“Why, you sly devil,” Cheshire said, turning and grinning at her OSO over her shoulder.
“I believe you’re right, Muck,” Elliott said. “The PLAN is attacking us!”
“The signal thresholds are too low,” Vikram said, still confused. “Call up my sigma-echo screen and look for yourselves. They can’t possibly have a lock. ”
“I say we’re an item of interest, and we’re allowed to use all weapons to defend ourselves,” McLanahan said emphatically. “We need to shut down those radars. Stand by for bomb bay missile launch, crew, twelve Rainbows.” McLanahan designated the targets for the anti-radar cruise missiles: the carrier, the northern destroyer, and four of the seven guided- missile patrol boats that were transmitting anti-ship missile-targeting radar energy. “Doors coming open, crew.” He hit the command button and spoke: “Launch commit Rainbow missiles.”
WARNING, LAUNCH COMMIT TWELVE BOMB BAY TACIT RAINBOW MISSILES, the computer reported, then entered a launch hold.
“Launch,” McLanahan commanded. The launch hold was cleared, and the crew felt the rumble of the fibersteel bomb doors retracting inside the bomb bay; a few seconds later, the noise was gone. “All Tacit Rainbows away,” McLanahan reported.
As they dropped clear of the bomb bay, the AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow cruise missiles, each about six feet long, a little more than a foot in diameter, and weighing less than a thousand pounds, deployed short stubby wings and horizontal and vertical stabilizers and descended toward the sea. As they got closer to the surface, they activated their turbojet engines, increasing their speed to over 300 miles an hour, and leveled off at 500 feet above the sea. One missile’s engine failed to light off despite dozens of automatic relights, and it glided for another nine miles before hitting the ocean and breaking into pieces. Another missile, performing its automatic self-test, determined that its navigational and sensor accuracy was not within its standards; it performed a systems reset, still found its systems faulty, then automatically performed a suicide dive straight down into the rock-hard sea.
One by one, the missiles took up five-mile-long figure-eight orbits at its assigned patrol point, took a GPS satellite fix to nail down its navigational accuracy, and activated its passive electronic sensors. The frequency and pulse rate of every signal received was instantly compared to signatures in their computer memories, and if it matched, the missile immediately began homing in on the signal. Each missile would then instantly report back to McLanahan by datalink that it was locked on.
“All surviving Rainbows tracking,” McLanahan reported. “I’m sending a couple back into their orbits.” Several Rainbows had locked onto the same radar, so McLanahan had to divert a couple of them back into patrol racetracks so he didn’t waste any missiles. “Looking good, guys.”
“Interceptor Group One ready for launch, sir,” the officer of the deck reported.
“Very well,” Admiral Yi responded. “Have Interceptor One establish a high combat patrol at the last known—”
Just then, they heard a loud booom! roll across the sea. Yi ran over to the port rail and saw a cloud of smoke coming from the destroyer Kang. “Something hit the Kangl” the lookout shouted. Seconds later, another loud explosion rang out, and Yi watched in horror as a piece of the Mao's Kilo-band fire-control radar for the SA-N-9 antiaircraft missile system crashed to the deck just aft of the bridge. Seconds later, another loud explosion rattled the ship. “Smoke coming from the Kangl Looks like he took a missile hit! ”
“Never mind the Kangl Get me a damage report on my ship! ”
The phone from Engineering rang just then, and the OOD took the damage report: “Kilo- and Ku-band fire-control radar array and X-band targeting radar for the Granit missiles hit, sir,” the officer of the deck reported. “No casualties, no injuries. The flight deck is clear.”
Thank the stars, Yi murmured to himself. Yi had never before been in combat — he had been based ashore during the Philippine and Vietnamese naval conflicts — and the speed of the attack, combined with the sudden realization that this big high-tech steel ship was vulnerable and they were very far from friendly shores, was beginning to invade his consciousness, replacing pure, abject fear with all other thoughts about his crew and his ship. “Very well.” He slammed that phone down and picked up the one to his Combat Information Center. “Combat, bridge. Status report.”
“SA-N-9 antiaircraft system is down to optronic guidance only,” the combat officer responded. “Granit targeting system is degraded. We can tie it to the India- or Sierra-band navigation _radars for target acquisition — as long as the target does not go outside the missile’s sixty-degree seeker cone, it will track by itself.”
Yi had to consciously straighten his shoulders and force himself to think to keep from panicking. “Very well. I want a full damage-control report, weapons stations first. Switch to backup fire-control sensors.”
“Lookouts report missiles inbound! ” the quartermaster shouted suddenly. “Small missiles, one hundred meters above the water, slow speed, numerous missiles! Should we engage?”
Yi felt his knees buckle and his heart pound in his chest. Enough, dammit, enoughl “Signal the formation, secure all fire-control radars, now!” Yi shouted frantically. “Shut them down now\ Order the entire battle group to switch to manual or optronic fire control.” His instructions were carried out just in time, for a few seconds later Yi saw a small cruise missile streak overhead with a tiny whistling sound. It was performing a wide oval pattern about two hundred meters above the ship. “My God,” he muttered as another missile whistled past, orbiting a bit lower and in the opposite direction — it felt as if they were large irritating mosquitoes buzzing just out of reach. “Use the AK-630s and shoot those damn things down, damn you — but do not use fire-control radars!”
“What should we do, sir?” the officer of the deck asked. “The Kang and Changsha cannot attack without using their radars.”
“Be silent, damn you,” Yi shouted. “Have Missile Attack Squadron One move forward in the group and attack the Nationalist frigate using optronic sensors. That should keep it busy so it cannot launch any more missiles against us, and maybe we will get lucky and destroy it. I want every ship in this fleet to go on the attack and destroy that rebel frigate immediately!”
Those small missiles must have been launched by a submarine or stealth aircraft, Admiral Yi thought. His long-range radars were not the best, but if there were any normal aircraft within a hundred kilometers or any subs within five kilometers, they would have detected them. That means that Taiwan was getting assistance — and with weapons that sophisticated, that assistance had to be from the United States.
“Any word from Beijing?” Yi asked.
“Beijing advises that a message is being relayed through the Army Air Force and Navy to provide support so that we may have some coverage in case Taiwan launches attack aircraft.”
Yi swore again, then said, “I want whatever air support the PLA can provide out to support us immediately,” Admiral Yi shouted. “Is that clear? Patrol aircraft, helicopters, gliders, I do not care! Tell Beijing in the strongest possible way to get us some air support! What about our fighters?”