Condition Zebra: The Next War - 2025

Chapter 22

The missiles rose into the clear morning sky, climbing rapidly up and reaching speeds of 3000 knots in a matter of seconds. They were a secret weapon Iran had been working on for some time with assistance from Chinese engineers. The weapon system was called Kalij Fars, which meant, simply enough, “Persian Gulf,” built from the Fateh-110 single stage solid fuel ballistic missile, mounted with a 650Kg warhead. Its relatively short range of 300 kilometers meant that its targets would be limited to the Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz, which made it a kind of defensive weapon against naval incursions into those maritime spaces—because Kalij Fars was a ship killer, designed with an optical seeker to look for moving targets at sea.

The Iranians had dropped the chador on the missile in 2015 in this history, announcing it now had the means to find and kill American carriers entering the Persian Gulf. That was one reason why the Navy ended big deck carrier patrols there years ago. Operating only from the Arabian Sea with those valuable assets, and on a sporadic basis. The shift to the Pacific saw four US carriers based there, and two on the Atlantic. Of those, one was assigned to the Med, the other to the Arabian Sea, but it had been in Norfolk for maintenance when these events flared up.

That was why Carrier Strike Group Roosevelt had taken so long to get to the scene, departing from San Diego for the long journey to Darwin, only this time, the Iranian missiles were not targeting a carrier. The US Security Patrol out of As Sultan Harbor in Oman had been spotted approaching the Strait of Hormuz, and so the Iranians thought they would test the system on the cruiser at the heart of that small task force.

CG Bull Run was ready for trouble of this sort, for US intelligence knew the missiles had been deployed, and so every cruiser they floated had the latest version of their long lance SM-3. Three times faster than the ballistic missiles it was targeting, they were away in a fiery wash once that enemy launch was spotted. Four Vampires had been detected, and eight SM-3’s went out after them, finding and killing all four targets before they even got half way over the Gulf they were named for. Their broken shards would fall there that morning, and take their rest in the sea.

Captain Peter Duncan on the cruiser Bull Run took offense to that attack, and for more than one reason. His ship had sailed with 16 SM-3’s, and he had just expended half of them to stop those missiles. “They want to play darts this morning,” he said to his XO, James, Fallon. Have we refined that contact up ahead?”

“The group is still fuzzy, but we just picked up something turning the corner on the Musandam Peninsula, and at 35 knots.”

“Has to be a patrol boat,” said the Captain. “Let’s say hello with one of the escorts. Give it to an LCS. We’ll see what that new Norwegian missile can do.”

“Aye sir.” The Captain was speaking of the new Naval Strike Missile that had been added to all Freedom Class Littoral Combat Ships. Before that addition, they had been relatively toothless, having Hellfire mission modules that could let them threaten fishing boats at a range of five miles, or discourage Somali Pirates, but little else. Iranian patrol boats outranged the LCS, and would have fired and fled long before the they ever got close, but that was no longer the case with the NSM mounts added. Each Freedom Class ship now carried eight of the missiles, with a 100 mile range.

The US Navy had superb radars and support from aerial recon assets and satellites, so finding a target was generally not their problem. But you had to have a missile with the range to hit the damn thing, and here the glaring flaw in the LCS concept was finally corrected. The ships could finally fight at range, and two Naval Strike Missiles were sent out after that skunk, only to discover that the single target was actually a group of five Iranian Patrol boats. Unlike Bull Run, they had no SAM systems to defend against the missile attack, and so PB Zafar went up in smoke and fire at 08:45 that morning.

Bull Run then joined Hunter and Ranger, with two Harpoons, while the LCS ships threw out a couple more NSM’s. They soon wiped the table clean, sinking the remaining four Iranian attack boats. Three years earlier. The Iranians would have had the draw on the US Littoral Combat Ships with four times the range, and that with the Iranian C-704 miles, which could only get out 20 miles. This time the tables were turned, and it was the US that had the advantage of range.

In our history, there were 16 ships in the Freedom LCS class, and all of them combined could not have successfully engaged or defeated the five Iranian patrol boats under fire that morning. They were, in effect, lightly armed coast guard cutters, with a 57mm deck gun that had a five mile range to go along with its Hellfires. The Iranian boats would have scooted just inside that 20 mile range and fired off ten C-704’s, with a strong possibility of hitting and sinking several ships, while all the US force could do in return was use harsh language.

Lockheed saw the problem clearly enough, and submitted a proposal to the Navy to convert the ships to a “Small Surface Combatant Variant.” They wanted to add a VLS section for ESSM or SM-2, and swap in a better deck gun, but the US Navy passed on the proposal. Instead, the Saudis bought the idea, ordered four ships, and they would get that boat with an Italian made 76mm deck gun, 64 ESSM’s for air defense, supported by 21 more RIM-116C’s, and they even strapped on eight Harpoon II’s. Just one of those ships would have put down all five Iranian patrol boats, where all 16 of the US boats, the entire class, would have remained helpless to lay a finger on them.

