by James Rosone
The Ambassador sat back in his chair feeling defeated and blindsided. The military had been pushing for confrontation from the beginning, but at least they had been keeping him informed of what was going on. Now it seemed like they were maneuvering behind his back. “Don’t they realize these actions are going to have long-term consequences?” he thought.
Rescue Operation
East Ukraine near the Russian Border
Spetsnaz Training Camp
Colonel Vadim Lebed, the Commander of the 45th Guard’s Detached Spetsnaz Brigade, had just arrived at the training camp several hours ago to inspect the prisoners and take charge of them. He had left his base at Kubinka, outside of Moscow, to personally take charge of the American prisoners once it had been discovered that these men were responsible for carrying out the attacks against the various air defense vehicles his Russian military had provided to the separatist militias. Those air defense vehicles had been preventing the Ukrainian army from being able to use their air force or helicopters, and Colonel Lebed harbored some desire for revenge.
As he opened the door to the SUV that would drive him to the camp, he was greeted by Major Anatoly Pankov, the camp commander, who smiled as he extended his hand. “It’s good to see you, Colonel. Do you want to see the prisoners now, or would you like a brief tour of our facility?”
Major Pankov was an outstanding soldier, a real mover and shaker in the Spetsnaz world. If he kept his nose clean, one day he could command the regiment. Colonel Lebed had selected him to run this camp because he knew that no one would be able to turn these separatist militias into a viable fighting force like he could.
“Major Pankov. It is good to see you too, my friend. Congratulations on the capture of these two Americans. I believe I would like to see what you have done here at the camp first, then we can discuss the prisoners…Please lead the way.” He gestured for him to proceed with the tour. His aide shadowed them, giving them space to talk freely but remaining available in case the colonel needed him.
The two men walked towards one of the buildings that was being used for classroom instruction. “We use this building to go over the construction of Improvised Explosive Devices,” Pankov said as they walked into the room. There was a class going on with eight separatists being shown how to attach the control wires to a 152mm artillery projectile. In time, they would learn how to properly use other explosive objects like mortars, 122mm rockets, blocks of Semtex, and C4.
“We run this course weekly, teaching as many people as possible how to construct IEDs. Since the start of the Kiev offensive, the separatists have been using them multiple times a day. In fact, the separatists we’ve been advising and training are placing nearly a dozen IEDs a day.”
Colonel Lebed nodded in approval. The only way to win a war when heavily outgunned and outnumbered was through asymmetric warfare. The enormous use of IEDs since the start of Kiev’s most recent operation was having the desired effect. They had stopped the fascist forces from crushing the separatists and demoralized their army.
The People’s Republic of Donetsk and Luhansk was still in its infancy. Their ability to defend themselves from the fascist government in Kiev largely depended on their militia forces. It was the responsibility of the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade to turn this militia force into a viable standing army and force that could protect the new Republic’s national borders.
The two men left the classroom building and made their way towards the main building in the compound. It was a three-story building, which functioned as their operations center. “We have a number of ranges nearby, where we teach them a myriad of different weapon systems, and how to emplace the IEDs and detonate them. We train a hundred soldiers every two weeks at this camp, and have been doing so for nearly two years. To help build up their officer and sergeant corps, we provide a separate four-week course. We train a total of eight officers and sixteen sergeants per training group,” Major Pankov explained proudly.
“Anatoly, you have done a marvelous job turning these unorganized militias into a real military fighting force,” Lebed commented, impressed with how well his protégé had been doing.
The two of them walked through the rest of the building before ending on the third floor, where the two Americans were being held. The Americans were bound and had a few bruises and cuts that there probably obtained during their capture, but otherwise, they looked to be in good health.
“Do you want to talk with them?” Anatoly asked, wanting to make sure his Commander had the opportunity if he wanted it.
“No,” Lebed replied. “I just wanted to see them. Come, let’s go to your office and talk further. We need to review how we are going to handle the American drones and the NATO base at Pryluky.”
The two men talked for several more hours about the new NATO base and whether they should or shouldn’t attack it. It was bad enough that NATO had accepted Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as members, now they had positioned a base in Ukraine. They had crossed a red line; something needed to be done.
*******
Twenty-four hours later, Major Brian Runyon stood in the team room at the Pryluky Air Base, loading his last thirty-round magazine of 5.56mm ammunition for his M4. He placed the loaded magazine into one of the front ammunition pouches on his tactical vest. The men around him were mostly quiet, carefully doing last minute checks of their equipment, weapons and ammunition. Thirty minutes ago, they had been given the final go-ahead by Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) to proceed with the recovery of the captured CIA members. Once they had run through the mission brief, they would quickly move out to the aircraft that would fly them to the target.
As Brian looked around the room, he could see the intense look on everyone’s faces. These men were killers--professionals, but killers just the same. This mission, unlike many others they had conducted over the last decade, was against an actual army, not Islamic extremists. They would be battling against what would most likely be a Russian Spetsnaz team, one that knew how to handle themselves in a gunfight.
