The last nine Mig-29’s took off from Vikrant in three flights of three planes each, and it was not long before they were engaging with their AA-12 Adders. For all its bravado, the Pakistani attack was going bust. The enemy fleet, when finally located, was much farther away than they thought, and all the JF-17 Thunders went bingo after the Adder attack, and did not have the fuel to carry on. Only two of those missiles could be fired. Four Mirage F-1’s slipped through the CAP defense at 300 feet with their Raptor Glide bombs, and delivered four of those. Five remaining Mirage-5’s each got off an Exocet, and five more Mirage III’s delivered their bombs too, but that was the strike.
Against those 16 Vampires, India had 22 ships out there, and they had good Russian built SAM’s, (including the SA-N-12 Grizzly) that were more than capable of defeating that jab. The grand air strike out for vengeance had become pathetic, and all the Vampires were shot down with little difficulty. When the smoke settled, the score in this little duel would be logged 9-0, a decisive Indian victory. Having made their case in the most direct way possible, the Indian Fleet now turned back for Mumbai.
Now the professionals when it came to naval strike operations were stepping up to bat, and the Independence began to send its strike planes aloft. All 18 Avengers would take off with a mix of Slammers, LRASM, and the GBU-53. They would be joined by nine more F-35’s carrying those same small diameter bombs, and six escorts, just in case.
The six escort F-35’s surged ahead at 740 knots and then went to active radars to nail down the location of the Chinese fleet. Once found, the data was relayed to all the strike planes, and the LRASM’s were in the air minutes later. The Slammers followed soon after. All this time, the only plane that was seen on Chinese radars was the Hawkeye overlooking the event. They did not even know the strike was underway. It was a naval air strike capability an order of magnitude beyond anything else on the sea, and the only defense against it would have had to come from a robust screen of stealth fighters like the J-20, but none were there.
Four Avengers got in to their 60 mile release point and each would put 16 GBU-53 bombs in the air against the Chinese Seafire DDG screen, intending to saturate that group, as yet unfought. Keeping that group hot would try and prevent them from defending the main body, where most of the other ordnance had been targeted. The DDG screen was still very effective, able to defend itself while also getting after several groups of Slammers. But now a storm of steel was headed for the main body, and the screen had expended all its medium range HQ-16’s. It was down to the HQ-10’s, guns, and chaff, and for a good mass of reasonably stealthy weapons that could not be engaged until they were just five miles out, that spelled disaster.
Admiral Sun Wei still had 100 HQ-10’s left on his own ships, and the life of his mission, ships, and men now depended on those missiles…. But there were 87 Vampires on the radar screens….
Aboard Dragon God, Sun Wei instinctively braced himself for what he knew was about to happen. He had bravely positioned Longshen on the starboard flank of his formation, and watched as the darkness was lit by the tails of missiles being fired from all his ships.
There came a flash of light and the rumble of thunder, and he looked to see DDG Taiyuan badly hit by an American LRASM. In came a cloud of GBU-53’s with at least eight targeted to every ship. At the tail end of the formation, destroyer Lanzhou erupted with fire, and then her magazine blew up with all remaining missiles in the VLS bay, including eight YJ-18’s. Yingshen, the Eagle God, had systems damage from the GBU’s but no fire.
He felt Longshen shudder, then an explosion broiled up on the aft helo deck where a Z-9 had been hit and destroyed. A succession of four rapid punches hit the Dragon God, ripping through her superstructure and exploding inside the ship. He could smell the smoke, and knew he had a bad fire with those hits.
Then it was over. A stony silence settled over the sea, and the roiling smoke from all that missile fire and the explosions was a ghastly ocher hue. One minute he had his entire fleet intact, straining south in the darkness. Now two ships were sinking, and two more burning.
“Admiral,” came the voice of the ship’s Captain. “The engineers report heavy damage. We can make only nine knots, and have damage to the torpedoes, VLS Bays, hangar deck, and a very bad fire. You must transfer your flag immediately. I will carry on here. The Flying Dragon was not hit. I can have the men get a launch ready at once.
The Admiral gave him a dull eyed look. “Feilong reported SAM depletion some time ago. That is why it was moved to the interior of the formation.”
“But sir, it still has all its Gatling guns in good working order, and lasers. The engineers here report we now have only one gun operational.”
“You think those Gatling guns re going to stop the next American attack? No, Captain, I will stay right where I am. If this ship sinks, and I survive, then you may see me to another vessel. Yet I have little hope of that. If the Americans have any Tomahawks left, they will be on us within the hour.”
Yes… They would.
Captain Hap Turner got the message from Independence requesting the follow up SSM strike, and he still had 56 Maritime Tomahawks. They had good targeting data being relayed by the escort of F-35’s, and so they would not let this opportunity pass. Their enemy was finally cornered, on the ropes, and it was time for the heavy punches to go for the knockout.
SAG New Jersey was 375 miles southwest of the enemy fleet, and put 40 missiles out at about 01:30 on the 22nd of January. Sun Wei had tried to reorganize his remaining ships, pulling in the Seafire DDGs that still had missiles to form a good picket line defense off his starboard side. The alarms rang again. His prediction had come true.
Brave Taizhou was screening the center of the fleet, firing all its last HQ-10’s and then going to guns. One Tomahawk got through, pounding into Longshen, and the Dragon God groaned in agony, and the Admiral braced himself to keep from falling with that impact. The only other ship hit was DDG Haihuo, another of the pickets. So now, with over 90% of his systems down, the Captain pleaded with the Admiral to abandon ship.
Heavy hearted, and unwilling to leave his men, the Admiral finally relented, and Feilong came alongside to receive him. It was a cold, bitter end, but Sun Wei knew he had other ships and men to still look after, still in the fight, and he could not be so selfish as to abandon them. The call of duty, his disdain for fear, and his sense of honor would keep him in the fight with them, and he made the transfer to the Flying Dragon in the next twenty minutes.
The Dragon God sank ten minutes later, and he would never see that Captain of that ship again.
Part X
Last Dance
“Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.”
Chapter 28
China had started the war with 60 Type 052 or 055 Class destroyers, ten more than the US had at that time. Now, 37 of those Chinese destroyers were at the bottom of the world’s many oceans, along with three carriers and many more frigates and submarines. While the Chinese Navy had sunk 32 ships in their battles with the Royal Navy and Singapore, the USN had only seen Kentucky, Halsey and Grant damaged, and the single DDG Sherman sunk, with two more submarines. It was a lopsided score that spelled only one thing—victory—and the Chinese Navy was now fighting to simply muster enough force to be able to defend its littoral seas.