A salvo of 32 YJ-18’s was fired off fired at Wells’ Task Group, and 32 more at the AUSMTG. Prominent targets included Ark Royal and Canberra, and a little before 06:00 as the sky was brightening with the dawn the claxons and alarms sounded all through the fleet.
Wells knew what was coming.
“Freddie,” he said. “Now we see is anything we did with those destroyers matters. The fleet will stand to. See what we have left to launch, will you?”
“Sir!” said Sir Frederick, and turned to the business at hand.
* * *
It was DDG Hobart that was again the first ship in the fleet to track and attack an incoming Vampires, now using its ESSM. It would get four of eight missiles before they started to sprint, but now the last four were burning the fire and streaking in like lightning. They raced into the heart of the amphibious group, and found their targets, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad. These two renovated LST’s had valuable armor aboard, but little in the way of the defense. At only 8500 tons, the sheer impact of a missile moving at 1900 knots was tremendous, and both ships were struck fatal blows.
The defense had been good, but just not good enough, and the YJ-18 continued its deadly rampage where British ships were concerned. In the north, Wells gritted his teeth again when he saw all of nine SAM’s out after one of those demons, none fast enough to catch it, and then the old Type 42 Destroyer Manchester exploded with terrible fire. The Sampson radars were warning that another wave was coming in, now about 160 miles out.
“Admiral, we’ll have four F-35’s ready in 30 minutes, but nothing else can fly. Victorious had for fighters armed for escort in Seabat Flight, and they just took off.”
Those four planes would make all the difference. The four F-35’s were carrying 16 Meteors, and those got a dozen enemy missiles before they could sprint, thinning the herd enough to take any real saturation out of that second wave. With DDG Hobart again prominent in the defense, and the newly arrived DDG Lightning, the few missiles that headed their way were killed before they could start that terrible rush to their targets. No further hits were scored. As Saber Flight turned for home, Sir Frederick came to the flag bridge with news.
“We’ve lost the two LST’s,” he said grimly, “and Manchester went down. The boats are out getting the survivors to safety. And one more thing—the Chinese have broken off their pursuit, they just came about and turned on a heading of 265.”
“Aden,” said Wells. “They’re turning for Aden.”
“Seems that way, sir. Could be that they are low on missiles. CIC says they had tracks on over 80 SSM’s in those three attacks. Eight ships can’t be carrying too awful much more than that.”
“Right,” said Wells. “Freddie, how soon before we have our Spearmen ready again?”
Captain Gill looked at his watch. “Whalesign will have half its squadron ready in two hours, the rest by 11:00. Skybolt on the Victorious has seven planes armed and ready on the flight deck right now, but we’ve no escorts for another two hours.”
“We won’t need them,” said Wells definitively. “Come to 270 due west. It’s time we avenged our two lost knights.”
“And the Manchester, sir, God rest her soul.”
“He very well may grant that old ship its well-deserved rest, but they’ll be no rest for the Chinese that sunk her—not today. We’re back in the hunt.”
* * *
With Ras Karma secured on Socotra Island, Wells was now turning the game about on the Chinese. They had spent their wrath, turning for Aden because they had just eight YJ-18’s remaining and eight more YJ-12’s with a 215 mile range. They would not be able to engage again with any hope of getting hits with that, and so Aden was their only play. That port was 350 miles to the west now, which was over 11 hours at 30 knots. They had the fuel, and so Captain Jiang Li on the Nanchang would use it. His mission now was to rearm safely in Aden, and hopefully before the British could put in a strike that would leave him SAM depleted and vulnerable to losses.
But that wasn’t going to happen, he knew. The British have the time, and they have the planes. I have but a single J-20 left at Riyan airfield, and only two at Aden. Djibouti has nothing at all, but there are six J-10’s at Massawa on the Red Sea, and six JH-7A’s with cruise missiles. Beyond that, our only remaining air strength here is at Sana , with 15 J-10’s. I must order those to transfer to Aden or Riyan, but even so, they will be no match for the British F-35’s.
One moment I am the hunter, chasing the British east. Now I am the prey, and oh yes, they will be coming for me, and very soon….
