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File Name: Swedish Submarine Incident October 17-24, 2014. Historical scenario/Alternate history scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 08 Nov 2014 File Category: GIUK Swedish Submarine Incident October 17-24, 2014. Historical scenario/Alternate history scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCDB-140909 1980-2015 era Platform Database. Image from Wikipedia Commons: Swedish corvette K31 Visby in Aura river in Turku during the Northern Coasts 2014 exercise public pre sail event, 31 August 2014. Author: MKFI. This scenario is designed to be played mostly from the Blue/Swedish 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/Russian side if you've interest on it, but I think the victory conditions are very difficult to get for an AI-controlled Blue side. Years after the demise of Soviet Union, the prudent, neutral and natively well-armed Sweden did start near 2008 to downsizing clearly his armed forces (Forsvarsmakten), retiring whole categories of weapons systems, as the useful HKP-4B/C/D Boeing Vertol Kawasaki KV-107-II (CH-46 Sea Knight-derivative) twin-rotor ASW helicopters, specially configured for shallow and difficult waters. All this despite the habitual submarine incidents that had taken place continuously since at least 1962 on the Swedish territorial shores and archipelagos, originated in Soviet clandestine activities, of which the most obvious and memorable event was the stranding of S-363 "Whiskey on the Rocks Incident" in the vicinity of the sensible naval base of Karlskrona in November 1981. But from the other side of the Baltic Sea the President of Russia Vladimir Putin was working for years in a plan to recover the Russian Empire and later Soviet territories, to reinstitute the greatness of his Russia, to guarantee his passage on the History as saviour of the Rodina, and doing return the ghost of the past. Some months before the Crimean and Ukrainian crises, from 8 December 2013 begun the deployment of updated Su-27SM3 Russian fighters in the Belarusian 61st Fighter Air Base at Baranovichi, with all the pilots deployed qualified as Pilot First Class, and later apparently to form a full Flanker regiment to be based at Lida 206th Assault Air Base from 2015 (the Su-27 was previously retired from Belarusian service in December 2012).. Also, deployment of advanced Iskander surface-to-surface missiles and a battery of the very impressive S-400 Triumf/SA-21 SAM in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad between Lithuania and Poland (Formerly Konigsberg in East Prussia. What better excuse to request a land bridge from Russia, nobody remember the very near Danzig Corridor and the 1939 German Ultimatum to Poland?) can give some ideas about future events. More clear even from 7 April 2014, when after only a day of occupation by Russian affine forces was proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic. At last in Autumn, as another of the multiple World Crisis of 2014, in October 2014 were intensified Russian military flights with long range elements in the Pacific and Caribbean areas, Black and Baltic Seas shores and so far as the Portuguese Atlantic Coast. But the more eye-catching and symptomatic incident on 17-24 October was the Swedish submarine chase of unidentified submerged object, with multiple but unclear sights on Kanholmsfjarden in the Stockholm archipelago and radio transmissions linked to a military site in Kaliningrad, compatible with a Russian submarine in distress. All with the addition of at least three Russian-operated civilian ships very probably equipped with submarine holding bays orbiting the near Baltic zone: NS Concord, a converted 105000 tons oil tanker sailing in circles in middle of the sea for one week, R/V Professor Logachev (an 3900 tons standard ex-AGI Project 12283M ship), and the 18425 tons LPG tanker Sibur Voronezh with very reduced IR signature, the two tankers operated at last instance by the Russian company Sovcomflot (SCF). On this scenario the idea is to show the currently reduced ASW capabilities of the Swedish Armed Forces against a possible multiple midget submarine menace, at the same time facing and defending against some limited Russian air incursions potentially menacing the nimble Swedish surface ASW elements. Is present the current Swedish OOB (the in service JAS.39C Gripen Block 19 (2010) and Block 20 (2012) have a slightly improved radar than plain JAS.39C, but are not yet armed with Meteor or Taurus) , and the limited Russian OOB showed in the scenario is as accurate as possible on open sources in October 2014. Enrique Mas, November 2014. Click here to download this file

