Wilson broke the silence. “Gonna be a long day in CVIC.”
“Yea, verily.”
Thirty minutes later in the Carrier Intel Center, Wilson and Weed sat together in the third row. They waited, with other department heads from the Buccaneers and Spartans, for CAG Swoboda to address them with the tasking from above. Sitting in front of them were the air wing COs and XOs, and behind were assorted JOs, as well as officers from the flag and air wing staffs. Cajun sat in the front row next to the E-2 skipper, while Saint was at the opposite end of the row chatting up the Big Unit. Before them on the bulkhead were charts depicting Iran, with smaller charts and satellite imagery of the areas around Bandar Abbas, Jask, and Chah Bahar. Across the room the aircrew studied the charts, murmured about threat concentrations, and imprinted the surface-to-air threat rings on their brains. In the corner, Wilson noticed the SINS readout that confirmed the steady vibration of the deck below his feet. Valley Forge was on a southwest heading at 30 knots.
“‘tenshun on deck!”
Chairs shifted and conversation stopped as the room sprung to attention, eyes locked forward. CAG’s purposeful footsteps broke the silence, and halfway into the room, he grunted, “Seats.” Everyone relaxed and sat back in their chairs. DCAG followed, and to Wilson it looked as if neither had slept during the night. The bare Velcro of CAG’s flight suit, devoid of any patches but ready for imminent combat, was somewhat disconcerting. It indicated a mindset. Swoboda’s face was set in a taciturn frown as he prepared to address his aircrew. Weed noted it, too, and whispered to his roommate, “That’s a game face.”
Swoboda wasted no time getting started:
“All right. You guys know the Iranians hit Richard Best last night as she was transiting Hormuz. Ambushed by a double-pince of boghammars. Five dead, seventeen wounded. The ship took heavy damage to the bridge and topside spaces from RPG’s and recoilless rifles on the boats and from mortars they staged on a sand bar in the narrowest part of the strait. You gotta hand it to them. Although I’m told the ship was alert for trouble and the captain did a great job, the Iranians waited till the last moment to show their hand. Their timing could not have been better. Richard Best did good work though… eleven boghammars sunk, several damaged and some 30 Iranians dead.
“The Revolutionary Guard conducted this attack. Iran has two navies, the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the Revolutionary Guard, or Pasdaran. They can work in concert or independently. This appears to be the Revolutionary Guard working solo. Since last night, commercial shipping through the strait has stopped. As a result, oil futures have shot up over thirty dollars per barrel, and the Asian markets are down five percent from their opening yesterday. You’ve seen CNN. Hormuz is the focus of the world right now as the Iranian action is a clear act of war. In Washington last night, the first question was “Where’s the nearest carrier?”
Wilson’s eyes wandered to the chart of Iran, figuring the distance from Shiraz to Bandar Abbas. Three hundred miles? Two fifty?
CAG continued:
“National command authority has tasked NAVCENT with the following objectives: severely degrade Iran’s ability to harass shipping in the strait, hit the Pasdaran bases of operations, and eliminate the Iranians’ Kilo subs wherever they are found. Imagery shows one of those subs in dry dock at Bandar Abbas. That’s the first one to go away. The others will be found and sunk, at their moorings or on the high seas. If the Iranian surface navy stays in port, we’ll leave them alone. But, if they come out, they are fair game and we’ll put them on the bottom. The friggin’ boghammars are what we’re after, and we’re going to hit them in their nests and degrade their ability to operate by destroying their fuel supply or maintenance facilities. Any boghammar we find underway? Gone.”
The room was silent, every aircrew focused on the air wing commander. He was clearly incensed at the Revolutionary Guard. Behind him, Wilson overheard a shipmate whisper, “CAG’s pissed.” Swoboda pointed to the chart.
“Our tasking is to hit targets in Bandar Abbas, Jask, and Chah Bahar. We will also conduct SUCAPs in the GOO and Hormuz to find any Pasdaran or Iranian navy assets underway. The coastal targets will take a couple of nights, and we’ll be flying a dozen or so strike packages to accomplish it. The international waters stuff will take as long as it takes, and the priority is to locate and to neutralize the Kilos.
“We’re going to have help, too. In the Gulf, SEALS are going to raid Pasdaran facilities on the Tunb Islands and Kisk. The Tinian ARG is coming up from the Horn of Africa with Harriers and Cobras to augment our SUCAP posture; they should get here by tomorrow. Air Force Buffs and B-1’s from Diego Garcia will fly with you on several strikes. P-3’s out of Masirah, with another four inbound, will help with the ASW picture. AWACS and more are coming. We are also going to have Tomahawk shooters from our own strike group and some more TLAM from one of the ARG small boys coming up. We’ve got lots of assets, and they are at our disposal. Right now we are the focus of national command authority.”
Wilson glanced at Cajun, who remained focused on CAG. As Cajun’s assistant strike leader, Wilson wondered what target they would receive, and surmised CAG would assign the skipper a tough one — probably in and around Bandar Abbas.
“Iran isn’t a pushover like Iraq was five years ago. Two hundred and fifty combat aircraft, many of them fourth-generation, and as we found out last month, fifth-generation jets. Double-digit SAMs. Effective triple-A ranging from light to 100 millimeter. Modern, sea-skimming antiship missiles. And hundreds of boghammars using swarm tactics. These guys don’t have what we have, but they present us with a formidable military problem. They are smart and they have will. They know we are heading back to the GOO, and they are dispersing their forces and getting their defenses ready. Again, our goal is not to invade Iran or even destroy the Iranian Navy, but to degrade their ability to conduct these raids in and around Hormuz and the GOO. This response option is limited and proportional, and it needs to be timely. That’s why we are doing this now, because we don’t have time to wait for help, and these guys need to know that we can smack them down with just a portion of the forces we have in theater. We need to make them think twice before they engage in another act of war, against us or anybody.