File - WPac - From Russia with Love?

[Akula]

File Name: From Russia with Love?

File Submitter: Akula

File Submitted: 13 Apr 2009

File Updated: 13 Apr 2009

File Category: WestPac

DB Used: Current Official

Authors: Akula

Battleset-WPac: .scq - WPac - WestPac

 

Background:

 

The Kurile Islands have been a point of contention between Japan and the Soviet Union since the end or World War Two. Even following the collapse of the Soviet state, the area remains disputed. Japan claims that the southern most of the Islands, which were not specifically covered in the Treaty of San Francisco of 1951, are rightfully Japanese Territory. Negotiations have yet to settle this dispute.

 

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[CV32]

After Action Report: From Russia with Love? [spoiler ALERT]

A scenario by Akula

 

Just a mini AAR of sorts to report on my experience with this monster scenario.

 

The principal victim of joint Russian/DPRK aggression in this scenario is Japan, supported by American forces forward deployed to Westpac.

 

Almost immediately Japan was subjected to a rather intense bombardment by North Korean ballistic missiles. Those that were shot down or missed their target altogether fell upon several of my southern Japanese airfields, causing minor but nevertheless aggravating damage.

 

This was followed by a handful of precision air strikes against targets in the north and south of Japan, most of which I was able to repel.

 

Still, I wasn't able to grab a breather, because the air strikes were followed by massive cruise missile attacks by Russian bombers that were shooting from standoff range, well outside my effective reach and well inside their own defensive IADS envelope. Each time it was a race to try and gather enough fighters to intercept the hordes of incoming ALCMs.

 

When I was finally able to launch a counter-attack of sorts, it was a piecemeal attack to try and chip away at the DPRK air defenses enough that I could get inside and destroy those threatening ballistic missile sites. I had no hope of hitting the Russians just yet, so I focused on the weaker opponent.

 

As I've said many times before, the JASDF suffers from a severe lack of standoff and precision guided ordnance, so I largely used US air assets to smack DPRK targets while the JASDF flew CAP and escort.

 

For a while I was thinking there was a Russian SAG or carrier group in the Sea of Japan, but this proved untrue. Large numbers of Russian naval forces were eventually discovered in the Sea of Okhotsk, heading to the Kuriles. And it wasn't until I was quite far along into the scenario before I found a Russian carrier group in the Pacific, about halfway between Okinawa/Kadena and Guam. I had been shuttling aircraft between those two locations with no idea that they were quite close to running headlong into this force.

 

Two enemy forces proved extremely tough nuts to crack:

 

(1) The SA-20/21 IADS in the Vladiovostok area and in the Kuriles, which were absolutely brutal at reaching way out there and swatting down any friendly aircraft that dared fly at high altitude. I also had a tough time determining the exact extent of the SAM envelope because it was very difficult to locate the batteries.

 

(2) The Russian Navy forces near the Kuriles, in part because of the sheer density of the force and in part because they enjoyed the support of nearby SA-20/21 SAM batteries in the Kuriles and at Sakhalin.

 

The cruise missile attacks continued unabated for a very long time, even after I had begun hitting Russian airfields. I was under constant threat of losing key friendly airbases and had to assign a significant portion of my force to simple local air defense.

 

Minor Japanese naval units in the Sea of Japan and near the Kuriles were lost to antiship missile strikes, but most everywhere else I was okay, except for a couple of successful submarine attacks in chokepoint areas. The US Navy carrier battle group operating east of Japan remained unscathed for the entire time, thankfully.

 

In the end, I destroyed nearly 1,000 fixed wing aircraft, nearly another 100 helicopters, and all 19 (?) enemy bases, while losing 80+ aircraft of my own. It wasn't until I destroyed a significant portion of the Russian naval force in the area of the Kuriles that I managed to achieve victory.

 

It was a long, hard fought battle, and if we had a logistics model in HCE, I think I would have been toast for sure. Many thanks to Akula for writing a scenario that provides many hours of enjoyment.