by James Rosone
The destruction of these two terminals cut the US’s ability to export liquid natural gas to Europe by 68%. This was a huge loss, especially considering Europe had been cut off from importing additional LNG from Russia once the hostilities had officially begun. The Continent would now be thrown into a widespread gas shortage.
Old Friend
Donetsk, East Ukraine
Lieutenant General Mikhail Chayko was not happy with the progress of his forward units. They had been stopped from securing Kiev twice in the last twenty-four hours, and now the Americans and British had rushed in two armored brigades. Securing the city just became a lot more challenging…not impossible, but certainly a lot more difficult.
He sent a second message to the 4th Guard’s Tank Division, the 2nd Guard’s Motor Rifle Division and the 6th Tank Brigade. “We have to secure Kiev by morning tomorrow,” he directed. “It is imperative that we drive out the Americans now, before they hurry any additional combat forces into Europe.”
LTG Chayko wasn’t sure that all of his comrades were pulling their weight, but his Air Force counterpart had tried to reassure his fears. “A major air operation is well underway,” he asserted. “Your armored units will have continuous air support for the next twenty-four hours while you secure Kiev.”
He tried to remain optimistic about their chances. As Mikhail sat there looking at the various maps, an old friend walked in. His face lit up, and he immediately passed his comrade a flask of vodka. “Admiral Ivan Vitko, it’s good to see you. I feared you had been killed the other day when your base had been hit by the Americans.”
Admiral Vitko took the flask and downed several large gulps before handing it back and taking a seat opposite his friend. “Thank you, Comrade. It has been a long couple of days. The Americans will have to try harder if they want to kill me,” he said, snickering.
After only a moment, his face suddenly turned very serious again. “General Chayko, I wanted to talk with you about something of great urgency,” he said, lowering his voice as if discussing a secret.
Chayko sighed. “Ugh…I am already under a lot of pressure from Moscow,” he thought. “Why do I suddenly have the feeling that he is about to drop another problem in my lap? I don’t have time for that.”
“As you can imagine Admiral, I am dealing with my own problems. What is so urgent that you traveled all the way here to meet me in person?” he asked tentatively, not sure he really wanted the answer.
Vitko pulled out a map, and placed it on the table between them. “This is where the NATO fleet is currently located. As you know, most of my fleet has been sunk. I still have two Oscar submarines and a couple of Kilos trying to stay alive right now. This here is the problem,” he said, pointing to the map.
“The Americans have moved a second Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Black Sea. It will give them close to 7,000 Marines. I believe the Marines are going to try and launch a seaborne invasion along the coast of Ukraine. This could present a massive problem for you, my friend,” Vitko said as he pulled his own flask of vodka out and took a large drink from it.
“If I had known he had his own vodka, I wouldn’t have offered him some of mine,” Chayko thought, rather annoyed.
“This could certainly be a problem,” he responded aloud. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. How do you propose we handle this, if you have no fleet and I have to keep my forces focused on capturing Kiev?” he asked hoping he had a solution.
Smiling, Vitko pulled out another piece of paper. “This, this is how I propose we solve the problem. That, and of course, I need some of your air power,” he said. What he had been pointing to was a dossier on the new drone that the Russian Air Force was going to unveil shortly against NATO, the Zhukovs. They were being held as a surprise, which is why they had not been used yet, but there would certainly be merits for using them now.
The new Russian drone system was very similar to the American Reaper. It was designed to be a standoff missile platform with three hard points on each wing for missiles. It could be used in an anti-tank role or anti-air role.
“Comrade, we need to defeat this American battlegroup in the Black Sea before they land their Marines and the Americans send in more ships,” said the admiral. “They already have a second aircraft carrier on the way. What I would like to propose is to hit the Americans with a missile swarm attack--but of course, I would need your aircraft for that.” He took another pull of vodka from his flask.
Chayko rubbed his stubbled chin, thinking about this. While he wanted to keep his aircraft focused on ground support and maintaining air superiority, he also recognized the importance of keeping the American navy out of the Black Sea.
“Tell me Comrade, how would this missile swarm attack work?” he asked, wanting more details.
“I would need you to commit your fighters to head towards the NATO forces in Romania and engage them. While they are fighting in the air, your Backfire bombers would be equipped with anti-ship missiles and once in range, would release them all at once. Your bombers would never be in any real danger because their missiles can be fired beyond the range of the American naval surface-to-air missile systems.”
The admiral continued, “Following in behind the cruise missiles, your Su-27s and Su-34s would then move into range of their smaller, yet still dangerous, anti-ship missiles and release them as well, further adding to the swarm of missiles that would be headed to the American fleet. The overarching goal is to overwhelm their defenses and sink them.”
“You mentioned my Zhukovs. How did you envision using them?”
Smiling, Admiral Vitko answered, “Yes, this would be the big surprise. We would have them fly low, right at ground level. We fly them beneath the air battle taking place between your fighters and the NATO fighters. Once they have maneuvered behind them, we turn them around, raise them up a few hundred feet, and then fire off their air-to-air missiles. The NATO aircraft will be so focused on dealing with your fighters, they will never suspect that drones had been flown in behind them. They should easily shoot down a number of additional NATO aircraft, which again, should help aid in your efforts to secure air supremacy over Ukraine.” The corners of his lips curled up in a devilish smile.
