Episode 60

4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment (4th ADAR), Battery A

Fiery Cross Reef, South China Sea

Lt. Colonel Rutgers watched with some satisfaction as the Navy knocked down the last of the incoming ballistics. He quickly shifted his inspection to the incoming cruise missile attack. Ironically, the “early” launch by the supersonic bombers had resulted in the cruise missiles being “late” to the party. They had a fairly long way to travel at subsonic speeds which meant they actually would arrive much later than the Chinese originally intended. On the other hand, the ballistic missiles had MUCH farther to travel but they moved at Mach 8 or faster. This meant very long engagement ranges. Most of the missiles had been intercepted in their “Mid-Course” phase, hundreds of miles away from the island.

Now, they had the opposite problem. Hundreds of very small cruise missiles traveling relatively slowly but they were much closer.

Technically, the Patriot battery was not under his direct command, but the command team had agreed to put Rutgers in overall command of the defense of Fiery Cross Reef. This meant that he was responsible for the outcome in addition to his very personal desire to remain alive.

They had parked the Patriot Engagement Control Section (or ECS) only about twenty yards away from the THAAD TFCC which served the same purpose for the THAAD battery. While keeping the two control trucks so close together risked them both being damaged at the same time, it also allowed the two teams to work more closely together. The actual launchers were spread out across the island, but the command vehicles were vulnerable targets.

“Your crew ready in here Jimmy?”

“Yes, sir. Ready to go. We have soft tracks from the F-35’s. Getting ready to engage. Navy has taken some stragglers down as they wandered into their engagement envelope, but this one is all ours.”

“Land attack, you figure?”

“Yeah, based on their courses, they are moving to englobe us. Wrong geometry to attack the fleet.”

“Sir, from the F-35’s tracks, we are about five minutes until they enter range.”

“You are cleared hot.”

“Sir, my weapon is cleared hot.”

All over the island, another round of interceptors began to launch from their mobile launchers. While the Patriot system was based on a “smaller” missile than THAAD used, the missiles were not small. Each one released a pillar of flame as the telephone pole sized missiles leaped into the sky.

“Sir, I have good tracks. Weapons are locked on target.”

Watching over the operator’s shoulders, Rutgers could see the tracks of the outgoing missiles, aiming at where the incoming missiles would be.

“Vampire! We have the leading element now.”

“Re-assess and re-target.”

“Retargeting.”

Of course, the F-35s hadn’t been able to track all the inbound missiles, some were bound to evade notice. The goal was to get enough interceptors in the air to counter every incoming missile with two interceptors using “ripple” firing. By engaging early, this gave the defenders more time to spread out their salvos and prevent fratricide.

The only sound in the control room was the whirring of the air conditioners as the interceptors began to track down their targets.

“That’s ten down. Twenty. We are not going to get them all, sir.”

“Fire up the Giant Voice, all non-essential personnel to take shelter.”

Protected by a solid wall of Hesco barriers, the command trailer was a bunker of sorts. However, a direct hit would kill everyone inside instantly. Rutgers did not even consider leaving.

“Alert the C-RAM crews.”

“Yes, sir. They report ready.”

As the incoming weapons got closer and closer, their numbers dwindled. Thirty remaining, twenty. Then they were inside the engagement envelope of the Patriot battery. Seconds passed. Then..

BRRRRRRRRT.

The ripping sound of the C-RAM Gatling guns was loud enough to be clearly heard from almost a mile away. Three began to fire. Then five. The noise was deafening. At 3,000 rounds per minute, they simply produced a continuous ripping sound instead of the rat-a-tat from a traditional machine gun.

Amidst the deafening roar of the C-RAMs, an explosion rocked the small island. And then another. The men and women in the command truck hit the deck, hoping to avoid the worst of the explosions and flying shrapnel.

“Report! I want a damage assessment! Get the casualty teams moving, let’s look for any wounded. Move it, people!”

A huge fireball to the east announced that the Chinese had successfully taken out their primary target, the fuel depot.

“Get me the Seabee commander on the horn! We need that fuel farm back up and running or we have no air cover.”

Sailors, marines, soldiers and air force ground crews leapt into action all over the island.