Colonel Richards (who had been the Commander of 1st Special Forces Detachment Delta for nearly two years) walked into the room with General Luka and John Williams, along with several other military members. The table at the center of the room was covered in weapons, and the briefers were loading up their presentations to project on the big screen at the end of the room. As Richards and his cohorts walked in, all activity and chatter stopped and the men’s eyes turned to their leader. They all had tremendous respect for this man, who had been in Special Forces and floated around between various groups, in and out of Delta, for most of his career.
Looking at Major Runyon, Colonel Richards said, “I won’t sugarcoat it; this is going to be a tough mission Brian. However, I have complete faith in your team to get this done and bring our guys home.” His voice was filled with sincerity and confidence.
Major Brian Runyon just nodded in acknowledgement. Like Colonel Richards, he had spent most of his military time in Special Forces. He had joined Delta as a Captain after serving a number of years in the Army Rangers (with whom he had completed a whole series of combat deployments). Now a Major, Brian was aware that this was by far the most dangerous mission of his life.
The briefers indicated they were ready to begin. Everyone in the room moved to the chairs and took out their notebooks. The first briefer began, “All right men--here is our target. We are going to be assaulting an unofficial Russian Spetsnaz base camp, located deep inside rebel territory, near the Russian border. As you can see on the images on screen, the compound consists of one three-story building, two smaller outbuildings, and a four-car garage. It also has a six-foot tall cinderblock wall surrounding the buildings. There are two personnel entrances, here and here, and one vehicle entrance, here.”
Everyone was paying careful attention as the images on the screen continued to update. “Surrounding the compound is a wooded area. About 500 meters to the south, behind the compound, there is a small creek that snak
es towards the highway. This is where they have parked an air defense vehicle. In front of the compound is an open field that leads to the main road and runs through several farms fields.” He picked up a ruler and pointed to this area for emphasis. “This is where the exfiltration will take place,” announced the briefer.
The men nodded, and the briefer continued. “On the base, you can expect to find a Spetsnaz detachment, which consists of roughly 20 operators. A company of Russian soldiers provides the perimeter security for the compound (in addition to the SA-17 and SA-19 air defense vehicles I previously pointed out). This location has been used as a logistics, training, and operational hub by the Russians for the past three years. Since they’ve set up operations here, they have trained hundreds, if not thousands, of separatist fighters here.”
An Air Force Master Sergeant stood up to present his briefing next. He brought up a 3D animation of the structure, showing various guards at different locations and began to describe the images, “This is the building where the prisoners are being held. Surveillance indicates the prisoners are being held on the top floor of this third-floor building, in this room here.” He used his laser pointer to identify the specific room they believed the prisoners were being held in.
“As you can see, the building has an entrance to the roof here. We’ve identified three guards on the roof. One of them appears to be holding a MANPAD while the others are carrying assault rifles. There is one guard outside the prisoner’s doors, also armed with assault rifle. The guards are clearly on alert for a potential raid--they anticipate we might try to rescue our people--so you need to neutralize them.”
Half of the men seemed concerned that the soldiers were going to be prepared for their mission, and the other half were excited about the orders that had just been given; they would not have to hold back.
The Master Sergeant continued, “The second floor appears to be their sleeping quarters. We estimate the various rooms can house roughly twenty personnel. From our observation, there appears to be roughly six to ten people sleeping in there at any given time. The first floor is where their operations appear to be run out of. This room is the communications room,” the briefer said pointing with his laser pen, then moving to identify the other rooms on the first floor as well. “Here is the weapons room, the kitchen, and two storage rooms. We are not sure what they are using the basement for or what is down there. The outbuildings appear to be training rooms, they will be empty this time of day.”
Switching to some new images of the exterior of the compound, “This is what concerns us. The Russians have deployed one of their SA-17s which is near the tree line here” the briefer pulled up several satellite images of the unit in relationship to the structures around it.
Pulling up a different image, “About a quarter mile away, in this area here, is a SA-19 "Grison” air-defense system. The two of these systems provide them with both short and medium air defense capabilities against both aircraft and helicopters. Therefore, you will be inserted via a high altitude, low opening HALO jump and land in this area here,” several additional images were shown of an empty farm field maybe a quarter mile away from the compound.
The briefer then brought up some live feed surveillance videos being taken by a Global Hawk operating not too far away. The briefer was talking to the drone operator, and they were walking through the terrain of the landing zone and the various approaches to the Russian compound. They clearly saw guards on various roving patrols. Everything they had been shown on the previous slides was matching up to the real-time video they were watching.
Colonel Richards spoke up, “As you can see, there are the roving patrols that are going to need to be dealt with.”
