In Defence of the Fleet

What Defence Might One of the US Navy’s Carrier Battle Groups Put up Against a Co-ordinated Attack by a Regiment of Soviet Backfire Bombers, a Missile Cruiser Task Force and a Nuclear-Powered ASM Submarine? In This Dramatised Scenario, a Seasoned Aerospace Writer Shows Us How Such a ‘Game’ Might Come Out…

The view from ten kilometres high is blue water, as far as he can see. Off his left and right wings, strung out on widely separated tracks above the broadening sea, are seventeen sleek grey shapes, wings adjusted for the best cruise. These are Tupolev-26M maritime strike bombers, known as Backfire-B by NATO. They have long-range, blistering speed, and carry a pair of air-to-surface cruise missiles. neath their wings. Their radar is formidable, and they have very capable electronic warfare equipment.

The eighteen hand-picked crews of the Soviet bomber regiment have been building toward this attack for months. They have bluffed and feinted, probed and explored defences, and pored over electronic intelligence data gathered by the huge turbopropped Tu-95 Bear aircraft that shadow enemy fleets. Now, thinks the Commander, forcing his eyes back inside the cockpit, we will show how well our years of training have taught us.

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