The Kidd Incident

USS Ohio (SSGN-726)

Taiwan Straight

“It’s time, Skipper.”

“COB, take the boat to launch depth.  Set condition 1SQ throughout the ship.”

The 1MC immediately blared out the announcement.  “Man Battlestations Missile, for Tactical Launch.  Set Condition 1SQ. Man Battlestations Missile, for Tactical Launch.  Set Condition 1SQ throughout the ship.”

Markleee glanced at Travers whom he had allowed to come up to the control room for the launch. She showed no emotion at all.

“Travers, if this goes south your station is at the main escape trunk aft.”

She looked calmly back. “If this goes south, my assumption is that we are all fucked. Don’t forget, I know what it looks like topside when sub eats a torp.”

Marklee shook his head. “Just humor me, please.”

“Aye, sir.”

In a surprisingly short amount of time, the Ohio was ready to shoot. Marklee looked over at his second in command who nodded minutely.

 “Weapons free, land attack.  Fire at will Commander.”

“Weapons free, land attack, aye aye, sir.”

Once again, the mighty Ohio FLEXED as compressed air forced the cruise missiles from their tubes. One after another, on and on for a seeming eternity.

The massive barrage finally cracked Travers’ facade. “That is a crap ton of ordinance.”

“You got that right captain. One hundred and fifty four Tomahawks is a door knocker you don’t ignore.” He turned to the XO again. “Secure 1SQ. Take us down. Turn to heading one seven zero. Rig for quiet.”

As a low murmur of orders broke out in the control room, he turned back to Travers. “Don’t forget our sister the Michigan is out there someplace. God only knows what the air force is doing right now.”

93rd Bomb Squadron, US Air Force Reserve (USAF-R)

East China Sea, Angels 2

After the hectic missions supporting ground troops in North Korea, a long range missile strike seemed like simplicity itself. Just fly to x coordinate at y altitude and drop the missiles. Amazing what combat could make feel routine.

Tinney shifted in his seat. The flight from Japan hadn’t been long, but they’d dog-legged around Korea to get into a firing position without being sighted by ground based radar. At their current altitude of only two thousand feet, they were completely invisible to Chinese ground based radar two hundred miles away. The stealthy AGM-158B (also known as the JASSM-Extended Range) had proven it’s ability to fly in highly contested airspace many times over already.

Tinney got on the intercom to his weapons officer. “You ready back there John?”

“Locked and loaded. Downloaded the latest targeting updates from Long Snap five minutes ago.”

“Outlaw lead to all outlaws. Drop on my mark. Drop, drop drop.”

With that command an additional one hundred cruise missiles were sent to attack the home bases of the tactical aircraft currently engaged in North Korea. Each based was now targeted by over one hundred cruise missiles of various types. Timed to arrive at the same time as the returning fighters, the strike was designed to remove both the surviving aircraft and more importantly, their support crews, in one massive strike.

While Tinney was unconcerned about his ability to perform the mission, he was very concerned about the reaction it would engender. The USA was now fully engaged with at least one and perhaps two nuclear armed countries. While the Chinese seemed sane enough not to end the world in nuclear fire, nobody knew what the North Koreans were capable of. While intel said that they DIDN’T have the ability to put nukes on their long range missiles, that was a thin reed to carry the hope of the world on. All it would take is a single nuclear strike from the DPRK to cause an unstoppable escalation. As he turned his aircraft back towards Japan he mouthed a silent prayer that sanity would break out soon.

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!!!”