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power crystals posted:I thought this was going to be a thing that each mission planner could opt into rather than a vote beforehand. Am I misunderstanding? Mission Planner will trade Missiles for U-2 time / Drone time. Warmachine posted:Is Murdoch dead in this timeline? Yes, but the joke is he's alive Futurama style with his head in a jar. As with most corporations once the founder is gone it becomes an amalgamation of MBA's, Accountants, Lawyer's, and "wealth extraction specialists".
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May 15, 2020 14:10
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Don't forget the owner's kid being a poo poo-show of an executive.
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May 15, 2020 14:57
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Triple A posted:Don't forget the owner's kid being a poo poo-show of an executive. drunkenly flying his f22 into a competitors casino
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May 15, 2020 15:03
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As the one who brought up the (admittedly awesome) elevator pitch that Orcbuster had written some 2.5 years ago, I feel at least a little responsible for this turn of events.  Right, so, everyone's favorite bunch of unethical, phone-hacking tabloid journos now have U-2s, and holy geeze I both want their recon abilities and don't want our op details splashed out on the front page of every tabloid in Britain. Plus, asking for AIM-120s and Kh-31s was clever, because that's a pretty steep price. I'm not sure we need them for this Realdoll mission, but it might be worth giving them a trial run. Also, I'm now a little afraid that Murdochworld is actually going to find some spy drones OTL. Back when this was first brought up it seemed like really dark humor, but we were also bandying about a Florida Man PMC, more or less dropped the idea because it was too silly even for the HGverse, and then the Miami-based Silvercorp thing happened and 
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May 15, 2020 15:20
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bibliosabreur posted:Also, I'm now a little afraid that Murdochworld is actually going to find some spy drones OTL. Back when this was first brought up it seemed like really dark humor, but we were also bandying about a Florida Man PMC, more or less dropped the idea because it was too silly even for the HGverse, and then the Miami-based Silvercorp thing happened and If there is one thing I've learned in my adult life (starting circa 2008), it is that trying to win the arms race between satire and reality is a fool's errand. I've just learned to embrace the farce, and I think that's why the Yooperverse holds so much appeal to me.
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May 15, 2020 15:28
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I'll gladly pay excess missiles for good recon.
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May 15, 2020 16:56
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Happy Tankaversery! https://twitter.com/abc7johngregory/status/1262011088998035456?s=19
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May 17, 2020 15:50
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Surely there;s a decent recon pod somewhere? Have people checked what the French and Germans use, or the Russians?
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May 17, 2020 16:20
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You know, you could just bribe the local ATCs.
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May 17, 2020 16:45
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 Planning Map With our friends in Nigeria otherwise tied up in the North we've got a chance to get in without too much interference. The goal, clear a path for the Liquid Asset to get off of one of two beaches. If we clean up both beaches then the Liquid Asset will transit both. If not, we can still succeed with one beach cleared. Once we clear the immediate ASW threat the Liquid Asset will go in and deploy the deployables.  There's a few things here. I'll start with what we know. First, Type 056 frigates near Port Harcourt. They may have small patrol boat escorts and seem to be focused off the near coast. These were sold from the Nigerian Government to "Popeye's Naval Support LLC". There is also a Hamilton Class vessel that may be operating but last we heard is stuck in Port Harcourt for repairs. East of Port Harcourt is a wing of Nigerian Corporate Security running BAE-HAWKS.  There is a dozen Lynx ASW Helicopters (also run by Popeye's) that are operating out of Benin City. They may also have an MPA of some sort as some Japanese P-3's recently went off the market. Further south of Lagos is the most immediate threat.  This angry little beast is accompanied by Type 056A's, an ASW variant. These are not crewed by Popeye's but what we think is a group of Chinese "Volunteers" who are training Nigerian Corporate Security. This is a modern package and will give the Liquid Asset a run for its money. Oh, and there's F-16's in Lagos, an older variant run by our friends at HAMMER. We can base out of Benin, Cameroon, or on Malabo Island. If you've got another creative location in mind, let me know. AIM-120C  KH-31  As a reminder, you can trade a pair of weapons above for an hour of flight time. In this case it looks pretty generous. The KH-31's will fire on the Type 054 if it is emitting. edit : Planning map link updated, I hosed it up the first time. https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive...%7D&usp=sharing Yooper fucked around with this message at 12:21 on May 18, 2020 |
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May 18, 2020 00:54
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Warmachine posted:If there is one thing I've learned in my adult life (starting circa 2008), it is that trying to win the arms race between satire and reality is a fool's errand. I've just learned to embrace the farce, and I think that's why the Yooperverse holds so much appeal to me. Charlie Stross writes a lot of (really good) near-future cybercrime fiction. He keeps having to throw manuscripts out because some rear end in a top hat actually went and did whatever the plot for his current draft calls for. cf. Halting State and Rule 34.
