Able Sentry

by John Schettler

  Roosevelt had just one F-35 left on deck after the six Tomcats took off. Independence had six fighters ready, and they were ordered to take off at once. Everything else had been configured for strike operations, but that mission was on hold until the CAP watch could get up. They would soon learn that nine Advanced Eagles were taking off from Muscat AFB, and six more from Masirah, help from the USAF. There would only be one problem in that. The Chinese were also sending up 15 more J-20’s to lead their strike planes in.

  The F-15’s increased to 520 knots, hastening to get into a position where they could intercept the enemy planes before they reached their release points. Flying east from Muscat their radar screens suddenly lit up with a storm of SAM’s heading their way. An unseen flight of six J-20’s had fired 18 missiles at the nine Eagles, and watching the whole attack on Radar, Able Sentry intervened with evasion orders.

  “Talon-1, Able Sentry. Come hard about to 270 degrees and burn some fire. Over.”

  The fighters were in one tight squadron group, but now they broke into three fights and pulled a hard G turn to the west, increasing to military speed. They were too late. The PL-15’s pursued relentlessly, closing on the Eagles, which dove for the sea in a frantic last attempt at evasion. They had been found inside the PL-15’s no escape zone, and six would die, gutting the squadron and leaving just three pilots alive. Gritting their teeth in anger, they turned to face their enemy and moved east again.

  More PL-15’s were the air to finish the job as the Eagles climbed. The Mighty Dragons had climbed to 50,000 feet, knowing it was a long way up from the sea, and they fired again. The Eagles had the range, but the difference in elevation was too great. All they could do was bug out again and attempt to evade to the west. One more was caught, the remaining two evading, but it was a clear demonstration of the inadequacy of the Eagle when pitted against a 5th Generation plane. The Chinese fighters could see them first and fire first with a missile that outranged the AIM-120. The result was inevitable.

  “Goddamnit!” The air tasking officer at Muscat swore when he saw what had happened. “Get the Boneheads up. Now!”

  That was an elite US Raptor squadron that was basing at Al-Udeid in Qatar to support the Saudis, but a flight of six planes had come east to Muscat to get into this fight. It was time for the A-team.

  15:40 Local, CSG Independence, 15 JAN 2026

  Now the YJ-100 attack was coming in against the Independence group. Even though the carrier had detached two destroyers, it was still very well defended. Three cruisers were in attendance, The CG-21 Class Portland, and two Ticonderoga Class ships, Shiloh and Antietam. Destroyers Sherman and Sheridan rounded out the group.

  Only half of the YJ-100’s that had been fired would reach this terminal phase of their attack run. The rest had been picked off by the flights of F-35’s out on CAP. SM-6 opened at range, and when the Vampires crossed inside 30 miles, the ESSM took over and steadily wrecked every missile train bearing down on the task force. The attack had been bothersome, but posed no real threat in retrospect.

  The first squadron to reach throw range in the air strike fired at the Independence. It was supposed to coordinate with the YJ-100 attack, but the interference by US CAP patrols had forced it to divert while six J-20’s rushed in to try and clear the way. The six F-35’s had been preying on the YJ-100’s and then got into a fight with the J-20’s dropping three of the six before they went Winchester and broke off for home. The Tomcats were up and they turned to engage the Chinese fighters. In the ensuing exchange of missiles, both sides would simply vanish from the radars back on Independence.

  “Sir,” came the report to Captain Holmes. “We killed those last three J-20’s, and we chewed up a bunch of J-7’s, but the BARCAP isn’t coming home….”

  Holmes said nothing, simply nodding. He had too many planes loaded for the second strike, and this action had depleted his ready fighter pool for air defense. Only one F-35 was still ready on deck, with 16 more rearming. It would be another two hours before he had adequate fighter coverage again.

  Meanwhile, the Chinese air strike was reaching for the Roosevelt. Its two leading squadrons were found by the six Advanced Eagles out of Masirah, and this time, there were no J-20’s close enough to interfere. The Eagles harried them, forcing them to go defensive and lose a good deal of altitude to try and evade the AMRAAM’s, and they got several kills. But the real effect of the attack was to force the enemy planes to use much needed fuel at the outermost leg of their strike.