Go figure…. At least in this history, the United States Navy wasn’t about to build ships that could not fight known threats it was likely to face, and prevail. It was never any mystery as to what kind of threat the LCS might encounter in littoral waters. They were the province of the fast attack craft, offshore patrol boats, and larger corvettes, all known, right down to the missiles each were carrying. The mystery was why the Navy commissioned ships that could not engage and win against these threats, and why they never corrected the problem in our timeline.

Those five boats had been based on the island of Abu Musa, and an hour later, a pair of Raptors up on CAP detected two more patrol boats near that island. The data was shared with the navy ships, and Captain Duncan saw that they were just outside the firing range of the LCS boats. So he handed the mission to his destroyers. DDG’s Rodes and Starke each had 28 Multi-Mission Tomahawks, with plenty of range for any fight at sea, so they fired four. But all this commotion had given away the position of that task force, allowing the Iranians to try and get off a shot in return.

These boats had a better missile, the Chinese made C-802 with a 110 mile range. The Separ had the range first, and fired all four of its missiles. Then, in a coordinated attack, two Iranian shore batteries would also fire their C-201 Silkworms, so both sides had missiles in the air at 09:45. Four minutes later, the crew of Separ pointed excitedly at a low flying cruise missile, just five miles out. That boat would die seconds later, along with Derafsh, which never had a chance to fire. When the remaining Silkworms tried to creep across the Musandam Peninsula and get at the American ships, the US air defense was more than adequate, killing seven more missiles without breaking a sweat.

In that brief hour, the US Maritime Security TF had just eliminated the Iranian surface threat in the Strait of Hormuz region, and it would be some time before those silkworm batteries were reloaded. Thoughts now turned to the expected undersea threat when LCS Hunter detected a Goblin just five miles from the TF on its towed CAPTAS Mark 4 sonar. They had stumbled upon a hidden diesel boat, Ghadir Class #944.

Captain Duncan was quick to lay out his orders. “Let’s get ASROC on that contact, on the double, then launch the ready Seahawk. The task force will come about to 180 degrees and all ahead flank.

It was shoot and scoot. You never wanted to be inside ten miles from a hostile sub—ever. The ASROC was a rocket torpedo with a 22 kilometer range that could get a weapon on the target very quickly, and possibly force it to go defensive if they were sitting there ready to fire torpedoes. Then the ships had to be somewhere else, and fast. Those orders filled the bill, and it was the Seahawk that got to the Goblin first, and just before the Iranian boat could get its firing solution locked in. Captain Duncan was pleased at the result, but he knew that had been a close call.

“Goddammit, isn’t Toledo out there?”

“Yes sir, about 11 miles off our starboard side.”

“Well they should be forward of this task force. Get a signal to the to that effect. That one was whisker close.”

“Aye sir, signaling Toledo to take position ahead.”

That improved LA Class sub had not detected the Iranian boat, as it was just starting to slow after a sprint at 20 knots. Drifting at five knots, it might have heard the threat ahead, and now it was on guard. With surface threats dispatched, the mission had changed to ASW patrol as the TF began to enter the narrow Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranians had yet another Ghadir Class boat lying in wait ahead, #943, and it was creeping just over the layer at 3 knots, silently stalking the noisome US ships. What that boat could not hear was the Seahawk out there looking for it, now flying with impunity under US SAM and air cover, and dropping passive sonobuoys well forward of the US ships. They turned up trouble at 12:18 Local time, ruining the lunch mess.

The sub contact was about five miles beyond ASROC range, so it was going to be up to the Seahawk to put harm on the enemy sub. Luckily, it had a very refined contact, and swooped in to get a Mark 54 torpedo in the water. Drifting at 100 feet below the surface, the Iranians had no idea they had been found until that torpedo hit the water, less than half a mile from the sub. By that time, it was far too late, and number 943 would be struck and killed less than a minute after the Captain gave the order to turn and run.

A diesel sub relied on one thing—stealth. If it was found, it was usually dead within minutes, because it could simply not run and hide after that. The shallow water in the Strait also prevented it from diving deep, leaving it few evasive maneuvers that might save its life.

The US ASW hunt would continue, but that had pretty much pulled the cork out of the bottle. The only other Iranian sub was Ghadir #942, on the other side of the long Musandam Peninsula, and the Saudi Navy was out hunting that Goblin.

This sweep of the Strait of Hormuz was just a preliminary operation. It was going to take more work before that sea lane might be declared open for anything other than a warship. Mines were always a worry, the sub threat could return, or more fast attack craft might venture out from Jask, though the latest satellite report showed no more based there. Beyond that, the Air Force was going to have to find and kill the missile batteries with anti-ship missiles inside Iran, and that meant they would have to penetrate Iranian airspace to hunt them down.

