Wilson squeezed again, a long burst with the familiar chain saw sound made by the rotating 20mm barrels. Tracers flew out ahead of him as he hosed the UAV with high explosive from near point-blank range.
He saw a flash in the empennage, and the airplane broke up as another round hit a wing. Wilson pulled off and overbanked left to watch the UAV flutter down to the surface below.
“Lookout, Flip. Splashed the UAV. Mongo, you copy that?”
“Affirm, sir, and the boat launched another,” Mongo answered.
“Take it,” Wilson said. No more screwing around.
Moments later, Mongo reported that he had splashed the UAV out of sight of the trawler as technicians aboard it scratched their heads, figuring it was an anomaly in their system that caused them to lose contact.
Meanwhile, Mother and his wingman Turnip were orbiting high over Iwo Jima. After 20 minutes, Mother received a transmission from Lookout who wanted him to check “white” airliner traffic approaching from the south; the airliner’s projected track crossed over the island.
Mother accelerated as Turnip took trail. Given what had happened to Hancock the previous day, airliners had to be checked out and dealt with, if not what they appeared to be.
Mother had one Sidewinder heat-seeking missile and bullets, not a massive wallop but enough to damage a large aircraft — or, at least, scare the pilots. He would go at the airliner with Turnip in trail, the old eyeball-shooter intercept, and, if no-factor, would let it go. His plan was to intercept from below so as not to produce a contrail. Lookout was sending them linked info and sweetened it with a call.
“Mother, your bogey bears one-seven-three for eighty.”
“Roger,” Mother growled. He guessed the bogey was in the high 30’s and continued his easy climb at .85 mach. With 20 miles to go, he leveled at 35,000 feet and got supersonic.
He saw the airliner at 40 miles, slightly up. It had four engines leaving heavy contrails, and he soon noted the white fuselage. It was a passenger 747 with a red tail, heading north, and, as Mother went at it, Turnip swung wide to take a big bite.
When it was apparent the aircraft was a civil carrier, Mother pulled hard nose-low in front of it to maintain airspeed for the intercept. Turnip crossed behind the 747 at 90 degrees, and both had to keep their knots up to avoid falling too far behind.
As he made the radio call to Lookout, Mother eased up underneath the airliner and took a position under the tail. He scanned the aircraft and saw nothing unusual. Satisfied the 747 was “friendly,” he eased away and recorded their position, altitude, heading, time, and the aircraft tail number.
He then noted passengers pressed against the windows watching him, some recording him with their smart phones. He waved at them and moved out to the wingtip before he broke away to the right as Turnip followed. Mother pulled his jet around the horizon, and in the distance he could make out Hancock, trailing a huge wake and heading north.
The amazed passengers talked among themselves about what they had seen and compared the photos they took. One knowledgeable passenger said the fighters were American FA-18 Hornets. When the 747 landed in Tokyo two hours later, the passengers posted their images on social media. Mother’s jet, lit by the afternoon sun, showed the letters NL on the tail, and, upon close inspection, USS HANCOCK could be read on the leading edge extension.
That night in Guangzhou, analysts on watch assessed the information that came in through various sources. The picket boat off Iwo Jima reported her two drones were lost due to unknown cause.
The disgusted head analyst figured the loss of both drones must have been operator error by untrained and untested crew members. How can the People’s Republic prevail against the Americans with incompetent technicians? The analyst hoped a fresh asset with better operators could fill the breach along this portion of the second chain.
The social media analyst across the room gave a shout, and all on watch were energized to see images of an American F-18 taken by passengers on a flight from Sydney to Narita. Digital evidence showed when the airplane, a 747, landed at Tokyo and passengers had coverage to post to their friends.
Analysis of the English and Japanese language comments of a dozen posts showed the pictures were taken an hour or two before landing. Backtracking, the analysts assessed the intercept occurred in the vicinity of Iwo Jima, close to the time the picket boat had lost her drones.
It was a USS Hancock jet. No doubt. Had the Americans repaired the damage done to their carrier catapults? Had this aircraft taken off before their attack on the carrier? Did this fighter also attack the drones?
Were there others?
And, if there were others — even this one FA-18 Hornet—where were they based? Honshu was over 600 miles away, far beyond the combat radius of a Hornet. Upon closer inspection only one fuel tank was attached to the airplane — the Americans always had multiple tanks on their deployed carrier planes.
Iwo Jima was now a PRC contact of interest.
CHAPTER 33
In Hawaii, Admiral Clark assessed his position.
John Adams was near Guam but not combat capable. Hancock had serious damage and was running to Yokosuka for repair. With Guam at risk from further DF-21 attacks, land-based aircraft were dispersed east to jam-packed Wake Island or south to Australia, farther from the fight. Flying hundreds of replacement sailors and aircrew to make John Adams a warfighting asset required a safe airfield (Wake) and lots of airplanes; civil carriers were pressed into service as the carrier closed Wake, a transit of 1,300 miles that would take days each way. His satellites were degraded and his aviators could not depend on GPS weapon guidance, a serious drawback as the Americans had most of their precision eggs in the GPS basket.
On the good side, his submarines were working their way into firing positions, and his surface combatants were ready with full load-outs. USS Les Aspin was intact and in relative safety in the eastern Indian Ocean. The amphib USS Solomon Islands, with 22 F-35s and two squadrons of Romeo helicopters aboard, was 500 miles from Guam, and, in what would be a legendary accomplishment that would go down in the annals of naval history, Randy Johnson aboard Hancock sent his air wing ashore to Iwo Jima with deck runs! Amazing, and Johnson’s CAG, Captain Jim Wilson, led them off like Jimmy Doolittle of yore. Clark had to keep this under wraps as long as he could; if a DF-21 could hit Guam, Iwo Jima was within reach, and the 50 combat aircraft there, now available to him, were a priceless asset.
Another “good” was the loss of the Japanese helicopter carrier inside the 200-mile sanctuary the Chinese had granted. In the cruel calculus of war, this action would mobilize the Japanese and open their airfields for American use. On the public opinion side, the American public, with vocal exceptions from fifth-column media outlets, was behind efforts to restore the status quo and repatriate the John Adams crew. World opinion was mixed, breaking as it so often did along lines of civilization and language. In Asia, however, with the exception of North Korea, all were against the People’s Republic.
Clark could not attack with only one carrier and with Guam out of action. John Adams would be ready for tasking within a week, and, if he could strengthen Guam’s antimissile battery and attack the DF-21 launch sites, he could use the island and Okinawa as staging bases for tankers, bombers, AWACS, and reconnaissance assets — from U-2s to EC-135 Rivet Joint. F-22 Raptors and F-15E Strike Eagles could also return, but the sorties they could generate to hit South China Sea targets almost 2,000 miles away were limited. Everyone needed tanker support — including China.