Poja Posted March 20, 2024 Posted March 20, 2024 The Office of the Minister of Defense Rugi 20 March 2024 Dear Member-States of the Tricontinental Defence Treaty Organisation: The Konfederacija Poja will host a series of military exercises in June 2024 and invites its partners in the Tricontinental Defence Treaty Organisation to participate. With Poja's acceptance into TRIDENT as a Partner for Peace nation, it is our profound and humble desire to increase cohesion, cooperation, and camaraderie with its partner member-states. In our experience, the best way to do this is through military exercises designed to improve cooperation and combat readiness amongst its participants. The Kezanoi Sea is a strategic body of water for the Konfederacija Poja and one that we consider very seriously as a result. Our long coastline with the Kezanoi Sea and its accessibility to any navy in the wurld makes it an ideal location for launching attacks against our nation. It is thus our responsibility to ensure a strong defense can be mounted against belligerent navies. Though the Konfederacija Poja has developed a number of unilateral capabilities, these have only been tested in our own war games and furthermore, our involvement in TRIDENT opens up an entirely new need for strategic planning. Exercises are due to take place the week of 10 June and will focus on the ability of the Konfederacija Poja to defend its shores against modern naval fleets equipped with air, subsurface, and surface capabilities, including cruise missiles and standoff weapons. It is vital to the defense of the Konfederacija Poja that we consider our enemies to have the most up-to-date and tested capabilities so that we are prepared for the worst. The Konfederacija Poja will never surrender to a belligerent nation nor would we abandon our people in any time of crisis. We hope that you will participate EXERCISE KEZANOI ENDEAVOR and help us to make this a regularly-occurring exercise. Details will follow to participating nations in accordance with established protocols and liaison practices. Sincerely, Honorable, Brajko Tanacković, the Minister of National Defense of the Konfederacija Poja, on behalf of the people of the Konfederacija Poja 4
Poja Posted July 15, 2024 Author Posted July 15, 2024 (edited) TOP SECRET Pojački National Maritime Force KPB GORLENJE (DDG-303) 10 June 2024 MEMORANDUM FOR TO: Kontraadmiral Petar Žižić; CO, 103rd Flotilla FROM: Kapetan Željko Dakić; CO, KPB GORLENJE (DDG-303) SUBJECT: Pursuit of Submerged Contact 1. During the morning of 10 June, MPA aircraft detected a possible submerged contact. GORLENJE supported investigation into possible submerged contact but was unable to locate or to establish track on said contact. Continuing to monitor patrol grid for possible submerged contact(s) while maintaining heightened vigilance as per previous orders. 2. 100813Z June: Received report of possible submerged contact by SABLJARKA 1-1 in vicinity of 41-08 N, 33-46 W, 114 nm from present position; immediate change of course to 0-2-8, increase speed to 25 kn. 3. 100825Z June: Helicopter launched, callsign GORLENJE 2-1. 4. 100832Z June: Follow up report from SABLJARKA 1-1, contact lost, widening search grid. 5. 100910Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 at coordinates, beginning search, ship's position 95 nm from last contact. 6. 100940Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 reports has not located the target and is concentrating on grids to north and northwest, ship's position 78 nm from last contact. 7. 101032Z June: SABLJARKA 1-1 reports potential reacquisition of previous contact in vicinity of 41-31 N, 33-20 W, northeast of initial contact, ship's position 108 nm from current contact, change course to 0-3-2. 8. 101033Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 reports it is repositioning to new contact location. 9. 101043Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 at new location, beginning search, ship's position 104 nm from last contact. 10. 101100Z June:GORLENJE 2-1 reports faint signal on sonobuoy at depth of 425 m, below layer. 11. 101105Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 reports it has lost contact. 12. 101108Z June: SABLJARKA 1-2 launched. 13. 101155Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 recalled due to fuel quantity, 94 nm from present position. 14. 101207Z June: SABLJARKA 1-2 on station, reports beginning patrol. 15. 101210Z June: SABLJARKA 1-1 reports RTB. 16. 101239Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 on deck for replenishment, 75 nm from last contact. 17. 101300Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 ready to launch, update from SABLJARKA 1-2 has not reestablished contact. 18. 101302Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 launched, 65 nm from last contact. 19. 101310Z June: SABLJARKA 1-2 reports it is widening its search area to the northeast. 20. 101330Z June: GORLENJE 2-1 at coordinates of last contact, now 3 hours since last discovery, directed to increase search area to the west. 21. 101538Z June: GORLENJE arrives at last known coordinates, contact not established, search area now in excess of 3,000 nm². 22. 101700Z June: GORLENJE reports no contacts, SABLJARKA 1-2 reports no contacts. 23. 102000Z June: SABLJARKA 1-2 RTB due to fuel quantity. 24. 102005Z June: GORLENJE patrol grid is altered to 42-00 N, 33-00 W to 43-30 N, 45-30 W. Željko Dakić Kapetan, KPB GORLENJE (DDG-303) TOP SECRET Edited July 15, 2024 by Poja (see edit history) 4
Poja Posted July 29, 2024 Author Posted July 29, 2024 • • • † • • • Tuesday, 11 June 2024 | 09:00 hrs [UTC-3] Qingming Sea | 39° 46' N, 32° 32' W "Conn, Radio. Message traffic received," came the message over the loudspeaker, just loud enough for the captain to hear it from where he stood but not so loud that it was like a rock concert in the Qingming Sea. "Radio, Conn, aye aye," the captain said before looking over at his COB or chief of the boat, "COB secure the radio antenna, increase speed to six knots, and take us down to 2-0-0 meters." "Aye sir, securing radio antenna, increasing speeding to ten knots, and taking us down to 2-0-0 meters," he pushed a button on the console and immediately, the radio antenna, which had only been slightly poking through the surface of the waves began retracting. The submarine slowly picked up speed too as it began to descend away from the surface where it was vulnerable to maritime patrol aircraft. Yesterday's brush with them had been enough and for the captain, he was somewhat surprised he and his submarine had managed to escape undetected. This was Kapetan Amin Pelko's first war game and he'd drawn the straw to play one of two "bad guys" or REDFOR. His mission was to get in close enough to a position and launch cruise missiles against targets in Poja, simulated of course, and he was close to doing it yesterday, on the first day of the war games but had held back because of the otherwise rapid response of the navy. He had moved to launch the first day of the exercises while the element of surprise was still on his side but he had rushed it, thinking that he could get in close enough fast enough and not get detected but that hadn't gone in his favor and he'd been forced to retreat once the pings of sonobuoys began to echo in the distance. As a fake, he'd had a decoy loaded into one of the torpedo tubes and had it launched on a preplanned route designed to draw the MPAs away from his escape route. The ability to launch the decoy at low speed and without high pressure air meant that the launch itself was never detected and never separated from the submarine. As it intermittently made noise along its preplanned path, it drew away the orbiting aircraft and Kapetan Pelko and his submarine escaped to the south. Thinking that he'd made it safely away, his eyes had opened wide when he opened the sealed orders for "Day Two" to find that he was ordered to receive radio traffic via his antenna rather than his trailing wire and during broad daylight. It was well known that war games were often rigged for a specific outcome but Kapetan Pelko never realized just how rigged they were. Determined to leave as little wake as possible, he'd ordered the submarine to the surface and to maintain a fixed position. With the antenna just poking through the surface, it was enough to receive the transmission and now he wanted to get out of there fast. "Helm, make your course 3-0-5," Pelko ordered as he looked at the navigation map. Maintaining six knots, he would be at the launch point in roughly thirty hours. He had two to choose from, Alpha and Bravo and had gone for Alpha yesterday. Now he was going for Bravo, which was situated around 41° 26' North, 35° 46' West. After a few minutes, satisfied that everything was in order and they were in good shape, he contacted the sonar group to see if there were any contacts but the scope was clear, which availed him to go to the radio room and receive the message contents. A quick read told him essentially nothing new and nothing he didn't already expect other than the fact that his boat had survived Day One. It had been otherwise uneventful for them and surely less so for the surface ships and MPAs that had spent hours scouring the waters of the Kezanoi and the Qingming looking for him. Kapetan Pelko hadn't been told much in the briefing for the exercise, only that he was going to be playing the role of REDFOR, what his objectives were, and what he could expect. BLUFOR had been told even less, only that the fictional nation of Krakozhia, who happened to be a popular naval enemy in Pojački war games, was planning military operations against the Konfederacija Poja and that they would do so via naval means. For the exercise, a secretive, compartmentalized unit within the Ministry of National Defense was activated and labeled "MNO KRAKOZHIA." Poja had four fictional countries that it rotated through in war games. The People's Republic of Krakozhia happened to be a distant naval power that was unstable at the best of times and though equipped with an aging military, it was large, capable, and tactically capable. Krakozhia was only a naval threat and nothing more. The Republic of Paran was used as a stand-in for Garindina, nearly matching the capabilities of the Garindinans to a tee. Likewise, the Federation of Dhimar was a stand-in for Baltica. Lastly, there was the biggest and most capable threat of all, the Democratic People's Republic of Acaristan. Acaristan was a neighbor of Krakozhia but immensely more capable and a threat in both air, land, and sea operations. Acaristani forces could leverage a large air force and army against Poja and had, on numerous occasions, invaded and attacked the country only to be valiantly defeated. Krakozhia and Acaristan were not based on any specific countries but they bore resemblances to many of Poja's "enemies" around the wurld. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • O P 111152Z JUN 24 FM ZAPFLONOI TO KPB DUBRYN MNO KRAKOZHIA BT P O V J E R L J I V O SIC LAA NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN SERVICES SUBJ: EX KEZEND 01/2024/UPD/002// REF/A/MY O R 072217Z JUN 24/KEZEND 01/2024// REF/B/MY O R 100259Z JUN 24/KEZEND 01/2024/UPD/001// 1. KPB DUBRYN COMMENCE DAY TWO OPS.// 1.1. REMAIN UNDETECTED.// 1.2. ATTEMPT PREV OBJ.// 1.3. OPFOR PRESENCE INCREASED.// 1.4. REPORT POS EVERY 12 HRS.// 1.5. OBSERVE ALL BCST ROUTINES.// 1.6. MNTN TGT PKG 06-X-22.// ACK/YES/DUBRYN// BT • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Tuesday, 11 June 2024 | 13:00 hrs [UTC-3] Liaria, Dovanozevac | Dovanozevac Air Base Major Živorad Mandić looked down at the large, center MFD, which had been partitioned into multiple screens showing a variety of data on the aircraft, the top leftmost screen being engine data, which was where his eyes were resting. The aircraft's two engines had spooled up and were comfortably at idle now, the fan blades spinning at around 3,000 rpm. Temperature, pressures, and everything else was in the green. "Looks good to me." "Looks good to me," his first officer repeated, a Chernarussian named Lavro Slavsky who carried the rank of poručnik, or lieutenant. Slavsky looked around the controls and screens himself, "No lights. All green." He reached out for the flight yoke in front of him and pushed the radio transmit button, "PIRANJA 1-1, ready to taxi." "PIRNAJA 1-1, clear to taxi, proceed to runway 1-9, hold short." Slavsky repeated that and turned to the major who was pilot-in-command, "Clear to taxi. Runway 1-9." "Clear to taxi, runway 1-9." Mandić looked up from the panels and to the aircraft director in front of the plane and have the thumb's up to him, which was returned. With the engines roaring inside of the spacious hangar nothing was going to be done verbally anymore. With a check to the assistant crew chiefs who were on either side of the aircraft, the aircraft director stepped out of the open hangar and onto the taxiway where his hi vis vest caught and reflected the sunlight. Holding up the two wands, he began the careful art of directing the plane out of the hangar. Mandić focused solely on the director now, using his rudder pedals to steer and the throttle to limit his forward speed to only a slight roll. The aircraft had a near twenty-nine-meter wingspan, which meant that coming out of hangars had to be done very carefully since they weren't much wider than the wingspan. Too much one way or the other could seriously damage the plane and take away the major's flight certification for a minimum of six months, during which time he would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he could handle any aircraft, let alone the expensive MT-35A Sabljarka. Sabljarka, which translated to "Swordfish," was a highly specialized modification of the civilian Ba-26, made by Balashova Aircraft Corporation. It turned the luxury business jet that was used for corporate executives and wealthy VIPs into a maritime patrol aircraft capable of flying over 8,000 kilometers at up to 11,000 meters or as low as 1,500 meters for up to eight-and-a-half hours. As an MPA, it was largely focused on anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare but they were also used for search and rescue, weather reconnaissance, and a number of other non-military functions. Today it was all about MPA though, the second mission that Mandić and Slavsky, and their crew, were flying as part of EXERCISE KEZANOI ENDEAVOR. Mandić, focused on the aircraft director, gave the throttles a slight push forward, a few millimeters and nothing more, as he felt the aircraft slow a little. "Starboard wing clear," Slavsky said as the wing came past the doors. Mandić looked to his left, "Port wing clear." The hard part was over, so to speak. Mandić pushed the throttles up a little more and the aircraft rolled free into the sunlight before turning to the left to follow the aircraft director who, once he felt the aircraft was in a good position, straightened up and saluted. Mandić returned the salute and from then on would be on his own to head to runway 19, one of two runways at Dovanozevac Air Base. The other was runway 17/35, which crisscrossed runway 01/19. An older air base, Dovanozevac had vast open tarmacs for the parking of dozens upon dozens of aircraft and massive hangars that had once been used to hold whole squadrons of interceptors. Since being surrendered to the navy in the 1980s, it had been modified as an airbase for the 3rd Maritime Defense Wing and its 953 people, which was equipped with eight ASW helicopters of the 107th Maritime ASW Squadron, ten MPAs of the 52nd Maritime Patrol Squadron, and six UAVs of the 76th Maritime UAV Squadron. Mandić and the rest of the 52nd Maritime Patrol Squadron had spent the majority of yesterday patrolling the Kezanoi looking for submerged contacts to no avail. Submarine hunting was no simple task. It required a lot of triangulation and a lot of patience. The contacts that he and his fellow MPA airmen had chased down had faded just as quickly as they'd appeared, the mark of a skilled submarine crew that was operating under the quietest conditions possible. This afternoon, they were flying further away, into the Qingming Sea to a patrol box centered on 39° 46' N, 32° 32' W, where signals interception picked up a potential burst radio transmission hours earlier. MPAs had been moved to the vicinity but had thus far not picked up anything and it was time to relieve them on station. Minutes later, when Mandić commanded "Gear up" and Slavsky repeated and complied, he looked at the clock and then at the navigation chart displayed on the MFD behind his flying yoke. "Ninety minutes to station. Let the chief know I could use a cup of coffee when he's able." "Aye aye," Slavsky repeated as he watched the horizon tilt to the aircraft's left or port side. Mandić was coming to their expected heading of 145°, the aircraft climbing towards 11,000 meters, where they could cruise economically for the next 500 nautical miles. In the cabin behind them, five of the seven mission crewmen were going through the task of booting up their consoles and running their systems through their BIT programs. The other two sat in observer seats enjoying the ride for now. That crew was under the authority of Kapetan Naser Halil who hailed from Heraq. Everyone else was an enlisted man with a rating of OR-5 or better. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Tuesday, 11 June 2024 | 15:20 hrs [UTC-3] Qingming Sea | 40° 6' N, 33° 16' W "Conn, Sonar, new series of sonobuoys bearing 0-5-0," the report came as Kapetan Pelko swore silently under his breath. That stupid radio communication was 'Come kill me' sign! He thought to himself. "Helm, depth under the keel." "More than 1,000 meters." "Helm, take us down to 3-9-0 meters, slowly, reduce speed to six knots." The command was repeated and the boat took on an otherwise slight downward angle towards a depth of 390 meters, which was just ten meters shy of their test depth. Any further than 400 meters and Kapetan Pelko would be violating a number of safety guidelines and have a mountain and a half of paperwork to do. Even though he was operating in a military exercise, peacetime regulations were still in effect, which meant no further than the test depth, which was - in this case - half of the maximum operating depth of the vessel. "Sonar, Conn, report layer depth." "Conn, Sonar, 3-4-0 meters." Pelko would have been operating under the layer already but his orders were to stay above it unless in the presence of surface or aerial threats, which was just another way he saw command rigging the exercise in a certain way as to ensure he and his boat didn't make it to the launch point. For hours, there had been no MPAs and then, all of a sudden, there was one within twenty nautical miles and now they were starting to get closer though they were looking off to the north, away from his direction of travel. Going below the layer would help but only partly since the MPAs in the Pojački National Maritime Force could operate down to 450 meters, which was well below the layer. Undoubtedly, the MPAs were doing just that, picking up the thermocline and sending their sonobuoys underneath it. "Kapetan, passing through 3-0-0," the helmsman called out and Pelko affirmed. Another decoy? He wondered to himself. His vessel only had had twelve weapon spaces, which meant up to twelve torpedoes or a mix of torpedoes and mines, decoys, or UUVs, each of which only took up half a space. His was a mixed loadout with eight torpedoes, four decoys, and four mines and he'd already used one of his decoys. The cruise missiles that he would launch were in his fictional VLS cells since he was imitating a much larger submarine of the nuclear-powered, attack variety. The mines were pointless and he wouldn't have taken them but he had a secondary objective to mine a grid in the Kezanoi Sea outside of Zrenva Naval Base. He knew full well that the mining mission was suicide and was prepared to pass on the objective, especially since that would mean traveling another 275 nautical miles from the launch point, all in shallow water no deeper than 200 meters. The cruise missile launch, which would be incredibly loud on sonar would send every MPA to the area and outside of turning around and running flank speed into the deeper waters of the Qingming, and thus away from the mining point, anything else would-be suicide. He'd move a few nautical miles, maximum, before the MPAs were headed his way. "Passing through 3-2-5." Pelko looked at the displays around the conn and wondered how he was going to get out of this obvious trap. The waters were deep, for now but in about 100 nautical miles they would start to lessen. The water depth at the launch point was only 220 meters deep. No decoy yet, he thought to himself but we need one ready. He walked over to the weapons station. "What tube is the decoy?" "Two and four sir," the young enlisted man said as he brought up the inventory onto the display screen. "Program tube two to run a course 1-6-0 for twenty minutes at five knots then turn to 0-3-5 and increase to ten knots for the remainder of its battery life. No noise until forty-five minutes of travel then the standard pattern at ten minute intervals. Have it stay just under the layer to a maximum depth of 4-0-0 meters. For the last thirty minutes of its life have it come up to 1-5-0 meters and make a lot of noise." "Aye aye sir. Anything with tube four?" "Not yet, once you fire tube two, have them reload the last decoy." "Aye aye sir." That'll send them on a wild goose chase. Just hope they don't hear the thing swim. Pelko loved the decoys, he wished he could carry even more of them and he would have, had he not had to carry the mines. They were a simple design. The standard lightweight torpedo that the navy used had been modified for submarine launch and low speed instead of high speed. Instead of a top speed of 50 knots, it topped out at 20 knots, which was meant to mimic the top speed of the submarine. In place of its warhead, it carried more batteries and in place of its sonar it carried a simple autopilot and a noise maker that would mimic the sounds of a diesel-electric submarine. Most importantly, it didn't need high pressure air to launch, which was like firing a massive cannon underwater. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Tuesday, 11 June 2024 | 17:50 hrs [UTC-3] Qingming Sea | 40° 30' N, 33° 00' W Mandić looked over at his fuel level and then back out of the window. Below him, screaming by at 360 knots, the otherwise calm waters of the Qingming Sea were betraying nothing. He was flying at 1,500 meters in altitude, running a figure-eight patrol pattern while their sonobuoys listened for anything. They'd taken off with 112 sonobuoys and had used 16 already, laying a decently-sized net around where their predecessor estimated the unknown contact to be heading but so far nothing had been heard. For Mandić, this was frustrating. They knew there was a submarine out there and knew its exact position eight hours earlier. Assuming that it was keeping slow because of the presence of these aircraft and potential surface ships, he figured that it had to be within eighty nautical miles of its position. Of course, that was still a lot of area to search and the MPA that had been on station prior had chosen positions to the north, expecting that the submarine was heading that way as it had the day prior. It was confirmation bias. Tired of circling and listening to nothing, Mandić keyed up his intercom, "Halil anything?" "Nothing sir." "Why don't we go look somewhere else? We've got another two-and-a-half hours on station before we need to head back. Getting boring up here." "Roger that. Been thinking that too." "What you have in mind?" "Come 2-5-0, let's head about forty nautical miles west and see what we find there. We'll come west and then to the southeast towards the original contact point. We'll get another area set up once we hit the western point." "Roger that, you've got five minutes." "Aye aye sir," in the back Halil was giving out a string of orders to his men to get another group of sonobuoys ready for launch. Up front, Mandić was reenergized and turned the aircraft. "Let's go find a sub," he said behind a smile and watched as the horizon changed before him as the plane took a gradual turn to the west. He kept at speed, giving the men in the back enough time to prep the sonobuoys. Five minutes up front felt like an eternity but when he was there, he cued to Halil that they were at station and he was starting the pattern. Four sonobuoys were strategically dropped around various points of the figure-eight and held there as the plane circled above. Some time went by before Halil told him to turn to 300° the direction of the original contact. After another five minutes, they dropped another four sonobuoys and then continued along to drop another set after five more minutes. They had twelve in the water, all of them operating on passive detection, listening and nothing more. They could go active, if necessary but they didn't need to do that yet, not until they heard something. Time ticked away until finally Halil heard something, "We got something." He looked at his display screen, "Come 3-3-0 and expedite." Mandić turned the aircraft and increased speed to 400 knots. Not three minutes later, as the aircraft passed over the sound area, Halil called out another contact to the northeast. "Turn 0-3-5, we've got something. Contact is fading." Mandić turned the aircraft and slowed back down, aiming to conserve fuel now that they were onto something. They could easily outrun a submarine so even 360 knots was unnecessary. He throttled back to just 300 knots and assumed a figure-eight pattern again. "How we looking?" "Contact lost sir but there's definitely something here right at the layer." They continued to circle, dropping another round of sonobuoys further away, hearing intermittent prop sounds and nothing more, knowing there was definitely something out there. They did that for another half hour before their displays started to go haywire. "Contact, 0-3-5, range nineteen nautical miles, looks like its above the layer, let's go!" Halil said and Mandić quickly turned the aircraft. They would drop another round of sonobuoys and send them out actively pinging this time, trying to get a fix on the target. It would be in vain though as the target would make noise and then go quiet and make noise and then go quiet at random intervals. What sounded like prop sounds suddenly became the sound of something else until there was just silence. By then, their patrol was nearly up and Halil disappointingly looked at his screen and the emptiness of it, "No reacquisition." "We've got to call it. We'll let the next guy take it." "Aye aye sir, securing sonobuoy launcher." Everyone felt disappointment and frustration. They had something and were close, real close, not close enough to get a firing solution on the target, which would have made them victorious with a submarine kill. They'd land and review the tapes, knowing that they'd get another crack the following day though they wouldn't have a SIGINT hit to guide them this time. • • • † • • • 4
Poja Posted August 19, 2024 Author Posted August 19, 2024 • • • † • • • Wednesday, 12 June 2024 | 09:00 hrs [UTC-3] Liaria, Knežecak | Knežecak Air Defense Station The Second Argic War had been a rude awakening for the Pojački military, and not just because of the Chernarussian Conflict that occurred simultaneously with it. Until that war, the Pojački Air Defense Command had chiefly focused on preventing incursion by aircraft, but the use of ballistic missiles changed their outlook drastically. It wasn't that ballistic missiles had been ignored, it was simply that the military leaders didn't consider it a viable threat until they began to fly during the war. In response, the military began Project Sky Watch, which resulted in the development of four radar facilities positioned inside Poja, each facing a different direction. They were capable of detecting ballistic missiles out to 1,200 kilometers, expanded to 2,500 kilometers by the mid-90s. Using UHF frequency, these powerful radars could also provide detection of aircraft at shorter ranges and were subject to line-of-sight limitations, which were meant to be overcome by airborne early warning platforms operating together. Those facilities were taken offline in the 2010s when a newer series of radars came online. Significantly more capable and sensitive, these new stations extended detection out to 3,000 kilometers using phased array technology. Still operating on UHF band, they added the ability to pick up smaller targets as well. Run by the 10th Surveillance Brigade, which consisted of 1,700 men, the facilities were the vanguard for Pojački air defense and now they were getting into the action with KEZANOI ENDEAVOR. The 10th Surveillance Brigade was headquartered in the rural, Liarian town of Knežečak. Despite the Air Defense Command having a separate headquarters, the 10th Surveillance Brigade's headquarters was the air defense center for the country and the officer on duty on this particular morning was Potpukovnik Šaban Matić, who'd been briefed about the exercise but not necessarily what to expect. Sitting at his desk in the main operations room, he was working on his second cup of coffee for the morning when an alert flashed across his console and several others. From that moment, he and the senior non-commissioned officer on duty, Štab Vodnik Andrzej Serbin were in constant communication, the NCO standing over the active console while Matić monitoring from his own console, which allowed him also to communicate with his higher ups throughout the Air Defense Command and then onto the rest of the Ministry of National Defense. Serbin looked over the console, digesting the information. "Sir, we've got multiple contacts moving through the Kezanoi ZIPO [ADIZ], high-altitude, loose formation, five to ten targets based on the radar signature, altitude is angels thirty-nine. Current position is 42-42 North, 33-41 West heading 3-1-5. Speed is 400." Matić pulled up a page on his console's second monitor and began to read through it. "Flying right through our exercise, definitely a show of force by someone," he said aloud into his headset, "all right, Maritime, get with the navy, they've got two destroyers operating there, we need positive ID and better tracking. Air, get with the air force and get status on AEW. It's due up in thirty minutes. Also, we'll need to scramble two QRA fighters out of Vrančak to go up and meet them." The liaisons acknowledged and immediately got on the phone to their contacts in the PNAF and PNMF headquarters to start relaying the orders down. When it came to the UHF radars employed by the 10th Surveillance Brigade, what they made up for in range, they lacked in precision and resolution, which was simply the fault of UHF wavelength radars. Sufficient to say, "Something is here and this is how it's traveling," they were insufficient for much else. Ballistic missiles could be easily identified as such mainly because of their speed, altitude, and trajectory, but when it came to aircraft, the system could only say that something was there and go not much further. It was why the Pojački National Defense Force worked with both the Pojački National Maritime Force and the Pojački National Air Force to obtain better tracking on contacts. The navy's radars, if the ship was close enough, could provide good ID on the number of targets and perhaps, if the ship was really close, provide weapons tracking and radar ID. The air force, on the other hand, could fly right up to them and get a set of eyes on whatever was there. Of course, IFF systems could help identify targets from hundreds of kilometers away, but at best those merely told the Pojački services whether something was "friend," "civilian," or "unidentified." Surely, these targets would come up "unidentified," which didn't necessarily mean they were hostile, it just meant they weren't friendly or a strange formation of civilian jetliners. Serbin continued to watch over the panel and looked to try to establish tracking on them, but this was the best he had. The targets had only just crested the horizon for the radar station manned by the 59th Surveillance Squadron. That it sat 1,071 meters above sea level atop a small hillside gave the radar the ability to see targets around 500 kilometers away, about 400 kilometers past the Pojački coastline, if they were flying at 12,000 meters. If they happened to go up to 15,000 meters, the range was 555 kilometers. A target would have to be at 18,300 meters to be seen at 600 kilometers and so on and so forth. "Navy's going to be unhelpful sir," the maritime liaison answer as he pushed the mute button on his phone, "destroyers are operating under EMCON and are not allowed to break that unless they're under attack." "Roger that soldier," Matić had known this, had been briefed on it as part of this phase of the exercise, but still went through the procedures. No one else knew that this was specifically part of the exercise, and they needed to see how his unit performed. A few minutes later, it was the air force's turn, via the air liaison, to offer their assessment. "Air force can't sortie the AEW earlier but will be scrambling two QRA fighters in fifteen minutes. They'll contact us as they get airborne." "Roger that all right the air force is in business." Matić also knew this to be the case. Because the Konfederacija Poja wasn't under any threat, QRA aircraft were holding a fifteen-minute alert. In the PNAF, there were several alert status'. Rarely used, because it wasn't very helpful, was the thirty-minute alert, which allowed the pilots anywhere on base as long as they were in their flight suits and carrying a radio to be alerted to a scramble. Standard in times of peace was the fifteen-minute alert, which confined the pilots to specific areas of base, still in their flight suits. A ten-minute alert confined them either to the alert shack or their squadron headquarters building, but this alert wasn't typical. In times of tension, a five-minute alert was held, which put the pilots in the alert shack. All they'd need to do was run out to the plane, start the engines, and they'd be good to go. The least favorite alerts were the two-minute and the "war alert." The two-minute alert put the pilots in the cockpits of their aircraft, engines off, for rotations of two hours at a time. The war alert was the same as the two-minute alert, only the engine was running on idle, being fed fuel from a ground line. Pilots standing war alert were strapped in and ready to go with the ground crew disconnecting the fuel line, giving the OK to go, and the aircraft getting airborne in less than two minutes. As klaxons sounded at Vrančak Air Base, Matić and the rest of his men were watching the contacts fly closer and closer to the Pojački coastline on their northeasterly course, which was all they could do for now. Orders would go out to surface-to-air batteries eventually to begin warm-up procedures so that they could go active the moment they received notice from Matić's ground liaison. There were two brigades with long-range missiles and three with medium-range missiles positioned around Poja, giving a total of twenty long-range and thirty-six medium-range batteries arranged in such a way that there were no gaps in the coverage of high-value targets or ingress corridors and that the SAM rings overlapped one another. Poja was a well-defended country for many reasons. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Wednesday, 12 June 2024 | 09:35 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 45° 30' N, 37° 27' W Major Ratimir Lalić and his wingman, Poručnik Mesud Catic, had been the two QRA pilots scrambled from Vrančak Air Base. They were part of the 54th Tactical Fighter Squadron, known as the Black Widows, one of four fighter squadrons in the Pojački National Air Force that were dedicated to air-to-air combat. That wasn't to say they couldn't fly air-to-ground sorties by any means, it was simply that they were largely focused on air-to-air combat. They shared their base with the 51st TFS "Grim Reapers" and the 57th TFS "Valkyries," the former who performed the air-to-air role and the latter who performed the SEAD role. The 51st TFS and the 54th TFS swapped alert status every ten days. Flying up in the bright blue skies, well above the cloud tops, they were being vectored onto their target by GCI or ground-controlled interception. GCI was an early air defense tactic employed during the 1910s and the 1920s that still had a number of advantages, especially in the modern wurld where radar warning receivers could pick up emissions from fighter radars over 250 nautical miles away. GCI allowed the aircraft to fly "noses cold" receiving updates to their course via their encrypted data link and those course updates came from Matić's controllers who, using their sophisticated systems, were able to plot an intercept course that kept the fighters out of visual range of the targets and then vectored them into an advantageous fighting position to the rear of those aircraft. If the bogeys demonstrated hostile intent, the two fighters would be in an advantageous position to have those bogeys on the defensive from the get-go. They'd only just punched through the clouds and leveled off at an altitude of 42,000 feet, above and behind the targets. Flying 50 knots faster than the targets, they gained distance quickly enough, especially from where they'd been vectored, to get a visual on them. Of course, there was nothing there since this was only an exercise, but their kneeboards commanded them to do otherwise. Lalić reported that the contacts were six enemy bombers, type BACKFIRE, and showing no external ordnance, though that didn't mean their bomb bays were empty. The bomber was deadly in that it was very fast, had very long range, and could fire very large missiles. The two Ter'er fighters each had four air-to-air missiles, so they could easily destroy them if the need arose. Standard procedure would be to leave one aircraft in trail, which was Catic, while the lead aircraft positioned itself alongside the lead aircraft in the formation. Lalić pushed ahead, making contact with the fictional aircraft, reporting as such. The war game would play out over the next twenty minutes as the bombers skirted alongside Pojački airspace, never getting closer than twenty-four nautical miles before they turned around and went home. Lalić and Catic would follow them for a short time before they returned to base after reporting they'd reached their "Bingo" fuel state. Grades for the interception would be tallied and given later on but, by and large, Lalić and Catic had performed exactly as commanded, and the test showed that the GCI procedures followed by the PNAF still worked. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Wednesday, 12 June 2024 | 11:00 hrs [UTC-3] Qingming Sea | 40° 46' N, 35° 14' W Deep under the sea, unaware of the fictional bombers, Kapetan Pelko was working out what they were going to do. They'd been allowed to use their radio wire this time for receiving transmissions, which kept them a little deeper than if they'd had to use their antenna. It was their reward for evading detection thus far, and a way to make the wargames harder for the BLUFOR participants. Pelko and his submarine was only forty-seven nautical miles from the southerly launch point, which was the one they'd been trying to reach, and they could easily be there in six to ten hours, but the radio communiqué informed them that one of the two destroyers operating in the Kezanoi was positioned around the launch point, and thus it was too risky to try to reach. Based on the communiqué, the northerly launch point was still open, but there was an assortment of smaller, surface units operating between his current position and the northerly launch point. They hadn't yet detected any MPA activity, but they knew to expect it. For Pelko, the MPAs were the biggest threat, since they could move faster than him and easily reposition. He only had two decoys remaining, and he hoped to get through the day without using them. It was why he was carefully staring at the navigation map. The two launch points stood as icons on the map, with the destroyer and the assorted surface units placed where the communiqué said they were. The communiqué didn't give an idea where the other destroyer was operating but suggested it might be operating closer to the coastline, which meant it was in the Kezanoi Sea, not the Qingming Sea. "What I think we ought to do," Pelko said as he looked at the map, "is see if we can do a bit of a sprint. There's no activity right now, so we should take advantage of that to reposition quickly. Stay under the layer, and we'll move 0-7-5 to this point here," he touched a spot on the map about fifty-eight nautical miles away. "Speed will be ten knots. From there we'll begin to move towards the northerly launch point here. We'll keep deep but reduce down to eight knots. If we can keep this up, we'll be there in twenty hours." "Aye aye sir," his navigation officer said as he looked across the map, "best we got right now with the surface activity." The orders were given, and the boat began to turn away from its northwesterly course towards the southerly launch point and off to the east. He was essentially doubling back into the same area he was operating in on the first day of the exercise, which he had to abandon thanks to the presence of MPAs and the speeding Gorlenje, which rushed towards his position. Their sonar had picked it up very far away thanks to its fast speed and carefully avoided it, though at its speed, the sonar was heavily degraded and likely wouldn't have found the submarine anyway. Six hours later, without trouble, they reached their turn point and changed course to 345° slowing down to eight knots. For the first hour, everything was uneventful but into the second hour, they began to pick up the faint noises of the surface units operating to their northeast. Into the third hour, the surface vessels were getting closer and there was MPA activity to their west. In the fourth hour, that's when things got complicated. The surface units began to change their search grid and were now heading directly towards their course though not because they'd been alerted to their presence rather because that was what their orders had said for them to do. As they did, the MPA rerouted to back them up, dropping sonobuoys in a line ahead of Pelko. He immediately ordered his submarine down to six knots and down to the limit of their test depth, knowing he could go no lower without filling out a lot of paperwork. Still, they pressed onward. Hour five would be their last on their northerly trek towards the launch point. The previously unknown second destroyer had suddenly made itself known. Operating to their north, it was moving on a southwesterly course, intermittently pinging away with its active sonar. The surface units operating now to Pelko's east and southeast were not yet doing that, but their prop noise was very audible. "Destroyer's coming right our way," Pelko said as he came over to the navigation map. Its position was plotted with great accuracy thanks to its sonar pings. The other surface units were plotted as well and largely accurate too since they were being tracked on the towed sonar array rather than the submarine's hull sonar. "We've got to either come all the way east and chance with those surface units to avoid the destroyer or head south back the way we came." "MPA activity to the west sir and those surface units are probably listening on their passive. If we can shift their attention away, we can run south, turn, and try again for Bravo. The Gorlenje might get lured away." "We only have two decoys left. That means one after this. We're not yet detected so I think we can avoid it and chance the Gorlenje but we better move fast. That destroyer will be on us shortly." The destroyer was moving towards them at ten knots, slowly so that its sonar wasn't degraded and still far enough away that they could escape without getting detected. Pelko punched the navigation table's side, "South it is. Come 1-9-0, make turns for ten knots." "Aye aye Kapetan, turning to 1-9-0, making turns for ten knots." The order was repeated, and Pelko cursed under his breath. The navy was putting up a wall against the launch points and even though they weren't supposed to know where they were, he wondered if perhaps they did and the game was rigged against his success. That would look bad for the navy, after all. Yet today had been more successful in that he didn't have to use a decoy, the MPAs had never gotten close to him, and the Zhapolatsk wouldn't get any closer to them. • • • † • • • 4
Poja Posted September 25, 2024 Author Posted September 25, 2024 • • • † • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 04:30 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 40° 44' N, 34° 31' W The sun was peeking up over the eastern horizon on otherwise calm seas in the Kezanoi. The Gorlenje and the Zhapolatsk were both moving slowly on southeasterly courses, approximately ninety nautical miles apart from one another, their helicopters preparing for flight operations. Much further away, the 52nd Maritime Patrol Squadron was preparing the next Sabljarka for flight operations. All throughout the night, MPAs from the destroyers and the 52nd MPS were patrolling the Kezanoi, searching and listening to their sonobuoys for even the slightest hint of noise. Outside of a few phantom noises of unknown origins, they really had nothing to show for their efforts. For Kapetan Pelko and the Dubryn, today would be the day that he made his final run for Launch Point BRAVO. He'd used the night to slowly move the submarine into position well south of the destroyers and the maritime patrol grids and instead of going straight for the launch point, he would take a bit of an out of the way path, aiming to come up to it from the south, behind the destroyers. Of course, this was where the biggest challenge lay. The destroyers had their towed sonar arrays streaming over 1,700 meters behind them and the sensitive hydrophones were more than capable of picking up the slightest of sounds. Pelko knew how slowly he'd have to move his boat to avoid being picked up on any of them but, luckily for him, he had ample reserves of battery power and no long-term need to be anywhere near the surface, thus everything was in his favor as he came into the CONN with a cup of coffee in his hand. His first visit was to the navigation charts to see where they were and then over to the pilot's station to review the boat's systems. He looked at the depth and then at the time again. "Helm, come to a depth of two-five meters and stream the radio array." The orders were repeated and the submarine began to rise, the radio array streaming out behind the submarine as it crept along at just four knots. The VLF transmission would be coming soon and he only needed to be near the surface long enough to receive it and no more. As the Dubryn moved up to its position, PIRNAJA 1-1's pilots were in the middle of their engine start procedures. Sitting in the back, Kapetan Halil was going through his own checklists tired of the perpetuate disappoint he'd thus far faced in searching for the enemy submarine but he felt something different about this morning. They had a full load of sonobuoys and were a full loadout of exercise torpedoes. He'd have eight-and-a-half hours on his side, which wasn't a tremendous amount considering but it was still a third-of-a-day and he only had to get lucky once. He'd spent the hours since their last mission gaming what his strategy would be, keeping it largely to himself and to his pilot, Major Mandić, for Halil was a glory hound and so too was Mandić, which was why they always flew together. Once airborne, the Sabljarka would need about an hour to get to the patrol zone and from there the hunt would begin. Ships and submarines moved slowly, the latter slower than the former and while ships could outrun submarines and submarines could hunt down ships, no one could outrun the speed of a helicopter or a fixed-wing MPA like the Sabljarka. The use of these aircraft sped up the naval battle considerably and that meant they had the major advantage. Submarines had few defenses against them, chiefly diving and staying quiet though some were being fitted with submarine-launch surface-to-air missiles. The Pojački military was working on its own version of this system but it wasn't yet in service and testing wasn't even set to begin for another six months meaning that Pelko and his submarine had only their noise-making UUV decoys and their own cunning to hide from the Sabljarka. Pelko contemplated as such as he read the radio traffic, his submarine slipping back beneath the layer. Command was reporting an increase in naval and maritime patrol activity in the Kezanoi and though he couldn't see it on his scope yet, he trusted they were right. The destroyers and the Sabljarka were joined by a dozen other warships operating at much greater distances, patrolling thoroughly through their own search grids. Land-based helicopters were also on patrol closer to the coastline and the Sabljarka was going to be one of two fixed-wing MPAs operating in the southern Kezanoi, the other operating a bit further away to the east. Pelko had his work cut out for him but as he looked at the submarine's position on the navigation screen, he saw that his option for Launch Point BRAVO remained open. It was only seventy nautical miles off to the northwest, twenty hours' transit at his current speed but it would be less if he executed the route they had planned, which would see them travel for eleven hours at five knots on a course of 290° before transitioning to a course of 335° for another six hours at four knots. They'd then rise to launch depth, simulate firing their weapons, and creep away to the east as deep as they could go, heading for the open waters of the Kezanoi and beyond. "Helm, come to course 2-9-0, make turns for five knots, set your depth 3-5-0 meters, five degrees down angle," he put the radio message down and sipped his coffee as the submarine turned and began a very slow and gradual decent. Diving too quick meant that the outer hull wouldn't adjust and there could be noises as the metal acclimated to the pressure. Ten degrees down was generally safe to avoid such noises by Pelko was giving a wide margin for this. There weren't any ships or aircraft around so he could afford the slower rate of descent. Behind them, the submarine's own towed sonar array traveled downwards listening for anyone coming up behind the Dubryn. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 09:35 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 41° 18' N, 35° 9' W Kapetan Dakić watched as the speed on the Gorlenje slowed from fifteen to just eight knots. "Helicopter is airborne," someone called out a few minutes later and he turned to the starboard side of the ship and watched as the RH-20D Morski Lav anti-submarine helicopter zoomed past and ahead, its speed increasing. The helicopter was equipped with twenty-five sonobuoys, of which nine would be dropped almost right away in patterns ahead of, to the starboard, and behind the destroyer. "Come to course 0-9-0," Dakić ordered as the destroyer began to turn to the port side. In the faraway distance, the captain could see the glint of sunlight off of the Sabljarka as it orbited an area twenty-five nautical miles ahead where a suspected sound had been heard. "SONAR, Bridge, any contacts?" He asked as the ship slowed and the noise across the hull and the towed arrays diminished considerably. "Bridge, SONAR, all quiet, no contacts," came the response but that was only because they were only working on their own sonars and did not yet have the aid of the sonobuoys, which could be dropped into the water and operate on either passive or active mode. The first string would be operating actively, supporting the potential contact that the Sabljarka picked up while the others would strictly be passive. If there was a submarine operating in the area it would certainly hear the sonobuoys splashing into the water but unless it was very close it wouldn't be able to tell where they were, except for those that were operating on active sonar. The Morski Lav would drop it's first one about fifteen nautical miles ahead and then the next ones spaced out ten nautical miles a piece, giving a wide net. Then it swung to the southwest where it came up to drop more in a triangular pattern about twenty-five nautical miles away until finally flying to a position at least twenty nautical miles behind the Gorlenje for the next trio. It was enough to get initial units into the water to start listening but hardly would dip too deeply into the sonobuoy load of the helicopter. The rest wouldn't be dropped unless they picked up a contact and needed more precise targeting. The passive sonobuoys could stay in the water for eight hours before their batteries ran out and they plunged to the bottom thereafter while the active ones had a lifespan of four hours. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 09:50 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 40° 58' N, 34° 57' W Pelko looked at his navigation chart and swore. "Launch decoy three," he ordered as he looked at the position. They were just forty-five nautical miles from the launch point but the Gorlenje was in a threatening position just over twenty nautical miles away and its helicopter dropping sonobuoys dangerously close to the submarine. The active buoys were pinging away both above and below the layer at distances of around twenty to thirty nautical miles to his rear, starboard quarter. The passive ones he knew were directly behind his vessel and likely within twenty nautical miles meaning that they'd closed in around him. He needed to send everyone away on a wild goose chase, which was why he'd ordered his third decoy launched off to the north. It would run for about half an hour before speeding to make noise, sending the helicopters, the destroyer, and the MPA that was further away opposite of the way he was heading. "Decoy away," called out across the Conn and Pelko took a reading on the chart. "Come to 2-1-7 degrees, slow turns to four knots," the submarine turned and slowed, "take us down to 3-8-0 meters, ten degree down," the submarine also began to descend from its depth of 325 meters, having risen a little bit to stay in a good acoustical profile. Now he was trying to get deeper, away from the surface and the sonobuoys. His decoy would run just below the layer to try to be convincing, speeding up to ten knots to clear the area once the first leg of its journey was completed. Pelko looked at his navigator and shook his head, "They're good. Frustrating but good." "Sir, I think they just keep getting lucky." "Once the decoy starts making noise we'll stay on this course another five hours, which should clear us out of here and away from the surface ships. Then we'll come on a direct course for BRAVO, plot that out for me, we'll stay at four knots." "Aye aye sir," the navigator went to work. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 10:30 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 41° 10' N, 34° 31' W Mandić looked at his navigation display and handed over controls to his co-pilot, "Halil, we're at the waypoint, going into a pattern now." "Roger that, give me a few minutes to work out the calculations," Halil answered from the back, obviously very preoccupied. The decoy from the Dubryn had lit up on every sonobuoy dropped by the Gorlenje's helicopter as well as its own sonar arrays. Communication between PIRNAJA 1-1 and the destroyer suggested that they were going to begin a search in the vicinity of the sound contact whereas Halil knew better. Seeking the win for himself, he didn't bother to say anything to correct them. He eyed his panel and could see the heading, speed, and depth of the contact. It was quiet enough to mimic the sound of the submarine and, had Halil not been fooled twice already be decoys, he would have thought it was the submarine but he knew better, not because he saw anything different but because he was following his gut instinct. You're still out there aren't you he thought to himself as he looked at the track of the contact. "They're either heading southwest or southeast," he commented aloud more to himself than anyone else. Then he looked at the time of the sonobuoy drops and worked backwards from there. The math told him that the submarine was within ten nautical miles, which though it was a large search area wasn't nearly as large as the entire Kezanoi Sea. "He keeps heading out to deep water doesn't he?" Halil once again said aloud to himself as he watched the track and looked to the southeast. "But he's got to launch his missiles, doesn't he?" It was a fifty-fifty chance for Halil. "Mandić, fifty-fifty chance, southeast or southwest." "Southwest," Mandić responded without any hesitation whatsoever. "Southwest it is, I'll send GORLENJE 2-1 off to the southeast and start dropping buoys. The sub's within ten miles of us, maybe fifteen if he's moving quickly but I doubt he is. He's definitely under the layer so send us on 2-2-0 and keep slow we're going to drop passive buoys every two miles, I want to drop eight. Then we'll circle back." "Let's get 'em," Mandić took control of the aircraft and turned the pattern, "how long do you need for setup?" "Give me three mikes." "Three miles roger that," Mandić looked at his navigation display and relayed to his co-pilot what he wanted him to enter. They'd be flying slow at just 300 knots, maintaining an altitude of 1,500 meters while they dropped sonobuoys along the line. From there, it was back into a figure-eight pattern to wait while Halil and his men in the back did their jobs. Right now, Halil and his men were assigning sonobuoys and configuring them. They would operate in the same way as those dropped from the helicopters. "Three mikes Halil, ready to go?" "Punch it," Halil responded as he looked at the cued-up sonobuoys on his panel. He'd already selected what order to drop them so all they had to do was fly over the target area and drop. "Master to ARM, drop authority transferred," Mandić answered, flipping a switch and transferring authority to release weapons to Halil with another switch. Over the next few minutes, he pushed the release button on his console several times, each time a sonobuoy dropping out of the aircraft via its belly. A parachute quickly deployed, slowing down the sonobuoy until its impact with the water. A camera facing rearward showed them the success - or failure, if there had been any - of each drop. Upon contact, each of the sonobuoys' batteries activated and they deployed their floating device that would transmit back to the aircraft while the main unit slowly descended to their preset depths varying between 300 and 400 meters. It would take between three and five minutes for each buoy to reach their preassigned depths. "Last drop," Halil finally said over the intercom and with that, Mandić flipped the Master switch back to SAFE and removed drop authority from Halil. They would just be circling now while the sonobuoys listened to the waters below them, listening for any possible sound that wasn't ocean noise but that was going to be a tall order. The Dubryn was moving slowly and quietly on its batteries, making as little noise as possible thanks to a number of methods in both the inner and the outer construction of the vessel class and Pelko was neither impatient nor unskilled so he knew precisely how to keep his submarine from making noise. Each sonobuoy could stay down there for eight hours before its batteries ran out and though they didn't have eight hours of fuel left, they still had enough to give this a major attempt. For the first hour there was little to nothing but Halil kept listening. Mandić had taken the plane up to a higher altitude to conserve fuel while they waited, which wasn't necessarily a problem as they could drop sonobuoys all the way up to an altitude of 9,000 meters. This was the crux of naval warfare, it was slow and you needed patience. Off to the east, the helicopter had dropped its own buoys and returned to refuel while Halil looked at the uplinked data from them. "It's just quiet," he remarked a few times to himself while he and his crew waited. Into the second hour, that was when the breaks came. "Faint echoes," one of Halil's crewmen said as he watched the graphical representation of sound slightly dance up from a straight, even line. "We've got something in the vicinity of buoy five." More time went by as they listened. Halil watched the sound reports and watched as the line danced around, "I think we got something," he finally said to his men. "Let's prepare three actives, we'll drop triangular around the area." He relayed it to Mandić who lowered the aircraft's altitude down to 8,000 meters and then executed the flight route designated by Halil, once again handing over drop authority while three active sonobuoys were released, falling into the water below. One failed during descent so a fourth had to be dropped but they had plenty to spare. Then it was more waiting. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 12:00 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 40° 52' N, 35° 5' W The first sonar pings echoed against the hull of the Dubryn with complete and total surprise. Pelko's eyes shot up from the navigation display and towards the sonar operators. "Tell me they aren't onto us," he said as he walked over to them at nearly a run. "Pings are close, we've got three active buoys around us, unknown number of passive; at least three to six if I had to guesstimate." "The decoy didn't work!" Pelko said as he looked at the pings from the sonobuoys on the sonar display. He had a fourth decoy in the tube and ready to go, prepped to run away from the submarine to the east and draw them away but he also knew that if he launched it, it wouldn't help. It would need time to get further away from the submarine to begin making enough noise and even then there was no guarantee its propeller noise wouldn't be picked up by the sonobuoys. "Come to course 0-9-0, bring us to 2-5-0 meters, ten-degree angle," he was going to go above the layer and away from the pinging sonobuoys. The biggest move he could make now as to be as quiet as possible. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Thursday, 13 June 2024 | 12:30 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 40° 52' N, 34° 59' W "Nothing," the panel operator said to Halil as he watched the sound just disappear. "I've got nothing. We had something before that, faint returns not enough for a TMA but he's down there definitely." Halil looked at the panel. "He didn't stop otherwise we'd still be getting returns. He didn't make a run for it because we'd heard the prop. He changed course and depth. What's the layer?" "Two-eight-zero meters." "Bring the passive buoys up to two hundred to two-fifty, stagger them out, bring the active ones up too between one hundred and two-fifty. Ready six more, two passive, four active split between D1 and D2." The D1 sonobuoys were shallow, meant to be used in water ninety meters or less while the D2 sonobuoys were optimized for deeper water though they could operate as shallow as just twenty-five meters if needed. "Mandić, keep us below 9,000 meters, we may have to drop more, contact might have gone above the layer, will know more in five mikes. What's our fuel state?" "We've got another two hours." "Roger, two hours it is. He's here, we're right over him." The plane continued its figure-eight pattern while the sonobuoys came above the layer, the active buoys quiet for now. Each one had a finite number of pings so there was no sense wasting them. Halil looked at the counters on each to see that they still had plenty available. They'd alternate every ten to fifteen seconds, allowing a single, one-second ping to go into the water and then return before another one went out and so on and so forth. Once the buoys were back above the layer, the pinging began again and almost right away, they got returns. "He's here!" Halil said, pumping his fist. "Start TMA, Mandić get us down to torpedo drop altitude, we've got him, starting TMA." In the cockpit, Mandić flipped an MFD and could see the overlay of the map and the contact. The TMA or target motion analysis was running, which would give them a more precise information for the torpedo drop. They needed to get it close to minimize the time between the moment that the torpedo entered the water and when it locked onto the submarine. Ideally, they'd drop within five nautical miles of the submarine, close enough that the sonar could get it right away but far enough that it had time to maneuver. With the submarine above the layer, it was now a race to get it. The Gorlenje would be picking up and moving in on the pings with its helicopter and the other MPA, operating further to the north, would probably start to maneuver closer as well, knowing that it had more hours on station than PIRNAJA 1-1 had. Watching his panel and waiting for the computers to run the TMA was nail-biting for Halil. He'd already declared a deconfliction zone around the MPA to keep the helicopter away but that didn't mean it couldn't drop its torpedo from further away if it managed to get a good solution so the race truly was on and though he was in the lead and he had every advantage, Halil wasn't going to be happy until the torpedo reported back a kill. As they did, the preparations for the torpedo were underway as well. They could drop it up to 400 knots, faster than their sonobuoys but only up to an altitude of 900 meters, meaning they'd have to drop down much lower than they were, which Mandić was in the process of doing, keeping the speed around 300 knots. They simply didn't need to go faster, the best the submarine could do underwater was twenty knots and, if it sped up that fast, it would become the noisiest thing in the water. The captain wouldn't do that, instead he'd flirt with the layer, going above and below to avoid giving Halil a good firing solution and, as he thought about this, he had ordered the sonobuoys staggered both above and below. If needed, he'd drop the next quartet right over the contact and force him to pick above or below. The TMA took a bit of time to generate, over fifteen grueling minutes but as it did, Halil watched as the contact changed on his screen to M18 or "Master One-Eight." They had a firing solution. "Got it!" He shouted in the seat as he looked at the position. The submarine was moving slowly, less than five knots, right at the layer like he assumed, moving on a course now of 1-3-0, roughly eight nautical miles from their position. The Master switched was turned back to ARM and the drop authority returned to Halil as Mandić set themselves up for the drop run, settling in at 500 meters and 300 knots. Right on cue, not five nautical miles from the target, Halil pushed the button and off of the wing pylon dropped one of their four exercise torpedoes. A parachute deployed almost immediately, pulling it away from the plane and orienting it to a nose-down attitude. The same camera that showed the sonobuoy deployment showed the torpedo splash into the water where its batteries activated upon contact. The sonar went into active mode right away and the pump-jet spun up to speed. The torpedo would stay close to the surface for safety reasons, running a program simulating it attacking the submarine. As it ran, Halil watched on his screen as the sonobuoys showed its position. From the moment it hit the water, the torpedo was all on its own. It kicked into highspeed and pinged away with its sonar, turning and locking onto the submarine. Then, it executed its attack, and closing the distance between it and the submarine was of little difficulty as it ran at over fifty knots. The Dubryn never stood a chance at that moment and though the captain of the submarine conducted evasive maneuvers, dropping some countermeasures in the process, the torpedo headed on its track until the moment it was directly over the submarine, at which point it let out a loud burst of noise and went quiet. The noise simulated a hit and for the Dubryn there was no mistaking the noise. "Kill!" Halil called out to cheers inside of the aircraft. They'd done it, effectively winning the exercise. In accordance with the rules, the Dubryn let out two sonar pings, acknowledging the kill, and headed to the surface for radio traffic. As it did, the exercise torpedo activated its floatation devices and began to emit a bright dye, which would allow for its recover via air. Over the next hour, as the Dubryn surfaced and the news went around that the exercise had concluded with its successful "sinking," PIRNAJA 1-1 and its crew basked in the glory. The aircraft overflew the submarine twice, dropping flares on each run before turning and heading back home. Both Mandić and Halil wanted them to know just who got them and there was no mistaking the two passes with the flare drops - safely far away from the submarine of course. • • • † • • • 4
Poja Posted December 2, 2024 Author Posted December 2, 2024 (edited) OOC: The following narrative may include some technical inaccuracies. The subject matter presented is incredibly new to warfare and as such, there is not much to find about it. That subject matter is the use of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in naval warfare. We've all seen the successes that they have brought on the Black Sea against the Russian Navy and their incredible inability to deal with them. Is this a result of their own inadequacies or the nature of this warfare? It's possible that the answer is both and even more reasons that I've left out for the simplification of this being an OOC statement. So, the approach presented below, is what I've seemed to take from what little bit I have been able to gleam about this type of warfare, approaching it from a nation who would employ such warfare and - at the same time - prepare itself to defend against the very tactics it employs. For that reason, please take note that future knowledge and revelations might make some of this presented below inaccurate or false. Footnotes presented at the end will explain some further details without breaking up the narrative style. • • • † • • • D0428/24 NOTAMN Q)LPPO/QRMAM/IV/NBO/W/000/999/4224N03429W/080 A)LPPO B)2406140500 C)2406152000 E)LIVE FIRE MILITARY EXERCISES F)SFC G)UNL • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • O P 141704Z JUN 24 FM ZAPFLONOI TO KPB GORLENJE MNO POJA BT P O V J E R L J I V O SIC LAA NOT RELEASABLE TO FOREIGN SERVICES SUBJ: EX KEZEND 01/2024/UPD/027// REF/A/MY O P 141047Z JUN 24/KEZEND 26/2024// 1. KPB GORLENJE PREPARE FOR HOSTILE WATERS OPS.// 1.1. REMAIN AT EMCON.// 1.2. PTRL GRID 43-00N, 35-30W; 42-00N, 33-30W.// 1.3. BEG THREAT PRD 2000Z.// 1.4. EPCT 24 HRS ELEV THREAT.// 1.5. EPCT ASYM THREATS.// 1.6. AUTH WEAPONS REL IN PRV PARAM.// 1.7. DEFEND SHIP.// 1.8. MISSION FAIL REV TO 300 YD.// ACK/YES/GORLENJE// BT • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Friday, 14 June 2024 | 14:20 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 42° 42' 59" N, 35° 9' 28"W Kapetan Željko Dakić looked over the radio communique and then the one that had come in before it, referencing the two as he stood on the bridge of his warship. Then he put both down on the map table and looked to the navigator, "Outline the grid box and let's make sure we stay in it, how about we come to the southeast, we're getting a little too close to the northwest corner." "Aye aye, Kapetan, speed?" "Maintain ten knots," the navigator nodded and began to work on the instructions while Dakić walked over to the XO who was standing near the helmsman, watching out at the sea in front of them. The swells were moderate due to a storm to their south that was churning up the water for a few hundred nautical miles. Closer to it, buoys were reporting strong gale conditions so they were pleased to be where they were. "Sea state holding?" "Aye Kapetan, holding at seven." "Orders," Dakić handed them over, "looks like we're going to have that test tonight." His XO read the orders and then the previous set, "Looks like it, we'll be ready." "We'll sound general quarters when the period ends and hold twenty-four-hour water. I'm not sure what to expect but have CIWS and the twenty-sevens powered up in standby and the fifties and spotlights manned. Distribute night vision systems to the deck crew and make sure engineering is works out any issues, we might need all the speed we can get." "Aye aye sir," the XO handed back the orders and left the bridge. The orders that Dakić were holding had been something that he'd been briefed about before the start of the exercise. His vessel was testing two new systems that were developed to counter both air and surface drones, a new type of warfare that the Konfederacija Poja had embraced as a force multiplier on the battlefield that was not only low cost but incredibly effective and incredibly terrifying. Normally, when people thought of drone warfare, they considered FPV drones with high-explosives being used in kamikaze-style attacks against infantrymen and vehicles but there was also a rise in naval drones equipped with hundreds of kilograms of high explosives, essentially acting like sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, striking ships at the waterline and causing tremendous damage. A warship the size of the Gorlenje wouldn't be able to take more than a few hits before it was simply too damaged to save. In his briefing, Dakić had been informed that a "live fire exercise" would occur testing out these systems and capabilities. The first of these was a new infrared search and track system that was codenamed VATSTRA[1], which was short for Vatrogasna Straža or "Fire Watch." It was a new, 360° infrared search and track system that, like all IRSTs, was completely passive and thus emitted no signals to detect. Mounted above the bridge and the hangar, it provided a line of sight to the horizon, approximately 23,000 yards or 11.4 nautical miles away[2]. Highly sensitive and backed up by a good bit of computing power, it was the next generation of naval infrared systems designed to spot not only incoming cruise missiles, whether supersonic or subsonic, whether up high or skimming the sea, but also unmanned surface vehicles or USVs, what the militaries of the wurld were calling naval drones. VATSTRA had been the byproduct of several years of development and the only operational system was installed on the Gorlenje. This was meant to be a real-wurld test of its capabilities. The second system installed was a new jamming system codenamed PERZID[3], which was short for Perimetarski Zid or "Perimeter Wall." PERZID was meant to be supplementary to the warship's existing electronic warfare suite, which was focused on defending against anti-ship missiles. PERZID focused on jamming satellite downlinks for USVs and did so by aiming four, rotating units installed on the roof of the warship's superstructure, at the incoming USVs. To achieve this, it could jam within a number of preset frequencies on L band to jam common navigation systems and X, Ku, and K band to jam newer and more advanced systems. It also had the ability to jam custom-defined frequencies as well. The purpose of PERZID was to cut the downlink between the USV and the guidance station. With a loss of signal, the USV would cease receiving commands and essentially become an "easy target." There was one catch though, a USV that ran autonomously or that switched to autonomous capabilities after losing the downlink would not be affected by PERZID or would only be affected for a short period of time. Together, these systems meant to enhance the ability of a Pojački warship to defend against USV threats. Even detecting USVs out at 5,000 yards gave the crew of the vessel over three minutes of warning time[4] before impact, which they could extend by maneuvering and increasing speed. VATSTRA would provide this, they hoped. PERZID would help buy more time by tackling the USVs in the water before the ship's weapon systems needed to engage, helping them to do so in the process. When it came to engagement, the ship would go first to its 35-millimeter, Prepreka CIWS[5] systems, which were more than adequate at hitting surface targets out to 4,400 yards. The Gorlenje had two Prepreka systems. Backing these up were a pair of 27-millimeter T.32B cannons[6], capable of hitting surface targets out to roughly the same range. Finally, if all else failed, the ship had four heavy machine guns in 12.7-millimeter caliber that were effective at 2,000 yards or less, depending on the skill of the operator. Expecting the attack at night, when visibility was reduced, the ship would need to go to several spotlights to identify the incoming targets to gunners who could use a combination of night vision goggles or the spotlights to engage the incoming USVs. For the non-manual Preprekas and T.32s, their own sensors would enable accurate fire on the incoming USVs. It certainly promised a wild night for the vessel as Dakić entrusted his well-trained crew to be ready and to be prepared. They couldn't let any USV close to within 300 yards, which would be considered mission failure. At that range, a USV could strike within less than thirteen seconds and it was simply too close for the CIWS and T.32s to depress, meaning the only line of defense was small arms from sailors and the 12.7-millimeter HMGs. While this wasn't to say those men could not take out the USV still, these were the parameters of the exercise. Dakić could rest assured though that at least the USVs attacking him were not armed with explosive warheads so that, if one did come to close, while he would be considered "dead" in the exercise, he would still have his life to try again in the future. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Friday, 14 June 2024 | 17:00 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 42° 32' 23" N, 34° 38' 38" W The ship's whistle was loud but everyone was expecting to hear it as the chief of the boat[7] came on the loudspeaker, addressing the entire crew, "General quarters! General quarters! All hands man your battle stations. Set material condition Zulu throughout the ship, make Zulu reports to DC central." As he cut the transmission, the ship's klaxon began to sound, loud enough that no one who had been asleep was asleep anymore. The klaxon rang for twenty seconds and that was it, the entire crew of the Gorlenje was on notice. All throughout the ship, sailors donned their Nomex anti-flash gear, which would protect their hands, face, head, and neck from fires. It was standard gear during general quarters and no one was an exception, not even the captain, who donned his and took his position on the bridge. It would take three minutes for the ship to get into battle readiness, which was timed by the XO as part of the exercise. Stations reporting back that they were ready were checked off the list as the seconds ticked away and the XO watched his stopwatch, finally announcing to the captain, "Sir, we are at general quarters, condition Zulu." "Aye aye XO, consider yourself on rotation," the captain said, dismissing his XO so that he could get some rest in anticipation of relieving the captain in a few hours. The entire crew would be rotating as well over the next twenty-four hours to ensure that those on watch were alert and ready for action. If the alarm sounded of an incoming attack, everyone would be up and ready to fight. On deck, the machine guns were unlatched, loaded, and prepared. Test firings commenced of all weapon systems, preceded by announcements of such of course, to ensure that everything was ready. Active sensor systems were put into standby status so that the vessel could not be detected by its own emissions while passive systems remained operational as the vessel's only eyes and ears. VATSTRA, which had already been active was now the vessel's best detection system while its electronic warfare systems, including PERZID were put in standby mode. Standby simply meant that the system was powered up, run through its tests, and ready to turn on at a moment's notice. It meant that activation was instantaneous versus delayed due to all of those startup tests. The Gorlenje was ready for battle. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Friday, 14 June 2024 | 23:00 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 42° 51' 3" N, 34° 17' 51" W Thus far, everything had been quiet. The crew was rotating every four hours and the ship's navigator was keeping the vessel within the predefined grid at a speed of fifteen knots now. They'd sped up to give them a better chance getting to flank speed, which was thirty knots, in the event that the attack materialized. Though still considered a "slow cruise," the speed afforded them a good bit of maneuverability to jink in the water against oncoming USVs, if needed. It also kept them from overrunning the patrol box easily, which was only ninety nautical miles long and sixty wide. At first, the ship had been heading to the southeast and then it had turned to the north-northwest and it was now heading directly towards the northwest edge of the box. Presently under the command of the XO, the Gorlenje had remained at EMCON as directed, its sensors detecting nothing out at sea so far. The sea state had calmed slightly as the storm moved further and further away to the east, which helped to benefit the Gorlenje by allowing her to reach maximum speed though it also benefited the USVs as well. Because they were smaller, the rougher sea states had a more pronounced effect on them, limiting their operation in rough sea states. Lookouts, who had been posted all around the vessel, used night scopes to stare into the blackness in front of them, looking for movement or any signs of a wake while the infrared sensors did the same, albeit from a higher point and with much more sophistication than any human being could muster. Gunners did the same, in fact everyone posted to the exterior decks was looking for anything out at sea and because the vessel was running with no exterior lighting, their night vision was well preserved though nothing could beat the night scopes and night vision devices they used, which could see significantly better in the dark than the best of them could. "Werewolf![8] Werewolf! Werewolf!" The speakers on board the vessel blared as the klaxon sounded. Anyone who was asleep rushed out of their beds, fully dressed, wearing their boots, and dashed to their positions. On the bridge, the XO ordered the ship to flank speed as he was given the SITREP. "Sir, we've got six contacts, two port, two starboard, two aft closing fast, range five thousand yards," the CIC radioed up as the XO grabbed his night scope and looked at the faint wakes on the horizon. The ship was under attack! Before he could issue any further orders, the captain was present and brought up to speed just as quickly. "Weapons free, cleared to engage," Dakić ordered into the radio to the CIC. Already, the electronic warfare systems were targeting four of the six incoming vessels, looking to jam their satellite downlinks while VATSTRA had done its job in picking up their approach with plenty of warning. Dakić, who still held the microphone to the CIC in his hand further added, "Break EMCON!" With that, the massive search radar on the Gorlenje went active, sweeping the area around the vessel instantaneously. "Six contacts, no more to the horizon," the CIC reported up, "range four-five-zero-zero." They were closing quickly but they hadn't yet begun to jink in the seas yet as they weren't yet under fire. Their closure began to drop though as the massive gas turbine of the Gorlenje few power to the propellers and pushed her up past twenty knots on the way to thirty. In the midst of this, the ship's powerful computers were beginning to sort the targets in terms of threat and priority based on their range and their closure rate. All were classified equally as Raptor-class USVs[9], one of two types employed by the Pojački military. They were small, difficult to see and to target but VATSTRA had done its job. Capable of moving at up to forty-two knots with a range of 430 nautical miles, they were highly capable, light USVs equipped with 200-kilogram warheads, the equivalent to a medium-sized anti-ship missile. They could do a lot of damage, especially with a waterline strike. To a 500-ton corvette, it was estimated that four to eight were needed to sink the vessel and just half that for a mission kill. If all six hit the Gorlenje, she would be in very bad shape but even with one or two hits, critical systems could be knocked offline and the vessel could be rendered dead in the water. The first rounds fired minutes later as the USVs closed. The closest and most threatening of them were those from the port side, which happened to about two hundred yards closer than those on the starboard side. Both were closing on an intercept course and had yet to begun to jink, which made the first bursts a simple calculation for the Prepreka's targeting systems. Targeting the two on the port side, the forward mounted system, which happened to be above the bridge, swung out ahead of the two USVs and fired two bursts of twelve rounds each, which was the pre-determined burst for this kind of target. The ammunition in its secondary, 264-round drum depleted by twenty-four as the mix of HEI-T and APDS-T rounds shot outwards. At such an extreme range, the hit probability was low but a few rounds connected on the lead USV and turned it into a massive fireball that was easily visible from the ship as its fuel supply ignited from the HEI rounds. The trailing USV, caught up in the wake of the lead, managed to escape the hits as the Prepreka computed a solution and fired again. As it did, the aft system came online and swung around to target the two starboard-side USVs. The T.32Bs were also in action, swinging around to the targets as well, each one controlled remotely from the CIC. It was only the four heavy machine guns on deck that were manned, aimed, and fired manually. Equipped with ninety-ready-rounds, each of the T.32B mounts were also equipped with their own EO/FLIR system that enabled them to be targeted independently and they too began to spit out high-velocity, HEI and AP rounds. Two more of the USVs, both of them on the starboard side, were hit after a few salvos connected with them despite their jinking while the port-side USV remained elusive. Jamming had yet to be effective against any of them but the PERZID systems were still firing away, making the attempt. Minutes counted down as the USVs closed. With the vessel now over twenty-six knots, the closure times had increased but still the USVs were out there. The port side system had moved across the bow of the Gorlenje at a distance of nearly 2,500 yards and was now on the starboard side, jinking away as it did. It also managed to stay out of the arc of fire for the T.32Bs, which meant that only the forward-mounted Prepreka was capable of engaging it. Staying ahead of the vessel, it maneuvered back and forth, keeping itself on an intercept trajectory when suddenly it skidded mid-turn, appearing to lose control, and began to move in a circle. The Prepreka system locked onto it, fired another burst, and the USV exploded at a range of around 1,800 yards. It was possible that the PERZID jammer had worked but they wouldn't know until after the attack. With its destruction, there were just the two aft USVs closing. They had swung out and jinked across the water avoiding the aft-mounted Prepreka very well. At 2,000 yards from the vessel, the first one was hit by a burst from the CIWS, exploding in the night while the final USV closed to within 1,500 yards before it was destroyed with a burst, having executed something of a predictable jinking maneuver. The entire encounter had lasted quite a number of minutes and the Gorlenje had survived relatively comfortably. Sweeps of the water showed nothing else out there and so the captain ordered the vessel back into weapons safe conditions and ordered the radars and jammers returned to standby, placing the vessel back in EMCON. The Preprekas were reloaded, the T.32Bs were reloaded, and the gunners manning the heavy machine guns went back to their "rest" positions searching the horizon rather than waiting for targets. An hour later the Gorlenje would receive a radio message confirming that the attack had been defeated and that one of the six USVs had been jammed, which had been everyone's assumption. The message didn't say how many attacks were still to come, only that the exercise would continue. It might have looked like a failure for the PERZID system but no one operating it knew if the USVs were under autonomous or downlink control. For now, the crew relaxed a little, enough to continue the watch period and make another switch at 01:00. It was definitely going to be something of a long night for everyone. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Saturday, 15 June 2024 | 03:00 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 42° 40' 55" N, 35° 8' 12" W The excitement from the first wave had lifted by the time 03:00 rolled around. Sailors were growing weary with tiredness but they still had many more hours of darkness ahead of them, including dawn, which was a preferential time to attack because of the difficulty one's eyes had in adjusting to the rapidly changing light. The Gorlenje was maintaining eighteen knots now, steaming within the patrol box with Dakić on the bridge. Coffee pots were working overtime aboard the vessel and the wrappers from energy bars clogged the wastebins along with the spent bottles and cans of energy drinks. Morale was high after the first wave and the men expected successively difficult waves to come so when a USV was detected at just after 03:00, heartrates began to race as sailors anticipated the second wave. On the bridge, the captain listened to the CIC report, "Werewolf six thousand yards, on our heading, bearing one-seven-five. It's keeping pace with us, type classified as a Barakuda-class USV. No other contacts." "Remain on standby, weapons safe, remain on EMCON," the XO appeared on the bridge moments after the klaxon sounded. "We've got a scout out there, six thousand yards to the starboard keeping pace. Helm, give me twenty knots, turn port, zero-four-five." The ship would increase speed and turn away from the USV, meaning that it too would have to turn to keep up the scout. That also might throw off any attack that was clearly imminent. Given that it was a Barakuda-class USV, it was a much more potent system, being capable of a higher speed, 48.5 knots, with a range of 540 nautical miles. It was the payload though that was the real threat, which was upped to 850 kilograms, the equivalent of a large anti-ship missile. The Gorlenje couldn't even take a single hit, let alone multiple hits. "Contact is turning with us, maintaining distance," the CIC reported. Both the Raptor and the Barakuda-class USVs might have been weapon systems but they could also provide reconnaissance, which clearly this one was doing. "CIC, engage jamming on the target," Dakić ordered, assuming that, because it was turning with the vessel, it was under direct control. The jammers were engaged and within seconds, the CIC reported that jamming was effective, even at the range of 6,000 yards. The jamming was stopped and the USV picked up where it left off, coming back around as the satellite downlink was restored. "Well at least we know it works," Dakić answered as they continued on their course. The attack had yet to materialize and the vessel moved onwards, heading towards the northern limit of the box. The minutes ticked by until just after 04:00 when the klaxon sounded again and the news was significantly worse as the CIC reported not six this time but rather eighteen contacts in a mix of Raptor and Barakuda-class USVs, all at varying ranges of five to seven thousand yards, all closing fast, and from every direction. Dakić, who'd been near the helm, quickly moved to the information display to see the contacts there, designated M07 through M24. Three were directly ahead of the vessel and closing fast, already jinking. Two more were approaching at off angles from the ship's 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. Three were approaching from each side and six were coming up from the aft, two of them coming at angles from 7 o'clock and 5 o'clock. The lone scout had come around to the vessel's aft but was the furthest contact now. The radars had gone active immediately, the PERZID systems engaged, and the Preprekas began firing. The forward system immediately began to engage the five forward contacts while the aft one swung around to attack the starboard USVs along with the starboard-side T.32B. Against the port-side ones there was only the single T.32B engaging. Rounds were firing from all of the weapons quickly as the heavy machine gunners prepared to swing into action and the spotlights came on, targeting the nearest USVs in the faraway distance. Against this second wave, jamming was much more effective, likely indicating that more of these USVs were on manual control instead of acting autonomously. One of the five forward targets was jammed and engaged, the first of the USVs to be destroyed. Then a second one met the same fate while the remaining three USVs, jinking around the water in front of the vessel fell in rapid succession to the Prepreka as the distance closed to less than 3,000 yards. Approaching flank speed, the Gorlenje began a hard turn to the starboard, as the Prepreka on the bridge moved to engage the port USVs. Two more exploded, one on each side. The aft-approaching USVs were thrown into the wake and began to bounce around, making targeting them difficult. Jamming effectively knocked out one more starboard-side USV and it was blown up from a 27-millimeter burst at a range of just 1,600 yards. The Gorlenje heaved back over to its port side, its speed now twenty-eight knots. Heavy machine gunners opened up and destroyed the last of the starboard USVs. Nine of eighteen were destroyed and then eleven as one of the port-side and one of the aft-approaching USVs met their matches from the Prepreka systems. Heavy machine gunners on the port side opened up and, thanks to jamming assistance, took out the last of the port-sided USVs at only 1,100 yards. The USVs were getting too close, much closer than the first wave. It was then that Dakić ordered the CIC to go to a weapon system that hadn't yet been discussed, the vessel's SeaRAM system[10]. Though they were designed to counter anti-ship missiles, the eleven-round launchers could be used against surface targets. The USVs had split up now, approaching no longer just from the aft but in a pincer approach from three sides, which was designed to split the Gorlenje's guns. In this instance, the SeaRAM made perfect sense. From their position amidships, the two systems swung out and each locked onto a USV, firing a single missile towards them. Rapidly accelerating, the missiles tracked on the USVs thanks to their warm infrared signature against the backdrop of the cool water and the cool night air. Not equipped with jammers or flares, the USVs could do nothing against the fast-moving missiles that struck and knocked out both USVs at ranges of less than 1,000 yards. Four USVs remained and they were approaching now directly, moving quickly as the Gorlenje maneuvered again. A Prepreka burst blew up a Raptor-class USV off the fantail at about 800 yards, the closest interception yet, while a heavy machine gunner narrowly missed one to the starboard side just before a 27-millimeter burst destroyed it, emptying the magazine in the process. Two more remained, including the original scout that had now transitioned in a wide sweep, keeping its distance above 6,000 yards. The aft-mounted Prepreka fired three more bursts, catching the seventeenth USV at a range of 900 yards, ending the immediate threat. The scout was still out there, now running away at a high rate of speed. "I want a sweep," Dakić said to his XO as he ordered the CIC to launch a missile at it. The launcher moved rapidly, elevated, and shot another missile. Rocketing out of the tube at twice the speed of sound, the missile quickly adjusted to keep a lead on the USV until impact, ten seconds later. The brilliant fireball on the dark horizon was a final call of victory as the Gorlenje ceased its maneuvering. Dakić kept the speed up and the radars sweeping for the next five minutes to see if there were more contacts but when none materialized, he ordered the ship back to EMCON and down to eighteen knots. Weapon systems that hadn't been reloaded were, and the crew went back to their "rest" positions. When the radio message came through an hour later, it revealed that the PERZID had successfully jammed several of the USVs and that the attack was over for now. Dakić relaxed a bit but only so much. He expected another at dawn and he wasn't wrong. Four USVs approached, all from the bow of the vessel. Detected at just over 5,000 yards, Dakić ordered the Gorlenje to turn away from them and, as the ship turned hard, both Prepreka and one of its T.32B cannons engaged. The closest any of the USVs got was 3,250 yards before it was destroyed by a 35-millimeter burst. With three waves down and now twenty-eight USVs destroyed, at a cost of easily Ð7.5 million, in just USVs alone, never mind the ammunition, the exercise was declared a success. Dakić was given the "all clear" via radio message that there would be no more waves and the crew stood down from general quarters. Those who were on rotation were relieved for some shut eye while those who weren't took their duty posts. The final results would be analyzed after the exercise was completed but the Gorlenje had performed better than expected and though the overwhelming force of eighteen USVs[11] in the second wave was a lot for the vessel to handle, she successfully kept the USVs from getting any closer than 800 yards, which was more than enough to be considered "comfortable." • • • † • • • Notes 1. ARTEMIS IRST 2. ARTEMIS sensors are meant to be mounted underneath the radar mast. You want them up high to have a good distance to the horizon. On the Novigrad-class, which is visually similar to the De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate, this would be difficult because of how the mast is shaped. I've thus opted to put them on top of the bridge and the hangar, which gives an approximate height above the waterline of 35 meters, at which point, the distance to the horizon is roughly 23,000 yards (rounding down). 