Two of the super-sonic Blackjack bombers headed towards the NATO military headquarters building at Mons, Belgium. Once they got within range of their cruise missiles, they rose in altitude and proceeded to release their twelve AS-15 'Kent' cruise missiles. The projectiles streaked through the air, reaching their cruising speed of Mach.75 and dropping down to a mere 300 feet above the ground as they raced towards their target.
The missiles flew for nearly an hour, until they reached the NATO Headquarters, where they began to pummel the Allied Command Operations Building, along with several other support buildings. Within minutes, the NATO command facility had been pulverized, killing hundreds of member state military representatives.
The remaining bombers headed towards the American airbases at Spangdahlem and Ramstein, releasing their 72 cruise missiles. Those cruise missiles were specifically targeting the aircraft hangers, parking ramps, fuel dumps, and communication centers. They avoided cratering the runways, since those could be quickly repaired. The loss of aircraft, however, could not be replaced quickly, and for a short period, this would leave the US and NATO with very few fighter aircraft to stop the Russian ground forces from securing their initial objectives.
The 80 Backfire bombers split off into eight attack groups of ten, each carrying a total of ten AS-16 "Kickback" air-to-surface missiles. These missiles had a much smaller range of only 300 kilometers, so they were sent in during the second wave of the attack, after the Blackjacks and other fighters had already cleared the air of NATO fighters. These bomber groups hit two Ukrainian airbases, three Polish airbases, and three German airbases. Within the first couple hours of the Russian attack, they had effectively neutralized the NATO air forces for at least a full day — maybe two or three — before new aircraft could be flown in from other NATO members and the US.
The attack caught the US, Poland and Germany completely by surprise. Until then, they had believed that while Russia was posturing more forcefully than before, they would ultimately back down and not follow through on their threat of force. The assault also proved how woefully unprepared the NATO members were for a potential conflict with Russia.
Regrouping
As Lieutenant General Cotton walked into the JIOC, he realized that things were starting to come unglued very quickly. He had just come from a secured video teleconference with General Wheeler, the Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR). Things were a complete mess up there from the cruise missile attack, and for the time being, the headquarters had been taken offline; they were transferring operations to one of the alternate locations. For all of NATO’s preparedness, the Russians had still managed to catch NATO with their pants down.
From what General Cotton could tell during the video conference call, and what he was seeing in the JIOC right now, this was turning into a Class A screw-up of epic proportions. As he walked down to the front of the room, all eyes turned to look at the general. He took up a post behind the lectern and prepared to address the group. “Listen up everyone. I do not know how, and right now, I do not care about the why, but somehow, the Russians managed to launch a sneak attack on us and we were caught completely flatfooted. I can assure you that before long, heads will roll. However, right now, we need to focus on how we are going to get past what just happened. I want blood for blood, people!” he blared at the group.
A million cuss words swirled around in General Cotton’s mind, but as he took a deep breath, he realized that yelling a bunch of explicatives at his group was not necessarily the way to get them to work better. As he surveyed the group before him, he saw in their eyes and faces that they were doing their best… it just wasn’t good enough.
“Listen, it’s been a rough few hours. Right now, we have US and NATO soldiers fighting and dying in eastern Ukraine, not to mention what just happened to the Navy and our forces at Ramstein and Spangdahlem. Let’s start to run through the various situations and then start executing orders.” He gestured to his first target in the room. “Colonel George, bring us up to speed on the attacks on our bases in Germany.”
As Colonel George came forward, General Cotton walked back to his traditional seat at the top of the auditorium. He hoped that it wouldn’t all be bad news.
Colonel Philip George was the JIOC Commander who oversaw all the operations happening in the European jurisdiction. Originally an Air Force flyer, he had graduated to desk duty as he was being groomed for general. Perhaps General Cotton had picked him to go first because he had the most hope in Colonel George.
As soon as he reached the podium, the colonel began to answer the question. “Sir, the Russians hit our bases in Germany with their Blackjack bombers, the Su-160s. They swept in across Belarus and Poland at speeds of roughly Mach 2.3 — they flew in at near tree-level, which made them difficult to track at first. When they got within range of their cruise missiles, they rose up to 1,000 feet and unleashed a series of missiles at each of the bases and the NATO headquarters building before ducking back down to treetop level and returning home.”
Colonel George brought up an image of the Blackjack, which was strikingly similar to the American B1 Lancer bomber. Additional slides showed the flight path, and launch points of the cruise missiles, as well as the types of cruise missiles that were launched. Next, he brought up images of the damage to the two American airbases, which was substantial. “A lot of these images were taken less than an hour ago,” he explained. “Fortunately, these were conventional cruise missiles and not nuclear. They hit us with the A-Triple Five Kents, which carry a 400 kg (880 lbs.) high-explosive warhead. They targeted our aircraft hangers, fuel farms, radar, and control tower and several other high value targets. The runways were left untouched. It appears they wanted to hit our ability to respond more than our ability to launch or receive aircraft.”
Colonel George continued to walk through the damage assessment, timelines to get things repaired, and the casualty figures. General Cotton was fuming inside. “With the loss of so many aircraft and fuel farms, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide any credible ground support to their units under attack in Ukraine. Shoot, at this point, we will be lucky if we can prevent the Russians from launching a second attack,” he thought.
The general pressed for more information. “OK, I can see the damage is bad. How soon until we can get things operational at the bases and get fighters back in the skies providing CAP?”
“Right now, the bases are already operational. We lost 68 fighters, 14 transports, six mid-air re-fuelers and one E-3. It’s a hard loss, but we still have aircraft that were not damaged or destroyed. We have 22 fighters flying CAP right now over our bases. The Germans also have 52 fighters flying over their country to ward off any further intrusions. The Polish on the other hand, were hit hard. They received the brunt of the cruise missile attacks by the Backfires, along with a series of short-range ballistic missiles, which really hit them hard. Most of their airfields have been taken offline for the time being. The last situation report we received said that it’ll be at least a full day before the runways are serviceable, and longer still until they have fuel and other services back up and running.”
Colonel George continued, “The Polish and the Germans now have 42 aircraft in the air, but they are also engaging Russian fighters fairly frequently at their borders—”