NationStates Jolt Archive

EXERCISE: Arctic Surprise


The morning was a beautiful one, with the sun breaking through the overcast skies and bringing warmth down on the otherwise frosty island that sat in the middle of the White Sea. Solovetskiy Island was the larger of the two islands that made up the Solovetskiy Islands, located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea.

It was normally populated by some 972 civilians plus the one hundred strong garrison manning the large Solovets Fortress in the southeastern part of the island, but in the past few days the population had more than doubled as reservists had bolstered the fortress' population to its wartime strength of nine hundred, plus the seven hundred and forty paratroopers that had been dispatched to reinforce the island and the two hundred airmen that maintained the twelve EF2000 Typhoon fighters from 229. Squadron that had been forward deployed to Solovki Airport. That, plus the three Type 12 class missile patrol boats and the minelayer HMS Bornholm that were currently operating out from the island meant that the population count on Solovetskiy Island had almost tripled.

This kind of reinforcement would normally be looked upon with great panic among the residents, but most of them were actually quite happy with the sudden attention their island had received. Not exactly the kind of behavior one expected when it seemed that your home is going to be attacked soon, something which was actually going to happen. The difference was that this was part of the large bilatteral auntum exercise Arctic Surprise 08, which took place every year between the Royal Cottish Military and the Imperial Layartebian Military. Every even-numbered year, the Layartebians trained in Cotland, and every odd-numbered year, the Cots trained in Layarteb. It was a long-standing military tradition designed not only to maintain the high levels of training and competence in the two militaries, but also an outstanding chance to learn more about each other's cultures and foster cultural understanding.

The date was October 13, 2008, the time was 0730 hours, and the Layartebian 7th Amphibious Assault Group with its embarked marine forces were just now entering the area of operations at the entrance to the White Sea. As the Layartebians reached the pre-arranged coordinates, the umpires notified the exercise command post in Murmansk via encrypted satellite, who notified the umpires in the Cottish command posts. The message was clear: Exercise: Arctic Surprise was now underway.

At 0735 hours, the first Cottish EF2000 fighters took off from their airbases (three were being used in this operation: Solovetsk, Kem and Belomorsk) and begain flying a CAP, assisted by the EP-191B Aurora AWACS aircraft operating out from Belomorsk, while the Type 12s sortied out from Solovetskiy Island within the hour to join the two operating out from Rabocheostrovsk. The Cottish submarine HMS Ull, a Loke class AIP-powered submarine was already at sea, somewhere between the northern parts of Onega Bay and southeastern Kandalaksha Bay areas.


Cottish Forces (OPFOR, Phase 1)

Royal Cottish Army
23. Motor Rifle Brigade, 8. Division
Personell: 6 400 soldiers
BLM.54A Scar TEL: 12
MQ-8C Fire Scout UAV: 3
MQ-9C Reaper UAV: 2
M2032A1 Sabertooth MBT: 44
PzH-2000 155 MM SPG: 18
Strk.57A Heimdall ICV: 202
Strk.57B Heimdall C3V: 80
Strk.57C Heimdall LBT: 30
Strk.57D Heimdall SPAAG: 56
Strk.57E Heimdall ARV: 14
Strk.57F Heimdall MC: 36
VAE MAC: 23
3. Parachute Battalion, 2. Parachute Brigade
Personell: 740 paratroopers
KPLS-1F2 AICV: 12
L119 105 MM ART: 9
129. Air Assault Battalion, 2. Parachute Brigade
Personell: 400 soldiers
ACI.39C Bellicus: 24
UH-28E Black Falcon: 36
1. Territorial Defense Battalion/31. Division
Personell: 800 reservists
2. Territorial Defense Battalion/31. Division
Personell: 800 reservists
3. Territorial Defense Battalion/31. Division
Personell: 800 reservists
4. Territorial Defense Battalion/31. Division
Personell: 800 reservists
Sovolets Fortress
Personell: 900 soldiers
120 MM fortress cannon: 9
35 MM anti-aircraft cannon: 8
AShM launch site: 3

Royal Cottish Air Force
210. Squadron
EF2000 Typhoon: 24
226. Squadron
EF2000 Typhoon: 24
229. Squadron
EF2000 Typhoon: 24
238. Squadron
COT.36A Blodøks: 24
258. Squadron
FB-177C Barsuk: 16
260. Squadron (detachment)
EP-191B Aurora AWACS: 4
284. Squadron (detachment)
KC-10B Extender: 6
508. Squadron (detachment)
C-130J-30 Hercules: 12

Royal Cottish Navy
HMS P 926 (Type 12 class missile patrol craft)
HMS P 944 (Type 12 class missile patrol craft)
HMS P 959 (Type 12 class missile patrol craft)
HMS P 978 (Type 12 class missile patrol craft)
HMS P 980 (Type 12 class missile patrol craft)
HMS Ull (S 545) (Loke class submarine)
HMS Bornholm (M 364) (Hornet class minelayer)
HMS Pasvik (M 355) (Alta class mine sweeper)
HMS Nupsfonn (Z 728) (Atrika-III class icebreaker)

