Silent Hunter UK

So, a crafty disguise then? It was ASROC time. I launched one of the conventionally-armed versions at the Victor III... it hit... and it stayed afloat. I'd forgotten about the Soviet double-hulled submarine thing. Three more Mk50s headed its way and that proved sufficient to take the Victor into a Vanquished. Things then went quiet... until I spotted an Echo II SSGN; an unpleasant foe, albeit one that has to surface to fire, IIRC. Two Vikings were sent to locate and intercept the things, during which, I managed to locate a second submarine by the good old Magnetic Anomaly Detector. More torpedoes were dropped... The Echo got damaged and then I had enough alarms for a small orchestra go off as the second torpedo missed... just as the missiles were launched from the Soviet subs. With the presence of a California-class CGN and the able assistance of my F-14s, all of the missiles were shot down. It was time to break out the depth charges, and by that I mean the ones with nuclear warheads, not the Jägerbombs. However, when the nuclear-armed planes got into position, they weren't close enough for a nuke, so they dropped a HE torpedo and that caused the first sub to sink. The second also went down to high explosive weapons, as I noted the strange change in the game date between playing sessions. I spotted another AEW plane near SE Iceland, nearly three hours passed... and then something came along that was going to ruin somebody's day. Yep, more Shipwrecks.

This catastrophic comparison to a characterful Canadian was not in fact followed by a continuous calvacade of calamituous combustion caused by cosmic certainties. For one thing, the next two nuclear tipped missiles also hit the 'hulk' of the frigate. I don't know how resilient an OHP would be to a nuke, but the example of one Prinz Eugen springs to mind. With the other two red flashes determining that I'd definitely been nuked, I then lost contact with my opponents as my SH-60 had to land due to lack of fuel (even if was solar powered, it was in fact night-time). Over an hour passed before more missiles appeared on my screen. Mindful of the fact that these next missiles could also contain something hotter than a Carolina Reaper chilli and that one big explosion could lead to several ships turning into aircraft, I dispersed my ships so they wouldn't be too close to each other. I determined the latest raid contained SS-N-19s. The NATO designation for the Granit, "Shipwreck", is an appropriate one as these tend to be one-hit-kill weapons for anything smaller than a destroyer. The Oliver Hazard Perry class is one that I dub "Overhead Projectors"; Ms. Booth would be more effective in stopping an enemy attack than these outdated piles of junk (for one thing, I'm sure there are some Russian fans of The Librarians). A conventional one was enough to send the vessel to the bottom... and as it was taking on water, I saw four nuclear-tipped ones were heading its way. As my notes reflect, four nukes for a frigate is overkill. After more massive explosions, things went quiet and I notice in my notes that I managed to mis-spell that word on one occasion. No big deal. Then I got a surprise almost as big as when the now Sir John Hurt turned up at the end of "The Name of the Doctor". A Victor III among my carrier group. Waiter, I didn't order that!

Pulling back the SH-60 that was still flying to avoid it being shot down meant that I also lost contact with the surface group I was going after. Thus it had to go back slightly closer so I could reacquire the targets, while staying out of SAM range The SAMs from the Soviet ships were launched and all of my TASMs were shot down, ruining my hopes this time of some nuclear fire raining down on the Red force. Then they turned and ran away, resulting in a brief loss of contact, but I wasn't giving up on them yet. 21 missiles were targeted on one battlecruiser and launched. They got to within 20 nautical miles with no response from the Soviet ships and I was feeling optimistic, but my hopes were deflated quicker than a balloon after being shot at by a CIWS. In fact, they didn't even need to use a CIWS; all of them were downed by counter-missiles and I reflected that at least it had cost them something pretty finite. As midnight approached, I located another large surface contact... this time including a carrier. I launched some more missiles at this one... they got to within 90 seconds of impact, then were all shot down. The Soviets threw SS-N-12s at me - nuclear tipped ones (how do you tell the difference?) The conga line of death approached and I had 154 SAMs available to respond... which then proceeded not to fire due to lack of target data. Oh for the AEGIS system! At that point, an outlying OHP was hit with flashes redder than Lindy Booth's hair...

