The sinking of the Chinese carrier was a great victory for the United States and became the high watermark of what the citizens of all the warring nations would calmly persevere. Social and traditional media was delivering an unrelenting stream of the horrors of war on a twenty-four hour basis. The initial successful air campaign against North Korea had given way to a bloody stalemate along the DMZ that resembled the trench lines and death fields of the First World War. Forces in Japan and China were strong enough to defend but not willing to mount large attacks, leading to a drawn-out battle of attrition between air forces providing no great news for the public to hear. The result was that large antiwar movements grew everywhere from Beijing to Washington DC. The pressure was on to end the war.
US strategists looked at a map of the Western Pacific and saw their opportunities to do just that.
The first opportunity was the Philippines. This large nation of thousands of islands runs right down the middle of the Western Pacific and provides a natural haven for even large naval forces to operate and project power into the greater Pacific, South China Sea and even China itself. US carrier forces had a rich history of exercising haven operations during the Cold War and had fought battles in these waters during the Second World War so this would not be unexplored territory or theory. It was an advantage to be leveraged.
The second opportunity was they saw a map full of dispersed airports and bases that could provide temporary havens for smaller, more capable US air forces to operate from, launch significant attacks and then move to avoid counterattack. If they could secure these bases and leverage the USAF's great mobility, they could make it very difficult for the Chinese to target and destroy US forces decisively as they would have to disperse power to do so. The nightmare raids in Korea had shown this to be successful, and it should work against the Chinese military as well.
Finally, US carrier forces had arrived in the theater and Australia had agreed to fight for the common defense. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group had transited from the Arabian Gulf and met with the Atlantic Fleet’s Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group that had been operating in the Mediterranean Sea. The Darwin-based USS America Expeditionary Strike Group was joined by the Australian Canberra Amphibious Group and tasked to meet the two-carrier group in Indonesian waters. US air assets began filling tarmacs and shelters in Northern Australia. Forces were now in theater and ready to act it was time to push forward.
The Chinese leadership and military were intent on holding out, to inflict one final great blow to American forces and then trust that the American public would force an end to conflict. It was well known for decades that the decisive battle would be the Chinese naval strike complex versus surged US carrier groups, and Chinese forces intended to win. It would be the greatest and most decisive battle in Chinese history. They had taken the first chain, and would now ensure their energy security and sea lanes for the future.
This is a large, single-sided battleset scenario with a duration of 6 days.
You will start with all naval groups in the same area. This is so you can alter and arrange groups and devise your own strategies. Consider different groups and paths.
The weather prohibits the use of laser-guided weapons. Please stick to either dual-mode or other guidance types.
Consider your SM-3 loadouts at the kinds of targets they are useful against. You will have to weigh offense vs. defense in one case.