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Just how many planes did Shep transfer over to me, anyway?

MariusRoi wrote:Alaska Will be holding a competition for a new Medium-Heavy Fighter to replace the F-101s and F-105s!

I'll need bids.

Well, we do have a Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche IV with all the bells and whistles the stingy Europeans didn't want to add in.

(Conformal tanks, FAST pack substitutes, full air to ground abilities, air to air with all the latest Western Missiles)

Stas, you did sell me 20 Akulas, right? Is that sub an Akula?

I just have a few quick comments:

1. Astaria has no internet connection to the rest of the world. No phone connections either for that matter. There are no cables running from the Astarian mainland to... well... anywhere else. Contact between Astaria and the rest of the world is by radio or trade/diplomatic delegations.

2. Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

3. Aside from a few Velarian students there aren't any foreigners in Astaria or South Velaria. Thus its very hard to do any planning for an attack there, guerilla or otherwise.

4. By the way if it matters South Velarians have the same protections as any other Astarian subjects. As a result the bulk of the people there are loyal, though many of the legal residents are pushing for citizenship (which must be granted at some point).

Norseman wrote:2. Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

Unless you ping the water repeatedly, there's a fairly high chance that he could slip by without you noticing.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:

Norseman wrote:2. Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

Unless you ping the water repeatedly, there's a fairly high chance that he could slip by without you noticing.

Yes but he also has to get away after the attack, Shep's lot that is.

Ground Mobile Missile Arsenal of the CSR.

Missiles like R-7, R-12, R-14, R-36 and such are in development stage for space research and now for ICBM purposes since nuclear weapons were discovered by the world, but it will take a few years to build any sizeable number of them. Neither are they mobile.

Norseman wrote:Astaria has no internet connection to the rest of the world.

Good.

Norseman wrote:Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

Thanks Norse, but Marina outlined what kind of a Navy you have.

Norseman wrote:Yes but he also has to get away after the attack

Depends on what can realistically discover a submarine and at what range. It can suddenly be killed, you know. "Freak accident".

Norseman wrote:1. Astaria has no internet connection to the rest of the world. No phone connections either for that matter. There are no cables running from the Astarian mainland to... well... anywhere else. Contact between Astaria and the rest of the world is by radio or trade/diplomatic delegations.

Well then, we'll just email your embassy somewhere else...

2. Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

Not really. Subhunting is damn hard. Especially trying to find a SSN with a lot of rafted machinery, turboelectric drive, and natural circulation reactors. It's a blackhole in the ocean. And I don't have to do much; I don't need to blast away with sonar, I just need to creep quietly into range of the coastline....

3. Aside from a few Velarian students there aren't any foreigners in Astaria or South Velaria. Thus its very hard to do any planning for an attack there, guerilla or otherwise.

Actually, the planning for this attack was:

"Let's find a busy highway on airborne reconnaisance that's close to the coastline, then go there, set up a brief ambuscade, kill a bunch of people; and then leave."

Nothing fancy.

Stas Bush wrote:

Norseman wrote:Astarian Navy has a lot of ASW units, sneaking up on the island could be a tad tricky ya know.

Thanks Norse, but Marina outlined what kind of a Navy you have.

Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force has a lot of ASW for obvious reasons, check Marina's list of what ship classes I've got and you'll notice that a lot of them are serious ASW platforms.

BTW how exactly will Shepistan get aerial surveillance? Astaria and Shepistan doesn't have any connecting airlines.

Not mind you that I'm trying to nix your attack, I'm just correcting certain misconceptions that people seem to have about Astaria.

Norseman wrote:BTW how exactly will Shepistan get aerial surveillance? Astaria and Shepistan doesn't have any connecting airlines.

It's called the RB-56. Before the One Week War; I had quite a big fleet of them, and did high altitude aerial surveillance of the globe, and so did everyone else. I mean, Stas has Tu-95s and IIRC, a T-4; of course he's going to cruise them just outside the 12 nm limit of everyone to take holiday snaps deep inside. Same goes for everyone else in the game.

