AAR: Prelude [spoiler Alert]

A Harpoon Classic scenario

By Christopher Stoner

 

Admiral Chen Loo looked over the morning paper with terse disbelief.  Taiwanese intelligence had recently delivered corroborated evidence that an oil exploration team working for a joint Chinese/Filipino consortium and using the latest petroleum exploration techniques had confirmed the existence of enormous oil and natural gas deposits in the contested South China Sea.  His ROC naval intelligence officer had immediately tied this to recent activities in the region which made an offensive operation to claim the disputed area a distinct possibility.

 

Monitoring assets had detected shipping activities preparing for embarkation in Guangzhou that included troops, weapons, and equipment earmarked for apparently mundane purposes, but all focusing on operations in the South China Sea.  Believing it too much to be a coincidence, Admiral Chen had recommended subtle shifts in the

 

Taiwanese defence posture to guard against a sudden Chinese incursion.  Although the national leadership had agreed, they also showed great concern about the growing ties between the Chinese and Filipino governments.  China had invested heavily in the Philippines as of late, including the renovation of the old US Navy Subic Bay facility in Luzon- ostensibly to support 'resource recovery operations'- and the provision of older Chinese patrol vessels and F-7M Airguard aircraft to supplement the Filipino military.  Against Admiral Chen's wishes, they had brokered a deal with Malaysia, who also had a claim on the contested region, and aligned with them to repel any Chinese mischief.

 

Now all his careful subterfuge was for naught.  The headlines of the morning papers across Asia announced the news of the massive oil find, leaked to the public by a disgruntled survey worker.  The cat was out of the bag and China would be moving quickly to consolidate their hold on the chain of islands, reefs, and cays that would solidify their claim on the energy reserves.

 

The Spratly Islands - Admiral Chen looked to the situation board.  His initial forces were still in transit.  The Chinese had several warships sortie and the transports he had been watching sailed from their southern ports.  More concerning was the sudden increase in activity flaring at the Chinese military facilities across the Taiwan Strait.  Knowing that “the jig was up”, they were escalating issues here to pin down Taiwanese forces and keep them from responding in the Spratlys.

 

His eyes focused on a small speck in the middle of the South China Sea.  Taiping Island, barely a kilometre square, was the largest land mass in the region.  It was Taiwan's only possession in the Spratlys and a direct affront to the Chinese claim.  Grabbing his hat, Admiral Chen hurried for the operations center.

 

 

Most of my units had specific orders for deployment, but no particular orders were issued for the Sea King based at Labuan so she was sent to Swallow Reef to give them a modicum of search capability. As I was operating essentially in the blind, I ordered my only Thunderhawk and MD 500 Defender helicopters into the air for a quick look around. The Thunderhawk quickly spotted a number of PLAN ships from their distinctive emissions and was ordered to run down their lines of bearing in order to localize them.

 

 

There were several surface contacts. Many turned out to be Neutral vessels. The Thunderhawk was able to localize them and plot an estimated course for each PLAN group. Once this was accomplished, she landed to refuel and kept re-launching to maintain tabs on the PLAN without revealing the location of the FF Kang Ting, her home base.

 

While this was happening, the facility on Taiping was suddenly attacked and destroyed by a flight of Badger bombers. The AAA [Anti-Aircraft Artillery] located around the base got one Badger. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much that I could have done to prevent it as I had absolutely no air defence assets.

 

 

The Filipino ship, Tomas Batillo, was detected by PTM Tze Chiang racing in at 40 knots. However, she was still 26nm away from Taiping so I could not engage. Instead, she ran back to get inside the 12nm limit. If the Batillo followed, then she would be fair game. Batillo followed and was soon inside the 12nm limit. After repeated warnings, she continued to violate the sovereignty of the Republic. The Tze Chiang could easily have destroyed her with Hsieng Feng SSMs, but elected to deal with her the old-fashioned way. She changed course to 272T to close and ordered surface action stations to her gun crews. Her 40mm mount had a range of 3nm while the Filipino guns could only reach 2nm. If she was careful, she could safely destroy the enemy patrol boat without exposing herself to danger. However, luck was not with her, today. The Filipino boat turned back soon after penetrating the 12nm limit. The Tze Chiang could not chase her faster opponent. Seething with rage after hearing the reported destruction on Taiping, the captain ordered a single Hsien Feng fired. The speed of the missile was more than sufficient to catch the Batillo and left her sinking. It was small consolation to the smoke rising over Taiping base.

