The Next War 1985 - Operation Hand of God with Command

We're working on a revised The Next War scenario set in 1985, more or less 5 years later than the original ones.

Five years could seem a very short time, but there was a lot of changes during that period. Ronald Reagan became President of the United States, and Margaret Thatcher was Great Britain's Prime Minister.

I'm sure a lot of people have a lot of different ideas about these two political figures, but from a purely military point of view they made the difference. They marked the end of the so-called Detente diplomacy and started (Reagan in particular) a heavy program of rearmament to face USSR "Evil Empire".

In 1985, after four years of Reagan's presidency, US Army forces had upgraded their M-60 and M-113 to M-1A1 Abrams and M-2 Bradley, had a good number of the new Stinger SAM missiles, and had finally recovered from the "Vietnam Syndrome". US Air Force had been modernized, its tactics revised, and was ready to face the final phase of the Cold War. US Navy had acquired new vessels to reinforce AFCENT in case of war, and new POMCUS sites had been established in Netherlands.

Obviously there's a lot of things to change in game terms: order of battles, reinforcements, equipment upgrades and so on.

One of the main points to quantify is the 1985 technology gap between NATO and WP and its effect on the battlefield. To have an idea of this last point, I've used Matrix Games' Command to simulate a typical "The Next War" situations.

I presume at least some of you know "Command": an air / naval warfare simulator taking its roots from "Harpoon", but more advanced. For example, while Harpoon simulates the air launch capacity of a USA CV numerically, Command incorporates all the single elements: internal lifts and their max load, Air Boss skill, number and type of catapults, bridge occupation and so on. The air launch capacity of the CV is simply the result of using all these.

The scenario background is taken from our game's "Operation Hand of God" , an operation launched by NATO at D+9 to interdict / destroy WP supply lines.

I prepared two scenarios: the first set in 1980, the second in 1985. Both scenarios use the same background, same attack plan and more or less the same forces, only updated to their more recent version for 1985.

In both scenarios, WP advanced to the Bremen - Osnabruck - Paderborn line, and is using the Osnabruck - Hanover - Brunswick - Magdeburg autobahns as its main supply line; the NATO raid takes off from Netherlands, with the objective of bombarding the supply installations in Magdeburg area.

NATO raid has the following composition:

• SEAD3 (6xF-4G Wild Weasel), to attack SAM mobile sites around Padeborn and open up the way for the rest of the strike. 
• SEAD1 (12xF-4G Wild Weasel), to attack SAM sites around Magdeburg
• Iron1 (6xF-111D), to attack WP supply facilities around Magdeburg
• Chief1 (1xEC-130E), supporting the raid with radar coverage and Offensive ECM
• Chief2 (1xEF-111A, 1985 only), supporting the raid with offensive ECM

Warsaw Pact forces have the following composition:

• Several Soviet Divisions, with SA-6, SA-4 and ZSU-57 batteries (equivalent to the Soviet B divisional flak)
• Several mobile SAM battalions with SA-4 (equivalent to the WP C-3 mobile flak)
• Several Soviet fixed SAM with SA-3 and SA-5 (equivalent to Soviet B-3 fixed flak)

NATO plan for the raid

1980 Scenario AAR

Since the start, Chief1 radars detects previously unknown SAM mobile sites of the Soviet Army. They will be marked as "hostile" soon.

At 05:22 ZT, all NATO strikes are en route. SEAD3 begins to target enemy radars with AGM-78D HARM missiles.

At 05:29 ZT, SEAD3 has destroyed almost every enemy radar in Padeborn area and begins returning to base. SEAD1 and Iron1 missions can fly thru the area without problems.

At 05:30 ZT, Soviet Army SAMs South of Padeborn acquire NATO planes and launch a missile salvo against them, downing an F-4G.

At 05:38 ZT, SEAD1 enters its prosecution area and begins targeting enemy radars. WP SAMs answer with another missile salvo, downing a second F-4G and an approaching F-111D

At 05:41 ZT, air battle over Magdeburg is quite hot.

At 05:46 ZT, almost every WP radar system in Magdeburg area has been destroyed, at the price of another F-4G downed.

At 05:52 ZT, NATO planes begin to return to base. WP hits an F-111 maneuvering to get back.