So I've got a reasonably accurate set of maps of the world's coastal areas along with a lot of photographs taken of the world's coastal areas about several weeks apart, to help discern patterns (e.g. is this road or railroad busy?). I also imagine everyone else does too.

To be frank... what does he have he could realistically put against this?

1) Oyashio and Harsushio class SSKs. But to deploy submarines against an enemy, you should at least know where he's coming from. An enemy submarine lost in the ocean should first be found to be engaged. Not to mention that the SSK itself might not be silent enough to hide appropriately. Japanese subs aren't Kilos.

2) Surface ships - those hulks make so much noise that a special ops submarine won't get anywhere near them - it would detect them before they detect the submarine. Again, there's the problem of determining where from it comes, which is impossible. If you are deploying ASUW copters to protect say a 500 km order of battle of a CVBG, that's clear the sub will be coming from somewhere around that. But if you are deploying ASUW copters constantly, you'd be wasting lots of fuel.

3) ASUW planes. Sadly, Norseman doesn't have any of those. He can guide his fighters or tactical bombers to do it, but he doesn't have ASUW patrol planes.

If anything else failed, Shepistan could just get an agent in through South Velaria have him simply buy a roadmap. Really, if his objective was "kill random people", he wouldn't need much planning at all.

Of course, we again see Shepistan picking fights with the MESS

Though Astaria is a paranoid, isolationist country. Getting commandoes to the shore is one thing, but they still have to penetrate past coastal patrols and emplacements, and then back out again.

PeZook wrote:Of course, we again see Shepistan picking fights with the MESS

I certainly can't use items that scream "SHEPISTAN" behind, like ammo casings, uniforms, etc. I'm trying to build a relationship with the CSR; and am already tight with Japanistan; so I can't use guns from those countries. Shroomania, etc and IRT are too small an exporter for an international terrorist to bother with; so it's the MESS who has to be the fall guy.

Of course, we again see Shepistan picking fights with the MESS

Astaria is connected to the MESS? As for Shep's desire to disguise his guys as MESS-sponsored rebels - that's a pretty common action. In case Astaria starts asking questions, it will only meet a wall of strange looks from the MESS (do MESS nations even have any relations with a nation that has slaves and no internet)... a walll of ignorance and thus all ends would be cut loose.

PeZook wrote:If anything else failed, Shepistan could just get an agent in through South Velaria have him simply buy a roadmap. Really, if his objective was "kill random people", he wouldn't need much planning at all.

Of course, we again see Shepistan picking fights with the MESS

I don't see much point to the operation other than randomly killing people, and no Astaria won't do any inquiries with MESS about this, though BOSS reports from the region will be receive some additional scrutiny. There's not much that can be done about MESS though, it's not even a good target for propaganda operations.

In short something else will have to be done about this attack.

PeZook wrote:Though Astaria is a paranoid, isolationist country. Getting commandoes to the shore is one thing, but they still have to penetrate past coastal patrols and emplacements, and then back out again.

Indeed, that would also be a concern. Once more it could probably be done, but you'd need luck and a lot of training.

On a different note I have a couple of Soryu subs by now as well. I'd better look at getting ASUW patrol planes too at some point... It's just that submarines have so far been a secondary concern for obvious reasons.

Second Astaria does have an internet, it's just not connected up to that of the rest of the world.

MKSheppard wrote: I certainly can't use items that scream "SHEPISTAN" behind, like ammo casings, uniforms, etc. I'm trying to build a relationship with the CSR; and am already tight with Japanistan; so I can't use guns from those countries. Shroomania, etc and IRT are too small an exporter for an international terrorist to bother with; so it's the MESS who has to be the fall guy.

Well, if you wanted simple deniability, you'd have just used generic AKs

Though on the other hand, any intelligence agency worth its salt will instantly figure out that if the MESS did it (or sponsored the people who did), they'd have made sure to leave someone else's weapons behind.

