- Vahakyla
- May 3, 2013
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Can't post for 3 hours!
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In this post we will check some of the events that happened in the past game days and where we will be after we return from holiday break.
quote: tart in the early morning of 01 September. Initial reports placed the Syrian 3rd Armored Division at Al Harah, advancing against the 91st Galil Division. The IAF, along with the USN and the Royal Navy, quickly scrambled for CAS and Battlefield Air Interdiction.
In late June of 1990, Saddam Hussein started posturing against Kuwait, leading Kuwait to cut oil sales to Iraq. Shortly afterwards, Iraq interpreted Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production as an act of aggression towards the Iraqi economy. After a few weeks of mobilization, on 20th of July of 1990, Iraq rolled into Kuwait, capturing most of the country by the end of the month.
The United Nations established a mandate allowing for peacekeeping forces to expel Iraq out of Kuwait, and granted a security mandate for a multi-national coalition to do this using limited strikes and air power. The Arab Coalition voted against it, as did Israel, seeing no benefit in western nations focusing away from other Arab nations. This pitted the Israeli Prime Minister against most of the countries that had helped Israel in the fighting during the summer, causing a re-alignment of interests. The US Navy's Theodore Roosevelt will fly missions against Iraqi facilities and air power. An overfly of Israel was granted, even if direct cooperation ceased right now. This means overflight of Israel and Syria on likely strikes into Western Iraq. Deconflicting with Israel was necessary. This brought the UK well into the fight, and created another pressure that would threaten Israel from the east.
In the early morning, IAF and RN struck the 3rd Armored Division in Southern Syria. They also completely eradicated both depots that supplied the Syrian troops.
At the same time, the USN and USMC attempted to prevent Iraqi troops crossing further, and also pursued a course of action to destroy a chemical weapons factory in western Iraq.
The IAF attack was a success, but the US raids ended up as a failure. The Chemical Factory was not struck, and the Iraqi SAM network was not suppressed. Most planes made it home, even if that meant only Ramat David as the carrier was too far in limited fuel state.
In addition, Aluf Yooper authorized a Mossad sabotage on the SA-5 site in eastern Damascus, which was a success, removing a major threat ring from the area.
quote:
[quote]
Game Day 2, 02 September
Operation Deja Vu
Once again the IAF would attempt an OCA Strike to decapitate the two biggest headaches: Marj Ruhaayil, and Khalkhalah Airbase. Iraq, on the other hand, blamed Jordan for being Israel’s lapdog and threatened a strike. Highway 40, leading from Iraq to Jordan, saw a convoy of Iraqi armor push west. Clearly, something had to be done, or the Kingdom of Jordan would be in peril. Lamdan obtained information of large amounts of bomber strikes planned against Amman, the capital of Jordan. To sum it up, a three-pronged attack was planned. Striking the airfields, hitting Iraqi armor, and defending Jordanian airspace.
A famous line from Panther 3-1, Sneep, was “We're probably not making it back from this one. Goon Speed.”
The strike on the airfields were a success.
Here is Sneep in action over Marj-Ruhaayil.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/942200298548650014/1020816667900641280/unknown.png
Enfield and Panther 1 had happy hunting of tanks. 3AD got struck more and many of their forces were forced to flee. No bombers made it ot Amman, but heavy losses were incurred in fierce aerial battles of the Golan Heights. And as a side quest, Colt flights in their Skyhawks managed to destroy several pesky SAM sites in Southern Syria.
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Game Day 3, 03 September 1990
Operation Goat State
An entire Syrian Armored Division was on the run, escaping east and north as much as it could. Prior day’s strikes had wreaked havoc, and it was unable to defend itself. In addition, the rout among the Army caused many SAM sites to be abandoned.
The plan was now to hit the retreating forces on the highways. They were in neat columns on all major highways.
The Royal Navy, IAF, and US Naval Forces pounded the convoys, causing an estimated 25 percent loss rate for the enemy. Which is considered to be pretty disastrous. The 91st Galil Division of the Israeli Army pushes forward, securing Al Harah and el Aliyah. The Israeli advance stops, not due to enemy resistance, but political unwilligness to push further into Syria. Once again several USN and USMC planes were forced to return to Ramat David instead of their carrier due to fuel emergencies. This strained US and Israeli relations, with Israeli authorities considering it both rude and a drain on their resources.
quote:
Game Day 4, 04 September 1990
Storm over the Galilee
IAF Meteorological survey forecasted terrible weather. With fog on the ground and low ceilings, weather over the Levant was going to be terrible. Sky was overcast, with heavy winds with gusts up to 30 knots. Normal operations would have to take a break.
