After witnessing USA's increasingly expansionist and aggressive government brutally crush their old allied United Kingdom in 2049, the Soviet Politburo theorized that it was all but inevitable that USA would invade them next and began preparations for war. On this day, 23th of June, 2064. Those preparations were completed and the entire USSR military is ready to launch the pre-emptive strikes before the imperialistic west does.
Order of BattleUnited Soviet Space NavyCommanded by "Admiral flota" Aleksi Antonov
Soviet Space Fleet Commanded by Admiral Zhenya Suvorov
1st Operational Group Commanded by Kapitan pervogo ranga Agna Rozhdestvensky
Solar System
Non-offensive units omitted48 warships
- 12x DD Gnevny Mod.62
- 6x DD Skory
- 8x FF Storozhevoy Mod.59
- 7x FF Storozhevoy Mod.53
- 11x FF Ognevoy
- 4x FF Ognevoy Mod.58
Off-Topic: SHIP DESIGNS • show Off-Topic: 1st Combat Brigade • show
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Silny
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Serdity
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Slavny
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Smely
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Skory
Off-Topic: 2nd Combat Brigade • show
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Smyshlyony
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Soobrazitelny
Storozhevoy(Mod.59)-class Frigate Sovershenny
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Storozhevoy
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Stoyky
Off-Topic: 3rd Combat Brigade • show
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Strashny
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Surovy
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Statny
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Strogy
Storozhevoy(Mod.53)-class Frigate Svirepy
Off-Topic: 4th Combat Brigade • show
Ognevoy class Frigate Ognevoy
Ognevoy class Frigate Organizovanny
Ognevoy class Frigate Otverzhdyonny
Ognevoy class Frigate Ozornoy
Ognevoy class Frigate Osmotritelny
Off-Topic: 5th Combat Brigade • show
Ognevoy class Frigate Otlichny
Ognevoy class Frigate Marx
Ognevoy class Frigate Obraztsovy
Ognevoy class Frigate Odaryonny
Ognevoy class Frigate Otvazhny
Off-Topic: 1st Missile Brigade • show
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Bezuprechny
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Bodry
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Bystry
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Bditelny
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Besposhchadny
Off-Topic: 2nd Missile Brigade • show
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Boyky
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Gnevny
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Gordy
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Gromky
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Gremyashchy
Off-Topic: 3rd Missile Brigade • show
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Grozny
Gnevny(Mod.62) class Destroyer Grozyashchy
Skory class Destroyer Sposobny
Off-Topic: 4th Missile Brigade • show
Skory class Destroyer Stremitelny
Skory class Destroyer Sokrusmegelny
Skory class Destroyer Smetlivy
Skory class Destroyer Statny
Skory class Destroyer Svobodny
Off-Topic: 7th Combat Brigade • show
Ognevoy(Mod.58) class Frigate Fidonisy
Ognevoy(Mod.58) class Frigate Gadzhibey
Ognevoy(Mod.58) class Frigate Kerch
Off-Topic: Frigate Squadron (7th combat Brigade) • show
Ognevoy class Frigate Korfu
Ognevoy(Mod.58) class Frigate Dzerhinsky
Revolyutsiya System
5 warships
- 2 x FF Storozhevoy Mod.53
- 2 x FF Ognevoy
- 1 x FF Ognevoy Mod.58
Revolyutsiya-A2 orbit:Off-Topic: 6th Combat Brigade • show
Storozhevoy(Mod.53) class Frigate Sposobny
Storozhevoy(Mod.53) class Frigate Svobodny
Ognevoy class Frigate Osmotritelny
Ognevoy class Frigate Vnusmegelny
Ognevoy(Mod.58) class Frigate Vlastny
Solar System
Commander of Theatre of Operations: General-armii Rada Matveyev
Earth:1st Front General-polkovnik Lukyan Vishnevsky
1st Combined Arms Army
- 1st Motorstrelki Division
- 2nd Motorstrelki Division
- 3rd Motorstrelki Division
- 1st Tank Division
- 1st Engineer Brigade
- 1st Air Defense Brigade
- 1st Antitank Regiment
- 1st SSM Brigade
- 1st Rocket Launcher Regiment
