“Probably both. Such insanity has to be dealt with,” he said in a low voice, “and the sooner we get about it, the better.”
~ ~ ~
High above the Pacific, NROL-50 was watching the latest developments very closely from space, and 2nd Lieutenant Matt Eden was on the duty roster that day at the Naval Intelligence Center. He was taking a good long look at airfields throughout Central and Southern China, and especially at sites where more advance air squadrons were known to be deployed. The Chinese Air Force had taken a good hard jab to the nose in that recent engagement with the Japanese. He had heard the intelligence circulating through his analysis unit, and was not surprised.
A gaggle of J-10s up against six Silent Eagles and three JF-35s, he mused? Fat chance. The Chinese should have left those J-10s on the tarmac where they belong. It was an aerodynamically unstable design from the get-go, and needed fly by wire flight control systems to keep the planes from flying apart in a tight turn or other maneuver that overstressed the aircraft. It was a great plane when the flight control system worked, but when that wire was cut by a good pair of electronic clippers…
He smiled, wondering if the Japanese had tried anything similar to the in-flight NS-111 that was now a top secret addition to the noses of some very select squadrons of aircraft in the USAF. In any case, they Eagles probably had them in their crosshairs well before those J-10s could lock and load. It was over before it started.
But this latest development he had been watching was a little more troubling. He had checked three key airfields now, and the story was the same. The supposedly hidden underground bunkers were starting to see some daylight for a change. He had seen a planes emerging in groups of six and quickly maneuvering for takeoff. The top down silhouette was unmistakable, and he was quickly counting noses, realizing he was seeing a very significant deployment here. Ten minutes later he was on the phone to his deputy commander with some very bad news. It looks like the Chinese mean business this time he thought.
“Deputy Commander. Go ahead.”
“Deep Black Ten, sir. Lieutenant Eden reporting. The bats have left their caves.”
“Single sighting?”
“No sir, I have it in triplicate and I’m rolling over for three more vectors and some additional photography.”
“Very well… We’ll see what they have over at ASIA and Keyhole. I’m sure they’ve been more than curious this week. Check three more, and get those photos in my inbox ASAP.”
“Right, sir. Eden out.” They were going to check with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Whoopi doo! He ran a mental finger about in circles. Well, they would have the same thing in their inboxes soon enough. Eden was inwardly pleased that the Deputy Commander took his report as breaking news. The Keyhole crowd will be on it in minutes now, but he had it first.
My, my, he thought—Vampires. The Chinese didn’t call them that. Their handle was more culturally appropriate: Shen Long, the Mighty Dragon. It’s original name had been much more to the point: Jian-20 or Killer-20, the annihilator. The US had taken them down a peg or two by calling them bats and, as they were particularly nasty bats, the term Vampire that had long been associated with an incoming threat was an easy evolution. But call them what you will, the new fifth generation J-20 stealth fighters would live up to the name, and then some. They usually slumbered in their deep hidden bunkers, with only occasional outings to let us know what they had if they ever needed it, but not today.
When the plane was first flight tested nine years ago in 2012 during a visit to China by then Defense Secretary Gates, US analysts stated the J-20 had the potential to “put some of our capabilities at risk.” Eden smiled inwardly at that, thinking of the men in the planes and ships that might soon have to face down these Vampires. The thought that higher government had reduced them, and the machines they operated, to mere ‘capabilities’ was somewhat disturbing.
The Lieutenant knew what was happening here. It was quite evident. Japan got herself in a scrap and Taiwan is next in line. But Uncle Sam lives just down the street, and the carriers were coming, the symbol of American power and prestige at sea for over eighty years. The J-20 was a premier fifth generation maritime strike aircraft capable of long range, penetrating attacks against formidable air defense environments. Now the big and relatively slow aircraft carriers would face an opponent with the range to reach and attack them by more than one means. The Vampires may soon be riding the buffalo’s back, he thought, and I get to sit here and watch it in living HD video.