However, Syria attempted a blind mass bombing campaign. Not only that, the new leader of the Free Lebanese Army, a far right Christian militant organization, had set sail from Morocco towards Lebanon, hoping to sneak in. Mossad intel of his yacht pinpointed him somewhere between Cyprus and Beirut. He was also in a convoy of merchant ships loaded to the gills with new weapons and hardware.
In the weeks prior, Sweden had been rocked by multiple terrorist attacks in public transportation and city centres. Swedish representatives voted to join the conflict, sending a squadron of Viggens to Israel. These Viggens were immediately tasked to deliver a precision strike to the FLA headquarters in Beirut. A demanding task in poor weather, but doable for these low flying aircraft.
Colt flights with their Skyhawks would seek for the enemy shipping convoy with the terrorist leader, while all other flights had been assigned to perform Combat Air Patrol over Israel and Jordan.
Another cool shot of Skyhawks bringing home the bacon:
Results: Convoy sunk, FLA HQ destroyed. No bomber got their bombs off over friendly territory. Light IAF losses.
How bad was the weather?
quote:Day 5, 5th September 1990
Operation Choo Choo
A large railyard in Damascus suburbs was a major resupply point. It was deemed to be incompatible with existence.
I don’t remember much about this operation. Anyway the rail yard was struck, as was the communication HQ. Something else.
quote:Day 6, 6th September 1990.
Operation Downtown. At midnight, full moon.
The big one. The terrorist from Lockerbie bombing, al-Megrahi, was found out by Mossad. His residence south of Damascus was mapped out, but he resided well within other civilian neighborhoods. His demise was deemed to be a task, but it would require precision bombing in a large network of enemy SAMs. In addition, a famous and cruel Syrian General, General Assad, and his Republican Guard death squad was at another depot, situated on old horse race tracks, also south of Damascus. An attack against his unit was planned due to Mossad cooperation with Muslim Brotherhood, who had been victimized by the General and his unit.
This was going to require simultaneously coordinating extensive SEAD and DEAD work over the city, a midnight precision attack on both the compound and al-Megrahi’s residence. To help in the task, Mossad sent two operatives with a laser designator to oversee the residence so that LGBs could be tossed from far away.
Almost everything that went wrong, went wrong. The Royal Navy had forward deployed Harriers to Rosh Pina, but failed the munition transport. The Harriers started their operation without any weapons and were forced to fly to Ramat David Airbase for re-arm. Ramat David was short on precision weapons, so the RN Harriers had to load up with dumb bombs.
Simultaneously, the USMC hornets had multiple system failures and could not manage effective HARM deployment. However with creative use of TALDs, the Hornets achieved their SEAD mission and were able to facilitate Panther flights and the Viggens ingress, as well as Enfield strike on the residential compound. Colt flights Skyhawks performed low level and high speed DEAD, suppressing the network even more.
All the while this was sorted out, a major aerial battle broke out slightly east of the Sea of Galilee. The F-15s from Dodge, as well as the Mirages, engaged in heavy fighting. Ford 1s Tomcats took part in it, too. Ultimately achieving air superiority, this made sure the strikers could perform their mission.
While many things went wrong, the mission ended up being a success due to clever problem solving by flight leads, and the flexibility of their pilots.
Syria was facing potential loss of face internationally due to allowing a strike near its capital. With underground diplomacy, Israel promised to not claim credit for the strikes, saying it would stick to a story of electrical plant explosions, if Syria was filling to agree for a cease fire. When the morning of 7th September arose, newspapers printed about a devastating power plant explosion, and Israel extended its condolences as the two countries ceased hostilities.
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So what is the situation now?
In the south, Israel managed to advance pretty rapidly. It has no real intention to hold on to any actual part of Syria, minus of course what you might think of as the rightful owner of Golan Heights. So it is likely that during the cease fire, the 91st Galil Division will retreat and give up the territorial gains it has. Israel hardly has the manpower for that anyway, and the UK and US are not going to provide any.
In terms of air war, Uncle Sam’s credit card keeps on giving more and more planes. Losses for the Syrians are far heavier, and over the Sinai, Egypt has taken a beating, even losing some of its F-16s.
The Gulf War of 1990, a year early in our lore, is raging. The Coalition is pushing Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, and the airstrikes on Highway 40 prevented any Iraqi advance towards actually inhabited areas of Jordan.
In Lebanon, the country is suffering a food security crisis, and what little Armed Forces it had, mainly in the form of the FLA, have been wrecked. It still is occupied by Syrian troops who so far have not attempted any major push towards Israel, likely due to not being able to receive sufficient air cover. The Israeli SAM network is strong over that area.
https://imgur.com/NKBACuV
In this video, an Israeli Phalcon scans for radar emissions during ceasefire. As you see, Southern syria is almost empty. Its SAM network has been completely demolished! Good job!
https://imgur.com/UL7jz86
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Oct 15, 2022 20:57
