It was controlled chaos in the nerve center of the carrier as they worked feverishly to integrate and analyze all the data streaming into the command center, and Admiral Cord nervously watched every detail as it unfolded. The sophisticated computer system that ran the fleet’s defensive system was now tracking 1,900 inbound threats. The twenty-six EA-18 Growlers went to work with their jamming pods as they tried to confuse the anti-ship missiles defensive systems, while the Super Hornets dove in to attack them with their own weapons.
The fighters were going to have one chance to hit as many of the incoming threats as possible; once the missiles flew past them, they would have no hope of catching up to them again. All 420 fighter planes from the carriers descended on the incoming threats, firing their weapons into the swarm that was heading toward their floating homes.
In an almost miraculous effort, the fighters managed to destroy 509 of the incoming enemy missiles. If it weren’t so deadly, it would have made for a beautiful fireworks show. Having dispensed their missiles, the fighters loitered at a high orbit above the fleet to allow the destroyers and cruisers to initiate the next layer of defense.
In seconds, the destroyers Michael Monsoor and Zumwalt made history as their railguns engaged the missile threats at a rate of ten rounds a minute, scoring a consistent one hundred percent hit ratio. While the missile count was steadily dropping from the railguns, the rest of the destroyers joined the fray with their own SM-2, SM-3, and SM-6 missiles at the carrier killer ballistic missiles and the remaining cruise missiles still bearing down on them. The sky and water around and in between the ships was filling with smoke trails and exhaust plumes of friendly missiles streaking in all directions. It was almost reminiscent of a 17th- or 18th-century naval battle between wooden sail ships, firing gunpowder cannon — except these weapon systems were far more lethal and devastating in their use.
While the battle was well underway above the water, deep beneath the waves, a dozen Virginia-class attack submarines moved into position to attack the Chinese fleet while a handful of the older Los Angeles attack subs kept the fleet safe from any underwater threats.
It was now up to the CIWS and the remaining RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile or RAM system to take over. However, those missiles were going to be extremely difficult to hit as they reached their terminal velocity. The stone-cold truth was that some of the missiles were going to get through.
Admiral Cord stood, not knowing what more to do at this point. She watched as the training the Navy had put its officers and enlisted men and women through took over. What might have appeared to a civilian as dozens upon dozens of individuals shouting and motioning from one item to the next was actually being played out in a well-organized and exceptionally choreographed dance of decisions and reactions to those decisions.
The ship’s highly complex targeting system was managing the entire fleet’s point defense systems, identifying what CIWS or RAM system was closest to each threat and vectoring them in to deal with it. The system was handling these hundreds of decisions a second far faster and efficiently then the men and women who managed the system could ever hope to achieve.
Moments later, the wind blew more of the exhaust and smoke from the missiles away from the ships, and Admiral Richards watched in horror as many of the enemy missiles struck his beloved fleet. Two of the DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missiles slammed into the forward and rear flight deck of the USS Eisenhower, scoring direct hits. The flight deck burst into flames.
Richards winced as he saw the billowing clouds of flame and smoke rise, knowing that hundreds of sailors had just perished. It brought back horrible memories of when his own carrier had been hit by one of those missiles at the start of the war. Just as he thought that might have been the only ship to get hit by the ASBMs, another one streaked down from the sky and rammed into the center of the USS Nimitz. Seconds later, the Nimitz was hit by three more missiles, which nearly ripped the ship apart. The entire flight deck and superstructure of the carrier was now engulfed in flames and was being rocked by secondary explosions. The ship was clearly in trouble as it listed quickly to one side.
“Switch to a view of the Roosevelt, and then the Lincoln and Stennis. I need to see if any of the other carriers were hit,” Richards directed the chief petty officer manning one of the video feeds at the terminal near him.
The video zoomed into focus on the Roosevelt, which had a bit of smoke from a couple of hits it took to its hull, but no raging fires across her flight decks. The other two carriers appeared to be in good shape as well. Turning his attention to the Japanese ships, he saw that one of them had settled pretty deep into the water and was clearly going to sink; another one had taken several hits and was on fire. The other two appeared to have minimal to light damage, with their flight decks also in good shape.
“Sir, the bulk of Chinese cruise missiles are about to arrive,” one of the battle manager officers said.
Richards just nodded. There was really nothing more he could do at this point but wait to see how many of them made it through their defenses. He motioned for the chief manning the video feed to zoom out, so they could see more of the fleet as the missiles closed in. Many of the missiles were being destroyed at the last minute by the Zumwalt’s railguns, but many more were leaking through to slam into the hulls and superstructures of the Allied warships.
The USS Port Royal, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, took three direct hits by CJ-100 anti-ship missiles, each packing a 300-kilogram warhead. The ship burned wildly at first as the fires from the explosion quickly spread before the crew reacted and doused them with water and regained control of the flames.
As the rest of the missiles found their marks, Admiral Richards saw a large portion of his fleet had somehow survived the largest anti-ship missile swarm in history.
“Now it’s time for payback,” he thought.
The Chinese and American fleets had closed the distance gap to get within strike range of their fighters, but that also meant they had just moved within range of his new Harpoon Block II+ extended-range missiles.
He turned to Rear Admiral Cord. “Order the fleet to begin engaging the PLA Navy with our Harpoons. It’s time to get some revenge. Also, get our fighters back on the decks of the carriers that are still operational. We need them rearmed and ready to repel the next attack,” he directed.
In minutes, the American and Japanese ships fired off their own anti-ship missiles while the remaining aircraft landed on the carriers that still had operational flight decks. As quickly as the fighters landed, they were being brought below decks and placed into an assembly line system of being rearmed, refueled, and then placed back on the forward elevator to return to the flight deck and get airborne.
Having trained to do this type of operation only once, the flight crews were proving that the heavy emphasis on training by the Navy was paying off. Aircraft were landing and being turned right around for the next flight in record time, which also allowed room for the additional aircraft to land. With several of the carriers having been sunk or heavily damaged, there wasn’t a lot of flight deck real estate to go around.