Episode 46

Pacific Command HQ

Joint Base Hickam Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

“Status on Longsword?”

“Phase one is launching in thirty minutes. Phase two is ready to roll. All commands are waiting for your go order.”

“And what about the MAUs?”

“Both MAUs are positioned and ready. TF Archie will mate up with them tomorrow.”

“Good. Let’s make sure that all commands are fully briefed and ready to go.” While it had been great to learn that the older FLTSATCOM constellation was still working, the normal high bandwidth communications that the Navy was used to was not something they could quickly replace. The newer Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) network had more bandwidth and was something the Navy had come to rely on in operating the fleet on a day to day basis.

“We have two new UFOs on the pads at Vandenberg. They should be up within six hours. We’ve also pulled ten old FLTSATCOM birds out of storage and we’ll be launching them daily until we run out of launch vehicles. We don’t think the Chinese have more than six launchers left for asat shots. Once the UFOs are in orbit, we will have full vidcoms back with the fleet. For now, we are using FLTSATCOM for UHF repeaters but we don’t have enough bandwidth for video.”

The Admiral began to pace. “Status on GPS?”

“The jamming has stopped. We are not sure, but it looks like the source was a pair of drones. We got one but the other got away. There may have been more jamming sources but as of now, we have GPS back over the AOR and on Guam.”

“Good. Let’s assume we can lose GPS again at any time. Any word from the Philippine government?”

Braverman couldn’t help bu roll his eyes a little. “Yes, they are protesting our actions on their sovereign territory.” The status of the Philippines had been a touchy one recently. They had kicked all US military out of their country in order to assert their independence years ago but recently they had realized what a resurgent China in the SCS meant to them. Access to Clark had been invaluable thus far, but they hadn’t agreed to allow further basing or other support services. Longsword assumed divert fields on Philippine territory.

“..but they don’t plan to try and stop us.”

“Right. Looks like they are afraid that China will go after them next after Guam. They’ll complain like hell but they don’t really want us to fail either.”

“Well, we probably don’t need their help. As long as they don’t actively try to hinder us, we should be fine. All three CSG’s good to go?”

“Yes, sir. All three groups are in position. Stennis will take the lead and execute Ball Buster starting at eleven hundred zulu.”

“What’s that, like nineteen hundred local?”

“Yes, should be getting dark.”

The Admiral steepled his fingers on his desk. The strain of running the entire war was beginning to tell on him. Too many long nights, too much coffee, not enough sleep and too much stress was not a good combination. The Navy was about to launch the largest naval operation since World War Two and the pressure on him was immense.

“Alert all commands. Go for Longsword.”