It look 26 minutes for the Tomahawks to acquire a target, enough time for someone to make dinner, eat dinner and possibly doing some washing up afterwards. I managed to sink a Tarantul III and two other ship, then detected some inbound contacts - AS-17 missiles. These were all shot down without doing any damage to my forces. While I still had contacts on the Red ships, I was still well away from them and was looking forward to nuking something. After three hours, I spotted a helicopter and realised that I couldn't be that far away from a Surface Action Group. This was confirmed when I discovered a surface contact going at 36 knots, which I immediately concluded had to be a missile boat. So, I fired my first nuclear-tipped weapons at it, followed by some more as back-ups. My notes aren't the clearest things in the world, but I was detecting lots of small ships with little SAM response, including aNeustrahimny frigate. Some ships actually did go down, but only to conventional weapons; with all the nukes getting shot down. The Soviets responded during this time with Shipwrecks and SS-N-25s. Two of these missed one of my OHPs, which is fortunately because they were possibly nuclear tipped. Two Intruders were launched from my carrier armed with free-fall nukes to finish something off, but I don't recall what. Our groups were rapidly closing and during this process, a SH-60 sent in the direction the incoming missiles had come from go shot down. Things eventually got into gunfire range and I took down one corvette that way. Then, and this is possibly a glitch, I detected an E-2 Hawkeye. Where did the Northern Fleet get one of those from? Noting that this version does not save your window settings (or your time settings) between sessions, I recalled my A-6s as they were running low on fuel, then detected the motherlode. A large SAG, complete with Kirov. It was time for a serious nuclear party. 32 Tomahawks as well as every attack plane that I had to spare were launched against the surface group as I hoped that they didn't actually have a carrier...

Harpoon Classic 97 I'm a little disappointed by the nuclear explosions. While the detonation of a nuclear weapon is of course pretty much one of the nastiest man-made things that can happen on the planet, some red flashing when the nuke hits doesn't, like the great Canadian singer said, impress me much. I definitely wanted to see some nuking and thus I chose The Last Day, the final NACV scenario, which takes place after a nuclear exchange between the US and USSR at the conclusion of a Third World War. I command US naval forces, including a SAG and a carrier group, who are permitted to use any weapons available against a Soviet surface force. I note with some interest that this version has resizable windows - and you can zoom all the way in the main one if so desire. Once I set my initial courses, I'm greeted within two minutes by some big loud klaxons and a message telling me that nuclear release has been authorised. Unfortunately at this point, there is nothing for me to nuke, so I launch a Hawkeye and four Tomcats on a patrol... the Hawkeye finds nothing and the F-14s just end up going in the ocean after running out of fuel. Oops. While still finding precisely nothing, I note an irritating alarm sound that I soon realise is the aircraft ready noise. Eventually I just learn to ignore it. It's not really relevant when you're got a ship packing the air force of a small country and more firepower than most of the world's nations, even back in 1990. Apparently, I like the Cascade feature, but I don't remember what that actually is... This lack of contacts continues for over 12 game hours before a spy satellite (clearly the Commies hadn't got round to destroy that one) detects a Sovvie destroyer, which is too far away for me to do anything about. Before this, I lose some more Tomcats and ruefully reflect that crashing into the ocean might be a preferable way to go compared with radiation sickness. (Personally, I want to go in my sleep at a good old age) It's nearly 21 hours since scenario start before I finally get something I can shoot out, a Nanuchka corvette, which gets a BOL launch of a HE Tomahawk. While there is no kill like overkill, a nuke on a corvette is arguably a waster of ammo. Of course one problem with the TASMs is their lack of speed...

Harpoon 97 scenario is done - write-up to follow.

Noted... but one doesn't particularly care when one's sub is sinking...

Great articles; has anyone here ever tried in-game escorts with Tu-128s or Su-15s as per the first article?

Original article is well worth a read too; especially giving the Backfire crews' perspective on things. I note the author's comment on the use of the Blinder for the photorecce role only may be true for Soviet use, IIRC it was used in combat (with some losses) by Gaddafi's Libya.

Yeah, those Silex torpedos can take you completely by surprise.

It was going to be ski-jump when originally proposed (all the way back in 1998 in the Strategic Defence Review done under Blair), changed to cat and trap in 2010 in the review done under the Coalition and changed back a couple of years later when it was found it was going to cost more than they thought.

Ah, you beat me to it. Of course, Cameron isn't likely to be PM next year.

Still working on my HC thread... just seen my first nuking... on one of my own ships.

IIRC, the Tango is much quieter than the Charlie II.

Glad to see this!

Please do!

Still going on with this at present; I'm trying to see if I can nuke something.

See someone beat me to it. Very interesting.

The Flankers reached Iceland and found some F-16s, which they promptly proceeded to deal with in the old-fashioned way by shooting them down. I then ordered them back to base. My surface group reached Sandbox and Shipwreck range. Deeming this 'party time', I launched 44 missiles at Keflavik. Only eight of them actually reached the target, but that was enough to destroy Keflavik. Of course I now had to go for the convoy, which is the point I decided to end it. With my new PC unable to run WinHarp without some excessive jigging about, it's now time to move on to the next version - Harpoon Classic 97.

As one of my Kilos went active and located the convoy, my Forgers proved unable to prevent the Blackburn Buccaneers from launching their missiles at my group. 12 Martels were heading my way... which the SAMs got rid of. Those missiles also dealt with three F-4s, but I lost two Hormone helicopters. Meanwhile, the Fencers failed to launch early enough and paid the price... ten of them got shot down and I remarked that I was going to have to use the Forgers (which have a limited AtG capacity) on Keflavik. The rest of the force got picked off by SAMs. Someone is going to be in a lot of trouble. My Kilo grop now engaged in an intense torpedo duel with the convoy, which appeared to contain at least one sub. I launched counter-shots down the bearing and managed to dodge a total of about four of them before both ships were sunk. In addition, I took out a Perry-class frigate. Meanwhile six Flankers were heading for Iceland to do what they do best... destroy fighters.

