AAR ARMA 3 | Operation Urban Anvil Redux 2023

[Beiter.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT

​

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Urban Anvil 2023
Number Within Campaign: N/A
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: ARMA 3 Training Server 1
Date of Combat Mission:12AUG23
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 1900z
Mission Controller: First Lieutenant Beiter.A
Mission OIC: Second Lieutenant Sam.T

Personnel in attendance: ~50
Brigadier General Tharen.R
Major Burton.P
Major Dread.M
First Lieutenant Beiter.A
Second Lieutenant Bethea.A
Second Lieutenant Highman.J
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sutodoreh.W
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Villmarsson.L
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Wulf.C
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dujakovic.R
Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A
Warrant Officer 1 Spitnale.K
Sergeant Major Schmidt.A
First Sergeant Jupiter.J
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
Sergeant Crowley.T
Sergeant Hilberg.A
Sergeant Narramoor.A
Sergeant Oldham.G
Sergeant Santoyo.T
Sergeant Tucker.C
Sergeant Westcott.R
Corporal Kent.R
Corporal Kastor.K
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Rozhkov.P
Corporal Mobius.T
Corporal Teddy.J
Corporal Telinov.V
Corporal Terp.J
Corporal Turn.J
Corporal Zaren.T
Specialist Arnesen.B
Specialist Eugene.R
Specialist Grizzle.M
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist Rok.M
Specialist Sorrow.R
Specialist Willson.JA
Specialist Xinos.T
Private First Class Brawl.B
Private First Class Casey.W
Private Dray.T
Private Hess.J
Private Walker.R

Retired Players:
SGT.Blake.H
SFC.Houston.T

 

[Wulf.C]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: RAIDER-2
Element Leader: Chief Warrant Officer 2.Wulf.C

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Grizzle.M



Pros:

• Very fun op, good balancing of targets for air and ground
• Chaos handled the chaotic amount of CAS assets well
• Got Bingo!
• Lots of tasks and targets for air, good mixture of low to mid threat AA.

Cons:

• TFAR is annoying to operate.
• Not enough FAC's
• Not enough lighting at airbase, hard to land.

 

[Dread.M]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: RAIDER-1
Element Leader: Major Dread.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Warrant Officer 1 Spitnale.K

Pros:

• Great S3 balancing
• Chaos balancing too many assets to manage. Did a good job picking up such a huge tasking with only one FAC
• So many targets, too few rounds

Cons:

• Not enough FAC's

 

[Narramoor.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: MISFIT-5
Element Leader: Sergeant Narramoor.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Pros:

• Always love a last stand, one life Urban Anvil operation
• All elements displayed EXTREME resilience, only dispatched with IDF or OPFOR CAS.
• The defence was coordinated independently very effectively
• Never underestimate the power of AT mines
• Good work from all elements and support assets i.e. Buffalo, Hammer, Atlas. Atlas was chief on this operation being only 1 team.
• Best version of Urban Anvil yet

Cons:

• My direction led to the downing of Buffalo-1's bird
• I got downed multiple times myself planting explosives

 

[Lindsay.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Buffalo-1
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Major Schmidt.A



Pros:

• Great op, good balancing of targets for air and ground
• Bingo!
• Good Plan, Good Brief, Got a good jump on Resupply
• Great design and "feel" to this op. Hectic & difficult but not insurmountable.

Cons:

• TFAR issues
• Could have used some more FACs
• Lighting issues - NVG's are rubbish makes landing in tight LZs, at night, under fire a real nightmare.

 

[Telinov.V]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Misfit-4
Element Leader: Corporal Telinov.V

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Oldham.G
Sergeant Westcott.R
Sergeant Crowley.T
Corporal Teddy.J
Corporal Mobius.T
Corporal Zaren.T
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Arnesen.B


Pros:

• Very fun op, lots of targets for my squad to engage.
• CAS didn't obliterate everything so weapons squad had a large amount of armor to repel.
• The Dark map making NVGs ineffective and making the fight more knife fighty and fun.

Cons:

• TFAR had issues for me and a few troopers.
• First SBF for Misfit 4 was a terrible position, though no better one was available to us.
• Communication within our squad was not the greatest, being on me for having mic issues during the second defense position.

 

[Kastor.K]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: CHAOS
Element Leader: Corporal Kastor.K

Pros:

• The mission was the absolute madhouse that Urban Anvil always is!
• Insane precision from air assets, permitting CAS within 50-200m of the FOB walls, with no registered blue-on-blue casualties.
• Incredible, although exhausting, fun juggling RAIDER flight, LIGHTNING/HOG, and HAMMER at the same time.
• HAMMER is a great platform, very fun to task, and provides very interesting capabilities.
• RAIDER flight and HAMMER were so capable that we've agreed with HOG-1 that he should switch back to LIGHTNING for SEAD / CAP because these two assets were CAS enough.
• THE ALAMO BROKE BEFORE THE CAV DID!

Cons:

• Minor TFAR issues where I could not hear RAIDER-1 but everyone heard me and them. A terrifying reminder of ACRE issues. Changing to a new radio backpack removed the problem.
• HAMMER was rotating around 1.0-1.5km above me in direct line of sight and still, the backpack radio had issues with transmission quality and power. Some TFAR settings might be way too aggressive in this regard.

