by David Poyer
He stared at himself in the mirror. At his pasty, haggard cheeks. His tired eyes.
The world was at war.
And the horror had only begun.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
EX nihilo nihil fit. For this novel, I began with the advantage of notes accumulated for the previous books about Navy and joint operations; see The Crisis, The Towers, The Cruiser, and Tipping Point.
The following new sources were also helpful. For Aisha’s chapters: A Q&A–type backgrounder with agents from the NCIS Hampton Roads office. Discussion of profiling from the FBI study “The Criminal Behavior of the Serial Rapist,” by Robert R. Hazelwood and Janet Warren. Also “Profiling Rapists” in the blog Forensic Talk. Abandon-ship instructions from OPNAVINST 5100.19E. For MEJA and CEJA, CRS “Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act: Federal Contractor Criminal Liability Overseas,” by Charles Doyle, 2012.
For Blair’s chapters: Information on SAIC from their Web site. Classification and security info from DoD Manual 5200.01-V3. Mau VanDuren contributed advice on campaign strategy. For Senate procedures, Elizabeth Rybicki, Voting and Quorum Procedures in the Senate, Congressional Research Service, 2013, and Valerie Heitshusen, Senate Committee Hearings: Preparation, CRS, 2015. On Operation Causeway, Maj. Robert B. Sheeks, USMCR (Ret.), in the China News, August 10, 1997.
For Teddy and Echo Platoon: “Carlson’s Raid on Makin Island,” by Col. David W. Haughey, USMC (Ret.), in August 2001 Marine Corps Gazette. Also Gordon Rottman’s Carlson’s Marine Raiders, Osprey, 2014. Institute for Defense Studies, “Yongxing Island: China’s Diego Garcia in the South China Sea?” by Sarabjeet Singh Parmar, August 7, 2012. “I Know Waterboarding Is Torture” by Malcolm Nance, Daily News, October 31, 2007. For prisoner experience: The Great Wall of Confinement, by Williams and Wu.
Weapons, sensor, and operational details are either from open sources or are made up. Especially helpful were Dr. Carlos Kopp, “Defeating Cruise Missiles,” Australian Aviation, October 2004. Also “Soviet/Russian Cruise Missiles,” same author, August 2009, and Air Power Australia’s “Soviet Maritime Reconnaissance, Targeting, Strike and Electronic Combat Aircraft,” by Dr. Kopp, 2012. For sonobuoy placement, “On the Design of Multistatic Sonobuoy Fields for Area Search,” by S. Ozols and M. P. Fewell, Australian government document. Discussion of ABM geometry: Gerald Brown et al., “A Two-Sided Optimization for Theater Missile Defense,” Operations Research, September–October 2005. Info on Japanese marines from “Japan’s Amphibious Buildup,” by Kyle Mizokami, US Naval Institute News, October 9, 2013. On Chinese TBMs: “PLA Ballistic Missiles,” Technical Report APA-TR-2010-0802, Sean O’Connor, 2009, Air Power Australia Site for fuel specifications. Joseph Sermarini, “The Universal Fuel at Sea,” Naval Postgraduate School thesis, June 2000. EXTAC 1000, “Maritime Maneuvering and Tactical Procedures” (unclassified) was useful for command relationships and maneuvering. For background on operating areas: “Physical Oceanography of the Yellow and East China Sea” by Dr. Steven R. Ramp, Naval Postgraduate School. About River City: “Limited Online Access Stresses Sailors at Sea,” Navy Times, April 15, 2012, by Joshua Stewart. For EW: U.S. Naval Academy, Weapons and Engineering Department, Fundamentals of Naval Weapons Systems, public information released by Raytheon, and NSWC Crane Electronic Warfare Center, “EW Maritime Fact Sheet,” accessed March 2015.
Thoughtful discussions of how wars start, and how the United States typically responds, are found in The Father of Us All by Victor Davis Hanson, and America’s First Battles, edited by Heller and Stofft.
Many sources have discussed a possible conflict with China. Among those I read were:
The Brookings Institution, “China’s Growing Strength, Taiwan’s Diminishing Options,” by Yuan-kang Wang, November 2010.
RAND Corporation, A Question of Balance: Political Context and Military Aspects of the China-Taiwan Dispute, by David A. Shlapak et al., 2009.
The Diplomat: “Taiwan, Asia’s Secret Air Power,” by Ian Easton, September 25, 2014.
William S. Murry, “Revisiting Taiwan’s Defense Strategy,” Naval War College Review, Summer 2008, vol. 61, no. 3.
Office of the Secretary of Defense Annual Report to Congress, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2014,” April 24, 2014.
F. Scott Hume, “Study of the Ability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct an Invasion of Taiwan,” School of Advanced Military Studies, United States Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2000.
Dennis Blasko, “PLA Amphibious Capabilities: Structured for Deterrence,” China Brief 17, August 19, 2010.
For overall help, thanks to Charle Ricci and Stacia Childers of the Eastern Shore Public Library; Matthew Stroup of the Navy Office of Information, East; James DiAngio, N01P1, Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic; and Paul O’Donnell, NCIS.
A deep bow to Mark “Dusty” Durstewitz, John Gibson, Anthony Ruta, and Bill Hunteman, who put in many hours commenting in detail. Others both retired and still on active duty supplied invaluable perspective. If I inadvertently left anyone out, my apologies!
Let me emphasize that these sources were consulted for the purposes of fiction. Likewise, the specifics of personalities, tactics, and procedures, and the units and locales described, are employed as the materials of story, not reportage. Some details have been altered to protect classified capabilities and procedures.
My deepest gratitude goes to George Witte, editor and friend of over three decades, without whom this series would not exist. And Sally Richardson, Ken Silver, Sara Thwaite, Naia Poyer, Adam Goldberger, and Anya Lichtenstein at St. Martin’s Press. And finally to Lenore Hart, best friend, anchor on lee shores, and my North Star when skies are clear.
As always, all errors and deficiencies are my own.
PREVIOUS BOOKS BY DAVID POYER
Tales of the Modern Navy
Tipping Point
The Cruiser
The Towers
The Crisis
The Weapon
Korea Strait
The Threat
The Command
Black Storm
China Sea
Tomahawk
The Passage
The Circle
The Gulf
The Med
Tiller Galloway
Down to a Sunless Sea
Louisiana Blue
Bahamas Blue
Hatteras Blue
The Civil War at Sea
That Anvil of Our Souls
A Country of Our Own
Fire on the Waters
Hemlock County
Thunder on the Mountain
As the Wolf Loves Winter
Winter in the Heart
The Dead of Winter
Other Books
The Whiteness of the Whale
Happier Than This Day and Time
Ghosting
The Only Thing to Fear
Stepfather Bank
The Return of Philo T. McGiffin
Star Seed
The Shiloh Project
White Continent
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DAVID POYER’s sea career included service in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arctic, Caribbean, Pacific, and Middle East. Onslaught is the sixteenth in his widely popular series featuring Captain Dan Lenson. Poyer’s work has been required reading in the Literature of the Sea course at the U.S. Naval Academy, along with that of Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville. He currently teaches at Wilkes University, and lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. You can sign up for email updates here.
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C
ONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
1. The East China Sea
2. Somewhere in the Pacific
3. Washington, DC
4.
5. GNS Stuttgart, China Sea
6.
7.
8. USS Montpelier (SSN 765)
9.
10.
11.
12. USS Savo Island
13.
14.
15. Tysons Corner, Virginia
16. USS Savo Island
17. The South China Sea
18. USS Savo Island
19.
20.
21.
22. Tysons Corner, Virginia
23. Yongxing Island
24. USS Savo Island
25.
26. Somewhere in China
27. USS Savo Island
28. SAIC, Tysons Corner
29. The Miyako Strait
30. Western China
31. Guam
Acknowledgments
Previous Books by David Poyer
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ONSLAUGHT. Copyright © 2016 by David Poyer. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Young Jin Lim
Cover illustration by Steve Gardner/Pixelworks Studios, Inc.
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-05631-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-5983-8 (e-book)
e-ISBN 978146659838
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First Edition: December 2016
