How to defeat Russian ASMs

[Hellfish6]

I've been playing a couple scenarios here and there, having a great old time until I stumbled into one scenario with a US/NATO SAG and a mixed NATO/US CVGB. The CVBG only has a single Burke-class DDG with it, no Tico, and a couple French/Italian/German frigates and destroyers too. The enemy is a mixed bag of Russian SSNs and SSGNs, and either a Kirov group or a Kuznetsov group (with a Kirov). This CVBG gets annihilated. The SAG is too far to the rear to be useful.

I started getting SLCMs from the North, which caused my radars to light up, which told the Slavas and Kirovs to the East where I was and it began raining a slow, steady supersonic death.

I'd already had a bunch of Hornets in the air going after the Russian group, but they aren't nearly as fast as those ASMs were. In the end, I don't even remember if any of my Harpoons hit anything.

How can I defend against these things? I was firing Standard SAMs as fast as I could (manually AND automatically) and they'd still leak through. None of the point defenses seemed to be remotely useful.

I'd already had a bunch of Hornets in the air going after the Russian group, but they aren't nearly as fast as those ASMs were.

[Mike D]

I've been playing a couple scenarios here and there, having a great old time until I stumbled into one scenario with a US/NATO SAG and a mixed NATO/US CVGB. The CVBG only has a single Burke-class DDG with it, no Tico, and a couple French/Italian/German frigates and destroyers too. The enemy is a mixed bag of Russian SSNs and SSGNs, and either a Kirov group or a Kuznetsov group (with a Kirov). This CVBG gets annihilated. The SAG is too far to the rear to be useful.

I started getting SLCMs from the North, which caused my radars to light up, which told the Slavas and Kirovs to the East where I was and it began raining a slow, steady supersonic death.

I'd already had a bunch of Hornets in the air going after the Russian group, but they aren't nearly as fast as those ASMs were. In the end, I don't even remember if any of my Harpoons hit anything.

How can I defend against these things? I was firing Standard SAMs as fast as I could (manually AND automatically) and they'd still leak through. None of the point defenses seemed to be remotely useful.

I'd already had a bunch of Hornets in the air going after the Russian group, but they aren't nearly as fast as those ASMs were.


Few basic rules, they may seem silly and obvious but they are critical.


Don't turn on your radar unless you absolutely must. Shut them down as soon as it is safe to do so. This prevents the enemy from getting an ESM contact on you and if they do then if you turn off your radar in time your ESM contact will expire for them.
Do not allow your ships to be found.
Use your jammers if you have them and its safe to do so on nearby hostile aircraft.
Keep your speed slow to prevent sonar contact.
If you have them use your aircraft, especially if you have aircraft with LPI radar like the F/A-18E. LPI radar can't be detected.
Search for and prosecute subs relentlessly with aircraft, if you have them, and keep your ships as far away as you can. This prevents the subs from getting a sonar ID on your ships and spreading the word on your location.
Repeat #2, do not let your ships be found!!!
Change course and move away from the hostiles. Then you can use your subs and aircraft.

There are more things but #2/7 are the most important. Sometimes you can't avoid being found, that's the way the scenario is structured. But try. I can go through a scenario and the hostiles never even get off a shot at me while I kick them hard.

p.s. Whats the scenario, I want to try it.

[Havoc]

With this type of situation, its all about keeping the enemy blind 100% of the time. Often times if this involves Russian carriers and weak or no air cover, it means significant sacrifices to avoid detection.

I've lost almost 2/3's of a carrier's air wing to avoid detection in some scenarios. This of course involved many different flight ops at the same time, MIGCAP, Recon, SEAD, ASUW, ASW screening, etc.

So in short... Its find em, blind em, and burn em before they do the same first.