Smiling, Vitko pulled out another piece of paper. “This, this is how I propose we solve the problem. That, and of course, I need some of your air power,” he said. What he had been pointing to was a dossier on the new drone that the Russian Air Force was going to unveil shortly against NATO, the Zhukovs. They were being held as a surprise, which is why they had not been used yet, but there would certainly be merits for using them now.
The new Russian drone system was very similar to the American Reaper. It was designed to be a standoff missile platform with three hard points on each wing for missiles. It could be used in an anti-tank role or anti-air role.
“Comrade, we need to defeat this American battlegroup in the Black Sea before they land their Marines and the Americans send in more ships,” said the admiral. “They already have a second aircraft carrier on the way. What I would like to propose is to hit the Americans with a missile swarm attack — but of course, I would need your aircraft for that.” He took another pull of vodka from his flask.
Chayko rubbed his stubbled chin, thinking about this. While he wanted to keep his aircraft focused on ground support and maintaining air superiority, he also recognized the importance of keeping the American navy out of the Black Sea.
“Tell me Comrade, how would this missile swarm attack work?” he asked, wanting more details.
“I would need you to commit your fighters to head towards the NATO forces in Romania and engage them. While they are fighting in the air, your Backfire bombers would be equipped with anti-ship missiles and once in range, would release them all at once. Your bombers would never be in any real danger because their missiles can be fired beyond the range of the American naval surface-to-air missile systems.”
The admiral continued, “Following in behind the cruise missiles, your Su-27s and Su-34s would then move into range of their smaller, yet still dangerous, anti-ship missiles and release them as well, further adding to the swarm of missiles that would be headed to the American fleet. The overarching goal is to overwhelm their defenses and sink them.”
“You mentioned my Zhukovs. How did you envision using them?”
Smiling, Admiral Vitko answered, “Yes, this would be the big surprise. We would have them fly low, right at ground level. We fly them beneath the air battle taking place between your fighters and the NATO fighters. Once they have maneuvered behind them, we turn them around, raise them up a few hundred feet, and then fire off their air-to-air missiles. The NATO aircraft will be so focused on dealing with your fighters, they will never suspect that drones had been flown in behind them. They should easily shoot down a number of additional NATO aircraft, which again, should help aid in your efforts to secure air supremacy over Ukraine.” The corners of his lips curled up in a devilish smile.
Chayko thought about the plans as he looked at the map across from where they were seated. It was a risky move committing so many of his aircraft and bombers to one battle, but if he won, it could be a decisive victory and help end the war sooner.
“All right, Comrade. You have sold me on this little plan of yours. Let’s work together now to iron out the details and make it happen,” he said raising his own flask in salute.
Vampires, Vampires, Vampires
Admiral James Munch had moved his command from the carrier George H.W. Bush to the Gettysburg within hours after his flagship had sunk. The Gettysburg was a Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser, carrying 122 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which packed some serious firepower. It was a formidable warship. Together with the Arleigh Burke Destroyers traveling with them, it had an incredible air defense capability. Despite the tremendous losses he had just endured, Admiral Munch was feeling hopeful about their position, especially given that the Truman Carrier Strike Group was in the process of transitioning to the Bosphorus Straits and would join them tomorrow.
The Romanians, for their part, had sent their three frigates to join his fleet along with a couple of corvettes. None of their ships packed any sort of serious firepower, though they could perform picket duty at the outskirts of the fleet, which is where he had them positioned. Everything seemed to be well-prepared…
At roughly 0122 in the morning, an American E-3 that was on station loitering over Bucharest, Romania, suddenly detected 60 Russian Backfire bombers lifting off from several bases deep inside Russia. The radar operator, who had been feeling rather sleepy, was jolted into a very alert state. As he continued to scan the air, he spotted 30 Su-34s and 35 Su-27s heading towards the direction of the naval fleet.
What the radar operator did not see was the 12 Russian Zhukov drones, which were flying at less than 100 feet above the ground. Each one was carrying six air-to-air missiles to surprise the American fighters.
As the enemy air armada began to amass near the Russian border, the air battle manager aboard the E-3 began to vector in two squadrons of F-15s and a squadron of F-18s that had been flying combat air patrol over Romania and the fleet. While the American fighters were headed towards the Russian bombers, three squadrons of Russian MiG-31s, and a squadron of the new MiG-35s (which no one in the US military knew were operational), also headed in the same direction, ready to join the melee. Then, completely undetected, a squadron of Su-57 stealth fighters were also being guided to the battle by two Russian AWACs aircraft, ready to silently swoop in and snipe at the Americans.
The air battle in the night sky was shaping up to be one of the largest air battles in modern warfare. While the NATO and Russian fighters began to engage each other, each of the Backfire bombers fired off all three of their anti-ship cruise missiles from their maximum range, and then quickly turned around to head back to base. Altogether, the 60 bombers let loose a combined 180 anti-ship missiles at the American fleet.
In response to the massive wave of missiles streaming through the air, the Aegis-equipped destroyers and Ticonderoga cruisers began to fire off their missile interceptors. Meanwhile, the Russian Su-27s and Su-34s dove in at max speed to try and attack the American fleet. As they approached the ships, nearly a third of the Russian fighter bombers were shot down by the American fighters; fireballs lit up the night sky. However, the ones that got through fired off their anti-ship missiles. This added another 260 missiles for the American fleet to try and stop.
As the USS Gettysburg launched its last missile interceptors, Admiral James Munch had a stark moment of realization. “My God… the remnants of my carrier strike group are most likely going to be sunk. I am going to go down in naval history as the only US admiral to have lost an entire strike group during combat. It doesn’t even matter how courageously we fight at this point — we simply don’t have enough missile interceptors or point defense weapons to shoot down all of the incoming missiles.”
Every naval analysis group had warned that this was a serious vulnerability. In an age of cheap anti-ship missiles and cheaper throw-away missile platforms, the more technologically superior weapon systems could simply be overwhelmed by a missile swarm.
Hundreds of missiles could be seen exploding in the air as they approached the fleet from various angles and heights. Then, as if in slow motion, the missiles began to impact against their targets. In the span of seven minutes, the remaining anti-ship missiles (which still numbered in excess of two hundred) began to find their marks. At first, it was the outer picket ships that were hit, exploding in spectacular fashion as the missiles ripped through the bulkheads of the ships. Then, the missiles started to strike the larger more important ships, the Ticonderoga guided missile cruisers and the Marine Amphibious assault ships. Most of the ships were hit on their sides, some so many times that they just burst apart, blowing chunks of debris into the air. The others had so much damage to the superstructure of the ships that they simply had no hope of staying above water.