Not long afterwards, two Hercules transports were shot down by Tze Chiang as they overflew her in their attempt to drop paratroops onto Taiping.

 

 

Another Batillo-class gunboat chased the Tze Chiang, but turned back at the 14nm mark. She never knew how close she came to eating a missile. However, just as curiosity killed the cat, so did it doom this Filipino gunboat. After a series of feints and withdrawals, the gunboat finally ventured into range of the Tze Chiang's guns. Seven rounds of 40mm fire were sufficient to destroy the over-inquisitive intruder.

 

 

Meanwhile, two pirate raiders, accompanied by the Philippines’ Emilio Jacinto, were spotted approaching Swallow Reef. The Wasp aboard the Musytari was ordered aloft. Although she only had a torpedo payload, she could still provide invaluable observation of the intruders. They were well within the 12nm limit and were free to be engaged. The brigand vessel, Pulau Mas, fell first to 100mm gunnery. Then the Jacinto came into range and was similarly dealt with. The lone surviving pirate vessel maintained speed and course to intercept the Musytari, but could not survive for long under the iron hammering from her guns. Soon, all three ships were ablaze and sinking within visual range of Swallow Reef.

 

 

Three PT boats had accompanied a Jiangwei frigate from the mainland. They had been shadowed by the FF Kang Ding throughout their voyage. The Jiangwei was going to be a hard nut to crack as she carried SS-N-8 Saccade SSMs with 65nm range. This was 50% longer range than the Hsieng Feng carried by the Kang Ting. It would be interesting to see if Kang Ting could survive long enough to get into range for her missiles.

 

 

The Tze Chiang was forced off her station near Taiping in order to avoid falling under the PLAN’s SSM umbrella. I decided to try and kill the Jiangwei with the Penguins aboard the Thunderhawk if that group ever got close enough to our exclusion zone. However, the little flotilla carefully and cunningly avoided the 12nm boundary and stayed 15-16nm away from Taiping. Eventually, the Thunderhawk had to retire from lack of fuel. The Kang Ting kept running in order to keep pace and shadow the PLAN flotilla.

 

 

They did a good job driving the Tze Chiang off her station over Taiping. In her absence, a Shanghai II-class gunboat made her unseen approach to Taiping. Only the presence of mind from an alert gun crew manning the 35mm twin Oerlikon battery prevented any further damage to the island. They spotted her and opened fire from long range and left the Shanghai-II adrift.

 

 

The PLAN flotilla made a close pass by Swallow Reef and was finally in violation of the 12nm limit. The Thunderhawk immediately pressed an attack and her two Penguin ASMs struck the Jiangwei leaving her burning, but still under steam. Follow up barrages by the Kang Ting broke the Jiangwei in half and left the little group without a meaningful ASuW capability. Return visits by the Thunderhawk easily dispatched the little gunboats one-by-one.

 

 

A new surface contact was detected approaching Taiping. The PTM Houxin passed nearby, but never entered the 12nm range so she couldn't be engaged under the current ROE. This made for a very funny situation. Her long-ranged missiles were a potent threat to all vessels in the area, but since she had not violated the 12nm exclusion zone, she could not be rightfully engaged. However, if she were to fire her missiles first, they would most certainly swamp and destroy any target she chose. The only tactic available was to avoid her totally until she committed some act that would warrant her destruction. It was kind of ironic that the ships all had to manoeuvre in order keep their distance from her.

 

In the end, her destruction was unnecessary. The additional troops and supplies arrived at Taiping from the home island and were successfully unloaded. Once this was accomplished, victory was granted.

 

I really enjoyed the unique Rules of Engagement. They were very believable, realistic, and presented an excellent challenge for the sparse assets available to me. It was very nice to see, once again, that it doesn’t take a large number of platforms in order to make a fun and demanding scenario. Thanks for a stimulating exercise.

 

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