 

[Phillips.B]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: MISFIT-2
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Phillips.B

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

• First Sergeant Jupiter.J
• Sergeant First Class Abate.L
• Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
• Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
• Corporal Kent.R
• Corporal Lucander.P
• Specialist Rodahl.S
• Specialist Rok.M
• Specialist Sorrow.R
• Specialist Turner.L
• Specialist Willson.JA

Non-7th Cavalry Within Element:

• N/A

Pros:

• Very Fun
  • Extremely fun for all involved
• Survivabililty/Skill
  • Survived most of what was thrown at us
• Communication
  • Consistant given casualties/proximity
• Challenging
  • Being on the backfoot is fun and different
• One Life
  • Not many are run but changes the dynamic in a mission
• Spectator
  • Allowing the dead to stay and watch was nice
• Good Frame Management
  • Given circumstances of mission

Cons:

• Map Nighttime
  • Extremely dark
• Controlling Deaths
  • Many deaths were uncontrollable
  • e.g. Zeus Artillery
• Staging Zone Arsenal
  • Available throughout mission
• Crash Ending
  • Server/Clients could not handle the nukes

 

[Sutodoreh.W]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: LIGHTNING-1/HOG-1
Element Leader: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sutodoreh.W

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sutodoreh.W



Pros:

• Best iteration of urban anvil so far
• Great comms between air assets universally -- coordinated with hammer on red air, with raider on spotting ground targets, overall fantastic
• CHAOS Kastor.K did fantastic
• Without a targeting pod, after Broken Arrow, I dropped 12 GBUs and 2 clusters all without guidance managed to wipe out most of the EI in the northeast corner without any misses. Quite pleased with that last section.

Cons:

• Lights on runway
• Staging zone should have a heal option for pilots returning after sorties

 

[Bethea.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: MISFIT-1
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Bethea.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Brigadier General Tharen.R
Major Burton.P
Sergeant Tucker.C
Sergeant Hilberg.A
Private First Class Casey.W
Private Walker.R
Private Hess.J

Non-Cav Personnel
Houston.T

Pros:

• Great level of challenge. Balancing of contact was superb from Zeus, especially considering the amount of assets at BLUFOR's disposal.
• Hammer was a life saver on many occasions. Very cool to see the AC130 being used.
• 2x "Best iteration of Urban Anvil"
• Squad communication and teamwork was excellent. Allowed MISFIT-1 to fight WAY above it's weight class.
• Truly excellent individual trooper performance.
• Shout outs to ATLAS, 7, and CHAOS for keeping us alive.
• Good recovery from MASCAS on Bravo.
• Shoutout to Tucker for shwacking AAA and allowing Buffalo to make an attempt to deliver resupply.

Mixed:

• Night/NVGs were a bit of a mixed bag from the squad. Lythium's night model is horrible BUT some folks enjoying utilizing the tools we are given to contend with this. IR Flares, IR Flashlights, etc.

Cons:

• FOB layout was a little rough and created a little longer time to step off. Vehicles were having to inch around each other and it's a miracle no one got Arma'd.
• Initial positions were really rough. Platoon was out of mutual support and it was very risky positioning. We were able to avoid encirclement though.

 

[Eugene.R]

Element Callsign: MISFIT-7
Element Leader: SPC.Eugene.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pros:

• Was an extremely fun operation had a lot of fun.
• Medics had a great time and were able to do a lot of medical work given the situation.
• Was able to run resupplies back and forth between Misfit squads to keep them in the fight was awesome.
• Relocation of CCP was a fantastic call which would of resulted in losing all our medics if original one was used.
• Improvising using Humvees to fill holes in wall was a good call up until they chain reaction exploded killing Misfit-1
• Spooky gunship deleting enemy platoons was nice to see.
• Platoon did really well I think given we destroyed 5 enemy companies
• Had a great time looking forward to next year.
  

Cons:

• Atlas-2 team not being filled is a downside, could of led to more people being saved.
• More turnout would be nice to have a full platoon for this level of operation.

 

[Highman.J]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: HAMMER-1
Element Leader: Chief Warrant Officer 2 Villmarsson.L

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Highman.J
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dujakovic.R
Private First Class Brawl.B

Pros:

• Comms and crew resource management was on point
• Gunners enjoyed a smooth, stable platform thanks to their excellent pilots
• Very fast processing of taskings meant more time putting warheads on foreheads
• Private First Class Brawl.B made his first operation, and did an unbelieveably awesome job up there
• Once shot down, we moved away from the wreckage, set up security, treated wounds, sought shelter, and devised and executed a plan of action
• NO BLU-on-BLU fire (so take that, Bingo card!)

Cons:

• One of the darkest nights we've even flown in. NVGs often weren't sufficient (especially when we got shot down!)
• The 105mm howitzer still affects the rangefinding of the 40mm cannon. The work around is for the 40mm gunner to press T to lase range before pressing the fire button

 

[Sam.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: MISFIT-6
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Sam.T

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Pros:

• Overall, this was an amazing Operation; pacing and contact level felt appropriate for the context.
• Support assets blew it out of the water. Atlas, CAS assets, and Buffalo's resupply efforts were all on point. This was an excellent example of a combined arms operation.
• Every squad in this scenario punched well above their weight. I would be unsurprised if each squad tallied over a platoon of EKIA, on top of the work done by air assets.
• Changing the Operation to a dusk/night Operation to make Hammer more doctrinally accurate was appreciated. It definitely added to the immersion, and seeing/hearing that airframe at work after dark is amazing.

Cons:

• Lythium is rough for night vision! I think everyone is down for austere conditions and low-light environments, but the night modeling on this map is particularly bad for some reason.
• The staging zone arsenal was left up the entire OP. The endless supply of ammunition and ability to reload our own supply crates did blunt some of the urgency and desperation of the OP.
• The nuke at the end felt a bit out of place. It was more the IDF threat that inhibited defense, than the contact outside the FOB. Either way, the FOB broke before the guard did!

 

[Armitage.T]

LOCKED

Assigned to Mobius.T for processing.

 

[Mobius.T]

S1 Operations Updated