Dragon's Fury - Dragon's Breath Part 30

Besides, each of those vessels had two escorting Luhu or Luda cla.s.s destroyers with them, each of which carried four more LRASD weapons along with their other anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface weapons. But, as he thought about it more, he felt honored to be one of those who had been selected to be involved with the American mainland directly, even if he was working alone and therefore more vulnerable to counter attack.

If attacked, he had no intention of being boarded. He had a contingent of one hundred well-armed Chinese Marines aboard to prevent that. He had his LRASD weapons to defend against surface or submarine attack, and he had the very capable KS-2 VLS battery, each tube with five reloads, to defend against air attack.

Of course, if the Americans identified him and tasted of any of these measures, they would quickly come at him with standoff weapons and overwhelm his defenses. He hoped all of that could be avoided. He would prefer of course, to just fire his missiles, and then turn to the south as planned and make for the COSCO facility in Bermuda.

There were fourteen other such vessels taking up positions along the entire coast of the United States.

From Maine to Georgia, from Pensacola to Corpus Christi, and from San Diego to Seattle, PLAN Tactical Attack Ships loaded with over 500 conventional ballistic missiles were preparing for a surprise attack on the continental United States.

Most would get the execute order while well out to sea like himself. Others would be closer in, and a few might even be in port when the order came. This last condition was, of course to be avoided if at all possible. The new "Homeland Security" rules for vessels desiring to dock at U.S. ports called for a thorough examination of selected ship's cargo before they were allowed to enter U.S. waters. This had been implemented after the attacks of 2001 when American defense a.n.a.lysts began worrying what a terrorist with a large cargo ship could do if it were full of any potent explosive-or just full of the right type of fertilizer for that matter.

All of the Chinese ships had explicit orders to not allow any boarding if at all possible. They were to time their approach to be buffered by other vessels desiring entry. Failing this, they were to stay well out to sea, feigning mechanical problems. If avoidance was impossible and they were boarded, and nothing was found, then they would have to enter port.

Of course, if they were boarded and something was found, the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs personnel would be eliminated along with their vessel. In such an event, that Chinese vessel would then run for the open sea like a rogue ship-which is exactly what it would be labeled-and they would be expected to scuttle their ship in the deepest water available. This was the circ.u.mstance to be avoided at all costs.

"Officer of the deck. All stop, all stop. Drop anchor, and maintain position. I'll be in the Combat Information Center (CIC). Maintain an EMCONN status of pa.s.sive except for our normal, commercial surface and air radar."

March 15, 2006, 02:57 National Reconnaissance Office Headquarters IMINT Directorate Chantilly, VA "Okay, Diane, let's review this. It's late, but we need to understand it and decide what priority it takes."

Tom hung up the phone and waited for his new, junior a.n.a.lyst, Diane Smiley to come in. Diane had joined the group recently as a result of more funding, and was all of four years out of college. When Diane arrived, Tom had her sit down and then swung his dual screen monitor around so she could see it.

"Earlier today, while reviewing some pictures of newer Luhu cla.s.s destroyers, you noticed some railing missing behind one of the life boat davits of that ship. Thinking it odd, you zoomed in on that portion if the ship and noticed, in the shadows of an overhang from the next higher deck, what appeared to be some additional, or new structure. Enhancing the photo, you were able to produce this."

Tom called up the image of a rectangular object on the right hand screen of the dual screen display.

"Then, as a result of heightened interest, you began looking at all new, or recently refitted Luhu's, to see if there were more of these structures, and came up with this really clear picture."

Tom called up a clear picture of one of the structure in full light on a Luhu cla.s.s destroyer. "At this point you brought it to my attention, right?"

Diane meekly looked down and nodded her head while saying, "Yes Sir."

Tom continued.

"Okay. At that point I asked you to look at other large PLAN cla.s.s destroyers to see if you could find more, while I followed some of my hunches. As a result of your efforts, around 10 p.m. you came back and told me you had in fact found more of these structures on Luhai, Luhu and Luda cla.s.s destroyers. Is that correct?"

Again, feeling even more uncertain of herself, Diane nodded and repeated, "Yes Sir."

Tom was getting perplexed with the effect he was having on Diane.

"Look Diane, you're not in trouble here or anything, okay? I am asking all of these questions because as a.n.a.lysts, that's what we have to do to make absolutely sure we understand what we are talking about.

So, don't be so worried or concerned. I happen to think that what you've found here is of critical importance. I'm just trying to get my arms around it.

