Issue #31 October 2006 Table of Contents Product Updates Features The ship forms booklet for Dawn of the of requests for back issues. Looking back Three WW II US Subs Found 2 Rising Sun is on the street. For $28 you not over them, about 1/3 of each issue, relating German WW II Carrier Found 2 only get all the Form 10s you need to play to tactics or technology, is still worth The Attack on INS Hanit 3 any of the scenarios in DoRS, the booklet reading. New Chinese Warships 5 includes a CD-ROM with all the forms So we’ve collected all the good stuff FG&DN Scenario: Encounter 7 stored as PDFs. from each issue, made a few very small edits CaS Scenario: Midway Variant 8 H4 Scenario: Falklands Carrier Duel 20 Now that Bill’s done with the DoRS to follow up points in some of the articles, Modern-Day Camouflage 21 forms booklet, he’s going to restart Dave and bound it into a 54-page booklet: New Naval Aviation Resource 21 Arnesen’s Biplanes & Battleships project. The Best of GDW’s SITREP. It’s New Trilogy Forum 21 Before Viking Forge and Clash of Arms available now for $20, with the price going Italian Guided 76mm Round 23 published the Naval SITREP, now-defunct up to $25 after December 31st. Big Ship Sinkings 31 Game Designers’ Workshop published the As far as new products, all our Harpoon SITREP. It was sixteen pages long development effort is focused on the Trilogy Rules Changes & Clarifications and supported the first game in what would harmonization, ensuring consistency across CaS Consolidated Bombing Table 10 become the Admiralty Trilogy. Published all three game systems and the entire 20th Air Combat in the Admiralty Trilogy 12 Q&A: Withdrawing from Battle 21 quarterly, we printed 20 issues (1990 - 95) Century. The results of this show up in the Smoothing the Curve: A New Damage before GDW folded and I had to find a new air combat and bombing tables and the new Point Formula 22 home for the game as well as the newsletter. damage point formula in this issue. Check Q&A: Low Vis Effects on EO Seekers 23 Like the Naval SITREP, it provided a out the new dogfight rules. Not only are Resolving Large Air Battles 24 mix of technology and game system-related we making the rules consistent, we’re also CaS AA Combat Resolution Table 27 articles, as well as scenarios. Surprisingly, making them simpler. Annex H3 Aircraft Guns 28 Charlie Spiegel has received a steady stream BT Sighting Through Clouds 30

Departments Product Updates 1

Cover: Photo NH 97484, F4F Wildcat fighters in formation in mid-1943, colorized by irotooko_jt. US Navy

Editor’s Note: I deeply apologize for the lateness of this issue. Getting the air combat rules and all the associated material right has taken all summer and fall, much longer than we had planned. We believe this will be a big change for the better, but it was a much larger task than we had anticippated. Larry Bond

A note on spelling: A recent issue of Warship International (V41#3) includes an article by a Japanese naval historian. He states that a more correct spelling of the class names “Kagero” and “Yugumo” is “Kagerou” Chief Fire Controlman Andy Doty has been a Trilogy designer roughly forever. Here’s Andy and “Yuugumo.” We use these at the Hillsboro Air Show. Yes, that is a M249 SAW. Andy is: spellings in the Midway scenario on 1) Demonstrating a new way of resolving rules disputes. page 8, and will use these spellings in 2) Tired of waiting in line. future publications. Andy will be retiring at the end of this year after 24 years of service. Congratulations, and thank you!

The Naval SITREP is edited by Larry address, and phone number.The Admiralty Chris Carlson, and Ed Kettler. Fear God & Bond andSample is published biannually by the Trilogy is a registered trademark of Larry Dread Noughtfile is a registered trademark of Admiralty Trilogy Group (AdmiraltyTrilogy. Bond, Chris Carlson, Ed Kettler, and Mike Larry Bond, Chris Carlson, Ed Kettler, and com). Price per digital issue is $3.00 US. Harris. Harpoon is a registered trademark of Mike Harris. Article contributions should be sent to Larry Bond and Chris Carlson. Command at [email protected]. Include name, postal Sea is a registered trademark of Larry Bond, ©2015 The Admiralty Trilogy Group