At the moment, the squadrons in theater were all generating air support and strike sorties against the Iraqi Army, but by the time the convoy carrying the USMC drew near, that work would have to be done. As to when that might happen, no one could say just yet.

The next problem was going to be much farther east, when the Chinese Fleet moved towards Singapore again—only this time, they reinforced with an additional carrier. That move underscored the importance of that sea transit zone, for Singapore had long commanded that entire region, and it simply had to be neutralized, or nothing the Chinese hauled from the Persian Gulf would ever get into the South China Sea.

China could not invade and occupy the place, as the Japanese had done in the last war. There was no way they could ever mount a campaign similar to that conducted by General Yamashita, where he earned the nickname the “Tiger of Malaya.”

In WWII, Japan, with a population of just 73 million, was able to invade and occupy Korea, Manchuria, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Java, Borneo, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Iwo Jima, the Marshalls, Marianas, Solomons, New Caledonia, and the Fijis, (in this history). Here, with an industrial base over ten times that of WWII Japan, a population of 1.4 billion, and a navy that would have easily crushed the IJN, modern China had expended most of its amphibious carrying capacity in the operations to seize and hold the Ryukyus, and it had precious little else to spare for other adventures.

It was a strange truth that, as weapons and military power got so much more powerful in the modern era, the ability to conquer and successfully occupy and control other countries became almost impossible to achieve.[5] Therefore a landing on Singapore, facing three enemy divisions, was completely out of the question. Yet China could use its missiles to strike and destroy the airfields and docks the Royal Navy relied upon to sustain its fleet there, and that would have the effect of opening the route through the Strait of Malacca.

To achieve this end. The South Seas Command was now upping its ante and sending 30 ships, a fleet composed of two carriers with the J-31, four Type 055 heavy destroyers, nine type 052D destroyers, and fifteen frigates. Three submarines would deploy forward of the main fleet TF’s. As before, the forward airfield at Ranai on the main island of Riau was a key contributor for air support. The next closest base was Miri in Malaysia, on the big island of Borneo.

For his part, Admiral Pearson had no business even being at sea. He had just seven ships remaining serviceable, the light carrier Invincible with just seven F-35’s left, an older Type 42 destroyer, Liverpool, and five frigates. Yet at least three of the five frigates were Type 31, armed with the American ESSM and the Naval Strike Missile. With these came the four ready frigates of the Royal Singapore Navy, and they had the Aster -15, and the American Harpoon. A group of six RSN patrol craft also carried a total of 48 harpoons, but they would have to get inside 75 miles to use them, which wasn’t likely to happen.

Admiral Pearson was conflicted with his dilemma. Intelligence indicated that he would be outnumbered three to one in warships of frigate size or better, two to one in carriers. Was he just signing the death warrants for ships and men if he sortied now? Yet what was he to do, simply sit in the harbor at Changi Naval base, until the cruise missiles found his ships there? There was a third course, and that was to simply withdraw, slipping away up the Strait of Malacca or down through the Sunda Strait into the Indian Ocean.

If he took the Malacca Strait, he was still controlling it, and might sit off the northern tip of Sumatra thumbing his nose at the Chinese and daring them to come after him. That would allow the Chinese to move into the Karimata Strait between the Java Sea and South China Sea, where they might wreak havoc on the facilities, airfields, and ports around Singapore, not to mention the 200 plus tankers and container ships hovering near that bastion. Unless ordered to do this, it would not serve honor, or do well to abandon a good ally in Singapore. So David went out into the Lion’s den, hoping against hope he could survive.

The odds were steep, but the Admiral had an unseen comrade in arms, a man named Vladimir Karpov, who had shaken the mantle of grief from his shoulders over the loss of his brother self, and turned to the one sure thing that would focus his mind and energy again—combat at sea.

Chapter 23

Kirov had come a long way to get in on the action here, which was no problem for Karpov’s flagship, but required Kursk to find fuel. The US graciously sent an oiler up from Darwin, and Kursk topped off in the East Java Sea before they continued west. They were now in the heart of Indonesia, the old “Dutch East Indies” that were such a bone of contention in WWII.

“Well Karpov, this is a tall order,” said Fedorov. “The Chinese have a great many ships out there now, and help from the Americans is still 1500 miles to the northeast.”

“They don’t have to come all the way down here, Fedorov. In fact, they could attack us now, presuming they were the old hostile force we faced so many times. Remember, their Tomahawk has a 1600 mile range. Besides, they have an aircraft carrier, so they will probably just sail into the west Celebes Sea and throw air strikes across Borneo. That’s what I’d do if the Kremlin were here.”

“Yes, and if we had planes on it that could make air strikes,” said Fedorov.