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May 18, 2020 02:47
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All right! I'm hoping to submit a mission plan on this one, but I'm pretty sure I've derped up something and I can't access the map. (I can see the preview all right in Discord, so the link itself is fine, so I think it's something to do with the sharing.) Remind me again what class of sub the Liquid Asset is, again? A Type 209?
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May 18, 2020 15:36
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bibliosabreur posted:All right! I'm hoping to submit a mission plan on this one, but I'm pretty sure I've derped up something and I can't access the map. (I can see the preview all right in Discord, so the link itself is fine, so I think it's something to do with the sharing.) http://cmano-db.com/submarine/37/ Try opening the link in Incognito Mode, it works for me there. If that doesn't work then, uh, not sure.
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May 18, 2020 15:48
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That worked. Thanks a ton. Here's a request for anyone with CMO that'll help out with our planning: just how stealthy is the Liquid Asset? I would like to see some tests with the TR 1700 at creep speed of 5nmi and a more reasonable cruise speed of 10nmi, against the TASS and dipping sonars on the Chinese frigates, and have some idea of how far out we need to be. (CMANO-DB says they all have the same general sonar suite.) The 054A has ASROC, and all of them are probably carrying helicopters. Now, we probably need to clear that 054A out of the way because of its ASROCs and decent SAM system, but I think the real danger to the Liquid Asset is the swarm of helicopters and MPAs. Mission success will hinge on clearing those out of the way. If it turns out that we can keep the corvettes on the move and unable to listen with their TASS suites, they are as good as neutralized. Without the SAMs from the 054A, all they have is a very short-ranged improved Crotale to guard from air attacks. The good news about helis and MPAs is that, of course, they can't fight back. So, until I can actually draw up a map and issue more detailed planning, this is my thinking:
Thoughts?
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May 18, 2020 16:49
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Looks good to me. We're already going to have the Su-24s dicking around over the water, so engaging the helis with their WVR heaters sounds like a good thing to toss in.
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May 18, 2020 16:56
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Given the relative richness of Kh-31s available it seems like trading one pair of them for a single U-2 pass at the start would be a decent exchange. If nothing else it'd help figure out where to put the Patrollers since ships might actually be slower than the drones are. I'm not going to submit a plan for this one since mine was selected last time, but for Yooper: could we buy multiple disjoint U-2 flight hours? Like, would it be possible to schedule it for 6-7 AM and again at 12-1 PM in exchange for only four missiles?
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May 18, 2020 17:21
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The drones aren't too fast by aircraft standards, but they're definitely going to be faster than ships and probably in the ballpark of patrolling helicopters. Parking them high and using them to sniff emissions and hopefully catching someone with the EO and surface search set is a classic use of drones in this context.
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May 18, 2020 17:28
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I like the idea of a U-2 pass early on just to establish where all the ships, and we have Kh-31s to spare. Not a bad idea, assuming Murdochworld doesn't dick us over.
