[CONFLICT] [SECRET] Skyfall

STOICS Operation: Skyfall

Objective (primary): Punish Breach of NFZ

Objective (secondary): Reinforce Containment of the Garden

Allied Response Military Authority Status: Granted

Let justice be done, though the world perish.

 

Intelligence gathering attempts made by the Garden of Eden constitute a direct violation of the combined blockade, No Fly Zone, and border closure implemented collectively by the UNSC, Empire of Japan, Second Roman Republic, Grand Imperium of Europa, Slayer, and Western Russian Remnant; Edenite aerial assets above the skies of the Garden are in breach of the NFZ. As such, the UNSC is leveraging both STOICS and GIGAS in order to rapidly and emphatically enforce the above, and will now take primary command of Edenite containment measures.

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[M] Moderator Note: Due to the NFZ having been implemented (and never rescinded) at the end of Campaign 1, the following CONFLICT post should be seen occuring in RETRO, realistically happening immediately in response to the (negative Secrecy roll) exposure of Edenite intelligence gathering efforts. This CONFLICT should not be seen as influenced in any way by recent diplomatic overtures (with the response actually being much harsher if the DIPLOMACY post was factored in). [/M]

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General Defensive Posture

• Great Northern Barrage: Activation Status - Unchanged.

• North Atlantic Defence Area: TRIADS Alert Status upgraded from CRISIS (Heightened readiness) to BELLUM (Wartime readiness). Partial mobilization of the Bri'rish Fennoscandian Guard (originally limited to the Danish Realms Home Army) expanded to full mobilization of all component units; full mobilization of Siberican and Cypriot Home Army units with full activation of all regular forces. Regular ground forces on the Continent (i.e. Siberica, Benelux, Denmark, Baltics) are tasked to fortify border regions such as the Baltic Security Wall and border with France/Germany, while active BFF and Cypriot expeditionary land forces (with the exception of GBAD and artillery, which are to follow rehearsed dispersal protocols) are to report to primary bases for further orders. Full mobilization of Confederation Aerial Home Guard, with Bas 120 dispersal alongside units deployed as part of Operation Behemoth, augmenting existing rotating overflights and patrols. Persistence flights of participating Warfare Solitaire assets are to continue, with 50% of all strategic aviation assets airborne at any given time, remaining forces placed on QRF alert. All naval assets are to leave home bases immediately.

• Caribbean Defence Area: Alert Status - Unchanged.

• Kowloon Defence Area: Alert Status raised to CRISIS (Heightened readiness). Partial mobilization of Kowloon Home Army units. Aircraft staging out of Kowloon to begin rotating overflights and Bas 120 dispersal, with littoral surface/subsurface units to begin immediate patrols of EEZ.

• Mid Atlantic Ridge Exclusion Zone: Readiness Level - Unchanged.

• Other UNSC Defence Areas: No change to PAX alert status.

• Full mobilization of WRR via STOICS PfP arrangements, enabling strengthened fortification of the Russian Border Wall.

 

Air

Given the nature of the Garden’s violation of the imposed NFZ being primarily in this domain, the UNSC will enforce the No Fly Zone by systematically eliminating any Edenite aircraft detected in controlled airspace.

• Intelligence from UNSC orbital SATINT, AEW aircraft/drones and airborne intelligence assets already operating in proximity to the Garden, TRIADS Fixed/mobile Ground-based EW radar systems, and participating Littoral surface vessels in the Baltic/Black seas will be complemented by criss-crossing hypersonic suborbital overflights by Huginn HGV parasite UAS solutions launched from Wyvern Heavy Strike Fighters, with the Huginn solutions launching SCRUM/SCRUM-XL and BLOSC disposable suborbital picosats to generate a comprehensive surveillance picture and generate multiple simultaneous weapons-grade tracks Edenite intelligence gathering and fighter aircraft.

