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Mediterranean US Fleet - Historically realistic settings


Bananabrai

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Hi all

 

I am looking for the guys out here, that know the US Navy fleet deployments and the squadrons aboard for several periods.

Personally I don't like it when very illogical things are happening or units are around, that wouldn't have been around, even though I like it when conflicts go into a hypothetical direction.

 

At the moment I am thinking about scenarios on the Syria map. Of course, multiple come to mind.

But for now I am mostly interested in 3 periods of time.

  1. 1984-1990 - War of the camps (which followed the 1982 (1st) Lebanon war): A fictional scenario in which the NATO tries to 'liberate' Lebanon of Syrian influence.
  2. 2001 - As power shifts from Senior al-Assad to Junior al-Assad: A fictional NATO involvement after aggressive actions by the new leader.
  3. 2011 - Syria civil war: NATO gets involved (/wants to get) from the beginning.

Please do no not discuss about the topics, I don't want to have a political discussion here.

I simply wanted to build something else than a complete historical correct conflict with the also correct outcome.

I use DCS as the sandbox that it is and want to flex things a little bit, I know, this means getting into alternate history,...

 

So my question is:

What US Navy vessels (out of the ones we have in DCS) could/would be involved for the different times? Which would be the most realistic ones at least?

And which squadrons were on those vessels at the times?

 

Unfortunately we don't have different models/skins for the Tarawa-class, but I found out that the LHA-2 Saipan and LHA-4 Nassau were deployed to the Mediterranean frequently.

For the Super carriers, I think the CVN-72 A. Lincoln and the CVN-75 H. S. Truman (although that one is not old enough for the first period) were also kind of deployed to the Mediterranean frequently.

 

The information could also suit Caucasus scenarios, so I think it would be very helpful for mission builders in general.

 

I think the time period is difficult in general, as the US deployed a ton in the Gulf region from the early 1990s onward. So Wikipedia is not very helpful.

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Thanks. That actually helped a lot and is very interessting.

 

Although things seem to be bit inconsistent, maybe in terms of the real Navys planning.

Example: I was looking at 1988/89

 

The page for the CVN-71 says it was deployed to the Mediterranean with CVW-8.

Itself consists of the listed sqadrons:

VFA-15 Strike Fighter Squadron 15 “Valions”

VFA-31 Strike Fighter Squadron 31 “Tomcatters”

VFA-87 Strike Fighter Squadron 87 “Golden Warriors”

VFA-213 Strike Fighter Squadron 213 “Black Lions”

VAW-124 Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 124 “Bear Aces”

VAQ-141 Electronic Attack Squadron 141 “Shadowhawks”

VRC-40 Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 “Rawhides”

HSC-9 Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 9 “Tridents”

HSM-70 Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 “Spartans”

 

 

But one photo of 1988 shows the Jolly Rogers abord.

Are the squadrons also switching?

I guess I have to find the historical CVW-8 composition then.

 

Anyway, still very helpful

Alias in Discord: Mailman

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Thanks. That actually helped a lot and is very interessting.

 

Although things seem to be bit inconsistent, maybe in terms of the real Navys planning.

Example: I was looking at 1988/89

 

The page for the CVN-71 says it was deployed to the Mediterranean with CVW-8.

Itself consists of the listed sqadrons:

VFA-15 Strike Fighter Squadron 15 “Valions”

VFA-31 Strike Fighter Squadron 31 “Tomcatters”

VFA-87 Strike Fighter Squadron 87 “Golden Warriors”

VFA-213 Strike Fighter Squadron 213 “Black Lions”

VAW-124 Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 124 “Bear Aces”

VAQ-141 Electronic Attack Squadron 141 “Shadowhawks”

VRC-40 Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 “Rawhides”

HSC-9 Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 9 “Tridents”

HSM-70 Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 70 “Spartans”

 

 

But one photo of 1988 shows the Jolly Rogers abord.

Are the squadrons also switching?

I guess I have to find the historical CVW-8 composition then.

 

Anyway, still very helpful

 

The composition of the carrier air wings changes over the year. In 1988/89, CVW 8 consisted of VF-41, VF.84, VFA-15, VFA-87, VA-35 and 36, both flying the Intruder, and so on.

For building missions, I always use gonavy.jp, it's a great resource for finding out where certain carriers were at which time and what the squadrons were.

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW-AJf.html

 

Modules: F-14A/B | M-2000C | AJS-37 | Mi-24P F/A-18C | A-10C II | F-16C | UH-1H | F-5E | Mi-8 | FC 3 | AV-8B | A-4E | Gazelle | Ka-50 | Yak-52 | CE2

Maps: Syria | Marianas | NTTR | Persian Gulf | Caucasus

Setup: Virpil WarBRD Base & VFX TM Warthog | Arozzi Velocita Stand | Monstertech Mount | MFG Crosswind | Cougar MFDs | VRInsight Panel | JetSeat 908 | TrackIR

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Hi all

 

I am looking for the guys out here, that know the US Navy fleet deployments and the squadrons aboard for several periods.

Personally I don't like it when very illogical things are happening or units are around, that wouldn't have been around, even though I like it when conflicts go into a hypothetical direction.

 

At the moment I am thinking about scenarios on the Syria map. Of course, multiple come to mind.

But for now I am mostly interested in 3 periods of time.

  1. 1984-1990 - War of the camps (which followed the 1982 (1st) Lebanon war): A fictional scenario in which the NATO tries to 'liberate' Lebanon of Syrian influence.
  2. 2001 - As power shifts from Senior al-Assad to Junior al-Assad: A fictional NATO involvement after aggressive actions by the new leader.
  3. 2011 - Syria civil war: NATO gets involved (/wants to get) from the beginning.

Please do no not discuss about the topics, I don't want to have a political discussion here.

I simply wanted to build something else than a complete historical correct conflict with the also correct outcome.

I use DCS as the sandbox that it is and want to flex things a little bit, I know, this means getting into alternate history,...

 

So my question is:

What US Navy vessels (out of the ones we have in DCS) could/would be involved for the different times? Which would be the most realistic ones at least?

 

For aircraft carriers in the first period, you can realistically only use CVN-71(commissioned in 1986) and maybe CVN-72(1989). For the other periods you can use any of the Nimitz class ships provided(to be provided) with the "Super carrier" module. If you want to know which vessels deployed to the Med within the specified time frames, you can check out this German site;

 

https://www.navysite.de

 

For escort ships, there isn't much to choose from in DCS - basically the Ticonderoga class cruisers and OHP class frigates(all decommissioned by now, but there were still some operational in 2011). The recently added Arleigh Burke class is a Flight IIa variant and in a configuration(modified funnels) that first appeared with the DDG-89(2003), so that would only be realistic for your 2011 scenario.

 

And which squadrons were on those vessels at the times?

 

On the above mentioned site, you can find a list of deployments of each carrier, where you can see embarked squadrons, which ships accompanied it etc - example for CVN-71;

 

https://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn71deploy.htm

 

 

 

 

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