You know, I think they did... **** Four large aircraft began to head for my carrier group. 4 Forgers were tasked for an intercept, although I didn't think they'd necessarily be able to engage them. A further contact turned up and the large aircraft were identified as Nimrod MPAs. As I began to switch over my Forgers from strike loadouts to AtA, the Yak-38s achieved something that even the least effective fighter jets can do and ate the Nimrods for lunch. Six hours passed and a bunch of attack F-16s began to head towards my ships. I didn't think this would be a huge air-to-air threat, but four of the Yaks promptly got whacked by Sidewinders. Not for the first time, I found myself cursing the useless products forced upon me by Moscow. A Viper promptly came in on an attack run and did well enough to avoid two Grumbles launched from my SAMs, but the third proved to be its downfall. Two of my Kilos were sent to attack a surface group, while another aircraft that I misidentified as a F-16 begun to approach. Deciding that it was awfully chivalrous of the 'F-16s' to attack one at a time, I sent six Yak-38s to intercept, rationalising that he couldn't shoot down six of them with a strike loadout and he was too far out to launch of my ships. It went down... and turned out to be a Hawk! At 0830, the main attack force of six aircraft began to approach as 14 defending fighters headed for them...

Very interesting; I hope it goes well! **** The game was a bit quiet for the next 90 minutes, before I launched another 24-plane attack on Vagar. During the approach, some aircraft were spotted over Iceland and I broke off the Su-27s to intercept. The Su-24s reached Vagar with their load of iron bombs and knocked to 84% damage after dropping no less than 88 of the things on the base. Meanwhile, a Be-12 fell victim to a surprise F-16. Two more would go later I then discovered that the Su-24s lacked the range to reach Keflavik with their iron bomb cargo, so they would have to finish off Vagar. I also discovered that Su-24 Fencers seem to have a longer range than Flankers in this DB... now I know the Fencers were generally based in Poland rather than the GDR, but that seems a bit dodgy to me. The radar took out Vagar, while Kegler-armed fighter-bombers launched a group of standoff missiles at Keflavik... which promptly got all shot down by MIM-104 Patriots. At that point, I chose to abort the raid The strikers went low to try to avoid F-16 interceptors coming after them as they left, but five of them were shot down without warning. Another F-16 got into visual range and made what only be deemed his final mistake as I let rip with some AA-8s at him. Viper... snake meat. A wet station broke down on one of my AFS... I have no idea what one of those is, but I somehow doubt it's got anything to do with hair salons. Unless bearded Russians are bad for morale. Two Hawks suddenly turned up next to my carrier, clearly trying for a Darwin award and were duly shot down. At that point, it was time to turn my radars on.

Here we go; this may take a while, but dribs and drabs is better than a slab. WinHarp 1.62B My first attempt at a game here, playing "Delhi Express" from EC2000 Battle for the Gulf of Oman crashed due to a general protection error, so I decided to try "SAGa" from USNI #2, playing the Red Side. This mission involved me having to destroy Blue Facilities at Keflavik and Vagar (Faroe Islands), as well as needing to go after a NATO surface fleet. Unfortunately for this job, which is something best reserved for the Tu-22Ms, I don't have any Backfires. Instead, my air assets included Su-24s, Su-27s, MiG-29s that couldn't reach Iceland... and two carriers worth of the dire Yak-38. In addition, I had some Il-38s. The game started with my ESM detecting a F-16 over Iceland. The Forgers launched and had to RTB without making an intercept. Like I said, dire. My first attack on Vagar saw a batch of Su-27s and Fencers launching towards the target... with the Flankers coming up against a batch of Lightnings and somehow only winning 3-2. The AS-12 missiles from the Su-24s only did five percent damage. Oh for some Backfires. Another Lightning did for an unescorted May. I've got to say, after some major sound problems previously, that I love the new aircraft launch noise. The second strike launched with MiGs added (after an initial launch in error without escort) and was surprised by five fighters because it was operating EMCON Alpha. IRST is very useful... but not a radar replacement by any means. The Vagar interceptors got whipped royally (or should that be socialistically) by the fighter escorts. The raid knocked Vagar to 21% damage and I reflected that I really needed to use bigger bombs. As the returning Su-24s got loaded with iron bombs, a F-16 wandered over and left unharmed as it was too far out for the Fulcrums to intercept. MiG-29s are notoriously short-legged. To be continued.

OK, I'm going to go straight to the WinHarp write-up... virtual machines aren't worth the hassle for this.

OK, I'll consider that. Do people still want me to do this? It's just I've had very little activity in this thread recently.