NationStates Jolt Archive

To the Leaders of the Grand World Order

Some time ago, on behalf of the Greater Economic Union of New Manth, I gave assurances of mutual defense and support to the democratic government of South Korea. Since that time, we in Manth have watched in dismay as the Grand World Order overthrew that government on the flimsiest of excuses - the death of a single elected official - and moved to impose its repressive and backwards regime on the people of South Korea. Unfortunately, as the Union military was heavily committed in other theatres at that time, the Union was unable to immediately make good on her guarantees.

Since then the conflicts which held the Union's attention have been brought to a victorious conclusion, and the Union's military forces are free to turn their attention to this task without further delay. Manth does not forget her allies, and we wish to make it clear to the people of South Korea - and to your own government - that this is true no matter whether the state in question is a superpower or a minor player on the international stage.

Therefore,

1. The Grand World Order will recognize the sovereignty and independence of South Korea and immediately dismantle the occupation government, turning over civil power to a provisional South Korean government until new, fair and free elections can be held.
2. The Grand World Order will release any and all South Korean political prisoners it currently holds in custody, and if necessary, repatriate them. The Grand World Order will turn over all other prisoners to the custody of the provisional South Korean government.
3. Grand World Order military forces in South Korea will evacuate the country with all speed, taking all military hardware and materiel with them.
4. Citizens of the Grand World Order will leave the country unless freely permitted to stay by the democratic government.
5. The Grand World Order will deliver a formal apology to South Korea for illegally overthrowing the government and occupying the country.
6. The Grand World Order will pay reparations to the government of South Korea to the sum of NS$1,650 bn in order to pay the immediate costs of the re-establishment of the government, to defray the costs of re-equipping the dismantled military of South Korea, and to compensate the citizens for the violence and oppression to which they have been subjected.
7. The Grand World Order will renounce further military and political interference in the internal affairs of South Korea.

The Union requires a satisfactory response to this ultimatum within 24 hours. Should the Grand World Order not voluntarily accept these terms, they will be imposed by force.

Aut Caesar aut nihil.

Saad al-Baradei, President
The Greater Economic Union of New Manth

occ: Ah, this will probably stay between GWO and myself but TG/MSN either of us if you want in as well

Official Response of the Fascist Federation of the Grand World Order

It is obvious that the New Manth government clearly does not know anything about the situation. Assassins, obviously from Tokyoni or allies of such, had killed the South Korean President. We had no intentions of taking control of the nation, but considering that Tokyoni was hellbent on invading the country, a strong leadership had to take command quickly, or else the people would be subjected to the vile Communism of their neighbor. Furthermore, we have not dismantled anything except the institution of Democracy, which we, and any sane person, would agree was an inefficiency. If anything, the South Koreans owe us for the materials and manpower we moved into the country, both to help order and prevent the Tokyonese from brutally invading the country. Hell, the Tokyoni government is the one that killed the President! We also would like to ask for examples of "violence and oppression" that the New Manth Government speaks of.

Another thing you democrats should note is that we received no protest from the government. We were welcomed to take command. If that's not justification enough, we don't know what is. They AGREED to let us take over.

Democracy is inefficient, and should be abolished for authoritarian Right-Wing regimes worldwide. It's a non-negotiable fact. Everyone except Communist nuts agree that Leftism is bad, as it leads to weak government and petty morality. Democracy, a centrist ideology, allows Leftism to have a chance at controlling the state. Thus, Leftism is prevalent because it's a popular but stupid choice. Would you think that jumping into a pit of magma is a good idea because everyone in the group you're in thinks so? No! Leftism is like a pit of magma, and even if the majority of people are deluded to believe in it, it's not a good idea. Thus, an Authoritarian Right-Wing government is necessary.

