Electronic Attack Squadron 133 (VAQ-133)
Embarked USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74)
“What the fuck is this?”
Chief Petty Officer Smith was prepared for the outburst. “That sir, is the ‘Airborne Radar threat evaluation’ or ARTE web site.”
“I can read Chief.” The lieutenant commander did not look happy. At all. The news about Guam had shaken everyone but Lake had family on Guam and hadn’t heard back from them yet.
“I know we’re all shook up about Guam, but I figure it’s time to get into this dance. This here web site shows us the location of ALL emissions sources in the AOR.”
“How is that possible?”
Smith ran his hands through his close cropped afro. He had been in the navy for almost twenty years. Joined up at eighteen and worked his way to CPO. He knew how to run his division and he knew how to stand a watch. He even was pretty good with the computer these days. However, this was beyond him. “Sir, I honestly don’t know. All I know is that the folks over at Beale say this is the shit. Sir.”
Lieutenant Commander Lake had to grin. The chief was a legend in the wing. He had been supporting Carrier Air Wing Nine in some form for years, completely defying the normal rotation schedules. Hearing the Chief’s focus on the mission made him embarrassed over his outburst. This was the time to do the job, not to have a tantrum. “Sorry Chief. If you say this is good intel, that works for me. I just worry about placing the squadron into a tough spot after what happened to the air force boys.”
“Remember my TDY last year when we was down in Lemoore?”
“Sure, Chief. We managed to run the Squadron somehow without you for four whole weeks.”
“Yeah, a miracle. Anyway, we did a EW OpFor exercise with them. They are crazy smart up there. They waxed our asses but good.”
Lake walked around the tiny office. He was about to bet his life and the life of his pilots on this information. “How do you think they did it? Global Hawks?”
“No way. Not if the reports are right. The Chinese would just knock them down, their SAM coverage is TIGHT. More likely RQ-180’s. Those sneaky sons-a-bitches are real tough to track.”
“According to this, the BONES blew a huge fucking hole in their coverage.” He tapped the screen for emphasis. “Right there.”
“Yes, sir. It’s been that way since the raid.”
“How long have you been watching this thing?”
“All night. The BONES went in o-dark-thirty local time. The site showed the ChiComs going offline as the raid went in. Then all hell broke loose on Guam, but this here report didn’t change none. Here, hit the rewind button and see for yourself. Like watching a DVR.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“You got that right sir. Look, if you approach from here you can get in close, and….” The two men quickly lost themselves in the technical minutiae of planning a deep strike Electronic Warfare attack.
Much later, Lake was able to track down the CAG in his office. The CAG waived Lake to a chair while he finished a report he was reading.
“What do you have for me Lake?”
“Sir, I think we can go take down the rest of the SAM sites in and around the objective.”
“The Air Force boys already took some serious losses there. They had to go in with F-22’s to get as close as they did. After the attack on Guam, I don’t think they’ll be going very far into the SCS for now.”
“Yes, I’ve read their after action reports. With all due respect, this is a Growler mission, not a mission for F-15’s. The Raptors did all right but they don’t have the hardware to sweep the SAM sites down completely. They could send the Raptors back in there but we could do it better.”
“Well, we have plenty of Growlers. Both of our squadrons are locked and loaded.” Normally, the Stennis embarked about sixty fixed wing aircraft. However, she had been designed to hold up to ninety. The Navy had stripped Growlers from all over the world and added a full additional squadron to each of the carriers currently operating in the Pacific. “I saw you huddled up with the Chief. Did he find something?”
“Yes, he has been watching that new web site, arty or something.”
“I think it’s ARTE.”
“Yeah. So, they’ve upgraded their system so that it’s now showing real time data. We can walk right in and kick them in the nuts.”
“Yeah? So, tell me more about operation ball buster.”