  The J-7’s were about 35 miles from their release point, but went BINGO and could not proceed. A full squadron of 18 J-10’s needed to go another 75 miles to release their KD-88’s and they had no choice but to turn back as well. So the timely arrival of those six Eagles had turned back 30 strike planes, and now the sacrifice made by their brothers out of Muscat paid some dividend. The J-20’s had turned west to engage and drive them off, as this flight of six had been able to get through the CAP defense and get at the strikers.

  Another 30 enemy planes were in the second wave, some ways behind, and they were already the targets of US RIM-174’s, the Standard Missile-6. Again forced to evade, the 12 Pakistani JF-17’s burned so much fuel that they had to turn back. That left only 18 J-10’s in the strike, and they needed to get inside 100 miles to release their KD-88’s. It was the long reach of the US SAM’s that prevented the Chinese from closing. Beleaguered by SM-6, they would also be forced to turn back. Only one squadron of nine planes would get close enough to release. The other went BINGO and broke off its attack. The 90 plane raid had gone bust, unable to get through the fighter and missile defenses sent out to oppose it.

  Chapter 29

  It was 16:45 before the Boneheads finally picked up bogies on radar. The Chinese J-20’s had improved their stealth coatings, and were very difficult to find. There had been two Raptors from out earlier looking for trouble, but the Chinese found them first. They unleashed eight PL-15’s intending to crush them, and when they did so, the Boneheads saw the enemy planes and closed to attack. They would be too late to save those other to Raptors, not part of their squadron, but brothers in arms to be sure. Then they unleashed hell, the new AIM-260’s.

  Two kills were quickly scored, but the other four J-20’s evaded, went to 1000 knots, and closed the range. The Boneheads let them come, then suddenly split into a fleur de lis and went to their Sidewinders to force them onto the defensive, then they hit the burners and climbed at 1000 knots. Two could play that game. High above the Chinese fighters, they rolled over, and fired down on them with the AIM-260’s. The remaining four J-20’s had met their match, and all four would die.

  “Able Sentry, Boneheads. The board is clear. Over.”

  “Roger Bones, outstanding. Standby.”

  * * *

  By 17:30 the sun had set on the great air strike, which had proved to be a complete debacle. The Sino-PAK coalition lost 23 planes, and a third of those that joined the operation had to turn back without firing their weapons. Only two of eight squadrons actually reached their release points, and their strikes were defeated as far as 75 miles from their targets. The YJ-100 strike had actually put warheads much closer to their targets.

  The US doctrine mandating that the carriers remain over 300 miles from their quarry had much to do with the failure of this strike. The JF-17 did not have the range to get out there if they met any opposition along the way. Yet there was one knock-on effect of the strike. It had preoccupied all the ready fighter strength of the Americans, to a point where only one plane sat ready on both the Roosevelt and Independence. And for those 23 kills scored by US fighters, eight Eagles and six Super Tom’s had fallen to the J-20’s, which were proving to be tough defenders whenever they appeared. There were still 42 in the Chinese air wing, along with ten J-31’s. Only when the Boneheads came on the scene did the US show the dominance many had expected from the outset. It wasn’t a clear superiority of the f-22, because the Chinese fighters were new, with more advanced equipment, while t
he Raptors had older computers, and were past their prime by 2025. The difference was the pilots.

  As for the US legacy fighters, the lesson in all of this was that no matter how much lipstick you put on a pig, it was still a pig. The Eagle and Tomcat were excellent planes in their day, but their day had come and gone. Even with advanced avionics, new radars and missiles, they had been unable to see the J-20 and J-31 fighters first, and unable to shoot first. When that “see first—shoot first” advantage went to the stealthy Chinese fighters, the results were heavy losses for the legacy fighters still flying on the US side. The PL-15 was proving to be a weapon to be feared and respected.

