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File Name: The Red Sea Sharks, October 2016. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 04 Nov 2016 File Category: Middle East The Red Sea Sharks, mid October 2016. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 The Middle East Battleset and the HCDB-150928 1980-2015 era or the new HCDB2-170207 1980-2025 era Platform Databases. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: USS Ponce September 22, 2012. Personnel assigned to the underwater unmanned vehicle (UUV) detachment of Combined Task Group 56.1.4, make preparations to launch two UUVs during a mine clearance operation as part of International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 2012 (IMCMEX 12). U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jumar T. Balacy/Released, took from Wikipedia Commons and in public domain. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/US and allies side or from the Red/Houthi Rebels and Allies side. You should play a few times first the Blue/US and allies side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red/Houthi Rebels and Allies side.: With the world on the brink of an open war after four years of impending Second Cold War, but pending of the US presidential elections and the hard and transcendent struggle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and with the Russian Northern Fleet reading the Admiral Kuznetsov CVBG to steam towards the Mediterranean and to support the Russian intervention in the Syria (Historically sailing from October 16, 2016, with other Russian surface forces in theatre, coming or going from the Baltic Fleet), another unexpected point of naval operations interest popped-up. On October 1, 2016, the ex Incat-built very fast (and lightly built) catamaran transport ex Swift (HSV-2), operated by the United Arab Emirates' National Marine Dredging Company (and probably employed in some special operations activities) was surprisingly attacked and badly damaged by a Houthi Rebels shore-launched C-801 or C-802 anti-ship missile, fired from the coasts of the convolute civil war Yemen, in the Red Sea near the Bad-el-Mandeb strait. The next weeks, on 9 and 12 October 2016 USS Mason (DDG-87) detected and shoot-down or deflects with decoys other attacking missiles. In retaliation, on October 13, 2016, USS Nizte (DDG-94) launched five cruise missiles against Houthis' mobile surface search radars near Ras Isa, North of Mukha, and near Khoka, neutralizing them (Probably of the Russian type Cape-M1E). At last on October 15, 2016, USS Mason detected another last but unconfirmed anti-ship missile attack from the Yemen shore. Also present in the zone were USS San Antonio (LPD-17) and USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), equipped with the first experimental and operational shipborne defensive LaWS laser (weapon not yet represented in the simulation). In this scenario the US and Allied ships should cross Bab-el-Mandeb strait avoiding losses and keeping presence in the zone. Houthi and other Shiite forces should neutralize the enemy ships, trying to multiply his actions through propaganda if any oppossition ship is sunk. The historical actions and ships placement are compressed in a very short period of time. Enrique Mas, November 4, 2016. Click here to download this file

File Name: Al Madinah Attack and Makin Island Operations, January 30, 2017. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 06 Feb 2017 File Category: Middle East Al Madinah Attack and Makin Island Operations, January 30, 2017. Hypothetical/Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 The Middle East Battleset and the new HCDB2-170207 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with advanced Scenario Editor and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later. Image: Amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD-8) under way off the coast of Southern California with the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Sept. 5, 2011. DoD photo by Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn, U.S. Marine Corps/Released, and took from Wikipedia Commons. This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/Saudi/US and Allies side or from the Red/Houthi Rebels and Allies side. You should play a few times first the Blue/Saudi/US and Allies side to avoid spoilers, and only later play the Red/Houthi Rebels and Allies side. With the world on the brink of an open war after four years of impending Second Cold War, just pending the take of possession and first days of mandate of Donald Trump from January, 20, 2017, another repeated point of naval operations interest popped-up again, diverting in the headlines the situation in Eastern Ukraine, with a new intensification of the Russian operations supporting with GRAD rockets bombardment the separatist actions from 31 January 2017 in the Avdiivka sector. After in October 1, 2016, the ex Incat-built very fast (and lightly built) catamaran transport ex Swift (HSV-2), operated by the United Arab Emirates' National Marine Dredging Company (and probably employed in some special operations activities) was attacked and badly damaged by a Houthi Rebels shore-launched C-801 or C-802 anti-ship missile, fired from the coasts of the convolute civil war Yemen, in the Red Sea near the Bad-el-Mandeb strait. The next weeks, on 9 and 12 October 2016 USS Mason (DDG-87) detected and shoot-down or deflects with decoys other attacking missiles. In retaliation, on October 13, 2016, USS Nizte (DDG-94) launched five cruise missiles against Houthis' mobile surface search radars near Ras Isa, North of Mukha, and near Khoka, neutralizing them (Probably of the Russian type Cape-M1E). At last on October 15, 2016, USS Mason detected another last but unconfirmed anti-ship missile attack from the Yemen shore. Also present in the zone were USS San Antonio (LPD-17) and USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15), equipped with the first experimental and operational shipborne defensive LaWS laser (weapon not yet represented in the simulation). After those events, on January 28, 2017, the fist military operation of the Trump Administration obtained mixed results. A MV-22B tiltrotor raid of SEAL Team 6 operating from USS Makin Island (LHD-8), to capture computers and associated intelligence from AQAP in Houthi territory, Yemen, goes partly wrong, and a MV-22B and the life of Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens were lost. Also present in the theatre is USS Cole (DDG-67), damaged in the 2000 Al-Qaeda bombing when in the very near port of Aden, and now updated with SM-3 and Ballistic Missile Defence capabilities. Later, on January 30, 2017, an Al-Madinah-class Saudi frigate was attacked and damaged probably by a Houthi suicide boat off Al Hudaydah, Houthi Yemen. This scenario speculates with those elements. The Saudi and US ships should cross Bab-el-Mandeb strait avoiding losses and keeping presence in the zone, blocking the Houthi access to sea lanes and its own enemy shores. Houthi and other Shiite forces should neutralize the enemy ships, trying to multiply his actions through propaganda if any opposition ship is sunk. The historical actions and ships placement are compressed in a shorter period of time. Enrique Mas, February 5, 2017. 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