Operation Colossus

[Ivan Rapkinov]

while tinkering about trying to make ADF vehicles and what not, I relaised I hadn't really thought too much what I wanted to do with them - enter Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, and his latest diatribe against CHOGM, and specifically Australia.

It has been bandied about before, but the idea of removing Mugabe (should he step further over the line) is one that I can see happening in this day of regime change. Only I can't see the US getting involved in what is a quintessional Commonwealth matter - meaning that the forces involved would be Aust, British and a smattering of other Commonwealth nations.

solution, set the back story against Raging Tiger's war in Korea, making the Commonwealth action independant of US support. Thus I envisage a series of scns about the invasion of Zimbabwe, and the consequent actions.

To further complicate matters, Zimbabwe has strong ties to other former-colonial states in Africa, of which Libya is the loudest (and biggest voice) - already in a trade and diplomatic alliance, would it it be too great a step for Gaddafi to rush troops to aid in the defense of an emerging partner. Add African indignation at the "neo-colonial Empire" trying to hold on to it's past vestiges, and you have a right boiling pot that western self-assumed superiority (in specific in this case, Britain and Australia) tends to assume they have the advantage.

But while Britain and Aust have good training and equipment, the numbers game is definately on the African Coalitions side.

Even South Africa would be a wild card - as the ANC-evolved government would see the Commonwealth effort as support for the expatriate white "Rhodesian" element.

anyways, got to finish vehicles before getting too carried away, just wondering if people have current OOBs for Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Libya - it may just be that I abstract the African Coalition's units to save time, but always helps to be prepared.

[Pat Proctor]

I can't find any data to help you out with OOB's, but I am certainly looking forward to what you come up with!

[Deltapooh]

Not a bad scenario. Very nicely tied to political considerations, enriching the realistic feel of events.

I was able to find information on the countries you listed both from Orbat.com and the Institute for Security Studies. It's not the best, but I think you will find helpful. Zimbabwe is a great OOB.

Angola

http://www.iss.org.za/AF/profiles/Angola/SecInfo.html

Libya

(Orbat.com)

Libya Army
v.1.2 June 8, 2003

Source: The Middle East Military Balance Shlomo Brom and Yiftah Shapir, Editors; the Jaffee Centre, Jersualem. Published by MIT Press, annual publication.
Libya is said to have 7 No Dong MRBM North Korean launchers and 50 missiles [2000 agreement for $600 million] , plus 80 Scud-B launchers and 500 missiles. It is alleged to have a 1200 km missile under development, the Al-Fateh. The missile has never been tested.

- No Dong 1300-1500 km, warhead 760-1160 kg, highly-volatile liquid fuel requiring several hours to load
- Scud 300 km, also uses volatile liquid fuel; 90 minutes to fuel; warhead in 770-900 kg range; 900 meters CEP

Personnel 50,000 estimated

1 Presidential Security brigade

10 tank battalions

15 parachute/commando battalions

21 infantry/mechanized battalions

22 artillery battalions

8 AD artillery battalions

5 SSM brigades



Major Equipment

650 tanks [plus 1500 in reserve; total includes 350 T-72, 600 T-62, 1250 T-55]
1000 BMP-1
1500 APC [plus some in reserve]
500 SP Artillery [of which 210 Italy Palmaria
600 towed artillery
600 MRL
48 FROG
Paramilitary

Coast Guard (included in Navy total of 8,000 personnel)

People's Militia 40,000 (in reserve)

Revolutionary Guards 3,000 active (part of the People's Militia)

Islamic Pan African Legion 2,500 active (part of the People's Militia)

Navy (8,000 personnel)

www.hazegray.org

Mozambique

(Orbat.com)

Mozambique

v.1.0 June 17, 2001

Army www.iiss.org

5,000, to increase to 12-15,000

5 infantry battalions

3 Special Forces battalions

1 logistics battalion

1 engineer company

Air Force www.mylima.com

Aircraft
Mission
Base

4 Mi-24
Attack
Nampila

5 Mi-8
Transport
Nampila

5 An-26
Transport
Maputo

2 C212
Transport
Maputo

1 Cessna 172
Transport/Liaison
Maputo

2 Cessna 152
Transport/Liaison
Maputo

4 PA-32 Cherokee
Transport/Liaison
Maputo

7 Zin 7
Training
Maputo

Navy

The Navy has no major vessels left. Plans for rebuilding have been drawn up, but lack of funds is holding up proposals. A few motorboats are operational on Lake Malawi. Our naval website collaborators, Haze Gray and Underway, do not even have a listing for Mozambique.

http://www.iss.org.za/AF/profiles/Mozambique/SecInfo.html

Zimbabwe

(Orbat.com)

Zimbabwe Army
v. 1.1 December 29, 2002

Larry J. Smith

Updated by Ravi Rikhye

The Zimbabwe Defense Forces are under the command of the President, who is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Forces. He is assisted by the Minister of defense who is responsible for the administrative and logistical support of the defense force, and the Command of the Defense Forces, who maintains operational control through the Defense Forces Headquarters in Harare. Subordinate to the Defense Force Headquarters are the Commander, Land Forces, and Commander, Air Forces.

