by James Rosone
General Yang nodded and smiled. The Chinese all knew that the Americans were incredibly risk-averse when it came to collateral damage. They would sooner lose hundreds of soldiers taking an objective than accidentally kill a few dozen civilians—a trait the Chinese Army did not share.
“What about the Japanese Islands? Are they going to pose a threat to us?” asked Yang.
General Yang was still a bit angry that his senior leadership had ordered him to capture the Philippines before he had had a chance to secure the Yaeyama district, which was so close to Formosa. By the time they had finished their operation in the Philippines, the Japanese Defense Force had moved a large number of soldiers to those five islands. Invading them at this point would have been very costly, so the higher-ups had decided they would have to be invaded at a later date.
General Yi shook his head. “We’ve been hitting the islands with multiple short-range cruise and ballistic missiles for the past month. None of the airfields are currently operational, and we’ve hit the known military installations multiple times. It’s my assessment that the islands do not pose a significant threat to our occupation now, although that may change once the American Pacific Fleet moves into range of our forces.”
Yang nodded. “Excellent. Please continue to get the island ready to repel the Americans. It won’t be long until they arrive, and once they do, they’ll unleash everything they have on us.”
*******
South China Sea
Vice Admiral Shen was getting anxious for the final battle of the Pacific to start. The loss of the Wuhan a couple of days ago had been a real blow to his plan. Unfortunately, he had too many moving parts going now to stop the attack. They had lured the American fleet into the Philippine Sea, and it was nearly time for him to spring his trap.
Despite this setback, Shen was not feeling completely hopeless. To gain entry into the Chinese bastion that was the South China Sea, the Americans really only had two viable options: they could maneuver south and slide between the southern Philippine Islands in the Celebes Sea, or they could move toward the northern side of the Philippines, which would also bring them close to Formosa, or Taiwan, as the Americans called it. Going south through the Celebes Sea would mean traveling through dozens upon dozens of small Indonesian islands where the PLA Navy had installed hundreds of anti-ship cruise missile batteries. Traveling north would bring them closer to the Filipino landmass of Luzon and the now-occupied province of Formosa, where, again, the PLA Navy had placed hundreds of anti-ship missile batteries.
Shen smiled as he remembered his secret weapon. Unbeknownst to the Americans, a small group of five Malaysian cargo ships had taken up position between the Island of Palau and Colonia, which was several hundred miles southwest of Guam.
During World War II, the German Kriegsmarine had operated a series of merchant raider vessels in the Pacific, which were essentially commercial ships that had been converted to operate as clandestine raiders. The commercial ships were often outfitted with a series of torpedo launchers and cannons, which were hidden by collapsible panels or other disguises, allowing the ships to sneak up on Allied freighters or convoys. Once the raider vessels were close enough to their prey, they would unveil their weapons and engage the convoys. In one case, the German raider Orion had sunk fourteen Allied ships before it was hunted down and sunk by the Royal Navy in 1945.
Pulling a page from history, Admiral Shen had had a series of cargo vessels converted to merchant raiders prior to the war, so they could be used in this elaborate trap he had set to destroy the American Pacific Fleet. The ships chosen for this special mission had originally been used for transporting grain or other dry goods in their cargo holds. Unlike the large container freighters, the upper decks of these cargo ship holds weren’t covered by shipping containers. This allowed the Chinese engineers to fill the cargo holds with vertical launch systems, or VLS. The newest PLA Navy destroyer, the Type 055 Renhai, packed 112 VLS missiles. The cargo ships were able to hold an astounding 600 VLS missiles.
The merchant raiders were equipped with 300 YJ-18A anti-ship cruise missiles with an operational range of 220 to 540 kilometers, and a 140- to 300-kilogram warhead that could reach speeds of Mach 0.8 when cruising and Mach 2.5-3.0 when in terminal attack mode. This gave the ships an incredible offensive reach. The raiders were also equipped with 200 YJ-100 long-range anti-ship cruise missiles. These missiles were particularly nasty, as they had an operating range of 1,500 kilometers and packed a 500-kilogram warhead. Between these raiders and the cruise missile batteries that awaited them, the Americans would not be able to approach them without some major losses.
For the past four hours, Shen and his staff had been monitoring the progress of the American fleet as it sailed toward the Philippines. They were eagerly waiting to see which direction the fleet would travel. If they headed south, then they would sail right into the merchant raider trap he had waiting for them near Palau. If they headed north, then the raiders would have to turn north and move at maximum speed to stay within range of the American fleet. That way, when the time came, they would be in range to add their missiles to the mix.
What Admiral Shen and the Chinese Navy had learned during the opening days of the Second Korean War was that the American fleet was vulnerable to a missile swarm attack. While the American Aegis system was still far superior to their own system, it lacked enough ships with sufficient missiles to shoot down the incoming threats. Had the PLA Navy leadership listened to Shen’s original request and converted ten merchant raiders, they would have had enough anti-ship missiles to completely wipe out the American Seventh Fleet. Instead, they had only converted five ships to fit this role, and he had to keep those five ships situated with him, since his naval counterpart in the north didn’t share his same vision of how these ships could change the outcome of the war.