File Name: Operation El Dorado Canyon, 1986. Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 28 Oct 2013 File Category: MEDC 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. Click here to download this file

File Name: Fate of PNS Ghazi, 1971. Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 28 Sep 2013 File Category: IOPG Fate of PNS Ghazi, 1971. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the IOPG Battleset and the HCCW-130923 1950-1975 Cold War Platform Database. Image: AGSS-479 USS Diablo after the Fleet Snorkel conversion in 1964, in Long Island Sound and before the delivery to the Pakistani Navy. Source: Wikipedia Commons and navsource.org, probably first released by LCDR Tomme J. Lambertson USN (RET). To avoid spoilers is better to play this scenario a few times first playing the Pakistani/Blue side, and only after the Indian/Red side. Is a long ASW scenario with very limited forces in quantity and quality in both sides, sailing the immense Bay of Bengal, where from long time nothing happens, but with frantic moments after the enemy is in contact. The PNS Ghazi (a title given to Muslim warriors or champions) was a Tench-class submarine (SS-479 USS Diablo) transferred to Pakistan on 1 June 1964 after a Fleet Snorkel conversion (The Fleet Snorkel conversion were conversion of fleet boats by far cheaper, slower, noisier and with poorer sensors than the more celebrated GUPPY conversions, developed to fulfil the number of submarines requested by the US Navy, impossible with the expensive Guppies. The Fleet Snorkel keep the four original fast-running electric engines not replacing them by two quieter slow-running engines, as the Guppies, and her hull and sail are not so streamlined as in the Guppies. Also, it was at least two Fleet Snorkel main variants: an US Navy variant with the big German-derivative BQR-2 chin-mounted passive sonar array, and other diverse austere variants for export, mainly for training submarine crews and employ the Fleet Snorkels as targets in ASW exercises in many allied navies, with simpler sensors, usually the BQR-3 passive sonar, an old JT in a dome. And as a Tench-class Fleet Snorkel converted her torpedo capacity was 28, not 24 as in the Gato and Balao-classes conversions. In the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War PNS Ghazi was the only submarine in both sides, and sailed in deterrent preventing the major ships of the Indian Navy to came out of harbour, and supporting Operation Dwarka, but not firing anytime in anger. In the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, concluded after a fast 13 days campaign with the secession of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the Pakistani Navy strategic plan was to send Ghazi into the Bay of Bengal, to mine some ports, to do some intelligence and to menace and prevent with her presence the use of the Indian Navy sole carrier, INS Vikrant. Ghazi was the only one Pakistani submarine capable of that task because her greater range (11000 nm against 4500 nm) and higher weapons capacity than the three modern Pakistani Daphne-class submarines, but noisier and with older sensors than the French-made boats. As the mission was considered highly dangerous Ghazi staff was changed to employ young naval officers, under the new command of Commander Zafar Muhammada Khan, promoted to this rank only four days before the mission begins. After looking for Vikrant in Madras/Chennai, and perhaps induced to go to Visakhapatnam by some Indian settled HUMINT trap, Ghazi was sunk near the entrance of that last harbour, when was executing minelaying operations. She was lost with all hands, but the sinking causes are dubious, more probable an spontaneous internal explosion caused by hydrogen leaked from the batteries or the accidental explosion of one of her own mines, less probably sunk for a pair of depth charges randomly launched without sonar contact by INS Rajput. This scenario departs from this initial historical situation the first day of war, and speculates with Ghazi surviving the minelaying attempt at Visakhapatnam, and hunting for Vikrant in the Bay of Bengal. Unnamed places are: ZTp Visakhapatnam port, India. ZQp Madras/Chennai port, India. ZRp Haldia/Calcutta port; India. ZQp Port Blair port, India. Enrique Mas, September 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: The Storozhevoy Mutiny, 8-9 November 1975. Historical scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 31 Aug 2013 File Category: GIUK The Storozhevoy Mutiny, 8-9 November 1975. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCCW-130801 1950-1975 Cold War Platform Database. Image: from Wikipedia Commons, his sister ship Legkiy in 1993. Description: Aerial starboard bow view of the Russian Northern Fleet Krivak I Class guided missile frigate Legkiy underway. Сторожевой корабль Лёгкий в Северной Атлантике, август 1993 года. On November 8, 1975, the day after of the 58th anniversary of the October Revolution in Riga, now capital city of Latvia (the date divergence comes from the change from the old Russian calendar) , Captain Third Rank Valery Mikhailovich Sablin, son and grandson of naval officers, the political commissar of the modern Soviet ASW frigate Storozhevoy and a committed Communist, called the crew together and showed them Battleship Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein's fiction film account of the 1905 naval mutiny in Odessa. After the movie screening Sablin, inspired by the memory of the battleship Potemkin, and also by the presence of the near museum in Leningrad of the protected cruiser Aurora, which with her gunfire and crew had ignited the revolution of 1917, and for all his life in deeply disaccord with the current communism ruling the Soviet Union, decides to sail with the Storozhevoy to Leningrad, and broadcast a direct message to the Soviet people to start a new and pure revolution. After a voting, crew members and officers in disagreement with his action were confined at the sonar room. However, an officer escaped and radioed for assistance. The news reached the Kremlin and Leonid Brezhnev, who immediately issued an order to ^Bomb it and sink it^, even employing nuclear bombs if necessary. The mutiny was masqueraded to the rest of the world as an attempt at defecting to the West. The course for Leningrad, which would lead the ship through the Swedish island of Gotland and Stockholm as the gulf of Riga is impassable to the North, closed by the islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, gave the mistaken impression that Storozhevoy was heading to Sweden instead of Leningrad. Until the end of the Cold War, Western intelligence believed that the crew was going to defect. This story inspired US author Tom Clancy to write the 1984 novel ^The Hunt for Red October^, and as consequence in a late stage the own Harpoon system, but that is another history. Unnamed places are: ZTa: Minsk/Machulishchi Airport and Air Base -/UMLI. Enrique Mas, August 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: Operation Attain Document III, Action in the Gulf of Sidra, Libya late March 1986. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 23 Jun 2013 File Category: MEDC 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. Click here to download this file

File Name: Attack of the Drone Clones, mid-2013. Hypothetical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 19 May 2013 File Category: Middle East Attack of the Drone Clones, mid-2013. Hypothetical Scenario. Image: A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The Reaper has the ability to carry both precision-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles. Photo by U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson. Source: Wikipedia. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the HCDB-130505 1980-2015 Platform Database. This scenario is designed to be played mainly from the Blue/CIA-Saudi Arabia side. You should play many times first the Blue side to avoid spoilers, and only later play a few times the Red/AQAP-Yemeni side, if you've interest on it, but I think the victory conditions are almost impossible to get for an AI-controlled Blue side. These aircrafts of many names, sometimes called pilotless, remotely-piloted vehicles (RPV), unhabited or unmanned air vehicles (UAV) or simply drones, were they of remote controlled or of autonomous flight, were in the aviation history from his begin, from the very early not manned flying prototypes (as the Samuel Langley's Number 5 of 1896), but those facts are not usually remembered. And later, from the First World War era Low Aerial Targets, Kettering Bug and Larynx, to the inter-wars Reginald Denny experiments and to the long series of Ryan Firebees from 1951, employed fully operational in Vietnam War (particularly for SAM sites hunting), in the Arab-Israeli Wars and in China overflights. As example to illustrate the extensive and widely use of drones historically, at least 578 drones were lost in action over China and North Vietnam between 1964-1975. From the 1980s advances in electronics, computing, remote sensors technologies and the Digital Revolution made more factible practical application of them to air vehicles and to the current use of pilotless aircraft. They're the Drone Clones. From Cold War end about 1991 and more from the September 2011 World Trade Center attack, the changing international situations and climate and the