That would exhaust the TACTOM’s carried by the destroyers, though most still retained their MMT’s for anti-surface warfare. But the preeminent strike asset for land targets was not cutting waves with its bow that day. It was deep beneath the sea. SSGN 726, the venerable Ohio, had been converted from a ballistic missile boat into a cruise missile platform, and each of her 22 missile cells could hold seven TACTOM’s. They was adding 154 missiles to the battle, and these were going to target the bigger air bases at Al Anad near Aden, Djibouti, and the big airfield at Sana’a in northwest Yemen. This put some 250 missiles in the air, all coming from deep within the Indian Ocean, so they would not be seen on Chinese radars for some time.
Of less concern were the bases in Pakistan, which were too far away to really matter, and politically sensitive, so they were not on the list. Nobody worried about striking the bases in Yemen, but Pakistan was another matter, a nuclear armed “client state” of China that was still sitting on the fence in this war. Yemen had been sparring with the Saudis for years, trying to export its Houthi rebellion to Saudi territory.
In considering this phase of the campaign, the great virtue of the Tomahawks would be seen, low and slow, but with a whopping 1600 nautical mile range. They represented seaborne strike capability that had no equivalent on the Chinese side. Beijing had built and deployed excellent anti-ship missiles, but few that were dedicated to striking land targets. That said, the only bases that would matter to the Chinese would be the three airfields the US was using in Oman, and Berbera AFB on the southern shores of the Gulf of Aden in Somalia.
That base was being targeted by some of the few planes the Chinese had in the region with any standoff land strike capability. They were nothing new, the old JH-7A, but they could carry the KD-88 Land Attack Cruise Missile, with a 100 mile range. All they had to do was take off, point their noses south, and fly about 40 miles into the Gulf of Aden to get in range of Berbera, which is what they did.
The US had a foil based there for that very reason, the new F-24A Hellcat. It had been one of the planes competing for the role the F-22 won, but here, instead of dropping the program, it stayed in development as a possible successor to the Raptor, and with a new long lance missile, the AIM-152B, sporting a 160 mile range. Six were up to patrol the Gulf, and they saw the strike package on their radars, with escorting J-20s. Then they let those lances fly.
That started a little air war, seeing four J-20’s downed in short order, the Chinese KJ-500 AEW patrol destroyed, and all the J-7’s chopped up by those new US missiles. Unfortunately, they had already fired their cruise missiles, so the attack they had been sent to make was coming in regardless of the plane losses. The Chinese scrambled the rest of their squadron, another nine J-20s, but the Hellcats earned their name, and had missiles out after them before they even knew they were there. All nine would be destroyed, establishing the F-24 as a dangerous new air superiority asset for the US.
As darkness shrouded over the sea, the Tomahawks were making a slow approach to their targets.
Chapter 27
About an hour after sunset the Tomahawk storm was sweeping over the ocean, and the Chinese ships began firing at the missiles, until they realized they were just simply flying past them to other destinations. They got many kills, but the major strikes had been vectored over the Horn of Africa, and now the loss of that KJ-500 AEW plane out of Djibouti meant the Chinese were oblivious to the impending storm of flying metal and explosives heading their way.
The local commander at Djibouti had been shocked to see his entire squadron of J-20’s wiped out by the new American fighters. The only one killed on the US side was hit on the ground after it landed by one of the cruise missiles the JH-7A’s had fired.
Then reports came in that Al Anad AFB was under heavy missile attack, and he scrambled his last AEW plane to see what was happening. Even as it taxied to the runway, Tomahawks began falling on the revetments to the east. The plane took off amid smoke and fire rising from the field, and when it switched on its radars, the wave of missiles coming for the base was finally seen. Djibouti was about to take a pounding, and a missile would soon find him as he gawked at the scene from his control tower. The last thing he saw were the hangars and Avgas bunkers erupting with fire.
Half an hour later, planes in open parking at Sana’a started exploding as the Tomahawks reached that airbase. The resulting damage to all the targets was significant, with the loss of many planes on the ground and terrible disruption to operations. The control tower at Al Anad had also been destroyed, inhibiting the control of flight operations there. The interdiction strikes had done exactly what the US planners wanted, seriously reducing the ability of the Chinese to provide land based air support from any of those bases. That night, the satellites would look down for BDA analysis, and if necessary, Ohio was standing by with another 60 missiles ready for follow on attacks.
All of this added up to one great liability that now hampered the Chinese Fleet. How would they find the enemy? With air assets unable to fly deep recon missions into the Indian Ocean, they were relying on just one thing, satellites, and one in particular, Yaogan-13. It had just updated the general position of the Allied fleet, which was advancing in two groups, one where analysts had identified the British Carriers. By default, the other group had to be the Americans.
Their surface fleet had bullied the Royal Navy by getting just enough intelligence to target them at ranges between 200 and 400 nautical miles. In that donut, the Chinese could hammer them with the YJ-18 and YJ-100, leaving the British unable to respond, as their Harpoons and even the new Naval Strike Missiles had no more than 100 mile range. It meant the Royal Navy carriers were the only longer range strike asset, and the density of the missile attacks had forced those fighters to deploy as a defensive shield for the fleet.
That situation would remain unchanged for Admiral Wells, but the addition of the Roosevelt Strike Group had changed the equation dramatically. It was now the US Navy that had the dominant standoff naval strike weapon, the Multi-Mission Tomahawk, which they had in droves. Every destroyer carried them, giving the US an excellent first strike option in any engagement.
“Stick, Bravo One. Skunks on the water. Over.”
“Roger Bravo One, Stick Copies. Standby. Over.”
The US had the general position of the Chinese task forces east of the Horn of Africa, but they needed more refined data for targeting. A Hawkeye was up, but Captain James Simpson on the Roosevelt was a stickler for fighter recon missions, and he had a flight of four US F-35’s 200 miles out to nail things down. Bravo One was reporting to the Big Stick, that he had independent confirmation on the Hawkeye detections.
Roosevelt was an old gal, with her keel laid down on Halloween, 1981. A few Old Salts called her “Spooky” because of that, and she was commissioned five years later in 1986. Now she was just shy of her 40th year of service, and looking forward to a rest for some maintenance. Her Midlife Refueling and Complex Overhaul had been completed in 2009, so there was plenty of time left on the hull.
The business end of the ship had two dozen F-35’s, 18 Super Tomcats, and six Growlers. By this time, the long serving F/A-18’s had all been retired, put into reserve or sold to Allied states. The Navy had doubled down on the F-35, and the SuperToms were an odd addition to the flight deck. They were not simply upgraded planes, but all newly manufactured with the advanced equipment built in, and other improvements. A big aircraft, they could carry loads of ordnance that were not yet able to fit in the internal weapons bay of the F-35, most notably the LRASM and SLAMMER for standoff strike capability. They were also often used for “Heavy Barcap,” or barrier CAP, where they could loadout with all of eight of the new AIM-152’s. It reminded the older officers who had flown the first Tomcats in their youth of the venerable Phoenix. The Toms would eventually be replaced by the new Avenger-II stealth strike plane, but that was only flying on the three newest carriers, Independence, Enterprise and John F. Kennedy.