Steel Panthers-SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defense

Article written by Ma Duece [Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:06 pm]

Have you ever targeted a particular enemy unit for an air strike, only to see the aircraft come under fire from anti-aircraft guns or surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and either miss the intended target, get shot down, or make the attack only to be damaged and made unavailable for additional strikes?

Just as players should fight with a mix of supporting arms (i.e. artillery, fixed-wing close air support and rotary-wing air support), they should also protect their high-value units (artillery, tanks, etc.) with a mix of air defense units whenever possible.

Avoiding the suppressive effects of enemy air defense units can be next to impossible, especially in modern scenarios where man-portable air defense (MANPAD) units are easily purchased, easily hidden, and often very deadly. Enter SEAD, the military term for destroying or degrading enemy surface to air defense capabilities, thereby increasing freedom of action and survivability of aircraft. Most frequently delivered in support of a specific air attack, SEAD involves attacking air defense weapons that can threaten friendly aircraft in the immediate vicinity of the target and on the aircrafts' ingress and egress routes.

In actual military engagements, SEAD requires a great deal of orchestration and finesse. Steel Panthers 3 allows for execution of SEAD missions in a more simplistic, but often very effective manner. There are four basic elements required for a SEAD mission: A target; a strike element available for targeting; a spotting unit to act as a forward observer; and an indirect fire (artillery, mortars, etc.) asset(s) available for targeting. Deep strikes against targets in your enemies rear area can prove the most profitable, so a SEAD mission against a rear area target will be described here.

I always assume that my opponent (computer and human) has purchased long-range artillery. As is often the case with the computer, the AI tends to mass the artillery within an area of only 4-5 hexes in length and width, making it very susceptible to strike elements. Getting the strike element in and dropping bombs, firing rockets, or strafing with guns, is where the challenge lies.

If you save one of your priority targets and place it in the vicinity of the most likely artillery position, you can run a SEAD mission very quickly, even if you have to shift the strike several times from the original priority target. The sooner you can hit those indirect fire assets, the sooner you can keep them from chewing up your own soft targets like infantry. If you don't have a priority target in the vicinity, a SEAD mission is still feasible, just expect it to take longer.

I also assume that my opponent has placed air defense assets around the deep target for protection, even if some distance away. In actuality, you are going after both the deep target and as many air defense assets as possible, at pretty much the same time; the strike element is used to prosecute the deep target, and your indirect fire assets are used to suppress or neutralize the enemy air defense.

The presence of a spotting unit, with line-of-sight to the deep target, any priority targets and any visible air defense units, is a must. Without one, you might as well be throwing the strike element's ordnance away. In modern scenarios, I try to push a gunship or helicopter into the enemy rear area. It's not often an easy task, especially since it will draw fire from air defense units, but you will have uncovered their locations. It's best to penetrate the rear area with a pair of gunships or helicopters so that you'll have a back-up in case one is hit and heavily damaged or destroyed. In earlier scenarios, I try to purchase reconnaissance vehicles with high mobility and push them into the rear area from the top and bottom of the map, then move then to the center of the rear area after they cross enemy's deployment line.

As soon as the deep target exposes itself after firing or through your own reconnaissance, it is critical to determine where the air defense is if you don't already know its disposition. In order for a SEAD mission to be effective, you need to hit as many of those air defense assets as possible with indirect fires between .1 and .4 of a turn prior to the strike element's arrival. Even if it is not possible to shift the missions from a priority target, you need the indirect fires to hit the air defense units just prior to the strike element's arrival, and within the same turn so that those air defense units cannot attempt a moral check and be able to engage.

As a final note, carefully selecting the flight path for the strike element can also reduce its risk against air defenses. If you know you have a number of AA guns and SAMs deployed in depth in an east to west pattern, you shouldn't fly the strike element directly across the map from one side to the other. Not only do you run the risk of the strike element engaging an enemy unit that is nowhere near you intended target, but you also are going to be shot at numerous times by every air defense unit along the path. Use an angle flight path to avoid known pockets of air defense along both the ingress and egress route. Do not, however, use an angled approach if the target you want the strike element to hit is near the upper or lower borders of the map. The game will often have the strike element fly directly over the target without attacking, probably to simulate the pilots inability to acquire the target, by visual or computer means, and release ordnance in time.
By Ma Deuce