Global War on Terrorism recommend and permit the widely use of drones first on intelligence missions and supporting special forces operations, and later in strikes against terrorist and his leaders. As stated, previously his limited previous use not was cause of technical limitations, the determinant fact for his employ is the political approval (tacit or explicit) of his use in countries harboring terrorists, and as stated a drone is a nimble, of not very instant manoeuvre and fragile aircraft and habitually without RWR, and if it's detected easy prey for a fighter (as demonstrated in the few occasions this has happened, as in Georgia in 2008 or in Iraq in 1999), as consequence his use requires the connivance of the state in the strike receiving end. As conclusion, at the current state of art, drones strikes only can succeed on air supremacy conditions, without any opposition of enemy fighters. But only on the last years, from the early November 2002 Yemen drone attacks against Al Qaeda terrorist leaders, with the diffusion of the Predator series and the targeted killing tactics and strategies the mass media do attention to these aircraft on his headlines. This scenario is based on historical facts and has place in a very exotic country, with reminiscences of the Arabian Nights, near the Queen Balkis old Kingdom of Sheba and the skyscrapers of Sana'a, traversed by frankincense caravans or Three Wise Men, and south of the Empty Quarter Desert where perhaps lurk some innominate things without face neither soul near the nameless lost city of Iram of the Pillars, things without face neither soul as the headless aircrafts nowadays flying on his skies. On this scenario the air supremacy is not guaranteed. Because the menace of radical Islamist compelling the Yemen government to prevent drone incursions targeting his leaders and militants, with the excuse to avoid risk to the Yemeni civilian population, the Yemen government in this scenario is forced to used his armed forces to prevent the drone incursions. This scenario pretends also to show contemporary power relations and proxy actuations in the Arabian Peninsula. Unnamed places are: Saudi Arabia: ATa Tabuk/King Faisal AB, TUU/OETB AUa Jeddah/Prince Abdullah AB, JED/OEJN AXb Jeddah/King Faisal NB, -/OEJF Yemen: ZFa Al Anad AB, -/OY74. ZTa Al Hodeida IA, HOD/OYHD. ZUa Taiz IA, TAI/OYTZ. ZVa Sana'a IA, SAH/OYSN. Notes: this scenario is qualified as historical because it shows the complete Saudi and Yemeni air OOB in 2013, and with 104 aircraft in the USAF inventory, MQ-9 Reaper is probably the armed drone employed by CIA from his not so secret base in Saudi Arabia for the attacks in Yemen. Enrique Mas, May 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: Beira Patrol going hot, 1966. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 02 Apr 2013 File Category: South Africa Beira Patrol going hot, March 1966. Image: HMS Eagle 1970, photograph by Isaac Newton, source: Wikipedia from the HMS Minerva (F45) web site http://www.hmsminerva.info/photos1.htm A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the South Africa Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This scenario is designed for play by the British/Blue or by the Combined/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play many times first the British/Blue side, and only after the Combined/Red side. Is a long and probably difficult scenario. If you see it too difficult playing the Blue side, you can play the provided alternate scenario with the support of the South African forces. Was it possible a naval blockade to a land-locked country? After the unilateral independence of Rhodesia in 1965 (Renamed Zimbabwe from 1980), the United Kingdom with the United Nations support, both fearing the establishment of a white minority racist government, embargoed the oil exportations to Rhodesia. The infamous Beira Patrol was established for his control by the Royal Navy. The Patrol lasted from 1966 to the Mozambique independence in 1975 as consequence of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, with the new country government guaranteeing the sanctions to Rhodesia and the Patrol retired by UK. Initially the Beira Patrol was also equipped with aircraft carriers and late only with one or two frigates and shore-based planes (Based to 1971 in Majunga, Malagasy Republic), checking on oil tankers heading for Beira, in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. UN Security Council Resolution 221 (1966) ridiculously limited the oil blockade to the Portuguese port of Beira in the Mozambique colony, site of the Rhodesia-connected oil pipeline terminus (And Portugal was the oldest British ally!). Absurdly as the oil can