COMMAND: Northern Inferno Scenario 14: Needle in a Haystack

Introduction
With Iceland back under NATO control, the remnants of the Soviet forces are slowly been mopped up or have surrendered to USMC forces.
The Soviet Premier Brezhnev has now ordered Soviet strategic nuclear forces to a high state of readiness, likewise NATO has followed suit with the United States now at DEFCON 2, the highest alert state since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Peace talks are at a stalemate after an attempted assassination on the US Ambassador in Geneva, with the Soviets blaming a right wing faction of the European Alliance for this.

Over the last 12 hours, there has been a number of unconfirmed reports by fishing boats off the east coast of Nova Scotia of periscope sightings of submarines, and one sighting of a submarine diving. In the latter case the fishing boat's skipper, an ex-Canadian Navy submariner, recognised it as a Hotel-class SSBN.

If such a submarine is allowed to roam in these waters, the US will be under constant threat of a sudden decapitation nuclear strike. Accordingly, Canadian and US forces have rapidly deployed to the area to close the net on this latest sighting.

Orders for Cmdr NATO Forces
Situation
Last known position of possible Hotel SSBN is 6 hrs old. All available NATO units have deployed to the general location to search and sink the submarine. Intelligence from a trusted source in the Kremlin has indicated that the Hotel is on a first strike mission with possible targets of Boston and New York.

President Gerald Ford is now airborne in Air Force One with destination unknown. NORAD is now at DEFCON 2 with B-52s flying Chrome Dome (airborne alert) race-tracks over Greenland, awaiting strike orders.

Soviet strategic forces are also at their highest alert level, with increased deployments of mobile MRBMs and SRBMs in East Germany.

Enemy Forces
Subsurface : Hotel Class SSBN

Friendly Forces
NAS Argentia : VP-30 Pro's Nest (P-3C Orion)
CFB Greenwood : 415 Sqn (CP-107 Argus Mk.1)
CFB Shearwater : 423 Sqn (CH-124A Heltas SeaKing)
Naval forces : HMCS Annapolis DDH, HMCS Assiniboine DDH, HMCS Iroquois DDH, HMCS Margaree DDH, HMCS Terra Nova DDE.

Mission
Locate, classify and destroy any Soviet submarine in your area.

Execution
1. Investigate Datum 1327 0 Position 045 00N 054 57.23W - Error 1nm, Speed 5 kts, Time 190200ZOCT75.
2. Use Argus and Orion LR MPA to sanitize the area of operations.
3. DDHs and DDEs and associated helicopters to localise and classify subsurface contacts. Any contacts free to be attacked, including unknowns.

Command and EMCON
Command: CFB Greenwood
EMCON: Alpha-limited emissions

October 19, 1975 0800Z

Initial Positions

"The Hotel is on a first first strike mission with possible targets of Boston and New York." As a Massachusetts boy, that makes it personal to me. I see that "Mikes Pad" is a location on the map near Boston...hell, I could put Dan's Pad near to Boston as well. I don't want my home state to get nuked, so I'm going to find that Hotel and send it to the bottom.

Hotel-class submarine

The last known position of the Hotel is at Datum 1327, six hours ago, speed 5kts. In six hours, the Hotel could travel 30nm, and I assume it is heading southwest, so I will concentrate my search in that area.

I set up my patrols of Sea Kings, P-3B Orions, and CP-107 Arguses, and the waiting begins.

P-3B Orion

082958Z Contact! A P-3B Orion out of Argentia detects a submarine contact. I immediately declare it hostile and begin prosecution.

Contact!

My P-3B drops a torpedo, which misses the target.

First torpedo drop.

Not messing around, a second P-3B shows up and drops a B57 Multipurpose Sub Bomb [20kT Nuclear].

And just like that, it's over.

And it's over...

See? You threaten Boston, you die.

Major Victory
Score: 500

SIDE: Soviet Union
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LOSSES:
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1x PLARB-701 Hotel III


EXPENDITURES:

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2x Generic Acoustic Decoy

SIDE: Nato
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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1x AN/SSQ-41B Jezebel LOFAR
1x AN/SSQ-41A Jezebel LOFAR
1x Mk46 LWT Mod 2
1x AN/SSQ-50B CASS
1x B57 Multipurpose Sub Bomb [20kT Nuclear]


SIDE: Biological
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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SIDE: Neutral Fishing Boats
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LOSSES:
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EXPENDITURES:
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