“Don’t remind me. Yes, why build an aircraft carrier if you don’t make one that can fight? No other nation on earth has been able to build a carrier that could remotely match the performance of an American big deck ship. They learned well in the last war, and carrier operations have been at the heart of their naval strength ever since. Yet this navy here has its power more distributed, fewer carriers, but with destroyers cruisers and heavier ships that are real monsters in combat. I think they took a leaf from our book, Fedorov. Remember, they were terrorized by a massive battlecruiser with missiles in WWII. The shadow of Kirov lays heavily on them.”

“Strange,” said Fedorov. “You would think they have records, photos of this ship from WWII, and then we suddenly appear here in 2025.”

“Those who knew what we really were, and where we came from, will not be surprised by that,” said Karpov. “The Royal Navy certainly knew about us, and formed that group to keep a watch on us. Surely they told the Americans.”

“I would assume so,” said Fedorov. “They called us Geronimo, a mysterious raider that seemed to appear out of thin air, and then vanish as the hunting Royal Navy closed in. The Japanese called us Mizuchi, the name of a sea demon.”

“But did they ever really know what we were?”

“Some must have learned our true identity. Remember that modern Japanese ships under Admiral Kita shifted to the past, so men like Yamamoto must have known about us.”

“That must have chilled his blood, to think our presence there was even possible. Well, we lived that through. Now we have another war to fight. What will happen here? Are we going to watch the British get hammered before we can get up there to help? We’re 450 miles southeast of Singapore.”

“Ah, but with missiles that can range out 700 miles. So we can coordinate with the American Tomahawk strike.”

“Already thinking ahead, aren’t you,” said Fedorov.

“Like any good chess player.”

Fedorov nodded. “How do you feel? Did you get the rest you needed? I realize you took quite a blow.”

“Don’t worry, Fedorov. I’m fine. Yes, I grieve the loss of my brother. Yet his very presence here was terribly haunting in some ways. Imagine seeing yourself thirty years from now, bent with age, and grey. Strangely, now that he’s gone, I feel more myself. I’m all here now, if that makes any sense. My mind is not always drifting out to that of my brother self, wondering what he is experiencing, and worrying about him. Now I know all that—everything he experienced, all memories within me now.”

“I understand,” said Fedorov. “At least I think I do. Face it, we were doppelgangers when we arrived here, and our plan took the lives of our local selves.”

“Unfortunate, but true,” said Karpov. “This may seem callous but, in one sense, I felt that didn’t matter, because here I was, still alive. Time had to choose which of us would survive, and she chose me. That wasn’t the first time that has happened. I survived the coming of my brother, and now he is gone, but I’m still here, all one man now. Time and Fate have chosen me yet again.”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” said Fedorov. “Alright, what is your plan here?”

“We’ll continue north towards Singapore. The British have already identified the general position of the Chinese task forces. They’ve even spotted one of their carriers. It will be heavily protected, but that’s never stopped me before. At the moment, it’s about 500 miles from us, and that’s an easy throw for our Zircons. I could swing them over the British fleet, and then dogleg them toward the Chinese—making it look like the British fired them.”

“Better let the Royal Navy know that first. They’ll see missiles headed right at them, and they are very squeamish about speedy lances like the Zircon. They’ve lost a lot of ships.”

“All because they built inadequate air defense into both their destroyers and frigates,” said Karpov. “The Type 42’s they’re still floating are obsolete. Their Daring class is a good ship, with superb radar, but it needs twice the number of Asters to survive in high intensity modern combat. So they’ve already lost a third of all their destroyers. As for their frigates, only the Type 31 is effective. Their Sea Ceptor can’t catch high supersonic or hypersonic missiles, and that makes those ships easy to kill with a missile like the YJ-18, something they stole from us, mind you. So they’ve lost a third of their frigates too. Those are heavy losses—ships, officers, and good crews going into the sea, and all because their Navy did not build ships that could fight and defeat known threats.”

“Strange,” Fedorov agreed.

“Hell,” Karpov continued, “their carriers are so ineffective that the British Admiral Wells had to use his entire air wing defensively, trying to shoot down incoming Chinese missiles. They had no effective strike capability. Sound familiar?”

“Ah,” said Fedorov. “Just like we did when we fought in 2021. I read the report. The British did make a good attack with that Small Diameter Bomb you hated so much.”

“Indeed, but then they were forced onto the defensive because their escorts were inadequately equipped for modern air defense. I’m not demeaning the Royal Navy. God knows they are a fine, professional force at sea. Give them the right tools, and they’ll beat you Monday through Friday. In this case, I think their government’s penny pinching left them in the lurch, even though their navy here is twice the size of the Royal Navy we left behind in 2021. Britannia no longer rules the waves in that history, and they are struggling here too.”

“What did you think of the Chinese Admiral’s performance?”

