File - GIUK - The not so Lonely New Queen of the North. March 2021. Hypothetical Scenario.

broncepulido · July 4, 2021

The not so Lonely New Queen of the North. March 2021. Hypothetical Scenario.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for EC2003 Battle for the GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCDB2-170909 (or later) 1980-2025 era Platform Database. This scenario is designed with Advanced Scenario Editor Build 2017.013 and to be run with HCE 2015.008+ or later.

This scenario is designed to be played from the Blue/NATO 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 side.

Image: Russian Guided Missile Cruiser Marshal Ustinov (Soviet Project 1164 Atlant, Slava-class for NATO) steaming through the English Channel on November 15, 2018. Aerial photograph took from a Royal Navy Merlin Mk2 Helicopter by LPHOT SEELEY/MOD, and licensed under the Open Government License. In all the three Slava-class cruiser completed, P-500 Bazalt anti-ship cruise missiles are replaced by P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missiles. Chervona Ukraina/Varyag was from the start equipped with P-1000 Vulkan anti-ship missiles, and in Slava/Moskva and Marshal Ustinov P-500 Bazalt were replaced by P-1000 Vulkan (in service from 1987) in the late 1980s.

From the start, casual observers were surprised by the steadfastness of the new Biden Administration face the aggressive and expansionist Russia and China postures.

One of its first moves was the deployment of B-1B Lancer, with maritime strike capability (nominally equipped with AGM-158C LRASM-A from June 2018), in Norway 22 February-23 March 2021, including one B-1B deployed to Bodo inside the Arctic Circle from March 8.

Less known to the world, that action was in response to continuous near violations of Norway's territorial waters by Russian naval vessels. Most executed sailing west of the Fishermen Peninsula by the Guided Missile Cruiser Marshal Ustinov, temporally the biggest Northern Fleet surface warship after the Pyotr Velikiy CGN, in a clear propaganda stunt but with a 35 years old vessel. Fjords and a big enemy warship playing hide-and-seek, for some a remembrance of 1944 and the ancient German battleship Tirpitz, the Lonely Queen of the North.

In this hypothetical scenario many misunderstood drive to a hot situation and an open conflict, but to avoid an escalade limited to into theater forces and limited ground strikes against the opponent sovereign territories.

Enrique Mas, 4 July 2021.