AndrewJ
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I had a little time at the end of the weekend for a short scenario, and this fit right in.
With word of belligerent Soviets in the area, our ships were ordered to form up into a tight task group, while the Atlantique took off to reconnoitre the area. Its powerful radar immediately detected a number of local fishermen, and a group of four ships coming up from the south at 13 knots. A visual reconnaissance quickly confirmed these to be the Soviets: a Sovremenny, a Kara, a landing ship, and an oiler. The Sovremenny is definitely the worst of the lot, with good SAMs and nasty supersonic long-range ASMs which greatly outperform my feebler Exocets. They've got a helicopter up too, hunting with its radar.
My ships turn and head north, trying to stay out of radar range as long as possible, while our Atlantique lays down a series of sonobuoy lines and retires to high altitude to monitor the situation. Apparently there's a Soviet sub of some sort in the area, and we might catch it in transit. Our oiler detaches and is sent NNW at high speed. It has no place in a fight, and the sooner it's out of here the better. As time passes we get pushed north to the extreme end of our area, up near Kamsar. At least the water here is very shallow, which means it's unlikely the sub is in the area.
Some hours pass, but eventually I either have to retire totally, and abandon the area, or admit that I'm going to be detected by the helicopter. We elect to stay, and the Soviets keep coming north, knowing full well where we are. By 8:00 in the morning we're well within their ASM range, and nearly in SAM range, and that's just too close. Our group moves at high speed west and then south, skirting the northbound Soviets. This pushes me out of my assigned AO, but the admiralty's just going to have to live with that.
At 8:30, the loitering Atlantique suddenly gets a hit on one of its passive sonobuoys down south. It's a slow-moving Charlie, creeping along at 5 knots, and the Atlantique sets up a series of buoys in its path as it monitors the sub's progress. Unfortunately, our ships are skirting south and then east around the northbound Russians, and that's going to put them well within the Charlie's missile range. The commodore orders the Lynxes to switch over to ASW loadouts (instead of the dubiously effective AS-12s), in case they have to take over surveillance when the Atlantique leaves in a few hours.
At 10:15 our eastbound ships are behind the northbound Russian task group, and only 17 miles from the Charlie, when torpedoes are suddenly detected in the water. We're not even remotely in torpedo range, but one of the local fishing boats is, and it vanishes in a booming cloud of spray. The Atlantique stoops down from high altitude, and quickly sinks the Charlie with a torpedo of its own.
The main Soviet task group is still headed north towards Kamsar, and our ships turn and hurry in pursuit, while one of the Guinean MiG-17s makes passes over the Russian ships, which seem to tolerate the intruder. Eventually it manages to gun down the helicopter which is on radar picket duty, and is promptly shot down by a single SAM. Interestingly, this means my ships are no longer on Soviet radar, and they accelerate northwards at flank speed.
The Soviets are closing on Kamsar, but I'm not certain if they're actually going to be able to bombard shore targets. The little Guinean patrol boat Shershen makes a high speed dash towards the enemy ships, but that's suicidal, and it is soon sunk by gunfire. Shortly after noon the Soviets prove their intent when the lead destroyer opens fire on shore facilities. We immediately salvo all of our Exocets at the group, eight at each of the warships, and are rewarded by at least one hit on the cruiser, and several hits on the destroyer, which rolls over and sinks, ending the bombardment for the moment. However, the wounded cruiser is still advancing, and will soon be in range to resume the shelling.
Fortunately, our Jaguars arrive first, roaring in at sea-skimming height, and popping up and salvoing AS-30s at the cruiser. Three more hits manage to sink damaged ship, and then they swing around to use their second shot on the landing ship. It too explodes and sinks, leaving only the oiler which comes to an indecisive stop. Our task group arrives an hour or so later, and shells it until it sinks.
Vive la France! Victory is ours, for the moment, but who knows what the Soviets will do next?
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France Goes to Conakry, 1984 - 
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