“Good enough. What’s happening at Singapore?”
“That port is still functional. They threw some DF-21’s at it, but not enough to close it down. In another couple of days it will be 90% operational. The Chinese withdrew to Vung Tau, near the Mekong Delta, but they will regroup there and could make another move south. That’s a problem, because the Royal Navy pulled out the last five ships they had there. They just don’t have any real offensive punch beyond 100 miles, and so they’d just be targets.”
“Well damn, John, who’s holding the fort?”
“At the moment, the light elements of the Singapore Navy. They lost their frigates, but still have a good number of patrol boats.”
“Patrol boats?”
“I know, its damn thin. Well, the Siberians are down in that area with that hot battlecruiser of theirs, so given the situation, I ordered Hap Turner’s group to meet up with them.”
“Turner… You mean the New Jersey Group?”
“Right. We reinforced it with the last two destroyers that were part of that SAG, Stoneman and Sumner. They were late getting out of Guam with some sensor repairs. There were also a three Virginia Class boats on escort with the Independence, and we assigned two of them to join the British sub Trafalgar. They’ll set up a defensive screen. Beyond that, the Air Force is going to ferry in some air assets to Singapore. We beat up the Chinese airfields down there pretty good, so this will buck up our control of the airspace, and with those three subs, we’ll control things under the wavetops as well.”
“What about Enterprise?”
“Can’t move her just now. That group is holding the watch on the East China Sea. Washington reached Pearl, and will be escorting in the next sealift you set up there, bound for Japan.”
“Sounds like we could use a couple more flattops.”
“Six was plenty for peacetime operations,” said Randall, “and we kept readiness at the top of our list. Never more than one ship in extended maintenance at a time. But with this war, we wish we had ten. They’re rigging out JFK, and if this thing gets any worse she just might cut her teeth in real combat. For now, Ike is in bed at Norfolk, and Truman is in the Eastern Med to provide air support for the Saudis. So the best we can do is get two big decks together, and right now, that’s going to be in the Arabian Sea.”
“At least the Army stopped Saddam.”
“For the moment. Yes, it seems we’ll hold the line there, but we’ll need everything you can bring us to roll them out of there. So with your permission, I’ll issue orders to retool 1st USMC to Salaha as we planned.”
“I hope you keep a sharp eye out for their subs,” said Shannon. “The undersea boys have been having a field day out here.”
That was an understatement.
While those course changes were underway in the Arabian Sea, Kirov and Kursk were still in the Karimata Strait. Karpov had thought to take the Sunda Strait to get into the deep water of the Indian Ocean. Gromyko would certainly prefer that to the shallow waters here. But He had received a message from the Americans, requesting he make a rendezvous with the New Jersey Surface Action group.
The big battleship had lingered to wait for its other two destroyers, which left Guam late. When DDG’s Stoneman and Sumner came up, the Black Dragon got orders to meet up with the Siberians. That would make a seven ship Surface Action Group, and with two of the most powerful ships afloat in that order of battle. Karpov had plenty of time to meet his supply ship in Jakarta, and replaced the Zircons he had fired. He was thankful that the Soviets had even made the missile in this history, but as Fedorov often said, sometimes the details of an altered time were remarkably true, while on the macro scale, things could be must different. That was certainly the case here.
The “air assets” that Admiral Randall had referred to in his meeting with Shannon were fighters and support planes transferring in from US bases on Yap and Palau. There would be six Raptors, another flight of six Avenger II’s and an E-3G Sentry. Bombers from Guam were always available, and could weigh in with air strikes as needed.
As always, the US wanted to keep a sharp eye on what the Chinese were doing in the South China Sea, and waiting for satellites wasn’t always the best option. Guam also had a special asset, the SR-72 Aurora, a 2900 MPH strategic recon plane which was able to take a look at the situation from 85,000 feet, which was 5000 feet above the service ceiling of the Chinese HQ-9B, so the plane could loiter or scoot by with impunity, fuel being the only limiting factor, as Guam was a long way off, over 2000 nautical miles.
The report was sent to Captain Henry “Hap” Turner on the New Jersey, and he did the courtesy of sending in on through to Kirov. Karpov was on the weather deck when it came in, using his field glasses to see if he could spot the tall battlements of the American Battleship. Nikolin came out to say he had a message decrypt, and Karpov headed for the warmth of the bridge. He saw that Fedorov was hunched over the light table where the digital display was marking the positions of ships in the region. The Admiral hung his field glasses on the hook where he always left them and read the message.
“My,” he said, handing the message off to Fedorov. “Have a look at this.”
Fedorov glanced at it darkly, seeing the one thing that was cause for concern. “Twenty-five ships?” he said, giving Karpov a sour look.”
Even as he read the message, the digital display was already updating with the positions of the contacts being reported.
“The Chinese never do things small, Fedorov. They have regrouped, and here they come again. This crab like formation just south of the Mekong Delta is built around the carrier Shandong. It looks like the one we hit earlier is still in port, Zhendong.”
“That’s a relief,” said Fedorov.
“Oh? Look here, the intelligence indicates they think there is a second carrier—Taifeng. It would be in this group to the east. This means they’re upping their game here. That carrier is the flagship of the East China Sea Fleet, but obviously things are at a low boil there now, and this is a much more strategic situation. It means they could have as many as 60 fighters on those carriers. It makes sense, because the US took out their local bases and they were soft on air power. They can’t just rely on satellites. They need eyes in the sky to find and fix our position, and now they’ll be able to do that.”
“And we’ll need to find them as well, because that recon plane can’t loiter there very long.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. The one thing the Americans do better than anyone else is reconnaissance. They’ll have the Chinese order of battle chapter and verse before long.”
“So, it looks like you’ll get another crack at a carrier.”
“Indeed it does.”
“Yet that’s a lot of ships, Karpov. We have only seven, ten if we count the submarines. We’re outnumbered over two to one.”
“Well,” said Karpov, “we have about 120 missiles we can throw with our ships. The American’s have another 150. That’s 270 offensive missiles, enough to put at least ten on every one of those enemy ships. So we’ve got some clout, and they’ll soon know it. It’s likely that we’ll get air support, and those three subs will be very dangerous for them. They haven’t really learned their ASW operations yet. But once bitten, twice shy. Zhendong is really still in port because that British sub put torpedoes into it. For my money, as good as my Zircons are, a torpedo is the most dangerous weapon in all naval combat. The Chinese may have subs out there too, so I hope Tasarov has the wax out of his ears.”