His satellite roll maneuver was nearly complete, and his board read green for new target coordinates. He’d have a look at three more airfields, but had little doubt that the story would be the same. This is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, he thought… A whole lot worse.
Chapter 29
CV-16 was the carrier Liaoning, named for a swift river that flowed through China’s northeast province by the same name. In an odd irony, the second character that made up the name of this ship of war was ‘ning’, the symbol for ‘peace.’ The province’s strategic location on the Yellow Sea adjacent to North Korea on one side to the east, and the capitol of Beijing to the southwest, had given it the auspicious nickname of the Golden Triangle. There a long peninsula reached from the province towards the Chinese mainland and out into the Yellow Sea, and near its tip was the big naval center and harbor of Dailan.
It was a massive complex, a major terminal for the arrival and storage of the oil being burned by China’s enormous economy. Parts of the harbor were occupied by the big Dialan West Pacific Oil refinery, its squat metal storage tanks gleaming in long rows along much of the eastern arm of land that created the Gulf of Dailan.
Across that wide bay the western shores saw the city gathered in a warren of high rise concrete residential buildings that rose in massive clusters, their tops often shadowed by tall red metal cranes where new floors were being added as China continued to build its infrastructure. Ninety percent of all the large industrial cranes on earth were in the People’s Republic, and they did not sit idle. City after city was a bustling hive of energy and new construction, with some places seeing the simultaneous construction of upwards of fifty new high rise buildings as any given time. There were no more than ten to twenty new buildings of equal stature under construction in the whole of the United States, which showed how profoundly the industrial power of the world now rested on China’s broad shoulders.
South of Dialan was the Xiaopingdao Submarine base where the new Type 094 and 095 submarines were docked, along with older Ming class diesel boats that had been hand-me-downs from the Russians years ago, their old Romeo class. Even further south was Lushan harbor, the old Port Arthur that had been a bone of contention in the 1890s between China and Japan. The Tiger Tai Peninsula protecting the bay there still had old scars of war, with the ruins of fortifications dating back to the 1800s. There were also several airfields, the airbase at Tuchengzi, weapons bunkers, SAM sites and other obvious signs of military activity.
There, sitting proudly in the harbor itself, was the Liaoning, the Ex-Varyag, brother ship of the Russian carrier Kusnetsov. Its freshly painted ski-jump forward deck swept upwards in an elegant yet highly functional design. The Chinese had acquired the unfinished carrier from Ukraine for the paltry sum of only 18 million, with an additional two million for the blueprints. After haggling with the Turks for three years to get permission to tow the ship through the Bosporus Strait, the Chinese set about with loving care and considerable industry to finished the job of her construction and fitting out. The old name passed to an aging Russian cruiser now based at Vladivostok, and the Chinese christened the ship Liaoning, all 67,500 tons, now trimmed out with navy white and gray paint and festooned with colorful flags.
Being the first fleet carrier in the Chinese Navy, Laioning occupied the place of honor that any elder son would have in the family. Two newer and larger carriers had been under construction since 2012 and were rapidly being readied for t
heir trial by fire. Liaoning was now an elder brother indeed, as the first Shenyang J-15 fighter had successfully landed on its decks on the 25th of November, in the year 2012. The decks had been given a good zinc chromate primer and then covered with a durable non-skid surface. The superstructure and island had been fitted out with the new Sea Eagle search radars and electronics, including advanced phased array radar. Air defenses were added, including four Flying Leopard FL-3000N missile batteries in a big lunchbox of 24 fire and forget TY-90 SAMs, each capable of passive RF tracking and infrared guidance with a range of nine kilometers. It was, however, a last chance terminal defense weapon, just like the two Type 1030 CWIS 30mm Gatling guns that covered her rear port and starboard quarters.