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May 18, 2020 17:29
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Radio Free Kobold posted:The drones aren't too fast by aircraft standards, but they're definitely going to be faster than ships and probably in the ballpark of patrolling helicopters. Yeah okay I guess the intended sarcasm in that statement wasn't obvious I was less sure about the helicopters as I'm most familiar with the Huey from DCS maxing out a little over 100 knots but I assume they'd be flying slower if they actually want to spot stuff (especially if they're using towed sonar arrays).
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May 18, 2020 17:37
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bibliosabreur posted:I like the idea of a U-2 pass early on just to establish where all the ships, and we have Kh-31s to spare. Not a bad idea, assuming Murdochworld doesn't dick us over. I'm planning on a submission for this op, and this is my first step in a nutshell. Since we're dealing with moving targets, it'll only be a ballpark, but should help with any surprises.
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May 18, 2020 18:04
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power crystals posted:Given the relative richness of Kh-31s available it seems like trading one pair of them for a single U-2 pass at the start would be a decent exchange. If nothing else it'd help figure out where to put the Patrollers since ships might actually be slower than the drones are. Yes, but with a caveat. This will be one flight. So you could have it spaced a few hours apart and be fine. But, say you want it 12 or 24 hours apart? That's likely beyond the loiter time of the U-2. After our allotted time NewsCorp literally shuts off our feed. Then they can go spy on some B-List Nollywood actor for The Sun or whatever else they do.
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May 18, 2020 18:12
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Yooper posted:Yes, but with a caveat. Probably look for poor people with fridges.
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May 18, 2020 18:14
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Radio Free Kobold posted:Looks good to me. We're already going to have the Su-24s dicking around over the water, so engaging the helis with their WVR heaters sounds like a good thing to toss in. No it doesn't. Heater range is close enough you risk giving the helicopters good shots at the planes. Remember all the actual fighters those Hinds shot down when the tried strafing runs ? Su-24s are gonna get toasted if they try the same thing.
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May 18, 2020 18:15
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mllaneza posted:No it doesn't. Heater range is close enough you risk giving the helicopters good shots at the planes. Remember all the actual fighters those Hinds shot down when the tried strafing runs ? Su-24s are gonna get toasted if they try the same thing. I don't think Lynx configured for ASW have AA weapons. edit: Which is to say, weapons that can shoot up. They don't even have a burp gun. I suppose if a pilot got cheeky the Lynx could acme anvil a sonobouy on them? Warmachine fucked around with this message at 18:24 on May 18, 2020 |
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May 18, 2020 18:21
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Oh one more thing. The Liquid Asset will be operating with realistic submarine comms. Which means when it is below a certain depth it will operate on previous orders. But, we can summon it from the depths and send more orders. Basically we don't have to escort it all the way in. All we really need to do is kill the botes/Helo/MPA's. Otherwise we'll spend a lot of time watching nothing happen.
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May 18, 2020 18:23
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mllaneza posted:No it doesn't. Heater range is close enough you risk giving the helicopters good shots at the planes. Remember all the actual fighters those Hinds shot down when the tried strafing runs ? Su-24s are gonna get toasted if they try the same thing. I addressed this point already. The helicopters are Lynxes, which don't have A2A weapons unlike SuperHinds. Schwacking them with Sparrows is still preferred, but if it came down to it, AA-11s from Su-24s will do the job just as well.