3. This is where things get very theoretical. GPS, BeiDou, and Galileo all operate on L band in frequencies of 1176.45 MHz to 1575.42 MHz while GLONASS operates in the vicinity of 1602 MHz. Starlink operates on a number of frequences up in X, Ku, and K band from 10.7 GHz up to 20.2 GHz. Water vapor absorption becomes an issue from 18 - 26.5 GHz, peaking at 22.24 GHz making Starlink in these frequencies a short range system. Thus, it would be ideal to run a Starlink downlink between 10.7 - 12.7 GHz straddling X and Ku bands. If you can jam the downlink to a USV, it would stop receiving commands but if it were to then go autonomous then the jamming is useless. Do you stop jamming and they reestablish the link? Or keep jamming? What's the tactic? I don't know. 4. The MAGURA V5 would take 211 seconds at top speed to cover 5,000 yards while the Sea Baby would take just 183 seconds. However, this is the best case scenario. The ship moving at its own speed and maneuvering would increase this closure time and a USV running straight in is an easy target so it would have to maneuver as well, thus further increasing the closure time. I have no idea how far away ARTEMIS could pick up a USV. Based on the theoretical maximum range of 23,000 yards, writing it to 5,000 yards seems acceptable to me. If it's further, reaction time increases; if it's closer, reaction time decreases. In this video, it was cited that they had 30 seconds of warning for a sea-skimming, anti-ship missile. Assuming this missile is traveling at Mach 0.9 (685 mph; 306 m/s) this gives an approximate range of 10,000 yards 5. Specifications upon request but the Prepreka CIWS takes the Goalkeeper mount, which offers -25° elevation coverage, amongst the lowest of the systems, and fits a 35-mm/79-cal KDG cannon with a rate of fire of 200 or 1,000 rpm. For surface vessels, 200 rpm is sufficient whereas for air targets you want 1,000 rpm. It has 528 rounds ready from two selectable drums, choosing between AHEAD (anti-missile) or HEI-T and APDS-T ammunition. It uses an X band search radar (30 km range) and a Ku band tracking radar (8 km for air; 15 km for surface) as well as backup EO/FLIR systems. The Goalkeeper was chosen specifically for this low depression, which was envisioned as a counter-USV system. 6. The T.32B 27MM Cannon is the MLG-27. 7. I am aware that the chief of the boat is strictly a submarine position but in the PNMF this is for both surface and submarine as the senior enlisted man on the vessel. 8. Brevity code VAMPIRE is to denote incoming anti-ship missiles but I don't know what's used for USVs so we'll go with WEREWOLF for now, keeping up with the theme. 9. The Raptor-class is the MAGURA V5 while the Barakuda-class is the Sea Baby as declared here. 10. The use of the SeaRAM would not be a "surprise" and would have been considered as a first-use weapon due to its range but for the sake of the narrative this is an "Oh shit!" moment. 11. I cannot tell what the biggest attack Ukraine has launched but I do not think any of the attacks exceeded this many USVs. The Ivanovets, a Tarantul-class corvette, was sunk after six hits from the MAGURA V5. One report had the Tsezar Kunikov, a Ropucha-class landing ship going down after just five hits from the MAGURA V5 but out of how many I do not know, perhaps it was ten if the Russian reports are to be believed. In almost all of these videos, we see the crew engaging only with small arms and maybe deck-mounted machine guns [it's at night so resolution via USV FLIR isn't spectacular enough for my untrained eyes], not the vessel's CIWS or other weapon systems. Edited December 2, 2024 by Poja (see edit history) 2
Poja Posted December 14, 2024 Author Posted December 14, 2024 • • • † • • • Saturday, 15 June 2024 | 11:40 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea Piloting the IR-28A Jastreb was a relatively simple endeavor, if you considered the input delay between one's control actions and the response of the aircraft flying over 500 nautical miles away. It took a brief but insurmountable fraction of a second for the electronic signals to process in the control station, zap up to the satellite, and zap back down to the drone wherever it was in the wurld. For Zastavnik Marko Bašić, it was all about slow, subtle movements of the stick and the throttle, keeping the unmanned aircraft flying a very smooth orbit within its designated patrol area, which so happened to be over the Kezanoi Sea. Having arrived on station not thirty minutes earlier, the Jastreb was cruising very comfortably at an altitude of 14,000 meters, almost its maximum ceiling. At that altitude, the aircraft was flying only about twenty knots above its stall speed, despite its 28-meter wingspan. The Jastreb was a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle that the Pojački military employed for reconnaissance duties, chiefly maritime surveillance over the Kezanoi and Mediargic Seas. Though able to carry a number of different payloads in a bay capable of holding up to 800 kilograms, the Jastreb usually carried its AR-N-111A Reconnaissance Radar, a Ku band, AESA radar with a range of around forty-five nautical miles fully 360° around the aircraft. The purpose of the radar was to get high-resolution radar imagery of maritime vessels for classification purposes and then to track them, providing real-time intelligence to Pojački war planners in Rugi or elsewhere in the country. Unlike intelligence-gathering ships, the Jastreb could cover 300 nautical miles in just under an hour, surveilling an incredible amount of sea from the safety of high-altitude flight. No ship in the Pojački arsenal could do what the Jastreb could do, which made it integral, even more so because it had an endurance of twenty hours. This morning, Zastavnik Bašić and his sensor operator, Štab Vodnik Felix Yevdokimov, were tasked with performing surveillance on the multitude of naval vessels operating in the Kezanoi as part of KEZANOI ENDEAVOR. It was hardly a difficult mission, especially since the Jastreb was "a friendly" but friendly or not, Bašić and Yevdokimov still had to hone their skills. They were given a number of objectives and pointed at the various search areas in the Kezanoi, where Pojački ships operated without the constraints of fixed boxes but rather spread out all over the Kezanoi conducting operations as part of the war games. Bašić and Yevdokimov had to find and locate every single ship operating in the Kezanoi, civilian and military alike. Turning on the UAV's radar certainly alerted every warship in the Kezanoi to their presence, whether they were running EMCON or not. The active signals bouncing around the air would be unmistakable, especially as the radar unit rotated around its azimuth in the UAV's payload bay. It didn't take very long before the first contacts began to pop up on the screen. Yevdokimov, who manned the radar, was looking at the contacts on an MFD, the top of which read "SEA" to indicate that it was operating in a specialized, maritime mode. In this mode, the radar operated in something called inverse synthetic aperture mode or ISAR with a resolution of just ten centimeters. What that meant, in layman's terms, was simply that the return signals from each radar pulse were used to create a two-dimensional, high-resolution image of the target. It was called radar imaging and it allowed for uncanny accuracy for identifying ship classes or type classification. With a single sweep, they'd picked up three contacts, one of which was the GORLENJE, imaged in amazing clarity right before their eyes on another MFD. "We've got a destroyer, Novigrad-class," Yevdokimov responded as he selected the target. Behind him, Major Ilija Pranjić, the mission commander, jotted it down. "Civilian merchant," Yevdokimov further narrated moving to the next target, "and a missile boat just on the edge to the northwest of our range. Can we get closer?" "Roger," Bašić pulled the aircraft onto a different heading and the contact started getting closer, the image clarity improving as it did. "Classify as missile boat, Zhisensk-class," Yevdokimov would respond a few moments later as the UAV began to pick up some more contacts. They would be flying like this for the next few hours, covering various zones throughout the Kezanoi, picking up and classifying contacts as they flew, their radar scanning over 11,000 km² of sea-surface with every sweep. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Saturday, 15 June 2024 | 18:30 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 39° 59' 53" N, 34° 38' 9" W "Vampire! Vampire! Vampire!" The call went out throughout the CIC of the GORLENJE as the ship's radar swept through the skies. "Vampire! Vampire! Vampire! Bearing 2-9-5, range 6-0 [nautical] miles, time to impact, two minutes!" Klaxons sounded as the vessel once again was in battle mode. On the bridge, Kapetan Dakić called for maximum speed and maneuvering as he ordered the electronic warfare systems to activate and the decoy dispensers armed and moved into automatic mode. If this were wartime, the call of "Vampire" was one of the most dreaded brevity codes to a sailor as it meant incoming anti-ship missiles. "CIC, Bridge, how many contacts?" "Bridge, CIC, one contact, dropping from high-altitude, air-launched, it's heading down to the surface," the call came, indicating that the missile target, launched by an aircraft, was transitioning into sea-skimming mode. Based on its range and closure time, it were supersonic, moving at Mach 2.8, making it incredibly deadly; yet, the GORLENJE was more than equipped to deal with this threat. In fact, the purpose of this evening's test was to cycle through the vessel's various weapons systems against four supersonic missile targets. The first up was the ship's electronic warfare systems. In order to test these weapons effectively, the carrier aircraft carried a datalink pod that linked to the missile target and recorded its data. The missile targets were equipped with precise, GPS navigation systems that would allow them to fly close enough to the ship to be shot down but not so close as to endanger the missile target would aim the ship's safety. For the EW test, to cross ahead of the ship's bow at a distance of 800 yards. It would emit active radar signals and transmit the data back to the shooting aircraft where, if the radar was jammed or decoyed, the information would be recorded. In the first test, as the missile target closed at an altitude of just nine meters, the GORLENJE fired off her active radar decoys and her EW systems. Screaming past the bow at the predefined distance, the sonic booms of the missile target were unmistakable. Shortly thereafter, the launching aircraft's WSO triggered the self-destruct on the missile target and it exploded harmlessly, scattering its debris into the sea. That cleared the launching aircraft to send the second missile target, which it did, also from high-altitude. Once again, the call went out but this time, the missile target only dropped to a flight altitude of 1,500 meters where it was able to fly a little faster, Mach 3. At that speed, it could close the distance in ten less seconds, which didn't seem like a lot but was enough to matter. For this test, the GORLENJE locked onto the missile target and fired a pair of surface-to-air missiles, aiming to intercept it before it could close to within ten nautical miles. Rocketing out of their VLS tubes, the two missiles screamed upwards before transitioning to horizontal flight, turning sharply while their boosters continued to burn solid-propellant at an incredible rate. The missiles tracked from the ship's radar, pulling lead on the incoming missile target. The closure speed was nearly double and the seconds elapsed quickly before a brilliant explosion lit up the darkening skies, indicating that the missile target had been destroyed. The missiles had performed perfectly, detonating with their proximity fuses close enough to shred the incoming missile target with shrapnel. The second test was passed and now came the final test but, unlike the first two, these missile targets wouldn't be launched from high-altitude but rather from low-altitude. The launch aircraft was the same, a J-17D Guja attack bomber, only it was moving at a speed of Mach 1.14 at just 200 meters in altitude. At sixty nautical miles from the GORLENJE, the WSO on board the aircraft launched the two missile targets with a three second separation between them. The pilot peeled off, the missile targets on their own now. There was no need to get data back from these missile targets as their entire purpose was to be destroyed and it would be plainly evident if they were or weren't destroyed. Speeding up to Mach 2.5, they came in at just five meters in altitude, aiming to cross the GORLENJE's bow at just 500 yards. Because radar was a line-of-sight system, the missile targets were fired well outside of the GORLENJE's radar view and so everything remained quiet until the missile targets, speeding towards the vessel, crested the horizon. Due to the radar mast height and their own altitude, they were picked up at just 16.5 nautical miles but they were covering a 0.5 nautical miles every second giving the vessel just thirty-three seconds to act. The klaxon rang, the "Vampire!" call went out, and in the CIC, weapon operators sprang to action. The lead missile target was designated to be engaged by the vessel's SeaRAM systems and so the operators designated the incoming missile target and let the computer do the rest. Firing solutions were processed and the SeaRAM belched forth its missile a few seconds later, which rapidly accelerated to Mach 2 and headed towards a pre-calculated intercept point, tracking on both the infrared signature of the missile target and its active radar emissions. These missile targets were emitting radar signals just as the first one had. Right on cue, the SeaRAM missile detonated and sprayed the missile target with shrapnel, destroying it. At almost the same time, the second missile was engaged by the Prepreka CIWS system. Like the SeaRAM, it was operating in automatic mode, allowing the powerful computers to plot a proper engagement solution. From above the bridge the system panned as it tracked the incoming missile target, keeping enough lead that it could fire into a space where the missile would be when its rounds reached the target. Loaded with specific, anti-missile ammunition, the Prepreka barked a twenty-four round salvo right on cue, sending the rounds into space at over a kilometer per second. Sensors on the round, programmed at the point of firing, detonated at a preprogramed time and distance, filling the sky with over 3,500 tungsten sub-projectiles. As the missile target flew through this swarm of metal, the sub-projectiles did exactly what they were meant to do, piercing the fuselage and shredding its control surfaces. In a split-second, not only did the missile target lose control and begin to wobble but it exploded as well as its fuel tanks were pierced by the sub-projectiles. It was the fourth target destroyed and the GORLENJE celebrated the perfect sweep against the anti-ship missile test. • • • † • • • 3
Poja Posted December 16, 2024 Author Posted December 16, 2024 • • • † • • • Saturday, 15 June 2024 | 14:15 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 38° 5' 1" N, 34° 13' 17" W The GORAN V bobbed gently up and down in the moderate waves as she was pulled behind the 2,200-ton oceangoing tug, the Olesya. For the past four days, the 8,200-ton, decommissioner cruiser, had been pulled out to a remote location far into the Kezanoi Sea for the sole purpose of being sunk during Exercise KEZANOI ENDEAVOR, the final act of the week-long naval exercise. Ordered from the Volsci Republic in the late 1960s, the GORAN V was one of four, Maakotka-class guided-missile cruisers that served as the vanguard of the Pojački National Maritime Force from the early 1970s until the late 2010s when they were finally retired in favor of the newer Novigrad-class, guided-missile destroyer. The GORAN V had specifically served from July 1975 until March 2018, when she was officially decommissioned. Instead of being turned over for scrapping though, naval officials decided that she should be sunk as a target ship and while that was originally slated for 2022, delays in making the vessel "ecologically safe for sinking" meant that her sinking would be in 2024. Once home to almost 400 sailors, she was now crewed by a skeleton crew of nineteen men whose only purpose was to make the final preparations for her sinking. They would transfer to the Olesya for the trip back to Križetina once they were done, leaving the vessel to bob up and down in the moderate swells of the sea. Mastered by a man named Vitaly Repin, the Olesya slowed as it neared its predetermined position. Repin, at the controls, watched as the coordinates on his navigation display matched the coordinates he'd been given. Pressing a button, he got sounding underneath the keel and further confirmed that he was indeed in the right spot. "I think that does it," he said to those on the bridge with him before reaching up for the radio handset that dangled above him. "Goran, Olesya, we're in position, sounding is 1-1-0-4 fathoms." "Aye aye Olesya, we need about four hours," came the reply. Repin confirmed they didn't have a problem and began the task of station keeping with the GORAN V behind him. They were situated in a position that was well out of the 200 nautical mile EEZ of every nation in the Kezanoi, putting the location truly in international waters and yet still close enough to the Pojački coastline for the purposes of the exercise. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Sunday, 16 June 2024 | 07:00 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 37° 44' 50" N, 35° 11' 46" W "GORLENJE 2-1 is airborne," the call came over the speaker as Kapetan Dakić looked at his watch, noting the time. On the fantail, the ship's helicopter had just lifted off and slipped behind the destroyer, which was steaming away at eighteen knots. The helicopter's pilots quickly transitioned the helicopter from a low-altitude hover to both horizontal and vertical flight, increasing both the collective and the cyclic as they applied power. As a result, the RH-20D Morski Lav lifted upwards and with slight inputs to the pedals, turned to its starboard side and began to increase both altitude and speed. It wasn't long before it was passing through 110 knots and 250 feet. As it did, the GORAN V just over fifty nautical miles away, showed up on their surface search radar. Linked into the CIC onboard the GORLENJE, the helicopter quickly provided over-the-horizon targeting for the warship, keeping it masked from enemy radar sweeps while allowing it the ability to fire its anti-ship weapons. Not two or three minutes went by before the RH-20D leveled off at 1,000 feet and kept the ship at the edge of its radar azimuth. Onboard the destroyer, the motions were going into place to let the GORLENJE, which had thus far been the star of the show, take the first shots at the far-off target. Already at battle stations, the warship turned hard to starboard, going directly at the target. In the CIC, firing solution data was being processed and the target was being assigned to one of the multitude of missiles loaded into the GORLENJE's forty-eight vertical launch tubes. She would fire three missiles at the warship, testing first an anti-air missile in anti-surface mode and then two, dedicated anti-ship missiles. By this point, Kapetan Dakić moved to the CIC to manage the battle while leaving his XO in charge of the ship's navigation. Buried deep within the core of the destroyer, the CIC was an array of displays, screens, instruments, and consoles. Around two dozen men sat around each managing a specific aspect of the ship's warfighting abilities. The officer in charge would quickly yield to Dakić who took his own position at a digital display table that showed the entire area of operations with its contacts, updating in real-time. Checking his watch yet again and seeing that it was 07:15, Dakić authorized the first launch, having prior warned the bridge. On the deck of the warship, an alarm sounded warning anyone and everyone that a missile was about to fire. Already the ship had been buttoned up so that no one was outside but procedure was procedure and when the alarm stopped, one of the missile tubes open and belched fire as a long-range, surface-to-air missile rocketed upwards on its booster before heaving over and transitioning to horizontal flight, rapidly accelerating to almost three times the speed of sound. On the display, Dakić watched as the missile, which was datalinked back to the ship, screamed towards the GORAN V, slamming into it just over ninety seconds later. Long-range camera footage from the RH-20D showed the effects of the impact, a massive explosion on the warship's superstructure that filled the sky with smoke, flames, and debris, which showered down into the water around the vessel. "That's a hit," came the call, not that it was necessary. Dakić waited for the billowing fireball and smoke to dissipate first before moving onto the next missile. The ship, already on fire and clearly in distress, could take a few more hits without issue and so came the next missile, the Pojački military's newest anti-ship missile, the R.138 Mlatilica. Named for the thresher shark, the R.138 was an incredibly fast missile designed for both air and sea launch capable of moving at speeds of Mach 2.5 on the surface to Mach 3.55 at high altitude and she had three launch profiles hi-hi, lo-hi, and lo-lo, which described both the launch and the cruise altitudes of the missile. For maximum range, and speed, hi-hi was the ideal mode but that could only be obtained if the missile was fired from an aircraft. A surface-vessel, like the GORLENJE would only have access to lo-hi and lo-lo, the former allowing for a little more range than the latter1. For this shot, the missile would be fired in lo-lo mode. Like the SAM, the missile rocketed out of the vertical launch tubes, aided by a booster that burned for 6.25 seconds, which was just long enough to get the missile over Mach 1.5. From there, the booster dropped away, its propellant spent, and the missile fired its internal booster, propelling it up to Mach 2.5 in just five seconds where the solid-fueled ramjet took over, throttling up to full speed and keeping the missile at that speed for the duration of its flight. Everything happened quickly for the R.138. It followed a preplanned flight path guided by its GPS-aided, inertial navigation system, keeping at a low altitude of just ten meters, staying below the radar horizon. At just thirteen nautical miles or twenty-five kilometers from the target, which also happened to be the missile's minimum range, its AESA X band radar activated beginning a wide sweep of the sector ahead of it. The radar itself had two modes2, wide and narrow, which were used depending on how cluttered the area was. Given the GORAN V was all alone there was no need to worry about the missile "finding another target." The vessel was acquired at roughly ten nautical miles or eighteen kilometers when enough of the ship had presented itself for the radar to get the right amount of return. Slight alterations in the missile's flight path were made and a little over twenty seconds later, the R.138 slammed into the hull of the GORAN V, puncturing through it as if it were a thin, paper mâché thanks to the armor-piercing steel of its 225-kilogram warhead. The fuse triggered instantly and began the deployment of sixteen, self-forging, zirconium-coated, explosively formed penetrators. Detonated with only a few milliseconds between them, these charges were ejected at high speed in a radial pattern around the missile's body where they penetrated through the bulkheads and various compartments all around the ship, igniting everything they touched. This was a new warhead design for the Pojački military though hardly new for the wurld3 and so, to test its effectiveness, the warship had been stuffed with papers, binders, and mannequins, and everything else a functioning warship might have. Sensors recorded the effects of the EFPs before recording detonation of the eighty-five kilogram main charge. When the last of the EFPs had been ejected, the main charge detonated, causing massive local damage to the vessel. The results were catastrophic to the GORAN V as fire belched out of the opening made by the missile punching through the side. From the long-range cameras on the RH-20D and the sensors aboard the ship, the devastation was tremendous though hardly enough to sink the massive vessel with one shot. Burning and definitely taking on some water, the GORAN V withstood the two hits and prepared for the third as best as it could. For this shot, the GORLENJE turned perpendicular to the vessel, aligning its quad launchers with the faraway destroyer, though this wasn't necessary. Here, she would fire "old faithful," the R.66 Kratka Sablja or Cutlass in Anglish. In service since the 1990s, the R.66 was the primary anti-ship missile used by the Pojački military but unlike the R.138 it was slow, traveling at only subsonic speed though it could be fired from aircraft, warships, submarines, or even land-based vehicles. The missile being tested today was the newer Series III version4, which had entered service in 2014 as the R.66G. The missile was loaded into the two quad-launchers on the destroyer, freeing up vertical launch cell space. Work on a vertically-launched version had been suspended in favor of the R.138. When fired, the R.66 was ejected out of its launch tube via its booster. Its wings deployed and after four seconds, the booster was spent and dropped off into the ocean beyond the destroyer. From there, the missile transitioned to its liquid-fueled turbofan engine and accelerated to Mach 0.82 or 544 knots, a far cry from the 1,650+ knots of the R.138. It would take around five-and-a-half minutes for the R.66 to make its way to the GORAN V though it could fly so much further5 and where the target ship was offered no problem for the long-range missile. Like the R.138, it flew at very low altitude, skimming the waves at around two to four meters6. Its radar kicked on at roughly double the range of that of the R.138 and began to sweep its sector, locking onto the ship as it became visible on the horizon. From there, the R.66 classified the target accordingly and began its attack, which in this case was not the waterline strike of the R.138 but instead a pop-up and diving attack like the Harpoon. With its turbofan at full power, the missile sharply climbed to an altitude of 1,800 meters or 5,900 feet, which would help it evade CIWS guns and present a more difficult target for missiles to intercept before diving onto the ship at a near vertical angle. Using this steep angle, the missile itself penetrated right through the superstructure of the vessel and detonated roughly where the CIC would have been amidships. Here, the conventional, armor-piercing, blast-fragmentation warhead detonated with significantly more explosive force than the R.138, causing even more damage inside of the vessel, setting several compartments on fire, blasting through bulkhead doors, and shattering the ship from the inside out, practically bowing it as it did. Badly damaged, beginning to take on serious amounts of water, the GORAN V soldiered on, beginning to take on a slight list. Sensors onboard showed the extend of the damage and, to counter some of the list, the ballast tanks on the other side were partially flooded via remote, enabling the vessel to last a little longer for the exercise. There was still more to come and though that was it for the GORLENJE, it was hardly it for the day. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Sunday, 16 June 2024 | 08:20 hrs [UTC-3] Liaria, Pričej | Pričej Air Base Pričej Air Base was one of several mountain air bases in the Konfederacija Poja, its runway situated alongside the hilly terrain where her aircraft were sheltered day and night. Giant blast doors would open on the mountain, allowing for aircraft to depart, taxiing right to the runway for an almost immediate takeoff. On this Sunday morning, just that happened at Pričej as two J-17D Guja attack bombers of the 104th Tactical Attack Squadron, known as the "Black Widows," emerged from their cavernous hideouts and began to taxi to the runway. They were loaded heavy with fuel but light on ordnance, each one carrying a full internal fuel load plus a pair of 3,000-liter external drop tanks on their wings. On their centerline mounts, each aircraft carried a single, R.138A Mlatilica missile, which was the air-launched version of the same one fired by the GORLENJE a few hours earlier. Because the missiles were so long and heavy7, this and the inner wing stations were the only ones that could mount the missiles. The premier attack bomber in Poja, the Guja started life as the JiG-28 Trojak, a joint development between Volsci and the Konfederacija Poja in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While the original versions of the JiG-28 were not bought by the Pojački military, updated models were in the late 1990s, which further influenced the JiG-28 production line. The J-17A Guja became known as the JiG-28 Trojak-E, representing the fifth in-service model for the line. The upgraded Trojak-E, F, and G were introduced and sold throughout the wurld while the PNAF eventually went on to upgrade the J-17s further to the now standard, J-17D model8. The J-17, like its original predecessor, was designed primarily for low-level attack, flying at just 200 meters at over Mach 1 for its attack run. Yet, the PNAF had no qualms about using them as high-altitude attack bombers, where the aircraft could fly at over Mach 2 in a clean configuration and could extend their range significantly thanks to the lower air friction and efficiency of their engines. So, when the two aircraft took to the skies in a formation takeoff, it was no surprise that air traffic control cleared them up to flight level 380 for their trip across the country. Flying at an altitude normally reserved for airliners, the two aircraft flew under ATC guidance, sticking to an airspeed of 450 knots towards the Kezanoi Sea. From there, they were cleared up to flight level 400. "Feet wet" now, the two J-17s linked up with airborne early warning operating to the south and were subsequently datalinked to the rest of the battle network so that they were hardly alone. Radars still off, they flew for some time until the target ship was directly south of them. This was done to give the GORLENJE more time to clear out of the target area with a healthy buffer since these two aircraft would both be firing anti-ship missiles at the GORAN V as part of the second wave of testing. Both crews knew precisely where the target was thanks to the datalinked network between them, the airborne early warning aircraft, and the RH-20D, which was airborne once again. Well out of their radar range, the GORAN V continued to burn and to take on water but she still had hours of fight left in her. Turning southbound, the two aircraft were about 300 nautical miles or 550 kilometers away from the target ship, well beyond their radar and weapons range, despite their high altitude. At the turn, they entered what had been defined as "restricted airspace" for the SINKEX and so they were no longer under the direction of ATC. This would enable them to make an effective attack run on the target. By now, their external fuel tanks were nearly exhausted and though it was not the norm, the WSO in each aircraft prepared to punch them off the moment that they were no longer feeding. Because wingmen always burned more fuel, theirs punched off first followed a minute or so later by the lead aircraft. The empty steel tanks tumbled harmlessly towards the waves of the Kezanoi beneath them. They would smash into the water like it was concrete, shattering in fragments before sinking beneath the sea. This streamlined configuration was important for their attack run. At 200 nautical miles to the target, they activated their radars and began to sweep over the water below. The GORAN V was still just a little out of range but that didn't mean they couldn't begin to execute their attack run. Pushing the throttles up, the lead pilot called "Gate" and both aircraft went to afterburner. Fuel poured into the engines as they rapidly accelerated through Mach 1 and the distance to the target ticked off that much faster. At 175 nautical miles, the GORAN V was acquired by the lead aircraft and the information shared via secure datalink to the wingman. Switches were flipped and data fed to the missiles as the aircraft passed through Mach 1.4. "Pull up maneuver," was called out and both aircraft, now running at Mach 1.5, executed a climb at +20° AOA. One cue, the WSO on the lead aircraft pickled off his R.138 and four seconds later, the wingman did the same. The R.138 launch from an aircraft was very different than from a warship. The missile first ejected into the slipstream, carrying the velocity of the aircraft before its integral booster ignited after 1.25 seconds. It too burned for five seconds but this time, the missile was moving at over Mach 3 when the booster spent its fuel, allowing the ramjet to take over and bring the missile up to a speed of Mach 3.55 or 2,041 knots. The missiles climbed to an altitude high above the Eurth, leveled off, and screamed towards their target using their navigation system. The J-17s, having fired their missiles and now "Winchester," leveled off, came out of afterburner, and turned for home. They would return to flight level 400 and cruise back, hitting a tanker on the way just to get enough gas to get back home, having burned a considerable amount while running on afterburner. The J-17 might have had efficient, turbofan engines but in full afterburner, there was no such thing. With 150 nautical miles from their launch to the target, the two R.158s were well within their maximum range and, flying at high altitude, were only vulnerable to long-range or high-altitude surface-to-air missiles. In this attack profile, the weapons traded early detection for both speed and the added difficulty of their interception. At this speed, from this range, the missiles had about a minute less flight time than the subsonic R.66, which was fired at a third the distance. Operating in narrow mode, the missiles' radars acquired the GORAN V easily thanks to the lack of other targets and their high cruising altitude. Once locked, the missiles' flight surfaces maneuvered just slightly, pitching them over into a 30° dive that further steepened down to 75° to make it that much harder to engage with close-in weapons. Rocketing downwards, the missiles remained powered but gradually lost some speed due to air friction, slowing to roughly Mach 3.25 upon impact. Like the first missile fired, their warhead did tremendous damage to the ship, both warheads fuzing and detonating on cue, tearing through the mortally wounded ship. Still though, the GORAN V was not yet done. • • • • ‡ ‡ • • • • Sunday, 16 June 2024 | 10:30 hrs [UTC-3] Kezanoi Sea | 38° 9' 42" N, 34° 21' 19" W Kapetan Pelko watched through his periscope as the GORAN V took both hits from the air-launched, R.138 missiles. The noise echoed through the water and their sonar picked it up without effort as the DUBRYN, thus far cast out of the war games, hung about eight nautical miles away from the target ship, ready to deliver the coup de grâce to the target ship. Pelko and his crew had worked their way out of the target area and further south over the past few days, keeping quiet and using the opportunity to hone their sonar and evasion skills. Every now and then, the warships would send up helicopters and look for them but they were able to evade detection at every opportunity. In fact, Pelko wondered if it hadn't just been "dumb luck" that got he and his men "killed" during the exercise days earlier. He wondered this only because he saw in his crew nothing but consummate professionals at the peak of their skills. He often wondered if perhaps it was his strategy that got them "killed" too. Yet that was in the past and would be studied at a later time. Now his mission was simple. He was no longer REDFOR but instead BLUFOR and that meant he and his submarine were going to deliver the final blow that wound send the GORAN V into over 2,000 meters of water. Checking his watch, he saw that they still had some time to go before they would get the green light. Range safety officers would need to survey the area just to make sure that there were no hazards. By now, the GORLENJE had moved off to the west, well clear of the exercise area and thus nothing was between the DUBRYN and the GORAN V and, more importantly, nothing was behind the GORAN V either. Flying at approximately 1,500 meters or 4,900 feet, the range safety officers in their MT-35A Sabljarka, the same jet that had "killed" Pelko and his crew, swept the area around the target ship both visually and with their sensor systems. The all clear was given at 10:30 hrs, thirty minutes after the R.138s had impacted. "Conn, Radio, incoming message traffic," came the indication, at least to Pelko, that he was clear. Sticking around at periscope depth with their radio mast and periscope deployed, the DUBRYN would have been an easy target for even the most incompetent of navies but no one was shooting at them. They were observing the exercise thus far and doing precisely what they'd been ordered to do. Reading through the radio message a few moments later, Pelko ordered both masts secured, which the chief of the boat gladly did with the flick of just two switches. As they lowered, the submarine continued on a perpendicular course to the target ship. "Sonar, Conn, verify range and bearing to target Master Zero-Nine." "Conn, Sonar, range is 16,300 yards bearing 1-2-7 degrees, zero knots, target remains stationary." Pelko, from his chair turned his head, "Weapons, designate contact Master Zero-Nine to tubes one and two." "Aye aye sir, Master Zero-Nine designated to tubes one and two." "Flood tubes one and two." "Aye aye, flooding tubes one and two." With that call, seawater began to flow into two of the submarine's six torpedo tubes. It would take about two minutes to flood and equalize the pressures in both tubes. "Maneuvering, make our depth 5-0 meters, increase speed to ten knots." "Aye aye, making our depth 5-0 meters, increasing turns to ten knots," controls were switched and the submarine began to dive and increase from its leisurely four knot speed. "Tubes one and two equalized and ready to fire." "Open door on tube one." "Tube one door is open." "Fire tube one!" The burst of loud high-pressure air and the noise of the propeller spinning up were unmistakable as the heavy, 533-millimeter torpedo burst out of the torpedo tube and began to turn towards the target. "Torpedo is running normally, speed 5-0 knots," Pelko heard this and immediately clicked his stopwatch. He'd already calculated the distances in his head, which meant that the torpedo would be running for about 580 seconds before it impacted the target ship. Not unlike the missiles that were fired, the torpedo, in this case the D.53D 533MM Torpedo9, had more than enough range to get to the target, even at high speed. Wire-guided, the torpedo wasn't pinging away with its active sonar yet and its passive sonar wouldn't pick up the stationary target vessel. Treating this like a real live scenario, Pelko ordered the DUBRYN to turn away from the target but not so much that the wire caught the propeller and was cut. This was not unlike how fighter aircraft, after launching long-range missiles, turn away from their target but still keep them on the edge of their radar azimuth to provide midcourse updates to their missiles. When the torpedo had closed to less than 1,000 yards to the target, its sonar was activated. It had around thirty-five seconds of time to go before impact and while any ship would have heard the launch, they wouldn't have known that the torpedo was necessarily coming for them until they started getting pinged by the torpedo's active sonar. Set to find the surface vessel, the active sonar easily picked up the GORAN V and locked onto the vessel. This information was transmitted back, via the fiber-optic wire, to the DUBRYN and right on cue, the torpedo detonated underneath the keel of the target ship, the explosion washing out the sonar. What Pelko and his crew didn't see but clearly heard was the tremendous effect that torpedo had on warship. Detonating under the keel with an explosive force of just over 450 kilograms, the warhead did two things immediately. First, and most devastating, it displaced all of the water around the keel, creating a massive air bubble. For the GORAN V and any warship, losing the water underneath the keel meant that the ship was no longer supported and as such, gravity took over and the ship essentially "fell" into the air bubble, cracking in two. The second effect came from that displaced water, which now shot upwards with tremendous force and power, essentially creating a water jet that cut through the ship. The GORAN V, already on fire, had taken five missile hits and she was in bad shape but those five hits paled in comparison to what this one torpedo did. For a brief moment, the ship was lifted upwards, out of the water and then it came crashing down, cracking in half as it did, the two halves separating away. This was the end for the GORAN V. The bow piece, heavier and far more top heavy than the stern, capsized over onto its side and slipped beneath the water in a few minutes while the stern piece went down more conventionally, tipping upwards as water was sucked into it before slipping beneath the waves. Trapped air in the stern would cause major damage to it as it sunk towards the bottom of the sea. Cheers went out throughout the various warships and observer planes as the target ship was finally gone. The vessel had gone down as expected, thus ending the SINKEX and Exercise KEZANOI ENDEAVOR. • • • † • • • Notes 1. Hi-hi = 400 km (216 nm), lo-hi = 135 km (73 nm), lo-lo = 100 km (54 nm). High-altitude cruise is 20,000 m (65,600 ft). 2. Wide sweep is ±30° azimuth & ±20° elevation while narrow sweep is ±15° azimuth. 3. The warhead is basically ripped from the Kormoran 2. 4. The R.66 is basically the Kh-35 and the Series I is almost identical while the Series II swaps the turbojet for a turbofan engine and the Series III updates the engine with better efficency thus increasing its range. It also uses an AESA radar like the R.138 but with a maximum azimuth sweep of ±45°. The warhead on the Series III is also bigger at 200 kg (441 lb) but is a conventional, armor-piercing, blast-fragmentation. 5. Series III range is 375 km (202 nm) air-launched or 325 km (175 nm) surface-launched. 6. The R.138 lo-lo flies at 10 m of altitude before dropping to 5 m for the terminal attack while the R.66 can cruise at 10 - 15 m but drop to 2 - 4 m for the attack run. 7. The R.138 is 5.5 m long, 38.75 cm in diameter, and has a wingspan of 98.25 cm. It weighs 915 kg at launch. For surface-launch, it has a booster that is 2 m long, 50 cm in diameter, and weighs 745 kg. The J-17D Guja (JiG-28 Trojak) would have had a special modification for centerline carry. 8. Specifications upon request but the JiG-28 Trojak is the Su-24 with the ramp issues solved so it could do Mach 2, also it has turbofan engines from the get-go. The Trojak-A didn't really see much service but the Trojak-B is roughly analogous to the Su-24M so it saw a lot of service. The Trojak-C is the Su-24MR and the Trojak-D is the Su-24MP. The Trojak-E and the J-17A are basically analogous to the Su-24M2 but with a very different slant. The J-17D adds entirely new avionics to the entire model 9. The D.53D is basically just a DM2A4 torpedo, not much difference. 1
Poja Posted December 23, 2024 Author Posted December 23, 2024 • • • † • • • Monday, 24 June 2024 | 14:15 hrs [UTC-3] Konfederacija Poja, Rugi, Obrenošanj District | Ministry of National Defense "All right, let's all take our seats," bellowed the gruff voice of Grand Admiral Kristijan Kučina, who was head of the Pojački National Maritime Forces. He was one of several high-ranking figures of the Pojački National Military, which included all of the service branch executives, the Chairman-General, many three and four stars, a few lower ranks, and a slew of civilians, including Minister Brajko Tanacković of National Defense. The men and few women - all civilians - took up most of every chair in the largest conference room in the building and with orders not to be disturbed, sat down for what had been billed as the final debriefing for Exercise KEZANOI ENDEAVOR. Grand Admiral Kučina would be leading the debriefing and, as he stood at the head of the room, gave homage to the military attachés of several, invited partners within TRIDENT. As a high-level briefing, he wasn't going to go into the nitty-gritty details but he would pay due respect to the various actors, including Kapetan Željko Dakić of the KPB Gorlenje and Kapetan Amin Pelko of the KPB Dubryn, both of whom were in attendance as well and seated at the table. "To give a brief summary on the events of KEZANOI ENDEAVOR for all those present, this was a three-phase exercise. The first phase was an anti-submarine hunt by surface warships and maritime patrol aircraft against a lone submarine maneuvering into position to launch cruise missiles against high value targets within the KP. The second phase was testing new systems and defensive tactics against a swarm attack by USVs. The third and final phase was the SINKEX against the Goran V to test some of our newest anti-ship missiles. In all phases, the exercise went excellently and we have nothing but the consummate professionalism of our sailors and airmen to thank for this." Nods of approval went around the table. "So, let's begin with the first phase, lights please," the lights went down and the video screen on the wall lit up as Grand Admiral Kučina embraced one of the oldest military traditions, just with newer equipment, death by power point. "In the first phase, our own Kapetan Pelko was operating as a REDFOR submarine maneuvering to one of two launch positions to fire cruise missiles against high-value targets within our borders. There was an optional, tertiary mining objective as well. Wargames began on 10 June when the Gorlenje and MPAs picked up faint contacts from the Dubryn but were unable to obtain a good enough sonar track to fire on the target. Kapetan Pelko continued to elude MPAs and surface warships into the 11th making excellent use of decoys and even hamstrung with a requirement to broadcast its position every twelve hours. That requirement was dropped for the 12th and thereafter. He continued to exercise exceptional seamanship evading warships and MPAs once again throughout the morning hours of the 13th; however, the intrepid actions of our MPAs managed to get an adequate firing solution on the Dubryn shortly after 12:30 hours and 'killed' the submarine. "It was Kapetan Pelko's use of decoys that were cited as the main factor in the kill. Kapetan Naser Halil, raise your hand." The man did from the other side of the room. It wasn't the first time that Pelko and Halil were face-to-face, that had happened in the many debriefings after the wargames concluded the week prior. "Give us your version would you please?" "Certainly sir," Halil stood. "We had been fooled by the decoys before and after I had reviewed and researched the tracks and tapes from each encounter, I understood that the decoys likely drove us away at critical times. The ability of decoys to run silent for some time and then begin to make noise is a tremendously useful feature; however, we were able to home in on the decoy signature, at which point I directed my flight crew to fly in the opposite direction of the sound source, whereby we were able to get a faint echo off of our sonobuoys. We forced the submarine above the layer, at which point we got a sufficient TMA and fired." Halil sat down and Kučina continued. "Thank you Kapetan. The kill was made roughly fifty nautical miles from the launch point. Kapetan Pelko, give us your version please." "Sir," Pelko stood, "I maneuvered multiple times in an attempt to get to the launch points, whether the northern or southern points; however, surface contacts were extremely effective in pushing us away from the launch points. The shallow waters of the Kezanoi were not in our favor either. If I were launching this strike, I would prefer to do it from further away, sacrificing some of the waypoints of the cruise missiles for a more direct flight to the target to be able to avoid the shallower waters. With the 'kill' going to the MPAs, they were a persistent threat. The Sabljarka is an extremely capable platform with reach and endurance that was exceptionally threatening to us. Thank you." Kučina nodded and thanked the man, "During the first phase, we also involved the PNAF with the interception of a phantom bomber target operating within our ADIZ. Scramble orders were transmitted sending several Ter'er fighters to intercept a potential threat over the Kezanoi, stretching the fuel reserves of those aircraft. Thanks to our early warning radars, the interception was a success, especially when combined with GCI tactics, which though they are old still have relevancy in the morning wurld when EMCON is concerned. The fighters were maneuvered into position behind the bombers before they were commanded to turn on their radars, putting them in advantageous positions for observation and engagement. "Moving on from the first and into the second phase, we conducted a series of swarm attacks on the Gorlenje at night using Raptor and Barakuda type USVs. All USVs were unarmed and so the rules of engagement stated that any USV coming within 300 yards meant a hit on the vessel. Kapetan Dakić, I'd like to turn it over to you." "Thank you sir," Dakić stood himself. "The waves of attacks were successively more intricate with attacks coming from a full, 360° circle around our vessel. The first attack was wounded at just after 23:00 hours on 14 June, six contacts that were engaging from three vectors. We picked them up at 5,000 yards, which was more than enough time to compute firing solutions and ready our weapons. We were testing newer systems as well, the PERZID jamming system and the new VATSTRA infrared search and track system. We operated under EMCON conditions during the periods before attack so as not to give our position away. VATSTRA was thus crucial in the detection of these USVs. PERZID was engaged and performed adequately and I would recommend further review and testing but the system is reliable enough for our purposes right now. "The kills were largely made with CIWS and autocannons, directed by their own radars and shipborne systems. The first wave was easily defeated. The second wave came at 04:00 when the crew was especially fatigued after having been on alert for many hours. Eighteen USVs were sent from a full circle around our vessel. We put into action every defense system we had, including our anti-missile missiles, which were incredibly effective in destroying the USVs beyond our gun range. The closest any USV got was 800 yards, which while a bit close for comfort, was well outside of the 300-yard minimum. This was the wave that was meant to kill us and my crew and my weapon systems performed exceptionally. Our tactics are sound both from an attack and a defensive point of view. A third wave was defeated easily at ranges in excess of 3,000 yards, likely more designed to strain an already fatigued crew." He took his seat just as those before him had. Kučina continued on, "The second phase was an incredible learning opportunity. Our ability to defend against the very attacks we will launch gives us the insight we need to not only form our attacks better but to operate against foes and peers who may operate USVs. Make no mistake, USVs are a major threat to a surface vessel but an attentive crew with adequate weapons and sensors will defeat them every time. To have sunk the Gorlenje, we would have had to launch an attack three times the size of the second wave, at least. The cost would be considerable. "Moving along to the SINKEX, the final phase. Our initial results were predictable for existing weapon systems. The real test was for our new Mlatilica missile. This missile is intended to fly at high or low altitude at supersonic speed and strike the target with little to no warning. It is also equipped with a new type of warhead for us. The warhead is not a simple blast-fragmentation but rather an augmented, multi-effects warhead. The warhead is made up of two components, the main being a traditional blast-fragmentation warhead designed to inflict massive, localized damage. The secondary component is a series of explosively-formed penetrators designed to cause damage internally to multiple compartments. They have an incendiary effect and would cause casualties to sailors as well as set off many fires as they traveled through the bulkheads and decks, damaging electronics, fire suppression systems, and heavy machinery. This enhancement makes this strictly an anti-ship missile so unlike the Kratka Sablja, the Mlatilica is strictly an anti-ship missile. Based on its performance, we are greenlighting it for IOC immediately. We will also be greenlighting the R.140 Šrajk III, an anti-radiation variant with a traditional blast-fragmentation warhead. The Šrajk III will allow our fighters to engage modern, long-range anti-air threats from much more range than the Šrajk II, increasing the survivability of our SEAD aircraft. "The Goran V sustained significant damage from our missiles, especially the Mlatilica hits, of which the ship took three hits. She was finally sunk by a torpedo shot from the Dubryn, which I need not tell you how dramatic that is. "I believe I speak for the entirety of our military when I say that KEZANOI ENDEAVOR went exceptionally well and we have learned a considerable amount about our tactics and our weapon systems. We have invited our TRIDENT partners to observe the exercise as a commitment to the alliance and remain eternally grateful for the support they gave to us during this time." Kučina stepped back and a round of applause went around the table for the TRIDENT attachés in attendance. When that had died off, he ended the slideshow behind him, "I believe that, with QUICK START this September, the air force and the army will be able to follow in our lead here." There was another round of applause as the briefing continued to some other matters. The End • • • † • • • 2
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