Herman

Submarine Corp to be sold off August 16, 2006 THE former Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC Pty Ltd) will be sold by the Federal Government. Finance Minister Nick Minchin announced today that following a scoping study into the possible sale of the company, the Government had decided to put it up for a competitive tender sale. He said the tender would most likely begin in late 2007, with a sale completed by the second half of 2008. The sale decision had been expected. Senator Minchin said a tender sale would protect the company's long term interests. "It is vital that ASC continue to have access to essential technical assistance from international partners and governments," he said. "A trade sale will allow the Government to ensure that the company's new owners are acceptable to overseas technology suppliers. "A trade sale will also allow the Government to assess the financial strength and industrial experience that potential buyers would bring to the company.'' Senator Minchin said the Government had flagged that ASC would not be sold until the Air Warfare Destroyer and amphibious ship contracts had been decided. He said selection of the prime shipbuilder for the amphibious ships and the "second pass approval" of the destroyer project should be completed by mid-2007. Senator Minchin said the Government's objectives for the sale included preserving and enhancing the long term viability of ASC, to minimise ongoing risks to the Government following privatisation, and to achieve value for money from the sale. "Any new owner of ASC will need to demonstrate its ability to comply with these sale objectives," he said. The Government also will cap foreign ownership on the company at 49 per cent. The chairman, chief executive officer and a majority of directors will have to be Australian citizens, while the ASC head office, substantial operations and place of incorporation will have to remain in Australia.

Looks like cold war-type operations never end. Navy searches for submarine in waters off Helsinki coastline Laboratory analysis fails to reveal source of unusual underwater sound The Finnish Navy searched for a possible submarine in the coastal waters just south of the capital Helsinki a little over a week ago. The search began after an unusual sound was detected by the Naval Underwater Surveillance Unit on the island of Isosaari, just ten kilometres off central Helsinki, at nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, August 5th. The search for the elusive audio trace continued well into the following day. A Rauma-class missile boat and the Coast Guard vessel Merikarhu were dispatched to look into the source of a sound signature atypical to surface vessels. Neither of the ships found anything unusual. A naval laboratory later analysed the recorded sound, but failed to establish its source. The possibility of a submarine cannot be eliminated, but the explanation for the sound signature can also be biological, Commodore Tapio Maijala believes. According to Maijala, this was the largest search of its kind this year. At the time of the incident, the underwater audibility was exceptionally good because of the prolonged hot and calm weather. In such conditions sound perceptions can be detected from tens of kilometres away. According to Lieutenant-Commander Jukka Alavillamo, a few submarine detections are made each year in the Gulf of Finland naval defence area. Alavillamo refrained from commenting on how many of these detections are in Finland's territorial waters. Unlike violations of Finnish airspace, submarine searches are not actively announced, as getting conclusive proof of underwater violations of territorial waters is extremely difficult. "We can only talk about definite observations if the submarine surfaces, or if we get an image using active sonar", Alavillamo explains. Numerous submarine sightings were made in Swedish coastal waters in the 1980s, but the only definite finding was the Soviet submarine that ran aground near Karlskrona in 1981. Of the Baltic Sea countries, only Russia, Sweden, Poland, and Germany have submarines. Russian submarines from the naval base in front of St. Petersburg are seen from time to time on the surface on their way to training exercises. According to newspapers, Russia tested a new, fourth-generation submarine from the St. Petersburg base last winter. The new vessels, the production of which is running years behind schedule, are meant to replace the antiquated models currently used by the Russian Navy. Export models are also aimed for the international market. Public domain sources reveal that the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet has presently three to four operational submarines.

Hellfire do not launch in ODb Hellfire missiles will not launch even though they appear in the weapons allocation window. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

SSK do not snort When a diesel submarine runs out of battery charge, it does not automatically rise to periscope depth to begin re-charging its batteries. Instead, it just sits at the last known depth. Also, even if a player manually orders it to periscope depth, the re-charge process does not work unless the submarine is moving. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Max launch speed restriction When a unit is travelling faster than the Maximum Allowable Launch Speed of the weapons it is carrying and tries to fire them, the weapon allocation table appears and the player is mistakenly given the choice of firing the weapon. The window no longer displays a warning message and restricts player from attempts to fire. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

I disagree that this is a bug. The SaveAs window shows the current save name, therefore the filter is to only show saved games with that exact name. It isn't the way you want it to work but I believe it works correctly. Still nice to have in this list in case someone decides to make that dialog more user-friendly. It was reported as a 'bug' since it is different from behaviour exhibited in H3.6.3 and in H3.7.0. If this is the new behaviour, then that's fine. However, I suspect that it isn't and is another recent unwanted change.

Missiles ignore cruise altitude Missiles fired at ground targets ignore the cruise altitude specified in the Database. These same missiles will fly at the proper cruise altitude when fired at ships. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Active sonobuoys do not deploy CASS Active Sonar Sonobuoys carried by S-2 Trackers do not deploy when the "Drop Active Sonobuoy" hotkey is depressed. However, they do deploy with "Drop Passive Sonobuoy". Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Active sonobuoys dropped passively Sonobuoys with active-only sonar systems are dropped in passive mode even when the "Drop Active Sonobuoy" hotkey is depressed. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

SAVE AS window error When SAVE or SAVE AS function is selected, other files with either *.SAV or *.SCN suffixes do not appear in the selection window.

