part0046

That ‘something’ Captain Simpson had ordered up for the Ras Karma airfield would rise from the sea at 14:15, coming out of the silos of the USS Ohio . A small strike package of 15 TACTOMs was ordered up from a position about 500, miles south of Socotra. There was one KJ-200 there working on a mechanical problem, and ten J-20’s roosting on the tarmacs, but six were scheduled for air cover operations.

Flying unseen to the southern shore of the island, the Tomahawks now maneuvered nap of the earth through the folded mountains south of the airfield. By the time they emerged from the wrinkled valleys and gullies, it was almost too late to stop them with those HQ-9’s. An ammo truck near the runway was flayed by shrapnel from a near miss and exploded. The Avgas tanks were damaged, the KJ-200 AEW plane and three J-20’s were smashed on the tarmac. When the small strike ended, there were fires burning near the one small runway access point, which was deeply cratered. Nothing more was getting off that field until those fires were extinguished and that hole repaired.

At sunset, the CAG reported to Captain Simpson that all planes were rearmed and ready for operations. In addition to those on the Roosevelt , more F-35’s would be available from the two Gators: Solomon Sea and Makin Island. That would double the GBU-53 count from 96 to 182, enough punch to really saturate any group targeted this time. At Thumrait air base in Oman, six more Strike Raptors were lining up for takeoff.

Combat at sea was all about saturation. There were times when Karpov had teased his foes with the speed and range of his Zircons, firing them in ones and twos to test enemy defenses, but if you really wanted to sink ships, you had to defeat a concentrated, highly accurate and lethal SAM defense first. This is why those initial rounds of combat between large fleets were often inconsequential. The defense was just too strong. This time out, Captain Simpson was rolling for all the marbles. He wanted to strike a definitive blow, and put enough harm on the enemy to compel them to withdraw.

The target of his morning strike had turned to rendezvous with an oiler to refuel the frigates, and had now become widely separated from the main body, which was cruising 180 miles to its west, and now passing Socotra Island. That eastern group had come all the way from Colombo and saw River God lightly damaged by a single GBU-53, until Captain Drake on the Anson found that ship and put it at the bottom of the Arabian Sea. The enemy TF had been engaged earlier, and seemed a natural target this time out for the prospect of getting kills.

“I don’t like the heading the main body is on,” said Simpson. “It looks to me like they’re moving towards our preferred port at Salaha. So this group to the east looks inviting. If we take that out, we open a direct route to Muscat, and if we move up there, we interpose ourselves between the main body and the Gulf of Oman. They have a lot of ships out there, and they’ll be needing fuel soon. If we block their route to Gwadar or Karachi in Pakistan, then they’ll have to use Aden or the Red Sea ports. We could bottle them up. So let’s get after that eastern group and see if we can clean their clock.

Twelve F-35’s sang the overture, moving in with GBU-53’s. While their attack had been defeated twice before, with only two minor hits registered, this time they got better results. FF Luzhou was hit three times and badly damaged, her engines compromised to leave the ship dead in the water. The frigate would sink that hour. DDG Feiyun also took three hits, and was soon fighting a bad fire amidships. FF Qingyan took a single hit that was just a scratch aft, and remained operational.

Yet those 96 bombs took the heart out of the collective SAM defense. DDG’s Yangwu was dry, along with the three remaining frigates. They were down to guns and chaff. Only type 52D class destroyers Baomin, Huantai, and the squadron leader, Tianlong had anything left, about 20 HQ-10’s each. In effect, that entire task force had been neutered defensively. While it retained offensive missiles, it had no defensive shield to allow it to get in range to use them. They immediately turned north for Gwadar, but their chances of getting there were slim. They were 750 miles away….

The F-14’s had been circling, awaiting tasking orders as a kind of reserve wildcard. Now they were ordered to fire their Slammers and LRASM’s, and when the air alert alarms rang again on the Chinese ships, the Captain of the Heavenly Dragon knew his squadron was in real trouble. The Slammers came in and pounded the destroyer Yangwu , pummeling it from bow to stern.

Then the twelve LRASM’s began to vector in, catching the already burning Feiyun on the right flank of the formation and blowing it to pieces. Six miles off its starboard side, DDG Anlan was hit next, her hull fatally compromised and the ship listing heavily in minutes. Then the big Fusu Class oiler took multiple hits, and erupted with a volcanic explosion of smoke and fire. The last two missiles retargeted to the frigate Baise , and it was doomed from the moment they locked on.

With those SAM defenses beat down to nothing, it was like bowling, with five of the eleven pins knocked down thus far in the strike—and there was more pain on the way. The six Strike Raptors out of Thumrait AFB in Oman had been standing by for tasking orders, and now they were vectored in to finish this attack. Their expanded weapons bays each carried 24 GBU-53’s, twice the hitting power of an F-35. The first two planes in that flight of six were able to target each of the six surviving ships with 8 bombs each.