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May 18, 2020 18:47
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Yooper, what's the timescale you're looking for for this mission? Because...as it is currently set up, the Liquid Asset is some 360nmi to the closest beach. Running at a somewhat unsafe speed of 10kt, that's some 36 hours away! More realistically, she'll be moving at half that speed, so three whole days before she can hit up even one beach, let alone both. Are we okay with this? Or is this meant to be over a little more quickly? i.e., kill the targets and it's assumed the sub can do its work? (I just reread your most recent post and it occurred to me that that might have been just what you meant, derp) Also: rapid turnaround, aye/nay? The beaches sure look a lot cooler than the Saharan sand did, and less likely to kill our groundcrew with heatstroke. EDIT 2: I just thought of something. Would it be possible to activate both the Cotonou and Malabo airfields, having aircraft take off from one and landing and refueling/rearming at the other? I'm thinking of starting the F-15s at Cotonou, fighting with the F-16s out of Lagos at maximum A2A strength, then transiting a portion of them to Cotonou so they can provide cover against the Hawks from Port Harcourt. bibliosabreur fucked around with this message at 04:28 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 03:01
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bibliosabreur posted:Yooper, what's the timescale you're looking for for this mission? Because...as it is currently set up, the Liquid Asset is some 360nmi to the closest beach. Running at a somewhat unsafe speed of 10kt, that's some 36 hours away! More realistically, she'll be moving at half that speed, so three whole days before she can hit up even one beach, let alone both. The Liquid Asset is the plot hook, but the time differences between a sub and airplanes make it impractical to go for a 90 hour op. For our purposes kill the targets and consider it done. Quick Turnaround is all good. Using both airbases is cool too. edit : Sabre asked for a list of Eagle Loadouts : 
Yooper fucked around with this message at 12:40 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 12:16
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Operation Little Oh there’s a new threat from the ocean To the junta’s legitimacy! Washin’ up from the Gulf of Guinea Blowin’ in on the coastal breeze-- A swarm of inflatable sexdolls For everyone to see Their re-al-is-tic bodies And their correctly tiny peens! From under the sea! Under the sea! We bring commandos Of rubber husbandos From under the sea! Oh how the junta will hate us But how highly their wives will rate us 'Cuz the dolls are more useful, More sexy and truthful, Than the menfolk would be! EMCON: unrestricted for everyone, everyone has radar and DECM going at all times. We need eyes. Quick Turnaround: yes. Mission floor? 20kft over land, no real restriction over water, but generally stay high to maximize sensor range. NewsCorp assets? Six hours of patrol time, ideally before the mission, at the cost of 12 Kh-31s. Scout for the ships we’re looking for, try not to get shot down. COTONOU CONTINGENT The ground radar should deploy here. 12 F-15s, 10 with the Medium AMRAAM loadout (4x AMRAAM), 2 with Heavy Sparrow (6x AIM-7). Organize into four flights: ARIEL 1-4, 4x Eagles, AMRAAMs TRITON 1-4, 4x Eagles, AMRAAMs ERIC 1-2, 2x Eagles, AMRAAMs ERIC 3-4, 2x Eagles, Heavy Sparrows (split-up necessitated due to weapons shortage) 4 Su-24s. SEBASTIAN 1-4, 4x Fencers, 3 AS-14s EO. 1 Patroller FLOUNDER 1 MALABO CONTINGENT The HELLADS should deploy here. (Two reasons. One, the HELLADS has its own FLIR and can act as a ersatz ground radar at very short ranges. And two, if the corvettes get angry and try to come bombard the Malabo airstrip, the HELLADS could offer a small measure of protection against incoming shells. Ditto if the Hawks come visiting from the north--we should definitely have real air defense, but a laser is not a bad secondary option to have!) 8 Su-24s. URSULA 1-4, 4x Fencers, 2 Kh-31 ARMs. URSULA 5-8, 4x Fencers, 3 AS-14 EOs. (If all goes as planned, ARIEL and TRITON flights will also end up rebasing here.) 2 Patrollers FLOUNDER 2 and 3 NewsCorp camera bastards MELODY*, 1x U-2. * Who is Melody, you ask? Apparently that was the name of Ariel’s daughter in the much-maligned sequel movie. Superfluous, rather mindless, fills in a few hours of time...sounds like the NewsCorp camera plane, all right. Summary COTONOU CONTINGENT Eagles The F-15s are to form up above Cotonou, and once in force, trail their coats until Hammer F-16s respond. Then they engage, staying above open ocean or friendly