One of the Air Force generals at the table interrupted, “-Admiral, did you say a DongFeng-5? That’s a Chinese ICBM. Did these missiles originate from China?” he asked, with obvious concern in his voice.
“Yes and no,” replied Admiral Robinson. “We have confirmation that it’s a DF-5. What we do not know is if it’s a B model or not. We have spoken with the Chinese, and they are insisting that they did not launch any missiles at the US, but have not denied giving the DongFeng-5 to the North Koreans,” he replied knowing that he had still not fully answered the question.
The President felt he needed to get a word in. “So, we have ten Chinese-made ICBMs heading towards the US, but the Chinese are telling us that they did not launch the missiles? Am I missing something?” Gates asked.
Liam followed the President’s question. “How in the world did the North Koreans obtain ten DongFeng-5 missiles if the Chinese did not give them over? Do we have a way of talking with them? We have to make some very important decisions in a few minutes and we need to know more information than we presently have.”
“We are working to get them on the hotline right now. We have spoken with the Russians, and they said they are not involved in this and are not raising the alert status of their own strategic rocket forces, as a sign of good faith. They are wanting to make sure we know they are not involved,” Robinson replied.
The President surveyed the faces around him, then looking at the Commander of NORAD, asked, “What sort of response do you think we should take? And when will our interceptors begin to take those missiles out?”
“Sir, the first missile interceptors have been launched from one of our Arleigh Burke destroyers in the Pacific. Vandenburg and Ft. Greely have also fired off their missile interceptors as well. They should start to intercept the missiles within the next five minutes,” replied Admiral Robinson. “As to a response, I believe we need to send a strong message. We need to retaliate with our own nuclear weapons. We have one B-2 loaded with twenty B61 guided nuclear bombs in the air now. These bombs are equipped with a variable yield dial, meaning they are designed to give us a yield option of 0.3 kilotons to 340 kilotons of explosive power, so we can adjust how big of a nuclear response we want. We also have an Ohio class ballistic missile submarine operating in the nearby area that can launch one of its Tridents.”
“We also have our missile silos, correct?” the President asked, a bit naïve as to how the nuclear triad worked.
“Yes, Mr. President. We still have our silos, but they will not be able to respond nearly as quickly as the assets we have in theater,” Robinson replied.
There was a brief pause as the President considered his options.
“Sir, the first set of missile interceptors will be reaching their targets shortly,” said the admiral. “… We could decide on the retaliatory targets and weapon platform after the immediate threat is neutralized.”
Where the President had been momentarily unsure of how to respond a moment before, his facial features suddenly changed, and his eyes began to burn with determination and anger. “Admiral, before the war started, I gave operational authority to General Bennet and the Commander, Pacific Forces to use nuclear weapons if the North Koreans detonated a nuclear bomb on the Korean Peninsula. Inform the two commanders they are to initiate a retaliatory strike against the North Koreans. I want them to hit the North Koreans with eight nuclear bombs. One is to hit Pyongyang; I will leave it up to them to determine what other seven targets they want to hit. Make sure they look to hit targets that will help to bring a quick close to the war, but I will leave it to them to determine which exact targets will be best,” he said as everyone around the table immediately went into action.
While the military members were placing a myriad of calls to get the ball rolling on the President’s order, the missile tracks heading towards the US continued to move steadily closer to their targets. As the group collectively watched the enemy missiles arching towards the US, their worst fear was confirmed; these DongFeng-5B missiles were definitely the recently upgraded missiles with a MIRV capability. Seven missile warheads suddenly turned into 42 independent warheads.
Admiral Robinson turned around, screaming to the others in the command center, “Launch more interceptors!”
The targeting computer began recalculating the new trajectories now that the missiles had split. Within seconds, the graphics on-screen showed the new targets. The Admiral read off the names of the cities. “San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Ft. Hood, Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Oakland, El Paso, and Fairbanks, Alaska-all of these appear to have a single warhead directed at them.”
The Admiral turned back to the group. “Mr. President, it’s likely that most of these warheads are decoys. There is no way that the North Koreans had 45 nuclear warheads in their possession in addition to the short-range missiles they just launched at South Korea.”
“Then again, the North Koreans were not supposed to have DongFeng-5B missiles either,” Gates said under his breath.
The first wave of missile interceptors fired by the Navy began to reach their targets. Of the 20 SM-6 missiles fired by the destroyer USS Gonzalez, 15 of them hit their targets. A few minutes later, the next round of interceptors began to arrive from Ft. Greely and Vandenburg. They managed to hit 27 of the remaining thirty missiles.
Of the three warheads left flying towards the States, one warhead was headed for the port of Oakland, another towards El Paso, and the third towards New York. A last-ditch barrage of missiles was fired from Vandenburg; those last interceptors would be cutting it close since the incoming warheads were now traveling at speeds approaching Mach 25 as they reentered the atmosphere and began their terminal approach. This was like hitting a bullet with a bullet.
One of the interceptors raced towards the warhead that was targeting New York City; fortune was on the side of the Americans in this case because that interceptor met its mark and collided in a spectacular display of precision guided technology. A second interceptor moved quickly to catch the warhead that was careening towards Oakland; however, Lady Luck did not smile twice. Just as the interceptor looked like it was going to impact, it sailed right past the warhead.
Less than a minute later, a miniature sun was born as that one megaton nuclear warhead detonated at approximately 5,000 feet above the Port of Oakland. In that second, it vaporized everything within the harbor as well as the entire city. The immediate fireball expanded outwards in a 0.6-mile diameter, consuming everything in its path. Buildings, ships, homes, and people just ceased to exist as the temperatures began to exceed 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The thermal radiation radius swelled quickly to 7.57 miles from the epicenter, further expanding the destruction caused by the blast. Anyone outside during the blast would suffer third degree burns across any exposed skin. The 5-psi overpressure from the air blast was enough to destroy most structures located within 4.37 miles of the epicenter.
As the initial blast wave and flames swelled out from the epicenter, the secondary blast effect of 1.5-psi continued to as far as 10.2 miles, which was still strong enough to blow out the windows of nearly every home, office, and car in the entire city of San Francisco, causing tens of thousands of injuries from flying glass and debris. The tidal wave of water thrown out from the epicenter of the bomb created a nearly 50-foot swell that quickly hit downtown San Francisco and the surrounding coastal areas of the Bay Area. The force of the water’s surge was then quickly followed by an enormous pull as the sea tried to replace the inordinate amount of sea water that had just been vaporized. Despite the recent earthquake retrofitting, the extraordinary rip tide caused by the bomb was enough to damage one of the main piers on the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The northern side of the bridge leaned over towards the ocean until the force of gravity caused that portion of the structure to collapse into the sea below.