Expanding Naval Air Wings (part 2)

Returning from the Naval Wargames Weekend at Yeovilton and in the possession of a new book on Aircraft Carriers the shipyard came to life.. The package from China contained 1:700 scale YAK-141 'Freestyle' VTOL fighters and a package from Poland had arrived as well...

Expanding the Russian Airwing for the 4th Kiev-class helicopter-cruiser: the current airwing consisted of 5 x YAK-38 'Forger' VTOL sub-sonic fighter bombers (scale 1:600) and several Ka-25 'Hormone' ASW helo's (which go as more modern Ka-27 'Helix' ASW helo's as well). During naval wargames the YAK-38 were mostly used as CAP, but they were never a match against 1970s or 1980s western attack aircraft. So I bought a couple of super-sonic YAK-141 (scale 1:700) in China.

Testing of the YAK-141 was historically done on the 4th Kiev-class carrier ('Baku'), but all tests ended around 1991 (when the Soviet Union collapsed). The aircraft was never taken into production, the 'Baku' was renamed into 'Admiral Gorshkov' and within 10 years all Kiev-class units were sold/scrapped... Anyhow, I now have a theoretical 1990s airwing consisting of 5 x YAK-141, supersonic (Mach 1.4?), equipped with radar and decent anti-ship missiles (like Kh-31 and Kh-35) and air-to-air missiles (like radar-guided R-77 and IR-guided R-73 with a range of 10 nm.).

The American Airwings for USS Enterprise (CVN 65): I have 2 Air Wings: a 1960s Air Wing, consisting of 4 x F-8E 'Crusader' fighters, 4 A-4 'Skyhawk' bombers, 4 A-6 'Intruder' bombers and 1-2 E-2B 'Hawkeye' radar aircraft (to be used to stop Communist take-over of the world?) and a 1980s Air Wing, consisting of new fighters (F-4 'Phantom II' with radar-guided missiles), same bomber types and additional ASW capacity (4 x S-3 'Viking' ASW-aircraft and 2 x SH-3 Seaking ASW helo's). Supported by the more modern E-2C 'Hawkeye'.

The American Airwing for USS 'Wasp' (LHD-1): during the last year or so I had collected several (mostly British) aircraft for this amphibious ship. So now I am able to compose a 1990s Air Wing (consisting of Harrier VSTOL fighter bombers, 3 x MH-47 'Chinook' and 4 x MH-53 'Sea Stallion' transport helo's) and a 2020s Airwing (consisting of F-35B VSTOL 'Lightning' fighter-bombers and 6 x V-22 'Osprey' transport aircraft). Together with several LCAC amphibious craft my Americain Amphibious capacity has been expanded. For the 1990-2020s I can conduct a 'traditional' amphibious operation, but for future operations (Taiwan?) the USS 'Wasp', together with 2 modern 'San Antonio' -class LPD's can conduct a much faster and more far-reaching ship-to-shore movement.

The German Airwing for the 'Graf Zeppelin' aircraft carrier: The Germans started to build their first

carrier in 1937 but during the war the final construction was twice suspended. She was about 90 % ready when she was finally scuttled by the Germans in January 1945. Her intended Airwing consisted of Bf 109T fighters and Ju-87C 'Stuka' bombers; either as dive bombers or torpedo bombers! So I bought 8 x Bf 109 fighters and 6 x Ju-87 'Stuka's'. I still have to figure out how to conduct air attacks within my WW2 ruleset ('Naval Thunder' and 'General Quarters 3.3')... Anyhow, I now have a 1943-ish German aircraft carrier (and Airwing) which I can use against British carriers like HMS 'Ark Royal' or against an allied Taskgroup.

Additional helicopters: I painted recently a lot of helicopters (scale 1:600), which I dispensed over the fleets. The French got 1 Super Frelon transport helo onboard their aircraft carrier or amphibious ship FS 'Foudre'. The Chinese got 3 Super Frelons for amphibious transport (to operate from their Type 075 LHD and/or their Type 071 LPD). The US, Japanese and Argentine fleets got acces to 1 SH-3 Seaking ASW-helo each and the Canadian, Indian and Iranian fleet as well. The American MH-53 Sea Stallion helo's can also be used as Americain MCM-helicopters. And the Russian modified 'Ivan Gren'-class LPD (hull 3 and 4) and the 'Kuznetsov' aircraft carrier can now use 2 modern Ka-52K 'Hokum' assault helo's (still 3 to paint). I also painted 2 Mi-6 'Hook' very large transport helo's in USSR colors, which can be used by USSR, Russia and Vietnam (to name a few countries).

Next job (Part 3): develop an older French carrier capacity (around a 1980s Clemenceau-class carrier with F-8 'Crusader' fighters and Super-Etendard bombers), older British carrier capacity (with jet fighters & bombers between 1960 and 1980) and several Indian carrier-type capabilities (1990s to current)...