"Anyhow, after discovering more of these structures, I asked you to broaden your search while I continued to follow up on my ideas. Were you able to find more?"

Having heard Tom indicate that the data could be critical and that he wasn't giving her the third degree because of problems, Diane perked up.

"Well, no, I didn't find these "boxes" on any other ship cla.s.ses, but I did find something else. Why don't you call up this file?"

Diane gave Tom the network location of a file that he quickly called up on the screen. It was a picture of some kind of swivel joint.

"Tom, this is the attach point of one of those "boxes" on the deck of a Luhai destroyer. This joint appears to allow for both traverse and elevation movement. When I take that knowledge and factor it in to the locations on the decks of the ships, it is clear that these "boxes" will swing out from the side of the ship through a fairly broad angle."

Tom took this information and factored it into the things that he had discovered. It was beginning to paint a picture that he didn't like one bit.

"Okay Diane, I believe that is important information regarding the function of these things. Let me tell you what I have discovered.

"As you know, we have been concerned about the PLAN's recently demonstrated capability to convert some its container ships into very effective sea control Aircraft Carriers in a relatively short s.p.a.ce of time.

We have been scouring Chinese port and repair facilities to locate all of the places they are doing this. In looking at all of those facilities, we have found three potential sites, two of which we are sure of.

"There are many other sites where COSCO refits and repairs its container ships, or other places in the PRC where this could occur. We have been checking them all. One of the things I noticed coming out of other locations, not involved with the carrier conversions, were container ships that left their dry dock or repair dock looking like this."

Tom called up a container ship just leaving a dry dock facility. Zooming in on the deck, there were six of the large rectangular containers along each side. Tom zoomed in on one and highlighted the container and brought it up on his left-hand screen.

"Now look what happens when we compare your "boxes" to these containers."

Tom called up one of Diane's "boxes" on the right screen, highlighted it and dragged it over to the left hand screen and superimposed it over the container. The "box" fit right inside.

"Those "boxes" from the destroyers fit right inside these containers from the container ships with about six inches to spare all around."

Diane thought about this for no more than a second and then jumped right on the implication that came to her mind.

"Okay, perhaps the Chinese are using the pretext of the refit or repair of their container ships to transport these "boxes" to where the destroyers can get at them. Now I want to know what they use them for on those destroyers."

Tom appreciated Diane's focus, but she was still young and not used to looking for a bigger picture in case it was there.

"Good idea, that was my first thought too. So, I went and looked for container ships that have been refitted at these same places over the last three months are more. I figured I would find some photos of ships that had the containers at one point, and then later "lost" them.

"But that's not what I found. What I found was that in all cases the container ships still had the containers on them that the boxes fit into. In all cases, once these ships put to sea doing their container hauling, the other cargo and containers were stacked around them. Then, when the other containers are off loaded, these remain.

"You want to know what I think now that you've shown me how they are attached?"

Actually, Diane was anxious to hear. Her boss Tom was sharp and she wanted to learn a lot from him.

His reputation as an a.n.a.lyst himself was legend around here and she was excited that her first major "find" had caught his attention.

"Absolutely, shoot."

Tom did.

"I think these are weapons of some sort, and that we now have armed container ships plowing the seas.

Ask yourself why the Red Chinese would do this. Who are they afraid of? Who do they feel these ships, particularly the container ships, are going to have to fight?

"Now, this is a preliminary a.s.sessment and we're going to have to do even more research to verify or disprove this; but I believe it is critical that we do so.

"Look, it's late. Why don't you head home and get a few hours sleep. After I work out some plans and a.s.signments for this, I will do the same. Meet me back here at 9 a.m. and we'll get right back on this."

Diane was glad for the opportunity to get some sleep. She'd been here since 7:30 a.m. and now it was after 3 a.m.-almost twenty hours!

"Okay boss, thanks for the help and thanks for the encouragement. I'll see you here at 9 a.m."

As she left his office, Tom did draw up plans and a.s.signments for Diane to address the next morning.

When he was done with that, he stayed on and continued to do the research, a.n.a.lysis and contemplation necessary to either firm up, or dispel his theory. By 9 a.m. when Diane arrived, he had arrived at the conclusion that the PLAN was deploying an unknown new weapon system on all of its Luhai, Luhu and Luda cla.s.s destroyers and on many of its container ships. After meeting again with Diane at 11:30 a.m.

and confirming his apprehensions, he sent a report at 12:30 p.m. to his NRO command chain, CINCPAC and the NSA.

