The third and final game in the Modern Warfare story arc, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, takes the stakes even higher than the previous two games by encompassing the entire globe in World War III. The majority of the plot revolves around the European theater of operations, as the main event is a Russian invasion of Europe, similar to Cold War scenarios such as Red Storm Rising or World in Conflict. There are a few other missions outside of Europe, such as a couple in Africa as well as one in India but despite the wide-variety of locales the story still focuses on a relatively small group of people trying to stop the villain from Modern Warfare 2, Vladimir Makarov.
The Russian invasion of the United States is nearly repelled, with the Russian forces being pushed to the East Coast with the largest battle taking place in New York City. The first phase of the battle involves members of Delta Force, a top-secret special operations unit in the U.S. Army tasked with destroying a Russian jamming tower preventing allied air support and giving the Russian forces an edge. In modern battlefields, air support is crucial for victory, especially against other conventional forces. As illustrated in the novel Red Storm Rising, success in the air is paramount to success on the ground when both sides possess air forces. However, with most of the fighting taking place within New York City between infantry and ground vehicles, the effectiveness of fighter aircraft (Outside of dog fighting each other) in supporting ground forces would be very limited. Helicopters, such as the Russian Mi-24 “Hind” and the American AH-64 “Apache” would be extremely important due to their ability to hover in place unlike fighters although fighters would still overcome helicopters if they weren’t behind the cover of buildings.
Russian soldiers are also shown using a mixture of Russian and NATO weapons, such as the FN P90, the AK-47 and the PKP “Pecheneg,” although the AK-47 is once again probably not an AK-47. It appears modern with synthetic furniture, which most likely means the name “AK-47” is incorrect and (Just as in Modern Warfare 2) it is shown with a stock found on AR-15 style rifles. Strangely, the rifle appears to be almost exactly like a Saiga semi-automatic rifle, a weapon intended for the civilian market.
The mission to destroy the jamming tower is successful, as allied aircraft are able to destroy most of the Russian forces on the ground forcing them to withdraw to the Hudson River, where a massive naval battle is taking place. The second phase of the battle involves Delta Force then going underwater to hijack a Russian submarine, an Oscar-II cruise missile submarine named the “Olga” which in commanding the Russian forces in NYC. Aside from there being no Oscar-II’s in service named “Olga” (The name on the submarine is written in English rather than Cyrillic) there are a huge number of ships (Including an aircraft carrier) both sailing and sinking in the Hudson, still leaving enough room for the Olga to cruise leisurely underneath the battle, despite the wreckage and mines filling the body of water. Also, when Delta Force assaults the Olga’s control room, no extra officers to help command the entirety of Russian forces in NYC (Such as air force leaders, army leaders, etc.) are found aside from a few sailors and the submarine captain.
Delta Force is successful in taking control of the Olga, launching its payload of cruise missiles at the Russian fleet, prompting all Russian invasion forces to retreat from the United States. Meanwhile, the other main characters (From Task Force 141 and Nikolai) are shown to be hiding in India with a group of Loyalists who have been in hiding since the Ultranationalist takeover of the Russian government. This prompts a shootout between a Russian commando unit supported by Mi-28 “Havoc” and Mi-17 “Hip” helicopters. This is very strange, as the large amount of Russian troops and vehicles would make it seem as if it were a joint Russian-Indian operation, as both countries are allies, being members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and work together on development of the HAL FGFA and the T-90 tank. However, Russian forces are seen casually killing Indian civilians, which would likely turn India against Russia while Russia’s already engaged in a war against NATO. The Loyalists are also shown fighting in Somalia, Sierra Leone and the Czech Republic despite not being an official military force and their method of transportation never being explained.