enter by other ports, as Lourenco Marques (renamed Maputo after the Mozambique independence), or with the tankers sailing in the six nautical miles Portuguese territorial waters along the Mozambican coast, from South Africa to Beira! Also, only British forces were allowed to participate in Security Council Resolution, and the UK have not enough forces to effectively establish the blockade. In this scenario the Carnation Revolution was some nine years earlier, the Mozambican independence almost instantaneous (as in 1975), some others African governments are deposed or clearly more pro-Soviet than historically, and the Soviet Union is supporting an difficult pact with the Ian Smith government, for sake of strategic interests. Note: This scenario is labelled as "Historical" because the Rhodesian, Portuguese, South African (in the alternate scenario) and UK forces are as the historically deployed at the Beira Patrol start, including the carrier air wings. Clearly the crisis was quiet and without major incidents. They are two alternative scenario files, one with and another without South Africa supporting the old British Empire remains. Unnamed places are: ZYa, Beira (Portuguese Base Aerea BA-8) airport, BEW/FQBR, Mozambique. ZXa, Lourenco Marques (Portuguese Aerodromo-Base AB-8 (confuse, not?!), now Maputo) airport, MPM/FQMA, Mozambique. ZWa, New Sarum (now Manyame) Air Force Station, HRE/FVHA, Rhodesia. ZVa, Thornhill (now Gweru-Thornhill) Air Base, GWE/FVTL, Rhodesia. ACa, Majunga (now Amborovy) airport, MJN/FMNM, Malagasy Republic. AKA, Bloemspruit AFB, BFN/FABL, South Africa. AJa, Durban AFB, DUR/FADN, South Africa. ANa, Langebaan AFS (now AFB), SBD/FALW, South Africa. AFa, Pietersburg (now Polokwane IA) AFB, PTG/FAPP, South Africa. ALa, Port Elizabeth AFB (now AFS), PLZ/FAPE, South Africa. AMa, Simon's Town Port, South Africa. AIa, Swartkop AFB, FASK, South Africa. AGa, Waterkloof AFB, WKF/FAWK, South Africa. AHa, Ysterplaat AFS, FAYP, South Africa. Enrique Mas, April 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: Operation Ivy Bells, 1971. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 27 Jan 2013 File Category: WestPac Operation Ivy Bells, 1971. The Halibut finest moment. This picture of USS Halibut in San Francisco Bay is a USN official photo apparently in public domain, retrieved from navysource.org, published on that site as courtesy of Darryl Baker. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the WestPac Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This scenario is designed for play by the US/Blue or the Soviet/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play first some times the US/Blue side and only after play the Soviet/Red side. The noisy and peculiar USS Halibut (originally SSGN-587) was previously a Regulus strategic missile carrier later converted in a apparently conventional SSN, after the Regulus cruise missile was retired and his patrols deleted just some months before the introduction of the SSBN patrols. But Halibut was not a quiet fish. Halibut was converted for special covert operations in the Cold War, exploiding the room of her cavernous hangar, but her conversion and her missions not yet full exposed or detailed (aside this one, Halibut was previously employed on at least another great mission, Operation Sand Dollar, locating on 1968 the accidentally sunken K-129, a Soviet Golf-class SSB, for her ulterior recovery in Project Azorian). The basic design was developed by Dr. John P. Craven head of USN Deep Submergence Systems Project. From summer 1971 she was equipped on the after deck with a fixed divers decompression and lockout chamber simulating a DSRV submersible, for very deep saturation divers breathing an helium and oxygen mixture with methods researched at SeaLab. Operation Ivy Bells was based on the intuition of Captain James E. Bradley Jr. director of undersea warfare at the Office of Naval Intelligence about the existence of a undersea communications and telephone cable in the Sea of Okhotsk between the Soviet SSB/SSBN base at Petropavlosk in the very far and almost isolated Kamchatka Peninsula and his Pacific Fleet Headquarters near Vladivostok. The idea was, one time determined the cable emplacement (and previously guaranteed his existence in the same mission!) to tape it with a device working through induction, without violate physically the cable, and even with the adequate legal converture within the bounds of international law, out of the three mile limit of the Soviet territorial waters. The mission was a complete success, the cable was taped, and the Soviets delivered unencrypted plain text messages by the cable, thinking it was sure. Later, other cables will be taped by other US submarines, but this was the first one. And so, on October 1972, Halibut sailed with her captain Commander John E. Mcnish from Mare Island to hunt the West Shore of the Kamchatka Peninsula with the covert mission of retrieve debris of the SS-N-12 anti-ship missile, but actually after signals of fantasy cables and to an uncertain future. Probably this is not an easy scenario. Enrique Mas,January 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: Bald Eagles over Beijing, 1959. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 16 Jan 2013 File Category: WestPac Bald Eagles over Beijing, 1959. Image: a USAF very similar Martin RB-57D-2 Model 796 53-3979 collecting atmospheric data during Juniper Nuclear bomb test; Operation Hardtack I 22 July 1958 at Bikini Atoll. United States Air Force photograph. Source: Wikipedia. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the WestPac Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This mini-scenario is designed for play by the Taiwanese/Blue or the Chinese/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play first some times the Taiwanese/Blue side (But it will be very difficult for the Red human player to lose). This more than a mini-scenario is a little divertment and a historical remembrance of the historical situation depicted. Almost forgotten now, the RB-57D Bald Eagle was a very modified high altitude optical reconnaissance variant of the Martin B-57 Canberra (a American variant of the original English Electric Canberra pioneer and combat-proven jet bomber). After the operational introduction of U-2, some three RB-57D were supplied under the "Diamond Lil" program run by the Central Intelligence Agency to the 4th Squadron of the Republic of China Air Force for strategic flights over mainland China flying from the Taoyuan Airbase near Taipei, mainly aimed at Beijing and to airfields, military establishments, ports, factories and other strategic installations.. With the five batteries of SA-2a (some 62 V-750 and V-750V missiles) anti-aircraft missiles very early supplied by the Soviets and introduced in the 2nd Rocket Battalion under the command of Yue Zhenhua, the Chinese developed and settled an ambush against the high flyers near Beijing, studying his approach routes of previous flights. At last, on 7 October 1959 an RB-57 with Captain Ying Chin Wong at the controls was shot-down and the unfortunate pilot killed. After the U-2 also replaced the RB-57 in Taiwanese service and some of them were also shoot-down and his wrecks displayed as propaganda by the Beijing government, but this first incident was kept secret and forgotten by years. It was not only a proxy black operation through the Bamboo Curtain, it was also an historical hit, the first real kill in a combat situation by a surface-to-air missile, the first of many to follow the next decades. Enrique Mas, January 2013. Edited 17 January 2013: added BALD59B scenario, with a slighty chance of win by the Blue side played by the computer. Click here to download this file

File Name: The Sinking of INS Eilat, 21 October 1967, alternate scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 13 Jan 2013 File Category: Middle East The sinking of INS Eilat 1967, an alternative and hypothetical scenario. Image: Project 183R Komar-class missile boat, enhanced by Esquilo from the book of Leszek Komuda "Mały okręt rakietowy", Wydawnictwo MON, Warszawa, 1974. Source: Wikipedia. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This scenario is designed for play by the Israeli/Blue or the Egyptian/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play the first time the Red/Egyptian side. In the aftermath of the Six Days War, only four months later, the Egyptian Navy achieved a technical and propaganda victory on 21 October 1967 with the sinking of the Israeli destroyer INS Eilat, the first warship sink in anger with a ship-launched anti-ship missile (In WWII some ships were sunk with anti-ship missiles, but all were air-launched), struck with three of the P-15 Termit/SS-N-2a Styx fired at her (A 75% hit rate). One of the naval skirmishes of the Arab-Israeli Wars, this historical event marked the evolution of the naval combat for the next years, and forced the Israeli Navy to retire his destroyer-size ships, and to develop more advances in missiles and electronics. The actual sinking of Eilat was a one-sided scenario, the Soviet-build and designed Project 183R Komar missile boats firing against the Israeli ships at some 13.5 nautical miles range, even yet inside the port (but is also worth of mention the exported Soviet missile boats were not equipped with ESM capable of provide targeting). In this hypothetical scenario some little elements are added or changed to do the situation playable for both sides. The embryo of the reconstructed Egyptian Air Force after the Six Days War debacle can provide some air cover, as also the Israeli Air Force, both forces with Mach 2 fighters equipped with short-range IR missiles and partly represented with a 20% of strenght, but with not all the ground strike types represented to center the scenario in the naval action. Enrique Mas, January 2013. Click here to download this file