Naval SITREP Page 1 Issue #31 October 2006 Three WW II US Subs Found German WW II

Three US submarines sunk during Carrier Found WW II have been located this year. While none of the discoveries reveal any secrets A Polish oil exploration company, or solve any mysteries, they are important Petrobaltic, has discovered the hulk of KM discoveries both for the families of those left Graf Zeppelin in the Baltic. Discovered in behind and for the men still on patrol. early July, the wreck was examined by the USS Lagarto (SS-371) was first, Polish Navy for two days. They reported discovered by commercial fishermen in that its dimensions and unique external May 2005. She was lost sometime after 3 features exactly matched the German WW May 1945, in an action with the Japanese II carrier. The announcement was made on minesweeper Hatsuka. She was found in 27 July. the Gulf of Thailand off the east coast of Although launched in 1938, Graf the Malay peninsula. Her identity was Zeppelin was never completed. She was confirmed by US Navy divers in May of scuttled in shallow water at Stettin in 1945 2006. as the Red Army approached. A much more famous submarine, USS The Soviets raised her and used the Wahoo (SS-238) was found on 17 August hulk to carry war booty back to Russia. 2006 in the La Perouse straits. One of the Once there, they may have attempted to most successful submarines of the war, repair her (at a minimum, they surveyed captained by Commander Dudley “Mush” her to see if it was feasible), but gave up the Morton, she was lost in action with enemy Wahoo in 1942. attempt. antisubmarine forces on 11 October 1943. US Navy In 1947, she was sunk as part of an A Russian search team was looking anticarrier warfare exercise. The Soviets for one of their own subs, L-19, when so that locating sunken warships, while still never revealed her location. they found Wahoo. Her identity has been difficult, is no longer extraordinary. She lies 55 kilometers off the Polish confirmed based on US records, but nobody All three subs were lost to enemy depth coast in eighty-plus meters of water. There has investigated the wreck. charging. While there is a tendency to are no plans to raise the vessel, and by At almost the same time, the wreck of disparage Japanese WW II ASW, it was still international law, ownership of the sunken USS Grunion (SS-216) was discovered on a threat, and even a boat as good as Wahoo warship passes to Germany. 16 April 2006, by an ocean survey company could be lost to it. The website www.spiegel.de/ hired by family members of Grunion’s None of the subs will be raised. All international/1,1518,428857,00.html skipper. She was on her first patrol near the have been declared war graves, and their has the best images of the carrier under Aleutians when she was lost to enemy action exact location is being kept secret by the US construction and after her discovery. BT on 30 July 1942. Navy. It is illegal to even dive on the wreck, The three subs were discovered by much less go inside or take anything from different means: commercial fishing, it. accidental discovery, and deliberate search. Fifty-two US subs were lost during the As Bob Ballard has shown, sonar and war. Lagarto had 86 men aboard her, Wahoo underwater robot technology has progressed 79, and Grunion 70. For their families, “lost” doesn’t have the same meaning now. Images of the subs and their discovery are available at www.navsource.org/archives. Details about US subs that were sunk can be found at www.oneternalpatrol.com and www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq39-1.htm Thanks to Bruce Abele and Michael Mohl for their assistance on this article. SampleBT file Sonar image of Grunion taken 17 August 2006 lying on her starboard side at about a Graf Zeppelin at her launch 45° angle. on 8 December 1938 US Navy Bundesarchiv Naval SITREP Page 2 Issue #31 October 2006 The Attack on INS Hanit - Is Stealth the Best Defense?

