be used in advance of a carrier's arrival. Again, a little forethought and planning would have gone a long way in this regard. Get those Hornets in the air so they can sting somebody! Project force and extend a carrier's range by forward staging part of its air wing to land bases. Finally, I could have put the Strike Eagles and F-16's to better use by ferrying them to the Home Islands and using them both as defenvise assets as well as strike craft. I left a lot of assets on the table that could have been put to use in making this battle much easier. As I said, the victory was quite rewarding. It was a joy to play this scenario, particularly because it took me far out of my comfort zone. It exposed me to a large number of aircraft I had never used and I was not on amiliar terrain in WestPac. The scenario was well designed and a wonderfully exciting challehnge. Many thanks to Brad Leyte for providing me this opportunity to have fun playing Harpoon from a brand new perspective. NB: I got my first whale kill ever in Harpoon. Nice touch Brad.