Part II
Gulf of Aden
“Birds and beasts when brought to bay will use their claws and teeth.”
― Chen Hao
Chapter 4
The Balrogs were up again off the old Ark Royal, the flight taking its name from a demonic creature in British author J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings. Their mission was to get out ahead of the planned strike waves and nail down the position of the Chinese ships. Admiral Wells was going to order the strike planes up as they came ready, as long as the deliverable ordnance count was at least 50. This would send Skybolt flight off the Victorious, as those seven planes had been ready on deck for some time, and they could begin the attack with 56 SPEAR’s.
Balrog did its job, removing any uncertainty in the enemy positions. They reported a flight of Chinese J-10’s flying cover about 50 miles from the enemy task force, and as Skybolt-7 approached its release point, the two Balrogs were ordered to engage the enemy CAP.
The six J-10’s had been orbiting in EMCON, until a missile warning was flashed and one of their planes suddenly exploded. Seeing absolutely nothing on their radars, but realizing they were being stalked by enemy fighters, was a chilling feeling for the Chinese pilots. They had come all the way down from Sana Airfield in northwest Yemen, intending to complete their CAP patrol and then transfer to Riyan airfield on the coast. With just ten minutes to BINGO fuel state, they bugged out and turned for home.
At this same time the Americans were getting in on the act, doing a shell game with a few flights of planes that had come up from Mogadishu. Four Advanced Eagles were escorting six Super Toms carrying a dozen LRASM’s and they were to strike and then transfer to Berbera airfield in the north to be in position to support the battle in the Gulf of Aden. They were the first to launch, targeting the lead ships in the Chinese Task Force, which included two frigates with the flagship Nanchang.
Now behind the enemy TF, the British would launch their first saturation attack with those 56 SPEAR’s. The attack couldn’t have been timed better.
“Merlin, Skybolt in position, over.”
“Roger Skybolt, cleared hot and loiter. Merlin over.”
The Merlin strike controller wanted to keep a good radar lock on the targets as the spears flew to their targets. As the planes released, the Chinese destroyers finally saw them on radar, about 80 miles out, but their tracks were simply too imprecise to engage them. They knew immediately that they were now under attack, and alarms sounded throughout the TF. Just as they saw the radar images of the SPEAR’s, to the east, another group of Vampires appeared to the south. They were going to be caught in a crossfire.
Wells was listening on the radio, and turned to Captain Gill. “Sir Frederick,” he said with a little more formality. “Launch Whalesign and get them headed west.” That was to be his knockout punch, after these initial strikes by Skybolt and the Americans depleted the enemy SAM defenses.
The HQ-9’s were already streaking out to challenge the US missiles, getting four of the twelve. The rest were also easily defeated as they came closer, but now the 56 SPEAR’s were drawing near, just 10 miles out. The morning erupted with a manmade storm of white smoke and flashing yellow explosions as the lead Vampire pushed inside the two kilometer mark.
Only four targets had been selected, and DDG Jiyuan was the first to be hit, taking damage to one VLS bay, a torpedo mount and two radars. DDG Yangwei took the next hit, seei
ng an HQ-10 system destroyed, with other lighter damage. The next SPEAR hit DDG Yuyuan forward and low, near the Bull Nose sonar, and put damage on it there. But this ship would then take three more hits in rapid succession, knocking out a torpedo mount, 30mm gun and one of her two VLS Bays. All three ships were good Type 052D Class destroyers, and while none would be sunk by the light ordnance, all would be seriously hampered. All the rest of the SPEAR’s were shot down.
The reports on the damage were radioed to Nanchang, along with remaining SAM counts. In killing 50 of 56 SPEAR’S and all twelve LRASM’s, all HQ-9’s in the task force were depleted, and half the short range HQ-10’s. One of the frigates had three HQ-16’s left, the only missiles that might engage beyond the five mile range mark now.
Captain Jiang Li knew he was in serious trouble, and sent an encrypted message to Admiral Sun Wei advising him of their predicament and requesting air cover. Everything the Chinese had ready would now scramble and launch, the six J-10’s at Al Anad AFB north of Aden, AEW planes, and three J-20’s. Even as they took off, they fell into a trap.
