Three injuries, one serious. A crippled station, leaking fuel, extensive damage. Even though Silver Tower had just participated in a major diversion a thousand miles away, the station was not fully capable. Not by a long shot. In fact, it was barely holding onto strategic function. "That's about as cocky as we can afford to get, Chief," Saint-Michael said. "We managed to sucker half the Brezhnev's air-to-air assets away from Bandar-Abbas — now I hope the Air Force and Navy can do the rest."
The assault had begun just as the Brezhnev's Su-27 Flanker Group Two had catapulted off the deck to help in the abortive pursuit of the High Maneuverability Long Range Reconnaissance Drone (HIMLORD) aircraft. Ten of the Nimitz's Sikorsky SH-60T SeaHawk transport helicopters had been loaded with ten U.S. Marines in full combat gear, and two CH-53E heavy-lift choppers had been loaded with two British Rapier-tracked surface-to-air batteries apiece. The choppers hedgehopped over the rugged southern Iran coastline as far as possible from the Soviet cruisers in the Strait of Hormuz, and dropped onto the wrecked airstrip at Bandar-Abbas. With a force of elite navy SEALS blazing a path, the Marines took Bandar-Abbas in a fierce but short battle. By the time Group Two had reached the confused and disorganized Fighter Group One, the Marines had secured Bandar-Abbas airfield and, with a few Iranian regulars coming down from the rugged coastal mountains, had managed to secure the skies over the Strait of Hormuz.
Right behind the Marines, under air cover of the Nimitz, ten C-130 Hercules transports had reinforced the Marine unit at Bandar-Abbas with three hundred U.S. Army Rapid Deployment Force troops from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Another sixty Marines had retaken Bandar-e Lengeh, the major Iranian naval missile base overseeing the strait, and fifty RDF troops had soon reinforced that stronghold and established another antiair battery there.
On balance, a pretty good day.
CHAPTER 25
Minister of Defense Czilikov refused — or was unable — to look directly at his assembled battle staff as First Deputy Minister of Defense Khromeyev rose to give the daily briefing on Operation Feather, this time before the entire Stavka. Czilikov could feel the eyes of the Soviet general secretary bearing down on him as, area by area, the situation in Iran and the Persian Gulf was described. "The region has been roughly divided in half, along the fifty-four-degree east longitude line," Khromeyev reported in a flat voice. "The Americans control the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, and all Iranian territory east of Yazd in central Iran." The general secretary's eyes now darted toward Czilikov as he heard the news about the strait, the essential choke-point for the whole region. "Our forces control the Persian Gulf north of Bahrain, as well as every major Iranian city except for Bandar-Abbas along the strait. Our flag flies from the Mediterranean Sea to China—"
"Never mind the grandiose symbolism, Marshal Khromeyev, " the general secretary said. "Such flowery speech doesn't hide our badly worsening position." He swiveled toward Czilikov. "I don't want your dog-and-pony show, Marshal Czilikov. I want details. The Brezhnev is no longer east of Qatar — it is almost as far north as Kuwait. Yet we no longer control the Strait of Hormuz. Why?"
"The Americans have mined the deep-water channel between Iran and Qatar in the gulf, General Secretary—"
"Then destroy those mines. Retake the channel. We have the firepower, don't we?"
"We don't have the resources, sir," Admiral Chercherovin put in. "The Americans control the skies during daytime. A squadron of B-52 bombers from Diego Garcia can sow mines for ten thousand square kilometers in one pass. We can sweep perhaps half that area at night, but the bombers return with more mines—"
"You are saying we do not control the airspace over the Persian Guff?"
"Not… entirely, sir. We can protect the Brezhnev and her escorts with our forward units at Al-Basrah and Abadan, but the fighters from the Brezhnev have only a seven-hundred-kilometer combat radius. That places them near Bandar-Abbas, where the Americans and Iranians have deployed surface-to-air missile sites, fighters and bombers to defend the strait. Shipborne fighters, which must expend almost half their fuel just to get to a fight, are no match for ground-based fighters…"
The general secretary ran a hand across the top of his bald head in exasperation. "You are talking riddles, Admiral. The Brezhnev was in a position to defend our forces at Bandar-Abbas. How could we have lost our advantage?"
"The Brezhnev's resources were stretched to the limit, sir," Czilikov said, figuring he'd better say something fast. "The Brezhnev carried forty-five tactical fighter aircraft. Ten were used as escorts for the raids on Mehrabad and ten were airborne in support of the attacks on Abadan. Ten were launched to pursue what we thought were American F-15s attacking from Saudi Arabia. When the American drones evaded the first patrol, all the Brezhnev's fighters except five reserve alert aircraft were sent after the drones. This left nothing to assist the shock troops at Bandar-Abbas except our old Yak-38 VTOL fighter-bombers, and they were no match for the British Rapier and American Patriot surface-to-air missile sites the Marines brought with them. Five hundred American Marines and two hundred Iranian soldiers landed ashore in three hours. There really was nothing we could do—"
"But what about our ground-based long-range bombers?" the general secretary pressed him. "Certainly we could have attacked those positions with something besides fighters from the Brezhnev? Those Yak-38s should have been escorting the bombers, not attacking."
"A bomber attack was considered and rejected. If a bomber attack had been attempted immediately when the American Marines attacked Bandar-Abbas, a smaller-scale bomber force might have succeeded. But the area was secured by the Marines in only three hours. It would take one full Tupolev-26 squadron, perhaps two, or a full Tupolev-146 bomber squadron to uproot the American Marines now. Also, the Americans are moving at least one full squadron of F-15 fighters to Bandar-Abbas — they control the skies of the southern gulf."
"Then attack. Use an entire squadron. Whatever is necessary to retake Bandar-Abbas—"
"With twenty supersonic bombers?" Czilikov interrupted. "Not only would our losses be heavy, but the Americans might think the launch represented a possible threat to the Nimitz carrier battle group or to the American airbase in Saudi Arabia. They might counter with considerable force, even threaten to use nuclear weapons against our forces—"
"I don't believe that," the general secretary said. "They're not crazy. They couldn't hope to control such a drastic escalation…"
"If they lost the Nimitz carrier group, sir, their only tactical response to avoid losing their foothold in the region would be an all-out attack. From our point of view, it's a huge risk to take. We have no conclusive evidence that the Americans would not attack with nuclear weapons. Remember Kennedy at the Bay of Pigs? And ever since, they've refused to say what they wouldn't do."
"Rationalizations for doing nothing, Czilikov. The Politburo is already demanding an explanation, and we've got to give them one. The Americans are threatening to mobilize for a general war. We've lost the element of surprise. There is even a rumor that the Americans have captured a member of the KGB who participated in the initial attack on our own vessels in the Persian Gulf—"
"That is impossible," Marshal Lichizev, the commander of the KGB, said. "All of our operatives are accounted for. It's an obvious bluff."
"No matter. Denials do no good." The general secretary looked at each of the Stavka members seated in front of him. "Feather had to be a swift, decisive, massive blow to occupy and dominate the region. It had to be a coordinated, precision strike at the major strategic choke-points. Instead, we're caught on unsteady, indefensible ground. Rather than a swift victory, I'm left with a damn stalemate. Worse than a stalemate: our clumsy lies are exposed, naked before the entire world. The great bear with its nose caught in the mousetrap…