LONDON, Thursday July 28 - In a surprise move today, a British Ministry of Defence (MoD) official all but confirmed the existence of covert diplomatic talks between NATO and Soviet diplomatic representatives. While not referring to any specific meetings, the MoD spokesperson stated that certain communications channels between a number of NATO governments and the Soviet politburo have been "increasingly active" lately. He further commented on these talks being related to the recent Soviet allegations of Western intereference in the Soviet space program, and stated the MoD's confidence that the legitimacy of the Soviet claims has been thoroughly discredited. "We've shown both to the Soviets and the rest of the world that their accusations are completely without merit", he added. He declined to comment on the current state of these reported negotiations, although it is the BBC's understanding that they are in the concluding phase.
Soviet reconnaisance aircraft such as this Tu-22RDM have reportedly increased their patrol patterns along the inner-German border
It is unclear whether the alleged talks are related to the reported step-up of unusual Warsaw Pact flights along the inter-German border, which was leaked by an anonymous source inside NATO headquarters in Brussels. The source claims that, during the last two weeks, numerous aircraft have been detected by NADGE radar stations while flying high along the border and without having submitted any flight plan to the relevant NATO authorities (as is customary for non-regular/civilian flights in close proximity to the border). Though no visual ID has been made on these aircraft, some of them have alledgedly been identified by their electronic emissions as radar-reconnaisance assets like the Tupolev Tu-22RD or the Sukhoi Su-24MR. The source declined to comment on whether NATO is taking any steps to counter such flights or on whether NATO itself is conducting such flights.
In other news, a German police raid on a suspected Red Army Faction safe house turned up a rather alarming cachet. The weapons found and confiscated ranged from the typical and expected H&K submachine guns, grenades and pistols to highly sophisticated man-portable surface-to-air missiles. Even more worrisome to German authorities is the fact that the missiles included both Soviet-made SA-14s and US-manufactured Stingers. German MoD officials claim that they have already consulted with American authorities to determine the possibility of the Stinger missiles being part of the assistance provided to Afghani guerrilas by the CIA. No mention has been made of the origins of the Soviet-made missiles.
The East German city of Neubrandenburg was shook on July 25th by a massive explosion at the city's northern outskirts, close to a barracks area where various East German and Soviet military units are housed. East German authorities swiftly cut-off the area of the event from any media or citizen access. Sporadic eyewitness reports indicate that at least one ammunition depot must have exploded for reasons that so far remain unknown.
A NATO E-3 AWACS aircraft similar to this one crashed yesterday at Geilenkirchen airbase
Finally, an E-3C AWACS airborne surveillance aircraft crashed yesterday evening at Geilenkirchen airbase. The aircraft was returning from a standard patrol mission and was on final approach when the crew reported fire and a possible explosion on engine #4. The crew was unable to compensate for the loss of the engine and the asymmetrical thrust in time to regain full control of the aircraft. As a result, the E-3 slammed at the runway threshold and, its landing hear having collapsed from the impact, cartwheeled all the way to the edge of the base before screeching to a halt and being engulfed in a raging fire. Immediate reaction by the base's standby firefighting teams prevented the fire from spending to other parked aircraft & installations but the E-3 itself was almost completely destroyed. A NATO representative stated that another E-3 aircraft will be loaned to NATO by the USAF force based at Tinker AFB as a temporary replacement.
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Mini-Battle 2: Hamburg Corridor is a theater-scale MBX using Harpoon 3, TOAW-ACOW and WinSPMBT. The place: Northen Germany. The time: 1988. The forces: All NATO & WP assets in the AO as well as their reinforcements & supports. Interested to join/lurk? Post at the recruitment center at the Harpooner's Point forums.