US Navy, Third Fleet, embarked USS Bougainville (LHA-8)
30 NM West Santa Rosa Island, California
“VAMPIRE VAMPIRE VAMPIRE!”
The urgent call startled Admiral Lensten out of his review of the reports trickling in from various units under his command. “REPORT!”
“We have six, check, seven, cruise missiles three zero miles south. Heading nine zero at two hundred knots.”
“Heading east? Towards LA?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Ops, what do we have that close to the coast?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“What the hell are they shooting at?”
“Sir! I have multiple large commercial ships on that heading.”
“Tankers?”
“Yes, sir, I think so.”
Once again, the Chinese had gotten ahead of the game. Instead of attacking the small naval flotilla currently forming up off the California coast, they had decided to go after the huge, slow moving oil tankers that provided the majority of the oil that California and the West Coast depended on.
“Ops, track their flight back. I want a P-8 to prosecute that contact. Those missiles must have come from a submarine.”
“On it, sir.”
“Air commander, any chance of an intercept?”
“Working sir, but unlikely. Without airborne radar the engagement envelope is just too small.”
“Dammit.”
The successful attacks on the West Coast included Point Magu which happened to be where all the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft on the West Coast were located. The USAF had also lost the majority of their larger E-3 Sentry aircraft also, leaving the West Coast of the United States wide open to this type of attack.
“OK, we do it the old-fashioned way. I want a plan for RADAR pickets from the Mexican border all the way up to the Golden Gate. Reshuffle the sailing orders and get a line of Burkes out there.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Arleigh Burke class was an excellent RADAR platform, but it couldn’t compete with an airborne radar. The curvature of the earth meant that any sea-level system had a significantly smaller horizon than an airborne radar. However, it was better than being completely blind to incoming threats.
Lensten ran his fingers through his thinning mouse brown hair. He was still processing the death of The Admiral. Effectively, his request for help to The Admiral had led directly to his death. He carefully locked his emotional response in a box, a trick he had learned in combat. He knew he would pay the price later, but today he needed to focus on the mission at hand.