Battle of the Olichara Gulf

Battle of the Olichara Gulf
Part of the Refusal War
A Royalist Nephele flies over the burning HMS Sara Vazzana.
Date 18 October 1985 Location Olichara Gulf, Scitaria Result Cacertian/Warden Victory
Belligerents
Cacerta Wardens	Royalists
Commanders and leaders
Lavinia Doria	Neven Zlatarev
Units involved
Task Force Aspis	441st Fighter Squadron
Strength
Cacerta 2 battleships 3 cruisers 4 destroyers 2 frigates 6 aircraft Wardens 1 fighter	8 fighters
Casualties and losses
1 battleship damaged 1 cruiser damaged 1 destroyer damaged 1 fighter shot down	4 fighters shot down 1 fighter damaged

The Battle of the Olichara Gulf was a naval and air engagement between Task Force Aspis of the Cacertian Royal Navy and aircraft of the Royalist Air Corps during the Refusal War. Eight Nephele fighter aircraft of the 44th Fighter Squadron attempted to strike Cacertian ships in the Gulf of Olichara, approximately 45 kilometers from the coast of Scitaria. The attack damaged three Cacertian ships for the loss of four Royalist aircraft.

Background

Despite the turbulent historical relationship between the Republic of Syara and the Cacertian Empire, the Cacertian Government had elected to support the Wardens during the Syaran Civil War in the hopes of gaining a strategic partner in north-west Siduri. Initial Cacertian support for the Wardens was largely limited to logistical support, but after the election of 1984 Cacerta increased its efforts by deploying Task Force Aspis of the Cacertian Royal Navy, along with other assets of the Cacertian Armed Forces to provide further support, including naval and air power. During the Warden Coastal Offensive Cacertian ships had provided fire support for Warden ground forces. Cacertian involvement had heightened tensions due to Acrean and Ossorian support for the Royalists. The Gulf of Olichara, which is located near the Warden strongholds of Slovocova, Iani, and Moddra, had been targetted by naval forces of Acrea and Ossoria early in the war, but both forces had withdrew from the Scitarian coast after Warden forces began firing on hostile vessels with anti-ship missiles supplied by Cacerta and Tennai.

In the Autumn of 1985 Warden and Royalist forces were clashing in northern Scitaria, and Task Force Aspsis sailed into the Gulf to supply the Wardens with naval support with land-attack cruise missiles and surface-to-surface munitions. In September the Cacertian fleet had sailed within 10 kilometers of the coast to launch missiles against Royalist positions near Molochansk, which aided the Wardens in recapturing the city. Between 10-13 October Cacertian air and naval forces had also launched attacks against Royalist forces eash of Ghinnari, killing 27 Royalist troops and wounded more than 200 more. Brigadier General Nicolaos Gjuricik, the commander of Royalist air forces in northern Syara, ordered an attack on the Cacertian fleet, believing that the loss of one of the task force's battleships would compel the Cacertians to withdraw. Lt. Colonel Neven Zlatarev of the 441th Fighter Squadron was selected to lead a strike on the Cacertian fleet, which was planned for 16 October, but had to be delayed due to bad weather.

The Cacertian task force, commanded by Admiral Lavinia Doria , had been under fire twice before, but largely had not faced directed attacks from Royalist air power. The task force consisted of two battleships, the empress Elliana-class HMS Sara Vazzana, the Andrea Doria-class HMS Natalia Barberi, three cruisers (Minerva-class HMS Sostene and Kina, Valentia-class HMS Tiburzio), four destroyers (Grecale-class HMS Therama and Casondria, Verosetta-class HMS Borni and Giarta), and two frigates (Lounde-class HMS Setundra and Kerathea). Air support for the task force was provided by a flight of six NSF-12 Albatro Strike Fighters, commanded by Captain Corrado Fiesi with the callsign of Aquilone flight. An additional Warden Nephele, flown by a Syaran pilot Zvonimir Kosanović and a Cacertian Radar intercept officer Lt. Adrianna Fioravanti, also provided assistance.

