Plug said, “Right into the lion’s den…” He had the forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera aimed at the nearest ships. Frigates, by the look of them, now only a few miles away.
“No kidding.” The hair on the back of Victoria’s neck began to rise.
“The entire fleet is all bunched up by the look of it. Why are all of their ships so close together?”
“It’s the way their new air defense system works. Instead of spreading out and separating the targets, they keep them packed in close to the high-value-unit. That way the Jiaolong’s energy weapon can play zone defense for their entire fleet.”
The flight of aircraft was now entering the forest of enemy warships, weaving in and out of the Chinese fleet, trying to keep them all far enough away that they might be confused for friendlies. Victoria knew they were bound to be seen any moment. But the Chinese had helicopters flying around as well. If the American aircraft weren’t showing up on radar, most Chinese lookouts would just report the contacts and move on. With any luck, the controllers would assume that the American aircraft were Chinese helicopters. After all, no one would be stupid enough to do this…
Victoria said, “At least we know the jamming is working. No one’s firing at us yet.”
Plug said, “Or vaporizing us with a laser. If I have a pick, I choose that one.”
“I don’t think that’s how it would work, but okay.” She wiped sweat from her eyes. Her body ached from the hours of flying they’d already done, including a refueling stop on a pair of littoral combat ships. Flying close formation was challenging. Flying it for over six hours, on night vision goggles, only twenty-five feet above the waves, was excruciating. The concentration and discipline it took was monumental. Plug and Victoria took turns at the controls, switching every hour. Now he was flying again, and she was sucking back water from the thick Camelbak straw at her shoulder.
Victoria looked down at the digital map displayed on the center console. It was being fed information via a secure datalink, specially installed for this mission. Overhead, one of the Air Force’s ultrasecret space-based reconnaissance assets had just sent updated locations of the Chinese fleet. The resolution of the imagery was so good that even her helicopter was visible. Military supercomputers on Hawaii processed the visual information and cross-referenced it with electronic signals intelligence, updating Victoria on her target’s location, along with information tags next to every ship in the Chinese fleet. All displayed in front of her to help her make decisions. It had been part of her training over the past week. This allowed her to get passive navigation and targeting data without alerting the enemy to her position, like she would have if she had turned on her radar.
“Five minutes until target. Signal the other aircraft.”
“Roger.”
In the back of the aircraft, her aircrewman signaled the helicopter next to them with an infrared flashlight.
“Plug, see if you can get us down another five feet or so.”
The four aircraft tightened up the formation and flew lower to the water. The waves were a good six feet, with occasional whitewater splashing upward. The ocean was a blur of dark green in her night vision goggles. The two MH-60S helicopters both had high-mounted winglets, carrying rocket pods and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The two MH-60R helicopters, carrying the weight of the custom electronic attack device mounted under the nose, carried only a left-hand extended pylon of Hellfire.
“Come a little right, Plug. Try to stay away from—”
“I am. But if I get farther from one destroyer, I get closer to another.”
The feeling was surreal. The four US Navy helicopters were now flying within the Chinese fleet’s surface screen. Snaking their way in between the Chinese warships. They were now flying at one hundred and fifty knots, which seemed incredibly fast at this low altitude.
The closest Chinese warship thus far had been two thousand yards away. Which certainly placed their aircraft within range of its heavier antiaircraft weapons. But anyone who had spotted them had to be incredibly confused. Their low altitude and close proximity meant that surface-ship watch standers actually had to look down to see them. Most of the Chinese sailors were busy looking at radar and digital readouts. They were launching missiles, after all. The attack would come from above.
The helicopter assault plan was so audacious, so unexpected, Victoria was beginning to think they might get all the way to their destination without taking fire. They only needed a few more minutes.
“Contact three o’clock level.”
“Break left.” Plug used the external UHF radio for this transmission. The jig was up now, so radio silence was pointless.
Victoria felt the helicopter bank sharply left and held her breath at the thought of the tight formation colliding in the night. They didn’t. But a stream of yellow tracer fire emanated from one of the Chinese ships to their right.
Then they were beyond it, and out of range of the Chinese guns. Victoria said, “One minute to target. There it is.”
Ahead of them were two behemoth ships, both captured on the FLIR camera and displayed on the monitor in front of Plug. The nearest looked like a Frankenstein mashup of a commercial supertanker and a San Antonio—class amphibious ship. But the metallic spires fore and aft went up much higher, she realized. Elevated flight deck platforms jutted out from each side of the hull. Four of them altogether. One was servicing a giant dirigible aircraft. These were the killer ASW drones she had heard so much about, the ones that were wreaking havoc on the US submarine fleet.
This was the Jiaolong-class ship.
Behind it by at least a mile was the Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, its curved ski ramp forward on the flight deck. No jets were launching or recovering at the moment, but she did see a small helicopter just above the horizon. That would be the SAR aircraft. Which meant that they were most likely conducting flight operations. God help her if a Chinese fighter got them in their sights. She realized how silly the thought was. There must have been thousands of surface-to-air missiles surrounding them. What did it matter how they got shot down?
“How much time?” Plug’s voice was strained. He was now turning the formation of aircraft so low to the water that the rotor disk was only feet from the wavetops. The ocean’s surface was easier to see. The eastern horizon was brightening on the goggles, giving them more light. Dawn was coming within the hour, and when it did, her helicopters would no longer have one of their chief cloaks.
Victoria looked at the timer in the top left corner of the datalink digital display. “Thirty seconds until the attack time.”
“Roger. And what’s our ETA?”
“Just over that.”
“Nice. Well, if we live, I’m sure the SEAL Team Six guys will complain that we were a few seconds off, but I’m rather impressed. That’s got to be an above-average grade for this flight.”
“Let’s start slowing it down.”
“Roger. Bringing the speed back.”
Plug pulled back on the stick and lowered the collective power lever. Their airspeed began to bleed off from one hundred and fifty knots.
One forty.
The profile of the Jiaolong-class ship grew in front of them. Now they could see Chinese sailors on the aft bridge wing, pointing at them. But no gunfire yet. They were in for one hell of a surprise.
One twenty-five knots. Fifteen seconds.
Advanced precision kill weapon system rockets began firing from the MH-60S helicopters’ cylindrical launchers. Skinny white rockets were guided into the ship, targeting the bridge and the two antiaircraft guns.
One hundred knots. Ten seconds.