July 26, 200520 yr AAR: Emerald Action By Mark Gellis Lieutenant O'Malley was fuming as he walked out of the radio room. He had just received his orders from HQ ashore. "Locate Norwegian fishing vessels in your vicinity and handle with extreme prejudice." Although he didn't necessarily agree with their implied violence, he could obey them. The next part of his orders were what gave him gastronomic upset, "Norwegian frigate Narvik believed to be in your Area of Operations [AO]. Exercise extreme caution." Now how the heck was he supposed to deal with that? Did the REMFs ever bother to compare the range of his 76mm guns to the range of the Narvik's Surface-to-Surface Missiles [sSMs]? He said a quick prayer for himself and his crews and walked the short distance to the bridge to begin the operation. His two small vessels were more attuned to fishery management and not a stand up fight with a naval frigate. More depressing was the fact that his forces were nearly blind as they were only equipped with short-ranged radar. A small consolation was the assignment of three SF260 aircraft from Shannon. However, these aircraft were nearly as blind as the ships as they had no active sensors. It would be the ultimate game of "Marco Polo". To actually find any ships on this sea was going to require blind luck, indeed. To help hide his vessels, O'Malley ordered his ships to engage their radar only sporadically. Hopefully, this would prevent the frigate from establishing a firm contact on him from Electronic Support Measures [ESM] alone. It was the only card he had to play. As the planes flew back and forth over the wide ocean, one stumbled upon the St. Lucia, a trawler registered in Stavanger. The Niamh was immediately ordered to intercept and attempt to board her. Unfortunately, as Niamh closed on her, the Frigate was detected dangerously close to the Niamh. The Niamh was chasing a vessel doing 14kts, she was doing 22kts, and she was being chased by a vessel running 25knots. O'Malley had the image of a small fish being devoured by a bigger fish who was in turn being eaten by a yet larger fish. Well, whatever their fate, O'Malley was determined to catch the St. Lucia before she herself was caught. The other patrol vessel, Ciara, could make 25kts and decided to stay well clear of the frigate's path. Ciara made contact with another trawler, Katerina, who serendipitously appeared in front of her. As both Irish vessels ran for their lives, they also closed on these merchant intruders. When they reached a distance of 1nm, the Norwegian ships were ordered to halt for fishery inspection. When they refused to do so, they were ordered sunk by gunfire. For reasons unknown, once the trawlers were sunk, the frigate disengaged from her pursuit and victory was awarded. The luck of the Irish had held today. Thanks for an interesting little encounter. I think that my success was more due to luck than skillful deployment. Check it out in the StrategyZoneOnline file archives.
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