The real bite from any carrier was in its air wing, and Liaoning would carry a minimum strike wing of thirty-two J-15 fighters, a Chinese knock off of the deadly Russian SU-33, their navalized version of the SU-27 Flanker. A subflight of six Z-8 helos and two new Russian K-31 AEW helos would complete her wing. In the months prior to its initial deployment, pilots and flight crews rehearsed their roles in an extensive training program that took place on the roof of the Naval Research Center at Wuhan. A complete full size mockup of the carrier’s deck and island had been built there for rigorous training.
The so called ‘threat environment’ a ship would find itself in was constantly evolving as new missiles and aircraft were deployed, and its defenses had to evolve to meet new challenges, year after year. The J-15Bs of 2021 were an upgrade from the originals, and now a proven and capable aircraft. The men who fought in the ships had also evolved. Now, nine years later, Liaoning’s original Captain Zhang Zheng had risen to the post of Admiral in charge of the entire Dialan Naval complex, overseeing all operations in the Yellow Sea Command.
Admiral Zhang Zheng was an intelligent, experienced and technically competent man. Born to a military family in 1969 he was now fifty two, and had sacrificed much for the navy life he so loved. At the academy he had pledged that he would not marry until he first became captain of a ship, and he had forsaken the lures of lucrative business opportunities to remain in the service all these many years. He had served on a frigate, guided missile destroyer, and eventually was given the great rose of the fleet when he took command of Liaoning in September of 2012.
Zhang studied abroad in the United Kingdom at the Defense Language Institute and the British Joint Services Command and Staff College. As such he was fluent in English, as were many others aboard Liaoning, which became China’s international ship for a time after its commissioning. Ninety-eight percent of the crew aboard the carrier were graduates of that same college. Now Zhang would be taking over as commander of the Dialan Naval District, though he still would hold the title of official commissar of the carrier Liaoning. It was a difficult moment when he left the ship, saluting proudly to the crew assembled on the deck in their dress whites, and struggling to hold his emotions in hand.
The next time a flotilla of surface action vessels took to the sea they would not have to wait for fighters lumbering in from coastal bases over 400 kilometers away. This time the swift, agile Shenyang J-15 Feisha ‘Flying Sharks’ would be circling overhead, waiting for prey. China’s eldest brother was going to war, but Liaoning would not sail alone.
Far to the south a second carrier was ready to put to sea at the Sanya naval base at Hainan, the new Taifeng, or Typhoon class super-carrier, China’s first of two in this class. It’s sister ship the Haifeng or Seawind was also feverishly fitting out at the Jiangnan Shipyards of Shanghai. Laid down in 2012 and 2014, these two new designs would be China first indigenous aircraft carriers, all of 72,000 tons, with an air wing of sixty-eight advanced strike fighters. Taifeng knew a challenger was coming in CVN Eisenhower, and the ship was being readied to bar the way on her maiden voyage.
The war of words at the United Nations had reached as startling and final an end as the sudden lethal descent of the ballistic missiles that fell on Naha, Okinawa. Now the gloves were off, and the next time ships and planes deployed in the region it would be with the expectation that any contact they encountered was a hostile enemy.
~ ~ ~
“So what do we do about this situation?” said Rod Leyman, White House Chief of Staff. He was meeting with Lt. Commander William Reed, a defense analyst expert for many years who had been called in to the West Wing to brief the civilian decision makers there. After the startling theater at the UN that day, secure phone lines had been jammed throughout DC, Langley and the Pentagon. “Are the Chinese blowing smoke up our ass here with this nuclear threat?”
“It was very unusual to see the military march in like that, sir, and with such a pronouncement one might easily think it was meant for public consumption.”
“Yes, just a little taste of fear to get the folks back home here all worked up. Well I must tell you that several senior officers think we ought to take this very seriously.”
“Of course, sir. Any aspect regarding potential use of nuclear weapons needs to be taken very seriously. Thank God we’ve only seen one go off in anger over all these decades.”