• Operating at standoff distances, manned 6th-generation fighter aircraft optionally-manned 7th-generation persistence assets will launch HAMMER Very-Long-Range-Air-to-Air-Missiles from deep within the TRIADS umbrella with aims to intercept all aircraft violating the NFZ. Because of the HAMMER’s T3 capability (which enables striking ground targets in addition to aerial ones), Edenite aircraft will be unable simply land to escape these weapons; HAMMER will also enable strikes of opportunity against grounded aircraft, with priority given to AEW, ISR, and fighter, and refueling aircraft in that order. In addition to exploiting the superior range of the HAMMER VLRAAM, escorting fighters with shorter-range, extremely-high-volume AAW weapons packages will safeguard these assets with a BARCAP screen, leveraging Arorika Revolutionen Doktrin weapons and tactics to “split the arrows”, thoroughly intercepting retaliatory AAMs and SAMs. In short, the objective of this stage of the operation is to “sweep the skies clean”.

• Supporting TRIADS assets (air/ground/sea) have also been oriented for 1) the rapid intercept of retaliatory strikes from Edenite cruise and ballistic missiles aimed at UNSC and SRR targets, 2) intercept of incoming AAMs/SAMs using shorter-range, economical affordable mass solutions (such as JETSAM S-SAM/I-SAM), and 3) supplementary intercept of Edenite aircraft with VLRSAM solutions (such as JETSAM LADDER-SAM).

• In order to underscore the seriousness of the NFZ breach, UNSC multirole and air interdiction aircraft will undertake a “demonstration strike” conducted entirely from standoff ranges. These air assets will be defensively screened by escorting fighters armed with high-volume AAW packages, TRIADS GBADS, and littoral naval pickets as mentioned above. The demonstration strike will establish precedent for a 50-km “strike-back buffer zone” as part of a broader IRON THORN posture. Establishing what is effectively a no-go zone extending fifty kilometers into the Garden from the Edenite Border, the strike-back buffer zone will effectively act as a one-sided DMZ; any ISR asset, indirect fire munition/weapon/launch solution, or military force operating within or breaching this buffer will immediately trigger localized precision retaliation against the point of origin from standoff fires or strike aircraft operating within STOICS/GIGAS-held territory/airspace. The IRON THORN is not an open offensive, and should instead be seen as a proportionate escalatory response to the Garden breaching the NFZ, creating a hardened perimeter with enforced cost, punishing attempted Edenite incursions. As part of the aforementioned demonstration strike, the UNSC will lead a comprehensive SEAD/DEAD operations against all Edenite air bases and on-the-ground aircraft, fixed and mobile SAM launchers, radar installations and radar vehicles, miscellaneous air defence assets, LRPF launchers and artillery systems, and supporting logistics nodes/armories/bases/weapons caches located within 50km of the Edenite border with the Baltic Crown Protectorates, SRR, WRR, and Japanese-held Grand Imperium and Slayer territories. While coordinating SRR and WRR strikes via STOICS/Partnership for Peace, UNSC collaboration with Grand Imperium and Slayer assets will be conducted in concert with Japanese GIGAS channels for maximum effect. The primary UNSC aerial asset tasked with the strike mission will be the Wyvern Heavy Strike Fighter (many of which are already on-station as per previous deployments), armed with a vast assortment of extremely-long-range air-to-ground munitions such as the NEO PARADIGM and Räsvelg HYPER PLUS, which should allow these aircraft to operate from deep within UNSC sovereign airspace. Wyverns will be supported by various unmanned strike assets acting as arsenal planes, also operating from safe standoff distances but with the flexibility to operate closer to the border as required. SEAD/DEAD operations will also, via TRIADS, leverage UNSC mobile Artillery/LRPF land units and littoral naval assets to conduct bombardments using GLCMs/TBMs/railgun/coilgun/long-range BLLP ETC artillery systems to ensure an extremely thorough cleanse of the strike-back buffer zone, with STOICS/GIGAS joint command channels used to coordinate WRR/Slayer/Danubian/SRR activity. As our Roman allies have so poetically put it: “Containment holds. Breach it, and our sky falls on you.”

