The enemy missiles were aimed at the heart of the fleet, where the defense was thick and hot, but an older Type 053H3 Frigate, the Linfen, was way out on the flank as an ASW picket, and relatively isolated. Of the eight missiles sent its way, one got through to strike the ship and end its war, the only hit achieved by the massive wave of cruise missiles that had once been 152 strong.
Part VII
Retreat
Chapter 19
Admiral Sun Wei regretted the loss of that single ship, but he was inwardly pleased that no further damage had been done. Yet now his situation was becoming precarious. By 09:15, when the attack ended, he found himself 220 miles from Karachi, leaving the Gulf of Oman behind as he began to enter the Arabian Sea. In the last two hours, steaming at 30 knots, he had been unable to close with the American ships, and he knew, instinctively, that they had been using their superior speed to stay just beyond the reach of his YJ-18’s.
Look what the simple advantage of five knots of speed can do, he mused. If I had that advantage, I would already have fired my missiles, but I simply cannot close on those carriers. It will be another 12 hours before my bombers are ready again, and out here, I am straining my fighter coverage. I am so close, just 305 miles away from those carriers, but strive as I might, we will never close that last 15 miles to fire our Eagle Strike missiles. In this fight, they are simply useless….
He turned, a solemn look on his face. “The Fleet will come about and assume a heading of 040 degrees northeast.”
He would wait for the bombers.
“Gentlemen,” said Captain Holmes, addressing the bridge officers. “About ten minutes ago, the Chinese fleet turned northeast. They tried to close on us, so we were happy to invite them to follow us out into the Arabian Sea, but they wouldn’t take that bait. So now we send in the next wave to get after them. This is going to be a low-observable strike, all F-35’s and with the GBU-53. It means the strike groups will need to get inside the HQ-9 SAM range to 60 miles before they can release, so there will be no Growlers up to let them know that anything is coming. No offense to our Growler team, but the minute you fart, the Chinese can smell it.”
That got a round of laughter, but then the Captain took a more serious tone.
“Gentlemen, this war was regrettable, and from any angle you want to look at it. China and the US have had increasingly strained relations for the last several years, but frankly, it didn’t have to be that way, or come to this. The move they made into the Ryukyus was the trigger point, but that isn’t what this is all about—not here. This fight is about sea control, and access and control over the oil that travels the sea lanes in this region. If they had left it to business, that would probably have taken care of itself, but when you get Qusay Hussein running across the border into Kuwait as he did, well, that dog won’t hunt. We couldn’t leave it at that, and we won’t.
“Now… The Chinese Navy, and to some extent that of Pakistan, wants to block access to the Persian Gulf, and as long as they do, then we’ll fight to clear the way. But understand one thing, this may not end here, no matter what the outcome, and the last thing we want is to make a long term enemy of the Chinese. There’s 1.5 Billion people in China, and we’re going to have to find a way to live with them in the years ahead. We need to do that, or we’ll have to come to this dance again in another five years. If we can find the peace somewhere in that equation, all the better, because it sure as hell is something to be preferred over this business. I don’t think the men and women on their ships out there want to be here flinging fire and steel at us any more than we do, but this is what’s in front of us.
“Now here’s the situation… Unless this conflict can move to a negotiated settlement, then we are going to have to put down that fleet out there, and make a land lubber out of Admiral Sun Wei. We’ve showed him he can’t hurt us, and now we have to show him that the inverse is not true. This next attack may not sink ships, but it’s going to pull SAM’s from under their decks like there was no tomorrow. When it concludes, I will expect Sun Wei’s fleet will be very vulnerable, at which point we get after them again. I want them bottled up in Karachi, and then we’re going to hammer that port with TacToms and put it out of the game.
“Enough said, as you were.”
The Panthers were going to have to put about 300 miles behind them before they got to their release points, but they had the range. The strike was all about stealth, and the F-35 had proven itself as perhaps the most stealthy aircraft the US had. It was very difficult to see on radar, especially from the forward aspect as the planes approached their targets.
“Firebright, this is Bertha. You are cleared to Angels 50. Over.”
It was time to gain altitude for the bomb release. The Chinese fleet was dead ahead, about 80 miles out, being watched over by an AEW plane put up by Pakistan, the Y-8F-400, known to them as the Karakoram Eagle. But it did not see those F-35’s as they climbed into the empty blue sky.
“Firebright, tally ho.”
It was time to dash on the target to gain speed for the release. Every bit of that would be imparted to those glide bombs, which were completely unpowered, and had to fall 60 miles to reach their targets. So the planes would supercruise as they reached altitude. At 10:28, the final order came.
“Firebright, Bertha, Cleared hot. Over.”
Seconds later, the weapons bays had released that deadly hail of 120 bombs, the love all spread out with about 8 bombs targeting each ship. One, the Eagle God, got 16 allocated, as it was suspected of being the flagship. The Panthers got in completely undetected, released, then turned and supercruised out of there.
As soon as that strike was detected, 12 J-20’s that had been on the way out to provide air cover all switched on their excellent AESA radars and moved forward to attack. They could see the F-35’s as they high tailed it away, but could not lock on. They could also see those metal clouds of GBU-53’s, so there would soon be plenty of targets for their PL-15’s.
Now Admiral Sun Wei looked over his shoulder and saw what was coming on radar. He knew exactly what it intended to do—weaken his SAM defense, for while these bombs were too small to threaten to sink a ship with one or two hits, they would still do serious damage to ship systems, and so they had to be killed. He still had the SAM’s, and he would use them, but deep down, he had the feeling that he would have been better off to simply stay in Karachi. The song here remained the same….
He watched as the vast cloud of white enveloped his fleet, until no ship could even see another in the big formation. His lethal arrows emerged from that cloud, hunted down the incoming bombs with their radars, and one by one, they killed each and every one. His ships had just over 300 HQ-9B’s before the attack. When it was concluded, they had 82 left, and the Admiral knew that it would not be easy to replace them in Karachi.