Commander, Land Forces is assisted at Army Headquarters by a chief of staff to whom the Army Staff is subordinate. The Staff consists of the chiefs of staff for operations, administration, procurement, and logistics.

The 32-35,000 strong army is divided into five brigades, four of which are based on geographical areas; the fifth is an elite unit based in Harare. The Presidential Guard is sometimes refered to as a group and sometimes as a brigade. Other operational forces include an armored regiment, an artillery regiment, and 15 infantry battalions. [Other reports speak of 18 infantry battalions, we do not know if the Presidential Group battalions are being wrongly double-counted or if there has been an increase, possibly on account of the Congo intervention.] The bulk of the formations are motorized, but several are more specialized:

Guards (two battalions)
Mechanized (one battalion)
Special Forces (one commando and one parachute, each 1100 men)
Armored Vehicle Mounted (one battalion)
Two artillery regiments are available: one is equipped with Chinese field artillery, and one with AA guns and shoulder-launched SAMs.

Each infantry brigade has:

Three infantry battalions with 31 APCs each
Reconnaissance Company (12 EE-9)
Signals Company
Mortar Battery (6 81/82mm or 120mm)
AA gun battery
Engineer company
Supply and transport
Workshop
Medical units
The Presidential Guard Group consists of two battalions.

In 2000 a plan was made to reduce the army to 25,000, and to decativate five infantry battalions. Given the involvement of the army in the Congo, it is instead likely the strength increased - some sources speak of 45,000 with a third deployed to the Congo.

Presidential Guard Group
Command Barracks, Harare

1st Brigade
Brady Barracks, Bulawayo

2nd Brigade
Cranborne Barracks, Harare

3rd Brigade
Mutare Barracks, Mutare

4th Brigade
Masvingo Barracks, Masvingo

5th Brigade
Ngezi Barracks, Harare

1st Mechanized Battalion
Inkomo Barracks, Harare

1st Commando Battalion
KGVI Barracks, Harare

1st Parachute Battalion
KGVI Barracks, Harare

1st Artillery Regiment
Harare

1st AA Regiment
Harare

1st Engineer Regiment
Harare




Note on battalion designation

Identified Zimbabwe National Army infantry battalions include the 1.1, 1.2, 2.3, and 5.1 Battalions: the Brigade number is followed by the battalion number. The highest numbers we have seen are 4.6 and 4.7, 4th Brigade battalions disbanded in the early 1980s when trouble between ZANU and ZIPRA forces being integrated took place. These battalions appear to have been manned largely by former ZIPRA troops.

Note on Zimbabwe National Army

After independence, the ZNA had a peak strength of 70,000 in seven brigades, which dropped by three brigades by 1980. Between 1980 and 1990 two brigades were added.

The ZNA was, for 20 years [1980-2001] trained by a British military mission that had a peak strength of 200. This mission was responsble for turning the mixed army created at independence into what some reckon is the most effective army in Africa. Political interference has, however, increased in the last few years, and the Congo intervention undoubtedly led to a reduction in professionalism. Further, in the election campaign in 2002, the Government resorted to paying soldiers extra money and releasing them from regular duties to campaign for the government. This does not auger well for the army.

Note on 5th Brigade

The 5th Brigade was raised in 1981 and trained by North Korea. It was never a part of the army command structure and was used to suppress the regime's political opponents. It consists mainly of Shona ethnic-origin recruits, and has been accused of serious human-rights abuses. In the mid-1980s it was stood down for retraining to reduce human-rights problems. It would appear its creation and retraining were a consequence of the British presence in the country and the British insistence that the army remain professional.

Equipment

32 ex-Chinese MBT
70 APC


Reports that $1 billion worth of new weapons are being negotiated with overseas suppliers have been denied by the government.

http://www.iss.org.za/AF/profiles/Zimbabwe/SecInfo.html

You can also checkout http://www.scramble.nl/index.html if interested in a countries' specific air force OOB.

[Ivan Rapkinov]

cheers DP - exctly what I was after :)

[KG_Norad]

Ivan,

I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Sounds like a great scenario! :love:

...Great info DP!

Michael

[Ivan Rapkinov]

just a bit of news; Mugabe (with South African and Namibian support) is seeking to depose the current CHOGM Secretary-General, kiwi Don MacKinnon.

scenario wise this is interesting, as it shows a lot stronger link between South Africa and Zimbabwe than was suspected :)

I was going to have the initial invasion through South Africa, but it might have to be through Mozambique :)

[Scully]

Hey DP,

That Orbat.com site looks pretty interesting. Do you have a subscription? If so, have you found it worthwhile?

Thanks,
Brian

[Ivan Rapkinov]

Hey DP,

That Orbat.com site looks pretty interesting. Do you have a subscription? If so, have you found it worthwhile?

