“Yes sir.”
Wanting to get back to the European front, the President wished to discuss the new tank that they had been developing and how soon it could be ready for action in Europe. “Minister Puchkov, what is the status of our new battle tank? Is it ready for action?”
Minister Puchkov began to open some folders and started displaying some pictures, video and stats of the new T1 main battle tank on the holographic display. “The T41 is going through its trial runs right now. The blizzards have been slowing some of these tests down, but we have determined that the main weapon functions to our satisfaction. The issue we are still trying to work out is the power supply. The T41 is a tank, but it is a very slow and cumbersome vehicle that will rely heavily on other support vehicles around it in its current iteration. Right now, the top speed of the T40 is roughly 30 kilometers per hour, and it has a range of about 200 miles.”
Not happy with these numbers, the President asked, “Why is the vehicle so slow and cumbersome? This is not what was briefed last month. Back then everyone said this new tank could keep up with our armored forces and would be a good counter to the American Pershing tanks. What has changed since our last discussion?”
“The power generation changed. The tank can fire just ten shots before it needs to idle and recharge for about an hour. Each individual shot requires about fourteen minutes of recharge before firing again. We thought we could get about thirty shots from the battery pack before it would need to idle, but once we started to test the laser against the Pershing’s armor, we were wrong. The energy used by the laser needed to be increased by some 300 % for it to penetrate the Pershing’s armor. This dropped the number of shots the battery could hold. To augment this, we had to build a new, larger power generator, which in turn meant a redesign of the rear mount. All of these changes added an extra 10 tons of armor and weight to the vehicle that it had not been initially designed for,” answered Minister Puchkov.
“Mr. President, if I may — I would like to suggest that we send the T41 back to the designers to figure out how they can integrate these new design changes better. I do not want to have some unreliable new tank on the battlefield, or worse, taking up production capacity and material,” said the Commanding General for the Russian Armed Forces.
“I agree. Let’s send the T41 back to the drawing board. I want a new prototype ready in 90 days, something that incorporates these new design requirements,” the President said as he ended the meeting.
Trifecta
The Russian commander for the 2nd Shock Army was meeting with his Chinese counterpart and the IR military leadership to discuss the pending operation. They knew the Americans were going to launch an offensive soon, and wanted to launch a spoiler attack to throw them off balance. The challenge was going to be determining how to attack an Allied army that had now swelled to over one million troops with a force close to that same number. When launching an assault, it is best to have a 5:1 advantage, which clearly they will not have.
General Abdullah Muhammed was the overall military commander for the IR in Israel. He knew the Russians and Chinese wanted to launch a new offensive, but they lacked the numbers to make it successful. That meant the IR would have to carry the brunt of the manpower used in this next offensive. “General Lodz, I agree that the Americans are going to launch a new offensive, probably in the very near future. I am authorized to commit up to one million IR regular army forces, but that is the extent that I can pledge. Any more, and we lose the ability to even prevent the Allies from invading our own lands.”
“General Muhammed, I understand your concerns, and they are valid. We will accept your contribution, but I would like to have operational control over them so that I can coordinate their attacks properly with ours,” General Lodz said, knowing this was a bit of a reach.
Having realized already that this request may come, General Muhammed had already made his mind up to agree if it was asked. The IR had already fouled up the first invasion and lost nearly 1.5 million troops; if the Russians believed they could do better, then perhaps it would be best for them to take the lead. “I am reluctant to agree to this; however, we share the same goals and I want to see the Allied army crushed before it can gain in strength any more than it already has,” General Muhammed responded.
General Fang, the overall military commander for the Chinese 1st Expeditionary Force, saw this as an opportunity to get some additional forces for his own army group. His reinforcements were still a month away, and the Russians wanted to launch this new offensive immediately, not wait for Chinese reinforcements. “General Muhammed, if I may. China would like to request a much smaller contribution of forces from the IR. We are going to make a push for Southern Israel and attempt to cut them in half, whence we can then take control of the Suez. We would like the IR to commit 200,000 troops to our effort,” Fang requested, hoping he could strike a deal, especially since he asked for 1/5 the number of troops.
“General Fang, the IR appreciates everything the Chinese have done to help us. Because of this, I will grant your request. You will receive 200,000 IR reinforcements and their commanders will report to your chain of command for the duration of the operation,” General Muhammed replied (he had also already anticipated this entreaty as well). The Chinese had assisted the IR tremendously these past four months, so there was no real way he could turn down their invitation and not insult them.
“Excellent, then we will begin to issue orders to the respective units and prepare for the coming attack. The offensive will begin in four days; we need to move quickly as our intelligence sources say the Americans plan to start their offensive in five. We need to throw them off balance before they are able to get organized into their offensive formations. I also have two additional squadrons of MiG40s in route to our positions in Turkey; they will begin providing high altitude air cover and precision bombing of the enemy laser and railgun positions just as they have been doing in Europe. This will limit the Allied air support capability and increase the likelihood of our success. My military planners will send the details to your staffs immediately so you can plan accordingly.” General Lodz was authoritative as the overall area commander. Muhammed and Fang both nodded in compliance and left for their respective commands.
General Lodz had been General Putin’s executive officer for several years prior to him being promoted and given command of the 2nd Shock Army. General Lodz was a brilliant tactician and military leader. He had led the modernization efforts to turn the older Shock Army concept into a 21st century killing machine, heavily incorporating the use of drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
The following four days was a flurry of activity as hundreds of thousands of troops began to move to their various jump off points and the MiG40s arrived. The increased MiG activity had an immediate impact; four MiGs had been shot down during the preparations, but they had shot down sixty-eight allied aircraft and destroyed five laser defensive sites and twelve mobile railgun anti-aircraft systems.
The arrival of additional MiG40s was a complete surprise for the Allies, who had only been dealing with them in limited numbers in Europe, not the Middle East. The Allies worst fear was starting to come to fruition; enough MiG40s were being produced that the Russians could now field them in two active war theaters in greater numbers. Unbeknownst to the Allies, the two squadrons of MiG40s were actually part of the European group; the Russians had transferred two of their five squadrons to the Middle East to specifically support the upcoming operation. Then they would be returned back to Europe once the campaign was completed. The Russians were still only able to produce thirty aircraft a month, which was barely keeping up with the losses. It would be another three more months before production levels would reach 60 aircraft a month, and a year before it would reach 120 a month.