Monday, March 7, 2011

Postcard from the Front: Dear NATO pilot, Wish you Were Here ...

Playing this WWIII scenario in The Operational Art of War 3 (published by Matrix Games) had to chuckle at how always opportunity strikes me when I am not prepared.

0600, May 9th 1990. Surprise attack by the Soviets into Germany. NATO divisions caught unprepared and frantically travelling towards the border. This scenario features the sector in southern Germany where NATO tries to held the red tide before it reaches Munich. Seen below, a small area of the scenario where the 11 Panzer Grenadier Brigade is holding up the Soviet 9th Tank Division in the city of Deggendorf (145 Km northeast of Munich, 50 Km southwest of the border with Czechoslovakia).

Click the image for an expanded view.

I have pulled almost all the reconnaissance companies from the border and I am trying to hold the Soviets as much as I can at the Donau River. I have blown many bridges and some 10 kilometers north of Deggendorf, the 9th Tank Division is coming out of the woods.

Click the image for an expanded view. A close up of the tactical situation at Deggendorf.

See the pile-up of red counters in the image above? These are great targets for a battlefield air interdiction mission.

Alas, there is no NATO air assets available ...

What a flight of 4 A-10Cs could do here?

On a side note: did you know that the US Air Force has chucked the battlefield air interdiction mission from its doctrine?

Cheers,
at

6 comments:

  1. DimitrisMarch 7, 2011 at 12:25 PM

    A flight of A-10Cs in this predicament would have a really hard time surviving to reach their BAI targets, unless the area had previously been thoroughly sanitized by F-4Gs/EF-111As (for SAMs) and F-15A/Cs (for enemy fighters).

    And even then, there are the SHORADS systems (SA-8 & ZSU-23-4 or 2S6) to worry about.

    Plus, with the typical CentFront weather (fog, rain, low clouds everywhere) the Hogs would be hard pressed to make visual acquisition & ID of targets. No laser either.

    Tough assignment.

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  2. UnknownMarch 7, 2011 at 9:34 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. UnknownMarch 7, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    JC, you've been playing too much DCS A-10

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  4. MykMarch 7, 2011 at 10:17 PM

    This is why artillery is still god.

    How do you like the Toaw Update?

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  5. JerryMarch 8, 2011 at 3:53 AM

    There are 2 more scenarios in this series that for some reason didn't make it into Toaw 3. One covers V Corp in the Fulda Gap, and the other cover VII Corp in the Hof Gap. The CoW versions are available on the Rugged Defense site, and apparently if you open them in the editor and save them they should work in Toaw III.

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  6. JCMarch 12, 2011 at 6:46 PM

    Thanks for the comments and sorry for the late response.

    @ Dimitris: sure, that's the theory. But there are too many aerial defenses down there. Even during the Gulf war, with all the air superiority you can imagine, the flights tasked with BAI had to face some aerial defenses.

    @Jayson: :) You bet. I'm thinking of a DCS A-10C mission. :p

    @Myk: I'm loving it. Wish I had more time for it.

    @Jerry: thanks million for the heads up. I will download those.

    Cheers,

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