Sunburn
15 Feb 05, 02:25
The Surge, an After Action Report by Randomizer
Well here goes, a carrier without planes and an effective air defence capability in an ASW environment. The aim is to get USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) into Chesapeake Bay so that she can embark her air group and join the three-hour old WW3. Rounding out the task group are USS Mississippi (CGN-40), USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2), USS Spruance (DD-963) and operating independently USCG Midgett (WHEC-726) and USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716). For local colour I change to a modified Aegis game palette, set compression to 1 second and press F12.
“Hey CAG, why don’t you just fly the squadrons on from Norfolk?”
“No can do boss, and besides the Captain says that the new Playland for the ships’ Macdonald’s restaurant is too big for the COD and will have to be installed by Newport News shipyard.”
“Oh. Ok, lets play it out”
Allocate the three airborne Hawkeye’s patrol zones using active radar with one each north, south and deployed over the Battlegroups’ track. Lots of surface contacts around but assess the surface threat as negligible. Will steam west using a 4000 yard 30 degree zigzag and fleet speed of 18kts. Call up an Orion from Brunswick and another from Jax for an ASW mission over the projected track and plot USCG Midgett to sweep east of the entrance to the Bay. And now like all ASW operations the waiting begins.
After a while, the blue on blue graphics start to dissolve the retinas but this is self-inflicted and so not pensionable. Suddenly, WHAM, a merchant explodes 42nm from Ike. Ok, so I’m awake. The battlegroups’ Sea King and a recently arrived P3 are quickly detached and the SH-3 soon gains a contact on dipping sonar. Sweet. 1 x Mk 46 and perhaps a minute later the “Torpedo W136 has hit its target” message is received and the contact disappears. This is gonna be easy, he said…
Hang on; Orion 102 is heading for home. I try to recall him to his ASW mission but now something about Executable 3.6.3 forbids him from being unassigned. Cursed regulations, I think they are having virtual lobsters at the virtual Officers' Mess tonight and he just wants to get home for a bite and a brew. He still reacts to micro-management though and so I’ll keep him around until the plane from Jax arrives on station. Dropping sonobouys by hand is tiresome and finally I send him off muttering “Hope you bloody well crash.” But I know that he won’t.
Contact. Transient. WHAM another merchant explodes right on Ike’s track less than 20nm ahead. Turn 90 to port (roughly south) and send the screen Sea King, the duty P3 and detach USS Spruance to prosecute the contact. Nothing. Sonobouy lines and dipping sonar, MAD runs and still nothing. Contact. Torpedo; WHAM another merchant takes a fatal hit about 12,000 yds south of the datum. Spruance is just within range of the edge of the uncertainty zone and cuts loose an ASROC. Maybe that will make him flinch. 82 minutes, 5 x Mk 46 torpedoes and another ASROC later, nothing. Last detected at 0437 zulu, the contact drops at 0538; he is still out there, this Otto Kretchemerivitch and my inability to locate him has forced my track further south than I wanted to go.
Now I am intercepted by the ships’ cat and shortly after the Theatre Commander demands a meeting about Operation Supper.
Apparently this is supposed to be my responsibility even though there are far more important happenings right now but if I act quickly there is a chance that participation in Operation Dish Washing can be avoided. Orders are orders and upon returning to CIC some time later, I find a bunch of message windows and a Whiskey Class SS surfaced off the coast of Cape Hatteras!! On the surface, in broad daylight and within sight of shore AND I HAVE NOTHING THAT CAN KILL HIM!!! USCG Midgett is 14nm away and her 5”/38 will do the trick if she can get there in time. Within minutes her LAMPS I is airborne but it can only watch as the Whisky torpedoes a container ship. Good, the Whiskey is down. She dived before shooting, something to be filed away about the AI and diesel boats maybe? Or maybe not. Drop sonobouy and Mk 46, missed. Drop sonobuoy pattern around outside of growing uncertainty zone and the helos last torpedo: missed. WHAM. 56nm from the datum and south of Ike another merchant dies but the launch transient has given a rough location thanks to SOSUS and my friendly source Other/off board. Cancel all references to this being easy. Decision time, send the P3 to the southern contact and let Midgett and a Sea King from the battlegroup take care of the Whisky.
