Olive’s strike was to be joined by B-1s with JASSM-ER cruise-missiles and B-52s with MALD jammers. The bombers would release their weapons and decoys high over Mindanao as Olive’s strike package came in from the southeast. Each Rhino formation had a HAVE REEL pod to confuse Chinese radar displays. Olive and her division carried four of the new AADM swarm weapons, one each, while others carried AARGM to home in on enemy radars and Stand-Off Land Attack Cruise missiles for point targets. The two-pronged American attack could hit whatever was on or around Stingray Reef.
While the bombers were safe from SAM attack, Olive’s strike was not. She had help from two JSFs to give everyone situational awareness via data link, and one ES-3 to listen in on enemy communications.
Olive’s AADM birds would be the first to tickle the enemy’s air defenses. But what would they face? If a Luyang was to the east, she would be in its SAM envelope crossing Palawan. Her AADMs were programmed to attack Luyangs and Jiangkai frigates first: to poke their eyes out. Her SLAMs and the bombers with their big missiles were going to tear up Stingray.
With her night vision goggles, Olive could detect light at incredible distances, and she scanned the north for evidence of the bombers. Nothing. The cultural lighting of Manila, hundreds of miles north, cast a glow on the horizon.
Palawan Island slid underneath her, and she could see the rugged topography and thick forests that covered it. Olive knew the plush resorts had people with listening and scanning devices, people who sympathized with the Chinese. She saw a vessel in the passage and locked it with her FLIR: a coastal merchant. She keyed the mike.
“Ninety-nine, Wolfpack, Armstrong,” Olive said, her lips just touching her mask microphone. With her left hand, she lifted the MASTER ARM switch to ARM. Above, she searched for signs of Heaven’s Shield — it was about here they had bagged Rip — but there were no indications on her display and no telltale sightings of moving objects above the SCS.
Her display did show a cluster of enemy emitters on Stingray. She would take her division into the passage, accelerate, and loft the AADMs to give them the longest range possible. She saw there were also emitters from a Luyang near the reef. Good. The Americans were ready, and no fighter opposition was expected.
Her radio crackled: the ES-3.
“Wolfpack, spotters below have you and are calling with unsecure voice.”
So the bastard spies or Chinese partisans below had seen Olive’s package and warned somebody, probably giving them a raid count. She couldn’t stop them, and, with her target designated, Olive lifted the jet up ten degrees and mashed down on the pickle switch. With a lurch, the AADM fell from her weapon station. A booster rocket ignited, and the weapon climbed ahead with wings extended.
Deedle, deedle, deedledeedledeedledeedledeedle
Olive’s eyes snapped to her Radar Warning display, and from that to the direction of arrival. A missile was tracking her! But how, with no warnings? A bright plume appeared left of her nose… Shit!
“Sniper one-one has a SAM ten o’clock low. Defending!” she called, elevating the tension level for everyone. SAMs? Out here? From what?
Olive pulled down hard and expended chaff, and, as she did, she saw another SAM burst from the darkness ahead. Her wingmen were defending, too, and the situation had gone from calm assurance to utter confusion. Unknown to her and the others, a Jiangkai frigate was parked near a cay on the other side of the passage with two fishing boats. With emitters off and radar signature concealed by the cay and fishermen, the PLA(N) combatant lay in wait, and, when tipped off by shore observer warnings, had picked up Olive’s flight with visual sensors and engaged optically.
Olive’s headset was blaring loud warnings as she maneuvered to throw off the tracking radar. Olive stopped jinking for a moment to assess and pick it up. The missile, resembling a bright sun, appeared to tip over on her. Dammit! She threw out more chaff and pulled into it.
The missile overshot, unable to keep up with Olive’s violent maneuvering, but she still didn’t know what it was. Olive and two of her wingman had already shot their AADMs at Stingray, but Sniper one-three had not. Looking for the next SAM, Olive called, “If you have an AADM left, go for the threat to the west!” She was furious. This is the second time those bastards tricked me, she thought, continuing to search for more threats.
One-three saw where the missiles were coming from, locked the frigate on his infrared, and shot his AADM at it. In this mode the weapon released the submunition drones early, and the swarm organized itself to attack. Using programmed artificial intelligence, the drones ignored the fishing boats and zeroed in on the soft antennas and phased-array plates of the frigate. Surrounding the ship, the swarm came at it from all sides, and, because the frigate had shut down the radars, it did not see the drones. Sailors on deck heard an eerie mournful buzzing sound, like a swarm of bees, grow louder and louder.
Via coordinated attack, a shotgun blast of submunitions impacted the Jiangkai in critical areas. None of the shaped charges in the munitions could sink it, but they did the damage desired to the weak and vulnerable areas of the warship. The astonished Chinese crew did not know what had happened, and, with their comms out, could not warn anyone. After a minute of confusion, a fishing boat next to it reported that the frigate was smoking and didn’t look like it could fight. Thirty seconds later, a drone that had been orbiting to record the damage, zeroed in on the boat’s radio antenna and silenced it.
As Olive struggled to regain altitude and situational awareness, the remaining AADMs and cruise missiles were inbound to Stingray. She scribbled notes about the Jiangkai ambush for the debrief and now was behind the SLAM birds as they pressed to Stingray Reef.
The SAM batteries on the targeted outpost engaged the MALDs at range, launching a volley of eight missiles Olive and the others could see on their goggles. Now ahead of her, Olive’s SLAM element launched their weapons and retreated as the data-linked trailers guided them in. Next to them, a division of Broncos lofted AARGM to suppress the enemy radars, graceful shooting stars climbing into the night.
The Air Force JASSMs got there first. Sixty of the 2,000-pound weapons were targeted on the runway and port fuel infrastructure, the shelters, the magazines, piers, warehouses, hangars and repair areas. On the tiny and cramped man-made outpost, one target was on top of another, and, with only inertial navigation to go by, the bombers launched more than enough to saturate Stingray Reef. Since nothing was buried, the entire facility was vulnerable.