- 1st Artillery Brigade
- 1st Logistics Brigade
- 1st Radiological and Chemical Recon Battalion
1st Strategic Artillery Division
- 1st Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 2nd Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 4th Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 5th Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 1st Strategic Defense Regiment
- 2nd Strategic Defense Regiment
Luna:Under direct STAVKA command
- 8th Motorstrelki Regiment
- 2nd Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 3rd Strategic Defense Regiment
Revolyutsiya System
Krasna Zarya:- 7th Motorstrelki Regiment
- 3rd Strategic Artillery Regiment
- 4th Strategic Defense Regiment
Revolyutsiya-A2- 9th Motorstrelki Regiment
Enemy Order of BattleNon-offensive units omitted28 x Fletcher III-class missile destroyers in Sol, out of which 26 in earth orbit
32 x Long Beach IV-class destroyer escorts picketing Luhman 16 jump-point
8 x Long Beach III-class destroyer escorts picketing Luhman 16 jump-point
26 x Fletcher III-class missile destroyers in earth orbit
20 x Long Beach IV-class destroyer escort in earth orbit
4 x Long Beach III-class destroyer escort in earth orbit
4 x Long Beach-class destroyer escort in earth orbit
6 x New York class cruiser in earth orbit
4 x Hornet-class heavy cruiser in earth orbit
3 x Tennessee-class escort cruiser in earth orbit
1 x California-class orbital station (no intel)
1 x Saratoga-class orbital station (no intel)
Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) reports that, based on captured blueprints of future upgrades, the missile-destroyer, cruiser and escort cruiser classes are purely missile armed.Plan of OperationPhase 1: Clear Earth's Orbit. Eliminate isolated targets.
Rather than match USA and their space superiority-doctrine ship-for-ship, our focus will be that of traditional army and artillery. It is far too cheaper to produce towed railguns and gausscannons than it is to build a starship. Wars are always battle of numbers and industry, victor is decided by whoever produces more weapons. The other reason is that it's too early into our space race for anyone to have terraformed any worlds and established extrasolar industrial centers. Liberate Earth's orbit and the war is over.
To drive enemy fleet off from earth's orbit and deny their army their orbital support, 1st Front's 1st Strategic Artillery Division under the command of General-leytenant Burian Polyakov engages any orbital targets with the 162 pieces of towed 152mm railguns and 36 truck-mounted high power microwave weapons, protected against missile attacks by 288 emplacements of 100mm quad-gauss cannon turrets. Out in space, in earth's orbit, the frigates of the Operational Group will take head-on with the enemy fleet that on paper outnumbers them, however the GRU military intelligence has over the time discovered that roughly half of the ships in orbit belong to purely missile-armed classes. Together with the shipboard and ground-based point-defenses, the enemy missile firepower is expected to be inconsequential.
Frigate losses are expected to be severe. But even their total loss is acceptable if it means achieving the operational goal of forcing US space navy off the orbit.
With the massed soviet planetside anti-orbital artillery, the enemy is expected to break orbit rather than hold their ground, splitting their firepower between space and planetary targets. This is where the Missile Brigades situated at Luna activates. Their goal is to engage enemy warships outside their own planetary anti-missile defensive umbrella and hunt down any US capital ships, such as the Hornet-class Heavy Cruisers that GRU has found out to have no less than 53 laser weapons of various calibers.
Simultaneously, 8th motorstrelki regiment on Luna will advance and engage whatever opposition may arise in the USA lunar colony. Out in space, 7th combat brigade in Jupiter's orbit will eliminate the sole missile destroyer guarding USA's major source of fuel; Jupiter fuel harvester fleet. Outside the solar system in the Revolyutsiya System the 9th Motorstrelki Regiment engages the US troops located in Revolyutsiya-A2, supported by the starships of 6th Combat Brigade.
Phase 2: Neutralize US army
Without enemy orbital fire, the Soviet Army will advance.
