AAR: Minnows [spoiler Alert]

A Harpoon Classic Commander's Edition scenario

By Patrick Howard

 

The time is the near future, and long simmering tensions between India and Pakistan have erupted. China has weighed-in by leasing one of its newer frigates to Pakistan as a trial - but it will be a trial by fire.

 

India has unwisely chosen to attack our country. Critical wartime supplies are approaching Indian ports. As our naval forces are unlikely to prevail against overwhelming odds engaging the Indian navy directly, you are instructed to locate and destroy all commercial vessels approaching India.

 

SITREP:

The war is not going well for us so far. Air superiority is contested at best, and lost sometimes. Vital military supplies are approaching India. If we can interrupt these supplies we can gain some breathing room. The Indian military has anticipated this situation and has dispersed some units to escort incoming commercial vessels. This dispersal will probably be informed by anticipated risk, so convoys closest to Karachi will likely be escorted. There are reports of the INS Viraat and escorts off the west coast of India as well, presumably to protect this commerce. Omani and Yemeni air forces will be defending their airspace, and there are the inevitable groups of American ships supplying their Gulf commitments. Avoid conflict with these forces if possible.

 

Orders:

1.1 TF 2.1 (AEs) stay under friendly AAW cover and attack targets of opportunity

1.2 TF 3.1,3.2.,3.3 (ABs,AGs,AFs) seek out and destroy approaching merchant traffic. You may detach any unit to operate independently as the situation requires.

1.3 SUBGRP 4.1 (ACu) Support group ABs in executing 1.2

1.4 SUBGRP 4.3 (ADu) Move toward Mumbai and engage ships already under Indian AAW cover near Mumbai.

Airbase Karachi (AAb) Assets available to this operation are severely limited due to the critical situation inland. Use your assets primarily for reconnaissance and protection of surface units. Losses cannot be replaced.

 

ROE: Weapons Free against all Indian ships and aircraft, and all merchants. Do NOT attack any ships escorted by American naval units. Avoid conflict with American manned aircraft, and any Yemeni or Omani aircraft.

 

 

With only a meagre number of air assets available, I carefully husbanded them. I launched an Atlantic to get a quick situation report. It was ordered to evade radar and try to take a circuitous route, but was detected by EMB-145 and Flankers from Jamnagar as soon as she launched. There would simply be no way to avoid a fight with Indian interceptors. Instead of trying to avoid them, I decided to pull a bait and switch routine, instead.

 

 

I ordered the Atlantic to high altitude and to activate her radar. The air crew complained strenuously, but I had to offer the Indians some enticement. I promised the aircraft commander that there would be friendly air cover nearby. The Atlantics performed their role as bait magnificently. As planned, the Flankers, MiG-27 Bahadur, and MiG-21 Bison all came snooping. I had my JF-17 Thunder waiting low in the grass to ambush them and the plan worked like a charm. Flight after Indian flight when down in flames without returning fire. After the long-ranged air patrols were decimated, the EMB-145 AEW planes were meat on the table for the Falcons who cleared enough breathing room for the Atlantics to manoeuvre, but just barely.

 

It seemed that nearly every plane in the Indian air force carried the super-lethal AA-12 Adder - Bahadur, Bison, Flankers. I would not have been surprised to find the Mainstay had them, too! Every plane in the theatre seemed to be drawn to the Atlantics like moths to open flames. Even Hawks from distant Oman came to try their luck before being shot down in flames.

 

Although the EMB-145 from Jamnagar were handled somewhat easily, the Mainstay was detected over Bombay and there was no way to get at her since my fighters would no longer enjoy the support of land-based radar at Karachi. It was pretty much a Mexican standoff, but my main ships were exposed the Mainstay's radar.

 

Meanwhile, down south, a Dauphin launched from FF Zulfiqar for a quick peek without success and got jumped by Harriers for her troubles as she tried to return to base. It was hard-won intelligence, but now I knew that there was a carrier around. The life expectancy of the frigate dropped precipitously and I was not disappointed. Soon, a Bear appeared and reported her position. Not long afterwards, she simply exploded and sank without a trace; never even detecting the weapon that sank her.