by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson Given that intelligence dropped the While there are IR guided and On July 14th, in the opening days of ball (gee, when has that ever happened?) the millimeter wave radar variants of the C701 the - conflict, INS Hanit only big question is why didn’t the missile reportedly in the works, China has not (Hebrew for “spear”), a Sa’ar V class missile hit destroy Hanit? displayed either of these at any arms shows. , was struck by an antiship missile The shooters must have thought they An Iranian website, however, recently fired from the Lebanese coast. The unit had a sure thing. They’re probably still claimed that Iran had the IR-guided variant firing was not Hezbollah, but Pasdaran - scratching their heads and kicking each in their inventory and fired some during Iranian Revolutionary Guards. other. a recent exercise. Still, the humidity just The most likely weapon used was an When the missile detonated, it started a off the Lebanon coast would have had a Iranian-assembled Chinese C802 antiship fire on the flight deck, knocked out steering, significant impact on the seeker’s ability to cruise missile, called a Noor. The major propulsion, and blew four of the crew find a ship with a VSmall signature. components are manufactured in China, overboard, killing them all. But why didn’t Thirdly, the location that open sources then assembled in Iran. Various sources a missile with a 36-damage point warhead claim is where Hanit was hit is in reality describe the Noor as a “modified” C802, sink a ship with only 40 damage points? one of the ship’s diesel exhausts - hence the but these modifications are minimal, most Some people think it was a smaller dark soot around the hole. It is visible in the likely painting Farsi over the Chinese missile. Many websites and blogs show a top photo on the next page, midships at the labeling. picture of a Sa’ar V with a small hole aft waterline. The Israelis claim that the missile covered with black soot and claim this was Fourth, a C701 still inflicts 20 damage launchers were supplied with targeting data the hit location for an Iranian-made C701 points, exactly half of Hanit’s total rating. from Lebanese military coastal surveillance missile. This is unlikely for the following There would have been a much larger radars. This is possible, but the firing unit reasons: hole, something not confused with a diesel could also launch on bearing only if the First, the range at time of fire (about 20 exhaust. Look at the photo of Buchanan target’s location was obtained visually, from km) is beyond the listed range of a C701. below to see what we mean. UAVs or human spotters in boats. This is given as 15 km (8.1 nm) by Chinese These points present a considerable Two missiles were fired in a high-low websites and brochure data. The missile challenge to the any suggestion that Hanit combination. The first missile overflew has a longer range (18-20 km) when air- was hit by a C701. Hanit, then flew toward and locked onto an launched. And one final point. Hanit got Egyptian coaster 40 km farther out, sinking Secondly, the C701 is a TV-guided underway three weeks after the attack. The the hapless vessel. The crew of 12 survived weapon - the attack took place soon after only external signs of the attack were a and were rescued. dark, about 2000 hours by most newspaper/ missing hangar door and helicopter crane, Salvo firing of anti-ship missiles is a blog accounts, and with the haze in the and areas of fresh paint. This ship would not standard tactic against ships with missile Mediterranean during this time of year, an be getting underway so soon if she had been defenses. Hanit has a good number of hard attack by an optically guided weapon at the hit close to the waterline by a missile - even and soft-kill defenses - they just weren’t used ranges discussed is virtually impossible. a C701 with a 29 kg warhead! in this case, but Hezbollah wouldn’t know that - so a shoot-shoot attack would be typical. A single C802 TEL can carry up to three missiles. The first missile may have missed Hanit because of her low radar cross section. Although rated overall as VSmall, the hull may actually be Stealthy, with some fixtures, discussed below, increasing the net size of that signature. The second missile did lock on Hanit and detonated. Hanit is fitted with both Phalanx and Barak point defense systems, as well as a potent ECM and decoy suite. By rights, she should have handily shot down both missiles, but her weapons were on hold because ofSample the intense Israeli aircraft activity file in the area. Intelligence had described the threat of attack from land as limited to USS Buchanan (DDG-14), a C.F. Adams class destroyer with 103 damage points, after it was artillery. If missiles had been suspected, hit by a 40-point Harpoon missile during a SINKEX. A C802 would do about the same damage Hanit would have been much farther out if it struck the hull. The smaller hole to the right was made by a Hellfire (5 damage points). from shore. Naval SITREP Page 3 Issue #31 October 2006 In this engagement, a less than typical missile hit inflicted fewer damage points than rated, but still caused several crippling critical hits. The problem is that to model this type of hit in the game, we’d not only have to add rules for hit location, which we’ve always resisted, but also warhead behavior based on that location, and individual seeker behavior, which we don’t even want to attempt. It’s possible that with enough work, we could mimic this result. We don’t believe the resulting rules would be playable. BT

INS Hanit some time before the attack. Note the crane on the port side of the helicopter hangar. This complex shape may have had a greater radar cross-section than the rest of the ship combined.

