IRAN NAVY WARGAME U.S.A. 5TH FLEET AIRCRAFT CARRIER KILLER TACTICS
http://www.cuttingedge.org/
News/n2026.cfm --------------- 16
U.S. NAVAL
SHIPS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PERSIAN GULF! INCLUDES ONE AIRCRAFT CARRIER DESTROYED --
"During the summer of
2002, in the run-up to
President Bush's invasion of
Iraq, the
US military staged the most elaborate and expensive war games ever conceived.
Operation Millennium Challenge, as it was called, cost some $250 million, and required two years of planning
... it was set in the
Persian Gulf, and simulated a conflict with a hypothetical rogue state. The "war" involved heavy use of computers, and was also played out in the field by 13,
500 US troops, at 17 different locations and 9 live-force training sites. All of the services participated under a single joint command, known as JOINTFOR.
The US forces were designated as '
Force Blue', and the enemy as
OPFOR, or '
Force Red'. The 'war' lasted three weeks and ended with the overthrow of the dictatorial regime on
August 15."
"At any rate, that was the official outcome. What actually happened was quite different, and ought to serve up a warning about the grave peril the world will face if the US should become embroiled in a widening conflict in the region ..."
This is not the first time that the
American high command has fudged the results of a war gaming exercise because the real results would be very embarrassing to all U.S. leadership, from the
White House down to the
Pentagon. In the early years of the
Clinton Administration,
America's top guns -- her elite fighter pilots -- engaged in an war gaming exercise with
Israeli pilots.
The American aces were humiliated, so much so that the Pentagon discreetly asked the
Israeli government not to publicize the results!
The story I read was very small and buried deeply in our local paper.
Now, let us return to this news story. The American officer leading the "enemy" -- the "Force Red" team -- was "the straight-talking
Marine commander who had been brought out of retirement to lead Force Red. His name was
Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper, and he had played the role of the crazed but cunning leader of the hypothetical rogue state ... In the first days of the 'war', Van
Riper's Force Red sent most of the
US fleet to the bottom of the Persian Gulf." (Ibid.)
The tactics adopted by this
Marine Corps general were astounding and they produced "
The Worst US Naval
Disaster Since
Pearl Harbor".
"The war game was described as 'free play', meaning that both sides were unconstrained, free to pursue any tactic in the book of war in the service of victory ... Much of the action was computer-generated. But representative military units in the field also acted out the various moves and countermoves. The comparison to a chess match is not inaccurate. The vastly superior US armada consisted of the standard carrier battle group with its full supporting cast of ships and planes. Van Riper had at his disposal a much weaker flotilla of smaller vessels, many of them civilian craft, and numerous assets typical of a
Third World country." (Ibid.)
"But Van Riper made the most of weakness.
Instead of trying to compete directly with Force Blue, he utilized ingenious low-tech alternatives. Crucially, he prevented the stronger US force from eavesdropping on his communications by foregoing the use of radio transmissions. Van Riper relied on couriers instead to stay in touch with his field officers ... At every turn, the wily Van Riper did the unexpected. And in the process he managed to achieve an asymmetric advantage ... Astutely and very covertly, Van Riper armed his civilian marine craft and deployed them near the US fleet, which never expected an attack from small pleasure boats ... Force Red's prop-driven aircraft suddenly were swarming around the US warships, making
Kamikaze dives. Some of the pleasure boats made suicide attacks.
Others fired
Silkworm cruise missiles from close range, and sunk a carrier, the largest ship in the US fleet, along with two helicopter-carriers loaded with marines ... the
Navy was unprepared. When it was over, most of the US fleet had been destroyed.
Sixteen US warships lay on the bottom, and the rest were in disarray. Thousands of American sailors were dead, dying, or wounded.
"If the games had been real, it would have been the worst US naval defeat since Pearl Harbor." (Ibid.)
Clearly, this war games disaster was something the Pentagon could not have foreseen. Publicly, Pentagon spokesmen admitted of no disaster, since, in war gaming, destroyed equipment and dead sailors can be "resurrected" at the touch of a keyboard.
At the end, the government of the rogue state was overthrown and victory achieved -- but only after
General Van Riper quit in disgust. Oh, yes, and the Pentagon did not admit that they had anything to learn and insisted there was nothing they needed to change.