October 13, 2008 - 07:30 [GMT + 4]
Northern White Sea

Twenty-nine of the forty-one vessels of the Imperial Layartebian Navy's 7th Amphibious Assault Group entered the White Sea at full battle stations. Five had been left at home at Cartwright Naval Base in Labrador while the remaining seven would be sitting just before the entrance to the White Sea. The twenty-nine vessels that entered did so as part of ARCTIC SURPRISE, a joint exercise between the Cottish and Layartebians. Normally, they were on a larger scale but this autumn, the Imperial Layartebian Military opted to demonstrate the capabilities of the Marines against a numerically superior and entrenched military. As they entered, the importance of the sensor systems of the twenty-nine vessels became vitally important. Until this point, they had largely been quiet, listening rather than watching, keeping their location until this time a closely guarded secret but the cat was out of the bag. There was no way to hide twenty-nine, Imperial Layartebian Navy ships, especially when the Cottish had surface vessels and aircraft watching the whole of the White Sea.

Tasking order showed that the Cottish had a number of assets in the area of operations, which included seventy-two fighter aircraft, twenty-four attack aircraft, sixteen fighter-bombers, four AWACS aircraft, six tankers, and twelve cargo aircraft. The tankers and cargo aircraft were considered a lower priority than the fighter bombers and AWACS aircraft, which were crucially important to neutralize. Passive scans showed that an AWACS plane was already in the air and had undoubtedly detected the vessels entering the White Sea and possibly even the aircraft that had been launched along with the fleet, which had yet to include anything but six F-35B Raven multirole fighters. The six fighters were armed with a combined loadout that included two configurations. Four of the fighters were maximizing their stealth capabilities, flying with only two AIM-221A Gryphon and two AIM-204A Escape air to air missiles internally. The other two were carrying a more rounded loadout and they were the most dangerous as they carried two AIM-221A Gryphon and two AGM-154E JSOW missiles internally and, externally, two more AIM-221A Gryphons, two AGM-205A AMESM missiles, and two AIM-204A Escape missiles. The JSOW and AMESM missiles would be used against naval threats while the others would be for air-to-air threats, twelve of which were based on Solovetskiy Island, the first objective.

The six aircraft were flying two different profiles. Flying high, above twenty thousand feet were the four fighters armed with air-to-air missiles only. They would use their EOTS infrared and electro-optical sensor to passively search for targets while keeping their AESA radars in a low powered mode. This would make them even more difficult to detect than normal and still give them a good range to detect enemy aircraft while the EOTS sensors mainly hunted for the ships. The other two aircraft were on the deck, flying noses cold, using only their EOTS sensors to detect targets. Both aircraft worked to help each other and they had datalinked into each other and the ships behind them. They would maintain a subsonic flight and guard the ships as they entered the sea.

Leading the pack were the most dangerous vessels the fleet possessed. Underneath the waves, moving tactically silent at ten knots was the Virginia Flight II class attack submarine and it had one purpose, to locate and destroy any enemy submarines, which were undoubtedly going to be diesel-electric or AIP powered, making them significantly harder to detect but the Virginia was just as impossible to detect and it had four Mark 76 Advanced Heavy Torpedoes ready to go, each one capable of sinking the fastest and deepest diving submarines in the ILN and possibly the world. They also carried up to sixteen Cobalt and Imsdal cruise missiles in their vertical tubes, each tube capable of holding just one missile. Behind the Virginia was a pair of destroyers, one specifically tasked for anti-submarine warfare, the Verrazano Flight II DDKN, which was also going to hunt for any Cottish submarines, and the Voodoo class DDGN, which was also tasked with finding and destroying any surface vessels. Along with those two destroyers came a Dnalkrad Flight II class air defense frigate, it having the longest reach of any of the ships when it came to defensive armament. Behind them, cruisers, frigates, destroyers, and carriers came, all of them having a single intention.

The first aircraft to be detected by the Layartebian fleet was the Aurora AWACS, flying out of Belomorsk, protected by whatever fighters were providing it CAP. It was a prime target and though the navy had yet to launch any AWACS aircraft of its own or even go loud with their sensors, they picked this aircraft off as the first casualty for the Cottish forces. On board the Dnalkrad, moving in with the fleet, the CIC came alive as radar and weapons operators synced in their weapon systems. Still on passive search, the bearing and location of the AWACS aircraft was determined from its emissions and that information relayed to the weapons interface, all within milliseconds. At a panel on the other side of the CIC, a weapon systems operator looked at the recommended ordinance that popped up on one of his panels and concurred with its selection. He put quickly pushed the proper buttons and entered the proper information to a pair of missiles sitting cold inside of the Dnalkrad's forward VLS tubes. He was careful to select the training option on his panel, lest he send live missiles against the aircraft. The biggest problem with any of these exercises was the deadly nature of the Layartebian missile systems, which made using live ordinance always hairy. Since the age of modern computers, an entire war could be simulated without a single shot being fired and that was what would happen here. When the panel operator pressed the "LAUNCH" button on his panel it wouldn't send two live missiles towards the target. No target on Earth could survive even a close call from such a system and the risks were too hairy. Instead, electronic signals would be sent all over the battlefield and to those watching safely behind the lines. What they and the Layartebian Navy saw were a pair of RIM-188C Crow surface-to-air missiles streaking vertically out, over the ship, and up to 60,000 feet, where they would cruise towards the target at Mach 6. Of course, this was just electronic signals.

