Command Modern Air and Naval Operations - Not a Piloting Team, Just a Commander

Heads up, Command Modern Air and Naval Operations has been updated to version 1.07.

Click and open in a new window for a better view.

When I edited this Command Modern Air and Naval Operations scenario I had in mind the discussion in Milan Vego's Soviet Naval Tactics about the geometry on how to a submarine searches and intercepts surface contacts.


On a side note I eventually released the scenario but it was a flop with a lot of people not being able to play it. Yikes! My apologies, folks.

The geometry of interception is explained in chapter 13 (Strikes by Multipurpose Submarines) of the before mentioned book and it's a matter of simple trigonometry.

This figure, from Vego's book is actually oriented towards search. However, if you look at it carefully,  the "triangle of speed" can be applied towards the calculation of interception angles. 

In my (wrong) mindset, I played my own scenario over and over, micromanaging speed and course of my Soviet submarine, lamenting not being able to draw lines to assist my calculations.

Today I decided to play it differently. Instead of "driving", I "commanded". I set up a patrol mission (red area in the first screenshot) and let my virtual crew do their thing. Immediately, they headed towards the patrol area (note the plotted course shown as a white line).

Right click and open in a new window for a better view. The patrol mission I set up for my submarine. Crucial for this mission is the tick box "Investigate contacts outside the patrol area", which means that even ships detected outside the red patrol area will be actively looked after.

Right click and open in a new window for a better view. And they came! New contacts in yellow. My virtual crew has figured out the interception course of my submarine (blue icon) as 206 degrees, 3 knots. I eventually reduced the speed to 1 knot right when the enemy ships were close enough. I made quit a mess on the convoy.

So, there was no need for me drawing lines and calculating anything. I had a virtual crew all the time. All I had to do is to let them know what I wanted done.

Cheers,