Principe de Asturias, Charles De Gaulle and the Jeanne d'Arc occupied the centre of the task force whilst the outer rings comprised the escorts for what were in effect three carrier groups plus three Polish warships.
The air defence destroyers Duquesne from France, and Spain's Almirante Juan de Borbon flanked the carriers. Seventeen frigates and corvettes provided two further layers of defence. Only two of the ships present were pure ASW configurations with no air defence missile capabilities, the ex-Perry class frigates General K. Pulaski and Naczelnik Tadeusz Kosciuszko, both under Polish colours, sat inside the picket lines.
Aboard the remaining picket ships the lessons learnt from the USS John F Kennedy encounters with mass aircraft/missile swamping tactics had been heeded. The air defence capable hulls not only had full magazines; they had storerooms and cabins within easy reach of their weapon mountings, and these spaces were crammed with reloads for the SAM launchers. Contra Admiral Bernard was determined he was not going to lose hulls simply because they ran out of ammunition, as had happened on the other side of the world.
Without the electronic cloak concealing the ships, the Soviet A-50 had the exact position, course and speed of every vessel locked down to within five metres. The Floggers that had ditched all but their air-air ordnance were keeping the Rafales, AV-8Bs and Sea Harriers occupied whilst the A-50 controllers sent in the Backfires followed by the slower Floggers to hammer down the defences on the northern side of the NATO task force. If they succeeded in exposing the heart of the force, the carriers, then they would be free to return and clear away the multi-role and dedicated ASW ships from the doorway to the Atlantic once more.
To the northwest of the ships, four F-16s regrouped and climbed back to their previous stations, signalling the AWAC and JSTARS the all clear. One of their number was limping south, making for Andøya. The last fragments of the sixth F-16 in the escort were just splashing down into the unforgiving seas far below.
The mixed formation of Etendards and Rafales had been turned around and re-launched in a way that would have impressed Grand Prix pit crews, and now loaded with air-air weapons the controllers vectored them towards Bodø.
Twenty-three Backfires went to zone three afterburner and headed for the outer picket ships, the weapons officers selecting Zvedzda KH-31 anti-radar missiles first. Designated by NATO as the AS-17 KRYPTON, it was one of the fastest low level missiles in the world. Designed as a counter to America’s AEGIS and Patriot systems, its kerosene driven ramjet would propel the missile and its 220lb warhead along at 3,120 feet per second at an altitude of thirty feet. At 30,000’ it was capable of twice that speed.
Bernard studied the screen, now receiving information from the ships radars. Ninety-two of the anti-radiation missiles in three waves appeared on the screen to the north of his ships, out of range of his defences, as yet. To the northeast the AWAC was exceeding its designers’ specifications with its throttles firewalled as it powered its way back on-station. He barked an order and figures appeared on the screen, which he took in at a glance.
“All ships… hold fire, hold fire!” Turning to his communications officer he said earnestly. “Tell the AWAC they have exactly thirty seconds to resume fire control of my ships… not a second more.”
Twenty-seven seconds later the AWAC was back on the job and it was the A-50 controllers turn to curse as the NATO ships' radars ceased generating. The KH-31 missiles flew directly at the last co-ordinates their processors had for the sources of radar energy, but warships in combat do not sit still, they were no longer there.
SS-N-26 Yahont-M anti-shipping missiles came off the Backfires' racks next, they were a different story all together and the AWAC launched air defence missiles from the ship's launchers. Old Soviet inventory SA-N-1 Goas, French Crotales and Mistrals, American ship launched Sidewinders, Standard 1s and 2s along with British designed Sea Sparrow missiles sped away from the ships.
On the NATO ships, as reloads from the magazines were either automatically loaded into the launchers, or sent up by elevator for manual loading, chains of seamen manhandling fresh missiles from makeshift storerooms replaced them. Unfortunately for the Kashin class Polish frigate Warszawa, on the outer picket, her magazines were only two thirds full when she had left port ten days before and she quickly ran dry. Without a flank defence system along the lines of the Phalanx, the Polish frigate could only crack on all speed, zigzag and fire chaff bundles from her mortars to try and throw off the four big missiles that were locked on to her.
On the inner picket line, none of the crew on the decks of the French air defence frigate Cassard heard any part of anyone else’s fight; such was the almost continual roar of missiles from their own launchers. However, in the Cassard CIC they received a report from their lookouts of a large, fireball rising into the sky to the north and on checking their tactical displays, the Warszawa was no longer there.
The missing vessel created a slight dead zone in the overlapping fields of fire, not much, just two miles at its narrowest point, like a finger pointing toward the French frigate on the inner picket line. The A-50 saw it and vectored in fifteen Floggers that still had SS-N-26s unexpended and which also carried a pair of FAB-500 iron bombs each.
Although only the elderly Polish warship had thus far succumbed, her neighbours to the west and east had not escaped totally unscathed, the Danish corvette Olfert Fischer suffered a malfunction in her six-cell vertical launch system. The flow of Sea Sparrow missiles from the magazine was halted for a critical thirty seconds whilst the system rebooted, and only her small size saved her as the chaff clouds produced by the stern dispenser produced a radar target far larger than the vessel. Two SS-N-26 Yahont-M anti-ship missiles flew into the chaff clouds, the first 440lb warhead shredded the afterworks as it detonated in the cloud and caused a small fire, the second killed the damage control party two minutes later, as they fought the fire, and holed her at the waterline.
Warszawa’s other neighbour suffered damage in the Backfires' attack, the French frigate Latouch-Treville’s Phalanx gun hit one of the missiles close inboard. A kilometre out the missile’s sensors had detected the frigate's FLIR targeting system, locking on to it and accelerated the missile from 1.3 mach to 2.7. The Phalanx took 2000th of a second to register the new speed but a full second to adjust the weapons point of aim, by which time it was moving like a blur toward the thin aluminium skin of the warship. A single depleted uranium round struck the missile, shredding the warhead and fusing circuit, so the big charge failed to explode. The missile's solid rocket booster and ramjet assembly however, still struck the frigate whilst travelling at over twice the speed of sound. It smashed into the side of the bridge, travelling completely through and on into the sea 200m beyond, leaving a huge gaping hole edged with jagged metal at the forward end of the superstructure where moments before eight human beings had been.
With all weapons expended the Backfires headed on back to their fields to refuel and rearm, skirting the North Cape at low level. The lead regiment had just ten seconds warning from the A-50 of a new threat bursting out of the cover of the fjords into Soviet radar coverage just two miles ahead of the supersonic bombers.
None of the Backfires had any chaff or flares left after evading the fighters on their way in, and their attacks against the task force. Only two survived the ambush by the recently turned around and re-launched Super Etendards and Rafales, fleeing north and shouting a warning to the other regiments that followed behind.