LTG Scott finished his preparation as he brought up some images from his tablet to the holographic map at the center of the table for everyone to view. “Mr. President, there are two items of concern. The first is the massive troop movement we are seeing in the North China Sea; it would appear they have assembled a convoy of nearly 280 troop transports. Each transport can carry 3,000 troops; if they load them up with only troops, then they will be bringing 840,000 fresh troops to Alaska.”
Audible sighs and groans could be heard throughout the room. “The second area of concern is the activity we are seeing in Hawaii. The Chinese have spent the last two months doing a lot of repairs to the facilities there, and they have repaired all of the runways on the island. They presently have a garrison of 20,000 PLA soldiers there, and they were just augmented by 30,000 PLAN infantry. The PLAN is currently moving their entire amphibious assault capability to Hawaii, along with four of their five carriers from Alaska. They have started a massive airlift of their PLAN infantry from the Mainland to Hawaii as well,” LTG Scott explained as he showed more images of what was transpiring.
“Are you suggesting that the Chinese are planning another amphibious assault, possibly against California or somewhere along the West Coast?” asked the SecDef Eric Clarke.
“Yes Mr. Secretary, it would appear so.” Scott replied.
The President looked around the room and asked, “Any suggestions on where they may be heading and what we should do about it?” He was hoping to hear some good ideas from his brain trust.
Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA, chimed in, “If I were a guessing man, I would say they will look to land their troops in the Pacific Northwest, most likely in Oregon or Seattle. This would put them in position to cut off our entire force in Alaska and put our guys in to a terrible position for retreating.”
“You don’t think they would go for Los Angeles?” inquired General Branson, curious to know his logic in his assumption.
“No, I think they would like to avoid the urban areas and focus more on defeating our Army rather than capturing a symbolic trophy. We can trade land for time and maneuverability; they are most likely going to look to defeat our armies and then have free range.” Director Rubio said.
The President asked, “Can we shift our SUDs to focus more around Hawaii and help to keep that amphibious group from going too far?”
Admiral Juliano, the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) spoke up, “We can, Mr. President, but I doubt it will make that much of a difference; we just do not have the numbers. Personally, I do not believe the Chinese are going to launch another amphibious assault. I know the intelligence says otherwise, but the logistical capability of the PLAN does not support it. The PLA is chewing through resources in staggering numbers in Alaska. The PLAN support ships are having a hard enough time trying to keep up with them. Throw in another 840,000 soldiers into that mix, and they will be thoroughly overwhelmed. They just do not have the logistical capability to support two landing zones like that.”
“So you think this is a diversion?” inquired the President.
“I do. I believe they are going to send their PLAN infantry to Hawaii and train them hard for a few months, making us think and believe they are going to launch another landing. In doing so, they will force us to tie up hundreds of thousands of soldiers and precious materials on the West Coast, as opposed to having them engaged in the fighting in Alaska. They know we rotated the Third Army in, and this is their attempt to neutralize General Gardner by having him chase a ghost invasion that will never happen.” The CNO was very matter-of-fact in his response.
Director Rubio interjected, “Mr. President, I have to disagree. If we do not take this threat seriously, they could potentially cut our entire force off in Alaska, and if we send General Gardner’s army in as well, then we have little in the way of forces that can be used to defend the West Coast.”
The Admiral quickly cut in, “I understand your concern, Director Rubio, but the logistics do not lie; they could land those forces, but they would run out of fuel and munitions within a week. Then they’d have a large amphibious force on the ground with no ammunition. This is meant as nothing more than a distraction to tie our forces down.” The Admiral was speaking with great force and conviction to hammer home his point. “Furthermore, it’s not your people who are going to have to do the fighting Director. Our intelligence does not support the information the Agency has been pushing, and we categorically disagree with it as fiction.” This last point was made in quite a sharp tone towards the CIA Director, to a point that the room suddenly filled with awkward silence.
Lately there had some friction between the Services and the Intelligence Community (IC). The CIA and DIA had really fouled up the intelligence about the IR prior to their sneak attack, and then again had been completely wrong about the Chinese. The Services had developed a real dislike for the IC outside of their own intelligence channels, and often brushed their assessments off or disregarded them entirely. The Army, Navy and Air Force shared intelligence seamlessly as they fought hand-in-hand; this intelligence sharing stopped or was reluctant when it came to disclosing anything with the CIA. Despite the fact that the NSA and DIA were military-run organizations, the Services still did not trust them because of their ties with the CIA. This distrust of each other’s intelligence was becoming more apparent during each of the National Security Council meetings, and it was going to need to be addressed.
The President raised his hand to stop the parties from bickering further. “I agree Admiral; the PLAN logistics do not support a second large-scale invasion. However, that does not mean we can just ignore the PLAN infantry build-up in Hawaii either. For right now, we will not shift men or material around to the West Coast; we will move some air assets to attack their ships if they venture away from Hawaii, but that is it. Our main focus has to be on stopping the Chinese in Alaska and pushing them into the Sea,” the President spoke with force and conviction in his voice, which commanded respect and attention from both parties. “I want one of our two F41 flights to be focused on defending the West Coast and harassing the Chinese efforts over Hawaii, while the other flight continues to stay engaged in Alaska. As soon as the third flight of F41s is complete, they are to head to Europe. We may not be able to commit a lot of ground reinforcements to Europe, but we can send them additional air support as it becomes available.”
Shifting in his seat before continuing, the President redirected, “I want to discuss Japan and India next. I have a feeling more is going on between China and India than we would like to believe, and frankly, I’d like to know what the heck the Japanese are doing as well.”
Director Rubio pulled some information from a folder on his tablet and brought it up for the group. “With regards to India, we do believe there is more going on. Since the non-aggression agreement was signed, the Indians have started construction of 86 new troop transport ships, 19 amphibious assault transports, 46 new attack submarines and two supercarriers. All of these appear to be of Chinese design and specifications. In addition to the naval ships, they have started manufacturing the Chinese main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, munitions and other tools needed for war.”
LTG Scott added, “Their ground forces have also started a series of training exercises. Most of them appear to be armored and urban warfare exercises, which leads us to believe the Indians may not stay as neutral in this war as we had hoped. Albeit, we have not intercepted any information suggesting they are going to join the Chinese, or obtained any human intelligence on that matter just yet, but their training cycle, type of training, military manufacturing and increases in the size of their military suggest that they are at least planning on a future military engagement.”