The JSOC briefer then resumed talking to the group, “There are the three guards on the roof…then there are two groups of three roving guards that walk the perimeter.” Images shifted to show the vehicle locations, and various guard positions that would need to be neutralized.
Several of the members of A Squadron looked around at each other, a little apprehensive of what they were hearing and seeing. This was clearly going to be a tough and complex raid. It was not every time they got to see live video surveillance of a target they would be hitting in less than six hours.
The Master Sergeant carried on. “Upon landing, Alpha team will immediately move to the north side of the perimeter to neutralize the guards at the air defense systems and place the explosives on the truck. It’s imperative that you take out that SA-19 first, then move to the next unit. If those vehicles are not taken out, it’s going to be a long walk for you guys back to friendly territory.”
“Bravo team will move to the south side of the perimeter, taking out the guards here and here, and the three guards near the vehicles on this side of the compound. There are six armored personnel carriers, which are a mix of BTRs and BMPs. You will also need to get your explosives placed on those vehicles. Charlie and Delta team will enter the compound here, at this entrance. Once inside, there are two guards here, at the entrance to the compound. They will need to be eliminated quickly. Once they are cleared, you will have to move down the hallway past one door, which should just be a closet.”
He coughed once, then took a swig of water from his canteen before he continued. “The stairs leading to the other floors will be on the right. The stairwell continues all the way to the roof. I will leave it to your discretion as to how you want to clear the building and recover the prisoners.”
Major Runyon interrupted to ask, “--Assuming this all goes according to plan, how are we going to get out? I suspect the Russians probably have other air defense assets in the area.” He was not sure he was going to like the response he was about to be given.
An Air Force LNO replied, “They may have additional air defense units in the area. We are going to have a couple of jamming aircraft loitering over friendly skies to assist in your recovery. When the time comes, they will turn their jammers on and blanket the area. This should neutralize any additional air defense systems.”
A member of the Night Stalkers picked up where the Air Force LNO stopped, “Once you have secured the prisoners, you will send the coded message, letting us know you are ready for extraction. The exfil aircraft will be loitering at this location here, roughly five minutes from your location. We will be using three of our new and experimental V-280 ‘Valor’ tilt-rotor wing helicopters for the exfil. They will be escorted by a pair of Apaches.”
Several of the men let out a soft whistle as they looked at the image of the V-280. “I was not aware that the Night Stalkers had a new helicopter,” General Luka said in admiration.
“This will actually be our first mission using them,” explained a Chief Warrant Officer 4 (CW4) from the Night Stalkers. “We started training on them about three months ago. We did not plan on using them in an operation for at least another year, but because of the air defense threat of this mission, it was felt they should be used. They are not stealth per se, but they have a significantly reduced radar signature and are extremely quiet for a helicopter.”
“As long as we don’t end up with a scenario where one crashes like what happened on the bin Laden raid back in 2012,” Colonel Richards said. He was unsure if this was a good idea, but he had been overruled on the decision.
The CW4 added, “This is why we are bringing a third one with us. They can carry eleven soldiers and their gear, more than enough room for this mission.”
Major Runyon asked another question, “What air support do we have? Also, what will be the contingency plan if things go downhill fast?” No one wanted to think about the worst-case scenario, but Runyon’s personal philosophy was that you plan for it, then you have a better chance of survival.
The JSOC briefer piped up, “This is why the rest of your Delta group and the Ranger Company are here in Ukraine. They are your Quick Reaction Force if you need to be bailed out. The Night Stalkers have four Blackhawks and three Chinooks, along with another two Apache helicopters on standby. They
will lift off once you guys start your insertion, so they will be loitering over friendly skies, ready to move if given the order. As to air support, the Air Force will have one of their electronic jamming aircraft initiate a full-spectrum jamming across the targeted area. They will take the Russian communications system down immediately once you are in place; they will also make sure their radars are down when it comes time to exfil. If things really go south, there are also two F-35s loitering at high altitude ready to provide direct air support if needed.”
The Air Force LNO jumped back in to add, “We know that if the strikes are needed, they will pose a threat to our own forces by proximity, so the F-35s will each be carrying four 250 lbs. Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and two 500 lbs. JDAMs, which are small enough and precise enough to carry out a surgical hit. Beyond that, we have a Spector gunship that will be on standby on the runway here at the airport along with four additional F-16s carrying more JDAMs.” The LNO’s tone implied that this was probably overkill.
General Luka then spoke up, “Listen, we are hoping this operation will go off smoothly. We understand you are going to hit some resistance, but we do not want to escalate the situation any further than it already has. You guys are the best special operators we have. Just get in, neutralize the guards, and get our people out of there.”
John Williams, the CIA man, sensed the apprehension in the room as the gravity of the mission began to sink in. He decided to try and rally the crew. “Look, it’s an awful situation we find ourselves in, but we have two operators being held captive, and we do not leave a man behind. You guys are going to go in there and get our guys back. Plain and simple.”
