Insurgency in the North Caucasus District - Preemptive Raid Against An Insurgent Operation South of Nalchik - Briefing - DCS Black Shark

Whenever an insurgency goes quiet and you don't have evidence they have dropped their weapons or completely eliminated, be very careful. They are just shifting their strategy.

It has been one year of peace, no assassinations, no convoy or military bases attacks and most importantly, no violence against civilians. Then, all of the sudden, the insurgents stunned the high command of the Russian 34th Mountain Brigade and the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division with a show of force a few miles south of the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, the city of Nalchik. The insurgents started building defensive positions around Kashhatau, a small town near the Caucasus Mountains. The intelligence the Russians have is that the insurgent force is based around (of all things!) remnants of the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion of Recon and Sabotage.

This mission is a custom-made scenario edited in DCS Black Shark, played solo and commanding a flight of two Ka-50s.

A panoramic view of Kashhatau, as seen at one of the approaches from Nalchik. The insurgents have built some defensive positions at the crossroads (foreground, on the right side of the bridge) and up the hills on the right (north) and left (south) of the town.

The insurgent's fortifications in the crossroad include an ZU-23 and MANPADs (Iglas).

The fortifications up in the hills include only MANPADs and RPGs.

The plan is to conduct an special forces airborne raid on Kashhatau from the nearby Nalchik airport. The airborne troops will be of platoon strength and be transported by 3 Mi-8s into LZ Baltika. The known enemy positions are outside the town and will be bombarded/attacked by a flight of two Su-25Ts (A icon) before the raid. My flight of two Ka-50s will arrive earlier than the airborne troops and will clean up the remnants and then standby as a blocking force in case the insurgents try to reinforce or counterattack. A blue attack by fire icon is placed as a starting position for both tactical missions of the Ka-50s, but for sure the mission will require some movement in and out of that position.

For such a small operation, we have a lot of moving parts. Coordination is not our forte. In this picture, the Mi-8 transports taxiing from the Nalchik airport. Note the Ka-50s rushing towards the area of operations. The Su-25Ts have taken off a few minutes ago.

In the next installment, the debrief.

Cheers,