Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

Naa you have done good with this, Silvio is not the type to remain silent in a bunker and...let's say 'overstimate' his diplomatic capacity while at the same time doing something beyond embarassing it's really is modus opearandi...the ironic thing is that i believe that is effort are genuine but more to show everybody how good as stateman he is and by overstimating his relationships with Vladimir

That. Was. Magnificent.

😂😂😂

Not bad; I think the VDV ones takes the cake just based on cringe factor though.

Yeah. I was worried that it was going to turn into a REALLY weird Russian porno faster than I could turn it off.

What the heck is with the lad sliding through the car windscreen at 0:19? Absolute madman.

Ninety

The Americans had soldiers at Keflavik Airport on Iceland. A battalion of US Army soldiers had arrived here to defend the major air transportation hub against an attempt to launch an airborne or amphibious assault here; the men with the 2nd of the 87th Infantry were present in case someone in Moscow had been reading their well-worn Tom Clancy books looking for ideas. That was a comment attributed to the commander of their parent brigade – 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division – who had an assignment to take the rest of his force from Fort Polk to the Middle East yet had seen a significant portion of his strength diverted to Iceland. He believed that if Keflavik was going to be seized, it would have been at the opening of hostilities… he was rather surprised that it hadn’t been. These soldiers here manned good defensive positions and were ready to repel a Russian attack. That wasn’t going to come but they didn’t know that. There were further American and also NATO forces who had been deployed to Iceland to make use of Keflavik. Maritime patrol aircraft, airborne tankers and also a squadron of US Air National Guard F-15s (though only half of their number so far) were calling the facility their temporary home. Airliners and military transports were making stopovers for refueling purposes as they crossed the North Atlantic. The importance of Keflavik’s role in this war couldn’t be underplayed. The Russians knew that and that was why a pair of Bear bombers struck Iceland in the early hours of August 12th. Firing from a long way off, right at the top of the Norwegian Sea at a distance a thousand miles, thirty-two cruise missiles – upgraded Kents – flew down towards the airport. Those F-15s could only stop two of them. There were no other air defences on Iceland which could even try. With two missiles downed by national guardsmen from Montana in their fighters deployed to Iceland, and another four suffering all sorts of problems post-launch, that left twenty-six missiles. Twenty-six were enough to create immense damage to Keflavik and NATO flight operations from there as well as causing hundreds of casualties. Several aircraft were absent from their temporary home of Keflavik at the time including one of those US Navy P-3 Orions on a sea surveillance mission. This aircraft had been sent to the waters of the North Atlantic south of Iceland on a special mission ahead of that incoming Russian attack, a mission which would help see the launch of other cruise missiles though those with a different intent than wrecking Keflavik. The Orion sanitized a selected area of the ocean alongside a frigate, the USS Nicholas, which did the same in the effort to hunt for any lurking Russian submarines also without being told exactly why they were doing so. The Orion flew away once complete with the task (having to divert to Reykjavik Airport because Keflavik remained closed) while the warship stayed on-station. Soon enough, dozens of cruise missiles started breaking the water’s surface.

There were a lot of Tomahawks launched: ninety-two of the planned ninety-four. USS Florida lofted into the skies three-fifths of her total arsenal of these weapons. This former ballistic missile submarine retained another sixty of them for later tasks and was soon departing the area without waiting to discover the results of her missile strike. The Florida wasn’t just as ‘Tomahawk-sub’ – the US Navy used the designator SSGN for her and her three sisters – but also a special forces launch platform. There were men from Seal Team Two waiting in Norway for the Florida to pick them up (a helicopter would ferry the SEALs from Trondheim to the submarine) and take them off to the Kola Peninsula where they would be out to raise hell as the leading wave of a later, larger joint US-UK special forces grouping deemed Task Force Black. The SEALs would be following those Tomahawks when going into Russia. Half of the ninety-plus missiles began slamming into targets across occupied parts of Northern Norway but the others flew onwards past that country. They started slamming into targets scattered across the very northwestern reaches of Russia. The Florida had fired her Tomahawks at airfields, radar & communications posts and air defence installations. Russian anti-missile platforms got several of them and this included SAMs deployed to both Norway and at home as well as orbiting MiG-31 interceptors too. Plenty of other missiles struck home though, across a wide area. The use of so many Tomahawks all at once was necessary to ensure that while the Russians were able to stop some, they were overwhelmed by such a large-scale attack. The Florida still had more missiles aboard and there was one of her sisters at-sea in the North Atlantic too. This would be done again.


