Seal drop missions still bugged
 

I was getting a drop Seal mission near Archangelsk in my campaign. I have done all successfully, got to the drop circle, got to 100 feet and less, got the message that the Seal team has left the sub.
I then return to open sea, but I sunk 2 big cargo ships. After that I got further away, I hit ESC, no ships, no planes, everything is green and I leave mission. Result: Mission failed.

Is it because I destroyed the 2 cargos? I must say my sub was never detected. What are your results with the latest game version 1.08c?

I leave the game without fleeing* - that is, immediately having launched the seals. That seems to bypass later 'failed' problems.

* retreating in a manly fashion

Thank you for your feedback. Next time I'll try like you did, also I will not destroy any secondary target.

By thinking about it more deeply, it's logical that the mission failed after destroying targets near the port, I just imagined what the commander of the Archangelsk' naval base would do if a sub or sub attack is reported to him: he would put the entire zone in max. alert and the Seal team would have 0 chance to carry out its mission, also the team would likely be captured.
So, all in all, it's no surprise that the mission failed, but somehow I doubt it's because of that :)

Your orders are specifically to avoid detection. It would probably be helpful to have it listed as a mission objective along with all the others but alas it is not, it's just listed in the briefing text.

Exact, the mission states 'avoid detection at all costs'. That should be clear enough...
In the meantime I have redone such a mission, this time near Murmansk which is a lot harder because of shallow water. Remaining undetected is almost impossible, it depends on the specific ship positions that are different each time. I finished the mission successfully and ended it after dropping the Seals. The following messages have confirmed my success.

I expect the mission to be 'failed' once you are detected, meaning: you better not drop the Seals and go out, maybe you can approach again on the World map for a subsequent trial prior of the time-out.

It is bugged in the sense that if you get a war update just after loading spec ops, they are unloaded, and you have to load them again - costing twice the time and sometimes the mission.

I agree, it seems to be tied to whether or not the ruskies are on alert. I successfully completed the Archangelsk version of the mission. It also seems to depend on what ships are attacked. I sank a Trawler (I had misidentified it as an SSK) but avoided contact with any naval patrols, so it let me succeed.

The game manual does warn you not to alert the enemy to your presence on that type of mission.

Interesting side-effect on this one.. I was running a patrol at one point where I had a 'supply fleet sailing from Murmansk' mission, so basically just slid right into their port and waited for them, picking off the odd chance encounter in the process and upping my tonnage.

Anyway, completed that mission, got the 'pick up a seal team and drop at murmansk'... dropped me back to the world map and I got intercepted before I could start heading back to pickup my seal team, still at Murmansk. So it drops me into action, at Murmansk, with the drop location marked on my map and a big red 'seal team not deployed' in my mission objectives. Needless to say, that one was a big F.

Maybe there needs some sort of check added to the mission logic to make sure you actually have the spec ops aboard before it adds that objective?

Happened to me today, too. I decided not to go into any port unless told to.

After playing all sorts of missions, I see that you only get 1 engagement chance. It's success or failure, there is no re-engage by going out to the world map and then pick up your target again, if you go out you fail, it's that simple. So there is no second chance on Seal Team missions, once you get the 'drop mark' you need to deliver, and too bad if they are not onboard :(