Ambush in the Pacific
After nearly a month of consolidating the Allied fleet around the US territory of Guam, Vice Admiral Jeff Richards was ready to launch his offensive to once and for all crush the People’s Liberation Army Navy and begin the liberation of Taiwan and the Philippines. Richards had spent the better part of a month wargaming the plan they were now going to implement and felt fairly confident in their ability to respond to the different types of threats the PLA Navy was going to throw at them.
His biggest relief was that the Chinese submarine Wuhan, which had been equipped with the new Chinese supertorpedo, had finally been hunted down and sunk. Sadly, two additional destroyers and another Los Angeles-class submarine were lost in the process. Fortunately, naval intelligence had no indications that the Chinese had figured out how to equip the specialized torpedoes to their aircraft, and apparently, the torpedoes required special modifications to the torpedo tubes, which meant that for the time being, the Wuhan was the only sub equipped to use them.
“If only we knew exactly how many anti-ship missiles the Chinese have to throw at us,” he thought.
However, there was no turning back now. The battle plans had been set, and now it was time to once again place his sailors in harm’s way. As the Allied fleet headed toward the Philippine Sea, the four Japanese light carriers fell in line with the six American supercarriers, adding their own capability to the mix. Those ships had been quickly modified at the beginning of the Korean conflict, adding arrestor wires to the rear deck of the ship and magnetic catapults along the front deck. With the equipment needed to launch and retrieve aircraft, they were now functional as carriers in their own right, capable of collectively carrying 96 combat aircraft.
Admiral Richards smiled as he saw these ships move with his forces. “The Japanese finished those modifications rather quickly. This should be a nasty surprise to the Chinese,” he thought.
The fleet had already been at sea for nearly two days as they sailed ever closer to the inevitable battle that might ultimately decide the outcome of the war. Sitting in the wardroom on the USS Gerald Ford, Admiral Richards again reviewed the plans for how they were going to incorporate the Japanese aircraft into the fleet’s defense. Although half of the pilots flying off the Japanese light carriers were actually US naval pilots, it was still important to make sure they fully understood the plan and their role in the coming fight.
Richards had nearly every EA-18 Growler in the Navy assigned to his fleet for this coming battle. Eight of them were operating on the Japanese ships while the rest of the aircraft composition comprised F/A-18 Super Hornets. Admiral Richards knew that the Chinese were going to hit them with one or more missile swarm attacks, and he had the fleet prepared accordingly. To increase the likelihood of their survival, the Hornets were equipped with AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missiles, which had the ability to also go after the cruise missiles that would be swarmed at them. It wasn’t a sure bet they could hit the enemy missiles, but if they could help thin them out, then it was worth using them. When Richards had been in command of the Carl Vinson at the outset of the Korean War, this had been a tactic he employed with his airwing. It was probably the one thing that had saved his ship and the rest of his strike group from certain doom. He hoped it would save them again in this coming battle.
In addition to the Japanese light carriers, the Allied fleet had the two Zumwalt-class destroyers, which had recently been upgraded with the Navy's new railguns. The USS Michael Monsoor and the USS Zumwalt were about to make their combat debut, and they fielded a new and revolutionary combat system, the magnetic railgun. The penetrator rounds the railgun fired weighed ten kilograms and could travel 160 kilometers, hitting their targets traveling at speeds of Mach 7. The Zumwalts could fire a sustained six rounds a minute for three minutes before dropping to one round a minute to allow for their capacitors to recharge. Admiral Richards hoped these two ships would be his ace in the hole.
For the time being, Vice Admiral Richards planned on making the Gerald Ford not only his floating forward command but the centerpiece of the Allied fleet and the nerve center for the coming battle. To that end, he made sure to place a Ticonderoga cruiser on either side of the carrier for added antimissile defense.
Thirty thousand feet above the largest naval fleet since World War II, the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone observed everything happening below. The continuous data it provided was feeding a steady stream of intelligence to the ships below, as well as the 7th Fleet’s forward headquarters in Guam, Hawaii, and the Pentagon.
While the Triton kept its high orbit above the fleet, it intercepted a short burst message to a group of five cargo vessels near the Island of Colonia and Palau, 530 kilometers to the southwest of the Allied fleet. Within minutes of the transmission, the five ships changed course and headed in the same direction as the fleet.
Rear Admiral Shelley Cord was both excited and nervous as her strike group continued to near the enemy and the coming battle. While she reviewed their current plans, she became lost in a sea of reminiscent thoughts.
When Shelley had been given command of the Ford strike group, she’d figured that would be her last command, and then she’d would retire. As a two-star admiral and woman, she felt she had helped to pave the way for other women to achieve the same rank and hold the same commands a man could. She was the first commander of what was arguably the most powerful warship in the world, and that said a lot for how far women had come in being considered equal to their male counterparts in the Navy.
While the Ford was going to be the most powerful warship in the world, it was still technically not supposed to be ready for combat for another year. Her job was to oversee its sea trials and the myriad of certifications needed to make the strike group ready for combat operations.
Once the war in Europe had started and the George H.W. Bush had been sunk, the Ford had suddenly become inundated with contractors and support personnel, rushing to get the supercarrier ready for combat operations. Instead of being in charge of the final stages of the carrier’s readiness for the fleet, Admiral Cord found herself in charge of an entirely new strike group that would center around the Ford and be the anchor for the Seventh Fleet. The Secretary of the Navy and SecDef had waived hundreds of certifications and tests to get the ship ready for combat — the only thing that mattered was getting the Ford ready and staffed up with fighters and personnel.
When the Second Korean War had started, the loss of the Reagan and the Vinson had placed renewed urgency and strain on Cord to get her strike group ready for battle. They were desperately needed in the Pacific.
When she’d heard that the captain of the Vinson would be taking over command of the entire 7th Fleet, she’d felt a bit miffed that a captain who had essentially lost his own ship was going to be taking over command of the entire fleet instead of one of the more seasoned rear admirals. However, within twenty minutes of listening to Richards speak about his experience in fighting the People’s Liberation Army Navy and how his strike group had survived the missile swarm that ultimately overwhelmed the Reagan, she felt guilty for her earlier feelings. Richards had gained something that none of them had, combat experience fighting the Chinese — and neither she nor the senior admirals in the Navy currently had that knowledge.