AAR: Kilo Krush [Spoiler Alert]

Kilo Crush - EC2003 MEDC

By Mark Gellis

According to my orders, I was not allowed to freely engage the Kilos until they were east of Sicily. I decided that that a more pressing problem would be finding them in the first place. Therefore, I elected to employ a barrier strategy whereby I hoped to locate and track the Kilos at the narrowest point of their journey; the area between Sicily and Tunis.

I moved my surface and submarine assets there as expeditiously as possible. As DDG Luigi Durand and DD Jean de Vinne moved into the area, the DDG reported, "Transients! Incoming torpedoes". There had been no indication of submarine activity. She immediately changed course to race away from the incoming menace. However, the torpedoes were travelling in excess of 50kts and she could only run at 30kts. Slowly, the separation was eaten up. The seconds counted down as the torpedoes drew ever closer. Just as they were about to detonate in her wake, they either missed or ran out of gas. Luigi Durand was lucky this time.

DD de Vinne was also subjected to torpedo attacks. Four successive waves, in fact! Despite having her sonar suite active, she was unable to catch the faintest whiff of her attacker. Her two Lynx helos were practically useless, too. For hours, she tried to approach the area only to find torpedos shot into her face. Only because the torpedos had been fired at long range did she survive her ordeal. Finally, a helo returned a MAD [Magnetic Anomaly Detector] contact and dropped her 2 MU-90 Murene torpedoes on the de Vinne's tormentor. Both torpedoes struck the submarine and sank her. DD de Vinne assumed her position in the barrier.

Meanwhile, I had moved flights of MPA [Maritime Patrol Aircraft] into the area. The ships warned me that there were marauding aircraft coming from Libya so I was forced to escort my patrols. The most difficult part was the ROE [Rules of Engagement] which prevented me from firing unless fired upon. The beautiful long-ranged Mica AAMs on my aircraft were negated by a politician's whim.

As my Combat Air Patrols [CAP] flew their patterns over the barrier ships, several fighters emerged from Libyan airspace. I cautiously approached them and they opened fire on me. I immediately returned fire and turned away. It would be another race between missiles. Luckily, mine would arrive first to destroy the Libyan interceptors. Without terminal radar guidance, the Libyan missiles fell into the sea. After a few repeats of this engagement, the Libyans stopped sending their pilots out to die.

On the surface, various small craft began to appear in the area. As my ships were under the same ROE as the aircraft, they could not fire unless fired upon. Instead, I decided to assign CAP between my ships and the unknown vessels. My tactic worked. When the Osa PTM boats opened fire with Styx SSMs, my fighters were in position to shoot down the missiles. Return fire from my ships quickly sank the near-defenceless boats. A pair of Nanuchka PTMs also tried to open a hole in my barrier but were destroyed in the same manner.

My ships and aircraft maintained their patrols and were rewarded by a subsurface detection from a sonobuoy. A second submarine was soon detected. They were soon confirmed as SSK Kilo submarines. While I was under orders not to initiate hostile action, the was no restriction from giving them a serious sonar lashing. This way, I intended to track and trail them until they either gave up and turned around or else I would sink them once they were east of Sicily.

As I moved towards them, they both fired 53-65K torpedoes at me! My ships fled while launching helos to prosecute the submarines which had confirmed their hostility. The ships evaded but the submarines did not. Two SSK Kilos would not reach Benghazi. I was awarded victory.

A nice little scenario. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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