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All Rights Reserved Subscribe | Sign In BETA This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here More From Forbes Jan 19, 2021,08:00am EST Russia's Dirty-Bomb Robo-Sub Is 'Grotesque'--But Moscow's Building A Base For It, Anyway Jan 19, 2021,06:15am EST Indian Army Shows Off Drone Swarm Of Mass Destruction Jan 18, 2021,07:33am EST Glocks, Ammo, AR-15s Sell Out As Biden Inauguration Foreshadows Tighter Gun Control Jan 18, 2021,07:00am EST After Capitol Riot, Can America Still Promote Democracy Abroad--And At Home? Jan 17, 2021,04:00pm EST Pushed By Airline Lobby, Testing Instead Of Bans Not A Best Solution Jan 17, 2021,03:26pm EST What Weapons Systems Won't The U.S. Sell The UAE? Jan 17, 2021,12:57pm EST China And Russia Hate Indo-Pacific's New Collaborative Surveillance Webs Jan 17, 2021,08:49am EST Why President-Elect Biden Will Likely Keep The Space Force Jan 16, 2021,02:40pm EST Airline Industry's Top Lobbying Group Will Retain Republican Chief Despite Biden Election Jan 15, 2021,08:43am EST New U.S. Tank Round Can Destroy Almost Anything Edit Story Aug 2, 2020,07:50am EDT| Harpoon V: New Version Of Famous Wargame Used By Navies H I Sutton H I SuttonFormer Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Aerospace & Defense I cover the changing world of underwater warfare. * Share to Facebook * Share to Twitter * Share to Linkedin Pr.1234 Nanuchka-III guided missile corvettes Two Nanuchka-III missile corvettes engage NATO warships. An official Harpoon graphic. Erik Carlson In July 1976 a young naval officer made the short walk from his warship to a destroyer tender docked nearby. Lieutenant (JG) Larry Bond returned to the USS McKean with a precious copy of the NAVTAG wargame. And because it was a Secret document, he promptly signed it in to his ship's classified material locker. NAVTAG (Naval Tactical Game) was an official war game used to train U.S. Navy officers how to fight with their ships. It was a great training aid, but its classified status created a bureaucratic barrier to playing it, so it rarely came out of the safe. What Bond thought was needed was a non-classified version which could be played more easily. It was the beginning of the now famous Harpoon wargame lineage. The 5th iteration, Harpoon V, has just been released by Larry Bond and Chris Carlson. The Harpoon series has been a favorite of naval academies, other professional militaries, and amateur players alike since its inception. Harpoon has stuck around because of its realism, and constant evolution. Many games come and go but Harpoon has stuck. And Harpoon V promises to be every bit as relevant as the past versions, even 40 years after the first. So where did it come from and what sets it apart? Harpoon, An Illustrious Heritage When Bond released the first version in April 1980 it was an instant success, even winning the H.G. Wells award in 1981. Bond knew all about wargames, being an associate of Dave Arneson of Dungeons & Dragons fame. Arneson's company even publish the first two editions. While it was popular with the civilian audience, it was also a hit with professional war fighters. It was easier to play than NAVTAG, and free from classified material, but retained the realism needed in a navy setting. Arneson was not the only famous person associated with the game. Upcoming author Tom Clancy bought a copy of Harpoon and began corresponding with Larry Bond. Clancy used the game during his research for his first novel, The Hunt for Red October. His second book, Red Storm Rising, was based on scenarios tested out playing Harpoon. The bona fide wargaming gave the book a level of realism and credibility which sets it apart from many other Techno Thrillers. Bond was also Clancy's co-author on the book. MORE FOR YOU To Restore American Sea Power, Stop Counting Ships And Start Talking Strategy The U.S. Navy Wasted A Whole Decade Building Bad Ships Is This Mystery Unmanned Vessel Really A Chinese Spy? Red Storm Rising was essentially a Soviet Invasion of Europe war game written as a story. It was a scenario familiar to naval planners. So if you have ever wondered why Russia's Tu-22 Backfire bombers featured so prominently, it was a real-world concern of NATO navies. Armed with powerful supersonic missiles, these could overwhelm all but the latest warships. It was the threat that AEGIS and the F-14 Tomcat were primarily intended to counter. But Red Storm Rising could not be a literal narration of the wargames. To start with, the Soviets had to be winning in the first part of the book, so Clancy had to draw on his strategic genius to think up plot twists to keep the story on track. With the success of Red Storm Rising, computer game companies queued up to create a digital version. In the end Sid Meier, the creator of Civilization, made the first Harpoon-based computer game. It was released on the Commodore 64 in 1988. It was a great game, but computer hardware of the time meant that it had to be limited to submarine warfare. Bond was already working on a more complete version however, which was released the next year simply as Harpoon. This was at a time when even the latest home computers, 286s, were struggling to run the complex models involved in a simulation like Harpoon. A regiment of Backfires all launching their missiles was still enough to strain the 1990s computer hardware though. Smoke and mirrors could be used to simplify the mechanics, but each missile needed to be modeled separately to meet the Harpoon standards of realism. Consequently accuracy was, to the extent possible, maintained. Notable covers of Harpoon series games Covers of Harpoon series games. The first game, left, featured U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats and a Soviet ... [+] Kiev class carrier. The Computer game (center) was released in 1989. Harpoon V (right) Larry Bond Why Navies Use Harpoon Harpoon was a classic computer game of the 1990s. When I told people that I was writing an article more than one seasoned sailor told me that playing Harpoon was what got them into the Navy. But although multiple navies have used the computer game, it has not proven as popular as the underlying miniatures game, such as the latest Harpoon V. I asked Larry Bond why this might be. The computer version was real time, as a single player might expect, but the table-top versions are turn-based. This gives the players time to think, which it turns out is important to navies. Bond told me that the 'black box' of computer game engines dulled the training experience. In a computer game if you miss a target, you move on. In the military setting, you want the players to understand why they missed and how they can increase the chances of success when they fire again. They need to understand how it works under the hood. This translates across all of Bond's wargames, not just naval scenarios. Persian Incursion, released in 2010, simulates an Israeli air strike on the Natanz nuclear site in Iran. It was played by various government departments. Another factor which Persian Incursion amply demonstrates is that Harpoon is not 'balanced' in the way that most real-time-strategy (RTS) games are. The two sides may not be equivalent. Instead it offers realistic outcomes. It is a simulation which is also a game, rather than a game which pretends to be simulation. Harpoon V promises to be a faithful continuation of the series, with many refinements over the earlier versions. It is still a tabletop game which is what naval training institutions will like about it. I asked Bond whether there were plans for a new computer game based on the series. It's an idea that the creators are open to and have plenty of ideas. Bond and Carlson tell me that with advances in AI the computer players could have more personality and act less predictably. Unfortunately there is no current project in that space. Let us see where the future takes this classic wargame series. Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website or some of my other work here. H I Sutton H I Sutton Using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) to get to the stories first. Author of several books on Submarines, Special Forces and Narco subs. I mostly write about submarines ... Read More Using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) to get to the stories first. Author of several books on Submarines, Special Forces and Narco subs. I mostly write about submarines and the world's more secretive navies. Read Less * Print * Reprints & Permissions [ ]