It would take this report a good five hours to be read, a.n.a.lyzed and forwarded to bases and units around the world, including CBT 77. By then, it would be too late to make any difference in the events of that early evening of March 15th, 2006 in America, and at the same time in the early morning of March 16thin the Western Pacific.

March 16, 2006, 05:35 local time 420 nautical miles ENE of Okinawa Flag Briefing Room, USS Lake Chaplain (CG 57) Western Pacific Ocean The briefing had just ended. Admiral Reginald Patterson was pleased. He had served in many positions in his twenty-eight year tenure with the United States Navy. He had served on many staffs, and had quite a few staffs serve under him. He honestly believed that the staff serving with him now in CBT 77 was the best, and in the Admiral's way of thinking, that's exactly the way things were meant to be.

The decision had been made several days ago to send the CBT 77.1 with the USS Kitty Hawk CBG and the USS Ess.e.x ARG further north, to transit into the Sea of j.a.pan north of the southern most main island of j.a.pan. This was occurring this morning. In the mean time, CBT 77.2 and CBT 77.3, transited into the China Sea north of Okinawa.

The rendezvous of all elements would occur off of Pusan day after tomorrow, which would allow the Kitty Hawk to provide needed air support to the US and Korean forces for two full days before the landings off Pusan would begin.

"Commander Lewis, you gave a very good overview of the exclusion zones and the current status of allied and neutral shipping with respect to them. It seems pretty crowded out there."

Lewis, in addition to being the Admiral's chief of staff, was also an excellent tactician and intelligence a.n.a.lyst.

"Admiral, as you know, this is one of the highest traffic sea lanes in the world. There are always a lot of ships in here. I suppose short of all-out maritime warfare directed against j.a.pan and its shipping, there's not much that will slow it down.

"The bit about the Chinese "escorting" their container ships bothers me though. As a supposedly neutral power, I suppose it may be understandable, but we both know how much military, tactical, logistic and supply support they have given the North Koreans before the outbreak of hostilities. There's not a one of us who believes that the North Koreans would ever have undertaken this invasion without the tacit approval of Beijing. There neutrality is dubious and therefore their warships are potential belligerents."

Admiral Patterson understood. The fact was, most of the chain of command believed the same thing, including, as he understood it, the NCA himself.

"Well, they are not violating any of the zones we've established, but we'd best keep an eye on them. I am not overly concerned about any two, or any ten of their Luhai and Luhu cla.s.s destroyers. It would be suicide for them to consider trying to get close enough to inflict damage on this task force. Just the same, draw up instructions for each task force commander to develop operational plans to keep each of those particular Chinese groups under close observation.

"I'm more concerned about their two Chinese carrier task forces, the one centered on the Beijing south and west of Okinawa in the China Sea, and the one centered on the Shanghai in the South China Sea.

We need to keep those groups under constant surveillance, whether by satellite or by aircraft out of Okinawa or from this task force. I know those are already standing orders, let's just make sure they are emphasized."

Unknown to Admiral Patterson and Commander Lewis, those "not to be overly concerned about"

Chinese groups centered on the "container ships" had already launched long range weapons. The results would make history and they would establish the parameters that would govern maritime warfare throughout the remainder of World War III.

March 16, 2006, 06:00 local time 250 km WSW of Okinawa Combat Information Center, PLAN 1001 Beijing China Sea Admiral Yao Hsu would remain in the CIC throughout the engagement. Captain Tuan Hongwen was working with his people to ensure that the Beijing was prepared to execute her portion of the attack at the appointed hour. That would amount to a launch of four rounds of his SS-26 missiles at Okinawa's airbase and command and control facilities. Forty-eight missiles arriving in four waves of twelve, each wave would be less than five minutes apart. Arriving with the fourth wave would be an air attack of six SU-30's, three SU-35's and ten Su-25's, supported by one AEW aircraft.

It would be critical that air cover from the mainland arrive over the carrier to augment the six remaining SU-30's'and four SU-35's' at the proper time. Everyone expected some sort of air attack from Okinawa or American airfields in Korea and j.a.pan. At the appointed time, ships would conduct ballistic missile attacks on American airfields in j.a.pan, while Chinese missiles from across the Yellow Sea would hit bases in Korea.

Finally, the Shanghai, PLAN 1002, would lead a strike on the HMS Ark Royal Task Force that was approaching from the South China Sea. With the carrier's air group, with the carrier launched surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) and with a.s.sistance from PLAN aircraft from the mainland, it was expected that the HMS task force would be quickly and totally destroyed.