The war continued in Norway following those missiles. The Russian Sixth Army was digging-in when on the frontlines of the fight against NATO forces inside the Troms region yet there were still other movements behind made in the rear areas or preparations to do so by others. Those frontlines remained extremely close to the occupied Bodo Air Station. This was the US Marines continued to engage men from the Russian Airborne Troops. Large numbers of Norwegian reservists were forming up behind the Americans, concentrating in the Narvik area to the south, but they remained in the fight alone for now. The 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade had withdrawn its detached battalion from the fighting to the west – that coastal raid coming from Sørreisa had been finally given up – to re-concentrate its strength. They were outnumbered though because there were those two Russian brigades ahead of them. With more men yet not as much external fire support in the terms of tanks, heavy guns and air support that the Americans had, the Russians held their ground. They had raiding parties out operating through the high ground between Bardufoss and Setermoen and used their own artillery as best as they could, yet like the Americans couldn’t dislodge them, the Russians couldn’t push the US Marines out of their positions either. Casualties continued to mount through the day as each side pushed onwards. Their immediate commanders were under pressure from above to force a breakthrough, pointing to the strengths each side had, but it was impossible for either to win here as they were. What both needed was the promised incoming reserves to arrive. US Marines were flying into Norway in great number and there were also cargo aircraft bringing in heavy gear to speed up that process. Those NATO airheads were some distance back and gave more freedom for air operations than if they had been close to the frontlines. The Russians had that problem with an exposed airhead though their reinforcements were closer to them and were coming overland. As a frustrating – and bloody – day came to an end for those fighting here, where no ground of any significance had been taken by either, the timely arrival of those reinforcements became more and more pressing. There were efforts made each way to stop or at least delay them though.

Russia was unable to get attacking aircraft themselves south of Bardufoss – their Su-24Ms were flying from Banak (targeted by Tomahawks) because Bardufoss was under so much fire – on bomb runs as NATO increased its fighter strength. They did have missiles to fire that way though. Mobile launchers had come into Norway and were used to fire upon Narvik, Bodo and elsewhere with such missiles as older OTR-21s and newer Isklanders. One or just a few missiles would be fired at a time by detachments before the armoured vehicles moved onwards looking for new hiding spots: there was strong Norwegian commando activity to hunt them down. The Russians were also using aircraft to fire off more missiles where long-range weapons were shot southwards as well. The Norwegians had their NASAMS air defence system but this was unable to counter all but the slowest cruise missiles. There were NATO warships in the waters nearby which could engage missiles yet these were on other tasks and most had short ranges allowing for only self-defence or localised missions rather than far overland where the Russian weapons took their aerial flight paths. Able to make these attacks almost unimpeded, they did so and the strikes by the Russians here were taking their toll in delaying the arrival of NATO reinforcements. Intelligence analysts informed the Sixth Army HQ that the US Marines’ II MEF (which once assembled would include the British Royal Marines & the Dutch after the Tromsø fiasco) was suffering loses as it arrived and so too were the Norwegians as they tried to reform their 6th Division.

The Tomahawk barrage hurt the Russians. NATO knew that it would do their grave damage but it wouldn’t stop their movement of forces forward. To combat those, they relied on the air power assigned to this fight to make air strikes as best as possible when not engaged on fighter missions. US Marines aircraft – along with RAF Harriers – concentrated on the close-air support near Bardufoss leaving those recently-arrived US Air Force Reserve F-16s to ‘go deep’. This wasn’t an easy task, not with Russian SAMs aplenty through eastern parts of Troms and into Finnmark. Attacks were made against Russian marines coming down from near Tromsø with some success being had against the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade as it closed in upon Bardufoss yet getting at the two further brigades of Russian troops further back who’d entered Norway via the overland route was too much. More aircraft were needed, many more to do this effectively. In addition, NATO couldn’t get at the whole brigade of Russian Army artillery moving overland – many big guns pulled across Finnmark by prime movers- nor the supply lines being used. There had been Norwegian commando attacks but they were running out of available men to do that: too many tasks, too few men and too much counter-SOF work by Russian forces was bringing that to an end. NATO intelligence summaries recognized the issue that was had with a lack of stronger air-to-ground strike aircraft on-hand and requests were made for those. The fighting in Eastern Europe had pulled away so many of those though for more-pressing tasks there. Here in Northern Norway, while slowed down greatly, the Russians were still moving forward with their reinforcements being brought towards the front ready to battle at some point in the coming days. Had the USS Harry S. Truman not been sunk, her aircraft could have slowed that all down to a crawl. But she was gone and there was a wait on for two more US Navy carriers to turn up with all of their onboard air power.


