Sky Masters pm-2

by Dale Brown

  “Hold for the President, please.” A moment later: “Yes, Wilbur, what’s going on?”

  “Mr. President, we have an incident near the Philippines. The aircraft carrier Ranger was hit by a Chinese air-launched cruise missile and damaged with loss of life. Two Navy fighter planes were shot down as well.”

  “Oh, no.. .” the President murmured, obviously not wishing his feelings to be heard by others with him. He was speaking on a scrambled cellular phone, but from the background noise Curtis heard, it sounded as if he were at a luncheon and were still right at the table. “I’ll be out of here in ten minutes. Ask ‘laddie’ to come up and see me when he can.” The line went dead. Curtis could not help but smile at the casual, almost backwoods code words the President liked to use during conversations like this: “laddie” was this month’s code word for the National Security Council, whom he wanted assembled in the White House Situation Room immediately. To his communications officer, Curtis said, “Call the White House communication office and get the NSC in the Situation Room ASAP.” The phone line began to come alive at that moment, and Curtis motioned for someone to get him a glass of water as he settled in. Two or three calls to get a better picture of the situation, then formulate a plan of action during the car ride to the White House. It was as it always was: he was cut out of the loop for most of the really important policy decisions, but when the shit hit the fan, he was expected to have all the answers. Well, he told himself, he was going to have all the answers when the National Security Council met. The next call came from Guam: “General Stone here, sir.”

  “Rat, got a report for me?” “The Ranger got jumped by B-6 bombers and Q-5 or B-7 fighters, sir, ” Stone replied. The exhaustion in his voice was obvious, even over the scrambled satellite link. “We didn’t see them coming until about a hundred and fifty miles out. We had the radar planes bug out, and we thought the Navy fighters turned them away, but they weren’t after the radar planesthey were going after ships right away. Only two of the first flight of six were armed for air defense; the other four were carrying two each C60 1 missiles as well as heat-seeking air-toairs. “Are you sure they were 601s?”

  “Pretty sure, judging by the flight profile and the damage they caused. They were a hell of a lot bigger than C801s or Exocets.”

  “No evidence of… special warheads?” It was possible that the C601 missiles were carrying nuclear warheads but they simply failed to go off. Curtis could hear a genuine sigh of relief even through the static-charged transmission: “No, thank God.” The alternative, as Curtis well knew, could have been much worse. In 1946, during secret tests code-named OPERATION CROSSROADS, the Navy wanted to see the effects of a twenty-kiloton nuclear blast on an aircraft carrier. CV-3 USS Saratoga was towed out to Bikini Atoll and the device set off five hundred yards away. The blast of that one warhead threw the forty-thousand-ton aircraft carrier nearly fifty feet out of the water, pushed it sideways nearly a half-mile, crushed its seventeen-inch armor plating and caved in the flight deck, then sank it in seven hours. Ranger would have suffered much the same fate. “We got pictures of the aircraft on the ground in Zamboanga after the attack-they were B-6 bombers all right, ” Stone continued, shaking Curtis out of his reverie. “The Chinese put their top-of-the-line maritime-attack plane in Zamboanga. Each one had two C601 missiles and two PL-7 or PL-9 missiles. No definite ID on the fighters-only the B-7, F-8, or the A-5 with air reftieling have the legs these guys had to go after Ranger from that distance. We also got pictures of Y-8 reconnaissance planes and PS-5 antisubmarine-warfare planes out there.” The Chinese were moving a major naval air force into the south Philippines, Curtis decided. With this force they could seal off the entire area and conduct bombing raids on the government bases on Mindanao. Curtis asked, “Do they own the Celebes Sea, Rat Killer?”

  “I’m afraid so, sir, ” Stone replied. “Air, land, sea, everything. We gotta go in hard if we want to have access. Curtis knew what that meant-no more fucking soft probes, no more RC- 1355 no matter how many escorts they had. Sending Sterett into the Celebes Sea now would be a big mistake. “I copy. Looks like Doctor Masters’ gadgets are going to be the only intel we get for a while.” “He’s giving us some great poop, sir, ” Stone said. “His gadgets are working just fine. I’ve already transmitted some pictures to you via Offutt; they should be in your hands very soon. You should have some more detailed shots of the Chinese positions in Zamboanga within a couple hours.”