territory whenever possible. Make sure they don’t try to engage with Sidewinders before everyone has exhausted BVR ordnance, but if we somehow run out of Sparrows/AMRAAMs and there are still F-16s alive, close in with heaters. (I figure this set of guidelines for Yooper is easier than us dictating ROEs and behaviours.) Once we’ve won air superiority, reorganize survivors as needed. Move 8 F-15s, ARIEL and TRITON flights, from Cotonou to Malabo, keeping well offshore. Fuel and munitions allowing, they can engage enemy aircraft en route. At Malabo, refuel and rearm with 6x Sparrows apiece. Start a racetrack CAP in sections of two offshore over the Bight of Bonny, occasionally searchlighting their radars over land to make sure the Hawks don’t manage to sneak up on them. If battle is joined with the Hawks, all F-15s engage. Avoid heater engagements until everyone is out of BVR shots. Remaining F-15s of ERIC flight stay at Cotonou, refueling and rearming as needed, just in case. Have them join in the MPA/heli hunt offshore, and occasionally sweep hostile airspace with their radars. Fencers SEBASTIAN flight, out of Cotonou, is not to take off until the skies are clear of F-16s. Then they take off, split into two-plane sections, and start hunting corvettes and helicopters, starting west and sweeping east. They are not to attempt to engage the 054A frigate, but all else is fair game. Each corvette can be targeted by one Fencer per, loosing all 3 AS-14s at max range. (You may come under 76mm shellfire at maximum range but as long as you stay away from 4nmi, you’re safe from the FL-3000N SAMs. This is why you’re using EO weapons instead of laser-guided!) After that, the Su-24s join in the heli and MPA hunt as long as they have fuel. Keep out of the SAM bubbles of the corvettes and stay at least 30nmi away from the 054A, and if any surprise fighters come up, run away and let the Eagles handle them. Do make sure you have positive ID on targets before firing, though. These are pretty crowded waters and we don’t want to accidentally blow up an oil tanker full of orphans. Patroller FLOUNDER 1 takes off after the F-15s and before the Su-24s. At max altitude and max endurance, it searches for ships in the Gulf of Guinea. MALABO CONTINGENT Fencers URSULA flight, out of Malabo, is to launch once we know where the frigate is, and dogleg south, away from the coast. URSULA 1-4 goes after the frigate with the Kh-31s (I can’t imagine it not lighting up after we open hostilities). All eight missiles in a nice tight TOT should be enough to overwhelm its defenses. URSULA 5-8 goes after corvettes with 1 Fencer and 3 Kedges per, same doctrine as SEBASTIAN flight. Keep a careful eye on fuel coming back. If the Hamilton comes out to play, we treat it as a corvette. Apparently there are some Hamilton mods that carry torpedo launchers and an active hull sonar, so it’s functionally a less capable corvette. After the big furball against the F-16s, Malabo will also host the F-15s of TRITON and ARIEL flights. The details of this mission have been covered. Patrollers FLOUNDER 2 and 3 launch at mission start. They too patrol over the Gulf of Guinea, dividing the search area as evenly as possible between them and staying away from the mainland. NewsCorp U-2 MELODY is to start its sweep south of Cotonou, high above the Gulf of Guinea, and slowly amble eastward in a north-south zigzag until its time is up. Ideally it’ll pick up all the ships for us to target. Other notes Losses Su-24 losses shouldn’t result in too many mission problems. In a real pinch, F-15s can substitute for them. The only mission that really requires Su-24s and no other craft is the Kh-31 strike on the 054A. Should Fencer losses become really severe before we deal with all of the ships, we can task a section of F-15s to the ASuW role with GBU-54s. F-15 losses are a bigger problem so long as enemy F-16s, Hawks, or other A2A fighters remain. If all goes well, these should also be the only enemy assets capable of causing F-15 losses. Enemy courses of action The HAMMER F-16s’ COAs are the most important thing in all of this. They are the biggest obstacle to completing our mission, so they must be drawn up, engaged, and neutralized, no matter what. Neutralizing them completes phase 1. After that, the next wildcard is the Hawk squadron from Port Harcourt. These are potentially a danger to our Su-24s, although BVR-equipped Eagles will eat them for breakfast. They are only a problem requiring neutralizing if they actually come after us, though--or if they get it into their heads to bomb either of our airfields. Still, in all cases, the F-15s should be more than enough to deal with them. The worst-case scenario is if they head directly for Malabo