The west considers ground forces as mere garrison and a proper army as obsolete in the age of space warfare, their sad excuse of an army will be swept aside. General-leytenant Polyakov's 1st Combined Arms Army will attack through the Fulda Gap. Elsewhere, from Solar system to colonies of "Revolution" system, the Soviet Army will clear out any US garrisons, dig in and wait for the capitulation of the enemy on Earth.
23th of June. 2063
0511 Hours
Operation "Red Dawn" commencesThe first warning of what was to come was the activation of every single targeting radar system on all soviet warships throughout the systems, triggering every single US radar-warning receiver and early warning system in range. Five seconds later, the Soviet Army and Space Fleet opened fire.
Within seconds, the pride of the US fleet, the four Hornet-class heavy cruisers were disabled, their armor plating severely damaged from keel-to-keel. The Tennessee-class escort cruiser CLE-001 promptly disintegrated alongside two Fletcher-III class missile destroyers and Long Beach IV-class destroyer escort.
After the initial shock, the US navy and anti-orbital batteries returned fire and with that, the Third World War truly began.
30 seconds of mayhem, a staggering amount of burning and disintegrating wrecks fill earth's orbit, with streaks of laser and projectile fire filling the space between dueling ships. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Combat Brigades have ceased to exist. 4th is down to one broken ship, both them and 5th have craters glowing on their armor plating. The US fleet is in complete disarray, with ships flying in all directions. Three american heavy cruisers are disintegrating and launching escape pods and fourth limbing away from orbit, being able to offer only a short, ineffective return fire. All six New York-class cruisers are trailing smoke and atmosphere as they slowly burn away from earth with the last surviving Tennessee-class cruiser.
Six destroyed Fletcher-class hulls litter the orbit above Earth with another six Long Beach-class warships destroyed, with 17 so badly mauled that they can't leave Earth's orbit under their own propulsion.
In Luna's orbit, the missile brigades opened fire on the US ground forces below after detecting targeting radar emissions from anti-orbital batteries, the gausscannon and railgun impacts causing massive damage on the soft moon surface, damaging nearby civilian infrastructure and habitats. Later investigations discovered that the effects of the barrage annihilated a city and several other habitats under the surface, killing over 538,000 american civilians. The anti-orbital batteries returned fire, missed and hit the soviet Moskva-class colonist transport CS-05 severely damaging it. Now having revealed their positions, the american lunar surface batteries were rapidly eliminated by artillery of the soviet missile brigades.
Above Io, 7th Combat Brigade's frigate squadron discovered the presence of anti-orbital artillery batteries as they opened fire, taking squadron by surprise. Captain Matveye's Frigate "Korfu" suffered several hits and fell apart, leaving her captain and 76 of the crew of 295 floating in lifepods. Frigate Dzerzhinsky picked them up and gave chase to the damaged american missile destroyer. Above Jupiter, the american fuel harvester ships began accelerating away from the 7th Combat Brigade. As per conditional orders, the brigade opened fire to deny enemy navy their fuel supplies.
Outside Sol, in Revolution System, the 6th combat brigade had mere seconds to confirm the destruction of the sole US missile destroyer before they were engaged by planetside artillery. Frigate Sposobny suffered severe damage and attempted to disengage, but was destroyed before getting more than 10k km away from the planet. Rest of the 6th Combat Brigade broke orbit and returned fire.
In total, 18 US warships and one station were destroyed in the first 35 seconds of the war. The last remaining 22 laser-armed ships of the US navy still above Earth are severely damaged and losing ships to both the remaining soviet frigates and ground artillery. The anti-ballistic batteries proved well beyond their worth, not only shooting down every single missile but engaging and destroying several enemy ships. Soviet frigate losses are nearing total, but acceptable, as Soviet Army is fully intact and operational.