  The Eagles and Tomcats might have repelled the airstrike almost singlehandedly if they had not been challenged by the Chinese 5th generation fighters. As it happened, while they contributed to the defense, the US ships targeted and shot down as many enemy strike planes as any of the legacy fighters. SM-6 had proved a highly effective long range foil, but now it was largely depleted in both Carrier Strike Groups.

  Admiral Sun Wei bemoaned the failed strike, but he was wise enough to see the secondary benefits it brought him. While it did not really hurt the enemy, he thought, it disrupted his recovery operations, and thus upset the tempo of their operations. It also forced them to use valuable SAM’s, and they are much farther from Salaha than I am to Karachi. So I must get my better ships back to that port quickly, and see them rearmed with SAM’s, and before the Americans are prepared to strike again. Even that time in port will be dangerous now, because the Americans undoubtedly identified Pakistani aircraft as part of that strike operation. This means Karachi can no longer be presumed to be a safe haven.

  The Admiral was very correct….

  17:30 Local USS Roosevelt

  Captain Simpson was looking at the latest position tracks on the radars. The recent fighter duels had prompted the AEW planes to move to safer distances, and Able Sentry had withdrawn to a position over the deserts of Oman. Now there were circles of uncertainty as to the Chinese position, but one thing held true. The enemy was moving towards Karachi. So he had been on the satellite phone to Washington for the last 30 minutes, seeking permission to strike that port, but the civilian authorities were waffling.

  It’s an escalation they didn’t want to see, he thought, so they aren’t happy about my request. But we can’t operate like this. The enemy can’t be allowed a safe have just 30 miles from his patrol zone while we sit out here 500 miles from Salaha. How many missiles and bombs do they think we’re carrying? Yes, I can get vertical replenishment from the support ships, but what about the cruisers and destroyers? They can’t get the cranes up and slow to five knots for underway missile replenishment—not while we remain under threat like this. So when they run dry, we’ll have to back off and retool.

  The enemy is doing the same thing at this moment—heading to port to rearm. We need to be able to hit his logistical support base, or this thing could take weeks to resolve. We’ve got a lot of work to do out here. We’ll need every TACTOM we have to work over the coast between Karachi and the Strait of Hormuz. Half of that is Pakistan. Don’t the brainchildren in DC know that?

  Alright, it’s time we got sorted out and planned the next strike. I’ve contacted O’Grady with the Gators. OG had F-35B’s, and we could have used them for fleet defense while all out fighters were forward deployed against that recent air strike they threw at us. That can be arranged. I’ve also put in a request to Berbera for more support. They can move a few flights up to Masirah on our left flank, and that could help cut these damn J-20’s off as they come down from the Pakistani coast. They’ve got four airfields up there, and guess what, we’ll have to visit every one of them to control the Gulf of Oman. This business is just getting started.

  Captain Simpson was a realist, and he could see the road ahead. He knew that if Pakistan threw in with the Chinese, which was apparent, then the Pakistani Air Force had to be neutralized as well. They may have botched that last air strike, but they could still stop all tanker traffic through the Gulf of Oman, thought the Captain…. Unless we stop them first.

  Hell, we knocked Egypt out of the war, and opened the Suez Canal with a big ground operation, but this business here is work for the Navy. Pentagon says they want us to open sea lanes to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but that’s a tall order. Besides, the overland route from Saudi ports to Baghdad is just as long as the route from Haifa. That said, if we’re going to win this thing, then we’ll have to control the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. That goes without saying, and by God, we’re going to win this thing.

  As the night deepened, the wounded destroyer Grant was ordered to fire off two dozen of its MMT’s to harass the Chinese withdrawal to Karachi. The missiles tracked in, but were defeated easily enough, doing nothing more than exhausting more enemy SAM’s. After that, silence settled over the Arabian Sea, and strike planners prepared to burn the midnight oil. Planes were being rearmed, though the carriers had a full strike package armed and ready to go at that moment. Briefings and debriefings were ordered, and lessons learned were drummed into the heads of all the pilots.