The American fighters at Berbera AFB in Somalia were on the prowl, an F-24 Hellcat and a pair of F-22 Raptors. When they saw planes rising from Aden and Al Anad, they moved in to engage. Four J-10’s had been waiting to land, low on fuel, and they were easy kills for the new long range Phoenix II missile on the Hellcats. Another two J-10s and a single J-20 were killed, then the US planes vanished like ghosts, returning to Berbera.
These losses had thinned the Chinese air cover to eight planes, six of them J-10’s and a pair of J-20’s. As the Whalesign strike flight reached its release point at 11:30, the Chinese saw them and moved to attack, but each of the F-35’s also had a pair of Meteors, so they could defend themselves. A flurry of these went out to try and force the Chinese fighters to go defensive, and then the flight leader ordered immediate release on assigned targets.
“Cleared hot, hot, hot!”
Every one of the Chinese ships was assigned one string of eight SPEAR’s, and for the flagship, there were 16 assigned. This put 72 missiles in the air, small, with just that 8Kg warhead, but their targets only had the combined defense of 43 SAM’s against them. It was to be the coup de gras.
The release went off without a hitch, but the fighters had no time to keep a steady radar fix on the targets. As soon as they released, the nine F-35’s peeled off to duel with the enemy fighters. All six J-10’s were destroyed, but a PL-15 caught one F-35. Some of that fighting was in close, but the British F-35B had no equivalent of the US Sidewinder as a short range weapon for encounters within visual range. Down to just one Meteor, Whalesign turned for home, going to full speed at 920 knots. Behind them, one angry lone J-20 was pursuing in a rage at 1000 knots. The pilot was brave, but stupid, as he himself had no more missiles, only his 30mm guns. After a brief pursuit, he came to his senses, broke off, and turned for home.
As the Chinese ships picked up the cloud of incoming Vampires, they wheeled into position to defend. Balrog flight painted the targets, but saw that many of the missile strings weren’t tracking true. The release had been too hasty, the engagement with enemy fighters forcing the firing planes to break off into a fight just seconds later, so the missiles did not get good guidance data from the firing planes. In spite of that, DDG Kaifeng took many hits, and DDG Yuyuan was struck again twice, as was frigate Yueyang. FFG Huangang took five hits and was heavily damaged. It would be the only ship actually sunk by the SPEAR’s as several hits low on the waterline caused enough flooding to capsize the ship 30 minutes later. Only the flagship was unscathed. Mercifully, about 15 of the SPEAR’s sailed right over the Chinese formation, and off into the blue, finding no targets.
When it was over, the blow was nowhere near the killing punch that Admiral Wells had planned. Yes, his enemy was beaten, and running for the corner, but still on his feet. They were still over 200 miles from the safety of Aden, so their travails were far from over at that moment. Five Super Toms and five Advanced Eagles were taking off from Berbera AFB, and heading towards the Chinese ships. This time, the Tomcats were carrying Slammers, intent on stealing the show from the British and putting the heavier warheads on the enemy.
The Super Toms flew up the coast of Somalia, then turned out to sea. The Eagles were already out there flying cover. By noon they were vectoring in on the enemy ships.
“Tomboy, Tomboy, cleared hot on designated targets.”
Minutes later, Captain Jiang Li saw the Vampires on radar. His ships had 16 HQ-10’s, but otherwise, it was going to be guns, jammers and chaff as his only defense.
The first Slammer found destroyer Kaifeng with its 360KG warhead, as much sheer weight as 45 SPEAR’s combined, and it simply blew the ship sky high. There were only ten Slammers fired, and that was the only one that found and killed its target. Captain Jiang Li’s ships were leading a charmed life, still running west for Aden, some leaving trails of smoke behind them as the crews fought small fires. All but one had survived this fourth attack. The fifth would come from something unseen.