File Name: The Capture of Ibrahim al-Awal, 1 November 1956. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 24 Dec 2012 File Category: Middle East Shore Bombardment of Haifa and the capture of Ibrahim el-Awal, 1 November 1956. Historical scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This scenario is designed for play by the Israeli/Blue or the Egyptian/Red side, but it's a historical and very unbalanced scenario. The almost forgetted Suez Crisis or Second Arab-Israeli War was a very interesting campaign with some novelties, as the History first heliborne assault. And ever the future Syrian president al-Asad participed in the shoot-down a British Canberra PR.7! After the US refused to pay the building of the Aswan dam project, the Egyptian president Colonel Nasser decides to nationalize the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 to pay for the dam building. British and French, interested on the recuperation of the Canal and in the freedom of navigation, signed with Israel the then and for many years secret Protocol of Sevres on late October 1956. On 29 October 1956 Israel attacks the Sinai Peninsula in the designated as Operation Kadesh. With the alibi of protect the freedom of navigation in the Canal and his approaches (and because the secret treaty with Israel), Britain and France launched an ultimatum to the fighting factions calling to withdraw from within 16 km of the Suez Canal. When Egypt refused, the British and French launched Operation Musketeer to secure the Canal zone, with the ruse of separating Egyptian and Israeli forces. Operation Musketeer, comprising a massive air strike (in part failed) from the carriers, Cyprus and Malta against the Egyptian airbases and airborne, heliborne and landing occupation, inclusive with heavy armour, of Port Said, his twin city Port Fuad and the Canal Zone. Some days later, on 7 November 1956, as both President Eisenhower, the not-alligned States and the Soviet Union strongly opposed British-French military action, was acorded a cease-fire and the Anglo-French troops retired from the Canal Zone. As a Egyptian counter-strike in the first hours of the war against Israel, the solitaire assignation of the Egyptian destroyer Ibrahim el-Awal (An old Hunt type I class frigate, previously also in service in the Nationalist China) to bombard the Israeli shore city of Haifa with the main Israeli port in the Mediterranean was almost condemned to failure because his lack of support, but only after firing some 160 shells of 4 inches on Haifa in 20 minutes. After to be rocket-fired by two Israeli Ouragans, the Ibrahim el-Awal was seized by the Israeli forces and put in service in the Israeli navy as INS Haifa. Only some hours later, with the intervention of Britain and France in secret vinculation with Israel through the Protocol of Sevres, with the alibi of protect the Suez Canal for sake of freedom of navigation, the Anglo-French strike and occupation of Port Said, his twin city Port Fuad and the Canal Zone begun. Unnamed places are: ZYp and ZVb: Baltim, Egypt. ZpX: Damietta, Egypt. Some warships and planes are represented by equivalent types of other countries. Enrique Mas, December 2012. Click here to download this file

File Name: Battle of Baltim, 9 October 1973, Historical Battle. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 18 Nov 2012 File Category: Middle East Battle of Baltim, 9 October 1973, Historical Battle. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the Middle East Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database. This scenario is designed for play by the Israeli/Blue or the Egyptian/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play the first time the Blue/Israeli side. On the third day of the Yom Kippur War, a couple of days after the Battle of Latakia, on the 8-9 October 1973, a confrontation between Israeli and Egyptian fast missile boats outcome the same result as the previous combat. The same ships and weapons types as in the Battle of Latakia, the Israeli side only can rely on his superior electronics, ESM, ECM and decoys to win, also, the semiactive radar guided missile Gabriel I has less range but more precision than the Soviet SS-N-2a Styx/P-15 