Location: The North Cape, May, 1989
Environment: 0500, daylight, Moderate seas (Sea state 4), 20 kt winds from 290°T. Visibility 100%.
Operational Situation: The Soviet Union, battered by a series of economic disasters, has demanded substantial economic assistance from NATO and the USA. If not, it threatens "it cannot be responsible for the peace and stability of Europe." The corrupt old men in the Kremlin expect that either way they will win: Either they get the aid they need to stave off collapse, or they will launch an attack on NATO. They have already started a program of propaganda inside their borders, blaming all their troubles on a deliberate program of economic strangulation, all orchestrated by the West. The implied threat has not been lost on NATO, and while negotiators frantically try to satisfy almost impossible Russian demands, the military frantically mobilizes.
Tactical Situation: Hostilities have not been declared, but word has come from Geneva that the latest round of talks "are not going well." In fact, they've broken down completely. STANAVFORLANT, NATO's standing force of frigates, has been ordered to advance from the Norwegian Sea to a position from which it can both observe and deter any Soviet naval movements. The Russians are moving as well.
NATO Orders: Advance to North Cape, moving as close to Soviet waters as possible. Observe and report on Soviet naval movements, taking no offensive action unless the Soviets initiate hostilities. Use radars and sonars to gather as much information on enemy movements as possible, as well as demonstrate its presence and resolve.
ROE: Opposing aircraft and surface units must maintain 5 nm separation. Units failing to maintain separation must be warned on 121.5 MHz. If they do not answer, or do not open the range, it may be considered a hostile act. Locking a fire control radar on a unit, or the release of any weapon is considered a hostile act. The Soviets have been informed of the ROE. Norway also maintains a 3 nm limit to its territorial waters.
NATO Forces:
STANAVFORLANT, presently consisting of:
O.H. Perry FF: Taylor (FFG-50)
Jacob van Heemskerck FFG: Jacob van Heemskerck
F122 FF: Emden
Type 22/2 FF: Boxer
Weilingen FF: Westdiep
Oslo FF: Trondheim
STANAVFORLANT usually has a tanker/replenishment ship assigned, but it has topped off the force and broken off, heading south for safer waters.
NATO Victory Conditions: Observe and report. Live through the war.
Soviet Orders: The Defense Council has decided that the Geneva Confer-ences are a NATO attempt to buy time while it further tightens its economic stranglehold on the Soviet Union. Offensive operations against NATO, before they are fully mobilized, are the only way to alter the correlation of forces and break the economic conspiracy.
Your task group's mission is to bombard the SOSUS station on the northern coast (Finmark). Early destruction of this site is essential to the success of our submarine offensive. Your mission is strategic. Reconnaissance photographs indicate that the site is hardened. Only the cruiser's 152mm guns, firing armor-piercing projectiles, will be able to penetrate these structures. Engage other NATO units as necessary to accomplish your mission.
ROE: Opposing aircraft and surface units must maintain 5 nm separation. Units failing to maintain separation must be warned on 121.5 MHz. If they do not answer, or do not open the range, it may be considered a hostile act. Locking a fire control radar, or the release of any weapon is considered a hostile act. NATO has been informed of the ROE.
Soviet Forces:
Sverdlov CL: Alexander Nevskiy
Kresta II CG: Admiral Yumaschev
2 Sovremennyy DDG:
Otchayannyy, Okrylennyy
Krivak II FF: Rezvyy
2 Tarantul III PGG: R-63, R-160
Soviet Victory Conditions: Destroy the NATO SOSUS Station. If more than two of the large units (CL, CG, or DDGs) are damaged over 50%, it is a marginal victory. If the station survives, the Soviets lose.
Special Rules: To destroy the SOSUS installation, the cruiser must close to within 50% range of the station and bombard it with its six-inch guns. The SOSUS station is a large reinforced concrete structure with a Heavy armor rating and 300 dps. On each 3-minute Tactical Turn that the cruiser bombards the station, the player controlling the cruiser may roll a D100. He must roll a 20 or less on D100 twice to hit the station. SSMs or other gunfire cannot be used to attack the station.
If the cruiser's six-inch battery is damaged, subtract 10% from the chance for a fire control hit and 3% for each six-inch turret taken out of action.
Setup: See setup map. The map is nominal, meant to represent a typical section of Norwegian coastline, laced with fjords. The SOSUS station is located half a mile inland. The two forces are placed at opposite ends of the playing area. The NATO force is just outside Norwegian territorial waters, heading east toward the Norwegian/Russian border. The Soviet force has left national waters and is also just outside the Norwegian 3-mile limit. Because of the crisis, both sides are at general quarters, the Russians because of their imminent attack, STANAVFORLANT because of the proximity of Soviet waters. All helicopters are ready for flight, on +5 alert if the owning player wishes, but none are aloft.
NATO has made no secret of its intention to display resolve during the crisis (with regular briefings to the press), so STANAVFORLANT's exact composition by ship name is know to the Soviets. Because of their radar emissions and the presence of off-board ELINT and reconnaissance aircraft, STANAVFORLANT's position is known to the Soviets. While there are NATO reconnaissance aircraft nearby, all they can report is intense movement in and out of all ports in the Kola region. Russian air, surface, and submarine units are sortieing in huge numbers.
Referee's notes: Given the emphasis on the submarine force in the Soviet Navy, NATO's SOSUS network is a primary target. The Soviets must destroy the SOSUS station to win. To win, the cruiser must be given the time it needs to bombard the target, which means all the vessels must be used to screen it from enemy attack. Until the cruiser reaches position, NATO vessels should be kept at arm's length, and nothing should be done to provoke them.
Several players were very imaginative in coming up with ruses and other ploys to distract or decoy the NATO force. Some of them worked. A strong preemptive attack should be launched against STANAVFORLANT the moment the cruiser opens fire. It is impossible to prevent NATO from launching a retaliatory salvo, but the SAM frigates, can continue to fire after they have expended their SSMs. These should be the primary targets of the escort's SSMs. NATO has a more difficult, but simpler task. It should approach as close to the Russian force as it can, and once the shooting starts, concentrate everything it has on the cruiser - guns, SSMs, SAMs, even ASMs from the British helicopters. (Presumably the NATO player has had the wit to launch these earlier.) It should of course defend itself, but the only thing that matters is the cruiser.
As with most Harpoon games, overkill is better than no kills. Quickly killing a few vital ships is better than damaging every ship in the force. In a refereed game, once the Russian cruiser starts shelling the SOSUS station, the referee should tell the NATO player that only the Russian cruiser has the firepower to destroy the station. This based on the volume of fire the Sverdlovs can deliver, the larger shell size (compared to the Sovremennyy's 130mms) and that the cruiser's guns have armor-piercing shells, which the other ships do not. These facts would all be known to a NATO commander, and familiarity with shore bombardment missions would put them in their proper context.
In a non-refereed game, the NATO player will have to deduce it from the fact that only the cruiser is firing at the station. A good deal of role-playing and interaction occurred between the two sides, to the point where a "Polemic Phase" was added after the Detection Phase.
Variations:
1) Change the composition of STANAVFORLANT.
2) Add a submarine or an air strike to either side.
3) Give the Norwegians a coastal missile battery of 8 Penguin Mk2, placed to defend the SOSUS station.
BT
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