The scenarios of The Silent Service – Part 1

The Silent Service, the new standalone expansion for CMANO, is soon to be released by Matrix Games, together with the new v1.14 game update. In this two-part series we cover the eighteen scenarios of this new battleset. We use the default listing order (easiest to hardest) but players can also choose to try the scenarios in chronological order, or in any order of their preference.

Delta Force

Date: 9 October 2017

Location: Arctic Ocean

Playable Side: Russia

Duration: 16 hours



As the Russian Federation re-asserts its role as a major world power following the collapse of communism, tensions have increased over several flashpoints in the Russian sphere of influence. Senior members of the Russian Defence Ministry wish to demonstrate that Russia retains and is improving its strategic submarine-launched nuclear missile capability.

As part of a series of drills to improve readiness within the Russian Navy and to demonstrate capability to the world, a Delta-IV SSBN is tasked to evade a capable force of the Northern fleet’s most modern vessels, before delivering a nuclear strike against an airfield on the Kamchatka peninsula.

Ground Pounder

Date: 9 March 1992

Location: Indian Ocean

Playable Side: United States

Duration: 8 hours



Emboldened by the military defeat of their neighbor and enemy Iraq, the Iranian Khamenei regime has become increasingly belligerent towards the Gulf states and United States. The recent acquisition of Russian Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft with anti-ship missiles has added weight to Ayatollah Khamenei’s threats to close the Straits of Hormuz to foreign shipping.

With an air strike considered to be too risky, President Bush has authorised a cruise-missile strike to remove the threat of the Iranian Su-24s.

Chicken Kiev

Date: 14 April 1977

Location: Barents Sea

Playable Side: Royal Navy

Duration: 12 hours



The Soviet Union’s first aircraft carrier, the TAKR 075 Kiev, entered service in early 1977 and caused a stir throughout NATO naval intelligence circles. Not only was the threat of Soviet carrier aviation a new and dangerous challenge for the West, but frustratingly little intelligence was available on the actual design and capability of the carrier itself.

While on patrol in the Barents Sea monitoring the annual Red Banner Northern Fleet exercise Sever-77, HMS Swiftsure of the Royal Navy was able to seize a rare opportunity to get up-close and personal with a Soviet capital ship and gain valuable photographic and acoustic intelligence…

Snoopy

Date: 28 May 1969

Location: Barents Sea

Playable Side: United States

Duration: 2 days



Intelligence reports indicate that the Soviet Air Defence Force (PVO) is testing a new fire control radar in a major air defence exercise centered around the Kola Peninsula. The Office of Naval Intelligence and National Security Agency are keen to analyse the electromagnetic emissions of this new radar in order to develop countermeasures.

While returning from her North Pole deployment, USS Whale (SSN-638) is tasked with covertly recording the emissions from coastal air defences along the Soviet coastline.

Lone Wolf

Date: 13 October 1998

Location: Okhotsk Sea

Playable Side: United States

Duration: 2 days



Following an attempted mutiny and hijacking of an Akula SSN in Severomorsk on 10th of September, there has been increasingly concerning indications of an impending coup by elements of the Russian Navy.

The chief concern is control of Russian strategic nuclear weapons, particularly within the submarine force. USS Seawolf (SSN-21) has been dispatched to the Okhotsk Sea to monitor Russian naval activity and provide a first-strike capability if the situation requires it.

Click HERE to read the detailed mission briefing for this scenario!

Creeping Death

Date: 28 October 1998

Location: Pacific Ocean

Playable Side: Russia

Duration: 2 days



During the removal of the failed Yeltsin regime earlier this month, the strategic submarine K-44 Ryazan disappeared in the sea of Okhotsk under suspicious circumstances. Recent imagery from remotely operated vehicles at the search site indicates that the Ryazan was torpedoed.

Despite denials from the United States, our newly instated President Zyuganov realises that there is only one party who could be responsible for this unprovoked act of war. In response, President Zyuganov has ordered the most advanced submarine of the Russian Pacific Fleet to implement OPERATION TIGER SHARK, and exact revenge on the United States.

Landing Party

Date: 26 May 2002

Location: Arabian Sea

Playable Side: India

Duration: 36 hours



Tensions between India and Pakistan are at an all time high, following an attack on the Indian Parliament in December of 2001. Both India and Pakistan have mobilized their forces, deploying hundreds of thousands of troops along the border. Mortar and artillery fire has been exchanged in the Kashmir region, and 2 days ago the Pakistani government commenced a series of nuclear tests.

As part of the war plan, the INS Shalki of the Indian Navy is tasked with deploying a MARCOS special operations team to the port of Karachi to conduct reconnaissance. The Pakistani forces are on high alert, and the entire region is on a thermonuclear hair-trigger…

Gamechanger

Date: 17 July 1956

Location: Western Atlantic

Playable Side: RedFor

Duration: 4 days



The advent of nuclear propulsion with the introduction in service of the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was a watershed event for naval forces worldwide. Nuclear propulsion for the first time offered the capabilities that submarine operators had long waited for; true independence from the need to surface or come to periscope depth to replenish air, great underwater speed offering unprecedented tactical and operational freedom, and greatly enlarged available electrical power to support advanced command, sensor and weapon systems.

In addition to revolutionising submarine ops, the nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) also made existing ASW forces virtually obsolete overnight. The US and NATO navies had already been surprised once, by the impressive capabilities of the German Type-XXI “Elektroboot”, and with the knowledge that the Soviet Navy would base its new submarine designs on it, had been forced during the first post-WW2 decade to undergo several expensive ASW modernization programs. At a stroke, the introduction of the SSN (and the acquired intelligence that the Soviets were already building their own first production run, the “November” class) threatened to make this investment all but useless. Nuclear-powered submarines were simply so much faster, so much more elusive, so much more capable that the hardware, tactics and operational concepts that had been perfected in the second battle of the Atlantic and further refined post-war would have to be re-examined from the ground up.

In order to fully develop tactics for its newest addition to the force, as well as train its existing ASW forces and discover ways to deal with the fast-approaching Soviet SSN threat, the US Navy performed a series of exercises between 1955-60, often with the participation of other NATO forces (such as Operation Strikeback in 1958 which involved over 200 warships, 650 aircraft and 75,000 personnel). This scenario represents a hypothetical ASW exercise off the eastern seaboard in the summer of 1956, in which you can choose to control either the Nautilus or a top-line conventional fleet submarine. This is your chance to experience first-hand the nuclear-power revolution.

The Crown Jewels

Date: 26 August 1984

Location: Barents Sea

Playable Side: United States

Duration: 16 hours



Tensions between the United States and Soviet Union have reached heights not seen since the 1970’s, with harsh rhetoric on from leaders on both sides, large scale military exercises (including the almost catastrophic Able Archer ’83), and most recently the boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the US Navy has been successful in placing tapping devices on Soviet sub-sea communications cables in the Okhotsk and Barents seas. Following the Soviet discovery of the Okhotsk cable after a tip-off from a spy within the NSA, USS Parche (SSN-683) is dispatched to the Barents Sea to retrieve data from the Barents tap before it can be discovered by the Soviet Union. Tensions are high, and the crew of the Parche are well aware that a compromise in their mission at this critical moment could spell disaster…

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