Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable (World War III Series Book 2)

by James Rosone

  Sighing deeply, the President asked, “How much time do we have before this planned invasion, and what is the CIA’s assessment of this?”

  Director Rubio spoke up, “The CIA does believe the information to be credible. The various troop movements, ships and so on is consistent with preparations for an invasion. As to the timeline, the Japanese source says it will happen within the next 30 to 45 days. Our sources also believe that timeline is accurate as well.”

  “Then we do not have much time, do we?” pondered the President aloud. “What are your suggestions gentlemen?”

  General Branson signaled to speak first, saying, “Mr. President, I recommend we move quickly to get as much of our equipment and troops out of Japan and to Alaska as possible. We also have 400,000 new recruits coming out of basic and advanced training in two weeks. I move that we send them all to Alaska and begin building up the defenses. We will also need to move additional mobile laser systems and mobile railguns once the roads start to clear from the snow. These blasted blizzards are really hurting our ability to build up any sort of defenses.”

  General Rice the Air Force Chief of Staff added, “We have 400 fighter drones being delivered from the factory next week. I will order all of them to Alaska. That will bring our manned aircraft to 300 fighters and our fighter drones to 1,100. I know the Navy has been hit pretty hard, but if they can focus their subs in the Alaskan waters that would greatly aid our defense.”

  Admiral Juliano knew he had to do something; his submarine force has been getting hammered. The Chinese had sunken five submarines in the last three weeks in the South Pacific. “I can transfer three subs from the South Pacific, but that is about it. I only have seven operational attack submarines in the Pacific; I’ve lost twelve subs in the last three months, five in the last three weeks. I can move three of our cruise missile subs, but with the laser defense systems that they have, I am not convinced they will be very effective. Right now they are causing havoc, hitting their shipping lanes, which of course are less protected than their carrier fleets.”

  Knowing he needed to offer more, Admiral Juliano decided this meeting was a good time to bring everyone up to date on a secret navy initiative to reclaim the waters of the Pacific. Taking a deep breath before continuing, Admiral Juliano explained, “There is a new weapon that we have been developing for some time that we believe could be a game changer. It’s our new Swordfish Underwater Drone or SUD. It’s going to be the first of what we hope to be many UDs we are currently developing--”

  The President interjected to ask, “--Is this something that can or will be able to deployed in the next thirty days?”

  “Yes, Mr. President. We have two of them completed; one of them just completed its test trial and is currently being moved to Anchorage as we speak.”

  “I think I was briefed about this when it was still a concept. Can you bring us up to speed on this Admiral Juliano?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

  Juliano opened a file on his tablet and began to play several test videos and demos of how the new weapon would work. “Essentially, the SUD is an underwater Reaper Drone. It has a speed of 70 knots, a depth of 2,000 meters, and an unlimited range. It carries eight of our new advanced anti-ship torpedoes.”

  The President raised his hand for the Admiral to pause for a second and interpolated, “Tell me more about these anti-ship torpedoes and how they are different than the ones we are currently using on our submarines.”

  Knowing the President might ask this, Admiral Juliano pulled up the dimensions of the current torpedoes and the new torpedoes. “As you can see, the newer torpedoes are much smaller, about 1/3 the size of the current torpedoes, but they are significantly faster and have a much longer range. The newer torpedoes have a 60-mile range giving the attacking submarine, or in this case SUD, a much higher survival rate. The newer torpedo uses a new detonation chemical component which makes the torpedo three times as explosive. It also uses a much newer AI targeting software, so once the torpedo is launched, it has the approximate GPS and depth of the target it was fired at and proceeds towards it without an active sonar. Once the torpedo gets within two miles of the target’s last known position, it activates its sonar, but at that range, it’s too late for the target to evade.”

  “This new torpedo sounds amazing,” the President said. “So, how are we going to make use of it now?” asked the President, eager to find a way to employ it quickly.

  “We still have a few bugs to work out in the new torpedo. Some of them have been failing to detonate on impact; we are not 100% sure what is causing the failure, but we hope to have it worked out over the next few months. As to why they are not on our current subs, presently the torpedo does not fit on them. Our new submarines being built going forward are going to use the newer torpedo, which we are calling the Hammerhead. The SUDs will also use the Hammerhead, and so will our anti-submarine helicopters and aircraft starting at the end of the month. We presently only have a small stockpile, and they have been allocated for the two SUDs that we have,” the Admiral said, while going over the inventory numbers and the projected monthly delivery numbers from the factory.

  “How soon could we retrofit our existing fleet of submarines to use them?” asked General Branson.

  “We are already working on that right now; the older Los Angeles attack submarines that we are taking out of mothball are having their torpedo tubes retrofitted to use the Hammerheads while they are in dry docks getting the rest of their upgrades completed. The timing of this works out well because they needed to be in dry dock to have their sound proofing upgraded, along with their propeller screws. We anticipate having eight of them ready for service starting in June and will have eight more a month coming into service until all forty-four have been brought out of mothball,” the Admiral said with a smile.