In fact, the missile does not appear to have hit the hull at all. Nor does it appear to Relative sizes of the C701 (top) and C802 (bottom) missiles have hit the hangar or any other part of the deckhouse. Too much of it is still around and there is no evidence of any damage inside the hangar. And yet this is the area where all Israeli newspapers say the missile went off, causing a fire, loss of propulsion and steering, and causing four deaths. In short, the damage is not consistent with a hit from a medium-size cruise missile. This is very strange, considering that a hit from a C802-sized missile would leave a very noticeable mark (remember Buchanan?). So here is a hypothesis: could the attacking missile have actually hit the hefty- looking crane which is completely missing in the photo of Hanit after the repairs? The “repaired” hull section on the port side is in about the right place and the Note Missing flimsy hangar door would not be able to Crane resist the blast pressure. Fragments from the warhead would easily penetrate the flight deck and cause damage below decks; where the steering gear and auxiliary machinery spaces would be located. This isn’t a special case of the missile inflicting a “grazing” hit. There’s no such thing for a radar seeker. If it locks, it heads for the center of the radar echo. While the hull is stealthy, the crane is not, and may have actually provided the strongest radar return to the missile’s seeker. From the seeker’s point of view, it scored a bulls-eye by hittingSample the crane. file This is “the exception that proves the rule.” When that expression was coined, “prove” meant “to test.” INS Hanit getting under way three weeks after the attack. Note the lack of a crane visible in the photo above. Naval SITREP Page 4 Issue #31 October 2006 New Chinese Warships

Two new Chinese warship classes have helped the PLAN continue its modernization program. The second of two Russian- built Sovremennyy variants was delivered to the PRC in September. This makes a total of four: the two earlier Project 956E and the second pair, Project 956EMs. Compared to the earlier Sovremennyys, they have incremental improvements, but they are useful. The AK-630 30mms have been replaced by Kashtan (export Kortik) CIWS, the 65-nm 3M80E Moskit-M missiles have been replaced with the 3M80MVE Moskit with a range of 108 nm. The aft twin 130mm mount has been removed to make room for a larger helicopter deck, and a second radome aft covers a Positive-ME1 radar, used with the Kashtans. Sa’ar 5 FFL The first of the pair (hull 138) is named Taizhou. The name of Displacement: 1075 std In Class: 3 the second, hull 139, has not been announced. Acoustic Counterm: 2nd Gen Twd In Service: 1997 The second new class is much smaller, but is impressive. Electronic Counterm: 3rd Gen J&D ESM: 3rd Gen First seen in the spring of 2004, the stealthy fast attack craft is a Propulsion: CODOG/CPP Crew: 74 Size Class: Small Signature: VSmall/Quiet wave-piercing catamaran, allowing high speed, while its waterjet Weapons: ROF propulsion lets it operate in extremely shallow water. This is not PB&PQ/SB&SQ(4)2 Mk141 w/4 Harpoon (8) D/USA only a requirement for China’s shallow coastal areas, but allows F&A(32)2 Barak w/32 msls//2 EL/M-2221 (4) D it to use the coastline for concealment against a more powerful F(R)1 Mk15 Phalanx w/5 bursts C/USA PB/SB(3)2 Mk32 324mm TT w/3 Mk46 Mod 5 F/USA opponent. P/S(1)2 Oerlikon 20mm/70 C/Switz. Designated the Type 022, few specifications are publicly P/S(1)4 7.62mm MG C/Switz. available. Displacement will be small, speed will be high. The only Aft Pad(1)1 AS.365G Dauphin B visible armament is the single AK-630 forward, but SSMs of some Sensors: SPS-55 J/USA type will certainly go inside the stealthy housings aft. The housings ADMR (EL/M-2228-S) J could be for YJ-82 or YJ-83 missiles, but there are no launch ports EDO 796 Mod 1 K/USA or doors, so the missile armament is speculative at this point. EL-OP MSIS (3rd Gen IR) - The Chinese are building these in numbers. Photos of at least Remarks: Eilat, Lahav, Hanit. Reduced acoustic, IR, radar signature. Radar sig- six in one place have been posted on the web (see page 7), and more nature reduced by the use or RAM, inclined superstructure. Fitted with than one shipyard appears to be constructing the class. Over sixty of Prairie-Masker, rafted machinery. Diesel exhausts discharge underwater, the Type 021 [Osa/Huangfeng] were built, and China needs a lot of IR suppressors on uptakes. Special damage modifier of -15% for alumi- small craft for its islands and coastline. num superstructure. El/M-2221 arcs are PB&PQ/SB&SQ. Phalanx can provide guidance for Barak missiles or direct own gunfire. Not fitted with By the way, Takara makes a prebuilt, prepainted 1/700 model planned PB&SB(1)8 Gabriel II due to concerns over topweight. Provision of this vessel, complete with splinter camouflage. Look for it on for third EL/M-2221 director with Aft arc and Coris-TAS towed array. ebay. Damage & Speed Breakdown: BT Dam Pts: 0 10 20 30 36 40 Surf Speed: 33 25 17 8 0 Sinks

