File Name: BRICS #1: Monkey's Paw (Battle of the Netherlands Antilles)

File Submitter: gemerson

File Submitted: 22 Jul 2012

File Category: Caribbean Basin

DB Used: HCBD-120522

Authors: Greg Emerson

Battleset-Carribean Basin: .scs - CDB - CDB

 

BRICS Conflict #1 (Circa 2016 - 2018) - Monkey's Paw (Battle of the Netherlands Antilles)

 

BRICS - An economic (and military) alliance between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. From the present to this hypothetical series of engagements, the alliance had influenced several other nations and influenced a number of clients.

 

Scene Setter (Taken from "The BRICS Conflict - A Brief History of the Third World War (2016 to 2018)"):

 

The 2013 attack by the US and Israel on Iran has caused oil and Petroleum prices to sky rocket. OPEC has chosen to keep the prices high in order to help establish a new Persian Republic. As a result of high energy and fuel prices, the Eurozone, US and other western economies, which were in economic trouble in 2011-12 collapsed into a second deep recession, with no end in sight.

 

The seemingly innocuous economic alliance born in 2011 was now riding a wave of economic influence and geo-political power. The economies (and more importantly, the defense budgets) of Brazil, Russia and South Africa have been capitalizing off of vast oil revenues and have been pouring in from their existing and newly discovered reserves. Both China and India have been enjoying an industrial boom, at the expense of the old order economic powers that have been withering. A large number of second-tier economies in the Asia-Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin American economies that have developed or recovered more quickly, have attempted to stay neutral as the storm clouds have been gathering.

 

In May 2016, as the BRICS alliance and their surrogates attempted to sweep away the old order and establish their place on the world stage, the world war many feared would occur started in the most unlikely of places - the Caribbean Sea.

 

Background:

 

When the Netherlands economy crashed with the rest of the Eurozone, it liquidated several territorial holdings in an attempt to save money. In 2014, the Netherlands Antilles in the Southern Carribean Sea was divided between Columbia and Venezuela. Shortly thereafter, a vast oil and natural gas reserve was discovered undeneath the continental shelf in that location. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez immediately claimed the whole area and old animosities between Venezuela and iits Western neighbor Columbia, resurfaced.

 

Columbia took the peaceful path toward development. They contracted with the US oil companies eager for work, in the struggling post-recession business climate. It was discovered their reserves rivalled Brazil's. Once production began and revenues came poring in, Columbia used its revenues to improve its economic standing in the Latin American region.

 

Venezuela on the other began preparations fo take the reserves by force. Chavez, now suffering from another serious bout of cancer signed several agreements with Brazil and Russia, which included contracts for defense infrastructure improvements. In 2015, Chavez lost his fight against cance and died. His successor claimed Columbian spies had poisoned him, causing the cancer. Venezuela began inciting the few anti-government groups left in Columbia , in an effort to foment class warfare. Lastly, Brazil brokered a deal with Russia on Venezuela's behalf or several new naval platforms including a new Steregushchiy class frigate, which was named the Hugo Chavez and two next generation Kilo class submarines, armed with the Club family of missiles. These platforms were delievered in early 2016.

 

It is now June 2016, the US Navy, now a shadow of its former self as a result of the financial meltdown and forced budget cuts is participating in one of the few regional exercises it now participates in - Carribean Partnership, with the Columbian Navy.

 

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*** Spoiler Alert ***

 

AAR below

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As the scenario opens I find myself commanding some little crappy ships, a couple of MPAs, UAVs, embarked helos and one magical SSN. The words I so dread set the tone, "Do not fire until fired upon." Oh crap. To prod the situation along I sent out a couple of relatively expendable attack planes to try to provoke an incident.

 

It turns out Red was way ahead of me as some Flankers take out a harmless little SH-60 not quite 20 minutes into the scenario. Game on!

 

A couple of brave Kfir C.7 pilots attempt to engage Flankers after taking out a long range radar. The first goes down in flames without even detecting the AAM, the second gets off two heaters and safely returns to base. Both heaters miss.

 

Minor victories by 33 minutes in. P-8's two Harpoon missiles each hit a missile boat and sink them. Torpedoes from the SSN finish off the other two missile boats in the same enemy group. I nearly forgot to use the Harpoons since the SSN was just sitting there, but the big huge weapon range ring on the P-8 caught my eye and contributed greatly to the cause. The little corvette can now suffer a respite until the next danger arrives.

 

In a stroke of luck, a Steregushchiy runs aground and falls victim to two Harpoons from a P-8. Now can I do in the accompanying Lupo that is very much not grounded? Yes, more luck, the Lupo just sits there picking up sailors from the stricken ship and finds herself hit by 2 x SLAM-ER missiles diverted from an airfield attack (four launched, two hits). The SSN provided target localization and would have launched an ADCAP if the P-8 hadn't been available for re-tasking. We're now three hours into the scenario and I've neutralized the non-Flanker targets that I can find. Red owns the air thanks to the Flankers but the range of the SLAM-ER and Harpoons launched from the P-8 are giving me an edge for now.

 

Oh fun, someone keeps volleying torps at the LCS group. I like the touch of including a Perry in the group for defense! Turns out (SH-60B) it was a Lada class submarine. Once the SH-60s were reloaded with two torps a piece there was no more escape and the Lada shall launch torps no more. We're almost 10 hours into the scenario at this point, picking away at the Red airbase and still afraid of the Flankers. I've been hoping the Perry will lob some SAMs at the Flankers but no such luck as yet.

 

A couple of Flankers finally stray too close, my little Frigate gets zapped by a sizzler! Then a little more payback with six and a half hours to go when another Lada starts the eternal patrol. The Red airbase is up to 42% damage, the LCS group is plodding along to see about doing some damage to it but we'll see if they make it there or not.

 

The Red airbase reached 60% damage when the scenario time limit expired. I was not granted victory and neither was the Red side. My LCS group was definitely within the on station rectangles and so was the SSN. So I'm not sure what more I could have done except keep the little corvette from sinking.

 

My losses:

1 Ship, 4 AC, 2 Helos

 

Red losses:

6 Ships, 2 Subs, 20 AC, 3 Helos, 1 damaged base, and 1 destroyed long range radar

 

A fun scenario, thank you Greg!

Played yesterday for a while with almost exactly the same results as Tony.

I will restart this very tricky scenario when I've some spare time...

Thanks, Greg!

Thanks for the evaluations on my first excursion into HUCE scenario design. I look forward to your eval of BRICS #2 in the GUIK folder.