E-3 “Sentry Seven,” 961st Airborne Air Control Squadron
Flight Level 390, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Lieutenant Langdon watched his screens and tried to maintain his strategic focus. With two hundred Chinese planes coming towards the American positions and almost four hundred American and Korean planes coming up to meet them, the battlespace was crowded to say the least. He had heard about the traffic control problems the Americans had over Iraq during Desert Storm but this would be much worse.
“Flight Leads, this is Sentry Seven. We have two incoming waves, one high and one low. We believe the top element is cover for the bottom element. Blue element ascend to angels 35, gold element descend to angels 10.” The main American forces were broken up into “blue” element which consisted of two wings of F-15’s and “gold” element which consisted of three wings of F-16’s. While both were excellent dogfighters, the F-15 was superior in air to air while the more agile F-16 was perfect for getting down on the deck and chasing ground attack aircraft which was the likely composition of the lower incoming group.
Unfortunately, only two squadrons of F-22’s were available. With one protecting the transports, that left only one to defend the Army. Two squadrons of F-35As were also orbiting, ready to punch a hole in the oncoming attack. All the allied fighters were configured for air-to-air exclusively, the A-10s and Apaches were on their own today.
The mighty F-15 had never suffered an air-to-air loss in it’s operational history with the USA and Isreal. That was likely to change today.
“Sentry Seven to all ground units. Raid warning, raid warning. Incoming aircraft are likely ground attack. Hunker down boys, this one is going to be rough.” He switched over to the frequency monitored by the F-35A’s. “Lightning. Lightning. Lightning.”
With this command, the two squadrons of F-35A’s dashed north at Mach 1.5. The goal was to get into range undetected by the Chinese and ripple off their AIM-120D missiles BVR (Beyond Visual Range). They could then return to base and re-arm. If the air battle went poorly, their job was to jump in and swing the balance with a full complement of missiles once the Chinese had been depleted by the conventional fighters. Planners anticipated that this would come at a high cost to the Air Force, but it would decimate the attackers which was the whole point of Long Snap in the first place.
“Slasher flight, your target is three two zero, fifty miles. Closing at fifteen hundred knots.” Langdon waited until he was certain of the range. “Shoot! Now, now now.”
As each of the F-35’s fired off six AIM-120 missiles, they turned and ran for their home bases. At Mach 1.5, they would travel the 200 miles in only ten minutes. They would also be completely out of fuel, but that would be rectified faster than they could be armed. Over three hundred crewmen waited to see if they could break the world record for re-arming an F-35.
“Blue group, gold group, the inbounds are scattering. Break into squadrons and pursue.”
While the plan to break up the Chinese formations had worked, it also meant that the attackers became more spread out. It had been judged that this gave the Americans, supported by three AWACs aircraft, the advantage. The Chinese AWACs aircraft hadn’t lasted after the first week of the war and this put them at a tactical disadvantage as they passed beyond Chinese ground-based radar coverage.
3rd Battalion, 67th Armor
Taechon, DPRK
Walking into the tracked personnel carrier that served as the command post for the 3rd, Lieutenant Colonel Hernandez only heard the end of the radio warning from the AWACs bird overhead. “… Hunker down boys, this one is going to be rough.”
It was enough.
“RAID WARNING!! RAID WARNING!! Get into cover!! Get those avengers fired up! Stinger crews, take your posts!”
Over the years, US Army doctrine had moved away from a strong organic anti-air capability for armored units and towards lower end conflicts. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had not resulted in any significant air threat and this had warped the vision of what threats they would face against a “near-peer” like Russia or China.
Recent studies of Russian armor and their tactics in Crimea had pointed out the lack of anti-air capability and there were several systems working their way through the development process. None of this information was a comfort to Hernandez or his men. Today, they only had two of the ancient Avengers and a scattering of handheld anti-aircraft missiles. The higher tier of defense, the Patriot, could not keep up with a mobile armored battalion and the nearest unit was too far in the rear to do any good.
Hernandez and his command staff had agonized over their air defense. Long Snap DEPENDED on the Chinese responding with a massive air assault and hours of thinking and planning had gone into their defense. Those discussions over bourbon at the o-club in Seoul felt ridiculously over-optimistic now. The plan was to disperse the tanks and personnel carriers into holes dug for this purpose. Covered with dirt and plants, they reduced the visual signature and gave them some chance of surviving a near miss. They had shut down most of the engines hours ago, reducing their thermal signature. Hastily erected Hesco barriers provided some shelter to the dismounted infantry and their Stinger missile teams. However, his unit was dangerously exposed here. They had sent the Apaches back under SAM coverage, they could not survive head to head with Chinese fighters.
Coming in low, the Chinese fighters were not visible until the last minute, reducing the American’s ability to engage them with short-range missiles. The bombs started falling before the stinger teams got off their first shot, which missed.
“INCOMING!! DOWN! DOWN!!!”