Once the missiles launched from the vessel and were on their way to the target, not emitting either, the vessels began to power on their sensors, something that wouldn't be done in an instant. By the time the missiles hit, the fleet would suddenly light up the sky with its sensors, putting everything in the entire White Sea on the surface for as far as they could see suddenly on their scopes. The two Crow missiles continued along their flight path, keeping quiet until they were terminal, which was just ten miles from the target. At that point, they would turn on their sensors. For the Aurora, because it was an emitting aircraft, the Crows could either activate their passive radar seeker, which would keep their presence unknown until they hit or even their imaging infrared seeker, which would do the same thing. They could also activate their active radars, giving their presence away but, by then, it was too late. They traveled most of the way via uplink from the launching vessel and if the Aurora turned on their ECM systems, it would activate the Home-On-Jam sensor in the guidance section. It was safe to say that the Aurora stood little chance.

All entries with the asterisk (*) are top secret IC meaning that specifications on them are not public, performance is not public, their existence is not public, and knowledge of their existence may be deduced only to rumors and grainy photography taken by a lucky UFO nutso who may have gotten close enough to a secret airbase to actually get a shot off.

Order of Battle
Operation ARCTIC SURPRISE

Imperial Layartebian Marine Corps
Elements: 7th Marine Division
Personnel: 12,350
HQ: 62
Officers: 1,280
Enlisted: 11,008


M777A1 Lightweight 155 ART: 36
M2009A1 Fennek RV: 12
M2015A1 Cobra APC: 32
M2016A3 LAADS ADU: 8
M2017A2 Frog APC: 32
M2031A1 Tumbler BV: 24
M2032A2 Sabertooth MBT: 20
M2033A10 MTV: 8
M2033A11 MTV: 8
M2033A12 MTV: 8
M2033A13 MTV: 24
M2033A14 MTV: 4
M2033A15 MTV: 116
M2033A16 MTV: 16
M2033A4 MTV: 44
M2033A6 MTV: 8
M2033A7 MTV: 8
M2033A9 MTV: 28
M2034A2 LTV: 28
M2034A4 LTV: 84
M2034A6 LTV: 8
M2037A10 HEMTT: 4
M2037A2 HEMTT: 20
M2043A1 ACB: 24
M2047A1 Arrow APC: 32
M2047A2 Arrow MEV: 76
M2047A3 Arrow C3: 8
M2047A6 Arrow TD: 32
M2048A1 Shark IFV: 64
M2048A3 Shark CFV: 12
M2050A1 Serpent LBT: 40
M2051A1 CMPLV: 100
M2051A2 CMPLV: 108
M2051A3 CMPLV: 100
M2052A1 Cougar: 36
M2052A2 Cougar: 44
M2059A1 Rattlesnake AT: 24
M2060A1 Buzzsaw: 32


Imperial Layartebian Navy
Elements: 7th Amphibious Assault Group
Personnel: ~16,500
Pilots: ~2,500


Arsenal Flight II: 1
Dnalkrad Flight II: 2
Earthquake Flight II: 1
Emperor: 1
Gotham: 2
Hampton: 1
Heretic: 2
Independence: 1
Jackal: 4
Mexia Flight IV: 1
Mexia Flight V: 1
Ocean: 2
Odin Flight II: 2
Supply: 2
Unforgiven: 2
Venom*: 1
Verrazano Flight II: 2
Virginia Flight II: 2
Voodoo: 2
Wilson: 5



AH-99B Anasazi: 24
CH-53N Super Stallion II: 50
F-35B Raven: 24
HV-24C Bulldog: 28
MC-11B CSA: 4
ME-11C CSA: 4
MH-60R Sea Hawk: 27
MH-60S Knight Hawk: 16
MQ-8C Fire Scout: 48
SH-102A Sea Lord: 14
UH-95A Super Huey: 32


Imperial Layartebian Special Forces
Elements: 3rd Special Operations Group
Personnel: 12
Officers: 3
Enlisted: 9


3rd SOG "Force Reconnaissance": 3 teams

The crew of the EP-191B Aurora AWACS aircraft had just plotted the location of the Layartebian task force when the radar warning receivers started going off, warning them that a hostile missile was underway. Of course, no real missile was heading straight for the Aurora, but the electronic receivers had been placed in training mode for the purpose of the exercise and interpented the systems emitted from the Layartebian task force and the data being delivered from the Exercise Command Post in Murmansk that it was indeed being targetted by two missiles.

Due to the short distance when they were detected and high speeds the missiles were flying at, the pilots had just enough time to activate the defensive jamming system, drop off a bunch of chaff bundles and flares and begin diving before the missiles "hit". Over the radio, the aircraft was ordered to turn off the active systems and return to Belomorsk immediately. For the next twelve hours, they were "dead". So too were the two EF2000 Typhoons that had served as the escort.

Still, the Auroras "death" hadn't been without gain for the Cottish. In the Cottish command post at Sovoletsk Fortress, the Cottish exercise commander, Rear-Admiral Petter Dauge had gotten confirmation on the size and location of the Layartebian task force before the Aurora, his most valuable reconnaissance tool at the moment had been "killed." Surely the Layartebians were quite pleased with themselves, he thought, having drawn first blood. RAdm. Dauge wasn't too concerned though. The loss of the Aurora, albeit temporary, would soon be avenged.