“Outstanding,” said Karpov. “He had no carriers, very limited air support, yet he used the few assets he had to get his targets, and then he just pounded them. He struck at every weakness in the British fleet that I’ve noted here, and certainly had the victory. No Fedorov, if we beat the Chinese in this war, the United States Navy will really have to step up and do the heavy lifting. That said, let’s see what we can do to help the Royal Navy here. A lot is riding on this. If they lose Singapore as a functioning base, then a standing naval task force will have to be at sea here to keep the Strait of Malacca closed, and given the Chinese tactics to date, it will have to be strong. They are close enough to these objectives to be able to really use mass in their engagements. The situation shaping up in the Indian Ocean is a perfect example. By withdrawing their Mediterranean Fleet, they bulked up their Indian Ocean Fleet to over 40 ships!”

“Makes tangling with them a chancy thing,” said Fedorov.

“Quite so,” said Karpov. “I wish I had Admiral’s Lazarev and Nakhimov with me now, and a few more new destroyers like Kursk.”

“Don’t forget Kazan,” said Fedorov. “Ivan Gromyko is out there somewhere.”

“Yes,” said Karpov with a smile. “He is.”

The New Jersey Task Force was nearly 1300 miles away from the nearest Chinese ship in the South China Sea that morning when they fired, but the missiles would not be aimed at any ships. The Big J, or the “Black Dragon” as the ship was called, is sitting in harbor as a museum in our world, but here the ship had been extensively modernized with a major refit. The navy wanted to see what a ship could do if it retained armor to resist damage from missile strikes, and then carried a load of firepower to deal out devastating blows in reprisal. Big J was one of two chosen, the other being the Iowa, and now it was steaming forward of the new US carrier Independence, in effect, acting as the forward screen with two companions, destroyers Buckner and Thomas.

The battleship had four Mark 41 VLS bays, or twice the missile load of a Ticonderoga class cruiser. It also retained one of its former 406mm main gun turrets, which could still fling shells out over 20 miles. Throw in six twin 127mm secondary batteries and four Phalanx mounts, and the Black Dragon could really breathe fire. Those VLS cells presently held 32 SM 2’s, 32 SM-3’s, 48 SM-6’s, 160 ESSM’s and a whopping 96 Multi Mission Tomahawks. For all that power, New Jersey would not fire that hour. The mission was instead handed off to her two escorting destroyers They each carrier 28 TACTOMs and 28 more MMT’s, and it was the TACTOM that would rule the hour. Those missiles were going out after the Chinese airfield at Miri.

The long arm of the US fleet wanted any assets there reduced or destroyed, because they intended to take up a position about 300 miles east of Miri, in the Celebes Sea, and they did not want their operations challenged or interfered with by Chinese fighters based there. Malaysian Borneo (the provinces of Sarawak and Sabah), was independent from the long Malaysian Peninsula in this history, and China had been cozy with it for some time. So it had secured basing rights at Miri, and permission to build a radar site. There it placed a dozen J-10 fighters, and six J-31’s to act as replacements for the carriers, along with several helicopters and a single J-20 that had landed there after having engine trouble.

A massive fan of cruise missiles were launched creating a vast arc as they all veered off on separate vectors. In time the missiles formed a great letter C on the US radar scopes, extending over 350 miles from north to south. They were going to cruise right over the Philippines in the northern half a of that arc, and the rest would come in over the Celebes Sea. Their targets at Miri were 1025 nautical miles away, and cruising at 500 knots, it was going to take them a little over two hours to get west to Miri.

As they made that long approach that morning, the British were using a few of their F-35’s off the Invincible to scout the Chinese positions. They had found one of the two Chinese carriers, cruising southwest of the main Riau Island in the South China Sea, another of the many island bastions in those waters that had been claimed by China. Admiral Pearson’s problem was that he had no means of striking that target, as it was presently 160 miles away, outside the range of his ship’s missiles. But that was not a problem for Admiral Wu Jinlong that morning. He had the range hours ago….

The four DDG escorts with the carrier Zhendong would open the battle from the Chinese side that morning, each one picking a target in the British formation and firing four YJ-18’s. At the same time, five J-31’s would rise from the upturned ski-lift deck of the carrier, each carrying a pair of anti-radiation missiles to target the British radars once they went active. They would be detected on radar about 110 miles out, coming at 530 knots, which raised the adrenaline in the British Fleet. Their assumption was that these were the fast YJ-18’s, or Sizzlers as they called them, and they were the missiles that had killed the majority of Royal Navy ships lost in the war to date.

That detection triggered alarms all through the fleet, and a scramble order rattled Tengah airfield on Singapore, where six ready Eagles took to the sky. Two had launched earlier as a radar picket, and now they turned towards the threat, each carrying six AIM-120C missiles. As with Admiral Wells earlier, the British would rely heavily on the support of fighters as a defensive shield, and they knew they had to get to the YJ-18’s before they started their high speed sprint. Two F-35’s were the first to fire four Meteors, then those first two Eagles engaged.

“Tally ho!” shouted an Eagle pilot to his mate. “Fox Three, Missiles away!”

Those four fighters would score a heartening 14 kills. The last two leakers were then taken down by the Type 31 frigate, Battleaxe. Seconds later the missile warning lights came on and those two Eagles were under attack.