Denomination of Foreign Diplomacy
To The Grand World Order

As the Order has indicated it will not comply with the ultimatum earlier issued by the Greater Economic Union, combat operations against Orderite forces in Korea will begin immediately and will continue until the Order accepts the Manthian points in their entirety. Should the Union military be forced to go to great lengths to remove Orderite troops, no guarantee is offered that the conditions for peace will not become harsher ones, rather than the mild terms the Order has just declined.

***

The Denomination of Foreign Diplomacy also released a brief refutation of the Grand World Order's statement - an after-the fact justification, now, since the Denomination of Strategy had seen no reason to wait 24 hours after receiving the Order's reply, and military operations were beginning even as the statement was published:

The Greater Economic Union of New Manth has now embarked on military operations to remove the Grand World Order from Korea. We would like to resolve any questions regarding the Union's casus belli.

1. The Grand World Order considers it a mission to dismantle democracy in other sovereign states for their own protection, and sponsors coups and the overthrow of other governments for that purpose, is practically a justification for a pre-emptive war of defense by itself, even were no other points considered.
2. The Union rejects the Grand World Order's claim that it was invited to take over Korea by the government: the actual fact of the matter is that the Order took advantage of a momentary chaos following the assassination of the President to overthrow that government. Since the Order took over Korea information from that country is no longer trustworthy, and any contrary statements coming from Korean people or the government must be assumed either to be extracted by coercion or else simply falsified so long as the Orderite regime remains in charge.
3. That the Grand World Order has adopted a violent and oppressive policy in Korea is blindly obvious.
4. Manthian intelligence agencies have no evidence in their possession that it was the government of Tokyoni responsible for the assassination of the South Korean president. In fact, given the speed with which the Order moved to take over the country using the death as a justification, it is not unlikely that the Order masterminded the attack itself with the intent of using it as a pretext for annexing South Korea.
5. The fundamental issue of this war is not about rightism against leftism but about honoring the Greater Economic Union's guarantee to an allied government of protection against attack (in this case, attack via an Orderite coup and annexation). The Manthian government will be perfectly happy to extend protection against any aggressive neighboring nations - radical-leftist or otherwise - to the Korean government once it is restored to power, and indeed plans for postwar Korea include a certain period where Manth will assume responsibility for border defense and law enforcement while the Korean native government rebuilds itself.

Seas of Southeast Asia

Manthian forces within striking range of Korea were not initially numerous. Yes, some fifty amphibious assault carriers and several thousands of vessels in total were earmarked for Operation Falling Hammer - eventually - but most of the Manthian military forces would not come into play until the later stages of the campaign and an actual ground assault, if the fighting continued that long.

However the first phase was to isolate Korea completely from support from the Grand World Order, preferably without them realizing it. The destruction of a relief fleet might well bring them to the table without the necessity of a land campaign.

For this reason some hundred Cartagena-class SSNs had been deployed to widely scattered patrols in the seas of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where larger oceans offered far more freedom of action (and safety from enemy littoral defense) than the Yellow Sea, as well as better ability to sink enemy civilian shipping and an earlier detection of any large incoming fleet.

Some twelve Manthian carrier battle groups also lurked in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, playing shell games with merchant shipping and weather to avoid satellite detection and running under strict EMCON. The Order was known to keep naval assets in Korea and the Manthian carrier battle groups would provide the heavy firepower and naval reconnaissance necessary sink any Orderite warships that tried taking the initiative.

And there was also the opening stroke. SSGNs were scattered through the ocean as well, bellies full of cruise missiles, and computers full of pre-gathered targeting information - on the fortified complexes, the huge 800mm artillery pieces, and other such large and easy to find military installations. Those would be the first to be targeted, since the necessary reconnaissance and targeting information could be gathered via satellite and other safe methods (unmanned high-altitude spy drones, one-way missile-launched EW drones, etc), and the attacks could thus be made from extreme standoff ranges without risking Manthian personnel.