Out at sea, the northern patrol division, made up by the two missile patrol craft P 944 and P 978, both patrol craft in the Type 12 class, were steaming towards the Layartebian formation at 35 knots, beyond the horizon of the Layartebians, under total Emissions Control (EMCON). This meant that no systems were active and putting out radiation that could be detected by electronic information gathering systems, thus minimizing the chances of the Layartebians detecting them unless they got a clear eyeball view of the two slender 52 meter long patrol craft. The only system active was the passive communications systems, was encrypted and not transmitting any signals, meaning they were invisible to Layartebian electronic sensors.

Further out, just south-southwest of Solovetskiy Island, the three missile patrol craft P 929, P 959 and P 980 were all steaming towards the open White Sea, moving through somewhat choppy seas at 39 knots. These ships too were under total EMCON, as well as being concealed behind the peninsula that seperated the Onega and Dvina Bays.

In the middle of the White Sea, at 70 meters, the submarine HMS Ull was moving quietly at 4 knots, just listening to the Layartebian task force as it moved defiantly through the cold waters of the White Sea. She had already deployed a UUV an hour prior, keeping in contact with it through a 10 kilometer long fiber-optic cable that fed data back to the submarine. In the event that the fiber-optic cable should be severed, the UUV was designed to rise to the surface, emit a encrypted homing signal and wait for rescue to arrive. The UUV could stay afloat for up to 48 hours, and was painted a clear signal yellow in order to attract attention. Right now, Ull's UUV was using its passive sonar to argument the extremely sensitive passive sonar array on the Ull, trying to detect any submerged contacts in the vicinity. The Cots knew perfectly well that the Layartebians never sent their battlegroups anywhere without at least one submarine escorting, but they couldn't be sure whether or not the Layartebian task force commander had ordered his submarine(s) to follow the main body into the White Sea, or for it to stay out in the Barents for the time being. The former option was the most likely, Ull's commander believed, and so he had decided to make use of the UUV's sensor systems in order to better triangulate a possible position. The Commander also knew that if there was a layartebian submarine out here, it would be a nuclear-powered one, meaning that its nuclear reactor would emit some sort of sounds that his sonar crew - the best in the Fleet, having won the last Fleet-wide sonarman competition last year - could find. All he had to do was to remain quiet and listen. That was why the Ull was operating at ultraquiet conditions, with all non-essential personell having gone to their bunks with orders to be quiet as in the grave. The Ull had taken in fresh air during the night, and was at tip-top condition. She would have no problems staying submerged for up to three weeks before she needed to replenish her air supply and batteries.

At Kem Air Station, the Royal Cottish Air Force's 226. Squadron had been ordered to prepare for a raid against the Layartebian task force. The squadron had been ready for this since the exercise began, and now, thirty minutes into the exercise, three fligths of four craft each were taxiing to the runway, laden down with armaments. Two of the flights were equipped with an anti-shipping loadout, meaning two IRIS-T missiles and two BVRAAM missiles for self-defense, and four AMESM anti-shipping missiles for the attack part. Due to the relatively short distance, there was no need to add fuel tanks that would increase drag and the radar cross section any further. The third flight was exclusively air to air, with two IRIS-T missiles for short-range dogfights and six BVRAAM medium-range missiles for stand-off engagements.

The aircraft took off from the 2 500 meter long runway in pairs, and climbed to 80 meters before heading for their respective areas. The plan was simple. One strike flight would fly north over land, taking advantage of the hilly terrain to fly low and fast, while the second strike group would fly low and fast out to sea towards the southern patrol division, staying concealed from the Layartebian radars with help from the terrain. Common for both groups was that they would have their radars turned offline, meaning they wouldn't be detected by the Layartebian sensors. Combined with the terrain physically preventing the Layartebian sensors from seeing them, the two strike groups would be undetected. The third group, tasked with air to air, would split into finger two-formations and fly straight for the Layartebian task force, with the intent to splash whatever it was they had in the air. According to the radar station near Kem, there were three to six unknown airborne contacts over the White Sea, all of them too faint for the 23. Brigade's BLM.54A Scar medium-range surface to air battery to get a good enough firing sollution on to warrant release of the weapon. They would be left to the Typhoons.

At 0816 hours, the two strike flights were within range of their AMESMs. The eight aircraft rose from their low altitude of 60-80 meters and up to 250 meters, and activated their radar systems for just long enough to feed the data necessary to the AMESMs before they released their weapons. At 0818 hours, the four EF2000s north of Kem activated their radars and released sixteen AMESM missiles targetting the amphibious transports but also tasking two AMESMs to take out the Verrazano that was searching for the Ull. At 0820, the four EF2000s just south of Solovetskiy Island fired a total of sixteen AMESM missiles, targetting the amphibious transports and the escorts, with emphasis on the two Voodoos and the two Unforgivens.

At 0754 hours, the two patrol divisions were given a situation update via the encrypted passive communications system, including orders for weapons release. The release point was to be carefully timed in order to attack the Layartebians from multiple directions simultaneously, forcing them to divide their attention. The orders called for the northern division to release eight AMESMs at exactly 0826 hours, and the southern to fire eight AMESMs at exactly 0821 hours.