 

Space

• Skyholm placed on Wartime Readiness. All Muninn UOVs will be launched into various orbits for long-endurance missions. Following confirmation from SRR commanders, dual-key AVGVSTVS wings staging out of UNSC airbases will be deployed to space armed with strike packages, with instructions to maintain orbits that will consistently bring them over Garden territory, with these regular passes acting as loitering space-based overflights. Brilliant Pebbles network reactivated, and will be refreshed by spaceborne assets to ensure full operational capacity. Launch of all Æther Army Sångsvan-class and Krigshök-class Ætherships to patrols at varying orbital altitudes, screened by Spitfire and Hellfire UOVs.

• All Western Russian space units are to launch with UNSC STOICS officers on board.

• As further retaliation for the Edenite breach of the imposed NFZ, Ætherships and other spacecraft listed above will be tasked with non-kinetic scouring of the Garden from Orbit in a sophisticated ASAT campaign. While electromagnetic radiofrequency jamming will be utilized to soft-kill satellite solutions, laser, microwave, and other directed energy weapons will be utilized both for blinding of SATINT optics and the overload/overheat of satellite systems, affecting hard-kill of these targeted solutions. Where Garden satellites cannot be damaged or destroyed via the above weapons, mobilization of dual-use technologies will occur; the SSC’s Leksakslåda inventory will be used to rendezvous, seize, and deorbit Edenite satellites, placing them on a retrograde trajectory for destruction during atmospheric re-entry. For satellites too heavy or in too high an orbit to affect a timely re-entry, RESTORE robotic repair satellites will physically rendezvous with Garden satellites, taking control of these units via point-to-point cyberwarfare, directly hacking the satellite hardware and firmware. Air/ground/sea-based laser solutions will also contribute against any satellites passing overhead, supplementing space-based forces. The scouring of Eden’s presence from Orbit and elimination of unmanned satellite capability is intended to reinforce the message of a highly-constrained limited retaliation for the Garden’s violations, and that the cost has nowhere to go but up.

• Space-based assets involved in the ASAT operations above will maintain high alertness for Edenite ASAT/counter-ASAT attempts, with UOVs utilized to screen participating forces for hard-kill, kinetic intercepts of incoming spacefighters, spacecraft, and ground/air/space-to-space missiles and projectiles.

 

Cyberspace

• Due to the risk of Edenite cyberspace incursions, ORCUS will raise the Cyber threat profileto Severe (digital equivalent to DEFCON 2 FAST PACE).
  
• Full mobilization of all cyberdefence assets is to occur immediately. CULSANS defensive protocols will be in full effect. STOICS military supercomputing assets, such as the Electrowarden series have been placed on highest alert. The BFF Hypercomputer has been requisitioned and assembled. Mobilization orders have been issued to all ORCUS operatives, artificial intelligences, and cybermilitia assets. MERLIN has been issued a defensive posture.
  
• The combined prerogative of the above will be to effect a collective defence in the cyber domain in order to protect the UNSC from reprisals. Likewise, cyberwarfare units have also been tasked to provide a limited cyberattack against Edenite forces with network connectivity to the IRON THORN “strike-back buffer zone”, aiming at infiltration, disruption, and/or destruction of military and civilian communications networks and computing nodes, military bases, and energy infrastructure powering these locations in advance of air/artillery operations during the aforementioned “demonstration strike”. While this strike is ongoing, hackers and cyberwarfare AIs are tasked to continue hammering targets of opportunity with rolling cyberattacks, systems penetration, and the introduction of custom-designed worms into active communications nodes., destabilizing them and keeping them off balance. In support of the ASAT operation mentioned above, special care will be devoted towards subverting satellite control centers across the entire country with these measures, with aims to disable or destroy all computing and networking within and feeding into these sites.
  

 

Naval

• The remaining two Vinland-class Hypercarriers are to put to sea alongside their standard escort vessels and complements. They are to remain within the TRIADS coverage network, off the coast of the BFF.

