Editing Mercenaries and planes (section)

=== V.Bout: "Ivy Serpent" ===
====Briefing====
*BlackFlag Internal Document
 #100329
*Mission Briefing
“Ivy Serpent”
*Deployment
Kitona
*Pancake
Kitona
*Alternate
Luanda (Angola)
*AAR
Il-78 Midas “Conoco” available
*AWACS
R-99 “Bird Dog” available
*CSAR
C-27J Available on request
*Contract Employer
Viktor Bout
*Objective
Locate and divert or render the UN fleet combat ineffective.
*Background
This one's pretty simple folks, we've got a request from another mercenary, arms dealer really, who needs to get some heat taken off his operation. I know you're all itching to go toe to toe with the Liberians, but we need to stay focused and generate liquidity. We're putting the Liberian situation on back burner, and letting the intel guys sniff around what's left of Pointe Noire, see if we can find out who hit you and why.

In the meantime, Bout has asked us to help him get some cargo through a joint UN/Interpol blockade. Currently, they have numerous small ocean going ships off the west coast of the continent, investigating all merchant traffic. Naturally, Bout is worried his latest shipment to some godforsaken hell hole is going to get snapped up by them. Your job will be to locate the main blockade, and draw it away from Bout's ships until they are clear, or disable the vessel's ability to pursue Bout's ships. On a side note, Bout asked for your squadron personally, you should consider a name for your flight so our marketing team can begin whipping up sale's proposals.

*HUMINT
The UN/Interpol blockade is a matter of public record, so our force analysis should be fairly accurate. The patrol is operating in a box roughly 400 miles off the coast, covering area that the local navies of the African coastal countries cannot secure.
*ELINT
Available on request
*SATINT
Sporadic cloud cover has rendered satellite intelligence useless.
*Air Assets
Lynx Helicopters
*Surface Assets
HNLMS Van Amstel (Dutch Frigate), HMDS Niels Juel and Olfert Fischer (Danish Corvette)
*Threat Assessment
High, these aren't third world warriors, but professional naval crews onboard modern weapon's platforms. They are highly skilled, and proficient. It may be best to attempt to divert their attention, rather then engage in open hostilities.
*ROE
Engage at will.

====Recap====
So, we figured it would be a good idea for everyone to load up on anti-ship missiles. We weren't sure about the air threat either. I took two Exocets, Scotch loaded two Sea Eagles, and Sandman went apeshit and spent tons getting two AGM-142s and four Bofors RBS15s. Biscuit loaded two AGM-142s. Hugs figured he'd be doing anti-air, and took nothing but missiles, six Alamos and four Archers. I took two new Sparrows, as did Biscuit and Scotch, in addition to new AIM-9s. We paid for the AWAACs and the tanker, so we wouldn't need buddy refueling, and someone could watch the skies. We also bought Elint, which turned out to be a boon, since we were able to determine that two of the ships were operating together, while the third corvette was separated, conducting boarding operations. We also found that there was a fourth UN ship, a hastily converted cargo ship, being used as a light helicopter carrier. We wanted to use the airliner thing again, but we were off the beaten path in terms of airliner flight paths, so that wasn't an option this time. Shipping wise though, there was a lot of traffic in the operations area. We departed, a bit wary, and flew out over the ocean, topping up our tanks with the Midas (we earned extra experience for that at least) and entered the operation area, with Hugs flying high, Scotch Biscuit and me huddled close, and Sandman loitering, prepping to drop to the deck.

When we arrived we were all cold, except for the AWAACS which loitered back about 150~200 miles. We had nothing on our threat receivers except from sporadic hits from surface based traffic avoidance radar. Within a minute we had a pretty good picture of where ships were, but we didn't know which was which, except for Bout's on their routes. We then got a call from the AWAACs, saying it had detected two targets, probably rotary, over the ocean. One was headed for the second of Bout's ships, and Bird Dog said ETA was about 10 minutes. Hugs turned and began a pursuit, but not cooking too much. The rest of us were in a heated discussion about the surface targets. We didn't want to fly to close to any of them, and we still had the element of surprise, since none of them had lit off their air radar yet, apparently content cruising on a simple anti-smuggling op. It also helped that we were doing this near dawn, so it was dark, and crews would hopefully be at their worst, prone to mistakes. Bird Dog called in, telling Hugs that he'd be in range for a missile shot about 3 minutes before the helicopter made it to Bout's ship, and did he want third party fire control (he'd upgraded the C3 on his flanker) because if not, he'd be too late intercepting the helicopter. On the other hand, fire control radar would wake up even the sleepiest of crews.