As if it wasn't enough that the Layartebian sensor operators soon would detect that a total of forty-eight AMESMs were streaking towards the Layartebian task force at Mach 1.5, all of them timed to hit their targets on or around 0834 hours, Solovets fortress wanted to play too. With three heavy anti-shipping missile sites at its disposal, each equipped with four launchers for a total of twelve Akkar heavy anti-shipping missiles available to it, Solovets was a dangerous adversary who's missile armament had been kept a closely guarded secret for anyone. The missiles and launchers were concealed in the underground tunnels, where satellites couldn't see them, and the launchers were positioned inside tunnels with the missiles pointing outwards.

At 0834, the cat was released from the bag as six Akkar (http://z4.invisionfree.com/NSDraftroom/index.php?showtopic=2595) heavy anti-shipping missiles, each armed with a 400 kilogram penetrating high-explosive warhead, were simulated fired. The missiles streaked upwards, lofting to 22 000 meters at Mach 3.2 before they dove steeply on the target, reaching speeds of Mach 4. Their targets: The two Odin II class LPHs, each tasked with two Akkars, and the two Mexia class battlecruisers, each tasked at least three AMESMs and one Akkar. The Cots knew perfectly well the power that lay in the Mexias, having used them to great effect themselves during the conquest of Man five years prior, and knew that they had to be taken out of the game before they got within range of their mighty 203 MM cannons.

In total, 48 AMESMs and 6 Akkar missiles were heading for the Layartebians, attacking from the north-northeast, the southeast and the south-southeast, i.e. from three different directions, at the same time. This combined with the large amount of missiles released would force the Layartebians to divide their attention and overwhealm them, something which would increase the chances of success.

The EP-191B would be avenged.

With the missiles released from the patrol craft, they came about and immediately made for the protective cover of the shores at close to 40 knots, where the radar returns from the coastline would make it even harder for them to be detected.

Meanwhile, the Paras on Solovetskiy Island began preparing defensive positions, while the minelayer Bornholm headed for the western part of the island to lay a defensive minefield where the Cots expected the Layartebians to land.

In the three minutes it took for the Crow missiles to reach their target, the entire fleet's surface and air search systems came on, lighting up the electronics systems of every Cottish aircraft or ground station for five hundred miles, at least. It must have looked like Las Vegas to the Cottish, which would now suddenly be watching the immense, overwatch power of the highly advanced sensor systems on board the Layartebian vessels. It was at this time too that the Layartebians launched their first over-the-horizon targeting system, an ME-11C CSA AWACS aircraft, which took a position to the north, almost near the edge of the combat zone, far enough away that it was mostly out of harms way. It was just before 08:00 hours when the ME-11 got into the air and up to its altitude of 32,000 feet, where the horizon was over two hundred miles. In the half hour between the time it took the ME-11 to get into the air and up to its altitude a lot happened with the Layartebian fleet.

A pair of MH-60R Sea Hawk ASW helicopters took off and began to scan the waters with their dipping sonar and MHD sensor, the latter having a very short range and thus only being used for final positioning. The helicopters would keep low, under 50 feet and scan northwest and southeast of the fleet while, underwater, the Virginia covered mostly to the northwest and west in general. Sonar detection required precise locations and there were always two sounds, the real sound and its echo, the latter always having to be washed out first. It was no surprise that the waters were quiet for now. The Cottish patrol boats, moving at high speed were still too far away to be heard but their locations wouldn't remain hidden for long.

In the air, the four Ravens at high altitude continued to fly towards the north and west while the two on the deck continued towards Solovetskiy Island, both of them searching for surface and aerial contacts, keeping quiet and watching their RWRs and both their radars and EOTS scanners. They got their answer about a quarter to twenty after eight when they detected the two groups of Cottish fighters, which had now begun to launch their missiles. The information was relayed between the two groups of fighters and the fleet, which had yet to know about the incoming missiles. Instantly, plots were taken and the CICs of the various warships sprang to further action. They had flown low enough to hide until they initiated their pop-up maneuver to fire their missiles and their sudden appearance caused significant amount of alarm for the fleet, who knew that things would soon start coming their way. That suspicion was answered soon enough as the multiple, inbound missiles were detected by the various sensors of the fleet. Four more Ravens were put into the skies armed with a mixed loadout of air to air missiles, four Gryphons and two Escapes and four AMESM missiles. They joined the six already ahead of the battle group and two more that would take off and head to defend the AWACS against fighter interdiction. For the four Ravens in the skies, the two groups of Cottish fighters were easy prey, especially since they had remained hidden for so long. Two of the Ravens split off and began a pursuit, having a total of eight Gryphons and eight Escapes between them. They could, theorhetically, take down sixteen aircraft with that loadout but they weren't going to be gunning for any more than they could handle.