Chayko thought about the plans as he looked at the map across from where they were seated. It was a risky move committing so many of his aircraft and bombers to one battle, but if he won, it could be a decisive victory and help end the war sooner.
“All right, Comrade. You have sold me on this little plan of yours. Let’s work together now to iron out the details and make it happen,” he said raising his own flask in salute.
Vampires, Vampires, Vampires
Fifteen Miles off the coast of Constanța, Romania
Admiral James Munch had moved his command from the carrier George H.W. Bush to the Gettysburg within hours after his flagship had sunk. The Gettysburg was a Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser, carrying 122 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which packed some serious firepower. It was a formidable warship. Together with the Arleigh Burke Destroyers traveling with them, it had an incredible air defense capability. Despite the tremendous losses he had just endured, Admiral Munch was feeling hopeful about their position, especially given that the Truman Carrier Strike Group was in the process of transitioning to the Bosphorus Straits and would join them tomorrow.
The Romanians, for their part, had sent their three frigates to join his fleet along with a couple of corvettes. None of their ships packed any sort of serious firepower, though they could perform picket duty at the outskirts of the fleet, which is where he had them positioned. Everything seemed to be well-prepared…
At roughly 0122 in the morning, an American E-3 that was on station loitering over Bucharest, Romania, suddenly detected 60 Russian Backfire bombers lifting off from several bases deep inside Russia. The radar operator, who had been feeling rather sleepy, was jolted into a very alert state. As he continued to scan the air, he spotted 30 Su-34s and 35 Su-27s heading toward
s the direction of the naval fleet.
What the radar operator did not see was the 12 Russian Zhukov drones, which were flying at less than 100 feet above the ground. Each one was carrying six air-to-air missiles to surprise the American fighters.
As the enemy air armada began to amass near the Russian border, the air battle manager aboard the E-3 began to vector in two squadrons of F-15s and a squadron of F-18s that had been flying combat air patrol over Romania and the fleet. While the American fighters were headed towards the Russian bombers, three squadrons of Russian MiG-31s, and a squadron of the new MiG-35s (which no one in the US military knew were operational), also headed in the same direction, ready to join the melee. Then, completely undetected, a squadron of Su-57 stealth fighters were also being guided to the battle by two Russian AWACs aircraft, ready to silently swoop in and snipe at the Americans.
The air battle in the night sky was shaping up to be one of the largest air battles in modern warfare. While the NATO and Russian fighters began to engage each other, each of the Backfire bombers fired off all three of their anti-ship cruise missiles from their maximum range, and then quickly turned around to head back to base. Altogether, the 60 bombers let loose a combined 180 anti-ship missiles at the American fleet.
In response to the massive wave of missiles streaming through the air, the Aegis-equipped destroyers and Ticonderoga cruisers began to fire off their missile interceptors. Meanwhile, the Russian Su-27s and Su-34s dove in at max speed to try and attack the American fleet. As they approached the ships, nearly a third of the Russian fighter bombers were shot down by the American fighters; fireballs lit up the night sky. However, the ones that got through fired off their anti-ship missiles. This added another 260 missiles for the American fleet to try and stop.
As the USS Gettysburg launched its last missile interceptors, Admiral James Munch had a stark moment of realization. “My God…the remnants of my carrier strike group are most likely going to be sunk. I am going to go down in naval history as the only US admiral to have lost an entire strike group during combat. It doesn’t even matter how courageously we fight at this point--we simply don’t have enough missile interceptors or point defense weapons to shoot down all of the incoming missiles.”
Every naval analysis group had warned that this was a serious vulnerability. In an age of cheap anti-ship missiles and cheaper throw-away missile platforms, the more technologically superior weapon systems could simply be overwhelmed by a missile swarm.
Hundreds of missiles could be seen exploding in the air as they approached the fleet from various angles and heights. Then, as if in slow motion, the missiles began to impact against their targets. In the span of seven minutes, the remaining anti-ship missiles (which still numbered in excess of two hundred) began to find their marks. At first, it was the outer picket ships that were hit, exploding in spectacular fashion as the missiles ripped through the bulkheads of the ships. Then, the missiles started to strike the larger more important ships, the Ticonderoga guided missile cruisers and the Marine Amphibious assault ships. Most of the ships were hit on their sides, some so many times that they just burst apart, blowing chunks of debris into the air. The others had so much damage to the superstructure of the ships that they simply had no hope of staying above water.
In minutes, the vaunted ships of the George H.W. Bush Strike Group slipped beneath the waves with thousands of crew members never to see the dawn of a new day. It was the single worst naval loss since World War II.
While the American fleet was being overrun by cruise missile explosions, the twelve Zhukov drones slipped past the American fighters, dancing in aerial combat nearby. The drones proceeded to fire off their six air-to-air missiles, throwing the allied formations into chaos. The sudden appearance of seventy-two missiles from behind the NATO aircraft caught them off guard, resulting in the expedient shootdown of 48 additional NATO fighters that might otherwise have lived to fight another day.