Thanks,
Brian

I've a subscription, and while it;s good for OOBs, not so good for TOEs which is why I got it in the first place.

also Ravi can go off on tangents regarding India Pakistan for a loooong time :)

[Ivan Rapkinov]

Here's some of the ADF vehicles :)

http://digger.falldowngoboom.org/atf/Bushmaster.jpg

Bushmaster IMV; the ADFs new troop transport - can carry an infantry section, survive mine blasts, and provides small arms protection.

http://digger.falldowngoboom.org/atf/ASLAV.jpg http://digger.falldowngoboom.org/atf/ASLAV-PC.jpg

The ASLAV (Australian Light Armoured Vehicle), both the 25mm chaingun armed recon version, and the Personnel carrier version. (The turret is used for the R and FO variants, whilst the PC version is used for the PC and C2 variants). There is also a Delco TOW-2 w/ 25mm chaingun turret, and the 120mm AMS/AMOS mortar variant, but those aren't confirmed buys yet.

finishing up the M113AS4 (stretched and up armoured to greater than Bradley armour, new optics and turret set up too.), Leopard AS1, Aussie Tiger ARH (aussie version of the Eurocopter Tiger), the Chinook and Blackhawks, Perenties, and LRPVs used by the SASR.

Not sure whether I'll add Aussie Chally's, Leo2s or M1A2s (as I'm not sure which we'll go with). Ditto the PzH2000, M109 or FH90

Brit vehicles include: Challenger 2, Warrior 2000 w/ the new 40mm CTA gun, Warrior APCs, WAH-64s, Lynx Mk 9, and whatever else makes up the 16th Air Assault Bde.

Sth African vehicles: Rooikat (both 105mm and 76mm versions), Ratel 20, Buffel, Casspir, Mamba, Rooivalk, G6, (maybe) Olifant, Oryx plus whatever else I add :)

zimbabwe/Libya/Other African: mix of stock ATF OpFor equipment, older french equipment, and paramilitary vehicles (like technicals etc)

Cpt Proctor: is there a way to make a DEM by hand - even getting good topos of the area in mind is quite difficult. Accuracy isn't as important being different to the existing maps

[Scully]

I've a subscription, and while it;s good for OOBs, not so good for TOEs which is why I got it in the first place.

also Ravi can go off on tangents regarding India Pakistan for a loooong time :)

Thanks for the info. I was looking for TOEs also. C'mon, you can never talk too long on India and Pakistan. :)

Brian

[Scully]

I've a subscription, and while it;s good for OOBs, not so good for TOEs which is why I got it in the first place.

also Ravi can go off on tangents regarding India Pakistan for a loooong time :)

Sorry, one more question if you don't mind. How is it with China OOB's and TOE?

Thanks,
Brian

[Ivan Rapkinov]

China's OOB is public for the most part - the TOEs are not, but in my opinion, there is better stuff available free on the net.

Especially places like Global Security and tanknet.

orbat link: http://www.orbat.com/site/orbats/index.html

[Deltapooh]

Very nice vehicles. Looks way better than mines!

Scully:

As Ivan pointed out, the Internet has a ton of information available for free. I believe Orbat gets some of their information from GlobalSecurity.org.

One good site is http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/9059/ Been up for years and is updated from time to time. You can find numerous OOBs.

[Ivan Rapkinov]

Very nice vehicles. Looks way better than mines!


hmm, I wouldn't say that until you've seen the others not shown :D

also, how do I get the turret to be located correctly when the rotation point is not at the centre of the image?

[Scully]

Thanks guys. I like the Global Security site...been going there for a while. I'll check out the Pentagon site.

Brian

[KG_Norad]

Check out this thread for info on turrets that are not centered on the chassis!
http://www.warfarehq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3693

Michael :D

[kbluck]

Cpt Proctor: is there a way to make a DEM by hand - even getting good topos of the area in mind is quite difficult. Accuracy isn't as important being different to the existing maps

Consider:

At approximately 30m spacing (ATF uses 1-second data) there are well over 1,100 elevation samples per 1km grid square. Since ATF expects 1-degree extent DEMs, you're talking around 13 million (!!) individual elevation values that will need to be entered to produce an ATF-digestible DEM.

I hope you're fast at 10-key data entry. See you in a few years. :bored:

Seriously, there is no good way to generate a DEM manually. I would suggest instead just finding similar terrain from a more accessible location. Keep in mind that it is only the elevation contour you need to concern yourself with when considering "similar" terrain; vegetation and urban cover you will generate yourself "by hand" anyway. For Zimbabwe, which is mostly a high plateau, I would look at data from places like Wyoming to see if you can find something with convincingly similar relief and elevation.

--- Kevin

[kbluck]

Check out this thread for info on turrets that are not centered on the chassis!

Here's another one with even more excruciating detail:

http://www.warfarehq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4035

[Deltapooh]

I use guides in Photoshop to mark the center of my base image. I then move the chasis or turret so that the crosshairs intersect where I want. As Kbluck pointed out, the base image should be either even or odd numbers. I usually go with even. Makes it easier to specify the center point.