The closer group was the group south of Solovetskiy Island and those four fighters would be the unwilling prey for the Ravens, which took a southerly course to track them. Aware of the defenses on Solovetskiy Island, the fighters would fly closer to the mainland and come in a hook maneuver to end up south of the island, where most of the action was. It was about a seventy mile flight but moving at 550 mph, they could cover the distance in just eight minutes. The other two Ravens would continue on their northern course, heading to a waypoint that was 25 miles north of Solovetskiy Island. They were looking not for ground-attack aircraft but escort fighters, which were guaranteed to be in the air. In doing so, they gained a very vital piece of intelligence, which would help the rest of the fleet. Emissions had detected the Kem radar station before the fighter launch and its GPS coordinates were plotted and subsequently fed to a pair of Imsdal missiles which were on board an Unforgiven class cruiser. Equipped with a passive radar seeker and a lighter warhead, the RGM-203I Imsdal had been built mainly to attack the radar masts of ships and was thus more than capable of striking a static facility. At precisely 08:20, a sortie of two missiles were fired, both with unique plot courses that would have one attack from the north and the other from a straight in course, both of them arriving on the target at the same time. Capable of cruising at high altitude and Mach 4, the missiles could cover almost fifty miles per minute once at their altitude and cruise speed. Kem was approximately one hundred and fifty miles away when the missiles were fired, thanks largely to the plotted information from the Ravens.

Those missiles would arrive on target before the Cottish missiles, which were suddenly detected between 08:26 and 08:30 hours, when they were most of the way to the target. Their hot infrared trails on the deck and the powerful sensors of the fleet picked up between forty and fifty targets, enough to classify individually but because of their close spacing, they were initially difficult to separate. The weapon of choice against them would be a combination of missiles. Because they were coming in from all directions, west, southwest, and northwest, the missiles were mostly centered to the frontal arch of the fleet. The primary weapon was the RIM-162E Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile, which was quad-packed in the various VLS tubes of the fleet. For the weapons that were further out, a few RIM-188C Crow missiles would be tasked, them having a faster speed and more energy. When the missiles got to within twelve and a half miles, the RIM-116D Rolling Airframe Missile would be fired and it was designed specifically for anti-missile duty. In addition, the fast-firing, potent Mark 205 CIWS system would provide for a layered defense using both its two 35mm, fast-firing autocannons and RAM missiles. The layered defense was crucial to the survival of the fleet and upon watching wars elsewhere around the world, the Empire had taken a careful note to organize and divide each layer and tier accordingly.

Though the targets of the missiles were unknown due to the large amount of shipping coming into the White Sea, they were all a threat. The RIM-162E ESSM missiles were fired in groups of two along with the Crows, two missiles per contact, organized to attack at the furthest possible distance from the vessels to give adequate response for those that failed to intercept. The principles of the two missile types were also very different. The Crow was a hit-to-kill missile more than anything else and it was derived from the Standard SM-3 and PATRIOT PAC-4 missiles, meaning that it was not first-generation hit-to-kill technology, quite the opposite in fact. A backup warhead of 1,270 tungsten rods weighing 70 pounds would add to the lethality effects of the missiles, which had a long range and both a high speed and high degree of agility. The ESSM, on the other hand, was designed to replace the aging Sea Sparrow missiles, which were more for air defense than missile defense. However, the designers of the ESSM envisioned it to defend against missiles just as well as the Standard missiles could. The ESSM could still hit its target but it did not possess hit-to-kill technology. It was; however, equipped with an 86 pound warhead that was designed to destroy anything in the air and it was originally designed to counter supersonic, maneuvering anti-ship missiles such as the Brahmos as much as it was designed to take down aircraft.

As the missiles were being fired off, contacts were being sorted out and redunancy was kept at a two missile limit as this would be a long battle. The incoming missiles were initially detected when the northwestern contacts were launched. The AWACS had immediately plotted the launch and relayed the information down to the fleet, which used the datalink to target the two, Cottish patrol craft. The fleet returned fire putting six missiles into the air, four of them AMESM missiles fired from quad-launchers. The other two were Relic anti-ship missiles, which were fired from the VLS tubes of an Unforgiven CGN. The two Relic missiles quickly soared up and dropped their boosters and began a cruise at 10 feet off the waves, using its ramjet system to obtain a cruise speed of Mach 2.8. They were equipped with a 350 pound warhead each, capable of penetrating any ship as it was encased in tungsten and was designed to strike the ship just underneath the waterline, rather than at the waterline. The six missiles were evenly divided between the two ships.

The incoming vampires weren't alone either when, suddenly, at 08:35, six more vampires were detected coming in at high altitude, origin Solovetskiy Island. The two Ravens flying around the island had initially detected their launch with their EOTS systems and plotted their positions to be somewhere near the island's fortress. The presence of anti-ship missile batteries on the island had been suspected but no given coordinates had yet to be surmised as the Cottish were very good at hiding things, especially small things. With the position now known, to a given area, the Layartebians took action and prepared to fire four missiles towards the area, each missile equipped with cluster munitions. The four missiles were RGM-234D-1 Cobalt cruise missiles, top-secret, subsonic, stealth cruise missiles with a range of 1,075 or 1,350 or 2,175 miles, depending on the variant. The "D" versions could fly 1,350 miles, at low altitude, high subsonic speed, and remain undetectable until they struck. The missiles were launched from the vessels and set to fly a low-level cruise at 640 mph on a course that took them to the edge of the area of operations, around Ostrov Zhizgin island, around Solovetskiy Island, and attack it from the rear, dispensing their munitions, which would consist of 205 BLU-97/B CEM munitions per missile, over an area where the missile launches were detected. It would take them just under thirteen minutes to fly the 135 mile course, which kept them low and silent, using on their autopilot and waypoints to deliver their payloads. The six, unidentified, incoming vampires were type classified as the YBM.63 Akkar, mostly from their flight profile, which brought them up to an altitude of 72,000 feet and a cruise speed above Mach 3. The fleet had a surprise for those missiles, which came in the form of the RIM-188E Crow, an anti-ballistic missile modification of the Crow.

The RIM-188E variant was given only a single, hit-to-kill warhead and it was designed to intercept IRBMs, ICBMs, and any other type of ballistic or missile in general, especially ones flying at high altitude. Capable of Mach 12.35 at maximum height, the missile could soar towards the Akkar's at over Mach 8 given their altitude and put their warheads right into the missiles with enough energy to vaporize them. Twelve missiles were launched to meet them.

The incoming missiles would not dissuade the Layartebian fleet from their goals, which was to completely decimate the Cottish resolve in the area. With the Imsdals on their way to the Kem radar station and the Cobalts flying low and fast to the missile launchers on Solovetskiy Island, there were dozens upon dozens of other targets that included command and control, early warning, and air bases. Dozens of these targets lay throughout the engagement area and the fleet had been busy prepositioning their missile striking order for when the time came to strike. At 08:38 hours, even with everything going on for the fleet, the missiles were launched. In total, the strike would consist of a number of both Cobalt and Imsdal missiles, aimed at a variety of targets. Radar sites, the Kem Air Base, Belomorsk Air Base, and Solovetsk Air Base were the primary targets. Each radar site would be attacked by two RGM-203C Imsdal missiles, equipped with seven hundred pound warheads. The air bases would take a barrage of firepower. A sortie of twelve RGM-203J Imsdal missiles, equipped with lethal, anti-runway munitions, 10 BLU-106 BKEP submunitions and 46 HB-876 submunitions per missile, would be launched at the three runways, four missiles per runway. Hangars, the control tower, barracks, and other essential structures would be targeted by an RGM-203C Imsdal. Flight lines would be attacked by RGM-234D-1 and RGM-234D-2 Cobalt cruise missiles. Even power generating facilities were being tareted for strike by RGM-203C missiles. The goal was to put the lights out on the Cottish forces and the fleet had hundreds upon hundreds of missiles at their disposal and within two minutes, over two hundred missiles were on their way to their targets at high, medium, and low altitude, staggered and with varied flight paths and simultaneous arrival times, just to make sure that the targets were well saturated.

By now, there were twelve Ravens in the air, two protecting the AWACS, four flying ahead in full stealth mode looking for enemy fighters, two on the deck, getting relay information from the previous four, and four more, heading in two directions, two to the north to take on the patrol boats and two towards Solovetskiy Island. The two on the deck had received the relay information from the Ravens flying south and east of the island and immediately shifted their targeting. They released their JSOW-ER missiles accordingly, targeting the fortress itself with those four missiles. Their other four missiles, AMESM missiles were targeted against a surface-to-air missile battery. Quickly, the aircraft were now lighter and only carrying four Gryphons and two Escape missiles. They kept low but changed their flight course and headed now to the north and west of Solovetskiy Island, ready to take on any enemy fighters.

"Raid raid raid!" The RADAR operator at Solovets Fortress' operations room 30 meters below the thick walls of the fortress shouted out as the powerful radar mounted on top of the island's highest top "detected" the electronic signals simulating the Layartebian missile barrage. Immediately, the Cots got to work countering the strike. Flash warnings were issued to the military installations in the area that were part of the exercise, although it would come too late for the island and the airbases. The main RADAR was "hit" seconds after the warning had been issued, and it was turned off for the required twelve hours that the exercise rules dictated. However, the Cots had learned bitter lessons in previous wars, and as a result all radar-equipped units were now mandated to have at least one backup. While the backup for Solovets Fortress was a smaller mobile radar, it was powerful enough to monitor the incoming strike and help give the Cottish commanders situational awareness of the battle.

Fortunately, the Cottish had taken precautions against this type of strike many decades earlier. The airbases were built with many protective features, including superhardened casemated shelters for the ready alert fighters, designed and field-tested to withstand all but the most powerful bunkerbuster bombs, decentralized depots for fuel and ammunition in order to prevent everything going in one big boom, and reinforced underground shelters for the remaining aircraft. Normally, these were built into mountains, but since there were no mountains near Kem Air Base, the Cottish had excavated the ground underneath the airbase in order to create a large hangar hall capable of housing up to 80 fighter aircraft, three full squadrons plus change, which had two methods of getting to the surface. One was via a large lift that took the aircraft up the 20 meters between the ground and the heavily reinforced hangar, and the second was through a long gently sloping tunnel which took the aircraft to the mouth of the runway. Both entrances were protected in both ends by two sets of heavy reinforced blast doors designed to withstand a nuclear detonation no less than 100 meters away from it, and the roof consisted of a some 9 meter thick carpet of reinforced concrete, armor steel, and more reinforced concrete, padded on in inside by kevlar to prevent any fragments that might have made it through to hit the aircraft, ordinance and personell inside, as well as keeping any concrete that was knocked loose from falling onto one of the parked aircraft and causing damage. While outside the Layartebian strike simulated plummelling the runway and support facilities, the majority of the thirty aircraft still on the base were safe inside the bunker-hangar. Still, without the infrastructure to support the aircraft, they were useless. In the strike, all three Cottish airbases were taken out of commission for twelve hours, as per the rules of the exercise.

