The Kidd Incident

Pacific Command HQ

Joint Base Hickam Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

“Taiwan.”

“Say what?”

“The Red Team says that this is all about hawks who want to invade Taiwan. The war gives them the pretext to do that. Looks like a couple of corps level movements of the PLA along with some unusual shipping movements in one of their major ports. May be connected. Also, it looks like the Liaoning is finally coming out of refit. She may be planning to support an invasion. There would be no point in sending here down to the SCS just for us to sink her.”

The Admiral jumped up and started to pace. General Braverman had never seen the Admiral so animated. He was normally calm, cool and collected. Braverman wasn’t sure if he should be concerned or not.

“I assume they have evidence of this?”

“Yes, sir. Imagery of troops moving to ports, ships loading what looks like tanks, unusual comms traffic, posts on social media, etc..” Braverman held out a thick folder with “Top Secret” marked on the front.

While the US had always been concerned about an invasion of Taiwan from mainland China, there had been absolutely no indication to date that this was going to happen. Some analysts felt that China simply lacked the sealift for a forced landing, others were concerned that they would press commercial shipping into service if they could secure a harbor. Red team had been focused on this threat and been pouring over intelligence information looking for some indication that this was underway. Now, it looked like they had found something.

“Leave it, I’ll review later.” Finally, the Admiral sat down behind the large desk overlooking Pearl Harbor.

“What’s our status on Longsword?”

“Phase one complete. We have an incoming raid warning, they have launched allied aircraft to intercept the incoming raid.”

“And the THAAD battery?”

“Up and running.”

“What about the Patriots?”

“All four batteries are up and running.”

“There is no way the Chinese just chuck some missiles at us this time.”

“No sir.”

While the US fully expected a strong response from the Chinese, nobody really knew what that response would entail. They all assumed that there would be a missile attack, but with the bulk of the Chinese surface fleet either sunk or safely tucked away under friendly air cover, it was unlikely that they could target precisely enough to take the islands back. On the other hand, the Chinese had A HUGE amount of missiles at their disposal.

“Have all the F-35s arrived?”

“Yes sir, all six squadrons. The Italians came in last, but they are on station. We have them backed up by eight squadrons of F-16’s for an Alpha Bravo engagement. Plenty of spare parts and fuel have been landed by the Navy and we’ve got an air bridge set up with C-17’s from Japan. We were able to allocate the extra AIM-120D production to them so they are 100% armed with D models. We are ready.”

“Ready for what, that’s the question.”

USS Kidd (DDG 100)

100 miles Northeast Fiery Cross Reef

“Raid Warning Sir. Multiple Bandits inbound to Fiery Cross Reef.”

Captain Harris crossed over to the tactical plot table in CIC. “Could they be vectoring around to an attack on the Task Force?”

“Unlikely sir. Their geometry is wrong and unless our intel is way off, they’re going to be bingo fuel in forty minutes. Not enough gas to screw around like that.”

“OK, signal the task force, new heading two one zero at thirty knots.”

“Aye, Aye Sir.”

Harris’ First Officer joined him at the plotting table. “What are you thinking skipper?”

Harris grunted as he examined the plot. “I’m thinking that the ChiComs aren’t dumb. They know we’ll go after this raid with everything we’ve got.”

“Yeah, dumb they ain’t. Time on target attack?”

“That’s what I’d do.”

“Subs too.”

“Yeah, subs too.”

“Fuck.”

“Language, Butch.” Harris punched his XO lightly on the shoulder to show he was kidding. “But, yeah. Fuck is right.”

While the Chinese had not been able to master the complexities of the overall American combined arms strategy, they had been able to coordinate multiple attacks across distance and time. While the attack on Guam had turned out to be one dimensional, this was mostly bad luck on their part. Any attack on Fiery Cross had the advantage of being much closer to the Chinese mainland and other supporting bases like Woody Island. Ideally, from a Chinese perspective at least, they would attack with aircraft, land based missiles and submarine launched cruise missiles all at the same time to maximize their potential to knock out the fledgling American presence on their island.

“Sir, we have a firing solution on the Bandits, max range for the SM-6. Ready to fire on your order.”

“Belay that. Weapons tight.”

If Harris was right, they’d need all their missiles shortly. The flyboys would have take care of the incoming planes on their own.