  The President smiled from ear to ear and said, “Admiral this is great news. Absolutely wonderful. How many of the new SUDs are going to be coming online per month as well?”

  “We have the first two right now; we are supposed to receive a total of eighty of them over the next three years. I am working with the contracting company to expedite them, but some of the materials needed for them are also being heavily used by the Pershings.”

  General Branson jumped in to say, “We will have to stick to that timeline then Admiral. The Pershings are far too important right now to cut back on their production. The Chinese and Russians both have a new MBT coming online soon that we have not seen yet.”

  “I have to agree with the general on this one Admiral; we will have to stick to the timeline the manufacturer is giving you then. I’m not ready to shift resources away from the Pershings. We are still working on solving the material problem,” The President concurred.

  The Admiral paused for a moment, not sure if he should bring up the following topic or not. “I had heard from one of my science advisors that some of the rare materials that we use in the new armor for the Pershings can actually be found on the Moon in the asteroids. If that is the case, then is there any way we can collectively find a way to acquire more of it? I mean, if this material is so rare and yet so vital to our military equipment, how can we obtain more of it so we can ramp up our production?” asked Juliano, hoping he didn’t sound crazy.

  The President was actually surprised to hear the Admiral ask this question, and clearly wanted to discuss this more, but his own science advisor was not in the room to facilitate that discussion. “You bring up a good point. I believe we will have to have that discussion at a later date when I can bring in the chief scientist who is leading that effort presently. Professor Rickenbacker is at one of our other facilities right now.”

  Turning to look at Monty, the President directed, “Monty, arrange for a special science briefing with the Professor to bring us up to speed on some of the new technologies they have been working on. Let’s see if we can do this sometime next week. Also, gentlemen, this meeting that you will be invited to will be “eye’s only.” No aides
, no notes and no recording devices,” the President said secretively.

  A chorus of “Yes Sir” could be heard as the President turned back to General Branson. He wanted to continue with the briefing. “Gentlemen, we have limited resources right now; we need to figure out how we are going to defend Alaska and British Columbia. If the Chinese are able to establish a base of operations and a foothold there, they will flood troops and material in by the millions, positioning them to invade the rest of the country. We need to buy time until we can produce more military equipment and get more recruits through training” the President directed.

  General Branson pulled up some maps of some different areas in Alaska and began to address the group, saying, “We may need to give ground to buy more time. We can plan on putting up one blistering attack and try to prevent the initial landings, but if they are successful then we will need to pull our forces back and try to turn this into an asymmetrical war of attrition. We are building multiple layers to our defensive lines throughout Alaska and British Columbia, but as you know, the blizzards have been hampering this effort a lot.”

  “One good note--we have the training facilities up and running, turning out a hundred thousand soldiers a month for the South American Expeditionary Force. We anticipate having this force ready for deployment as its own Army by the end of summer. If the situation warrants it, then we can use them in Alaska instead of Europe,” General Branson said, sounding very optimistic about their chances in Alaska and the overall war effort.

  “We still need to make a decision on Europe. Do we continue with our offensive in the spring or do we continue a defensive action and focus on Alaska?” asked the Secretary of Defense.

  The President knew a decision about Europe and the Middle East needed to be made, so he took charge. “I want General Wade to hold off on his offensive. Tell him to hold in place. This will give the EU more time to grow their military and their military manufacturing capability. Use everything that we have to hold Germany and keep the Russians at bay. If General Wade believes he needs to launch a limited offensive to do that then he may, but unless the entire Russian front falls apart, he is to hold Germany and not get sucked into Eastern Europe. Tell General Gardner he is to proceed with his offensive. I want the IR knocked out of the war so we can focus on these other theaters. Once his heavy combat operations are done and it moves to an occupation, we can look to move some of his heavier armor units to Europe and bolster our forces there.”

  Everyone in the room rose as the President stood up to leave the room, and quickly began putting into motion the plans they had just discussed.

  Operation Red Dawn

  Day 122

  3 April 2041

  Moscow, Russia

  National Control Defense Center

  The National Control Defense Center (NCDC) facility was just down the road from Red Square. The NCDC was a massive edifice that replaced the older Ministry of Defense building in the mid-2020s. This center could control all military activities around the globe and run the entire economy and country if need be. Once the world powers agreed to keep the war conventional, President Fradkov began to spend more and more time at the NCDC. The facility boasted a nuclear shelter in the basement, and was connected to a number of other critical locations throughout the city via underground tunnels as well.

  The war for Russia in Europe and the Middle East was going about as well as they had hoped for up to this point. Russia had secured all of its former satellite countries, and was devastating the EU. The Americans may have stopped them at the German border, but that would change with the coming summer offensive. In the meantime, the MiG40s were causing havoc among the Allied air forces. The only thing preventing Russia from having full control of the skies was the limited inventory of MiG40s available.

