123023 PRE-BRIEF

Good Morning Guys, Hope everyone enjoyed their leave if they took it.

For those of you who were paying attention to the reports out of the CVI, You’re probably aware that there was a full on breakout from Sevastopol earlier in the week. Our Friends in the Sixth Air Force were kind enough to cue us in on some of the targets in that formation. All in all, we’re looking at 7 Frigates, 2 Cruisers, and the grand prize one Project Orlan Battlecruiser. Now the big man upstairs, when he heard that he started salivating. so he had VP-11 go rig the ships. So what we know now is that that small fleet weighed anchor in Novorossiysk, and is just sitting there until it can get underway again. No one wants to waste the opportunity so we’re going in. We’re not just gunning for the ships, we’re aiming for the Port, The Shipyard, the Airfield, the whole 9 yards. They will have SAMs, they will have Fighters, and those ships are gonna do ok at protecting themselves, so this is an Alpha Strike. We’re throwing everything we can at this fight.

The part we’re gonna struggle with is actually holding Novorossiysk. Obviously we can bomb the crap out of the target, but if they can repair the site in any meaningful way then it won’t matter. Now, with that being said, we do have a solution. MEU2 has put forward a plan to capture and hold the Airfield for at least 2 weeks, which will allow our forces at Tuapse to roll in and take Gelendzhik. This should leave us a direct uncontested corridor to Krasnodar.

The name of the game here is violence of action, so we don’t have to get em in one go but we do have to keep up the pressure Now, this is going to be a real bastard to pull off, but we can do it if we follow the plan. In order to function on this op, we need a minimum of 3 packages with an option for more. Good news is even with our reduced roster we should be fine. Our absolute most critical are Package 1A for CAP (that’s our Cats), Package 1B and 3A (That’s SEAD, anti Ship, and Ground Attack), and 2C which will drop in the Marines.

Now some of our packages are operating as bastard squadrons. For starters you can thank the morons at 232 who decided it was a good Idea to split between a forward deployed and a group on the boat. I’m not here to rag on the Marines all day though so for everyone else, coordinate with your flight leads as best you can and be careful with your formations. You may have also noticed that we’ll be using phase codes for this Alpha, and I recommend you pay attention to your kneeboard for that. It’ll roll pretty simple, but keep one ear on the TACCOM so you know whats up. The bigger thing is gonna be all about makin sure that the important info is passed up. So if ya see some fighters, you’re gonna wanna come up over the radio and call Sea Chub. And you wanna make sure your lead passes that. So Toc will hear Sea Chub and we’ll act accordingly, but that’s how we’ll do it. I know this sounds like we’re over briefing for this, but it’ll be one hell of a alpha, so let’s cross our Ts and dot our Is.

One more note on that, because of Salmon’s a little tricky. Salmon is what we’re gonna call before we kick off. Now we have Sochi right now. We’re betting on continuing to have Sochi for the time being. So before we even really kick off, basically right after we brief, a lot of you guys in Package 3, Package 2, you’re gonna move out to Sochi. Arm up. Refuel. Do what ya gotta do and then the Package 1 guys will come meet up with ya. Now when the flight is in the air, formed up, and we’re all sitting in the stack you want to check in. When everyone is checked in as fragged, then we call Salmon and we move out. Now if you need to swap your weapons or rearm, just roll back to Sochi, no need to run all the way home.

Cargo. Lets talk Cargo, We got 2 C-130s, they’re gonna be behind the formation, but they will not move into the threat zone until after Jellyfish. Cargo bros, LOAD YOUR ASS UP WITH TROOPS. Troops and IFVs, we’re gonna play hard and heavy. I don’t want you to fly risk adverse, but use caution, and no unnecessary risks.

In terms of threats, we have 3 big killers. We have the SA-5 that is probably gonna be what we go after as soon as we call Crab. There’s an SA-2 which is by the airfield, and that’s a problem but it should be simple enough to knock out so crush that second. Then we have our Priorities. The most up to date that we have right now is 2 Slava classes, one of which is in the bay. Im not fuckin with ya. You want to turn that bay slava into a reef as soon as you can, cause they have those SA-10s onboard. The other scary nightmare that’s keeping me up at night is the Orlan. That Orlan can swat us out of the sky if we’re stupid. The Admiral will probably buy you a bottle of top shelf whiskey if you down it though, so ya know. It’s the Midway play today. We are applying the principle of calculated risk. Just don’t be stupid, cause I wanna celebrate with everyone tonight. Those are your priorities, but those frigates are good shootin too.

Alright so that’s the plan. You guys have done hundreds of ops just like this, we just added a couple extra bits. Stick to your procedures, trust but verify. Just proper good practices. You’ll all do great. Questions, comments concerns, come find me, and the rest will be a blast.