by Lt. Col Gary "Mo" Morga
Lt. Col Morgan, a good friend and the creator of the game Flight Leader and Tac Air, is on the staff of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, Alabama. As part of a course for the School of Advanced International Studies, taught in the Washington, DC area, he created this scenario using the Harpoon II computer game. While not an exhaustive examination of a US-Cuba conflict it is a balanced, large-scale air campaign, designed to show students the problems and tradeoffs associated with the use of airpower. After the downing of an airliner near Key West, the sinking of a cruise liner in the Florida Straits, and an immediate expulsion order from Castro to remove US persons from the US Marine Corps base at Guantanamo (and subsequent shelling of the base by Cuban artillery), the President has received emergency authority from Congress to initiate hostilities against Cuba. The US political objective is to force the Cuban government to terminate its attacks on American military and dependents pending completion of a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation from Guantanamo. Cuban air and naval forces are preparing violently oppose the evacuation. Your military objective is to achieve air superiority as the critical prerequisite to subsequent operations in the area. Large numbers of USAF aircraft have deployed to newly-rebuilt Homestead AFB near Miami and formerly closed MacDill AFB near Tampa in preparation for a major air campaign against the Cuban air force. The US Army has provided Patriot batteries to defend both bases and the cities of Miami, Tampa, and Orlando from Cuban air attack and has also provided Apache attack helicopters for security of the Forida peninsula from Cuban special operations attacks. These Patriots and Apaches are to be used at the JFACC's discretion. With large numbers of expatriate Cuban-Americans living in Florida and hoping to see an end to Castro's regime, emotions are extremely tense. The National Command Authority has dictated to the theater commander the need to exercise utmost discretion in minimizing collateral damage and casualties to Cuban civilians, particularly around Havana, as well as minimizing friendly losses. The entire operation will be extensively covered in both Florida and Cuba by Peter Arnett, Christiane Amanpour, and numerous CNN film crews. USAF Air Order of Baltic
Homestead AFB FL (City of Miami)
MacDill AFB FL (City of Tampa)
City of Orlando
Each airbase has:
Hardened Revetments for Fighter A/C
San Antonio Airfield
Santa Clara Airfield
Camaguey Airfield
Holguin Airfield
Each airbase has: Cuban SAM/AAA Order of Battle
Havana Air Defense Region (City of Havana)
Havana Air Defense Region
San Antonio Air Defense Zone
Santa Clara Air Defense Zone (Airfield)
SA-3 Bn 25nm N
Cinco de Mayo Air Defense Region
(51 nm ESE Santa Clara Afld)
Camaguey Air Defense Zone
Holguin Air Defense Zone Cuban Naval Order of Battle
Task Force East
BT Back to The Naval SITREP No. 8 Table of Contents Back to The Naval SITREP List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1996 by Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |