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Girt by Sea
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Red Route 1
Posts: 363
Downloads: 131
Uploads: 34
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Stewy1 has made a Best of SUBSIM nomination.
Nomination Category:
Quote:
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Most Helpful with Dangerous Waters + Mods
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Nomination basis: Very detailed, interesting and helpful!
Forum: Dangerous Waters
Nominated Member: Kapitan
Nominated Post: After Action Report Stewy1 Mission Ukraine 2022
Quote:
Recently played through Stewy1 mission called Ukraine 2022 where the USS Newport News takes part in a Black Sea exercise with Turkey.
you can view pictures here: https://imgur.com/gallery/ruc0wRh
After Action Report
At the start of the mission the USS Newport News is transiting out of the Bosporus on the surface, in real life in such a high dense traffic area you would have both scopes, radio, ESM and radar masts up so this is what I did also.
The triggers are fun and how it all came together in this first portion with the disabling of the systems is pretty good I did like the other triggers that call the crew to lunch / dinner / midrats as well as captains inspection etc.
Transiting on the surface I get a message from the Turkish AOR about the rendezvous, this is pretty straight forward and I run the intercept course and manage to retain a speed of 11 knots to be ahead of the AOR.
The reason I run ahead is because a surfaced submarine is harder to handle on the surface so I wanted to be in a position where I could maneuver without having to make major course and speed changes.
I slowed the boat down to 5 knots which is just enough to maintain positive control, then the AOR approached me from astern and I allowed an over take.
When undertaking a Replenishment at sea (RAS) / Under way replenishment (U/R) the proper course is to approach from either stern quarter and await the call to come forward.
Obviously unless triggered this isn’t going to happen here so I had to make best judgement, I approached from the Starboard Stern Quarter.
The next thing to note when doing a U/R is that you have to go faster than the auxiliary which in this scenario is doing 9 knots course 096.
This means I had to come along side at 11 knots course 097, until right along side midship then slow to 9 knots.
The tasking states to keep close within 240ft that is close and the only way I could do that safely is to gradually approach in.
I did this by being along side then altering course to 094/5 working my way closer slowly until the middle of my bow is intercepting the end trail of the AOR bow wave, this also calls me to put on power to 10 knots and balance it between 9 and 10 knots as we cant do half knot increments in game.
Now this sounds somewhat difficult but understand you have to stay alongside for one hour which is actually quite taxing because the ship often pulls away as it is slightly faster which is why your up and down between 9-10 knots to maintain midship position.
Also note periodically you will need to course change as the interplay between the waves forces you outwards, it also forces you inwards so this is a very delicate hour of ship handling.
In the real world though a submarine would never undertake a underway replenishment or transfer this way, I’m not sure about the USN but the RN no long does jackstay transfers of personnel and to my recollection the submarine cannot undertake a jack stay transfer anyway.
A personnel transfer or goods transfer is usually done by VERTREP (Vertical Replenishment) using a helicopter or Via a RHIB with the vessel standing off about 300 yards parallel.
Moving on I got the code CCC which means COMEX or commence exercise, I wont detail out the other codes but there is quite a few of them and it is well thought out as well as using modern coding.
Submerging to 65ft and heading almost due south my tasking to survey the coastline, so I pick furthest point and work backwards.
During the transit I did detect what I thought was a SSK although I never did get to confirm it, but managed to confirm 2 fishing trawlers and a biologic.
I didn’t feel the need to go deeper than 65ft and most of the transit was done between 4-8 knots so it did take some time to get through the Exercise area.
On the coastline I used the LLTV even though it was daylight to highlight anomalies, what I wasn’t expecting was to find the camp so soon.
The camp was a tent and because I got within the 1.5nm tasking requirement I triggered the next phase of the exercise which was to exfiltrate to a certain set of co-ordinates, oddly its roughly where I left the AOR.
Then the next phase of the mission came into play which was a long transit 53nm and I had to be there by 0000, that’s no easy feat, I and between exercise areas but having done some real world exercises your always told units don’t always play by the rules, and don’t always appear in the right areas, so naturally I was heading with caution.
Quick calculation showed that 53nm at 5 knots is over 10 hours of sailing and I’d miss the deadline considerably, so reluctantly I had to flank bell all the way to the RV point.
Realistically in such confined waters and in areas littoral waters you wouldn’t flank bell, you may sprint and drift, this is due to sensor washout, and this is what happened to USS San Francisco.
I arrived at the second Exercise area and received tasking to gather intel on another bluefor camp and also the docks and lighthouse. I was also tasked with taking down some ASW platforms and was told to get fixes on then via sonar and also periscope pictures to rule them dead.
At the exercise box I did detect a FFG running at around 10/12 knots heading towards me from the west, I had approximated his rage to about 13nm.
Rather than intercept him and run the risk of exposing my position thus causing the other units to realize my presence and hunt me, I decided not to close and engage and go gather the intel first therefore; I proceeded south at 12 knots and changed depth to 550ft.
The black sea due to its composition has no layer so I cannot hide under one, and with the tasking being ASW focused as well and me being the target I decided that despite the shallow depths I had to run a towed array, so I let the TB16 out half way.
That move turned out to be a god send as I picked up a dolphin and classified the frigate as a meko 200, moving slightly east I put the dolphin between me and the meko.
Coming into the littoral area I had to slow down so I had to retract the towed array as it would scrape the seabed.
I did survey the coast and the only thing I did see was a vehicle, I have no idea what vehicle it was as I couldn’t ID it properly and I had to change course as I was 1.2nm from shore and the water was getting too shallow.
I moved along the coast where I intercepted the dock, I remained at 65ft 8 knots with towed array partially out and at the dock I got the pictures and pictures of the light house.
My bow sonar picked up while doing the “take” a warship closing me, I did have ESM signals but I was focusing on getting the take and getting out, this calls for periscope discipline, my scope could not be raised for any longer than 20/30 seconds.
Knowing I am in very shallow water and also potentially a threat close by I stop gathering the intel and head out to deeper water.
The transit out was fine then I came across a perry class FFG, I did get with the first periscope picture a confirmed ID which meant my towed array sonar was not fully correct and my bow sonar was correct, now confirmed by VID.
I did not close the contact beyond 10,000 yards and passed well astern of him, my objective was to exfiltrate out to a safe point near where I came in.
However during my focus on the Perry my bow sonar had confirmed the Meko had been detected and my ambiguous contact on the towed array was somewhat correct.
I ended up locking up the Meko and not the perry thus I got a kill code on the Meko.
Moving out of the way of the perry the towed array picked up two more contacts, one being biologic the other being very quiet, I closed the quiet contact from deep and moved in towards the stern as the history track showed at the time it was moving east to west.
I closed the contact and came in from astern, realizing this could be a submarine I switched on my HF sonar and came shallow to 340ft.
LLTV on the scope didn’t gain any pictures, however the possub had turned north so I followed, the HF Sonar did pick up a dot in the distance and I had estimated the possub doing around 6/8 knots but I had closed too fast so at a push I think it was only doing 3-4 knots.
Doing this and getting this close I did get another kill code come through, the submarine surfaced and put on black smoke which is why I came to PD and got a picture to verify.
To my horror however I had learnt the perry possibly had been tracking me but just didn’t have a lock, the perry wasn’t too far off so I turned around and went and dealt with them.
I did get close to the perry in some instance close as 750 yards, I did get pictures but no kill code came in so I proceeded to leave the area.
I hit the defined trigger on leaving the area and was told to await further instructions, when they came through I was to transit to another base and dock.
Unfortunately at this point the mission crashed and I was unable to complete the rest of the evolutions.
Summary
I found the mission a very good opportunity to exercise the brain in tactical ability, the mission is a long one it is also quite taxing on the brain if you do it in one hit.
I did speed up the transit between exercises and in a couple of places and this mission still took about 5 and half hours to complete, which for a hard core player is not too bad.
Some of the things I have noted as unrealistic is the underway replenishment, I have never heard of one been done on a submarine simply because submarines on the surface are hard to handle, and the interplay between the vessels would in the real world quickly overcome the submarine due to its lack of maneuverability.
However I can say this will test your ship handling skills as well as patience in game no end so it isn’t a negative as such.
The evolutions are well thought out and they do require some speculation of thought as to where you want to go and how to achieve the mission.
Usually I would spend about 15 minuets planning out a infiltrate run then start the execution of that process, then spend another 30 minuets planning the route I am going to take plus my route out of area.
I would also advise being flexible with this in this mission! as in the second part I had to re plan my routes about 4 times.
The transit time between exercise areas would be normal in the real world but if you’re a slow and steady person like me then by the time you finish mission 1 you haven’t left enough time to get to the next area deadline.
During exercises one thing to note is you have dedicated communications time sessions for all platforms, this is to ensure the safety of the vessel, but also to give a point in time as a time mark for evolutions, setting a routine communications time in this mission would probably be a good idea.
The second area was more challenging and I did find that one more fun to do, it does require a lot of thought and a lot of tactical and situational awareness, the platforms were realistic and how they operated.
I did like the triggers which when they were ruled killed they left the area and made smoke, I do have an issue with the perry trigger as I clearly got close enough to rule her dead and the trigger didn’t happen.
Unfortunately just after I had finished the second area the game crashed so I couldn’t continue the report.
Overall this is a good mission if you like realistic long duration missions and with a couple of minor tweaks it certainly is one of the best missions I have played in this game.
If your more about objectives than just running around and shooting this mission is for you.
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01-04-23, 10:28 AM
Hybrid Mode