Three were hit and burning, but the GBU often needed multiple hits to put enough damage on a ship to sink it. Merciless, the Raptors circled, lined up on the targets a second time, and the next two planes were ordered to fire. The four screening ships were targeted with eight bombs each, and the last 16 were reserved for the Heavenly Dragon.

Destroyer Zhentao and frigate Qingyan died first, Then DDG Huantai took multiple hits, ravaged with fire. DDG Baomin was listing, but hanging on, and taking multiple hits, Tianlong , the Squadron Leader, was a raging mass of fire. The Raptors had delivered the coup de grace, but seeing the terrible pain they had brought to the enemy, the flight leader decided they had had enough.

The oily sea around the ships was burning, and hundreds of men were in the water. The fiery silhouettes of their ships slowly keeled over and hissed into the sea, leaving the survivors in a ghastly inferno. They were 200 miles from their comrades to the west, and too far from any friendly shore to expect any help. There they were, some lucky enough to get into a boat, but too many either already dead or simply clinging to wreckage in the water. Thankfully, air temperatures were balmy, and the water was not too cold.

Only two ships remained afloat 30 minutes later, destroyers, Tianlong and Baomin , but they were both on fire, and in no shape to take on the weight of survivors. The Captain gave the order to launch all boats and sent men with them to pull as many survivors out of the water as they could, but the boats would not bring them to a burning ship that was going to sink soon anyway. It was a hellish aftermath that could have been worse. Two Strike Raptors still had full weapons bays, the attack called off once all the enemy ships had been pummeled that night. Tianlong and Baomin would last another two hours, and then slip beneath the sea, the last of eleven ships that had sailed from the Bay of Bengal and Colombo on Sri Lanka.

For those men that remained in the sea, it was the longest night of their lives, and for many, their last. They clung together, talking first of anger and revenge, then of loved ones at home. In time, a silence fell over the scene, hazed over with acrid dark smoke. As it slowly dissipated, they looked up at the clear night sky, and the glittering diamond stars were they last thing many would see.

When Admiral Sun Wei learned of the disaster he was stark and silent for a time. Damn that stubborn mule, Hong Buchan! He was ordered to bring that task force west to join the main fleet, but he was still heading north when this attack came in. Now he orders the remainder of the Arabian fleet to go steaming off as we plan our bombardment operation against Salaha. I must have words with Beijing….

Then he gave orders that fleet Auxiliary 920, the Anwei hospital ship, should move immediately to the scene of the attack. Called the “Peace Arc” in better times, the unarmed hospital ship was painted white, with bold red crosses so there would be no mistaking her for a combatant. Helicopters were already thumping their way off the decks of his other 28 ships in the main body. They would get there quickly to begin rescuing swamped crewmen, and taking the seriously injured to the hospital ship. Those that were sound of limb would return to serve again on ships of the main fleet, but too many would die that night, underscoring the ghastly nature of war.

At OMCOM, Admiral John Randall reviewed the BDA reports, pleased that Roosevelt had finally broken through to do some real damage. The presence of that ship alone, with its ability to strike the enemy from well beyond the range of their own missiles, was decisive. And the strikes were potent enough to wear down the defense and then sink ships. The US was following the simple maximum of warfare at sea, strike first, and do so with good effectiveness.

Yet the main body of the enemy fleet had not been engaged. The single carrier had been picking off flanking task forces, sending one home to Aden, and destroying the other. Now that main body was stubbornly holding to a course that would take it to Salaha Harbor, the big port the US has selected for the delivery of the 1st Marine Division. With the battle going well, those troops were already on the water again, and heading towards Oman.

The airfield north of that port had ten good fighters, including those Strike Raptors, but it was just 45 miles north of the harbor. That meant the enemy fleet would have it within its SAM envelope if it hove too off Salaha, which is what the Admiral now divined as the Chinese intention. It would make operations at that base difficult, for unless the inherent stealth of the fighters allowed them to remain unseen, they would be in SAM range the moment they took off. There were also more vulnerable support assets there, an E-3 Sentry, two Poseidons and a pair of KC-135 Stratotankers. There were even a couple of MC-130 Combat Talons, with a company of Army Rangers. Those would all be definitely spotted and attacked the moment they took off, so it was time to be elsewhere.

The next operational field in Oman was Masirah, on a small island just off the coast, about 325 miles to the northeast. He could order all assets at Thumrait to move there, and decided that should happen for the support planes immediately. There were also five ships in the port itself that were given orders to slip out of the harbor that night, and head north. With the enemy fleet just a little over 200 miles to the south, they were already at risk.