Leyman wasn’t quite sure what Reed meant with that, but moved on, and the Lieutenant Commander kicked himself inwardly for the slip. Yes, there had only been one—the one that put down the Mississippi in 1941, and though the United States had two bombs ready for the Japanese by late 1944, saner heads had prevailed and Japan surrendered before they had to be used. But even now, over eighty years later, few men really knew the whole story of what had happened in the Atlantic that day in early August, 1941. He made a note to watch himself, and listened to Leyman’s next question.
“There’s been a recommendation that we take down their satellites, and do it now.”
“That’s a sound preventative strategy, sir. The real high ground in modern warfare is outer space. We’ve got systems in place that can go after their birds; they have some limited capability to go after ours. But whoever strikes first is going to have a real edge. Thumbing the other guy in the eye in the first round is a tried and true tactic.”
“I’ll take that as a yes from you. Now, speaking of satellites, we got a report that the Chinese were moving some planes from inland airfields to the coast.” He handed Reed a photo from his briefing file. “Can you tell me about them?”
Reed took a long look, nodding his head as if he expected the development. “J-20s,” he said matter of factly. “It’s an advanced stealth type strike aircraft, sir.”
“Well is it as good as our fighters? The Navy is all up in a tither over this.”
“It’s a decent aircraft, sir, low-observable airframe, particularly from the forward aspect, and a good weapons suite. It’s fast, and it has the range to get out after targets well off shore—a combat radius of over 2000 kilometers. Our older fighters will have some trouble with it one-on- one. Put a Vampire out there against a Hornet and the other side may have the edge.”
“Vampire? I thought these things were called Dragons?”
“The Chinese name is Mighty Dragon, sir. We just call them Vampires, or bats for short. In some ways they’re a stealthy version of the old Russian Mig-25 Foxbat…. hence the handle.”
“Well what I want to know, Commander Reed, is whether or not these things are going to beat us.”
“I can’t tell you that for certain, sir. What I can say is this. That FA-18 Hornet we put out there may be past its prime, but it won’t be alone. We have a couple of carrier squadrons with our new F-35 Lightnings. But there’s more to all this than which plane is better. It isn’t just stealth and missiles that will decide this thing, sir. A good combat aircraft today has a long checklist. Yes, its radar signature and missiles count for a lot, but then there are things like its integrated electronics, the reliability of its radar and engines, the Electronic Warfare system it’s using, the ability to synthesize both onboard and off board sensor data—information from satellites, ground based systems and other assets like AEW or AWACS planes. Then we get to how g
ood that pilot is, the training he has and the maintenance routines that put his plane in the air that day. And how long can he stay there? That takes a well practiced and reliable air refueling capability. Wrap it all up with good hardware and software and you’ve got the whole package—the real modern aircraft worth the name when it comes to war fighting.”
“So what’s the bottom line, Mister Reed. Is that what the Chinese are going to be throwing at our carrier task forces if we send in the Eisenhower and Nimitz?”
“No sir, I don’t think so. These planes have a few things on the list, and I’ve already mentioned those: good range, speed, stealth and weapons. As for everything else on my list, I don’t think they can come anywhere near us, sir. We’ve been at this for years, decades. This new J-20 was just delivered in large numbers three years ago. We estimate they may have no more than a hundred in inventory, and this will be their first invitation to the dance. As for pilots, they’ll have some good ones in the seat, some bad ones, and some miserable ones. But every plane we send up is going to have a rip-snortin’ expert in the harness, and that’s no brag, sir. So think of these planes like darts. They’ll throw them at us, and occasionally they’ll hit something.”
“Our carriers?”
“They’ll try, but they’ll have to get through hell’s gate first, sir. I think they will most likely make high speed runs at our AEW assets, at-sea replenishment ships, command ships, the smaller Marine Amphibious carriers will be more vulnerable than our fleet carriers. But it’s never quite like that, sir. These targets aren’t sitting out there alone. We’re a highly integrated Air/Sea combat force. All those assets will have a carrier air wing up and angry for defense, sir, and if you want to know what our boys are capable of just ask Saddam or the Ayatollah.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, Mister Reed, but Saddam is dead,” Leyman said glibly.
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