[chico20854]

February 14, 1997

Another day with nothing in the official canon.

The latest (and last) version of the US Nuclear warfighting plan, the Single Intergrated Operating Plan or "SIOP", known as SIOP 8, Revision 2 goes into effect. It has quite extensive changes from the prior version, as several targets located in East Germany are now under NATO control and many of the Red Army garrisons have been vacated when their tenant units deployed. This version also omits targets in the People's Republic of China.

A C-141 from the 30th Military Airlift Squadron loads a cargo of AGM-142 Have Nap missiles from K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan for transfer to F-111 units in the UK.

The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) commander, refelcting on the difficulty controlling forces in the Frankfurt-on-Oder bridgehead and forces on the Czechoslovak border simultaneously, requests the establishment of a second corps headquarters in BAOR.

The 10th Special Forces Group in Poland and the Baltic States launches a series of coordinated strikes on Soviet supply lines, ambushing over a dozen trains and convoys over a three-hour period.

In the Pacific, American aircraft launch Operation Steel Hammer - four American carriers (the Abraham Lincoln, Independence, Constellation and John C. Stennis, making its combat debut with the US Navy Reserve Air Wing CVW-20 embarked), operating in coordination with USAF aircraft operating from Japan, all under the direction of an E-3 AWACS, carry out a raid on Vladivostok area naval bases. Most of the sorties are devoted to suppression of the PVO regional air defense network, so central Vladivostok is spared attack, several smaller outlying bases receiving devastating amounts of damage.

The Soviet battlecruiser Kirov enters the Orinoco River Delta in remote eastern Venezuela and meets the Soviet supply ship Suzdal, which has been hiding there for several weeks. The Suzdal provides Kirov with 12 fuel air explosive versions of the SS-N-19 Shipwreck missile for a special attack mission along with fuel, other munitions and supplies.

Soviet long-range aviation returns once again to the Bucharest tank plant, where the presence of American Patriot missiles and newly introduced jamming and electronic spoofing results in no damage to the plant.

The first formerly Israeli Ti-67 tanks arrive at the front in Romania. The front continues to remain largely static as Soviet forces try to amass sufficient manpower and supplies to resume the offensive and Romanian and Jugoslav forces try to conserve their resources and maintain a strong defense.

The final elements of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Special Forces Group arrive in Romania, and half of the 1st Battalion is in Jugoslavia, embedding in Jugoslav Army units and training territorial defense troops to communicate with NATO forces, including how to call in airstrikes and artillery fire.