Ships attacked by Ground Strike mission Units assigned to Ground Strike missions will attack ships. Maybe related to: Ground units attacked by Ship Strike mission Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Ground units attacked by Ship Strike mission Units assigned to Ship Strike missions will attack ground facilities. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Torpedoes ignore cruise depth Torpedoes ignore cruise depth set by the database even when the "Level Cruise Flight" flag has been set and a value has been entered in the "Cruise Altitude" field. They stay at the depth at which they were fired. Sample file for the ODb at StrategyZoneOnline

Multi-Player Chat Window appears in solitaire game After victory has been awarded to a player in solitaire mode, if the player elects to continue, a Multi-Player Chat Window opens when he selects "Yes". Saved game file for the PlayersDB at StrategyZoneOnline

ViCond polygons don't appear Only the polygon for the first ViCond appears even when other ViConds are selected.

Jamming detected underwater Submerged submarines can detect ships emitting ECM. Sample file has been attached for ODb. StrategyZoneOnline

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author: This scenario hosted at: SZO file archives - Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare HarpGamer.com - Home of the HCDB.

From the Matrix forum:

Cruise Control The 32nd new scenario of the year! Following the Israeli-Lebanese War of 2006, Lebanon was left weakened and unstable. Syria felt it was in its best interests to occupy the country. Beirut has come under attack and American forces are scrambling to rescue refugees. This scenario requires Harpoon Classic version 16b11 or later and also the HCDB_060614 for maximum efficiency. Author: Mark Gellis SZO file archives - Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare HarpGamer.com - Home of the HCDB.

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author:

Here's another excellent AAR. It is reprinted here with permission of the author:

Jamming from dead ships Ships that are destroyed still show the Active Jamming "*" indicator. Non-radiating units show as being jammed. Units that turn off their radar can still show up as being jammed with the "X" next to their icon.

NORDKAPP The 31st new scenario of the year! The tenth installment of the "21st CENTURY OCEAN WARS BATTLESET" battleset has been released. When President Gorbachev was notified in 1989 of a plot to bring down the Berlin Wall later that year, he made several crucial strategic decisions. The Russian president decided to suppress the East-German revolt, speed up the privatisation and efficiency focus in the Russian state industries, and invest in maintenance, spare parts, and training for the military. For President Bush and his successors, the emergence of an Eastern European market and the stabilisation of the Middle East meant they could peacefully cooperate with, though quitely dislike, Russia. However, Europe found itself more and more at odds with President Gorbachev and his direct successor Putin. At the end of 2004 NATO, found itself opposing a high quality Russian military. Early in November, Putin started moving 25 divisions towards the border with Germany. Icelandic politicians had ended the defence pact with the US and closed Kevlavik air force base under pretense of noise pollution. The GIUK gap was now wide open. On the 21st of November, US and UK subs reported SSBNs withdrawing towards their ports on the Kola peninsula, but also reported many modern SSNs surging towards the GIUK Gap. They were ordered to tail these subs and NATO started to organise a convoy system on cross-Atlantic routes. By November 26th, the United Nations and back-channel diplomacy had reached a crucial stage. A war, for which there is no clear reason, may still be averted but is looming. NATO orders its forces to be vigilant but to keep Weapons Tight in this crucial phase of diplomacy. NORDKAPP Prior to war breaking out, a small Dutch Task force of frigates delivered the Dutch Marines to Finnmark. Having trained there for years, several companies of Marines have joined their Norwegian and British counterparts to await the expected Russian attack into Finnmark. Author: Freek Schepers This scenario requires the latest release of the PlayersDB v6.4.9 Get it via: StrategyZoneOnline, HarpGamer, SimHQ, PlayersDB Depot, Matrix, SubSim, CombatAce, or Frugal's World of Simulation. SZO file archives - Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare HarpGamer.com - Home of the HCDB.

Over 82 new aircraft, ships, submarines, facilities, classes, countries, and weapons have been added to the Harpoon3 PlayersDB. Get the PlayersDB 6.4.9-ANW on StrategyZoneOnline or HarpDB. Get the PlayersDB 6.4.9 on StrategyZoneOnline, HarpDB, or PlayersDB Depot. Additions include: AAA 20mm Vulcan M163A1 x1 JP AAA 20mm Vulcan M163A1 x6 JP Battalion [Armour] US 70 Battalion [Commando] RUS 80 Battalion [Commando] RUS 86 Battalion [infantry] US 06 Battalion [infantry] US 90 Battalion [Mech Inf] ROK 90 Battalion [Mech Inf] RUS 80 Battalion [Mech Inf] US 06 Battalion [Mech Inf] US 70 Battalion [Mech Inf] US 80 F/A-18D Hornet MAL 97 F-5E Tiger II TN F-5E Tiger II MAL F-5E Tiger II YE F-5E Tiger II MA F-5E Tiger II JO HC.3 Merlin RN 03 HH-3F Sea King IT 06 HQ SA-10a Regiment RUS 80 HQ SA-10b Regiment RUS 83 JH-7A Xian PRC 06 ManPADS Stinger x4 IL 82 SAM MIM-104A Patriot Bttn NL 84 SAM MIM-104C Patriot Bttn KSA91 SAM MIM-104C Patriot Bttn ROC95 SAM MIM-104D Patriot Btty GR 98 SAM MIM-104F Patriot Bttn ROK00 SSK KSS-II Type 214 ROK 06 T/A-50 Golden Eagle ROK 07 Mirage IIIO AUS 74 - countless changes and improvements guaranteed not to crash any earlier scenario built with the PlayersDB SZO file archives - Home of the Harpoon3 PlayersDB FilesOfScenShare HarpGamer.com - Home of the HCDB.