 

 

With some breathing room around Karachi, the Orion was sent out again. Flying below the enemy's radar coverage, it found unknown group her infrared sensors. Rather than risking one of my sparse assets with long-ranged radar, I sent Falcons in for a look and they found the frigates Vindhyagiri and Shivak along with a number of very large ships. They made their egress on afterburner while chased by SA-17 Grizzly and shot down 2 helos to help blind the group.

 

They re-armed and attacked with Mirage carrying ARMs. The escorts were quickly sunk followed by the tankers. It looked to be a pretty good war up to this point. Unfortunately, the situation changed quickly and not for the better. The Atlantics were operating a bit more distant from Karachi and paid the price. They were out of range from ground-based Karachi radar thereby allowing the Indian Flankers to close to Adder range undetected. Before they knew it, AA-12 Adder were detected. Scratch one Atlantic.

 

Another Atlantic was ordered aloft. As she crept to her patrol area at low altitude, she stumbled upon an Arleigh Burke destroyer! The crew vainly tried to escape, but 2 Standard SAMs put a quick end to that foot race. My surface group was nearby and itching to take on the Americans, but their orders were not to attack and to concentrate only on Indian merchant shipping.

 

 

SS Hurmat detected the Viraat carrier group. Although she was a mouth-watering target, she allowed them to pass since they were not the objective of the mission. At this point, my sole surviving reconnaissance asset was the Orion and it blinked off the screen. I never even knew what got her. Now, I was operating pretty much blindly and it showed.

 

My surface group stumbled over DDG Rajput. Although they managed to sink her handily, the jig was up and Indian forces converged on them from all compass points to wipe them from the face of the earth. With only two surviving submarines as my striking power, I gambled that all the northern shipping targets had been sunk and ordered them to patrol near Bombay. Once on station, they soon detected two unescorted ship groups consisting of tankers and freighters. Three were immediately dispatched with torpedoes and victory was awarded.

 

Another great scenario from Patrick Howard. Thanks for sharing it.

 

Nice AAR. It does expose the limited AI in regards to aircraft, what with the various opposing forces simply slamming into your Falcons to try and down the Atlantics.

 

As an aside, would you think, in a real situation, that an SS captain would not take a shot at the Indian carrier?

As an aside, would you think, in a real situation, that an SS captain would not take a shot at the Indian carrier?

I think that most military men would have the discipline to follow their orders if the mission was clearly articulated.

 

This would be like the situation from Red Storm Rising whereby the primary targets were the Amphibious ships and not the escorting carrier groups.

"Comrade General, the Navy's primary objective will be the enemy carrier force."

 

"Then explain to our comrades in blue that carrier aircraft cannot take Iceland away from us, but their f***ing Marines

can

."

 

Tom Clancy,

Red Storm Rising

Hello Guys. Please excuse me if I somehow misuse posting etiquette- I've never posted to a discussion group like this before. I think I can shed some light on these issues. If you look at the ROE, it specifies that all Indian ships are targets. I personally believe that I'd go after the carrier to protect my vulnerable surface units from air attack. As far as the AI issue, this shortcoming is a real challenge with scenario design. I hint in the players notes that attriting Indian air assets isn't the point- however, the temptation is impossible to resist. The solution is to equip the human player with aircraft that have essentially no chance at this- the pre-HCDB080616 (which introduces a 95 mile AA-12) iteration of "No Place Like Home" is an example of that solution. Thank you for your kind words regarding this and other scenarios, and thanks for keeping this great old game alive.

patrick

I hint in the players notes that attriting Indian air assets isn't the point- however, the temptation is impossible to resist. The solution is to equip the human player with aircraft that have essentially no chance at this- the pre-HCDB080616 (which introduces a 95 mile AA-12) iteration of "No Place Like Home" is an example of that solution.

 

Yup. I saw the suggestion in the orders and tried to follow them as best I could. I tried to have the planes 'sneak' out of Karachi, but they were detected as soon as they launched. Since they could not avoid detection and subsequent interception, I thought that I just did the next best thing and sent out a strong CAP escort every time they launched.

 

I didn't specifically go after the Jamnagar CAP, but I did fire on them after they had detached from their formation patrol and tried to intercept my planes. I thought that was in the spirit of the orders. If that was not the case, then I interpreted the orders a bit too loosely.