Colonel Richards (who had been the Commander of 1st Special Forces Detachment Delta for nearly two years) walked into the room with General Luka and John Williams, along with several other military members. The table at the center of the room was covered in weapons, and the briefers were loading up their presentations to project on the big screen at the end of the room. As Richards and his cohorts walked in, all activity and chatter stopped and the men’s eyes turned to their leader. They all had tremendous respect for this man, who had been in Special Forces and floated around between various groups, in and out of Delta, for most of his career.
Looking at Major Runyon, Colonel Richards said, “I won’t sugarcoat it; this is going to be a tough mission Brian. However, I have complete faith in your team to get this done and bring our guys home.” His voice was filled with sincerity and confidence.
Major Brian Runyon just nodded in acknowledgement. Like Colonel Richards, he had spent most of his military time in Special Forces. He had joined Delta as a Captain after serving a number of years in the Army Rangers (with whom he had completed a whole series of combat deployments). Now a Major, Brian was aware that this was by far the most dangerous mission of his life.
The briefers indicated they were ready to begin. Everyone in the room moved to the chairs and took out their notebooks. The first briefer began, “All right men — here is our target. We are going to be assaulting an unofficial Russian Spetsnaz base camp, located deep inside rebel territory, near the Russian border. As you can see on the images on screen, the compound consists of one three-story building, two smaller outbuildings, and a four-car garage. It also has a six-foot tall cinderblock wall surrounding the buildings. There are two personnel entrances, here and here, and one vehicle entrance, here.”
Everyone was paying careful attention as the images on the screen continued to update. “Surrounding the compound is a wooded area. About 500 meters to the south, behind the compound, there is a small creek that snakes towards the highway. This is where they have parked an air defense vehicle. In front of the compound is an open field that leads to the main road and runs through several farms fields.” He picked up a ruler and pointed to this area for emphasis. “This is where the exfiltration will take place,” announced the briefer.
The men nodded, and the briefer continued. “On the base, you can expect to find a Spetsnaz detachment, which consists of roughly 20 operators. A company of Russian soldiers provides the perimeter security for the compound (in addition to the SA-17 and SA-19 air defense vehicles I previously pointed out). This location has been used as a logistics, training, and operational hub by the Russians for the past three years. Since they’ve set up operations here, they have trained hundreds, if not thousands, of separatist fighters here.”
An Air Force Master Sergeant stood up to present his briefing next. He brought up a 3D animation of the structure, showing various guards at different locations and began to describe the images, “This is the building where the prisoners are being held. Surveillance indicates the prisoners are being held on the top floor of this third-floor building, in this room here.” He used his laser pointer to identify the specific room they believed the prisoners were being held in.
“As you can see, the building has an entrance to the roof here. We’ve identified three guards on the roof. One of them appears to be holding a MANPAD while the others are carrying assault rifles. There is one guard outside the prisoner’s doors, also armed with assault rifle. The guards are clearly on alert for a potential raid — they anticipate we might try to rescue our people — so you need to neutralize them.”
Half of the men seemed concerned that the soldiers were going to be prepared for their mission, and the other half were excited about the orders that had just been given; they would not have to hold back.
The Master Sergeant continued, “The second floor appears to be their sleeping quarters. We estimate the various rooms can house roughly twenty personnel. From our observation, there appears to be roughly six to ten people sleeping in there at any given time. The first floor is where their operations appear to be run out of. This room is the communications room,” the briefer said pointing with his laser pen, then moving to identify the other rooms on the first floor as well. “Here is the weapons room, the kitchen, and two storage rooms. We are not sure what they are using the basement for or what is down there. The outbuildings appear to be training rooms, they will be empty this time of day.”
Switching to some new images of the exterior of the compound, “This is what concerns us. The Russians have deployed one of their SA-17s which is near the tree line here” the briefer pulled up several satellite images of the unit in relationship to the structures around it.
Pulling up a different image, “About a quarter mile away, in this area here, is a SA-19 "Grison” air-defense system. The two of these systems provide them with both short and medium air defense capabilities against both aircraft and helicopters. Therefore, you will be inserted via a high altitude, low opening HALO jump and land in this area here,” several additional images were shown of an empty farm field maybe a quarter mile away from the compound.
The briefer then brought up some live feed surveillance videos being taken by a Global Hawk operating not too far away. The briefer was talking to the drone operator, and they were walking through the terrain of the landing zone and the various approaches to the Russian compound. They clearly saw guards on various roving patrols. Everything they had been shown on the previous slides was matching up to the real-time video they were watching.
Colonel Richards spoke up, “As you can see, there are the roving patrols that are going to need to be dealt with.”
The JSOC briefer then resumed talking to the group, “There are the three guards on the roof… then there are two groups of three roving guards that walk the perimeter.” Images shifted to show the vehicle locations, and various guard positions that would need to be neutralized.
Several of the members of A Squadron looked around at each other, a little apprehensive of what they were hearing and seeing. This was clearly going to be a tough and complex raid. It was not every time they got to see live video surveillance of a target they would be hitting in less than six hours.
The Master Sergeant carried on. “Upon landing, Alpha team will immediately move to the north side of the perimeter to neutralize the guards at the air defense systems and place the explosives on the truck. It’s imperative that you take out that SA-19 first, then move to the next unit. If those vehicles are not taken out, it’s going to be a long walk for you guys back to friendly territory.”
“Bravo team will move to the south side of the perimeter, taking out the guards here and here, and the three guards near the vehicles on this side of the compound. There are six armored personnel carriers, which are a mix of BTRs and BMPs. You will also need to get your explosives placed on those vehicles. Charlie and Delta team will enter the compound here, at this entrance. Once inside, there are two guards here, at the entrance to the compound. They will need to be eliminated quickly. Once they are cleared, you will have to move down the hallway past one door, which should just be a closet.”
He coughed once, then took a swig of water from his canteen before he continued. “The stairs leading to the other floors will be on the right. The stairwell continues all the way to the roof. I will leave it to your discretion as to how you want to clear the building and recover the prisoners.”