There were other things going on of significance to the war in the wider theater too. Russia’s Northern Fleet remained where it was, sheltered along the Norwegian coastline on the western side of the North Cape. Their big ships there still hadn’t moved back out into open water again. Operations continued by them to clear the danger that Norwegian forces in the area posed to them. Helicopter operations were launched to hunt down Norwegian coastal commandos – armed Helix helicopters chasing CB90 highspeed boats – and there was a focus too on locating those Skjold patrol craft active as well as the Norwegian submarine which had already struck against the Northern Fleet. That submarine, HNoMS Uredd, refused to die though. It went after the ‘big ships’ that the Russians had, the same ones that several NATO submarines out to sea in deeper waters were hoping to sink. RFS Marshal Ustinov, a Slava-class cruiser, was targeted by the Uredd. A similar attack by the Norwegians when they had put a whole in that destroyer yesterday was tried again and it nearly worked… but nearly wasn’t good enough. The Russian Navy picked up the sounds of the Norwegian boat flooding her torpedo tubes and commenced an immediate barrage of defensive fire. Anti-submarine mortars were fired to drop depth charges and several warships blind-fired torpedoes into the water. The Uredd lost track of the Marshal Ustinov in all of the chaos and, while escaping the maelstrom of counter-fire, couldn’t get that ship. She’d have to try again another day.

NATO had many of its warships in the Vestfjorden including several US Navy vessels which had been with the Truman before she was lost. Other members of the alliance had their presence there in this long fjord which ran out into the Norwegian Sea away from Narvik. HMS Ark Royal was there, one of the Royal Navy’s small carriers. A pre-war – pre-mobilisation too – MOD press release had stated that she was being deployed to the Norwegian Sea and an unofficial briefing to journalists had said that she had Harriers aboard. This was all about sending a message to Russia. That message send wasn’t the one envisaged though: they just saw the carrier as a target. There were only nine Harriers which formed her air component. These were RAF versions of the multi-role aircraft, the Harrier GR7 variant: Sea Harrier FA2s flown by the Fleet Air Arm had long since been retired. Of those nine, one refused to fly from the Ark Royal due to major engine trouble. Two had been lost over Norway and another returned to the carrier with serious battle damage making her unflyable. That left five aircraft available for flight operations over Troms where they flew alongside the Americans with their far-greater number of jets. The Harriers were in action today with separate four air attacks (two in the morning, two in the evening) launched by two aircraft at a time. Their guns, rockets and Maverick missiles were fired against ground targets. One Harrier was successfully engaged by Russian SAMs and, as before, it was a Buk-M2 missile used to kill an RAF jet over Troms. The SA-17 Grizzly was a fearsome weapon used effectively by the Sixth Army in its Northern Norway: ten confirmed kills of NATO aircraft had been made now by these. That Harrier went down over friendly lines though with the shaken but uninjured man landing upon the US Marines and telling them that he was ‘mightily glad to be in their company’: the aircraft he had ejected from had smeared itself into the ground in a fiery ruin. The Russians attempted to go after Ark Royal and the NATO ships in the Vestfjorden today too. They put several flights of Backfires in the sky carrying Kitchen cruise missiles – Eighties Cold War weapons in the modern age – to conduct a raid. Missile launch was going to have to happen close by though rather than from hundreds of miles out because the Russians couldn’t get reconnaissance assets close enough to provide target referencing. NATO fighters got at those Backfires first. RAF Typhoons flying from Bodo joined with Dutch F-16s recently-deployed to Andoya in firing Meteor and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles against the Russians before they could launch. There was an E-3 Sentry on-station (the Russians had yet to use KS-172 AWACS-killers over Norway) and it guided the British and Dutch fighters into perfect launch positions for a L-shaped ambush. Missiles shot across the sky towards the Russians. Several took down escorting Flankers out ahead of the Backfires while others then started striking home on the bombers. The mission was abandoned and Russian aircraft turned away: they had lost a trio of fighters and four bombers all for a return score of zero.

One of those Flankers crashed into the ground right near to where the Norwegian’s Brigade Nord was still making its ‘great escape’ from Finnmark. The pilot had ejected and he was captured on the way. Other Russian prisoners taken in the battles around Lakselv and Alta had been left behind but this man was taken with them. The Norwegians ran into some other military personnel on the way too, this time Royal Marines. From a party of a dozen who’d left Nordkjosbotn when the fight there was lost by Z Company, 45 Commando, ten were still alive a few days later. They were on their way to Sweden – a long and unpleasant walk – but came across their allies first. They too took a ride with the Norwegians. Brigade Nord had made it quite the distance. They’d come a long away across the wilderness but the last leg was still ahead of them. Keeping close to the Swedish frontier – crossing it would mean internment; Sweden had troops there and wouldn’t fire on any Norwegians crossing but would still have to stop them leaving again –, now the Brigade Nord had to effectively ‘turn the corner’ and get down towards NATO lines up ahead. They were on the run with fuel and ammunition stocks very low. To make it to friendly lines, they just needed to avoid the attention of the linking-up Russian forces between them and the sea. The final hurrah would be tomorrow where they hoped to get past undetected. Should they do so, they could link-up with friendly forces ready to go back into the fight again for their country at a later date. It was going to be a close-run thing.

The Copenhagen operation was supposed to shut off the Baltic. It failed and the Danish Straits are open. NATO warships will be flooding forward all towards the coastlines of Russia and the occupied Baltic States.
For pure disorder... Operation SeaBear and Russian naval infantry into London!