  “Good. I meet with the boss in thirty minutes; he’s going to want to see them. What else have you got for me?”

  “With Masters’ gear set up here, General Harbaugh from Third Air Division, General Houston from Fifteenth Air Force, and I have already played out a couple strike scenarios for the south Philippines, ” Stone replied. “We’re definitely going to need the Air Battle Force-and then some-to dislodge our Oriental buddies.”

  “What kind of scenarios have you come up with?” Curtis asked. “Can you send me some of your data?”

  “I sent the scenarios to you along with the photos, ” Stone said. “It’ll make interesting reading for you. Masters practically duplicated the entire Air War College and Naval Postgraduate School war-gaming computer models right here in my command post, complete with up-to-the-minute intelligence data, and we’ve built and revised data tapes for the B-52’s Offensive Avionics System suite and for the B-1’s AP 1750 strike computers for the Air Battle Force aircraft. We’ve fought the battle of Mindanao three times already.” Curtis remembered the old saying, “Don’t ask the question if you can’t stand the answer, ” but he asked anyway: “Who won?”

  “It depends, sir, ” Stone replied. “Exactly how bad do we want the Chinese out of the Philippines?”

  “What I want is to send a ship into the Celebes to search for the downed crews from the Tomcats we lost. I also want to get the Navy back in there just to tell the Chinese they can’t lock us out. I need some air cover. The Navy planes are grounded for now. “Sorry, sir. Don’t think we can help, ” Stone said. “We’ve only got seven F-15 fighters on station-we’d need at least twenty to cover a rescue operation. None are modified for air-to-surface ops. Curtis swore to himself. With Ranger out of the fight, they were really stuck for both offensive and defensive punch. It would take time to send in another carrier group, and that would allow the Chinese to fortify their own sea and land forces. What they needed was real offensive and defensive power. They needed the Air Battle Force in there-right now. THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM THIRTY MINUTES LATER “You told me the carrier battle groups could protect themselves, General, ” the President began. “One hit, and now we’ve got sixty dead and hundreds more injured.” All eyes of the members of the National Security Council swung toward him. All but Thomas Preston. The Secretary of Defense believed that this confrontation was inevitable, but he obviously saw it not as the beginning of the end of tensions in the Philippines, but the beginning of dangerous hostilities. Like looking down the barrel of a nuclear-loaded gun. Curtis rarely agreed with him, but this time he very well may be right…. “Sir, there was a malfunction of one SM-2 Aegis missile during the cruiser Bunker Hill’s response, Curtis explained. Thirteen more men had died of their injuries in the past thirty minutes alone; thirty more were given no better than a fiftyfifty chance of survival. It was hard for Curtis to formulate an objective, detached analysis of why and how so many men had died. He was numb, but pressed on: “Bunker Hill had positive control of the situation until the time of the mishap. Admiral Walheim’s antiair-warfare deputy, who was in command of the engagement from Bunker Hill’s CIC, terminated all the rest of the missile launches that, in all probability, would have destroyed the last incoming missiles. Control of antiair functions transferred to the cruiser Sterett, and the switch was made smoothly, but Sterett couldn’t put enough firepower in the air to stop all the missiles.”

  “What about inner defenses? Didn’t Ranger have any guns to protect itself?”

  “Ranger’s fighters shot
down one of the aircraft carrying the antiship missiles and took shots at the missiles themselves, but F- 14 Tomcats are not really designed for chasing down cruise missiles, especially with enemy fighters in the area. Ranger itself had two operational short-range RAM launchers-heatseeking missiles mounted on a steerable box launcher-plus two Phalanx automatic Gatling-gun defense systems, but although both systems were functioning neither could hit the incoming missiles. We’re investigating.”