At various times, according to their own communications schedules, each vessel came close enough to the surface to be informed of the start of combat, and to receive orders to carry out their pre-planned missions. All that would be required would be to get within about two thousand kilometers of the Korean coastline, and then, without ever surfacing, each vessel would unload itself of 176 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Most targets would only receive one missile - this was not the super-fortified GWO mainland with its countless air defense installations, but merely a new and isolated province - but important ones, and especially air defense sites and airfields would be on the target end of several missiles each.

The attacks were not meant to be simultaneous (which would be difficult anyway given the communications limits of a submarine). Instead, they were to be round-the-clock, so that there would be no periods of rest and respite for air defense controllers. An attack would be launched, the submarine would set course back for the Red Sea ports and rearmament, and a half-hour later the next wave of missiles would be inbound from the next of the forty converted SSBNs involved.

Carrier and land-based air assets remained in reserve, for the moment, more concerned to intercept any Orderite counter-strike than to add to the initial strikes. Only AWACs and the submarine pickets were always active, searching the sea and air of the East for hostile forces.

These first strikes were probing attacks more than anything, despite the volumes of ships and missiles involved. The enemy reaction would determine the next moves.

currently involved:
14 cvbgs (1 Ark-Royal class CV + 13-14 various escorts)
~200 SSNs (on stealth picket duty in the Pacific/SE Asia)
~50 Type A SSKs (picketing in more shallow or littoral areas of Southeast Asia)
40 Cadiz-class SSBNs converted to fire cruise missiles (to SSGNs)

South Korea

"Missile signatures! Tomahawks, sir!" were the first words uttered in regards to the missiles.

The response came from long-range counter-missile systems at a ratio of 2:1. Survivors were to be engaged by F-22 aircraft, and whatever made it after that was spat on by CIWS and Flak weapons. Satellites picked up IR signatures from the submarines (As well as most of the ships), seeing them rather easily though the cloud cover. Groups of F-23s, EA-18G Growlers and F-22s made their way out, armed with ASW weaponry and electronic warfare technology. The Growlers quickly began jamming RADAR and communications once in range of the submarines before the F-23s of each group fired off their ASW munitions and dropped their SONAR buoys. Groups of Destroyers made their way out to conduct submarine deterrent operations, with T-212 submarines prowling underwater to attack anything in the ocean that belonged to New Manth.

Several GWO-upgraded Akula Typhoons were also wandering about, carrying loads of new Sieg Hypersonic Cruise Missiles. They were more of a test fleet, testing the effectiveness of the Sub-Launched Sieg Missile.

Official Response of the Fascist Federation of the Grand World Order

These accusations are still completely ridiculous. We challenge the New Manth government to find any incidents of authorized "violence and oppression." If you say "Failure to hold elections," you need to go smack yourselves. Elections are a waste of time.

East Asia

The Orderite aircraft taking off to search out and attack the submarines would run into the simple problem of range - neither the picket SSNs (which were enforcing their far blockade of the mainland at ranges of around 1500km at the closest) nor the Order's actual targets in the SSGNs (which never had to approach closer than 2000km) were anywhere close to within the combat radius of land-based F-22s and similar aircraft. Avoiding such retalitation was the main reason for the strikes being from such extreme standoff range, after all. About the only Manthian military forces which were coming closer to the enemy mainland during the bombardment were AWACs flying long missions from distant carriers; these occasionally approached within a thousand kilometers or so to observe any possible enemy naval or air activity, flipping radars on occasionally to scan the air and seas, but for the most part stealthily listening for telltale enemy emissions.

The Orderite aircraft flying around mostly evaded these eyes in the sky, although occasionally a Manthian aircraft listening from a long distance would catch the echo of a signal from one of the Orderite EA-18s pumping the sky full of jamming. The other Orderite aircraft, as well as the surface ships, were still at such range that for the most part little could be heard - but the point was less to spy on them defending their own airspace, and more to give early warnings of any forces leaving Korea to counterattack.

