The Kalina system had locked in the M60s as valid targets from a range of nearly four kilometers, in spite of the Pattons’ deployment of a smoke screen.
Since Hamid had ordered the T-90s’ gunners to wait until the M60s were in the Lekalo rounds’ maximum effective range of three kilometers, it gave him plenty of time to ensure they were aiming at separate M-60s.
When the T-90s opened fire on the Pattons, not a single M60 had tried to engage the enemy tanks. Hamid correctly concluded that the M60s’ commander didn’t believe they had a real chance of hitting his tanks from a three-kilometer range.
The same was certainly not true for his T-90s. Their initial salvo left thirty-eight M60s either immobile or destroyed, with most actually catastrophic hits. Even from three kilometers, Hamid could see multiple tank turrets thrown clear either by the force of a direct sabot hit, or by secondary explosions of fuel and ammunition inside the Pattons.
Now there was finally answering fire, as the enemy’s M1A2 tanks rolled forward to replace the Pattons. At the same time, Hamid was notified over his headset that Apache helicopters had launched the attack he’d expected. Two minutes later Commander Khalilli told him four Apaches had been destroyed, and for now there were no other contacts.
So far in spite of the Abrams tanks’ best effort only three hits had registered against Hamid’s T-90s, and only a single hit had actually managed to kill one. This impressive record was due to the T-90’s three-layer defensive approach. The first was the T-90’s composite armor, the second its Kontact-5 explosive reactive armor, and the third its Shtora-1 countermeasures suite. Shtora-1 included two active infrared jammers, four laser warning receivers, and two smoke grenade launchers that deployed automatically whenever the T-90 was painted by an enemy targeting system.
By contrast, the Saudi M1A2 tanks lacked the depleted uranium that made the American models difficult to penetrate, had no reactive armor, and manually deployed smoke. Many were killed so quickly they never had the chance, not that it would have mattered. The real surprise was that at a three-kilometer range they were able to damage the T-90s at all.
Just as Hamid thought uneasily that the battle was going too well, Commander Khalilli was yelling over his headset, “Attack drones!” An instant later, a loud explosion behind his tank sent ice through his veins, as he thought to himself the launcher must have been hit.
Several minutes later, Hamid’s fears were proved groundless as Commander Khalilli’s voice came over his headset again to report that three Reaper attack drones had been shot down, and that once again there were no enemy air contacts visible. He also reported that the R-330ZH automated jammer had been destroyed as well as several of their tanks, though he couldn’t say which model. Hamid shook his head with resignation, acknowledging to himself that knowledge of all the different tank models Iran was currently fielding was a bit too much to expect from his missile launch commander.
A quick look answered his principal question- had one of the tanks the Reapers destroyed been the Armata? The answer “no” came in the form of the T-14 firing a 9M119M Refliks anti-tank missile at a Saudi M1A2. With the ability to punch through nearly a meter of armor, any hit was likely to be a kill. So far, the Armata had accounted for the destruction of seven M1A2 tanks on its own, and still stood untouched.
That particular Refliks anti-tank missile ended Jamal Al-Qahtani's dreams of promotion, as it punched through the front armor of his M1A2 tank.
Fortunately, besides the R-330ZH Hamid had brought another tracked electronic warfare vehicle, the smaller 1L262E RTUT-BM. Though its main purpose was to defeat radar-guided warheads, its operator had assured him that it could also jam enemy communications, though over a shorter distance than the R-330ZH.
The commander of the remaining Saudi tanks finally did what Hamid imagined he would have done even earlier. He retreated.
Hamid let the pitiful handful of Saudi tanks and APCs remaining escape, while he collected survivors from the few tanks the Saudis had been able to damage. Even a task as delightful as destroying Saudi tanks had to take second place to his primary objective- leveling as many palaces and government buildings in Riyadh as possible.
There was no doubt that the Saudis had hundreds of M1A2 tanks on their way back from Yemen that could turn up any moment. Hamid knew that even if many of his tanks were better, they couldn’t overcome a force twice their size, or even more.
No, there was no substitute for speed. Now that he had brushed this obstacle out of his way, nothing was going to stop Hamid from making it to Riyadh.
Chapter Thirty
President Hernandez looked up as Chief of Staff Chuck Soltis came hurrying into the Oval Office. He thought he'd seen every expression possible on Soltis' face, but not this odd combination of excitement, worry, and near panic. At the same moment, he noticed a red light flashing on his phone that told him of an incoming call. Since he had none scheduled, he assumed that's why Soltis was here.
He was right. Soltis stood in front of his desk for a moment, clearly out of breath, and then forced out, "Sir, the new Iranian Supreme Leader is on the phone, and says he wants our help in getting their invasion force to surrender."
Hernandez leaned back in his chair, and gestured for Soltis to sit down, which he did gratefully.
"OK," Hernandez said, "new Iranian Supreme Leader. Do we know that really is whoever's on the other end of the phone?"
"We think so, sir," Soltis replied. "We got a call first from the Iranian Ambassador to the UN in New York, who introduced him and said that he had been elected Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts after the old Supreme Leader died. His name is…," and then after a look at the notes in his hand, "Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Vahid Turani." He then handed the notes to Hernandez.
"Interesting. Wasn't the previous Supreme Leader in a coma for months?
Quite a coincidence that he happened to die just now, isn't it?"
"Yes, sir," Soltis replied, nodding. "You'll see in my notes that within the past hour the CIA received an unconfirmed report that he was assassinated by the Pasdaran."
Hernandez shook his head. "Pasdaran. Also known as the Revolutionary Guards? Isn't this exactly the sort of thing they were supposed to guard against?"
Soltis shrugged. "Yes, sir, but as you know our understanding of what's happening in Iran has always been limited. No US Embassy in Tehran since 1979, any American who visits risks being arrested on any pretext and effectively becoming a government hostage… getting good information about Iran has been a challenge for a long time."
Hernandez grunted. "And now the new Supreme Leader wants to help get the Iranians just outside Riyadh to surrender. Now, this isn't the same fellow who's been acting as Supreme Leader over the past months, right? I don't remember his name, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't…" Hernandez paused as he looked over Soltis' notes. "Turani," he finished.
"No, sir," Soltis said. "If you look a bit further down the notes, there's another unconfirmed report that the Ayatollah who had been acting Supreme Leader, Reza Fagheh, has been executed."
"Right," Hernandez said slowly, as he read further down the page of notes.
Soltis added, "Fred Popel is on his way here from State and I'm sure he could do a better job of explaining all this, but since this Turani fellow says he can stop the invasion, I thought you'd want to talk to him right away."
Hernandez nodded, and said, "Chuck, remind me about how they handle politics in Iran the next time I complain about having to negotiate with Congress."
"Yes, sir," Chuck said, smiling. General Robinson, the Air Force Chief of Staff, then walked in and Soltis added, "I asked the General to join us in case whatever help Turani wants involves the military, sir. He was already in the building for a meeting."