We waited, tense, for what seemed like a lot of turns, and then the ground situation was updated, and steve placed small lines on the map to show us the track of ships. Surprisingly, this helped, a lot of the traffic was North South, with only a few ships appearing to be going east west. Hugs called us on satlink (another upgrade so we could be even quieter with emissions) and asked us what we wanted, he was approaching Alamo range, but he could close further if we wanted. We decided to keep monitoring the ship positions, and told Hugs that if he could close, that would be better. The Sandman had a great idea, and maneuvered down to sea level, heading towards Bout's first boat, subsonic. The rest of us kept together, flying a slow line, watching events and listening on the radio that the AWAACs was patching to us via Satlink. We actually got a lot of useless transmissions (strips of paper that steve had in a box that he handed to us.) but eventually got one from the helicopter crew, telling their base ship they were overflying a random ship and dropping a flare, since their first transmission had no effect. Hugs was about a minute away.

Hugs saw the flare, highlighting the ship on the horizon, but also revealing the helicopter. Since he didn't particularly trust a heatseeker with massive search flare descending, he switched to guns, and did a long gun pass to try to ensure he nailed the helicopter the first time. He actually slowed when he heard the helicopter transmitting again, telling a Corvette they were boarding the frieghter. Their transmission stopped just in time, because Hugs came in, gun blazing. The heavy pass had the desired effect, apparently a Lynx doesn't deal with anti-aircraft cannon shells from a high cyclic gun very well. The helicopter detonated as it was ripped apart, dropping out of the sky into the sea beside the freighter, just before Hugs ripped over the deck, already turning in case he needed another pass. We heard some radio chatter, some ships were calling out they had heard what seemed like an explosion. The Corvette then began to try to contact their helicopter.

And then something unexpected happened.

Apparently Bout's people had been briefed that they had friendlies in the area, and let loose a broadcast on an open frequency that a low flying helicopter with no running lights had impacted one of their masts, destroying itself in the process. This got an immediate response, with the Corvette demanding details, and the “Slightly Russian” sounding smuggler replying that an 'incompetent crew flew into my radar mast, attempting an illegal boarding of my vessel.” The things started to get heated, as we noted one of the surface targets changing course drastically and speeding up, headin towards an intercept with the smuggling ship. ETA wasn't for a good 30 minutes though, although it was clear this was not good, especially when a Captain got on the radio from the military ship, as the smuggler kept up his rhetoric that the UN fleet was a bunch of pirates of the open water with no legal justification for their searches. The Captain didn't seem to like this, and ordered the freighter to stop and prepare for boarding.

Sandman decided that the time was right to try out what he had been thinking about doing (and not told us because he's like that) and triggered his radio. In his best slavic accent, he said over the open frequency, “Niels Juel this is Russian Cruiser Ustinov, that cargo ship is under the solemn protection of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia. Any further threats against him will be met with force of arms. You will reverse course immediately.” Stunned silence followed.

Then our threat warning receivers went crazy, as the Corvette lit off everything it had, as did the other two ships. We figured we were ok, since we were heading away from both groups, and were in tight formation, at altitude. I even popped on my transponder to further simulate an airliner. We were out of missile range since they only had sea sparrows, but still worried. Sandy wasn't though, he was low, and slow, creeping up on the lead ship in Bout's convoy. The Captain of the Niels Juel came back on, sounding slightly shocked, but firm “Ustinov, we are operating in accordance with joint UN/Interpol mandate 8920, which grants us authority to search and seize merchant vessels operating in this area. You will not threaten this vessel, or any other vessel in this task force as we conduct this operation. You can request more information and file a formal complaint with the UN through their mission in Angola” Sandy apparently didn't feel like doing the paperwork though, since he popped up over the freighter and pumped off his two Popeyes as he crossed the deck of the freighter, beginning a hard turn back the way he came, scarcely 100 feet off the ocean surface, while his right seater began flying the rockets toward the corvette.

Steve told us that the Danish captain was still talking about mandates over the radio when all sorts of alarms started in the background, along with calls of 'Vampires!” The radio cut off. The AWAACs called us, telling us that their was massive boost in ECM from the ship, as well as tons of passive 'chaff' that they were pumping into the air. The ship began launching Sea Sparrows in clusters, trying to take out the low flying missiles as they rose above the horizon. One of the sparrows downed one of the popeyes, but even last ditch stingers couldn't hit the other one, and it nailed the ship, Sandy's bombardier driving it right into the forward section. It caught something, probably a magazine, because at altitude, we saw the flash. It all happened quick enough that they hadn't had a chance to get off a return shot on Bout's freighter, which was now in the clear, as was the second. Sandy was heading outbound now, laughing like a madman, as we all discussed what to do next. There was a lot of encrypted signals that the AWAACs bird was trying to process, but, to our relief, the other two ships turned away, apparently not wanting to tangle with a cruiser captained by a lunatic who apparently had no qualms firing on other vessels.