• Two Uí Ímair-class supercarriers are to deploy to the North Sea, and the two remaining Uí Ímair-class supercarriers (one of them the HMS Ivar the Boneless and its Ghost Fleet) are to deploy to the Eastern Mediterranean, in proximity to SRR defenses. All four stealth carriers will operate in dual carrier orientations with standard fleet and air wing compositions, with rotating overflights conducted of BARCAP assets and escort vessels deployed in air defence and undersea pickets to screen their respective carriers. EMCON/radio silence protocols will remain in effect, with minimal radiating assets (limited to only offboard AEW&C aircraft turning on and off their emitters at random) and greater dependence on both passive and multistatic radar solutions. In addition to carrier protection, air/surface/subsurface assets associated with each CVBG will supplement land-based aviation/artillery during the IRON THORN “demonstration strike”, with ASAT conducted against targets of opportunity that perform overhead passes. The primary role of these carriers and their surface/subsurface action groups will be to reinforce the blockade previously imposed against Eden, with land attack and ASuW strikes carried out against targets identified and tracked by ongoing ISR operations listed above.

• Ultra-quiet undersea assets such as the Viking-class SSE and various XLUUVs and UUVs will operate within the Baltic and Black Seas. Tasks associated with these submarine solutions will include further reinforcement of the blockade via the destruction of any vessels attempting to break out of the cordon, the deployment of CHASM/L/XL smart networked minefields and ULTRASUS-DAS/DSS containerized sensor chains, and submarine surveillance (further contributing to the ISR picture against Eden).
   

Land

• As mentioned above, ground forces will focus primarily on fortification of border regions or preparations for expeditionary deployments via both strategic/tactical transport aviation and various maritime AAS solutions.
  
• Artillery forces will contribute heavily towards establishment of the IRON THORN buffer zone (see details above). All dedicated counterbattery forces will disperse with CCD protocols and ready for retaliatory strikes, with aims to destroy Edenite artillery systems with overwhelming firepower if they attack.
  
• Mobilization of civil defence forces will also be conducted.
   
  

Covert

• The Multilateral Administrative General Intelligence Alliance (MAGIA) will mobilize defensively, leveraging extant HUMINT networks throughout the UNSC and various irregular forces, militias (inclusive of the Workforce, Altneuland Brigade, the Sons of Thunder, BFF Air, etc), and Civil Defence Force gendarmeries to police UNSC territories, citizens, companies, etc. and identify Edenite agents, cells, or covert activity. MAGIA will seize and detain Edenite agents or citizens discovered with Edenite sympathies under this broad spectrum operation. ORCUS’ excess cyberwarfare capacity will also be leveraged, alongside NORDEL for careful monitoring of potential infiltration and espionage vectors. MAGIA will also closely cooperate with border security and coast guard units.

• MAGIA will attempt to identify Edenite infiltrators and sympathizers by careful scrutinization of the UNSC logistics companies for air/truck/rail/sea freight, corroborating official manifests and paper trails to ensure the amount of resources onloaded and offloaded match precisely alongside random inspections, leveraging pre-existing contacts within organized crime rings, syndicates, and gangs to enable passive underworld monitoring, scrutiny of banking transactions meeting a significant monetary threshold, the utilization of cyberwarfare assets and cybermilitia forces to police the deep web and trace suspicious cryptocurrency transactions, the monitoring of overland borders and coasts via surveillance from SIGINT sites, manned and unmanned aerial, surface, and subsurface assets, tracking movement of foreign nationals entering the UNSC through legitimate border crossings, miscellaneous surveillance of individuals, private companies, and public corporations that may be involved in suspicious activity, interception of suspicious communications via smart grid-enabled monitoring, and the parsing of online communications, social media accounts, and corporate communications.

• Given the penchant for the Garden to utilize psychological warfare during past operations, MAGIA will monitor for audio/RF/internet broadcasts of Edenite propaganda, and will either interfere with these broadcasts via destructive audio interference or RF jamming, marking the origin of these broadcasts for destruction via aerial and artillery assets as part of the IRON THORN buffer zone initiative.