“Break right!” came the call as the two planes maneuvered. They had been fired on by unseen J-31’s, stalked by the long range PL-15 missile, and one of the two planes was hit. The other evaded, diving for the weeds, the riveting nature of the moment smothering the realization that a friend was suddenly gone. There would be no time to grieve. That second Eagle pilot would not get home to think about it, dying 30 seconds later when a PL-15 ran up his flaming tail.

The ready alert Eagles that had just scrambled from Tengah AFB were now 35miles off the coast, moving swiftly at 520 knots. Up ahead they got radar hits on a tight formation of J-31’s, surprised they could see the planes. That could mean only one thing—the planes were carrying something externally which was reflecting the radar. Otherwise, the stealthy Chinese fighters would have been damn near invisible.

The Eagles had the AIM-120C, with a 60 mile range, and might have been under fire by now if the Chinese fighters were carrying the PL-15, but with those anti-radiation missiles, the loadout called for the lighter PL-12, which had just a 50 mile range. Now the Eagles would have their revenge, firing a flurry of AIM-120’s. The AMRAAM’s were good that day, finding and killing all five of the valuable J-31’s, much to the chagrin of Admiral Wu Jinlong. Only one of the Eagles was killed in return. Eagle Flight had avenged the loss of the radar picket planes, and then some.

The first Chinese attack had been a dismal failure. The planes were not escorted, they arrived too late, and there was not enough mass in the attack to make any real breakthrough.

That was a great waste of five good planes, thought Wu Jinlong. The attack was ill timed, and had no saturation. It was entirely defeated by their fighters, and no more than two missiles off one of their ships. Now I must order the six reserve J-31’s to deploy from Miri Airfield to replace those losses. This carrier must maintain a full air wing. That leaves me with 15 fighters, but those from Miri will bring us back up to strength.

Furthermore, the action is getting too close for comfort. It is clear that the British are attempting to close inside 100 miles, but our advantage is to stay outside their missile range.

“The task force will now come to 105 degrees west,” he said. “Also, signal Captain Zheng on the Shandong. If they have any J-31’s armed with the YJ-91 externally, they must switch to air superiority loadouts at once. They are to use the PL-15, and only in the internal weapons bays. The British are using their fighters as an air defense shield, and we must smash it.”

The Admiral was going to use his J-31’s in their strongest role, to sweep the skies clear of enemy fighters, radar pickets and AEW planes. His mood would soon lighten, because his forward sub screen had a boat up quite close to the advancing British fleet, and it was about to fire.

Chapter 24

The Type 041 Yuan Class diesel boat had been creeping at just four knots, angling toward a point that would see the British ships come across its bow. The Captain had six Yu-10 Torpedoes ready, and five targets now in range. That torpedo would normally be fired inside eight miles, but it could run 27 miles before exhausting its fuel, so getting this close was a good guarantee of a hit. Fast at 65 knots, any ship targeted this close in was in real trouble. Every ship in the fleet, including the four RSN frigates, now turned away from the attack, and went all ahead flank.

Invincible immediately launched a pair of Wildcat Helos with Stingray torpedoes. They raced to the suspected contact point, put two sonobuoys in the water, and had the location of that Goblin in short order. A minute later, a Stingray had found the sub, which was just 70 feet deep in these relatively shallow waters, where the bottom was less than 200 feet. The white water bubble that emerged on the surface told the tale well enough. That sub was gone, but not before it had put five deadly torpedoes in the water, which were now closing on their targets, even though the controlling wire to the mother ship was cut.

The four RSN frigates had been found, and the swift, silent fish were running true, having locked on with their own internal sensors. Supreme was the first to be hit, its back broken in the terrible explosion. Steadfast was next, her bow gutted by the lance that found her. Stalwart took the third hit, soon to roll over like a skewered whale and die. Intrepid was the last to go up in fire and smoke, the entire squadron of four frigates wiped out.

The fifth and last torpedo fired was after the Type 31 frigate Archer, soon to be fatally hit, with a raging fire aft, and systems down all over the ship. Adding insult to misery, a second Yuan class diesel boat was able to make certain Archer would not survive, and also put a torpedo into Battleaxe before it too was pounced upon by the helicopters and killed.

In that one fell blow, Admiral Pearson had lost six of his nine frigates, and with them went any chance of staying in this fight. Even before the terrible shock of the attack struck home, he knew that any man in his right mind would simply turn and run from this ordeal. He was never going to get close enough to the Chinese ships to fire anything at them. They had the speed to remain at a distance, where they could use their own missiles with impunity, and with the bravery of being out of range.

Grim faced, and somewhat pallid when the news came, he turned to his flag adjutant and issued an order, his tone almost solemn.

“Signal all remaining units. Launch helicopters to recover men in the water. Then this squadron will withdraw to Singapore immediately.”