before we’ve dealt with the F-16s; if absolutely needed we can intercept with Su-24s, but this is an emergency course of action. More likely, the ARIEL and TRITON F-15s are either on their way or are already there when the Hawks are activated, in which case the engagement becomes much better for us. The surface ship assets, helicopters, and MPAs are the lowest threat, even though they are our actual mission targets. They can essentially be engaged and destroyed at will. Only the 054A is capable of area air defense. Short of stumbling across the Liquid Asset, the only real danger is if some corvette commodore goes full goon and attempts a shore bombardment of Malabo (Cotonou is too far away to be a realistic option). To forestall this, the Su-24s should be able to methodically destroy them, and the HELLADS provides a last line of defence. This calculus changes if they actually get a good fix on the Liquid Asset. In that case, all hands on deck to intercept inbound craft! exeunt to reggae music and singing sealife bibliosabreur fucked around with this message at 15:51 on May 21, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 23:29
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The Hired Gooniverse draws one step closer to becoming reality. US says Russia sent jets to Libya 'mercenaries'
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May 27, 2020 01:14
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Very well-dressed mercenaries, wearing MiG-29s. In unrelated news, reconplane chat: RF-4Cs, used until 1990! I did not see some of these features, particularly the podded telephoto camera upgrade, in CMANO-DB, and I'm a little disappointed.
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May 27, 2020 02:07
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Sorry to undertake thread necromancy, but I just found out about this and I have to know: will the Zbellion be possible future clients?
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Jun 10, 2020 20:50
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Yvonmukluk posted:Sorry to undertake thread necromancy, but I just found out about this and I have to know: will the Zbellion be possible future clients? Presumably with Zebba! as their charismatic leader
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Jun 11, 2020 00:37
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Now I'm going to be disappointed if they don't show up at some point. The only problem is that Zbellion!, as portrayed, is far too sane--either for 2020 or for the HGverse.
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Jun 19, 2020 01:04
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The way to make Zbellion! insane would be to have it be infiltrated with the leadership co-opted or killed off by the govt. until only the hardliners remained. When it works as intended, movements look like they are lead by crazy people and they lose popular support. When it doesn't work as intended, well...
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Jun 19, 2020 11:47
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 16:51 |
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Finally got caught up with the streams, exciting to see some ASW possibly come into play. A couple of random thoughts: The Jingkai II is going to be your biggest threat. With helos embarked, long-range SAMS, and other missile possibilities with VLS, this bote is going to be the guy who can lock down an area of water from the air unless you can deal with him. The Lynx can be a nasty customer depending on which ASW variant they're using. If it's a dipping sonar variant, then be careful, those things can be potent in the right locations with the right training and operators. Combine with the fact they have a dozen of them can mean a whole section of the ocean gets locked down. If they are in fact rocking any Japanese P-3C then these guys will be a big threat right ahead of the helos. With more than 50 sonobuoys, a MAD, the capability of carrying a number of torpedos and a long loiter time, a single P-3 can close off a large area of the ocean if they get a sniff of one of our subs operating in the area, especially if they are working in conjunction with the helos. Luckily the Lynx and the P-3 can't fight back in the air worth a drat, so if you can get some basic fighters in the area and chase them off, it'll reduce the amount of stuff you have to fight. If the Nigerians are smart, they'll have their stuff superating in an umbrella protected by shore-based SAMs or fighters, or by their more capable SAM ocean assets.
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Jun 20, 2020 05:34
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