Politics of War and Air Operations

In Shlomo Aloni’s book Israeli A-4 Skyhawk Units in Combat I read two interesting points about the air campaign over Lebanon in 1982. The first is just the numbers of A-4s that were available for Close Air Support (CAS) missions once the SAM batteries were suppressed. The aircraft often ended up flying a racetrack route waiting to be called. Units with an FAO will be able to call in a lot of airpower, within the rules of engagement. I am sure this will make many IDF players happy playing that side. An A-4 can bring a lot of ordinance. I can see there will be an offset in victory conditions to balance that out.

The second item was the impact of the War Cabinet on Operation Peace in Galilee in general and the air campaign in particular. I knew that in 1981 (pre Peace in Galilee) two Mi-8s were shot down by an order given by the cabinet. They made the decision and than afterwards tried to reopen debated. The IDF/AF Officer had to inform the cabinet that the order was already carried out and the two helicopters were shot down. This was all done in less than a half an hour.

What this book pointed out to me was that the ground and air operations were started and stopped as the War Cabinet debated Mole Cricket 19, the SEAD mission against the 19 known Syrian SAM batteries. This was going to expand the war even though the IDF and Syrian forces were already shooting at each other.  This would be an interesting addition to any campaign or scenario design. In a campaign game, as the IDF player is marshalling his or her forces, they will need War Cabinet approval to move forward while also racing against the clock to complete the campaign before a United Nations ceasefire is imposed. All makes for an interesting game.

Book Review - Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat

Recently, I purchased a MiG-19 on a whim. It was a good price and the arms race going on in Lebanon 1982 was heating up as Mark was showing off his A-4. So in defense the pro-Syrian side purchased the MiG-19. My total knowledge of this MiG came from the Internet. And while much of the information on Wikipedia is good (better than nothing) I was looking for even more. Osprey having in general good monographs, I purchased Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat by David Nicolle and Tom Cooper.

On first reading through this short work I was disappointed. As I was trying to put this post together I reread many of the sections and my opinion improved.

I find the book to have two key strengths. The book is a rare find as it is coming from the Arab/Egyptian point of view. As little is written about either the Egyptian or Syrian air forces this book is an asset to anyone interested in the Arab Israeli Wars from 1967 to the present. I assume that if I read Arabic I may have a better chance finding sources on their militaries. While many of the reported air-to-air battles are sketchy in the book they do allow a gamer to set up historical battles to game. I look forward to using these for a Bag the Hun meets Bag the MiG.

Unfortunately the books weaknesses were more academic. There are no maps so figuring were the airfields are located is a problem. There are also no notes on sources. While this is common for many of the Osprey publications I find that this subject is so unique that they really need to be there.

The authors also start out with the thesis that the Arab/Egyptian forces did better than what was reported in the West. Their lack of documentation and possible charts make it difficult to determine if they proved their point. I do understand they Arab/Egyptian units were very brave as it takes courage to take off in a jet while your airfield is under attack. The Arab/Egyptian were also not help in many ways by their Soviet allies.

While they labor the points that Israel claims of losses to AAA were really lost to Syrian or Egyptian fighters, it does not reverse the fact that the losses were weighed heavily towards the Arab/Egyptian forces. Also the US in Vietnam had similar problems with reports on reasons for losses.

Over all I am happy with the purchase as it fits a hole in my collection. I hope when the authors release their book on MiG-15 and MiG-17 units that there will be improvements.

A Problem with Syrian Airpower

Found an interesting problem with Syria using their newest toy. The HOT missile used by Syria had a range of over 4,000 meters. That means the Gazelle can be, in game scale, over to 32 meters away from their targets. This makes the picture clearer to me, as when they were used against the armored columns in Lebanon the IDF assumed the missile strikes were coming from Sagger positions as they never saw the helicopters. It also appears the neither did the IAF. Often the column would send out patrols to find troops that were not there.

While it was reported that Syria was using the HOT missile, they also had the AS-12 when they received their first batch of Gazelles. They had even a longer range of 8,000 meters.

So in our next game Mark I will set up my Gazelle across the street from your house, and at Cold Wars, it will be set up in the restaurant next to the breakfast bar.

Pictures from the Second Battle in Lebanon

These are the images for the battle we fought on Thursday evening. It was an action between Mark and myself.

Looking over the expanded town. We have to remember to remove the beer bottle next time.

The remains of a Syrian tank taken out by the IAF greet the IDF.

Here is the column working its way into town.

Here we see a command M113 with an officer directed the column to a new objective. Finding an IAF pilot.

Here the led Magach is taken out by fire from this building. Fire came from all four floors. There were four RPG shoots and a recoilless rifle.

Unfortunately (for my militia) the IDF cleared the building floor by floor. While the IDF lost an entire tank crew, the infantry was able to clear the entire building with only losing three soldiers. The militia was less luckily, losing sixteen men, one of which was their Big Man.

While the IDF did recover the pilot (working on a figure for that) the losses were heavy. We are still working through using Charlie Don't Surf. While I like the rules Mark and Doc Mercury point out the need for sooooooo many dice. I will work on the AAR from our Saturday game tomorrow. 

Thank you for visiting.

It is even less safe now.

While it appears it will be difficult (or very expensive) to find or build a SA-2 there are still a great deal of assets that Syria and its proxies can use. Some of which I already have (or could get). 

From QRF is the ZU23-2 a towed twin 23mm anti-aircraft gun. This piece of firepower has been around since the early 1960s and is still in production.

Peter Pig has the ZPU-1 with is a 14.5mm machine gun that is still seen in Middle East conflicts today.

The ZPU-4 (also by Peter Pig) is a four barrel version with 14.5mm machine guns. With an effective altitude of over 4,500 feet both of these guns can cause havoc on low flying aircraft and helicopters (not to mention troops and buildings).

What troops want to be without some protection. Not everyone has an air force like the IAF. For those troops traveling light there is always the SA-7.  Here is the SA-7 by QRF. Used since the War of Attrition while not always lethal it is effective at protecting targets by reducing  the pilot's accuracy.