Naval Wargames Weekend at Yeovilton (Oct 2025)

Myself and Edzard van Zanten participated in the Naval Wargames Weekend (4 & 5th October) at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Somerset. This is a yearly event, organized by the Naval Wargames Society. We left Holland at Friday by car and returned on Monday. We did set up our Naval Wargame at a 8 x 6 ft table. We used Naval Command 2021 rules, adapted with some House Rules. We used 1:3000 ships (mostly NAVWAR) and 1:600 aircraft (metal and 3D-printed). The weekend was very well organized by Simon Stokes. Over the weekend there were approx. 20 participants (at 7 tables) and some 25 additional spectators.

We started our 2-day 'campaign' at Saturday morning. The initial plan was that we played the Russian Amphibious Force in the Baltic and that any spectator could choose 1 of 3 NATO Taskgroups, to participate in the game by defending the German coast. We prepared a brief explanation of the wargame rules and an intel brief for potential participants. Most people who brought Naval Wargames were very busy with their own game (like us) and the amount of 'free roaming' spectators was limited at the beginning of the day. So we adapted our initial plan: I choose the Netherlands Taskgroup and we started the play. During the morning we managed to attract the attention of a spectator, which seemed interested in the game. So we explained a lot to him during the actual game: how to 'fight' with the different miniatures, how the different sensors (radar, sonar) work, etc. He listened and participated for the rest of the day! Due to the demonstration character of this game the actual combat 'speed' was low and we only conducted 2 turns during Saturday. 

During these 2 turns the Soviet Taskgroup got a decent picture of what was happing around her Amphib

Group. The NATO Taskgroup, first sidetracked by the discovery of a Soviet nuclear submarine (Charlie 2 class, armed with SS-N-9 anti-ship missiles), finally found some Soviet Amphibious ships (their main target). However, most NLD ships were detected as well. Although HNLMS Tromp (F801) took out the Soviet Be-12 patrol aircraft with a SM-1 missile, both Soviet Sovremenny's destroyers launched SS-N-22 supersonic missiles successfully against HNLMS Tromp (F801) and HNLMS Kortenaer (F807). The attack by HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck (F812) with 8 RGM-84 Harpoon's against one of the Sovremenny's was not successful as the unit was very well protected by a 'solid' AAW screen of accompanying warships. Sunday morning we continued the game (with the same spectator!). NATO was down to 3 frigates and an undisclosed submarine. During the combat phase of turn 3 the Soviet submarine attacked HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck. Two missiles hit, resulting in extensive damage... However the remaining 2 Dutch frigates, submarine and the P-3C Orion had found an important part of the Soviet Amphibious Taskgroup and launched their 16 RGM-84 Harpoons at

them. The Soviet Air Defence became overwhelmed and the Landing Ship Dock 'Ivan Rogov' (with 1 battalion of Naval Infantry onboard) became severely damaged/crippled. During this turn Soviet Yak-38 fighters downed the Dutch P-3C patrol aircraft as well. Just before lunch it was difficult to determine which side had actually won. Both sides had almost reached their victory conditions: close to 30% of the Soviet Land Forces was killed but the encounters had cost NATO a lot of ships and aircraft... As a demonstration, the game showed our spectator very much of what Naval Command 2021 Rule system can do. 

Sunday afternoon we visited the Fleet Air Arm Museum, which is always fun. During the weekend I bought two interesting books (one from John Curry and the other at the Museum Shop). The book about Aircraft Carriers will help my investigations in and painting of current aircraft carriers and their Airwings.

Verdict:

1. We played with more than 40 units (ships & aircraft). Together with the verbal explanations towards

the spectator/participant as a result both detection phases of turn 1 and 2 took a lot of time. That is not very handy for spectators to such a show, because they might only be interested for say 15 minutes (as they wish to look at other games as well)...  Next time we should focus on a shorter demo/game?

2. Participation at Yeovilton gives you the chance to meet authors/designers

of Naval Wargame Rules and publications 'in the flash' (like David Manley, John Curry, etc.), which can result in interesting discussions with them. You also see a lot of lesser known Naval Wargames together and even some Naval Wargames 'in development' (like 'Snorkers'). As you can discus with the players/ designers/ builders, you can learn a lot. So I saw a game in which aircraft rules ('Wings at War') and ship rules were combined. And at least 2 people advised me to look into the Naval Wargame 'Seastrike'. And I got an idea to make islands (out of floor carpet).

3. Unfortunately I had insufficient time during the weekend to follow a Naval Wargame with pre-Dreadnought or WW1 miniatures... Sad, because I recently got interested in that period (no missiles, no aircraft..).