As it stood now, 125 LRASD devices were rapidly approaching the American Task Forces. When they commenced their destructive work, the moment of truth would be upon them all.

PLAN attack submarines were pa.s.sively listening well off of the American task forces. As soon as any one of them reported that the engagement had begun, an order would go out to all of the waiting Chinese forces. At that moment Tactical Attack Ships both here and off America, the Chinese missile bases and the various other task forces, including this one, would launch their attacks.

"Perhaps America is a sleeping giant," thought the Admiral. "Well, we will not make the mistakes of the j.a.panese sixty-five years ago. We will not deal in half measures. Our "surprise" will knock the American's unconscious. By the time they awaken and try and respond, the new order of things here in the Pacific and Asia will be too far advanced for them to counter."

At least, that was the plan.

March 16, 2006, 06:22 local time 371 nautical miles ENE of Okinawa Control Room, USS Jefferson City (SSN 759) Western Pacific Ocean "Captain, we have multiple contacts well off our port bow."

Captain Wellington looked up from the plotting board as his executive officer made this statement. He had just been reviewing their patrol course out in front of Carrier Group Seven.

"What do they have?"

The executive officer responded.

"Sir, they say they'd like you to come and listen. They're not sure."

The Captain considered this, almost made a sarcastic remark, but then said, "Okay, Steve, you have the Conn."

The Captain quickly made his way over to sonar.

"Okay guys, what do you over here that requires me to listen?"

Looking up form his station, the duty officer, a Lieutenant, responded as he handed the Captain a pair of earphones.

"Sir, I've got the sound of many propellers, faint, but closing. Range 20,000 yards. They are definitely mechanical, no known acoustic match."

The Captain put on the earphones and was silent for a moment. Sure enough, he could faintly hear the sound of propellers.

"How many, at what approximate depth, and what closure rate?"

Looking at the readout on the screen at his duty station, the Lieutenant quickly pressed a few keys and then answered.

"Captain, the count keeps increasing, now twenty-one targets. Range to closest is now 19,100 yards and closing on a tangent of 223 degrees. Depth estimated at 600 feet. Speed is 48 knots."

Digesting this, the Captain quickly calculated and then said "That course is taking them in towards the Task Force."

Picking up a communications phone, the Captain called his XO.

"Steve, sound general quarters. This is no drill. Set course to interdict incoming targets, go to 20 knots and arm tubes one through four."

March 16, 2006, same time 386 nautical miles ENE of Okinawa PLAN 2012 Gansu LRASD Strike Western Pacific The twenty-five LRASD strike that had been launched by the Gansu group were one of three strikes that were now inbound toward CBT 77.2 and CBT 77.3. The LRASD devices were programmable by both acoustic signature and sonar image. They were also programmable by depth, course, distance, loiter time and loiter pattern. The devices had been set up to have several different primary and secondary targets. The lead units of each strike were programmed to look for U.S. attack submarines-predominantly LA Cla.s.s submarines that were typically escorting carrier battle groups.

At 18,000 yards, both lead LRASDs acquired the faint acoustic signature of the Jefferson City which was now approaching them. The two lead units plotted an intercept course at their current 48 knot speed and continued until the range had closed to 10,000 yards. At this point, both units broadcast a tight sonar pulse down the bearing of the acoustic match. The resulting sonar signature confirmed their acoustic data.

What followed was the culmination of Lu Pham's engineering efforts. In the s.p.a.ce of three seconds, the two devices lined themselves up on an interception course for the Jefferson City, set their proximity destruction to preprogrammed parameters and ignited their rocket engines. Within two seconds, the devices began supercavitating as they were designed to do and reached their maximum speed of 600 knots within five seconds. By this time the range had closed to 8,000 yards, less than twenty-five seconds from impact.

March 16, 2006, 06:34 local time Sonar, USS Jefferson City (SSN 759) 369 nautical miles ENE of Okinawa Western Pacific Ocean Captain Wellington had remained in sonar with the Lieutenant, relaying his commands to the Executive Officer in the control room.

"Okay, Lieutenant, what have we got? "

The Lieutenant now believed that the Captain's nerves were made of steel. Since the two closest targets had briefly gone active, they had continued their approach. At the captain's order, the Jefferson City had also gone briefly active and now had much more data on the approaching threat.

They knew that these ent.i.ties were approximately fifty feet long and a good six to eight feet in diameter.