Bird Dog then called us, saying the surface target south of us had just launched a helicopter, which was bad news for them since we now knew where the light carrier was. The helicopter was heading towards the burning wreckage about 60 miles south of it. We decided to leave it alone since it seemed to be on a rescue mission, but the light carrier was a threat, or more specifically, the helicopters it had. We agreed that I'd run the attack, and I broke off, turning to set up a quick exocet run. I wasn't too worried about detection, since the target wasn't radiating, and we were fairly far north now, near the edge of the task force coverage. I still dropped down, and then dumped both my exocets, before turning and climbing out, heading back to the group. Hugs was forming up with us as well. Sandy was loitering around to the east, as we relayed what the task force was doing, which seemed to be running parrallel to the convoy. And then it hit us, we weren't going to succeed, the ruse would be discovered, the UN force was simply shadowing the convoy now, and would doubtless note any course changes. Then the AWACS called saying it was detecting another helicopter, and Steve put down another marker. But this one came off another surface contact, not the one I had shot at. This one was far west, beyond the task force. The helicopter target also seemed to be heading towards the wreckage, but wouldn't arrive for over an hour.

That's when I got another transmission 'slip' from Steve. It was a helicopter from a luxury cruise ship, investigating the burning wreckage. I got a sinking feeling, I had no recall on the exocets. Fire and forget has downsides, this appeared to be one of them. No defensive fire came out of the ship, and both exocets raced into the stern, blowing massive rents into the Queen Victoria, a 90,000 or so ton cruise ship. Hugs, to his credit, separated from our group, and lit his burners, and began to make a beeline for the real carrier, going nose hot once he was clear from us. Then the bad news started to flow, with distress calls from the crippled cruise liner, stating they had suffered a tremendous explosion, and were on fire. Hugs plane almost melted from the amount of radar juice the task force was throwing at him. He got a firing solution on the enemy helicopter, staying away from the task force. The converted carrier was now turning away, and the task force was turning hard to rejoin with it. Hugs kept playing that game, keeping the helicopter locked with his massive radar, but not firing. He then proceeded south, at speed, as we circled to the east, staying clear of the task force which was rushing west now. The Queen Victoria continued to broadcast, stating the fire was spreading and they were abandoning ship. Several surface targets were turning to lend assistance, except for Bout's ships, which were leaving to the south east, essentially in the free and clear.

The radio transmissions were flooded with calls, but as we loitered, the task force turned again, heading back towards the cruise liner, to assist most likely, as their helicopter changed course for the cruise ship as well. We remained on station for another hour, cycling out to the Midas to sip a bit before returning, but Bout's ships were safe and beginning another turn to throw off any hopes of the task force catching them. We left the area, and returned to Kitona. When we landed, I told Steve that my cut of the mission pay was going to whatever charity was going to be set up for the cruise ship victims. Scotch did the same, as did Hugs.

Steve did the debrief as usual, but mentioned some things about what happened after. There was an investigation, but the Russians denied any involvement, since the Ustinov was tied up in port. Because of the ranges, there were no radar tracks of Russian surface search radar, nor of russian missiles. Several airborne targets were tracked, but none corresponded with the missile launch. Subsequent satellite overflights found nothing but merchantment in the area. The SU-27 radar however was logged, and posed a large question, what was a Flanker doing out over the ocean, and where did it come from? Again, fingers were pointed at the Russian's who denied it, donating hefty sums to victims of the cruise ship tragedy, and offering to supply ships to supplement the UN taskforce. The Queen Victoria caught fire, and eventually sank. Analysis of the wreckage will be difficult, due to the depth of the sea floor. The British are reviewing not only the radar tapes, but the safety and security procedures of the Cunard Cruise line. A charity was set up, which received international support, for the victims that died. Oh, and Viktor Bout's cargo got through, which apparently is good, since one whole ship was full of stuff for our merc outfit. The other stuff got dumped into hellholes, supplying third world bush wars and genocides. Steve really hammered home the point that though we succeeded, this wasn't really a 'win' in any sense of the word.

====Summary====

*Air Kills
**Hugs: 1 Lynx (Maritime)

*Air Incidentals
**None (the civil heli landed on the task force carrier deck.)

*Surface Kills
**Sandman: 1 Corvette Niels Juel

*Ground Incidentals
**Me: Queen Victoria Cruise Liner (482 dead, 1076 injured)

*Damage Taken
**None

We asked Steve about repercussions, and said that a lot of intel groups will be looking into it, but our PMC does a lot of work with friends in high places. We operated deceptively, and after the confusion, the investigation will continue, but most likely lead nowhere, with most theories being dismissed as 'conspiracy at best'.