It was however, by random chance, a satellite that first detected one of the moving fleets, though it was unable to track it effectively. A satellite might catch an occasional glimpse of a fleet at sea, whether by visual or infrared imaging, but between the vast amounts of ocean compared to the size of a ship, the need for actual personnel to review the shots to determine whether the intelligence was a warship, a civilian vessel, or something entirely unrelated to shipping, and the fact that even so the relevant satellite had only been in position for a minute or two before sweeping past in LEO, actually keeping track of the small, constantly moving enemy formations by satellite was not realistic for the Manthians. But the main effect was that eight minutes after a satellite photo was taken, Satlink discovered that an Orderite flotilla of destroyers had been in that position in the Yellow Sea eight minutes ago. They would certainly not be there in the hour it would take to get an AWACs to the area to confirm, let alone in the time it would take to get a strike group to the area. But the knowledge that enemy destroyers were leaving Korea almost certainly meant that they were on their way to hunt down the submarine threat, and so preparations could be made. Over the Pacific and the South China Seas, AWACs patrols and CAPs ran more frequently, further from the carriers, and in larger numbers, in preparation for the enemy leaving his shore-based air envelope.

And meanwhile, while Manthian forces waited for the enemy to come closer, groups of Tomahawk missiles continued to regularly burst without warning out of the calm blue sea, from apparently random positions varying from 2000-2500km from Korean shores, and turn their noses towards land.

******

Manth

Operation Falling Hammer was a primarily offensive operation, not a defensive one. The Union itself was of course secure from any land attack, and only a small fraction of the Navy was currently involved in the operation; more than enough forces remained to parry any large-scale counterattack against the Manthian mainland, and the Delian League fleet, larger still, saw to the security of the sealanes. And then, also, the Grand World Order was probably far too busy to launch any meaningful counterattack in any case.

The concern in the Denomination of Strategy, then, was not about such a large-scale attack but rather about counter-attacks using similar methodology to the Manthians themselves: extreme standoff range hit-and-run attacks using pre-gathered targeting data. Of course there were differences; Manth had naval superiority, and so the enemy would not have the freedom of the seas that had so far made Manthian operations in East Asia fairly simple. But Central Command had decided that nonetheless the risk of such attacks must be minimized, and that the best way to do that lay in disrupting the enemy's targeting ability. In this scenario, that meant destroying satellites.

Low-earth orbit was the only really useful orbit for wartime military reconnaisance; other orbits were simply too far out to see much detail. Satlink, in addition to coordinating the activities of Manthian satellites themselves, also was in charge of tracking foreign objects in space (in peacetime, mainly to ensure there were no collisions), and they were now in charge of identifying any GWO satellites in LEO that had been routed to pass over the Union.

Any such satellite would be targeted by Macabean-made Praetorian II missiles (the P.746D ASAT variant, to be precise) - a single silo-launched missile with a kinetic kill warhead for each enemy bird, rising from missile defense sites in the Sahara and the Horn of Africa. There were enough for multiple shots of course - enough and more than enough* - but Manth was not Allanea, and the people were rarely happy to think that tax dollars would simply be wasted. Instead, it was easy enough to simply continue firing missiles at any satellites that avoided the first strike, until they were brought down. Space, after all, unlike Earth, was almost impossible to hide in.

Similarly enemy satellites in LEO above East Asia were targeted by P.746C SLASATs, VLS-launched missiles from the decks of CVBG escorts and, occasionally, fighter-based ASATs launched from carrier aircraft.

Enemy satellites in higher orbits were largely ignored, both because of their much smaller possible military value, compared to LEO satellites, and also because in LEO debris would quickly decay into the atmosphere, whereas in higher orbits fragments of destroyed satellites tended to remain for years and cause massive problems to other satellites in those orbits.

ooc note: A submarine underwater has no radar and no radio communications to jam, since most radio frequencies are absorbed going through any significant depth of water. This of course is double edged; general inability to communicate with your own submarines while they are submerged at any significant depth is one of the prices paid for stealth.