Losses of the Soviet Space Fleet: 22 ships;
-Sovershenny, 120 out of 307 survived
-Smyshlyony, 112 out of 307
-Soobrazitelny, 95 out of 307 (Captain Stepka Martynov KIA)
-Slavny, 74 out of 307 (Captain Agna Buturlin KIA)
-Silny, 96 out of 307 (Captain Zhenechka Vasilyev KIA)
-Serdity, 56 out of 307 (Captain Lydia Bogdanova KIA)
-Strogy, 121 out of 304 (Captain Hedeon Maximov KIA)
-Smely, 47 out of 307
-Stoyky, 120 out of 304
-Korfu, 76 out of 295
-Surovy, 54 out of 304 (Captain Helen Belyayev, XO Anya Borodin KIA)
-Storozhevoy, 69 out of 304
-Strashny, 52 out of 304
-Svirepy, 65 out of 304 (XO Helenka Goncharova KIA)
-Statny, 73 out of 304 (Captain Gavrie Konovalov KIA)
-Ognevoy, 83 out of 295 (XO Neva Brusilova KIA)
-Skory, 131 out of 307
-Sposobny, 93 out of 304.
-Otverzhdyonny, 54 out of 295 (Captain Petenka Slutsky, XO Sacha Panin KIA)
-Otvazhny, 66 out of 295 (Captain Olechka Andreyev KIA)
-Organizovanny, 83 out of 295 (Captain Faddei Frenkel, XO Levka Bulatov KIA)
-Ozornoy, 105 out of 295 (Captain Antosha Ivanov, XO Olenka Andreyev KIA)
Total crew losses; 1,842 sailors, 16 officers.
The next five seconds saw the destruction of Fletcher-III class off Io by Frigate Dzerzhinsky. Above earth the navigation hazards on Earth orbit increased expotentially as the american California-class station exploded. US navy finally rallied and regrouped back on Earth's orbit , while at the same time four Long-Beach class destroyer escorts and three soviet frigates Osmotritelny, Otlichny and Obraztsovy were destroyed in brutal point-blank duels. 629 sailors, Otlichny's Captain Aloyoshenka Zhukov and the 5th Brigade's commanding officer Kapitan vtorogo ranga Urie Frolov went down with their ships. The 5th Combat Brigades dies with the frigates Marx and Odaryonny who heroicially fight to the last. Another 3 Fletcher-class missile destroyers and New York-class cruiser are destroyed by combined ground railgun and gaussgun fire.
With the US anti-missile defenses reduced, the missile brigades above Luna join the fray and begin launching missiles with each ship emptying their vertical-launch silos to their designated targets, those being the last remaining Long Beach-class destroyer escorts in range. As this is happening, the sole Hornet-class heavy cruiser limbing away has restored its fighting capability to some degree and begins returning fire on the soviet fleet. Unable to re-target missiles in flight, 4th missile brigade breaks orbit and begins closing to EW and railgun range on the capital ship.
At 0512 hours, the first of the missiles reach their targets and instantly the space is filled with visible and invisible clutter as two Long Beach-class ships launch decoys and activate various jammers. Invisible to the eye, EW systems engage in a light-speed duel with the systems aboard the P-455 anti-ship missiles on their terminal homing phase. The power of US electronic suites is telling, as out of 60 missiles, 32 are fooled by decoys and 6 are blinded by jammers, missing their targets entirely. Nevertheless, 22 missiles reach each their target and blast through armour and stops the ship dead in space. The second Long Beach-class with combination of decoys and emergency maneuvers avoided all but 15 missiles, unlucky for her those were enough to cripple the ship and disable her engines.
Right behind them, the remaining missile wave reach their targets and destroy 7 enemy ships, five Long Beach-class and one Fletcher-class. Ground artillery shot down another three Fletcher-class missile destroyers.
By 0513 hours, wrecks of 9 Long Beach-class, 14 Fletcher-class, 4 New York-class and the last Tennessee-class are left drifting in space. 4th Missile Brigade engaged and destroyed two Baltimore-class scout ships, Long Beach-class and the honour of destroying the last of the Hornet-class heavy cruisers was taken by Skory-class destroyer Smetlivy, commanded by Yeva Zuyev. The immediate earth orbit is clear of hostile ships and the shattered remains of american fleet in solar system in full retreat.
The first phase of the operation is completed.
With the space above clear, the 1st Combined Arms Army begins their attack.
Will update this
[/list][/list][/list][/list]
