Suddenly, he spotted a projectile flying from a small clearing near some wooded areas, roughly two kilometers from the base perimeter. “Over there! Hit them with the rockets quick!” Hawk yelled to his gunner, who proceeded to let loose a number of their anti-personnel rockets. As Tom was firing the rockets, Hawk increased speed and started to race towards the position, betting there were additional enemy soldiers in that area.
As he moved closer to the Russian positions, his air defense alarms began to growl in his ears, and then a blaring alarm overpowered him. Before he could even react, the helicopter’s automated defense began to spit out flares and it jerked hard to one side, just in time for him to watch an enemy missile fly right past them. Then, they felt a sudden jolt and heard the explosion. All kinds of alarms began to go off in the cockpit of the helicopter.
Tom continued to stay focused on engaging the ground soldiers, who were now shooting at them. Hawk regained control of the helicopter, hitting the fire extinguisher on the engine that was damaged. He pulled the helicopter into a hard-right turn as he looked to gain some altitude and pull them away from the ground fire. Then, several more missiles raced towards their position. Captain Hawk fired off more flares and jinked hard from side to side, trying to evade the new missiles.
Suddenly, the glass canopy above him exploded. As soon as he stopped shielding his face from the falling shards of glass, Ian realized that his left arm didn’t work. His right leg was on fire, and there was smoke pouring into the cockpit from the engine intake above him. Hawk turned the helicopter back towards the base, trying to get them back to safety. He attempted to use his left hand to reach for the fire extinguisher, but it still wouldn’t work. He looked down and saw his left hand had been severed and was squirting blood. As he tried to bring the helicopter in for an emergency landing, he lost too much blood, and lost consciousness.
Several of the F-15s fought to gain altitude and engage the enemy fighters just as the first wave of cruise missiles began to arrive. The C-RAM switched from engaging the mortars to the cruise missiles and threw a sheer wall of 20mm rounds at the incoming missiles, destroying dozens of them.
However, while the C-RAM was occupied with the incoming missiles, several pairs of Su-34s began to release a series of JDAMs on the airfield. They specifically targeted the C-RAM system, the base communication systems, power generation, command and control buildings, and the dozens of US and NATO aircraft and helicopters that were trying to get into the air and join the battle.
As the airbase’s defenses went down, the waves of enemy cruise missiles and JDAMs began to systematically destroy the base and hammer units of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 173rd Airborne that were not already dispersed at their marshalling points away from the base.
While the base was under air and ground attack, two Russian surveillance drones loitered not far away, providing exceptional video coverage of the attack. The recordings from these drones would be immediately used by the Russian psychological operation groups and Russian media to produce graphic and gripping descriptions of the battle. This, of course, would be promulgated across social media to the entire world.
While the initial air battle was over, NATO’s two Patriot batteries had successfully shot down sixteen Russian aircraft and fourteen cruise missiles; however, they were still destroyed. NATO’s most potent air defense system had been destroyed in the first thirteen minutes of the war. The Ukrainian air defense systems had fared slightly better, shooting down seventeen Russian aircraft before they were taken offline. Still, the defeat was demoralizing.
30,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Admiral James Munch was extremely nervous as his carrier strike group began to exit the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. They were entering the Russians’ pond, and he had a bad feeling the Russians had a nasty surprise waiting for them. Several of his destroyers and frigates had reported the presence of multiple submarine contacts, and so did the two attack submarines that were escorting his strike group. Although he had thirteen cruisers, destroyers, frigates and submarines in his strike group, all of the intelligence leading up to today indicated that war with Russia was imminent, and no amount of force was ever “enough” when beginning a conflict.
Captain John Miller, the captain of the USS Bush, found the Admiral in the Combat Information Center (CIC) and handed him a message. “Sir, the O'Bannon has positive contact on four Kilo submarines and two Akulas. They had contact with an Oscar, but lost it about five minutes ago. The subs are keeping their distance, but they are not shy about making their presence known,” the captain said nervously.
“The strike group may be the responsibility of the Admiral,” thought Captain Miller, “but the carrier is mine. I do not like the way this looks…”
The Admiral seemed to agree with Miller’s unspoken thoughts. “I don’t like this John — not one bit. I almost feel like we are walking into some sort of trap.” He looked around the room. Everyone was busy trying to digest all the potential threats to the strike group and what they all meant. “How many more ships still need to exit the straits before we can get some maneuver room?” he asked.
The captain walked over to one of the computer screens being manned by a petty officer 1st class. After analyzing what he saw for a moment, he answered, “Just two — both frigates. What are you thinking, sir?”
The Admiral asked, “If you were going to lay a trap for a carrier strike group exiting the Bosphorus, when would you spring it?”
Several of the officers and sailors stopped what they were doing and turned to the Captain to see what he would say. The admiral had asked a good question. While the captain was formulating a response, one of the communications officers interrupted everyone’s thoughts with an urgent message.
“Captain, you need to see this,” announced Petty Officer King, who had been manning one of the communications terminals.
Just then, Archie Martin, another petty officer who had been monitoring the navigation and map of the strike group, stood up and blurted out, “We just lost our GPS signals!”
The Admiral walked towards Petty Officer Martin. “What do you mean, ‘we just lost our GPS signal?’ Is it a problem on our end?” he asked, hoping it was just a glitch.
“It’s not a computer malfunction,” explained Petty Officer King. “We just lost our satellite link with NAVEUR and the rest of the fleet. I’ve switched us over to standard radio communications, but it will degrade the volume of data that can be sent between the fleet and fleet headquarters,” he said to the horror of everyone in the room.
If the fleet had lost access to the GPS and communication satellites, then that meant they could not properly coordinate their defenses or communicate with higher headquarters as quickly or securely as they had just a few minutes ago. The Admiral knew immediately what this meant; the Russians had just taken down America’s satellite capabilities in preparation of an attack. It’s what he would have done if the roles were reversed.
In that instant, Admiral Munch took control of the situation and began to issue orders to the fleet. “Sound general quarters. Bring the fleet to Condition One and order the DDs and ASW assets to engage and destroy the Russian submarines now!” he shouted.
Then he turned to the captain. “Get this ship moving to flank speed immediately, and prepare for a Russian attack,” Munch said in an urgent and commanding voice.