  At the head of the discussion was the Chinese ability to contest the airspace with its stealth fighters. No one knew just how many they still had in theater, but the focus of the discussion was the need for clear air superiority. On more than one occasion, strike planes had to be diverted away from their planned approach routes while the fighters encountered Chinese fighters. So rather than launching the second wave that night, it was decided to rest the air wing, and proceed the following morning—assuming they had targets. No one knew if the Chinese would come out and fight for round two, which is why Captain Simpson wanted to get Captain Holmes to double down with him in requesting freedom to operate against hostile bases in Pakistan, including the port of Karachi.

  So it was a long, quiet night on the sea, but not for the arms and logistics crews. All the forward bases were receiving munitions. Berbera answered Simpson’s call and transferred a flight of advanced F-35C’s and its four F-24 Hellcats to Masirah, boosting the fighter count at that base back to 25 planes after the loss of those Eagles. Roosevelt and Independence were not both playing with full decks when it came to planes ready for combat operations. Roosevelt was down to 19 F-35’s and 12 Advanced Super Tomcats. All but six of the F-35’s were loaded for Air to Air operations, and all the Super Toms joined six Panthers with strike loadouts.

  On the Independence, 32 F-35’s remained in service, with three more undergoing maintenance. Of the 32 operational planes, all but nine were ready for air to air roles. All 18 Avengers were rigged for strike. These loadouts could not all be rolled over again for the strike planes, as stores of GBU-53’s were slowly depleting. Captain Holmes would be replenished by AOE Supply, and thankfully, the GBU-53 was one weapon that had been purchased in quantity. There were 24,000 ordered for the GBU-53-I, and another 12,000 for the improved GBU-53-II.

  DDG Grant reported that they finally sealed all leaks. The ship was already 150 miles east of Independence, escorted by DDG Sherman, and making twelve knots towards the Indian port of Mumbai. India had given permission for the US ships to dock there, but tensions were high along the frontier with Pakistan, which was another reason why authorities in Washington were hesitant to grant full operational freedom to the carrier Captains.

  So midnight came with only the soft glow of the electronics in the Hawkeyes and aboard Able Sentry, the E-3 that had been coordinating the complex dance of fighters in the recent engagements The crews took turns at the watch, others getting some sleep or a break for a hot drink. For those brief hours of darkness, the war seemed far away, and the world was quiet. But the forces set in motion in the Arabian Sea would soon stir to live again, and the swirling gyre of renewed naval/air conflict was only a sleepy dawn away.

  Midnight, PLAN Naval Headquarters, Beijing.

  Zhang Wendan, Chief of Staff of the Chinese Navy was not happy. He had summoned Admiral Zhang Bao, Chief of Naval Ope
rations South, and Admiral Wu Jinlong, operational commander of the South Seas Fleet. The latter had flown all the way from Cam Ranh Bay to attend.

  Zhang Wendan was frowning over the map at one side of the table, and consulting a chart on the other.

  “Look at these ship losses,” he began, eyes tight, voice hard. “Two Carriers sunk. Nine Type 055 heavy destroyers lost. Fourteen Type 052D destroyers—gone! Four Type 052C destroyers sunk. Beyond that, we have lost 28 frigates and corvettes, and the Korean Navy was gutted. We cannot sustain losses at this rate and have any hope to prevail in this war. Operations in the Indian Ocean got off to a good start, but now Sun Wei is penned up near Karachi in the Gulf of Oman. Three times we have sortied to dominate the Strait of Malacca, and on each occasion, we are forced to withdraw. This is shameful!”

  Wu Jinlong lowered his head, knowing the weight of that shame must surely be on his shoulders, but Admiral Zhang commended him instead.

  “I do not assess blame here,” he said. “Wu Jinlong, you had little or no air cover after the light carriers were hit, and the damage to Zhendong unhinged operations. The loss of Shandong after that was regrettable, but at least you safely escorted Zhendong to a friendly port. That was the 29th of November. Since that time we have sent our best engineers and work crews to restore Zhendong to operational order. It will remain under your command in the South China Sea. The question now is what to do?”

  “Admiral Sun Wei is fighting a stubborn battle to retain control of the Gulf of Oman,” said Zheng Bao. “We must do the same with the Strait of Malacca.”