Finally, there was some perceptible movement in the blinking lights on the map display. “Ugh, they are turning north,” thought Shen.
Admiral Shen turned to one of his communications officers. “Send a flash message to the merchant fleet for them to execute Operation Lightning Wind.” With that simple coded message, the merchant fleet would move quickly to their preplanned attack position. They would hold off on launching their missiles until they received their final targeting data from the Pacific radar ocean reconnaissance satellites.
The officer nodded, typed out the message and hit Send. While the message made its way through the ether, the entirety of the South China Sea’s fleet moved at flank speed toward the Americans for what would arguably be the largest naval battle since World War II.
Ambush in the Pacific
Philippine Sea
After nearly a month of consolidating the Allied fleet around the US territory of Guam, Vice Admiral Jeff Richards was ready to launch his offensive to once and for all crush the People’s Liberation Army Navy and begin the liberation of Taiwan and the Philippines. Richards had spent the better part of a month wargaming the plan they were now going to implement and felt fairly confident in their ability to respond to the different types of threats the PLA Navy was going to throw at them.
His biggest relief was that the Chinese submarine Wuhan, which had been equipped with the new Chinese supertorpedo, had finally been hunted down and sunk. Sadly, two additional destroyers and another Los Angeles-class submarine were lost in the process. Fortunately, naval intelligence had no indications that the Chinese had figured out how to equip the specialized torpedoes to their aircraft, and apparently, the torpedoes required special modifications to the torpedo tubes, which meant that for the time being, the Wuhan was the only sub equipped to use them.
“If only we knew exactly how many anti-ship missiles the Chinese have to throw at us,” he thought.
However, there was no turning back now. The battle plans had been set, and now it was time to once again place his sailors in harm’s way. As the Allied fleet headed toward the Philippine Sea, the four Japanese light carriers fell in line with
the six American supercarriers, adding their own capability to the mix. Those ships had been quickly modified at the beginning of the Korean conflict, adding arrestor wires to the rear deck of the ship and magnetic catapults along the front deck. With the equipment needed to launch and retrieve aircraft, they were now functional as carriers in their own right, capable of collectively carrying 96 combat aircraft.
Admiral Richards smiled as he saw these ships move with his forces. “The Japanese finished those modifications rather quickly. This should be a nasty surprise to the Chinese,” he thought.
The fleet had already been at sea for nearly two days as they sailed ever closer to the inevitable battle that might ultimately decide the outcome of the war. Sitting in the wardroom on the USS Gerald Ford, Admiral Richards again reviewed the plans for how they were going to incorporate the Japanese aircraft into the fleet’s defense. Although half of the pilots flying off the Japanese light carriers were actually US naval pilots, it was still important to make sure they fully understood the plan and their role in the coming fight.
Richards had nearly every EA-18 Growler in the Navy assigned to his fleet for this coming battle. Eight of them were operating on the Japanese ships while the rest of the aircraft composition comprised F/A-18 Super Hornets. Admiral Richards knew that the Chinese were going to hit them with one or more missile swarm attacks, and he had the fleet prepared accordingly. To increase the likelihood of their survival, the Hornets were equipped with AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles, which had the ability to also go after the cruise missiles that would be swarmed at them. It wasn’t a sure bet they could hit the enemy missiles, but if they could help thin them out, then it was worth using them. When Richards had been in command of the Carl Vinson at the outset of the Korean War, this had been a tactic he employed with his airwing. It was probably the one thing that had saved his ship and the rest of his strike group from certain doom. He hoped it would save them again in this coming battle.
In addition to the Japanese light carriers, the Allied fleet had the two Zumwalt-class destroyers, which had recently been upgraded with the Navy's new railguns. The USS Michael Monsoor and the USS Zumwalt were about to make their combat debut, and they fielded a new and revolutionary combat system, the magnetic railgun. The penetrator rounds the railgun fired weighed ten kilograms and could travel 160 kilometers, hitting their targets traveling at speeds of Mach 7. The Zumwalts could fire a sustained six rounds a minute for three minutes before dropping to one round a minute to allow for their capacitors to recharge. Admiral Richards hoped these two ships would be his ace in the hole.
For the time being, Vice Admiral Richards planned on making the Gerald Ford not only his floating forward command but the centerpiece of the Allied fleet and the nerve center for the coming battle. To that end, he made sure to place a Ticonderoga cruiser on either side of the carrier for added antimissile defense.
*******
Thirty thousand feet above the largest naval fleet since World War II, the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone observed everything happening below. The continuous data it provided was feeding a steady stream of intelligence to the ships below, as well as the 7th Fleet’s forward headquarters in Guam, Hawaii, and the Pentagon.
While the Triton kept its high orbit above the fleet, it intercepted a short burst message to a group of five cargo vessels near the Island of Colonia and Palau, 530 kilometers to the southwest of the Allied fleet. Within minutes of the transmission, the five ships changed course and headed in the same direction as the fleet.