The Admiral went to the ready room aboard Invincible, and drafted a message to Whale Island:

The gravity of this decision could not be understated. It meant that the Royal Navy was relinquishing control of the eastern end of the Malacca Strait, and by extension, the approaches to the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra.

But support from allies was at hand. Karpov stood on the bridge of Kirov, looking at the BDA report on the Chinese attack.

“A submarine attack,” he said aloud. “A goddamn submarine… Fedorov, the British fleet looks like it is turning back for Singapore.”

“They lost six ships,” said Fedorov. “Those four RSN frigates were the only large combatants in Singapore’s navy. Without them, the British will simply not have the ability to defend against the kind of attacks the Chinese have been throwing.”

“Well then,” said Karpov, folding his arms. “It’s time they picked on someone their own size. Mister Samsonov, we will give them some covering fire as they withdraw. Target this squadron here. Put two Zircons on each of these three ships in the forward screen, then four on these two leading destroyers in their inner screen. For the carrier, allocate six. Their missiles are very good, and those are two Type 055 class destroyers there, but let’s shake them up a bit. The American Tomahawk strike is just starting to hit Miri. This attack, from an unexpected vector, might blow the foam off their beer.”

The missiles arced high into the stratosphere, reaching the speed of Mach 5 in little time. Then they fell like lightning toward the Chinese ships, and when they were 25 miles out, the first ship to fire on them was destroyer Changsha, which was actually positioned just behind the carrier Zhendong. They barely got to the first two Zircons before they reached the frigate Henyang. As the range closed, and the missiles slowed to 2300 knots, the HQ-9’s finally began to fire in volume, but the Vampires were just too fast to get them all.

Type 055 destroyer Huoshen, the Fire God, took a direct hit and there was a tall column of fire as her heavy magazines exploded. A second missile pushed all the way through to take the carrier Zhendong amidships and Admiral Wu Jinlong felt the ship shudder with that hit.

Samsonov looked up at Karpov, a glint in his eye. “Sir, sixteen missiles fired as ordered, thirteen destroyed by enemy SAM fire, one malfunction, and two hits, both on prime targets.”

“Not bad, Comrade! I think we got their attention. Yes?”

Karpov smiled.

Aboard Zhendong, damage reports were coming in swiftly after that hit. There was no fire, but the missile had penetrated into the hangar deck and put all air operations on reduced capacity. Then the communications station relayed the news from Miri. The airfield was now under heavy attack by enemy cruise missiles. Facilities there were severely damaged—hangars, shelters, the ammo depot, control tower, tarmac spaces, runway access points, and the air strip itself. Virtually every plane hosted there was destroyed in the attack, including a full squadron of twelve J-10 fighters. Miri had simply ceased to function as a viable base for the Chinese.

As much as he was elated at the exploits of his submarines, Wu Jinlong was disturbed. The attack on Miri could only mean one thing—Tomahawks, which meant the Americans were coming. At this point, he did not know where they were. Satellites had not provided any intelligence, but the direction of the attack, coming from the east, led him to believe they were moving his way from the Pacific.

They were reported to have two carriers at Guam, he thought. How many are headed in this direction? I need better intelligence. As for the British, they are beaten. There was never any doubt as to that outcome, but these missile that just struck us have done serious harm. What were they? Who fired them? Again, our intelligence leaves much to be desired. Could these have been fired by the Royal Navy ships? Impossible, neither they, nor the Americans, have a missile that can move at such speeds, which leads me to suspect….

Yes, those were certainly not Tomahawks. They were almost twice as fast at sea level as the American LRASM-B, but now I must remember the fate of our carrier Haifeng, pummeled by terrible high speed missile fire… from the Siberian ships. The battlecruiser that fought in the Beihai Sea also used such missiles, so I think I have answered my own question here. There can be no doubt that the Siberian Navy is responsible for this attack, but where are they operating? Are they with the Americans? We must redouble our efforts at reconnaissance.

The Admiral looked at his watch seeing the time had just drifted past 07:00 Zulu, which meant the Singapore missile strike was now launching as planned from southern Hainan Island back home. Time to take the iron rod and stir the coals….

The British fleet had made a speedy withdrawal, without having even fired much of a shot. Its fighters had dueled with the Chinese, and effectively fixed their position, but they could do little else. The enemy submarine screen had proved fatal to Admiral Pearson’s designs, a withering blow equivalent to that delivered by HMS Anson north of Madagascar. As the last four ships of Admiral Pearson’s fleet entered the Singapore strait, the crews could hear the distant moan of air raid sirens coming from the island. Launching just a few minutes earlier, the DF-21C’s were now descending from the upper atmosphere at over 6000 knots.

Then they saw bright flashes and tall columns of smoke rising from the island, as if the earth itself had cracked open, venting noxious sulfur into the sky like a volcanic rift. Naval docks 3 and 4 were completely destroyed, and with them went HMS Ocean, which was berthed there when the lances fell on the harbor. Docks 6 and 7 were also damaged, and one of the piers collapsed in a flaming wreck into the water, the steamy smoke hissing up as it fell. Three buildings near the quays were on fire, as firefighters rushed to the scene.