  “We also lost two fighters. Why?” Curtis bristled at the notion that he was responsible for explaining the vagaries of aerial combat, but he explained. “Sir, the fighters faced multiple enemy aircraft at all times-at no time did we have better than a one-on-two match-up. The fighters were responsible not only for protecting themselves and their ship, but the Air Force aircraft as well . . “But why did we have such poor odds?” the Vice President, Kevin Martindale, asked. “Why did we have only eight fighters airborne? We should have had sixteen or twenty… There was a hushed tension in the room; Martindale fol lowed the furtive glances of those around him to the President. “We authorized only two escorts per aircraft, ” Taylor explained to the Vice President. Everyone could tell that the President’s admission was a stab wound for him. “They were talking about thirty-plus fighter escorts up there. “Sir, our objective from the beginning was not to get into a big furball with dozens of aircraft in this area, ” Curtis explained. “If we had huge waves of fighters up there, it might’ve looked like an invasion force. Besides, we had no way of knowing the Chinese would not only send fighters to chase down our recon planes, but launch antiship missiles as well . “I should have known.” The President sighed. “I should have erred on the side of protecting our troops. “Perhaps it would have been better to have more fighters up initially, ” Curtis allowed, “but our aircraft were in international airspace and outside the established Philippine air-defense zone at all times. Our reconnaissance plane came no closer than forty miles to a Chinese vessel that was fifty miles offshore-well within the law. Our aircraft broadcast identification signals, they were in constant contact with international overwater flight-following agencies, and they used no type of jammers whatsoever. The Ranger was over three hundred miles away and never entered the Celebes Sea. We behaved as nonthreatening as we possibly could.. “It seems that we underestimated the Chinese, then, ” Thomas Preston said. “This is no mere foray they’re involved in-this is a major military operation. They are prepared to defend their positions with everything they have and do whatever it takes-including attacking a United States aircraft carrier.” “And that should not be tolerated, ” General Curtis added. “They’re professing their innocence and at the same time blasting away at our reconnaissance aircraft and carriers-“

  “Hold on, hold on, Wilbur, ” the President interrupted. “I understand your anger-believe me, I share it. I need to hear some more options first before I consider a military response. He turned to Secretary of State Danahall. “Dennis, you said you had something for us on the ASEAN meeting?”

  “Yes, sir, ” Danahall replied. “The Association of South East Asian Nations concluded its emergency session in Singapore yesterday. We’ve got Deborah O’Day over there as our observer.” Curtis glanced quickly at Thomas Preston and detected a slight edge in his expression. O’Day was once Preston’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Pacific-one of a multitude of positions she held in two White House administrations-and had been fired from that post for her outspoken advocacy of expanded involvement in Pacific affairs in general and specifically her opposition to the U.S. pullout of the Philippines. Curtis could imagine the reception O’Day got from the predominantly Moslem and generally anti-female men. “Miss O’Day reports, ” Danahall continued, “that the vote to bring sanctions against China was defeated in the ASEAN assembly.”

  “What?” the President asked, alarmed. “But they can’t . . . The Chinese are tearing up the Philippines and ASEAN isn’t going to do anything about it…?”

  “That’s not all, sir, ” Danahall said. “After the meeting, O’Day was briefly kidnapped…” The room crackled with tension. “Kidnapped!” The President found himself sitting straight up. “Jesus, is she all right? What happened…?”

  “She’s all right, sir. Not a scratch. Her assailant says he was sent by Second Vice President Samar to officially request military assistance from the United States-and O’Day reports that Samar had delivered a warning not to enter the Celebes Sea region because the Chinese Fleet Admiral was ready to attack.” He held up a sheet of paper. “Here’s her communique from the embassy in Singapore, dated sixteen hours before the attack began.” The President scanned the communique quickly, then returned to his chair stiff with shock. He turned to Preston, then to Curtis. “Did you know about this?”

  “Yes, sir, ” Preston replied. “I immediately issued a message to Admiral Walheim about the warning, but we gave this warning little credence at the time.”

  “Why?” “Because the Ranger group was never scheduled to enter the Celebes Sea in the first place, per your orders, ” Preston explained. “I decided to go ahead with the aerial surveillance, since the risk was far less and because we needed the ‘eyes’ up there to see what the Chinese were doing. We never expected the Chinese to attack our reconnaissance aircraft, let alone the Ranger carrier group. Preston looked decidedly uncomfortable, then added, “Miss O’Day has had a… uh, reputation for sensationalizing a situation, sir. I’m afraid I have to admit I gave her warning little credibility. It sounded like a fanatical tirade by a Filipino guerrilla soldier . “We did everything we could do to protect the fleet, sir, ” Curtis said. “The proper warnings were issued, the commanders in the field knew the situation “I take full responsibility, sir, ” Preston said uneasily. “I should have brought the matter to your attention immediately.” The President stared at Preston but his eyes seemed dead. After a moment he shook his head and waved a hand at Preston. “It’s not your fault, Thomas. If you had told me that the Chinese were ready to attack the fleet, I would’ve said you were crazy and told you to continue as planned.” He paused, then said, “All right. We’ve got several dozen dead sailors, a damaged aircraft carrier, and apparently a live Filipino vice president asking for our assistance. What do we do about it?”