Course of the battle

Colonel Zlatarev's eight Nepheles, known as Delta Flight, took off from an air field south of Trunin on 18 October around 0730 local time and headed north-east. The flight path for the Royalists took them across the Mysian Peninsula before moving into the northern portion of the Olichara Gulf, where they would pivot south towards the task force. The flight flew low to the earth to avoid detection, with only one aircraft keeping their radar on. The flight was nearly aborted after less than 15 minutes when the aircraft thought they flew over a Warden air defense site, but it proved to be a decoy. The flight was nearly aborted again when the lead Nephele detected an active radar signature, but this proved to be a ground decoy a Warden air defense team had set up and activated thinking the incoming aircraft were on a SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense) mission. The flight continued westward for 270 kilometers, passing south of Trenlica. The flight managed to avoid detection by Warden air defense crews by flying low to the ground and following roadways, which Warden forces avoided. Warden air defense crews typically only kept their radars on during active operations, and usually only for 15-30 second intervals to avoid detection.

The Royalist flight met the coast shortly before 0800 and began swinging in an arc towards the task force's estimated position. The flight was divided into two groups of four aircraft each; four aircraft carried anti-ship missiles for targetting the Cacertian ships, while the other four carried air-to-air missiles for overwatch. The primary targets for the Royalists were the two Cacertian battleships and three cruisers, which provided most of the firepower for the task force. At 0811 the flight vectored towards the fleet, the four designated anti-ship Nepheles dropping to less than 1,000 feet while the four overwatch fighters flew between 2,000-3,000 feet. At the time of the vector, Captain Fiesi's six Albatro's were 40 kilometers to the task force's south-east, with Kosanović's Nephele 18 kilometers behind.

The RN-RRAV air search radar aboard the Sara Vazzana, the most powerful fielded by the task force, detected the Nepheles at a distance of 140 kilometers. Captain Doria was alerted quickly, but it wasn't until the aircraft were just over 100 kilometers out that the Cacertians were able to identity the four overwatch Nepheles. The lower flying anti-ship Nepheles weren't identified until 70 kilometers out. Doria directed Fiesi to intercept, with Kosanović joining. A typical tactic of the Cacertians was to use Warden Nepheles as minature AWACS owing to its powerful radar. Niesi, unaware of the four anti-ship armed Nepheles, vectored for an intercept on the lead Royalist Nephele, Delta 3.

Delta flight's four anti-ship Nepheles carried Diekplous anti-ship missiles, which had a maximum range of 50 kilometers. The size of the Cacertian battleships however were larger targets than the missiles were originally designed for. Delta 5 activated his radar at 60 kilometers out and closing, which alerted the Cacertians that there were more than four Nepheles. Doria informed Niesi, but the Albatro's radar had trouble detecting the low flying aircraft. Delta flight detected Aquilone flight first and Delta 2 fired off an air-to-air missile at the distance of 50 kilometers, which Aquilone flight evaded. Delta flight fired off three more missiles, none of which scored a hit. Zlatarev ordered Delta's flight four overwatch fighters to split to take Cacertian attention away from the lower four.

The anti-ship carrying Nepheles launched their first savlo against the two Cacertian battleships at a range of approximately 45 kilometers. Of the four Diekplous fired, two failed to lock on and fell to the sea. The third was targetted and tracked by the Custode CIWS aboard the Sara Vazzana, but the missile ultimately failed to detonate and instead smacked off the side of the ship's superstructure. The final Diekplous proved more effective, hitting the battleship near her second RN-MBIII turret. The resulting explosion detonated some of the ammunition near the turret, causing a large fireball. Doria immediately ordered the battleship to turn hard to port towards the incoming flight of Royalist aircraft to present a slimmer target profile.

The other Nepheles launched a second volley of six Diekplous. The Tiburzio and Sostene attempted to engage the incoming missiles with defensive countermeasures, one of which succeeded in destroying a Diekplous. Another Diekplous hit the Sostene but failed to detonate, while two of the Diekplous failed to lock on and flew past the ships before crashing into the sea. The other two Diekplous succeeded in hitting the Tiburzio, one of which failed to detonate. The other punched a hole across the bow and rendered the forward armarments inoperable, though the blast was above the waterline and therefore the ship was not in immediate threat of sinking. The Cacertian frigates, finally able to track the Nepheles, opened fire with a volley of surface-to-air missiles, forcing the Nepheles to evade. The four Royalist craft split up into pairs, which caused an error within the targetting software of the Casondria, preventing a firing solution despite being in the best position to down two of the Nepheles