As the Captain left his ready room to look over the bridge crew, he got some unwelcome news.
“Captain, sir, I have bogies due north, range 220 miles—another group bearing zero-four-five degrees northeast, but they appear to be orbiting. Sir… Identifying J-20’s and they are radiating, now just 120 miles out.”
“Well I’ll be…” said Holmes, reaching up to adjust his gold rimmed glasses. “Officer of the Watch, send to the Air Boss—launch Ready CAP. Signal all ships—Battle Stations.”
At that moment, he could see the sky to the north brighten with the fiery tails of friendly missile fire. The Roosevelt group was already locking on and sending those freshly loaded SM-6’s out to greet the interlopers.
It wasn’t long before the general scope of the attack was surmised. The radars reported high altitude ballistic missiles inbound, and now they were able to identify at least 18 JH-7 attack planes in the bogie stream, and cruise missiles coming off their wings. It was all hands on deck, the old naval war cry that no longer really applied when a battle station was a comfortable chair in front of a computer screen with a headset on. But that didn’t make things any less hectic, or less tense. Everyone knew that missiles were coming for them, and even as SM-3’s started surging up into the darkness like bats out of hell, there was always that off chance that a leaker would get through, its aim true, and chaos could reign supreme.
The first group of two ballistic Vampires were knocked down by the now proven and reliable SM-3’s, but behind them the radars had identified eight more inbound, screaming at over 6000 knots and just 80 miles away. At that speed they would reach their assigned targets in less than one minute… but none would. Sixteen SM-3’s locked on like fiery darts and smashed every last one of the DF-21’s, a weapon that had not lived up to the threat it seemed to pose before the war. Now it would be down to the slower birds out there. The YJ-12’s off those J-7s seemed to plod at 1450 knots, and the YJ-100s were much slower yet.
The fire control computers quickly targeted the faster missiles with SM-6, and a stream of those long lance SAM’s were already in the air after them. In the midst of this raging missile fire from the escorts, Roosevelt was sending its ready F-35’s off the deck in a hot rush, ten planes in all. The rest were rigged for strike when this was over, but defense was the first order of business on that dark morning.
Admiral Sun Wei had fired 90 of his 120 ship mounted YJ-100’s, and the bombers put 48 more in the air. So there would be 138 Vampires on the prowl, and another 21 YJ-12’s were still in the air. The Pakistani Air Force had sent up a dozen of their J-17 Thunder strike planes carrying the Wrecker cruise missile, but they would not have the range to get to a release point. So they were circling with four big H-6 tankers, which could refuel two planes at a time, trying to build up enough reserve fuel to enable them to continue on to the attack. It took them so long that their mission was eventually scrubbed and they all returned to base.
In the meantime, it was the lethality and range of the US SM-6 that was now defeating the first YJ-12 strike, while also chasing off any J-20’s that were identified. Yet an hour after the attack began, the missile count for SM-6 was zero on both Carrier Strike Groups. It had taken six hours to load those big missiles, and less than six minutes to fire each and every one. Even so, neither Captain was worried, because each group had a hard inner circle of defense manned by legions of the Evolved Sea Sparrows, and there were also fifteen F-35’s out there falling on the enemy missiles like hawks.
At 03:00, the nearest Vampire to the Roosevelt group was 60 miles out, and leading in 70 more YJ-100’s behind it on various attack vectors. That was all that survived against the ranged defense of SM-6 and the fighters, which killed 111 Vampires. Seventeen minutes later, the ESSM’s had killed all the rest….
The Navy’s concept of a network-centric defense, with concentric circles around its valuable carriers, once again proved to be near invulnerable in actual combat. No Vampire even made it to the innermost defensive circle where short range RIM-116 missiles and Phalanx guns or lasers might be used.
The combination of SM-6 at range, and the huge numbers of Quad packed ESSM’s (4 to every cell), provided the most potent missile defense on the planet. Theoretically, if every one of its 98 VLS cells were used, a single US destroyer could carry 392 ESSM’s. This was, of course, a loadout that was never used, but that was how powerful a ship could be made for defensive purposes if one had a mind to do so, and the missiles. 2000 ESSM’s had been delivered to the Navy by 2012. That number doubled by 2020, and then, with tensions rising and the Navy gearing up for possible conflict, the inventory doubled again by 2025 to more than 8000 before the war broke out. So wartime loadouts ranged from 60 to 120 missiles on each destroyer. Thus far, it was a defense that had not been penetrated.
Sun Wei had shaken his fist at his enemy, but he could not strike him. He was now sitting with only about 45 more missiles that could reach the American carriers, and little hope that a strike that small could break through. But in the confusion of the fighting, the range had slowly decreased, and he now found his fleet about 315 miles from the nearest American carrier. He gave a general fleet order ay 03:26—all ahead flank!
“Mister Connors, watch your range circles. How close is their main body now?”
“Sir, I read them at 315 nautical miles.”
“Well, that puts them just 25 miles from getting those YJ-18’s into the fight. Exercise Standing Order One. Signal all ships that Independence will come to course 300 southwest and run at 35 knots until we open that range to 350 miles.”
“Aye sir, I’ll sent that immediately.”
Standing Order One was a life saver that would keep the enemy at bay, and all but neuter their naval strike power now. At the same time, the US would finalize its own air strike planning, but by prearranged agreement, the destroyers would lead that attack with maritime Tomahawks at dawn.
That strike would see eight missiles allocated from all escorting ships in the two Carrier Strike Group’s, a total of 80 Tomahawks. It would keep the enemy busy while the carriers spotted strike planes and finalized the attack plan. They were going to lead with the LRASM. The forward fighter defense would be provided by 18 F-35’s, and then a mix of Super Tomcats off the Roosevelt and Avengers off the Independence would go up for a quick release of the LRASM to augment the cruise missile strike. That would be evaluated before a decision was made on ordnance requiring a closer approach to the enemy fleet.
So it was a standoff attack, a combination of Tomahawks and LRASM’s to start the day on the 19th at about 08:30. With the Avengers each carrying four missiles, and the six Toms two each that sent 72 LRASM’s out on the heels of the 80 Tomahawks, the first beginning to arrive near targets at 08:50.
The Chinese fleet was like an ancient armored warrior, slashing its way forward through the successive streams of enemy arrows with the bright flashing sword of the HQ-9B. As in many previous engagements, the Tomahawks did not prove difficult to find, track, and kill, but the LRASM was just a little more slippery. Those lances got inside 15 miles, creeping up low and slow, until they finally appeared on Chinese radars in one great mass. Their destroyers reacted quickly, weapons free and firing at will with a rain of SAM’s.