USCG Midgett arrives within range of the Whiskey’s uncertainty zone and launches an over the side shot with a single Mk 46. Five minutes 11 seconds later the torpedo hits. A real horeshoe shot but there is a better one yet to come. Although the target does not disappear, it is determined that it is dead and so I drop the track at 0756 zulu. Meanwhile the Orion arrives at the southern contact, lays a circular pattern of sonobuoys around the uncertainty zone and drops a buoy and a single Mk 46 in the middle. The torpedo hits the sub moments after entering the water and this time there is no doubt as to the kill. That was really lucky. Time 0813 zulu.
Nothing on the scopes and so resume course (direct with a 30 degree zigzag) and speed (18 kts) for the channel. Midgett and her helo are tasked with sanitizing the straights while Spruance screens the carrier from the north. For Eisenhower it will be about a three and a half hour run to safety.
Now 10nm from the safety of Reference Points 1 and 2 when suddenly, Contact. Torpedo in the water on Ike's starboard quarter. No data on the shooter but Charles F. Adams quickly launches a Mark 46 down the incoming bearing and shoots an ASROC at maximum range just behind the torpedo plot. CVN-69 detaches, goes to flank speed and turns 80 degrees from the incoming while Adams goes to flank and throws herself between the carrier and the torpedo. That’s why escorts get paid the big bucks. What’s that? They don’t get big bucks? Well maybe they should since she takes one for the team and is still afloat, sinking and on fire at games end. Ike makes it to safety and I’m declared the winner but I would not be surprised if I ended up doing the hatless dance in front of CINCLANT for losing a valuable destroyer and watching as four merchants were lost. The evaluation says that I killed 2 x Foxtrots and 2 x Whiskeys so it would seem as though Adams' parting shot was effective but I was sure that there was a nuke out there somewhere. Ivan sank five ships for five torpedoes and four diesel boats. I used a whack of torpedoes (15 in total) plus three ASROCS and a tonne of sonobuoys.
This was a taut little ASW scenario conducted in shallow water and poor weather. It was also a hoot to play.
BTW Salt Lake City never got close to the action but her towed array did provide valuable data to quickly triangulate incoming torpedoes. Some might think that there might be better ways to have used a half-billion dollars worth of attack sub but hey, whatcha gonna do :D
-----------------------------
Many more AARs here:
http://www.harpoonhq.com/harpoon3/scenarios/
Well here goes, a carrier without planes and an effective air defence capability in an ASW environment. The aim is to get USS Eisenhower (CVN-69) into Chesapeake Bay so that she can embark her air group and join the three-hour old WW3. Rounding out the task group are USS Mississippi (CGN-40), USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2), USS Spruance (DD-963) and operating independently USCG Midgett (WHEC-726) and USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716). For local colour I change to a modified Aegis game palette, set compression to 1 second and press F12.
“Hey CAG, why don’t you just fly the squadrons on from Norfolk?”
“No can do boss, and besides the Captain says that the new Playland for the ships’ Macdonald’s restaurant is too big for the COD and will have to be installed by Newport News shipyard.”
“Oh. Ok, lets play it out”
Allocate the three airborne Hawkeye’s patrol zones using active radar with one each north, south and deployed over the Battlegroups’ track. Lots of surface contacts around but assess the surface threat as negligible. Will steam west using a 4000 yard 30 degree zigzag and fleet speed of 18kts. Call up an Orion from Brunswick and another from Jax for an ASW mission over the projected track and plot USCG Midgett to sweep east of the entrance to the Bay. And now like all ASW operations the waiting begins.
After a while, the blue on blue graphics start to dissolve the retinas but this is self-inflicted and so not pensionable. Suddenly, WHAM, a merchant explodes 42nm from Ike. Ok, so I’m awake. The battlegroups’ Sea King and a recently arrived P3 are quickly detached and the SH-3 soon gains a contact on dipping sonar. Sweet. 1 x Mk 46 and perhaps a minute later the “Torpedo W136 has hit its target” message is received and the contact disappears. This is gonna be easy, he said…
Hang on; Orion 102 is heading for home. I try to recall him to his ASW mission but now something about Executable 3.6.3 forbids him from being unassigned. Cursed regulations, I think they are having virtual lobsters at the virtual Officers' Mess tonight and he just wants to get home for a bite and a brew. He still reacts to micro-management though and so I’ll keep him around until the plane from Jax arrives on station. Dropping sonobouys by hand is tiresome and finally I send him off muttering “Hope you bloody well crash.” But I know that he won’t.