Similar preventive measures had been taken with Solovets Fortress. In the 1980s and 1990s, with the risk of Russian invasion being at its all-time high, the fortress had been upgraded for two hundred million Rikskroner, adding updated command and control capabilities, weapons systems and added protection from modern weapons of war. This included placing the OPS center thirty meters underground, underneath a nine meter heavily reinforced concrete and steel armor cover with over twenty meters of densely packed stony earth over it. That would be more than sufficient to withstand all but a nuclear bunker buster, and even then the facility stood reasonably good chances of survival. Similar measures were taken with the positions for the missile launchers, which were placed inside armor-reinforced tunnels with sliding blast-proof doors that could be closed in order to prevent a guided missile from entering the tunnel and taking out the launcher. Due to these safety features, the Layartebian cluster munitions would have zero effect on the launchers, which remained safely inside the tunnels, ready to be used again. If the Cots were good at anything, it was to dig in and ride out the storm.

In the air, the radar warning receivers in the EF2000s warned the pilots that they were detected and that they were in simulated danger. The air to air group had managed to get good radar fixes on five of the contacts, and managed to simulate releasing two BVRAAM missiles against each contact before they themselves fell victims to the Layartebian aerial ordinance. For the two anti-shipping groups, things fared a little better. Immediately upon simulating releasing their ordinance, the EF2000s dropped chaff and made for the deck, dropping to just over 30 meters above the sea, skirting dangerously close to the Royal Cottish Air Force's peacetime low-altitude flight regulations of an absolute minimum of thirty meters above the ground, while they dropped chaff and flares in the hopes of confusing any incoming ordinance while they made for the coastline and hilly terrain at low supersonic speeds. Once the survivors were feet dry, they got news that the airbases had been taken out and that the aircraft currently in the air, a total of twenty EF2000s, two COT.36A Blodøks close air support aircraft and one KC-10D Extender tanker were all that the Royal Cottish Air Force could muster for the next twelve hours. They were therefore informed to make their presence felt on the Layartebians before they were either shot down or forced to land due to fuel shortage. With this in mind, the EF2000s were fed information through the datalink from the surviving radar at Solovets, which had detected the Layartebian strike group, locked on with their BVRAAMs, which had a range of up to 110 kilometers, and fired once they had tone before turning off the radar and returning to low-altitude flying which, while guzzling up the fuel like crazy, was a lifesaver.

At sea, the five patrol boats were steaming at everything the engines could provide, though they had by now activated the passive radar in order to be able to detect any contacts. The two northern-most patrol boats, P 944 and P 978, were the first to be targetted by the Layartebians, and the incoming ordinance was detected in time for the commanders on the two boats to activate the point defense systems, which consisted of the 35mm autocannon mounted forecastle, but that was unable to engage the targets due to the angle of attack and the direction the vessels were moving in, and the 21-cell point defense missile launcher mounted aft of the superstructure, allowing the missile boats some form of self-defense. The system began automatically engaging the incoming targets. With six vampires identified, appearing to be evenly divided between the two missile boats, this gave the vessel commander a total of seven RIM-116C Rolling Airframe Missiles per incoming missile, something which would give the vessel a relatively good chance of survival. At range, the RAMs were simulated fired against the targets while chaff rockets were simulated fired, simulating spreading a cloud of aluminum strips that were designed to fool the targetting computer in the simulated missiles. Hopefully it would be sufficient.

Meanwhile, Bornholm were in the process of mining the waters around Solovetskiy Island. She was deploying several small minefields, consisting of Marinemine-175 moored anti-ship mines, designed for area denial, slowing down and decimating an invasion fleet, as well as laying CAPTOR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTOR_mine)-type mines near the likely approaches. The CAPTOR-mines deployed by Bornholm were of Cottish design, and larger than the original CAPTOR mine. Its warhead consisted of a Mk.68 Mod 4 Sjøorm 533mm heavyweight torpedo which had a 300 kilogram warhead and a operational range of 55 000 meters at 40 knots, or 45 000 meters at 65 knots. The Mk.68 was designed to operate to depths of up to 1 100 meters, and was more than capable of attacking both subsurface and surface warships. In the past few hours, Bornholm had been busy, as Rear-Admiral Dauge saw on the situation screen in the underground OPS room.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj146/Eeobroht/SolovetskiyIslandDefenseStatus.png

This, combined with the reported readiness of the Paras and the 150 man strong Rifle Company responsible for the defense of the fortress itself made the Rear-Admiral confident that he'd be able to make the Layartebians pay dearly for taking the fortress. He just hoped they would stray into range of his powerful 120mm rapid-firing cannons, which were ready and able to inflict damages to the OPFOR.

OOC: Lay, you forgot losses from my missile strike.

OOC: Actually was hoping you'd tell me how many more missiles were coming after the SAM counter. Let me know so I can include all of that in the next post and to remind you, the Imsdal unitary warhead is a bunker-busting munition. C'mon you know this.

OOC: Let's say about 20-25% survived. And while the Imsdal is epic, it doesn't penetrate 9 meters of reinforced concrete/armored steel plate/reinforced concrete/kevlar.

OOC: 10.9728 meters of reinforced concrete to be exact.

OOC: Get on IRC