Termit. But, if the missiles are expended and they are enemy warships remaining, the Israeli boats are better and longer ranged guns. Also, at front of the Israeli warships is the same Commander Michael Barkai, called Yoni, first arrived only with two boats on the Egyptian shores with a margin of some hours after the victory off the Syrian coast near Latakia. Up to ten missile boats assembled the Israelis north of Egypt, but as many of them have noy fully refueled after the mission in Syria they retire before the combat (of the four boats retired, only is historically determined the identity of INS Miznak, the initial flagship of Barkai). On the Egyptian side, four Osa I missile boats sortied from Alexandria to protect the Egyptian north shore, and other four sortied from Port Said to flee to Alexandria but returned when the Israeli counter-offensive stalled. Unnamed places are: ZRb and ZUp: Baltim, Egypt. ZTp: Damietta, Egypt. Enrique Mas, November 2012. Click here to download this file

File Name: The First Convoy, September 1939 File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 18 Jul 2012 File Category: GIUK First Convoy in the Phoney War, 14-18 September 1939. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. That's an essay of building an historic and realistic scenario, and as consequence, something boring for most of the time, with some moments of terror, as in the real world ASW operations, in this case in the Western Approaches. And probably most of the played scenarios will be finished with a draw. Playtesting after built the scenario reflects it is more playable in the Red/German side. It reflects the Phoney War in all his splendour and peculiarities, with though fighting in the sea lanes, in opposition to the calm land and air fronts. It reflects also the very limited UK ASW capabilities at the war start, the approximative initial Order of Battle of the RAF Coastal Command and his historical bases (Most of the Hudson represents Anson MkI, Sunderland MkIII represents Sunderland MkI, and minor types as Stranraer, London, Lerwick or others are not represented, some Air Stations only with detachments are neither in play), merchants sailing unescorted, also is depicted OB-4 (OB stands for Liverpool - Outward (North America)) the first convoy attacked in WWII by German submarines, the great number of German submarines operating at this time in the sector (in patrol from before the hostilities, his number was later inferior because maintenance and transit times), with his approximated historical positions (Including the after the Cold War infamous U-34, who sunk the Spanish Republican submarine C -3, my grandfather boat, in the Spanish Civil War, in the covert Operation Ursula), and also is present the fleet carrier HMS Courageous and her nimble escort, the last attempt to employ the large fleet carriers as ASW platforms ... Ironically, in the Phoney War time period Hitler was attempting to seize the peace with Great Britain, and the objective victory reached by the Kriegsmarine sinking the Courageous was contrary to the Fuhrer interests, and dismissed by him. The represented historical Coastal Command bases and squadrons are: AXa RAF Leuchars EGQL, 233 Sqd RAF Coastal Command (Hudson MkI/II). AYa RAF Thornaby, 224 Sqd Det (Hudson MkI/II), 220 Sqn (Hudson MkIII), 608 Sqd (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). AZa RAF Aldergrove EGAA, 224 Sqd. Det (Hudson MkI/II), 502 Sqd Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BAa RAF Gosport, 224 Sqd (Hudson MkI/II). BBa RAF Prestwick EGPF, 102 Sqd, 30?xWhitley MkIII (represented by MkII). BCa RAF Thorney Island, 48 Sqd (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BDa RAF Sullum Voe, 201 Sqd with London I, London II, Stranraer, represented by 2xSunderland III. BEa RAF Mount Batten, 204 Sqd (8?xSunderland I represented by 4xSunderland III). BFa RAF Bircham Newton, 201 Sqd, (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BGa RAF Pembroke Dock, 210 and 228, Sqd, (8?xSunderland I each, represented by 4xSunderland III). BHa RAF Warmell, 217 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BIa RAF Montrose, 269 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BJa RAF Detling, 500 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BKa RAF Dyce EGPD, 612 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). Some British DD not are of the exact time period represented, but most of them are historically correct and present in the Western Approaches operations in September 1939. The ahistorical SOSUS or CAESAR contacts on German submarines can be considered as representations of SIGINT or HUMINT detections. Enrique Mas, July 2012. Click here to download this file