“I want your command ready to execute your offensive on August 30th,” he responded.
General Bennet turned to look each of his three new army group commanders in the eye. “The key to our success, Generals, is going to be speed,” he advised. “We need to be agile in our movements, adjusting where we need to and hitting the enemy fast and hard when the opportunity presents itself. I need your groups to inflict maximum force on the enemy. Be aggressive, and do not let up. Is that understood?”
Seeing no objections, Bennet dismissed the group to get back to their commands and implement their new orders.
General Roy Cutter picked up speed as he made the final turn on his morning run. He was now sprinting at full speed as he raced down the parking ramp of the airfield for the last mile of his five-mile run. Cutter felt the flood of endorphins rushing through him and the stress melting away; he really enjoyed this daily ritual. As the wind whipped past his face, he formulated his plans for the coming day.
Parked on the ramp where he was running was the newest squadron of F-35Bs, which had arrived the night before.
“These are really going to add to our Marine capability,” he thought with a smile on his face.
Cutter completed his run and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off his face. It was time to make the rounds.
As his Marines extricated themselves from the Russian Far East, they were all making the time-consuming transition to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in preparation for the eventual invasion of Taiwan and the Philippines. He had his troops getting ready for the dramatic change in battlefields by engaging in extensive jungle and amphibious assault training. Cutter made his way to one of the observation points to watch that day’s mock amphibious assault.
One of General Cutter’s lieutenant generals, Al Pinkett, joined him.
“Good morning, Sir,” Pinkett said, a little too chipper for that hour of the morning. He had a cup of coffee in his hand, and it might not have been his first.
“Good morning, Pinkett,” Cutter responded. “How do you think today’s practice run is going to go?”
“I expect it to be successful, Sir. My only real concern is the integration of all of the new graduates that they are sending us from boot camp. So far, we have been able to successfully absorb those Marines into our current forces without any significant issues, but as we continue to grow, it may lead to some disorganization.”
General Cutter grunted. “Well, if it does, you need to work that out quickly,” he asserted. “We don’t have a lot of time to get everyone ready for our operation in Taiwan. Right now, I want two amphibious assault practice runs a week, but if you start to have issues, maybe we go to three.”
“Understood, Sir,” answered Pinkett. “I know this tempo of training has been intense for our Marines, but I personally would like to make it to the Republic of China before their military units that have been fighting in the mountains and the jungles are wiped out.”
“Well, for that, we have to hope that the US Seventh Fleet hurries up its operations. They need to secure the waters around Taiwan and the Philippines. Until they do, we can’t set a date for landing our forces.”
“Hmm…” said Pinkett. “I can’t help you with that one, Sir.”
Just then, a flurry of activity began, and they shifted their focus to observing the men and women below them, practicing their drill like a well-choreographed dance.
Vice Admiral Jeff Richards was still getting used to his new command. The past several months had gone by in a blur of activity. His carrier air wings had been beyond busy, providing support to the Marines as they captured the Russian Far East and providing round-the-clock air cover over the Korean Peninsula.
Fortunately, his carrier air wings had scored over 230 kills, and he had only lost 48 of his own aircraft. Most of those losses had happened while supporting the Marines on the ground. While the Russian air defense was not nearly as dense or well organized as what they had faced in Europe, they were still wreaking havoc on his planes. To help counter the Russian and Chinese air-defense systems, the Navy had transferred nearly all the EA-Growler aircraft from the Atlantic fleets to Asia. The added electronic countermeasure planes had significantly reduced his losses.
The next challenge Admiral Richards had to deal with was clearing the waters around Taiwan and the Philippines. For that, he was going to need some help.
Richards walked into the briefing room of his newly established South Pacific headquarters, where he saw his three strike group commanders waiting for him, along with the carrier commanders, the Pacific submarine commander and a couple of destroyer squadron commanders.
“Good, everyone was able to make it in for this meeting,” he thought with relief.
Admiral Richards took his seat quickly, wanting to get the ball rolling. “Gentlemen, we have four weeks to clear the waters around Taiwan and the Philippines, so the Marines can begin their ground operations. We’ve danced around when we want to go after the PLA South China Sea fleet, but time has run out. We need to make a move on them now.”
Richards looked at the rear admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet’s submarine force with a look that was less than friendly. “I need to know what the holdup is with the PLA submarine force,” he asserted. “Why are we still losing subs to the Chinese and not getting them cleared out? What’s the problem?”
Rear Admiral Toby Dag had known this question was going to come. “Sir, several months ago, the Chinese fielded a new high-speed torpedo. The technology surrounding the torpedo has been discussed and researched for decades by DARPA, the Russians, and China, but in a nutshell, they appear to have cracked the code on it and are now inflicting some heavy losses on us as a consequence.”
Toby saw a few puzzled looks and realized he needed to say more. “The new torpedo is able to travel at speeds of up to 150 knots, with a range of ten kilometers. That obviously creates a very big problem for us. With these kinds of speeds, it’s impossible for us to defend against it. Fortunately, it appears that only one of their submarines is currently equipped with this new torpedo. Their Type 095 or Wuhan-class submarine is currently the only submarine in their fleet that presently uses this torpedo.”
He continued. “I’ve made it a top priority to sink the Wuhan. In the last several months, we’ve lost eight submarines to the Wuhan, as well as three destroyers. That said, I did receive word a couple of hours ago that three of our destroyers believe they may have the Wuhan in their sights. We’re vectoring in additional P-8 Poseidon to help prosecute the attack. My concern, Admiral — and I’m not sure if naval intelligence can confirm this — is what if they’re able to equip this torpedo to their naval bombers or antisubmarine warfare planes? That could prove to be disastrous for us.”
Admiral Richards hadn’t thought about that before. He’d read reports about this new “super torpedo” and had known it was a problem, but he hadn’t considered the torpedoes’ use by aircraft. A sinking feeling hit him in the stomach.
“I want every available asset we have hunting the Wuhan down and sinking it,” Richards ordered. “I want a plan put together on how we’re going to engage the South China Sea fleet and sink it. We have to figure out how we’re going to support the Marines’ liberation of Taiwan and the Philippines, to be executed in the next thirty days.”