VISIT, BOARD, SEARCH, SEIZURE (VBSS)

VBSS (visit, board, search, seizure) is a process by which civilian ships are forcibly boarded by naval personnel and examined for discrepancies with their cargo. What occurs as a result of the inspection depends largely on what is found. An example would be ships carrying embargoed or dangerous materials in violation of international sanctions.

1. Standard : just the ship. the full uh experience.
2. Light : will evoke a qrf response from the irgc marine forces: Patrol boats.
3. Heavy : recommended only with AH escort. Warships will respond with CIWS, heavy guns, and possibly SAMS.

1. You are part of task force bravo when conducting VBSS. Tune to 55.50 FM. Assignments come across this frequency.
2. Activate VBSS using the F10 menu. there are three choices (covered later). In a short time you will receive an assignment with coordinates.
3. Load the following: Any machine gun that can be fired manually from your helicopter in multiplayer by the pilot. e.g. front miniguns on the HUEY or KORD gunner for the mi-8 OR Any group of troops from the CTLD menu.
4. Proceed to the grids and locate the ship.
5. Come close abeam to the ship as shown. remain for up to 2 minutes. the ship may stop voluntarily. after 2 minutes if it does not, begin training bursts of mg fire on it. that will get their attention.

Once the ship is stopped, come to a hover close over the center.

The crew chief will let you know when you are in the right place over the ship. Slip around and find it, and rope the team out when he says you’re over the right spot. Troops rope out of the left side of the helicopter, so you can plan for that. It varies from ship to ship but is a 25m radius centered on the keel, but may be fore or aft a little depending on the ship model. A bad rope will require a pickup and reattempt.

The team may report back that the manifest and cargo check out and request extraction. If they find problem cargo, they will call and advise you what they are doing. Part of this is forcing the crew off the ship in a lifeboat. They will ask you to watch for it and extract them once the lifeboat is clear. You can extract them from a hover. They may not be visible on the map but are still there. Troopers may do some bizarre stuff like appear in the water or floating. This can’t be controlled, so please ignore that. So long as they are dropped in the right place it’s fine.

The VBSS team (blue team) will call the USS Ticonderoga for an anti-ship missile strike. You will get an estimated time of impact for the missiles. Be clear of the the gun-target line by that time, but stay close enough for Battle Damage Assessment.

You are ready for a new engagement. If you activate a second incident before the first one is completed, the ship will be replaced by the new one.