Clark nodded as he listened, but he had to convey the pressure he was receiving from Washington.
“John, you’ve got a tough job and now it’s tougher, but we’ve got to lean forward. We’ve got to shoot these UCAVs down, jam their network, inject a virus, get them to waste their punches — all of the above. We need to neutralize the Chinese threat to shipping in the SCS, and that means destroying the great wall of sand and any of their warships that challenge us. They’ve got our sailors and 300,000 of our citizens; we’ve gotta hit ‘em hard and shock them into submission. We’re going to win this, John, but I’m asking you to win it sooner.”
Clark waited for McGill to answer in a strained calm.
“Sir, can Vietnam help me?”
“They’re on their ass and won’t risk what they have left. They have no open-water experience anyway.”
“Malaysia?”
“Same thing, and they won’t even try. They just want this to end.”
“The Aussies and Kiwis? We can use the help and their reps on board are raring to go.”
“I hear you, John, but the visual of English-speaking Caucasians beating up on the Chinese is going to inflame half the world, and this is the pushback I’m getting from the building; the Aussies and Kiwis in uniform would help if asked. I’m talking to their defense ministers and so are SECDEF and SECSTATE. I’m working Singapore hard, and the PI will send what they can to make this look like a real coalition, but it’s pretty much us… as usual.”
“Yes, sir,” McGill said.
“I’ll get you Australia, but it will be a few days before help arrives.”
“Yes, sir,” McGill said again, resigned.
“Where are your ships?”
“Last report, sir, is John Adams and Hanna are in the middle of the Phil Sea with Solomon Islands in trail about 50 miles. I’ve gotta refuel them, too, and I’m hanging it out when I do that. I don’t think Blower Leaf has had Hancock under 25 knots since this thing started.”
“Are you going to stay in Yokosuka?”
“Yes, sir, I’ve got comms here. We’re aboard Blue Ridge but pierside. I’m blind out there with no satellites.”
“Roger that. Okay, John, get a plan together, get it to me, then get it to the kids out there. We’ve gotta move, and we’ve gotta be smart.”
“Will do, sir.”
“Godspeed, John. Out here.”
CHAPTER 49
His defenses complete, Admiral Qin Chung’s forces waited for the Americans to make the first move in their attempt to break into the Southern Sea.
With each minute they grew closer, and Qin now had American big ships hundreds of kilometers east of the Philippines, within striking distance of his fighters. Qin knew the Americans would stay there — the carriers were too valuable to risk in littoral waters — but that meant the Americans were dependent on tankers for their tactical aircraft, even their big bombers from Guam and Wake, their AWACS, and reconnaissance aircraft. Transiting the vastness of the Pacific depended on fuel, but the Americans had a distinct advantage when it came to numbers of refueling aircraft. Qin had precious few tankers and had to use them judiciously. His strategy was to allow the Americans to probe, to roll-back, and to run at him with a battering ram of aircraft that would do little damage as his forces pulled back in deft tactical withdrawals to defend from the blows. As the Americans exhausted themselves against the flexible Chinese defenses, Qin would conserve his forces, looking for his own openings. When the enemy dropped their guard, he would send all he could to attack a high-value target. He depended on a network of rusting boats and vulnerable submarines — and innocent fools with social media on planes and merchant ships — to find the Americans and track them, then target and attack them. Speed and clear communications were everything, and, if an opportunity were presented, he had to act. The price in blood and treasure he would pay to put a nuclear-powered carrier on the bottom would be worth it to the People’s Republic.
In the Philippine Sea, Admiral Clark’s ships all trailed big, white wakes as they moved to-and-fro to remain unpredictable. With an overall vector of west, they would soon “stop” and operate in open waters hundreds of miles from Samar and Leyte, as close as they dared. This positioning required their carrier aircraft to fly hundreds more miles—over PLA(N) missile ships and under the armed and networked drones — to attack obscure yet heavily defended sandbars. To open up the SCS, Clark had to take away the PRC ability to close it. What is their center of gravity? he and his staff pondered. The Spratly outposts? The PLA(N)?
As both sides prepared for major battle they knew was hours away, Qin waited with his trap set, and Clark tightened his grip around it. Qin was willing to absorb losses to bag big game. Clark’s focus was minimizing losses, on both sides. He had to break the siege and was under no illusions that it would be bloodless.
Aboard carriers like Hancock, the aviators pored over detailed air tasking order messages carried out to the ships in disks by Rhinos that picked them up in Guam. Wilson saw Hancock’s ATO tasking for Day One: Roll back known defenses with John Adams and Solomon Islands aircraft, attack surface threats where found, and maintain combat patrols of the air and surface. Admiral Johnson gathered Wilson, Weed, and Blower to give them the latest.
“Guys, we’ve got a new challenge. They’ve deployed UCAVs all over the South China Sea. Four hundred of them, spaced every fifty miles the length and breadth of it. We have to go at these UCAVs first.”
Wilson looked on and listened. Weed shook his head and Wilson heard him mutter under his breath. “Ho-lee shit.”
“The intel guys think they are armed with PL-9s and maybe a small-diameter bomb. And we believe they’ve got a low-band radar…. They’re gonna see us coming at them.”
Wilson nodded as Johnson continued.
“I got a personal-for message from Seventh Fleet. We don’t know if the Chinese know we know they are overhead. But we’re going to be in a position tomorrow to strike into the SCS.”
Weed had the intel assessment in his hands. “One hundred fifty thousand feet? A missile could fly forever launched from up there.”
“Yep, they are postulated to stay airborne for weeks and they communicate via radio data link — just like us. They probably have a swarm capability, too.”
They studied the chart on the conference table as the admiral spoke. Hundreds of red circles, signifying orbits of armed, high-altitude drones, dotted the South China Sea. All felt the anxiety posed by this formidable threat.
“Seventh Fleet wants us to position missile shooters north of Luzon and start chipping away at them. That’s going to draw their attention from Guangzhou and Banyon Island. We can expect engagements from PLA(N) and PLA(AF), and we’re going to make them think we’re breaking into the SCS from there — but it’s really a feint. John Adams is going to stay in the open off Samar and cover the surface action group as well as sanitize the Phil Sea.”
Wilson nodded. The nearest red circle was hundreds of miles from Samar — and across the Philippine archipelago. Not a threat, but the Chinese could move them over the PI in hours. All that prevented them from doing so was a violation of Filipino airspace, a flimsy defense.
“Solomon Islands is going to hang out off Leyte and both ships are going to fly defensive counter-air for tankers and AWACS out of Guam. To the north, PACAF fighters from Okinawa are going to support the Luzon Strait effort and fly CAPs. We are going to chip away at the UCAVs and see how they react. Since they are up in the damn one-fifties, they can out-stick us. How do we hit them without getting hit?”