So at 21:00, Littoral Combat Ships Recon and Scout were escorting the cargo carrier Ocean Trader , light amphibious ship Swift, and PC Sea Hunter. The Strike Raptors had landed and the air crews were hastening to get those weapons bays reloaded. If the enemy was headed their way, they’d have something to say about it in the morning.

All this meant one thing—unless that main body was decisively defeated, and driven off before it could reach Salaha, that port was off the list for the Marines. They would have to go to Muscat, which is why the Admiral reasoned Roosevelt had hit that eastern enemy TF, to open that sea lane.

Seeing what it took to kill that TF, taking on another 28 ships in the main fleet was a daunting prospect. What they really needed now was a second carrier, and the only prospect at hand was the Independence , which was now just off the northern tip of Sumatra, some 2100 miles from the present position of Roosevelt . Even at the brisk clip of 32 knots, that was 35 hours away. So the Big Stick has to carry the weight for another day and a half, he thought. Time for the British to step up their game.

Admiral Wells was thinking the same thing aboard HMS Prince of Wales . The day had been uneventful, a blessing after the harrowing battle he had endured earlier. His carriers had been flying recon, CAP and escort missions, but no strikes. Now he informed Captain Simpson that he had a full squadron of 12 F-35’s mounted with the new SPEAR munition.

When the war came, Brimstone was seen to be all but useless as a standoff attack weapon, with only a 37 mile range. That was close, and well inside the 80 mile range of the Chinese HQ-9 SAM’s. So SPEAR was developed as the next generation standoff weapon, with a much better range of 80 nautical miles. Even if seen on enemy radars, the delivering planes could release, turn, and withdraw outside of SAM range easily enough, but it had one problem.

Like Brimstone, it had a small 8Kg warhead, so it lacked real punch against large surface combatants, and needed multiple hits to do damage. By comparison, the American GBU-53 had six times the hitting power, with a 48Kg penetrating warhead. The US considered that bomb a light strike munition, and SPEAR was a real featherweight, but at least it was something. Without it the British F-35’s really had no standoff attack capability, and could only drop short range bombs. Clearly no one in Whitehall or Whale Island seemed to take the possibility of a war like this as likely, because they were woefully unprepared for it when it came.

There is an old saying: if you want peace, prepare for war. The militaries on all sides futzed about, building ships and planes, seeing them retire and be replaced by new ones, and many never fired a shot in anger. No one really knew what a modern war would be like, or how their weapons might perform in actual combat. During the Falkland’s War, the British had to ask the US for stocks of Sidewinder missiles to survive. Here they were begging them for the Enhanced Sea Sparrows to save their frigates, because the Sea Ceptor could not catch or kill missiles that could travel at 1900 knots as they attacked. The British knew those enemy missiles were out there, but no one had ever seen them in action, so they deployed Sea Ceptor anyway. Now they paid the price.

What the Chinese had done was to look at the cards being held by their potential enemies, and then trump them with the weapons they would deploy. Until the US began to retool Tomahawks to make the MMT’s, the longest range surface warfare missile the West had was the Harpoon or Exocet at 75 to 100 miles in range. Strangely, even the new Naval Strike Missile could only reach out 100 miles. China decided it could fight in a circle between 200 and 400 miles out, and it proved that when engaging and clearly defeating the Royal Navy as it was configured before the war.

Here, the story was completely different. The US big deck carrier was unhinging all Admiral Sun Wei’s plans, and he had no means of adequately countering it. The bulk of his power resided in those deadly YJ-18’s with a 290 mile range, and Captain Simpson would never allow his carrier to sail inside that range. So Sun Wei had no more than 100 cruise missiles that could reach the carrier, the YJ-100’s, but they would not be enough to break through the concentric circles of defense around that target. The big deck carrier was again proving that it was the master of this battlefield, attacking with impunity, while remaining largely invulnerable to counterattack. The Dragon fire was hot for those it could catch, but the Eagle soared high above, ruling the skies, and it was utterly fearless.

Just before dawn on the 2nd of December, the pilots were getting their briefing. When ordered, the British planes would form up and fly with the Americans, or rather just behind them, so that both planes could time their weapons release simultaneously. Another big attack was in the offing. By 05:30, the Chinese Fleet was about 80 miles south of Salaha Harbor, and six Strike Raptors were again ready at Thumrait, each carrying 24 GBU-53’s. Those would be added to the two F-35 squadrons, another 24 planes each carrying eight GBU-53’s. Together those 30 aircraft could put 336 bombs in the sky, coming from both the north and south in a terrible pincer of flying steel and explosives.

Given that kind of saturation, Admiral Wells had every confidence his boys were going to start getting some payback for the pounding they had taken from the Chinese YJ-18’s. Ships were going to be hit today, he thought, and they were going to die.