The C802Sample is the export version of the Chinese Yingji-8. It entered file Iranian service in 1993, but was never adopted by the PLAN. It has a 2nd Generation I/TARH seeker. It has a 4.3 - 65 nm range with a seaskimming flight profile. It has a 165 kg warhead, inflicting 37 The first Type 022 seen, hull 2208 damage points. www.sinodefence.com

Naval SITREP Page 5 Issue #31 October 2006 Russian Project 956EM DDG Displacement: 6500 std In Class: 2 Acoustic Counterm: 2nd Gen twd In Service: 2006 Electronic Counterm: 3rd Gen J&D ESM: 2nd Gen Propulsion: Steam Crew: 296 Size Class: Medium Signature: Small/Noisy Weapons: ROF PB&SB(4)2 3M80MVE w/4 Sunburn //1 Band Stand, 2 Light Bulb (6) D/Russia F/A(1)2 Yozh [SA-N-7b] w/24 Grizzly//6 Orekh (7) D/Russia P/S 2 Kashtan [CADS-N-1] w/48 Grison & 15 bursts//2 Hot Flash (8) C&D/Russia P/S(6)2 RBU 1000 w/5 salvoes E/Russia Aft Pad(1)1 Ka-28 Helix A B F(2)1 AK-130 130mm/54// 1 MR-145 Lev [Kite Screech] C/Russia P/S(2)2 533mm TT w/2 SET-65MKE F/Russia Sensors: MR-760 Fregat MA [Top Plate B], Mineral-ME J/Russia Multiple Type 022s at Qiuxin Shipbuilding Factory at Shanghai 3 Volga [Palm Frond], Positiv-ME1 J/Russia www.datviet.com MG-335EM (Hull array only) K/Russia Remarks: Taizhou and hull 139. New-build units ordered by PRC. Fitted with RAM to reduce signature. Aluminium superstructure, special damage modifier of Type 022 PTG -15%. Special damage modifier of -10% for Russian surface ship design. Displacement: 400 est In Class: 6 + ? No ASW weapon storage. Kashtan CIWS hybrid mount has twin 30mm Acoustic Counterm: None In Service: 2004 rotary cannon and eight Kortik [SA-N-11 Grison] missiles reloaded from Electronic Counterm: None ESM: ? 48-round magazine. 30mm are fired together and rolled as one shot. Propulsion: Diesel (est) Crew: ? Damage & Speed Breakdown: Size Class: Small Signature: Stealthy/Quiet Dam Pts: 0 37 75 112 134 149 Weapons: ROF Surf Speed: 32 24 16 8 0 Sinks PB&SB(3)2 SSM, possibly YJ-82 or YJ-83 (?) D F(R)1 AK-630 30mm//1 EO director C/Russia Sensors: Type 364 Seagull C, Type 756 J Remarks: Wave-piercing catamaran hull, reduced signature. Waterjet propulsion. First observed Apr 04. Possible all aluminum construction, special damage modifier of -25%, multihull, special damage modifier of -25%. Damage & Speed Breakdown: Dam Pts: 0 3 6 8 10 11 Surf Speed: 33 25 17 8 0 Sinks

Differences between the Project 956E units (above) and the newer 956EM (below) www.sinodefense.com Sample file

Naval SITREP Page 6