Episode 51

34th Fighter Squadron

Fiery Cross Reef

It’s the waiting that gets to you.

Lieutenant Colonel Williamson had been in plenty of tough spots before. He’d had MANPADS fired at him in Afghanistan, he’d suffered a compressor stall that almost killed him and he’d even been knocked unconscious once in a training accident.

None of those things prepared him for the waiting.

Everyone knew that the Chinese were going to attack. It was just a matter of time. Unlike the Navy, the Air Force and Marine personnel occupying Fiery Cross Reef couldn’t simply move out of the way. Everyone knew exactly where the island was.

To be fair, the Navy wasn’t running away. From up in the air traffic control tower, Williamson could see at least six Navy ships and he knew more were out there. With the still spotty satellite coverage, they were using Navy destroyers to augment the AWACS and Poseidon aircraft flying overhead. Those ships and aircraft were supplemented by the multiple radar sets running on the island in support of the THAAD and Patriot batteries which had been hastily assembled. The marines had even deployed four giant Gatling guns like the ones on Navy ships for close in protection.

Whatever he was feeling inside, he strived to remain cool on the outside. It was part of the game that he was expected to play. He pretended to be nonchalant about the impending attack and his troops pretended to believe him. It was a game, and they all knew it was a game, but it was comforting nonetheless.

“Billy! You sleeping again?”

“Yes sir! Bored as hell sir!”

At least morale was high. When the war started, everyone assumed that the F-35’s would be in the middle of things. However, the brass were still unsure about their new weapons system and the F-35A’s of the Air Force had been sidelined even as the F-35B of the USMC had gone into action. Technically, the F-35A had reached “Initial Operational Capability” in 2016 but everyone knew that the planes were not really ready for combat back then. It wasn’t until Block 3F was delivered in 2018 that the jets really became a serious combat threat. All of this lead to a lack of confidence within the Pentagon and with field commanders.

The Marines simply had no choice in the matter, they were going forward with the F-35B because the Harrier was not going to survive in a modern battlefield. The Air Force on the other hand had plenty of other choices including the mighty F-15 and the F-22. However, the reality of long range fighting in the Pacific and the successful Chinese campaign against the tanker fleet had changed the calculus. The F-22’s and F-15’s operating out of Japan needed massive tanker support which is no longer possible. The move to place F-15’s with FAST packs in Brunei had helped but at a cost. Their loss rate was climbing to almost 20% after only a week of combat. The F-22’s had done well, but there were just too few of them and their air-to-air capabilities were badly needed elsewhere. The F-35 was the perfect plane to forward deploy onto the former Chinese air strips in the South China Sea.

While a combat radius of 670 miles was not going to set any records, it was 130 miles FURTHER than the F-22 when both were in their stealthiest configuration with no external tanks or weapons. Since it was about six hundred miles from Fiery Cross Reef to Hainan in Southern China, the F-35A’s on Fiery Cross could effectively attack any target in the SCS without refueling and without external tanks. Woody Island was “only” four hundred miles away which meant that the existing Chinese base there was well within their striking range as they had already proven the day before.

Overall, having the Air Force operating out of the Spratlys was just about the worst thing possible from a Chinese point of view. Which meant that they would try to push the Americans off the tiny man made island. Sooner or later.

Sooner, it turned out. “Raid warning! Raid warning! Alert Aircraft Scramble!”

They had been ready for this for almost two days but inevitably last minute details needed to be seen to and crews rushed to their planes. There was a CAP up at all times, but in the case of a large attack, the F-35A’s of the 34th needed to get airborne quickly and engage the approaching planes as far out as possible.

“Give me a SitRep.”

“We have approximately two hundred, two zero zero, inbounds. We believe that this is a mixed strike package of fighters and bombers. Unknown mix at this point. Aircraft are five hundred miles out, ETA forty minutes. However, we believe that they are carrying cruise missiles and would launch those at 100 to 200 miles. Worst case, twenty minutes to intercept.”

Williamson strapped himself into the cockpit of his F-35A, accepted his helmet from his crew chief with a grateful nod and closed his canopy. The maintainers had done an excellent job under “austere” conditions and the entire squadron was ready to go.

“Tango Delta, Ram Flight ready to roll.”

“Roger Ram Leader. Altimeter Two Nine Eight One, cleared immediate, minimum interval, runway two three.”

With that, the planes of the 34th began to roll off in pairs and quickly took off after lighting their afterburners. All of the other aircraft on the island began to move also. Within fifteen minutes, there were no airplanes on the ground and all the troops left behind had moved into hardened shelters.