However, the main conflict in Modern Warfare 3 comes when Makarov has his forces (Referred to as the “Inner Circle”) capture the Russian president Boris Vorshevksy and instigate an invasion of Europe beginning with a massive gas attack. This would make sense, as a chemical attack would cause immense casualties as well as tie up NATO governments who would have to deal with the sick as well as keeping those who aren’t yet afflicted with the chemicals safe. However, a Russian invasion of Europe, especially after a failed invasion of the United States is essentially impossible. According to Globalfirepower.com, the Russian military has almost 47,000,000 people fit for military service, while the U.S. currently has roughly 120,000,000 people fit for service. Not only would the Russian military be outnumbered in a conflict with the US alone, but it is also depicted as successfully conquering the entirety of Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Turkey, and all of Germany (Despite Germany having the largest NATO military in Europe). Aside from those nations Russia is also shown in news clips as invading other countries such as Belgium and Portugal.
While the majority of World War III is shown as occurring in Europe, very few NATO forces are seen aside from an SAS team in London, a GIGN team in Paris, and three German Leopard tanks in Berlin. The U.S. military, especially in the Battle of Paris, is the main opposition to the Russian forces who are still using obscene numbers of T-72 tanks, the few T-90s being seen in Berlin and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic itself is seen as totally crushed, with the only fighting going on between Russian forces and a Czech resistance movement. This makes little sense as the Russian Federation would be spread extremely thin to be keeping the higher-end equipment behind the main front lines in occupied territories, let alone to be conquering such countries so quickly anyway.
The largest issue is the whole plot of kidnapping the Russian president. Vladimir Makarov is clearly not associated with President Vorshevsky or his government, so his taking the president hostage makes some sense. However, it’s shown on the news that the Russian president is missing and that he never attended a planned peace conference that would have been held in Hamburg, Germany. It’s never specified who the Russian Prime Minister is, which is a main issue. For example, the current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is a close associate of the current prime minister, Dmitri Medvedev. Thus, was the prime minister of Russia an ally of Makarov’s or Vorshevsky’s? If the president were to go missing, command of the Russian Federation would go to the prime minister. This change of command would be a huge deal, especially before a huge offensive against NATO. The loyalties of the Russian military are also called into question, as the FSO (Federal’noy sluzhby okhrany, or Federal Protective Service) fight to protect the president and his daughter, yet whoever is commanding the Russian military is clearly in on Makarov’s plot as the invasion of Europe commences regardless.
Also, in an Inner Circle compound in the Czech Republic, Makarov is shown conversing to his forces while interrogating Vorshevsky, while one of his soldiers informs him that their forces will capture Vorshevsky’s daughter hiding in Berlin. Yet later when Delta Force goes to save Vorshevsky’s daughter, she is shown being captured by members of the Russian military. When Delta Force goes to retrieve the president and his daughter from a Siberian diamond mind being used as a military base, U.S. forces and Little Bird helicopters are shown. It’s extremely unlikely that such a large amount of U.S. forces could get so deep into Russia in the midst of World War III unless the Russian forces were aware that the Inner Circle was holding the president and his daughter there and allowed U.S. forces to save them, although it’s Russian soldiers wearing official uniforms that are encountered at the mine. However, despite such confusion President Vorshevsky and his daughter are saved, return to Moscow, allow the Loyalists to return to the Russian Federation and end World War III with NATO.
Vladimir Makarov escapes to Dubai, although he is later killed by the Task Force 141 character Captain Price who had been fighting alongside the Loyalists. Makarov is particularly interesting, as the exact political ideologies of the Ultranationalist Party were never elaborated on, other than they wanted the return of the USSR. Yet Makarov’s Inner Circle logo (Seen during multiplayer) depicts a crown, which would be more symbolic of the Russian Empire and the Tsar, the exact enemies of Communism and the reason the Soviet Union came to be in the first place. He also mentions that “Russia will take all of Europe,” indicating that he not only just hated the West but wants to conquer it, similar to an “empire” of sorts. This would make his political beliefs more similar to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, which desires another Russian Empire. This makes his association with the Ultranationalist Party very strange indeed, and makes his goals (Aside from murder and genocide) very confusing.
That concludes the final article about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, and the facts and inaccuracies in each game. If you liked the article (Or articles) feel free to comment your thoughts or suggestions for future articles, follow the blog, and thanks for reading.
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