* * *
After feasting on the Chinese replenishment ships in the wake of Admiral Sun Wei’s retreat to Karachi earlier, Captain James Wade of USS Seatiger had turned southwest to see what he could find in the Gulf of Aden. He had four confirmed kills under his belt, but only one of them was a real warship, and he was looking to sink his tiger’s teeth into something more. The boat had been running parallel to the Chinese formation at very high speed for some time, slowly angling to close on them. Getting within eight miles undetected, the stealthy sub sent out three torpedoes at the heart of the leading segment of the enemy task force, and that started the wild stampeded south, away from his attack.
All three torpedoes were going to find hulls, with the older Type 052C Class DDG Haikou taking the worst hit and capsizing within minutes. Type 052D destroyer Jiyuan had major flooding, and her speed fell off to nothing. Her sister ship Yangwei also took a blow with a fire below decks, though her flooding was quickly controlled.
Captain Jiang Li had now seen each and every ship under his command damaged or sunk, except his flagship, Nanchang, which now had but three HQ-10 missiles left for defense. That was a death sentence as it was, now this—a stealthy enemy submarine. He reluctantly radioed Karachi with an encrypted message:
THIS TASK FORCE SUSTAINED HEAVY DAMAGE FROM PERSISTENT ENEMY AIR STRIKES. AIR SUPPORT INEFFECTIVE. UNDER SUB ATTACK. NANCHANG STILL FIGHTING, YET PROSPECTS FOR REACHING ADEN DIMINISH.
The Captain ordered a Yu-7 rocket torpedo fired at the suspected location of the sub, and that had prompted Captain Wade to dive deep and go to 35 knots. That lance was evaded, but sonar then reported a second torpedo in the water, and very close. It was Nanchang, angrily seeking revenge for the dastardly attack.
Both its helicopters were up, and it put a third YU-7 ASROC in the air at 16:10. That weapon had a 30 mile flight range, but once in the water it had a very short run, just two miles in typical use or four miles max before it ran out of energy. So it had to have a very precise location to get a kill, and it didn’t. The speedy Seawolf Class sub could turn and run at high speed, making it very difficult for the YU-7 to catch it unless the shot was nearly dead on when the torpedo hit the water.
The two Z-9 helos fluttered out like furious hornets, low on the water. They hovered to use dipping sonar, as the Chinese did not have sonobuoys on that class, so the need to stop, hover, and dip made it very difficult to get a fix on the Goblin. If it had been creeping, trying to escape using stealth, the helicopters might have found it. But in this situation, Captain Wade knew he had but one friend—speed. He was as deep as possible, running all ahead flank, but his sub was so quiet that there was no cavitation.
That said, the Chinese Captain had a good enough fix on the sub to keep lobbing YU-7 ASROCs, one after another. This made for a harrowing evasion by the Seatiger.
“Dive!” said Wade. “Make your depth 1400 feet.”
“Diving to 1400, sir, ay
e.”
“Come right 15 degrees rudder. Set course 060.”
The Captain steered his boat on that heading until sonar warned that yet another torpedo was in the water, and very close. So the Chinese knew where he was, but by God, he was going to be one slippery fish. He turned again to 090, maintaining speed at 35 knots. The YU-7 circled, knowing its prey was close but not able to find it. And so it went, as all eight ASROC torpedoes on the Nanchang eventually plopped into the water, but not one would land close enough to get a target lock on the speedy US sub.
The helicopters moved to the attack, but could not refine the sub’s location to a point where they could use their own torpedoes. Now over 30 miles north of Nanchang, Seatiger had raced beyond the range of those ASROCs, the last landing too far to the south to have any chance in the hunt.
The Tiger then slipped away east, went to a creep at five knots, and vanished. There was no sign of it on Chinese sonars by 18:00. Wade looked at his Chief of the Watch.
“That was brisk,” he said. “Stand down from battle stations.”
“Aye sir, standing down.”
“Right ten degrees rudder and set course to 100.”
“Sir aye, ten degrees right to 100.”
“Carry on….”
It had been very close, Wade knew. Always cool under fire, he never gave an inkling that he was worried, and seeing his rock solid calm, the crew was fast, efficient, and focused. They knew the skipper was running the show, and did their jobs with unremitting confidence.
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