Though if news about foreign sponsored terrorists gets out to Astarian society at large, my plan of "covertly funding the fuck out of abolitionists" will get yet another kick to the balls

Nuclear Submarine Reactor tips:
I've been recently tipped by the following fact. Not too many people know exactly what kind of a penalty a nuclear reactor operating with natural coolant circulation would have on the boat's speed or power. To make it simple, I've ran some calculations.

Soviet third-generation reactors (OK-650B and derivatives) installed on third-gen boats, especially 971 (Akula), 941 (Typhoon) and 949 (Oscar) classes (as well as 4th gen 885 Yasen/Granay and 955 Borei boats), were capable of performing under natural circulation at up to 30% nominal power (this important feature bolstered both safety and silent cruise capability).

Thirty percent out of a nominal 190 MWt, is around 57 MWt of power for the OK-650B running at natural circulation. It would also mean a speed penalty: for the Akula it would mean speed ~15 knots (~10 knots penalty is taken for each 30% of power). For the Yasen and Thyphoon, it would be ~10 knots top speed with natural circulation. Oscar-IIs would be capable of making ~12-13 knots tops on such a regime. Borei (955) submarine would be capable of ~9 knots tops, possibly even slower.

Dun dun DUNNNNN!

After a chase through two continents and an ocean, Oliver Gill is about to get his just desserts.

PeZook wrote:Dun dun DUNNNNN!

After a chase through two continents and an ocean, Oliver Gill is about to get his just desserts.

What you mean he's about to run away to a tropical paradise with his now adoring slave?

Seriously though yes, he's going to get what's coming to him. I also think that despite not involving any torture this latest post certainly reveals a new side to him.

Well, nice to see that bastard taken care of.

If my SNC colleagues have any questions about the CSR's strategy regarding Astaria (I would be amazed if they had none), they are free to inquire either in public or privately. There's a very cold rationale behind my actions.

edit: nevermind

Oh, stop teasing us and just get this over with, I wanna see the bastard dead.

By the way I should declare some assets now, which I cleared with Marina before she left, but which were never clarified:

III Army is in place in South Velaria, in addition the local reserves have been greatly enlarged to allow the local citizen population to replace lost soldiers from III Army.

A naval / airforce base established between Zakariyah and Aylaniyah. (Can't remember if I named it or not, call it Zakay Base).

The Velarian coastal railway which by now should have expanded into Zakariyah, if it hasn't reached my Zakay base already. It's been building over nearly two years, and Astaria has lots of labour and experience in the field.

2 divisions of marines operating from the Zakay base.

150K Askaris (native troops recruited from among the legal residents, service guarantees citizenship) have been raised as well. These are all volunteers from among an educated population, given proper training and equipment. It is admittedly a fairly light force, in that they lack large quantities of heavy equipment. However very well suited for the kind of warfare you find in Velaria. (Cleared with Marina but failed update my OoB yet).

In addition you have the Astarian Airforce, the local anti-slavery patrol, and lots of nice little Hind helicopters for when the skies are clear (e.g. free of enemy fighters).

At the very least enough to put up a proper fight, even against a formal attack, guerilla warfare even supported will take months to resolve in any way. So we'll see.

MariusRoi wrote:Alaska Will be holding a competition for a new Medium-Heavy Fighter to replace the F-101s and F-105s!

I'll need bids.

Dominion Lockheed would like to offer the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

Cascadia's Boeing can offer the ASF-10C Condor, Marius. Roughly comparable to the most advanced F-15 Eagle (as opposed to the Strike Eagles).

MariusRoi wrote:Alaska Will be holding a competition for a new Medium-Heavy Fighter to replace the F-101s and F-105s!

CSR is offering the Sukhoi Su-35BM. Beats most of competitors hands down. If you need a very modern fighter-bomber with an emphasis on "bomber" (with additional anti-ship capability), I can offer the Su-34.