[chico20854]

April 4, 1998

The stresses of wartime combined with long periods underwater causes the crew of the Soviet nuclear missile submarine Barrikada to crack under the strain. The resulting mutiny results in the death of the captain and most of the officers. The reactor chief and his technicians (all but two of which are junior officers) shut down the boat's reactors at the first sign of trouble. They die fighting the mutineers, but not before one of their numbers manages to send a partial message describing the boat's fate (but not its position).

The replica USS Constitution attacked by coastal pirates off Lagos; the ship puts up full sail and leaves the pirates behind at 15 knots.

Unofficially,

The Soviet GRU manages to launch a long-range reconnaissance aircraft to determine conditions in North America. (The loss of reliable communications with its satellite constellation and limited reporting from its agent network, struggling to survive, forces the GRU to expend the valuable resources involved with a manned flight). A Tu-95MR "Bear-D" reconnaissance aircraft, restored to service after being damaged by a Norwegian F-16 in the early days of the war, performs the mission, launching from Kipelovo airbase north of Moscow. It proceeds over the North Pole, "sniffing" for electronic emissions as it crosses Canada and enters American airspace over North Dakota at 35,000 feet. Its onboard SIGINT system detects NORAD radar and radio transmissions, as well as the communications between the interceptor base at Duluth, Minnesota and the F-15A fighter of the 148th Fighter Interceptor Group scrambled to shoot it down. The Bear commander immediately turns north and retreats and the interceptor sent after it is unable to close the distance between it and the fast Soviet bomber. After 18 hours in the air the plane lands back in Russian, having succeeded in one of the most successful and daring reconnaissance missions ever flown by the Soviet air force.

The British Government's regional government headquarters for the East Midlands, which evacuated its bunker in Skendleby in Lincolnshire in February, finally goes back online at its new location at RAF Waddington.

RainbowSix reports that the last B-52 sortie from RAF Fairford in Southwestern England takes off, launching strikes on Pact artillery concentrations east of the Oder River in Poland before turning northwest for a long flight to return the aircraft to America.

The 486th Tactical Missile Wing, a prewar Ground-Launched Cruise Missile unit, which evacuated the occupied zone from dispersal sites around its home station of Woensdrecht Air Base in the Netherlands (taking a considerable number of Dutch allies, military and civlian with it), resumes operational duties with its dozen remaining missiles after re-establishing secure, reliable communications with 17th Air Force headquarters. Taking a different approach to dispersal, the wing hides the four loaded TELs (Transporter-Erector-Launcher vehicles) in four separate buildings in the small town of Zeewold, east of Amsterdam.