  “JCS has devised an operation that we think can send a clear message to China, sir . The President was obviously still hesitating. That single nuclear explosion, a relatively small burst that occurred ten thousand miles away, was hamstringing this President, casting doubts that only served to increase his anger and frustrationlike Reagan’s inner torment about the American hostages held in Lebanon, the nuclear explosion and the fear of an escalating conflict between the United States and China was plunging the President into indecision. “Sir, I’ve got to reiterate this point: every day we hesitate in sending offensive forces into Guam and put them into a position to act, the worse our situation will be. We will reach a point where we will be unable to respond at all to stop China. It’s even more important to send the Air Battle Force in right now, Curtis continued, “because they now become the only offensive weapon we have against the Chinese in the Philippines, except submarines and long-range cruise missiles.” He referred to a wall map of the area as he spoke: “We won’t risk sending any more warships into the Celebes Sea, and the South China Sea region and the seas within the Philippines are too dangerous or shallow. China controls the south, west, and north sides of the Philippines, and they control the South China Sea itself. “However, they do not control the east side of the Philippines, and that’s their weakness. Air strikes from either carrierbased or land-based bombers can come in from the east and strike at Chinese positions “Using Doctor Masters’ computer systems on Guam as well as the reconnaissance data from both the RC- 135 flight and his lightweight satellites, the STRATFOR has developed several strike options designed to achieve an entire range of results. The plans require using the Air Battle Force. Without Ranger or another carrier group available,
we simply don’t have the counter-air defensive capability on Guam right now. The Air Battle Force is the only unit we can send on short notice that has the firepower we need. “In short, I think Masters has developed a workable plan for dealing with the Chinese in the south Philippines. We see a pretty good chance of success, even with anticipated Chinese reinforcements in the Celebes. The primary plan is relatively small, controlled, and does not directly involve any carrier battle groups or any Marine Expeditionary Units. Masters’ war-game computer calls the plan Operation WINTER HAMM.R… “Winter?” Vice President Martindale retorted. “You’re going to wait until winter to do something?” The Vice President was not known for being too swift. “The name was simply a random combination of words made by his war-gaming computer, and its use is strictly internal. We can pick a different name for media purposes if you wish “Just let me know what you’re proposing to send over there, ” the President said irritably. “How much equipment, how many men. “The first Air Battle Wing, which is the only one currently organized, ” Curtis replied, “consists of eighteen B-52 bombers, ten F-111G bombers, twenty F-15B, C, and E-model fighters, twelve F-4 fighters, three KC- 10 tankers, six KC- 135 tankers, one E-3C AWACS plane, one RC-135 radar plane, one EC- 135 airborne command post, three C-5 cargo planes, and ten C-141 cargo planes. It totals about two thousand men and women. The current force includes three B-2 stealth bombers as well, which have been training for use with the Air Battle Force. We also have the use of the destroyers Hewitt and Fije and the cruiser Sterett, which were part of the Ranger battle group; the two destroyers carry Tomahawk cruise missiles that can go in ahead of the bombers and take out seaborne radars and large vessels. The Second Air Battle Wing has about twice as many troops and equipment, but can’t be assembled for another thirty to sixty days. “According to our intelligence figures, the Chinese have approximately ten thousand troops in Zamboanga itself, plus another five thousand afloat in the Celebes, ” Curtis continued, “including a full Marine regiment on Mindanao and another afloat. “They have the equivalent of three surface action groups in the Celebes, which is twelve capital warships including submarines in each group. We have mapped out at least twenty different possible surface-to-air missile sites surrounding the Celebes. They have closed off or actively patrol all sea-lanes and all air routes around the southern Philippines for a radius of a thousand miles from Zamboanga. “In addition, they have another twenty thousand troops, thirty more ships, and at least a hundred more aircraft in Puerto Princesa, only five hundred miles away. And this is only a quarter of what they have sent to Luzon: Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base both have as many Chinese troops and machines there as the United States once had there at the height of the Vietnam War-“