Blocking the Suez, Twilight style

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Maybe Spetznaz boarded ships in transit and planted conventional explosives that scuttled multiple vessels in the Canal, thus blocking it? I don’t really know how feasible that would be - I mean, I presume scuttling a number of vessels in transit is feasible but that supposes that the Spetznaz team(s) manage to get in country with all of their kit and then successfully get aboard multiple vessels (I’m presuming there would be some sort of shoreside security…). I mean, I work in marine logistics but this isn’t really the sort of thing that we talk about…

The Sinai is big and barren, with plenty of places to hide. Neither the Egyptians nor the Israelis have never been able to completely eliminate terrorists and smugglers who use the Sinai as a base of operations or transit area. I'm only guessing, but I doubt that security is tight along the entire length of the canal (Britannica states that the canal is 193km/120 miles long).

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Slightly more low tech option…GRU recruit Islamic groups (probably using some sort of false flag approach) to fire RPG’s at vessels in transit from shore.

+1 That's probably the way to start- using proxies. It's simple, low cost/low risk, and deniable. Combine said proxies with a couple of covert Spetnaz teams providing direction and support, and a couple of Soviet diesel subs or SSNs prowling choke points, and one could bottle up the canal for quite some time, without having to completely destroy it.

@Spartan: Cold Water sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out. I remember playing an old DOS version of Silent Service on a friends IBM in high school. Good times.

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

I don’t think either of those are particularly good alternatives though. A nuke seems a lot simpler and more likely to achieve success though. I just wonder if scuttling vessels in transit might be an option if the Soviets didn’t want to do permanent / long term damage for whatever reason, ‘only’ close it for six months.

Agreed. I don't think the Soviets nuke it until it becomes clear to them that they won't be able to seize it, or keep it closed through conventional means. When they realize that they won't be able to control the canal any longer, then it would become a strategic imperative to deny it to their enemies (or potential future rivals like France).

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

And yeah, the fact that the Panama Canal is still functional seems like an oversight on the part of the author of that module. Of course that also sets a precedent for another option for Suez in V1, namely that it is also still open and navigable.

I wonder if the designers had an adventure module focusing on the Panama Canal in the early planning stages and that's why they didn't nuke it. Obviously, if they did have a Panama Canal project in the offing, it never materialized.

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