Or would it? The admiral thought of the USS Stark, an American frigate “accidentally” hit by an Iraqi French-made Exocet missile in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war. Or the USS Liberty, an American spy ship attacked by Israel in the 1967 war. In both cases, the U.S. did not respond militarily.
The thought of taking down four modern American ships was too much to resist. But, what would Beijing say? The American ships were in the Strait against the express warning of the Government of the PRC. They can’t say we didn’t warn them, can they?
The admiral gave the go ahead for a full-scale attack. They would target every naval and ROC commercial vessel in the Strait as planned. He was careful not to specify that by “naval” he meant the American naval forces too. He knew his staff well and they knew him well. He didn’t have to leave a paper trail — they understood his intent.
The Admiral smiled to himself. It would be a fine thing to give the Americans a taste of their own medicine after the brazen American attack on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.
He mentally tallied up his targets. His list began with Americans:
USS Belleau Wood, LHA 3, displacement: 39,400 tons
USS Dubuque, LPD 8, displacement: 17,000 tons
USS Germantown, LSD 42, displacement: 15,939 tons
USS Curtis Wilbur, DDG 54, displacement: 8,300 tons
It was 0817 hours local time. On the Chinese coast, 150 miles to the west four minutes and fifteen seconds before, the first wave of C-301 missiles were launched. The missiles leapt off their launch rails and accelerated rapidly to Mach 1.8. As the four solid rocket motors fell away, two ramjets kicked in and took the speed to Mach 2.0. The ROC ships in and around Quemoy Island were already on fire or sinking. The same fate attended to those ships near Matsu Island. The PLAN admiral had designated 30 missiles for the box containing the American ships. He ordered another 12 sent beyond the Americans to attack the three ROC Navy ships further to the east. It would all look so perfectly accidental. What could the Americans claim? If they said that the Chinese targeted them on purpose, it would mean a war that the Americans were neither materially, nor mentally prepared to wage. If the Americans backed down, the loss of face would cause their immediate expulsion from Asia — or at least their complete irrelevance.
On board the Curtis Wilbur, DDG-54, the crews were struggling mightily to get the Aegis phased array radar system back on line. The shock wave of electro-magnetic energy had overwhelmed the super sensitive radar system. It was designed to be electronically hard, but there was only so much hardening possible. Fortunately, the surface-to-air Standard Missiles had been protected within their launch canisters, but, without radar to provide warning and guidance and without a computer to calculate and control, the missiles were next to worthless. One of the Phalanx close-in weapon systems held some hope of being repaired. The little white protective system, shaped like half of a medicine capsule, had a radar under the domed part and a 20mm Gatling gun at the bottom. The aft CIWS was partially shielded from the worst effects of the pulse by the ship’s superstructure. It sustained minimal damage. Repair crews were frantically performing diagnostics on it while stringing a new power line up to it to replace the burnt-out internal wiring.
The commodore of Amphibious Squadron 11, Captain Bright, reluctantly gave his approval to Colonel Flint’s plan. He didn’t like the idea of the Marines preparing to jump ship, but he really couldn’t blame them.
On the well deck of the Germantown four LCACs screamed to life, their jet turbines lifting them off the water of the flooded well deck and into the open ocean. Each LCAC carried one M1A1 Abrams tank. On the Belleau Wood’s smaller well deck a single LCAC roared to life. It held four LAVs and 24 Marines.
While none of the ships had a functioning radio, they all still had Morse signal-lamps. With this primitive, but reliable communications method, Captain Bright marshaled his crippled fleet. If his signal-lamps failed, he could send his commands with semaphores or flying pennants. He thanked God the Navy had 225-year-old traditions unencumbered by progress. He ordered the four ships to draw closer together (thankfully, they all still had full power to their shafts) to enhance any protection the single CIWS on the Curtis Wilbur might provide as soon as it got back on line.
The first missiles came like a sudden thunderstorm out of the west. Piercing sonic booms raked the U.S. ships as five missiles headed overhead to strike unseen targets to the east.
Two seconds later a seaman performing lookout duties on board the USS Germantown picked himself off the deck and looked into the distance with his binoculars. He saw four orange dots low on the horizon. They suddenly dipped and for a moment the orange dots looked like small candle flames. He screamed over the hurriedly repaired intercom, “Missiles inbound! Four missiles inbound!”
Half a second later a cloud of aluminum chaff strips ejected from the rear of the ship, attempting to decoy the missiles off. Normally, with a radar giving plenty of warning, the chaff would be fired much sooner. With only visual detection, the Mk 36 Super Rapid-Blooming Off Board Chaff System (SRBOC) was fired when the missiles were only a mile off.
One missile was decoyed, flying 50 feet off the stern before exploding in the sea. The other three dove into the ship, their 800 lb. semi-armor piercing warheads used a delayed impact fuse. One missile hit at the waterline and penetrated two decks below. The fuse failed on impact and the warhead simply lodged in the ship. The other two missiles punched their way in aft and exploded in the well deck in open air, just above where the four LCACs were resting only seconds before. The well deck’s flooding mechanism and stern door were a shambles but otherwise, the Germantown was still in good condition.
700 yards away to the north the crew of the USS Dubuque heard the sonic booms and fired a round of chaff. This was fortunate as six missiles were homing in on the ship. The extra 2.5 seconds of reaction time added another 88 feet of distance between the chaff cloud and the ship. The Mk 36 chaff system claimed two missiles. Within three seconds the other four missiles dove into the ship from 100 feet up, each impacting just ten to 20 feet above the water line, then detonating deep within the ship. The blasts tore through the hull. Water poured into the wounded port side. The ship was listing 35 degrees within a half-minute.
The Dubuque was mortally wounded. Her captain, Commander Peggy Brown, lay dying in her CIC — the first American female ship captain to die in combat. Her last, desperate thoughts were of her two sons who would now grow up without their mother.
The USS Belleau Wood presented the largest and most lucrative target for the missiles. Eight missiles streaked towards the 820-foot ship. They dove to just under 100 feet above the ocean and began their active radar sweep. The Mk 36 chaff system’s wiring had been burnt through and wasn’t repaired yet. Both Phalanx systems were still off line.
Some 600 yards to the north of the Belleau Wood, the USS Curtis Wilbur’s crew had helplessly watched as one of ships it was to protect was struck, then two. The repair crew on the aft CIWS replaced the last burnt out black box and restored power. On automatic search mode, the CIWS scanned the skies for the fast Doppler shift of an incoming missile. It found its first target — brrrrapp, brrrapp — hundreds of 20mm rounds cracked down range to intercept the missiles. The CIWS is an excellent defense of last resort for a ship under attack, especially if the missile is coming directly at the ship. However, for an oblique defense, the system is less than optimal. The CIWS downed two of the eight missiles heading for the Belleau Wood, then the system picked up two missiles bound for the Curtis Wilbur itself and turned to face the new threats.