  The allies were slowly figuring out how to track and identify the new MiGs, which had led to several of them being shot down. For the moment, Russia controlled the high altitude fight (everything above 15,000 feet). Below that level, the Doppler radars the Americans had would guide the laser defense systems or railguns in the area to their location. Fortunately, the MiG could also carry six guided bombs, enabling them to attack Allied laser and railgun systems from a high altitude. If the radars on the lasers or railguns could detect the bomb fast enough, they could engage and destroy it; however, the percentage of successful hits was typically around 30%, still making the effort to attack them more than worth it.

  *******

  President Mikhail Fradkov walked into the War Room in the basement of the Kremlin to discuss the war effort, the summer offensive and the Alaskan invasion: Operation Red Dawn. “Generals, please be seated. We have a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it. How are the invasion plans going with the Chinese?”

  General Gerasimov, the head of the Russian military began his brief. “We have eight additional troop carriers and two roll-on roll-off transports at our port in Vladivostok. We have 1,800 Main Battle Tanks (MBT) and 2,400 light drone tanks in port ready to go. The plan calls for the Chinese to conduct a massive missile and air attack for several hours before the invasion starts, in order to pound the American positions a bit before the landings.”

  “We have 300,000 troops ready to go when the Chinese are ready to move. Operation Red Dawn should start on May Day, 1 May. The Chinese plan on invading at nine different locations along the Alaskan coast, which will draw away most of the American air force. We believe we should have the upper half of Alaska secured by the end of summer, before most of it becomes impassable due to the weather. We will also be inserting several thousand Spetsnaz units throughout Alaska to attack their airfields, supply depots and critical communication nodes throughout central and northern Alaska.” The General spoke with an air of confidence that bordered on arrogance as several images of airfields and communication targets were shown.

  With Operation Red Dawn starting to draw more resources away from the European theater, Sergei Puchkov, the Minister of Defense, needed to determine what they wanted to do in the Middle East. So he boldly interrupted the discussion, “--Generals, Mr. President, we need to discuss our strategy in the Middle East. Intelligence indicates the Americans are going to start a new offensive shortly, and prior to that happening we need to determine our strategy. Are we going to send more reinforcements and launch a counter offensive or are we going to withdraw our forces and use them somewhere else?”

  President Fradkov had initially wanted to destroy the Americans and Israelis, but that had been proving harder to achieve than they had originally thought. The Middle East was starting to turn into a meat grinder and the question was--how much longer did Russia want to continue to fight in it? If the Americans had not committed so many troops to defending Israel, Russia never would have committed so many troops to the Middle East. At this point, the fight was forcing the Americans to have to battle on more fronts than they were effectively able to do.

  “Generals, the fight in the Middle East is a fight we need to stay committed to as it ties down immense amounts of American resources. These are assets they cannot commit to Europe, or soon to our operations in Alaska. We will reinforce the 2nd Shock Army as appropriate. Is that understood?” questioned the President.

  “Yes sir.”

  Wanting to get back to the European front, the President wished to discuss the new tank that they had been developing and how soon it could be ready for action in Europe. “Minister Puchkov, what is the status of our new battle tank? Is it ready for action?”

  Minister Puchkov began to open some folders and started displaying some pictures, video and stats of the new T1 main battle tank on the holographic display. “The T41 is going through its trial runs right now. The blizzards have been slowing some of these tests down, but we have determined that the main weapon functions to our satisfaction. The issue we are still trying to work out is the power supply. The T41 is a tank, but it is a very slow and cumbersome vehicle that will rely heavily on other support vehicles around it in its c
urrent iteration. Right now, the top speed of the T40 is roughly 30 kilometers per hour, and it has a range of about 200 miles.”

  Not happy with these numbers, the President asked, “Why is the vehicle so slow and cumbersome? This is not what was briefed last month. Back then everyone said this new tank could keep up with our armored forces and would be a good counter to the American Pershing tanks. What has changed since our last discussion?”

  “The power generation changed. The tank can fire just ten shots before it needs to idle and recharge for about an hour. Each individual shot requires about fourteen minutes of recharge before firing again. We thought we could get about thirty shots from the battery pack before it would need to idle, but once we started to test the laser against the Pershing’s armor, we were wrong. The energy used by the laser needed to be increased by some 300% for it to penetrate the Pershing’s armor. This dropped the number of shots the battery could hold. To augment this, we had to build a new, larger power generator, which in turn meant a redesign of the rear mount. All of these changes added an extra 10 tons of armor and weight to the vehicle that it had not been initially designed for,” answered Minister Puchkov.

  “Mr. President, if I may--I would like to suggest that we send the T41 back to the designers to figure out how they can integrate these new design changes better. I do not want to have some unreliable new tank on the battlefield, or worse, taking up production capacity and material,” said the Commanding General for the Russian Armed Forces.

  “I agree. Let’s send the T41 back to the drawing board. I want a new prototype ready in 90 days, something that incorporates these new design requirements,” the President said as he ended the meeting.

  Trifecta