1980 Losses and Expenditures

The raid was a success, destroying almost every supply objective in the assigned area, even though the cost for NATO was quite high (5 planes, 20% losses).

Overall, my feeling is that the results are more or less in line with what happened in "The Next War"

SIDE: NATO

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LOSSES:

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2x F-111D Aardvark

3x F-4G Phantom II [Wild Weasel V]

EXPENDITURES:

------------------

30x AGM-45B Shrike [ARM]

34x AGM-78D Standard [ARM]

81x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]

84x Mk82 500lb Snakeeye

SIDE: WP SAM

===========================================================

LOSSES:

-------------------------------

EXPENDITURES:

------------------

1x SA-10b Grumble [5V55R]

40x SA-5c Gammon [5V28M5]

SIDE: Soviet SAM

===========================================================

LOSSES:

-------------------------------

1x Building (Odd Pair HF [PRV-13])

2x Building (Square Pair [5N62])

1x Building (Tall King C [P-14])

3x Vehicle (Flat Face B [P-19])

EXPENDITURES:

------------------

41x SA-3c Goa [5V27D, V-601PD]

36x SA-5c Gammon [5V28M5]

SIDE: WP Supply

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LOSSES:

-------------------------------

2x Bridge (Two-lane 60 Tons)

2x Diesel (750k Liter Tank)

2x Diesel Bunker (750k Liter Tank)

EXPENDITURES:

------------------

SIDE: Soviet Army

===========================================================

LOSSES:

-------------------------------

3x 23mm ZU-23-2

3x Radar (Thin Skin B HF [PRV-16])

3x SA-4a Ganef [2P24] TEL

2x SA-4b Ganef [2P24] TEL

2x SA-6a Gainful [2P25] TEL

2x SA-7b Grail [SPW-60PB] MANPADS

9x Vehicle (Pat Hand [1S32])

2x Vehicle (Straight Flush [1S91])

EXPENDITURES:

------------------

38x 23mm ZU-23-2 Burst [20 rnds]

61x SA-4a Ganef [3M8M1]

111x SA-4b Ganef [3M8M2]

38x SA-6a Gainful [9M336]

3x SA-6b Gainful [9M336]

1985 Scenario AAR

The 1985 scenario unfolded more or less like 1980 one, but the EF-111 Raven supporting SEAD1 and Iron1 mission made a big difference in terms of NATO losses. Only a single F-4G was downed, and most of WP missiles were running blind after launch due to the powerful ECM emissions of Raven1.

1985 Losses and Expenditures

SIDE: NATO
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x F-4G Phantom II [Wild Weasel V]


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
20x AGM-45B Shrike [ARM]
36x AGM-78D Standard [ARM]
4x Generic Chaff Salvo [5x Cartridges]
96x Mk82 500lb Snakeeye



SIDE: WP SAM
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
1x SA-10b Grumble [5V55R]
60x SA-5c Gammon [5V28M5]


SIDE: Soviet SAM
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
1x Building (Odd Pair HF [PRV-13])
2x Building (Square Pair [5N62])
1x Building (Tall King C [P-14])
1x SA-3c Goa Quad Rail
2x SA-7a Grail [9K32 Strela-2] MANPADS
4x Vehicle (Flat Face B [P-19])
2x Vehicle (Low Blow [SNR-125])


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
19x SA-3c Goa [5V27D, V-601PD]
27x SA-5c Gammon [5V28M5]



SIDE: WP Supply
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x Bridge (Two-lane 60 Tons)
1x Diesel (750k Liter Tank)
2x Diesel Bunker (750k Liter Tank)


EXPENDITURES:
------------------



SIDE: Soviet Army
===========================================================

LOSSES:
-------------------------------
2x 23mm ZU-23-2
3x Radar (Thin Skin B HF [PRV-16])
2x SA-4a Ganef [2P24] TEL
1x SA-4b Ganef [2P24] TEL
3x SA-6a Gainful [2P25] TEL
1x SA-7b Grail [SPW-60PB] MANPADS
9x Vehicle (Pat Hand [1S32])
2x Vehicle (Straight Flush [1S91])


EXPENDITURES:
------------------
57x 23mm ZU-23-2 Burst [20 rnds]
74x SA-4a Ganef [3M8M1]
121x SA-4b Ganef [3M8M2]
7x SA-6a Gainful [9M336]