*******
Rear Admiral Shelley Cord was both excited and nervous as her strike group continued to near the enemy and the coming battle. While she reviewed their current plans, she became lost in a sea of reminiscent thoughts.
When Shelley had been given command of the Ford strike group, she’d figured that would be her last command, and then she’d would retire. As a two-star admiral and woman, she felt she had helped to pave the way for other women to achieve the same rank and hold the same commands a man could. She was the first commander of what was arguably the most powerful warship in the world, and that said a lot for how far women had come in being considered equal to their male counterparts in the Navy.
While the Ford was going to be the most powerful warship in the world, it was still technically not supposed to be ready for combat for another year. Her job was to oversee its sea trials and the myriad of certifications needed to make the strike group ready for combat operations.
Once the war in Europe had started and the George H.W. Bush had been sunk, the Ford had suddenly become inundated with contractors and support personnel, rushing to get the supercarrier ready for combat operations. Instead of being in charge of the final stages of the carrier’s readiness for the fleet, Admiral Cord found herself in charge of an entirely new strike group that would center around the Ford and be the anchor for the Seventh Fleet. The Secretary of the Navy and SecDef had waived hundreds of certifications and tests to get the ship ready for combat—the only thing that mattered was getting the Ford ready and staffed up with fighters and personnel.
When the Second Korean War had started, the loss of the Reagan and the Vinson had placed renewed urgency and strain on Cord to get her strike group ready for battle. They were desperately needed in the Pacific.
When she’d heard that the captain of the Vinson would be taking over command of the entire 7th Fleet, she’d felt a bit miffed that a captain who had essentially lost his own ship was going to be taking over command of the entire fleet instead of one of the more seasoned rear admirals. However, within twenty minutes of listening to Richards speak about his experience in fighting the People’s Liberation Army Navy and how his strike group had survived the missile swarm that ultimately overwhelmed the Reagan, she felt guilty for her earlier feelings. Richards had gained something that none of them had, combat experience fighting the Chinese—and neither she nor the senior admirals in the Navy currently had that knowledge.
That first battle with the Chinese had cost the Navy two rear admirals and a vice admiral, along with the lives of nearly 8,000 sailors. It had been the single greatest loss of life in the Navy since World War II. Senior leadership who had experience fighting the Chinese were in short supply, and as her strike group neared the enemy, she was glad they were being led by an officer who understood what they would be facing.
The combat information center or CIC commander pulled her out of her thought bubble and back to the real world. “Ma’am,” he said. “We’ve spotted something unusual that I think you should take a look at.”
“What do you have, George?” She stood up and walked toward him.
“I’m not sure. The Triton just intercepted a burst transmission to what appears to be a small cluster of cargo ships near the Micronesia Island chains. We’ve looked at the area, and there are no PLA Navy ships in the area. There don’t appear to be any hostile planes in the area either,” he explained, a bit puzzled by the information.
“Hmm. Well, let’s take a closer look, shall we?” she commented. They walked over to the console, where a couple of the intelligence folks were looking at the drone’s feed.
“Petty Officer, are you able to zoom in any closer to those ships so we can see what flag they’re flying?” inquired the admiral.
The petty officer nodded and zoomed in as far as the camera would allow. She wrinkled her face as she realized the image wasn’t going to get any clearer. “I’m going to need a better image,” she said.
“Those ships are roughly 500 kilometers away from us right now,” replied the petty officer. “My camera is good, but it’s not a telescope.” With that, she nudged the lieutenant next to her, who was flying the UAV.
“I can turn and head in that direction, but the best I can do is get us maybe 80 kilometers closer,” said the lieutenant. “I have to stay in a certain orbit over the fleet to keep providing us the coverage requirements. If you want a better image, I’d recommend we send a fast m
over. They can get over there a lot quicker than I can.”
Admiral Cord nodded. “You’re right, Lieutenant. Good call,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.
She turned to the commander, air group, or CAG, who had walked over to see what they were discussing. “CAG, get me a fast mover to head over to that cluster of ships. I have a feeling there’s more than meets the eye with them, and I want a little more information before I let Admiral Richards know something might be amiss.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” replied the CAG. He rushed off to complete his new mission.
Cord grabbed the attention of a couple of the other petty officers nearby. “Also, someone send a message to the captain to come to CIC and join us,” she ordered.
“Yes, Ma’am,” one of them replied.
Three minutes later, the alert fighters on the flight deck were given the task of investigating the suspicious ships. Seeing how far away the ships were from the fleet, they would need to top off their fuel tanks before they began their journey.
Once the planes left the deck, Captain Patricia Fleece, who had only just found out about their mission, walked into the CIC. “I just saw the alert fighters take off—anything important I should know about?” she asked, directing her question to the CAG.
Admiral Cord knew she should have told Captain Fleece before they’d launched the alert fighters, but she’d felt she needed to get them in the air ASAP. Something just didn’t feel right. “It’s my fault, Captain Fleece. I ordered the CAG to launch them ASAP and get them heading out to investigate something. Let me show you what we’ve found and get your take on this, too.”