Contact. Transient. WHAM another merchant explodes right on Ike’s track less than 20nm ahead. Turn 90 to port (roughly south) and send the screen Sea King, the duty P3 and detach USS Spruance to prosecute the contact. Nothing. Sonobouy lines and dipping sonar, MAD runs and still nothing. Contact. Torpedo; WHAM another merchant takes a fatal hit about 12,000 yds south of the datum. Spruance is just within range of the edge of the uncertainty zone and cuts loose an ASROC. Maybe that will make him flinch. 82 minutes, 5 x Mk 46 torpedoes and another ASROC later, nothing. Last detected at 0437 zulu, the contact drops at 0538; he is still out there, this Otto Kretchemerivitch and my inability to locate him has forced my track further south than I wanted to go.
Now I am intercepted by the ships’ cat and shortly after the Theatre Commander demands a meeting about Operation Supper.
Apparently this is supposed to be my responsibility even though there are far more important happenings right now but if I act quickly there is a chance that participation in Operation Dish Washing can be avoided. Orders are orders and upon returning to CIC some time later, I find a bunch of message windows and a Whiskey Class SS surfaced off the coast of Cape Hatteras!! On the surface, in broad daylight and within sight of shore AND I HAVE NOTHING THAT CAN KILL HIM!!! USCG Midgett is 14nm away and her 5”/38 will do the trick if she can get there in time. Within minutes her LAMPS I is airborne but it can only watch as the Whisky torpedoes a container ship. Good, the Whiskey is down. She dived before shooting, something to be filed away about the AI and diesel boats maybe? Or maybe not. Drop sonobouy and Mk 46, missed. Drop sonobuoy pattern around outside of growing uncertainty zone and the helos last torpedo: missed. WHAM. 56nm from the datum and south of Ike another merchant dies but the launch transient has given a rough location thanks to SOSUS and my friendly source Other/off board. Cancel all references to this being easy. Decision time, send the P3 to the southern contact and let Midgett and a Sea King from the battlegroup take care of the Whisky.
USCG Midgett arrives within range of the Whiskey’s uncertainty zone and launches an over the side shot with a single Mk 46. Five minutes 11 seconds later the torpedo hits. A real horeshoe shot but there is a better one yet to come. Although the target does not disappear, it is determined that it is dead and so I drop the track at 0756 zulu. Meanwhile the Orion arrives at the southern contact, lays a circular pattern of sonobuoys around the uncertainty zone and drops a buoy and a single Mk 46 in the middle. The torpedo hits the sub moments after entering the water and this time there is no doubt as to the kill. That was really lucky. Time 0813 zulu.
Nothing on the scopes and so resume course (direct with a 30 degree zigzag) and speed (18 kts) for the channel. Midgett and her helo are tasked with sanitizing the straights while Spruance screens the carrier from the north. For Eisenhower it will be about a three and a half hour run to safety.
Now 10nm from the safety of Reference Points 1 and 2 when suddenly, Contact. Torpedo in the water on Ike's starboard quarter. No data on the shooter but Charles F. Adams quickly launches a Mark 46 down the incoming bearing and shoots an ASROC at maximum range just behind the torpedo plot. CVN-69 detaches, goes to flank speed and turns 80 degrees from the incoming while Adams goes to flank and throws herself between the carrier and the torpedo. That’s why escorts get paid the big bucks. What’s that? They don’t get big bucks? Well maybe they should since she takes one for the team and is still afloat, sinking and on fire at games end. Ike makes it to safety and I’m declared the winner but I would not be surprised if I ended up doing the hatless dance in front of CINCLANT for losing a valuable destroyer and watching as four merchants were lost. The evaluation says that I killed 2 x Foxtrots and 2 x Whiskeys so it would seem as though Adams' parting shot was effective but I was sure that there was a nuke out there somewhere. Ivan sank five ships for five torpedoes and four diesel boats. I used a whack of torpedoes (15 in total) plus three ASROCS and a tonne of sonobuoys.
This was a taut little ASW scenario conducted in shallow water and poor weather. It was also a hoot to play.
BTW Salt Lake City never got close to the action but her towed array did provide valuable data to quickly triangulate incoming torpedoes. Some might think that there might be better ways to have used a half-billion dollars worth of attack sub but hey, whatcha gonna do :D
-----------------------------
Many more AARs here:
http://www.harpoonhq.com/harpoon3/scenarios/