On the other end of the island, Tengah airfield was hosting the heart of the Singapore air force ready fighter squadrons, and it was also attacked. The planes took heavy damage, with seven Typhoons, six F-16’s, four Eagles, and a Poseidon ASW plane destroyed, along with three Wildcat Helos. The control tower at the field was completely wrecked, and fires were burning out on a part of the runway.

As Admiral Pearson stared at the rising black smoke, he realized what a disaster he now had on his hands. There was no way he could take his last four ships into that inferno. What if more missiles were on the way at that very moment?

“Helm,” he said stalwartly. “Steady on 270. Take us through to the Strait of Malacca.”

“Aye sir, steady on 270.”

As Admiral Pearson gave that order, his opposite number was contemplating the next phase of his plan. For all its virtues in standoff naval warfare, the Chinese military had some real shortcomings when it came to ordnance that could attack land targets. Most every cruise missile in the VLS bays was designed to attack enemy ships, but not land targets, unlike the dual use Multi-Mission Tomahawks of the US Navy. So if Wu Jinlong wanted to use his ships to put more harm on those bases, he would have to sail into deck gun range.

As for air delivered ordnance, he had very few standoff weapons at his disposal. His J-31’s had the best weapon, the LS-6-500 pound extended range bomb, which could be released 30 miles out. The J-10 could use the standard range version of that same bomb, but it could only be released 12 miles out. Everything else required the planes to get within four miles or less of their intended target.

But first things first, thought the Admiral. I must defeat what remains of their air power. Once that is done, and we control the airspace, then I might contemplate rearming my J-31’s for a strike mission. A pity we were only allocated those 16 DF-21’s. Yet as I pursue this, the Americans, and the Siberians remain to be seen or engaged. Yet I must only assume that they know my present position, and that they are heading my way.

“Admiral sir!” A lieutenant of the watch interrupted the Admiral’s muse.

“What is it?”

“Enemy fighters have just launched cruise missiles. We believe the target is Ranai Airfield on Riau.”

“Where are the J-31’s?”

“They engaged, sir, but they were too late to stop the launch.”

“Nonsense!” The Admiral was angry. “Order the fighters to move forward. They must stop the enemy planes before they can launch. Then warn Ranai. Tell them to scramble any ready fighter at once. I will not have those planes destroyed on the ground before I have a chance to even use them.”

A flight of British Typhoons had launched twelve Storm Shadows, but as the Chinese had two frigates posted just southwest of the island, they engaged and killed seven. The remaining five all struck the airfield, and scored two plane kills, an ASW plane and a much more valuable KJ-200 which had been preparing to take up the next watch in another hour. Most of the fighters scrambled, and escaped harm, which was now sending a massive fighter sweep southwest towards Singapore. The Admiral would soon get the satisfaction of learning his planes had shot down a Gulfstream AEW plane from Singapore in reprisal.

Shortly after 16:30, these squadrons of enemy fighters were spotted on radar Changji and Tengah. Given their determined course towards the island, it looked like a strike operation, and so the order was given to scramble fighters and get after them. Tengah had a pair of Falcons and twenty F-15 Eagles ready, and they began roaring off the field. Even as they climbed, they ran into a storm of PL-15’s.

The enemy fighters had seen them taking off on radar and unleashed their arrows. The carnage was terrible, on both sides. The Eagles would soar into the thick of it, swooping, turning, diving to evade the PL-15’s. But enough survived to fire their AMRAAM’s, and they ended up destroying the entire squadron of J-10’s. Unfortunately, they would suffer heavy losses in a crossfire of missiles fired by unseen J-20s, which were scissoring in from the north and south. With the aerial duel raging for 45 minutes, none of the 20 Eagles would return. The Chinese would lose those 12 J-10’s and four J-20’s. The six remaining J-20’s that had scrambled then made an interesting discovery.

They had been thinking to return to base, but orders came to stay on station, and act as an AEW picket. Switching their radars on, they soon detected two ships in the Karimata Strait, cruising about 75 miles southwest of Borneo, and heading north. They had found the Siberians….

Karpov had continued his advance north until he got Kursk in range, though his contacts were very uncertain. It wasn’t until the air force of Singapore put up another G550 Gulfstream AEW plane that they firmed up. Kazan also reported it was missile ready, and so Karpov decided to attack. There was no use waiting for the Americans.

A flotilla of three Chinese ships was operating south of the main enemy body, and Gromyko would put four Onyx missiles on each one, allocating 12 more missiles to ships screening the enemy carrier they wanted to target. Karpov ordered Kursk to join this attack, firing half of her 64 Onyx missiles, with 16 of those going after the carrier. They were gunning for Shandong.