The American Raptors and the remnants of the Taiwanese air force left over from the initial air battles of the war could harass the massive Chinese army on the ground in Taiwan, but with proper warning, that damage could be mitigated as well. Such ground attacks couldn't do a tremendous amount of damage, certainly not in one raid. The F-22 was a pure fighter, not normally equipped for ground attack and almost certainly not in this case.
However, the most vital consideration was political, not military. If the PLA Air Force abandoned the Chinese soldiers on Taiwan, even temporarily, the general would certainly lose his command. The public, already wearying of the bloody war, would be outraged at the supposed cowardice of the Air Force and demand that heads roll. The politicians would be happy to oblige to keep their war going.
That then was the context in which the general chose to deploy the remaining J-10's to an uneven fight. Perhaps he thought a miracle would allow his planes to defeat the Americans and save his job.
It was not to be. The armada of F-22's split up into five plane elements. One element raced around the developing battle to wipe out the two Chinese airborne warning aircraft operating near Taiwan, leaving the Chinese fighters blind and even more vulnerable than they had already been against the vaunted Raptors.
Without their airborne warning aircraft, the Chinese fighters had to keep their own radars transmitting to have even a faint notion of where the stealthy F-22's were. That allowed the F-22's to launch their radar-guided missiles using the electronic emissions of the Chinese fighters as a beacon.
The result was predictable. Of the 32 Chinese combat aircraft over Taiwan, 17 were destroyed in the initial surprise volley of missiles. As the two groups continued to close, the F-22's fired a volley of heat-seeking missiles, killing another eleven Chinese fighters.
Of the four surviving Chinese aircraft, three were J-10's and one was an Su-30. They couldn't fire radar guided missiles at the Raptors, but they could and did loose a wild volley of heat-seekers. The Raptors, the most agile and electronically advanced planes in the world, dodged all but one of the missiles. That one detonated underneath the right engine nacelle of an F-22, wrecking one of the plane's two engines. That F-22 limped off for home as the other Raptors wiped out the last four Chinese aircraft in a short, lopsided dogfight.
The score at that point was 32 Chinese fighters down and one American F-22 damaged. The day was already an unmitigated disaster for the Chinese air force, but it was about to get worse.
The F-22's, low on fuel, turned for home. Replacing them were seventeen F-35 Lightnings of the Taiwanese air force. The coordination had been precise — when the American F-22's had cleared the skies, the Taiwanese aircraft were ready to seize the opportunity.
The Taiwanese F-35's, nearly wiped out in the first weeks of the war in running battles with the PLA Air Force, had not sortied from their bases on the eastern part of the island for weeks. Chinese anti-aircraft units that had done nothing for weeks were caught unaware, and several batteries of advanced surface-to-air missiles were destroyed without firing even a single shot at the Taiwanese aircraft.
The Taiwanese were faced with a cornucopia of targets. The massive PLA force assembling east of Taipei was preparing for a renewed assault to break through the defenses erected along the mountainous central spine of the island. With that concentration of forces came division and army command posts, fuel dumps, ammunition depots, intelligence outposts and the like.
The F-35's plastered those sites with 2,000 pound smart bombs, ripping a logistical hole in the upcoming Chinese attack that would take weeks to fully remedy.
The nature of the assassinations and the fact that family members had been sedated using advanced anesthetics left little mystery as to who had perpetrated the attack. As Fei and I listened to the police broadcasts, I heard repeated references to the Lafayette Initiative.
Many people have asked me why I did not put out a statement claiming responsibility for the assassinations. Some have speculated that I did not want to take credit after Brook accidentally killed the four-year old girl. I will clear the record here: I never once evaded responsibility for that tragedy. I would have released a statement taking responsibility for the attacks, but the plan, agreed to with the Taiwanese and American militaries, was for President Gates to announce the Air Force's victory first. That announcement would embolden the American public, which had been cowed by the defeat of Task Force 61, and reassure the Taiwanese that help was on the way.
Chapter 14
Within hours of the air battle, while McCormick and the other Knights with targets near Beijing were still driving back to our base of operations near the Vietnam border, President Gates had asked for time on major television networks to announce the victory.
President Gates gave his speech from a pedestal in the East Room, the same place President Obama had announced the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in 2011. His white hair and wrinkled face gave him a reassuring, almost staid air, but on this occasion, even he seemed to have a jolt in his step and buoyancy in his voice.
"My fellow Americans, I have the honor and privilege to report to you tonight that our Air Force has won a major victory over the skies of Taiwan, destroying dozens of Chinese fighter planes without suffering a single loss in return.
"The victory of the brave men and women of our military allowed the Taiwanese Air Force to launch devastating assaults on the Chinese army now massing on the western portion of Taiwan.
"With this victory today, we will be able to airlift substantial assistance to our allies on Taiwan. As the first step of that process, I have ordered the deployment of the 101st Airborne Division. The airlift of that division will begin soon, and I have every confidence that they will make their presence felt on the battlefield."
The President's tone grew a touch less victorious. "We will continue battling the People's Liberation Army until they leave Taiwan, until they realize that their people would rather have peace and prosperity than have their sons die trying to steal another country's freedom. Until then, we will continue to make war with every fiber of our being. May God continue to bless America."
President Gates walked away from the pedestal silently as the rest of the country broke into cheers or murmured worried prayers.
The world's eyes turned then to Beijing, where the President of the People's Republic had scheduled his own statement.
Speaking from his desk in Beijing a mere half hour after his U.S. counterpart, he affected a tone of quiet anger.
"Citizens of the People's Republic, we have been the victims of state-sponsored terrorism. Today, in the dead of night, terrorists of the Lafayette Initiative went on a killing spree, murdering members of the People's Liberation Army-Air Force and their family members while they slept. They adopted the tactics of their ancient chief, George Washington, who used similar barbaric tactics in his wars.
"Their murderous acts were coordinated with an attack by the U.S. Air Force, attempting to catch us off guard. Thanks to the heroism of the aviators of the Middle Kingdom, we drove off their attack, inflicting heavy losses on their F-22 fighters. Our own losses were far less than the number of our citizens who perished through the Lafayette Initiative's cowardly murders.
"It is clear now that our foe means to fight his war in the bedrooms of our children rather than on the battlefield. Captain Fong and Unit One have been investigating and they are hot on the trail of the Lafayette Initiative. In fact, they have already captured one of the bandits."