Oh and yeah, next post should hopefully have some actual smaller-scale RP in it rather than dry descriptions of theater-level strategy and such.

*I maintain 5500 silo-based ASATs in mainland Manth scattered through various areas of the country - if that is actually not enough, tell me and I will edit.

Ο Ακρίτας είμαι, Χάροντα, δέν παιρνώ μέ τά χρόνια...

(fancy bump...)

ooc: a filler post, aka, bump no. 2

The Red Sea

The water was living up to its name, and in the glow of sunrise sparkling pink light glimmered off the softly lapping waves and over the rolling sand-dunes of the coast, where, further inland, the sun would turn the desert rose-colored for a few minutes only witnessed by insomniacs and the odd truck driver on the old National Roads crossing the badlands between the Nile and the sea.

Closer to the coast, where cities and towns had sprung up near the ever-important water, hustle and bustle was already underway in the soft dawn light - to tell the truth, the cities never really stopped moving even in the dead of night, let alone just the early morning. And out on that red water ships continued to pass undisturbed at all hours of the day, as modernity had made the Red Sea into one of the Union's busiest shipping lanes, a procession even now dotting the light-filled ocean with the dark bulk of an oil tanker here, there a snub-nosed car carrier riding low in the water, a trim, slim-lined destroyer passing through the channel on its way from the inner Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean...

The war with the Grand World Order had as yet brought little overt change to the seaside cities - the occasional overflight of fighters had become a little more frequent, perhaps, and pairs of heavy naval bombers on their way to long-range picket patrols in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia were perhaps a more common sight than before, but the country had not really been mobilized. Propaganda had not been kicked into full drive, recruitment posters had not replaced advertisements for a theater show or a movie on the roadside billboards and the glass doors of civic buildings. In fact the only areas where you might be able to tell that a war was going on were the naval yards and the military docks, where endless processions of supply ships were arriving and departing, building up and transporting stocks of munitions and war materiel, and occasionally being interrupted by a warship entering or leaving port, or one of the SSGNs arriving to replenish its load of weapons and then turn its nose towards Korea once more.

A little offshore of one such dock the pink light was blocked by a massive, low-floating bulk, swarmed around by several smaller craft occasionally almost lost in the larger vessel's shadow. The Tisiphone had lain at anchor for a day, taking on fuel and munitions in preparation for her deployment to Southeast Asia along with the thousand marines of her naval contingent. Those would be loaded further down the coast, at Massaua; no need to risk large numbers of men in one package, even in the Red Sea which was as close to mare nostrum for the Union as any ocean in the world, and guarded by a net of patrolling aircraft and ships several thousand miles deep. And there was no hurry, either, no need to rush into land operations when the Navy might be able to deliver victory all on its own, as it had in the Deserted Territories when the leaders of that nation realized that without the ability to contest the seas there was nothing their vaunted army could do other than hunker down and accept one blow after another from an unreachable enemy...

Tisiphone was on a three-week timetable to arrive offshore of Korea, an amazingly leisurely schedule by naval standards, but calculated to give ample time to the other Navy assets in the area to wreck enemy infrastructure to a high enough level that a landing would be possible at all. After that time, perhaps she would be adding another battle decoration to the row of stars sharing her bow with the portrait of her namesake, the goddess Tisiphone, replete with her snakes and bloodstained blades against the background of the Golden Sun. Decorations from the Deserted Territories, and Halako, and before that the wars against the Baltic communists... but there was plenty of room on the grey bow for Fascist stars as well.

((OOC: I'm not too good at smaller-scale RP until the combat reaches the land.))

Korea

The Tomahawk launches had now become an expected thing, and GWO countermeasures constantly were up. The Tomahawks were generally slow, being subsonic and all. However, with the constant bombardments, occasionally a cluster slipped through the wide arrays of CIWS, interceptor aircraft, SAMs, et cetera, and reached their targets.

