Episode 45

USS Kidd (DDG 100)

US Naval Base Guam, Apra Harbor

Captain Harris sighed with relief as the last missiles were loaded into the Kidd’s VLS. While he was comforted with the knowledge that four of the Kidd’s sisters were on patrol for any additional attacks, it just felt wrong to be completely defenseless, even in a “safe” harbor.

The Aegis-equipped destroyers had successfully defended the Navy facilities on Guam but hadn’t been able to get all the missiles inbound during the attack. In theory, that was the job of the THAAD battery based on the northern part of the island. Harris had no idea what had happened but he did know that there hadn’t been any THAAD launches during the attack. He had seen as much on his own radar. The last-ditch launches from inside the harbor had saved the base.

Critically important to the Kidd and her TF Archie brethren, they had also saved the hundreds of missiles that were waiting to reload the entire task force. Any hits inside the base could have set off the ordinance sitting in containers, ready to be loaded.

Harris watched from his perch on the bridge wing as a government car drove up the quay and a Marine corporal stepped out and walked to the Kidd’s gangway. He wondered what the young man was carrying. He didn’t have long to wait.

“Message for you from flag, sir.”

While the orders could have been delivered via short range radio, the communications satellite outage had caused the navy to revert to old ways of doing things. Like hand delivered orders. As Harris read the message form, his expression became grimmer. More focused. Kidd had a job to do.

He looked over to see his XO hovering just inside the bridge. “Come on out Butch.”

“I didn’t mean to hover, skipper.”

“Yes, you did.” The XO had the self-awareness to look chagrined. Well, perhaps a bit. Maybe. “Looks like we know why we have all those shiny new SM-3’s.” He handed over the message form to Thomas who immediately began to read.

“All their RORSATs?”

“Looks like it. Anything that emits dies.”

“Hmm. Wonder why we caught the assignment?”

“Well, we do have reloads handy here.”

“Point.”

“Also, I’m sure command considered the political statement of having the first phase of the counterattack launch from Guam.”

“First phase?”

“Yeah, ‘Operation Longsword’ isn’t just knocking down some ChiCom sats. I think we are going on the offensive.”

“About damn time.”

“Roger that.”

Electronic Attack Squadron 133 (VAQ-133) 

Embarked USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74)

“Ball Buster is a go!” CPO Smith was grinning from ear to ear as he walked into Lake’s postage stamp of an office aboard the Stennis.

“Finally. Took them long enough.”

“Yes, sir. The recon shows the hole is still there. Should be good for the mission. Looks like you stage out to the Philippines and wait for the final go order. It’s a long way, plenty of tanker support to make this work.”

Lake read the orders which had been transmitted down from the comms center. With the elimination of the UFO satellites, the Navy had dropped down to using encrypted UHF radio for all transmissions. The old
FLTSATCOM constellation of UHF repeaters was still operational and the Navy never threw anything away. There were over a hundred of them sitting in warehouses all across the USA, the Navy could launch one a day for the next year if needed. Of course, the launch vehicle wasn’t cheap, but the Navy wasn’t running a business. Things like profit and loss didn’t come into the decision.

“What did you say about tanker support?”

“Confirmed, we get KC-130 support on the way down, then we buddy store off the Rhinos and they peel off to re-tank again before we come back. Should be four tanks total for the mission.”

“Gotcha. Abort fields?”

“Looks like the SF guys are going to secure this airfield here.” Smith pointed to a small airport on the Philippine island of Palawan. “Puerto Princesa International Airport, it says here.”

“What is that, 200 miles?”

“More like 170 nautical miles from the primary, a bit further from the secondary. That’s as close as we are going to get for a friendly place to land.”

“Not too bad, hopefully, nobody has to ditch. Let’s arrange the attack plan so that I am assigned to the secondary.”

“Aye, aye sir.” Smith liked Lake, he looked after his people and always took the tough duty for himself. “Looks like we are going to get some PJ’s down there also.”

“Nice to know. Hopefully, we won’t need them.”

“They want us wheels up at nineteen hundred.”

“OK, briefing for both squadrons at seventeen hundred.”

“Aye, aye sir.” Smith hurried off to get the squadron ready for war as lake prepared his briefing for the two squadrons of Growlers.