Battlefield Ukraine

Enforcement — The First Steps to War

Major Jake LaFine (call sign “Frenchy”) leveled off his F-16 at 18,000 feet with his wingman, Captain Jorge Ramos “Bean,” as they began to fly towards the self-imposed Russian no-fly zone. They had been briefed on what to do if the Russians fired on them. They were not to hold anything back.

They were each carrying two High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs); if they were activated, they would search out and destroy the source of nearby radar sites (unless the enemy radar operator turned off their radar before the missiles reached their target). The two German Eurofighters were also carrying two HARM missiles each as well. The American aircraft were also carrying specific electronic warfare pods to help them defeat any potential Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) as well.

“Bean, let’s get this show on the road and go pay our Russian friends a visit,” Frenchy said as he led their little air contingent towards the eastern half of Ukraine.

As they approached the no-fly zone, a Russian voice came over an open international aircraft radio frequency hailing them. “NATO aircraft, you are approaching a restricted no-fly zone. If you enter the no-fly zone, you will be fired upon.”

They ignored the caller and continued their mission. The voice called out again, “NATO aircraft, once again, you are approaching a no-fly zone. No combat aircraft are allowed to enter the no-fly zone. Turn around before you are fired upon.”

As Colonel Denis Manturov sat in the command trailer of the S-400 (or as NATO calls them, SA-21 Growler air-defense systems) he noted the arrogance and complete disregard of their message by the American and German pilots. President Petrov was right, the Americans no longer feared them. “Well, that is about to change,” he thought. “The SA-21 has never been fired at another nation before — I doubt the Americans have any idea what they are up against.”

As Colonel Manturov looked at the radar screen, he also noticed the Americans had seven drones heading to various positions in the no-fly zone to provide ground support to the government forces. These were the same positions the drones had previously been located at over the past week, providing the eyes and ears for the Ukrainian ground forces attacking the pro-Russian separatists.

“After the brazen American attack on the Spetsnaz camp two weeks ago, I’m glad that I will be the one to draw first blood for the Motherland,” thought Denis.

He turned to the radar operators and told them, “Have the radars lock onto the enemy aircraft, and standby to engage any anti-radar missiles the Americans may shoot at us.”

The operators simply nodded.

“Send a message to the S-300 battery to have them lock on, and engage the American drones now,” Colonel Manturov continued.

After a tense moment of waiting, one of the radar operators said excitedly, “I have radar lock on the four-enemy aircraft.”

One of the younger soldiers piped up from the radio, “The S-300 battery says they have the American drones locked up as well. Awaiting your order.” A trace of excitement could be heard in his voice.

Colonel Manturov looked at the men in the command center; all their eyes were locked on him, waiting for him to deliver the final authorization. At that moment, Denis knew he was about to change the world forever. He took a deep breath, then announced, “Fire! Engage the hostiles and shoot them down.”

Within seconds, the S-400 fired eight surface-to-air missiles, two for each of the enemy aircraft. The S-300 battery that was closest to the Ukrainian border also fired a series of seven surface-to-air missiles at the American drones. In seconds, the Russians made it known to the world that they meant what they said about enforcing a no-fly zone over eastern Ukraine.

Next, Manturov barked a series of orders to help them prepare their systems to engage any American missiles that may be fired at them in response.

Major LaFine’s warning alarms suddenly started to blare in a cacophony of obnoxious beeping, alerting him that a Russian air defense radar system had locked onto his aircraft. He silently told himself, “This is no big deal. They are just trying to scare us.”

His little air contingent continued to ignore the Russian warnings. Though he would never admit it to anyone, he secretly felt terrified by the warning alarm; in the nine years he had been flying, he had never been locked up by an enemy radar system before. Just as he looked to his right to see Bean flying next to him, his alarm system blared a different warning at him — this time, telling him that the air defense radar system had just fired two surface-to-air missiles at him. A countdown readout told Frenchy that he had roughly three minutes until the missiles would reach him.

“Bean, we’ve just been shot at by those Russian SAMs,” Frenchy told his friend. “Engage them with your missiles, and then let’s try to get out of dodge as fast as possible.”

Frenchy said as he began to toggle the safety off of his weapon system. In a matter of seconds, he had turned his missiles targeting system on, ensured he had a good lock on the radar system that was tracking him, and fired. In seconds, both of his HARM missiles were on their way to their targets.

Frenchy and his wingman began to take evasive maneuvers, weaving and bobbing, climbing and then plummeting. He had a sickening feeling that his missiles would not hit the enemy radar site before those SAMs reached him. As he turned on his electronic counter measures, he sent a radio message back to ground command letting them know that he had just been shot at, and that he had two SAM’s heading towards him.

The German and American aircraft immediately began to take evasive maneuvers, turning on their electronic counter-measures. The aircrafts’ automated self-defense systems began to drop chaff canisters as the missiles began to close in on their targets. Next, the F-16 and Eurofighters began to shoot out flares and additional chaff canisters in an effort to throw off the enemy missiles.

Unbeknownst to the US Air Force and NATO, the Russians had upgraded the tracking software on their missiles, which allowed them to better distinguish between chaff clouds, flare heat signatures, and an actual aircraft. The SA-21s could also see through the electronic trickery of the American electronic warfare pods and countermeasures being employed. Within minutes, the SAMs closed the distance on the American and NATO aircraft and collided with all four aircraft. As the flaming wreckages began to fall to the earth below, two parachutes could be seen drifting down to the ground. There was one German, and one American — the other two pilots were not so lucky.

As the four NATO aircraft were destroyed, the drone pilots watched helplessly as their drones were systematically destroyed by the SA-10s. At first, they had no idea they were being tracked; then they received a flash message that enemy SAMs had been fired at them and they should take evasive maneuvers. The best a drone could do was try to drop as low to the ground as possible and hope they could lose the enemy missiles in the ground clutter. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

The Russians had one A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning system (AWACs) aircraft providing exceptional targeting data for the SA-10s and SA-21 missiles. While the American HARM anti-radar missiles began to head towards the Russian radar systems, one of the other S-400 systems that had not engaged the American aircraft fired off a string of missile interceptors. Rather than turning off their radar systems, the Russians wanted to demonstrate the ability of their system to shoot down the American missiles. All four American HARM missiles were destroyed without further incident. The Germans never even got a shot off.

In the blink of an eye, the Russians had enforced the no-fly zone; they had successfully reasserted themselves as a World Power, not to be trifled with. They had effectively demonstrated to the US and NATO that they now controlled the skies over eastern Ukraine, and their show of force implied that if they wanted, Russian control could extend to all of Ukraine and the majority of Poland as well.