Off the shores of Korea

A single Akula Typhoon slinked its way into firing range of the New Manth ships. It was night time; detection would be just slightly harder. It elevated its depth, reaching the point at which its deadly cargo could be launched from underwater. The cargo? Beta-version Sieg missiles, a product of the Federation's weapon corporations. Using technology similar to the BrahMos II, the missiles were easily capable of speeds of around Mach 5. Each missile was laden with explosives powerful enough to sink even a Superdreadnought in a single hit...

At the order of Captain Ronald A. Schwank, the launch tubes opened. 30 of the things hurled into the air, flying in pre-coordinated zigzags at their targets. The submarine had sunken lower and started moving away already, hoping to reach GWO-dominated waters in time.

Space

The GWO satellites assigned to the current situation desperately attempted to stave off the missiles; during the first couple of attempts, this was done easily. However, the sheer amount of missiles in space had utterly overwhelmed the satellites flying over the Union, and with that, the Union could expect a horrid amount of debris to start falling, though not much of it would survive the atmosphere.

CVBG Cyrenaica, south of Taiwan

The missiles were first detected by a Supermarine Sportsman AEW aircraft flying as part of the Cyrenaica's combat air patrol - hypersonic missiles were extremely deadly when they connected, but hardly stealthy due to the great speeds and the heat of the engine burning to reach such velocities. Since no enemy surface assets were supposed to be within a thousand kilometers, as yet, and because with the submarine and air nets, there was little reason to believe they might have slipped through, whereas a submarine might well have - it was almost certainly an enemy submarine to blame.

Four ASW helicopters were quickly dispatched towards the point where the missiles had first been detected, although there was some question as to whether they would arrive in time, but meanwhile there was the threat of rapidly approaching missiles to deal with. The first layer of fleet air defenses was some several hundred kilometers out - the combat air patrol and their AAMs - but due to the speed of the enemy missiles interceptions would have to be made by missiles firing head-on, rather than more reliably from the rear. Disappointingly nearly two-thirds of the enemy missiles made it through this phase.

The second layer was very short, consisting of short-range jamming to throw off the missiles guidance - which proved happily a little more effective against missiles operating solely with their own radars, and without any enemy jamming to worry about - and point-defence, which had little time to work with given the hypersonic speeds involved. The upshot was that between one blink and the next, UNS Alinta, a Type-38 destroyer which had been sending out jamming to confuse the missiles between itself and Cyrenaica, had absorbed not one but several hits and been reduced from a warship to a sinking half-hull and a spreading flotilla of debris. UNS Kasos, a Town-class light cruiser, had avoided a similar fate only because the missile meant to penetrate super-dreadnought armor had in fact massively overpenetrated the unarmored Kasos and exploded when it was already through the hull on both sides... not that even an unexploded warhead smashing its way through the ship had done it any favors.

First blood for the Manthians at least, as rescue helicopters converged on the wreckage of the Alinta... although the sub that had done the damage would have to evade not only the Cyrenaica's ASW helicopters, but also Manthian submarines which would be redoubling their efforts to hunt down enemy subs as each in turn made its scheduled rise to comm depth and heard of the incident.

Southeast Asia

The SSGNs' progress was proceeding satisfactorily, however, now that the first day of attacks was drawing to a close. Many missiles were being shot down, but then they were old Tomahawks, and hardly going to break the budget. And with one day down, about three weeks to go, hopefully the more the occasional successful attack got through and wiped out an air defense site, or a silo, or a hangar, the easier later attacks would be.

Strategic Air Defense Command

Ranks of SAC personnel staring at computers were receiving the good news from the space theatre, and as the SAC space defense assets racked up kills not a few cheers were heard throughout the underground headquarters. The issue of debris was a minor one - all but the largest pieces burned up in the atmosphere, and even for those that didn't the empty desert was a lot bigger target than the urban strips hugging the coast. Still, especially in Southern Manth where people lived more spread-out, there were a few unfortunate disasters with especially hardy pieces of space debris, quickly contained by local emergency services.