Chapter 31
“If and when we find this Russian ship, we must now discuss how to proceed. You tangled with it earlier, Captain Harada. Any advice?”
“Caution,” said Harada. “We had the advantage of surprise in that they did not even know we were in theater—in this time. We counted a lot on that to try and get within missile range, but they must have some very good ears on that ship. They picked up something, possibly the narrow band radio transmissions we were using to contact Admiral Kurita. He was in the van, about fifty klicks ahead of us. That said, we got off all eight SSMs, but they swatted every last one down with their SAMs. Then they started throwing back. We took out a dozen SSMs, but the last was blazing fast, probably a Zircon running at Mach 5. We had to use the laser to get it, and we were damn lucky that succeeded. Otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation, and you’d all be scratching your heads here as to what happened to you, and at a real disadvantage.”
“Yet now we have the F-35’s,” said Fukada, an eager tone in his voice. “What ordnance did you get? Hopefully you’ve got some ship killers in the magazines.”
“We’re carrying the AGM-154-C1,” said Kita.
“The JSOW?” said Fukada, which stood for ‘Joint Standoff Weapon.’ “That’s block three, so it has moving maritime target capability, but it’s damn slow compared to what the Russians will be throwing at us.”
“That’s the nature of the beast,” said the Admiral. “It would be nice if we had the AGM 158, but our American friends only delivered the 154. I guess they need everything else they’ve got for their own CV battlegroups.”
“That limits our strike range to 45 nautical miles on the JSOW.”
“Plus the range of the F-35’s,” Kita corrected. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“You realize we’ve got no GPS here,” said Fukada.
“The missile has infra-red terminal guidance,” said the Admiral, and our pilots will have to put them on the right track when they launch. That’s the best we can do. We’re also carrying smart bombs, and we’ve got the GBU/53B. We can lob those 60 nautical miles out, and that one is optimized for use in GPS denied environments.”
“Tri-seeker capability,” said Captain Yoshida off the Akagi. “It has Millimeter wave radar detection, infra-red, and semi-active laser. Beyond that, we’ve got Paveway II and III, but we’d have to get in real tight to use those—eight nautical miles. I say we put our money on the GBU-53. Each plane can carry eight in the internal weapons bay, and the F-35 will have a strike radius of 450 nautical miles with that loadout. So that means we can reach out and touch the enemy at a 500 mile range. That’s well beyond anything Kirov can throw at us.”
“Not quite,” said Fukada. “I read up on that new Zircon. It can range out 700 nautical miles—lightning fast. If they see us first, they can hit us before our planes even get close. Face it, the Russians only had one carrier worth the name, so they put all their money into missile tech, and it’s damn good. Hence our advice to be cautious here.”
“That’s the key issue,” said Admiral Kita. “We’ve got to find them before they know we’re in the game, just as you tried to do. I want to have planes in the air approaching their weapons release positions before Kirov lifts a finger. We’ve got to put them on the defense. As for our own SSMs, we’d have to be within 75 to 100 nautical miles to let those fly, so I see them as our final option.”
We have a good number of helicopters,” said Captain Yoshida. “They can serve for long range search. That will allow us to use the F-35’s for strike roles. I would assume we would be heading south toward Truk, which was their last known zone of operation.”
Harada thought about that, and shook his head. “If we throw up too many helos, they may spot one or more with their Fregat system. Wouldn’t that show them our hand? They know we have a single Seahawk, but if they were to spot two or three helos, then what? They’d have to conclude something more is out there. May I suggest a different approach?”
“Go ahead,” said The Admiral, listening intently.
“We’ve fought them before, and even had a verbal joust at the end with this Karpov. He wanted to rub in the fact that we were toothless, and no longer a threat. But he knows we’re out here, and he’d much rather send us to the deep six. The only reason he broke off that engagement was to conserve his SSMs. Fukada thinks he’s running low, but I’m not so sure. That ship has enormous VLS capacity.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“Let us take the van. We can operate as a forward picket as we head south, and I think I may even get on the radio and see if I can ruffle this guy’s feathers—call him out. After all, when Achilles wanted to take vengeance on Hector, he just rode up to the gates of Troy and called him to battle. I can do that with Karpov.”
“Achilles and Hector have already fought,” said Fukada, but with an edge of warning. “Except we were Hector.”
“Point taken, but I think I could rile this guy up.”
“You mean you’d give away your position?” asked Kita.
“Correct. He’ll think we’re being rushed in to help defend Truk, but I’m betting he won’t target us. He could have done that long ago, but held his fire once he knew we had lost our offensive punch. If I can get this Karpov on the radio, we might be able to get a fix on his position. In fact, I don’t even think he’d care if we had a hard contact on him. Remember, he thinks we can’t hurt him any longer. Oh, we could try sending the Seahawk at him, but he’d just shoot it down easily enough. That’s why he ignored us, and I think he’d ignore us again, unless we got right between him and his intended target.”
“Clever,” said Admiral Kita. “You get out there and thumb your nose at him, see if we can make out his position, then we come over the horizon with bad intent. That’s damn sinister.”
“All’s fair in love and war,” said Harada. “We’ve got to look at this through his eyes. OK, he just hit Truk, but he was damn economical about it. He put a missile on the Zuiho, hit the airfield, a tanker, and Musashi. Now what does he do to top that? I think he realized that Truk wasn’t the real nerve center of Yamamoto’s operation at the moment—it’s Rabaul. That’s our forward base supporting everything in the Solomons and the campaign in the Fijis. That’s where he’ll find our carriers, and those are the high priority targets he’s after. So I say we set course for Rabaul, and right now. Let me lead you by at least 50 nautical miles. You run silent in EMCON. Keep our F-35’s locked and loaded, and let us flush the quarry out. We’ll make it look like we’re trying to get into a good defensive position to screen Rabaul. We can even solicit Yamamoto’s cooperation. Remember, the whole IJN is down there, and all those ships can work for us.”
Admiral Kita thought for a moment, then smiled. “Captain, let’s get south and find our namesakes. I’ve burned many an incense stick to honor my ancestors, but never thought I’d get to meet them in the flesh. Getting a look at the real Kaga and Akagi would be interesting, to say the least.”
“Very good, sir. With your permission, I would like to return to my ship and run this by Admiral Yamamoto. We gave them a radio set so we could exchange secure encrypted transmission calls. The question is this—should I reveal your presence here to him?”