By the end of the multi-hour air and naval battle, the Russians had lost 92 aircraft in all. However, NATO had lost 103 aircraft, along with the remaining American warships in the Black Sea. The various amphibious assault ships carrying the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) had also been sunk during the missile swarm attack.
Fortunately, roughly half of the Marines had been able to get to their amphibious vehicles and landing craft and managed to evacuate the ships before they went down. While they were unable to grab most of their equipment, they did manage to escape with their lives. Despite their valiant effort, of the roughly 3,500 Marines in the MEU, 921 of them still lost their lives during the attack. The survivors made best speed in their vehicles for the Romanian coast.
The Truman Carrier Battle Group had not yet entered the Bosphorus Straits. After the battle, they halted their forward progress. The 6th Fleet Commander would have to reassess whether or not the Black Sea should continue to be contested; they might have to cede it to Russia.
The Last Straw
Washington, DC
White House, Situation Room
The President was starting to think his generals and senior advisors either did not know what was going on in Europe, or were just incompetent. On top of everything else, things were heating up in Iran with the Straits of Hormuz now. Moreover, the Chinese were making waves about bringing Taiwan back into the fold, and were posturing towards Vietnam and Myanmar. The world situation was feeling very volatile.
Europe, however, was the immediate problem. President Gates knew he needed to think of solutions to the problems, but he couldn’t help but get lost in a sea of thoughts about how America had gotten into this situation to begin with. “I should have never gone against my own gut,” he bemoaned. “I can’t believe how many voices there were talking in my ear, telling me that this was a good idea. The intelligence agencies, my senior military advisors, congressional leaders; they all thought that if we stood up to Russia that Vladimir Petrov would back down. Then again, some of them, like Senators McGregor and Grandy, have made their entire careers advocating for military intervention against one country or another.”
“I should have paid better attention in history class,” thought Gates. “Eisenhower did warn that the military industrial complex craves for war. I wonder if this is somehow what the hawks in my party wanted all along.”
As the President listened to his advisors brief him on the situation up to this point, it all washed together as one sea of awfulness. The Navy had lost a Supercarrier, the Air Force had lost nearly 208 combat aircraft, and a stealth bomber had been shot down outside of Moscow after one of its bombs had gone off course, killing nearly 2,000 civilians. They had already used up or lost nearly $120 billion in military equipment, 8,000 service members had sacrificed their lives already, and nearly twice that number had been wounded.
“Ugh…is there any good news?” wondered the President.
Instead, the advisors moved from the military situation to the international scene. The president had to control himself from audibly groaning. He already knew about the issue with Turkey; they had announced that they were going to remain neutral in the fight with Russia, and they had withdrawn their warships from the NATO fleet in the Black Sea just before the Russian missile swarm attack. Further, Turkey declared that it would no longer allow NATO to use its military bases, in fear that the Russians might launch a strike against them. A few hours ago, the Turkish Ambassador to the United States had even suggested to the Secretary of State that they might close off the Bosphorus Straits to NATO military traffic.
President Gates had already partially responded to that last issue prior to this meeting. He had personally called President Yavuz. Among other things, he told him, “In no uncertain terms, if you close the Bosphorus Straits, I will use all available military force to keep them open, even if I need to destroy the Turkish Air Force and Navy. Do you understand?”
President Yavuz had cursed and hurled numerous accusations at President Gates, but ultimately, he had backed down.
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Then there was Chancellor Schneider. The German armored brigade that was fighting alongside the Americans in Kiev had taken horrific combat losses. Casualties were so high that Schneider was reluctant to send additional forces. The Russians had also attacked a German airbase near Berlin, causing considerable damage. This assault so close to the German capital had shaken the government to the core, and caused them to become hesitant when they needed to be resolute.
Germany was not the only country reluctant to send reinforcements to NATO. France and Spain were also hesitant to put more troops in harm’s way. Poland was holding the bulk of their army in reserve along the Belarus border as the Russian 4th Army continued to stay deployed not far away from their border. At least the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark were rushing whatever available forces they could to Ukraine. However, without that additional support from their other allies, it placed an enormous strain on the remaining US forces in Ukraine as they tried to hold out against a significantly larger Russian force. Though he was horrified by the situation, President Gates couldn’t help but admire President Petrov; he sure knew where to squeeze the Europeans to get the results he wanted.
As Gates watched his military advisors argue amongst themselves, he turned and watched two of the TV monitors. They created a split screen between CNN and Fox News. It was amazing to watch them side by side like this and see the almost night-and-day difference in the coverage. CNN had gone from their non-stop coverage of how he was a puppet of Vladimir Petrov to pounding the drum that he had led America into a war it couldn’t win against Russia. Fox News seemed to be trying to rally the country around him; they kept talking about how the U.S. was responding to an unprovoked attack by Russia.
Disgusted by the indecisiveness and bickering, the President got up and walked out of the room. He was repulsed by the whole lot of them. American soldiers were fighting and dying in a war they had pushed for, and now they couldn’t figure out how to win it. The Russians had suckered-punched them hard. If NATO had been able to hit the Russians on their timeframe, things would have turned out differently, but here they were.