In addition to getting the Enterprise reactivated and ready for war, he also had to ready John F. Kennedy, which was in a similar state. Both ships had been in the process of being made ready to be turned into floating museums, which was fortunate, given that at least they weren’t in the process of being broken down for scrap.
Getting the Kitty Hawk seaworthy was practically going to require an intervention from the Almighty. However, instead of divine intervention, Admiral Lindal has been given an army of contractors. The carrier had just started the process of being broken down for scrap when the war started. It had taken nearly ten months to get her seaworthy and ready for combat. Even in her deployment to England, she was still flooded with an army of two thousand contractors who were getting the ship’s electronics, weapons, and aviation functions ready for war. It was not until ten days prior to this deployment that the ship had received her full crew, munitions, and aircraft. Bringing these three carriers out of retirement and ready for war in essentially ten months had been nothing short of miraculous.
In addition to getting the three carriers ready for war, Admiral Lindal had also had to assemble the support ships that would be needed to escort this aged fleet of warships. After combing through the naval inactive ship maintenance facility in Philadelphia, his staff was able to identify thirteen of sixteen Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates that could be brought back up to service for this newly designated fleet. His planners had also identified two Ticonderoga-class cruisers and six amphibious transport ships. In Pearl Harbor, they’d looked at the eight amphibious assault transports and had wanted to incorporate them into their Atlantic fleet but had been told they had been slated for use in the Pacific. Admiral Lindal had only been allowed to pillage through the Atlantic reserve fleet. Rumor had it the Navy was even considering reactivating the two remaining Iowa-class battleships, purely for their sixteen-inch gun platforms.
It had been a long few months for Admiral Lindal, to say the least. He poured himself another cup of coffee and stared blankly out the window at the storm.
Captain Donna King had a similar idea. She emptied the current pot of coffee on the bridge into her mug, and after setting the next one up to brew, she found the admiral, who was looking outside. “Remind me why we’re launching this operation now, instead of a few months from now when the ship and the fleet would be better prepared,” she said in a hushed tone only loud enough for the two of them to hear.
Admiral Lindal grunted in reply before turning to look at the newly promoted captain. Donna King had just pinned on captain when the war started. She was going to assume the role of Commander Air Group on the George H.W. Bush when it had been sunk. When the Navy had made the decision to reactivate the Enterprise, she had been Admiral Lindal’s top pick to take command. Aside from being a brilliant aviator, she had served as his aide during his obligatory Pentagon tour. He knew if anyone could light a fire under the butts of the engineers to get the ship ready for combat, it would be her.
Ever since he’d met her sixteen years ago, Admiral Lindal had taken a liking to King. As a young F/A-18 Hornet pilot, she was aggressive and tenacious, but she was also a big thinker, someone who saw the grand strategy. That singled her out as an officer who would make flag level one day. He had taken it upon himself to help mentor her and guide her through the perils of the Navy officer selection process. When he had been given the herculean task of building a new carrier strike group out of mothballed and reserve ships, he’d sat down and gone through his rolodex of officers he had personally groomed and mentored. He had orders chopped and people transferred around as he sought to build his leadership dream team. He would do his best to make sure these officers were rewarded following the war.
Smiling as he looked at Donna, he responded in a similarly hushed tone. “If we wait, we won’t be able to move until spring. Before we left port, I had a telecom with the SecDef. He told me that between the ground offensive and our amphibious assault, they believe the Russian Army may completely collapse. We could end this war within the next two or three months.”
Captain King sighed but nodded. “Did you hear about the boiler room problems on the Kitty Hawk? I’m glad we don’t have that issue to deal with,” she said, changing the topic.
“Yeah, I’ve been hearing about a host of mechanical problems from different ships throughout the fleet. I hate to admit this, but I’m glad we brought a few tugboats along. Some of the transport ships are really having a hard time keeping up. I’ve already had to detail off a couple of frigates to help guard two transports that broke down and are currently trying to get back underway.”
“Did you ever think in 2018, a carrier fleet would be traveling with several tug boats? We’re as bad as the Russians,” she said with a slight chuckle. Prior to the war, the Russian carrier was often seen traveling with a tugboat. It was notorious for breaking down and having to be pulled into port.
“The Kitty Hawk was commissioned in 1961. I served on her in the 1980s. I never imagined leading a fleet of ships that had largely been part of the Ghost fleet.”
Before they could continue their conversation, a call came through, requesting their presence in the combat information center. They both headed down to the CIC to see what was going on. When they entered the room, they saw several underwater contacts on the big board screen.
“Torpedoes in the water!” announced one of the senior petty officers who had been manning one of the operations desks.
Before anyone else could speak, Admiral Lindal demanded, “Where are they headed?”
“The torpedoes appear to be aimed at the European ships,” he replied. “We’re well outside of their range.”
“Admiral, we’re receiving a message from the New Hampshire,” the underwater LNO explained. “They say they’re moving to engage an Oscar-class sub. They said it sounded like the Oscar was preparing to fire her cruise missiles.”
“Let’s go ahead and bring the rest of the fleet to battle stations and prepare them to respond to a possible cruise missile attack,” the admiral ordered. Despite the new threat, he trusted that his people and their ships would be able to handle the evolving situation.
Admiral Feliks Gromov smiled to himself as he watched the waves crashing. The storm raging in the Barents Sea couldn’t have come at a better time if he’d planned it himself. Things were going much better than he had anticipated.
Their intelligence sources in both Britain and Norway had confirmed the departure of the Allied fleet four days ago; when they’d discovered the Allied plans for Operation Nordic Fury, his officers had scrambled to figure out how they could stop the American fleet. It was clear they were going to try and end the war before the conclusion of the year, and if the Allies were successful in landing troops at Severodvinsk, they had a good chance of succeeding.
A major high-profile defeat like that would be nearly impossible for the media to spin, and it would cause the Russian people to question how well the war really was going. In general, the average Russian citizen knew the Allies were still carrying out sporadic strategic bombings across the country, but the news from the front was still regaling them with victories, tales of pushing the Allies completely out of Ukraine, and their army driving deep into Poland and even Slovakia. An Allied invasion of the Russian mainland from the White Sea would call all of that into question.