The battlegroup had just received four additional anti-aircraft and missile defense ships prior to departing Naples. Three additional guided missile cruisers had also joined the battlegroup, bringing the total number of cruise missiles that could be launched from 820 to 1,400. Four munition replenishment ships had also joined the fleet, ensuring there would be more than enough munitions when the order was given to launch the attack.
The 5th Fleet, which revolved around the Supercarrier USS George H. W. Bush, had been augmented with a second supercarrier. The USS Enterprise had left their home port of Eilat, Israel, to move into position near the Horn of Africa, where they could provide significant air support to operations in Jordan and Western Saudi Arabia. Unknown to Vice Admiral Jeremiah Lewis, their fleet was about to be attacked by over five hundred anti-ship missiles, to include 100 ballistic missiles, five of which were nuclear armed.
Near Amman, Jordan, General Abdullah Muhammed was receiving the final report on his tablet that all units were in place and ready to commence their attack. The past five years had seen a massive rebuilding of the IR military force. True to their word, the Russians and Chinese had provided the IR with tens of thousands of advanced military vehicles, including: the newest Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery, multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS) vehicles, anti-aircraft and anti-missile vehicles.
The IR had also received the newest fourth and fifth generation stealth and conventional fighters and ground attack aircraft, including medium range bombers. With nearly 120,000 Russian and Chinese military advisors, the IR was as trained and ready to take on the Israeli and American forces as they were going to get. Knowing that their attack against the Americans would be quickly followed up by the Chinese, and then later the Russians, gave the IR the assurance their war would be successful.
“General Omar, order phase one of the attack to begin. Get our aircraft in the air. Once they are airborne, have the artillery and rocket forces begin their bombardment. Tell the forces in phase two to be prepared to start their attack shortly as well,” said General Abdullah Muhammed.
At 2315 hours’ local time in Israel, 1,600 IR aircraft and 4,300 drones took to the skies and began to head towards the Holy Land. At the same time, thousands of artillery and MLRS vehicles began their barrage from the borders of former Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Sinai, raining tens of thousands of rockets and artillery rounds all across Israel. As the rounds began to hit their targets, the IR fighters began to engage the Israeli and American aircraft flying over the country. The American and Israeli F35’s and F22’s began to attack the IR fighters, scoring six kills for each fighter they lost. At the time of the barrage, there were only 68 allied aircraft in the sky.
Once allied radar had detected the IR Air Armada leaving their airbases, word came down to scramble all available aircraft. Twenty additional aircraft took off just as the rockets began to hit the runways, preventing additional aircraft from getting airborne. Fortunately, the aircraft not immediately ready for takeoff were well-sheltered in their secured enclosures.
The Israeli Iron Dome System (IDS) immediately began to engage the rockets and artillery rounds heading towards the IDF bases, scoring a 91 % hit ratio of the targets engaged. Unfortunately, for every rocket or artillery round that was being targeted by the Iron Dome, two were still getting through to their targets without any resistance. Once it was determined that the volume of incoming fire was too numerous for the Iron Dome to protect everything, the Iron Dome switched from protecting civilian targets to shielding critical infrastructure and military bases. While the IDS was engaging these targets, the fixed and mobile laser and railgun defense systems started to attack the IR aircraft and drones that were beginning to swarm over the skies of Israel.
Within the first twenty minutes, several of the fixed land-based laser systems went offline as power transmission nodes and energy generation plants were being destroyed. Power was starting to go out all across Israel. Despite backup generators coming online, their limited generation capability was reducing the number of shots the lasers could fire per minute.
Captain Brian Jordan was serving his last tour in the Navy as the Captain of the USS George H. W. Bush supercarrier. After 30 years in the Navy, it was time to retire to that dream house his wife had insisted they build in Tennessee near where two of their four children lived. This was his final tour. As Captain Jordan sat in the Combat Information Center (or CIC as they call it), an alarm went off indicating the E5 advanced surveillance drone had detected a threat to the battlegroup.
The E5 surveillance drone had been in service with the Navy since the late 2020s; the drone used stealth technology and could stay aloft for as long as thirty-six hours. It typically loitered at an altitude of 60,000 ft., providing hundreds of miles of surveillance coverage for the battlegroup. As data from the drone was being received, the threat board began to show hundreds of aircraft and drones heading towards the carrier group. Dozens of smaller missile boats were detected on a course that would bring them into striking distance of the battlegroup as well.
“Sound general quarters, and someone get the Admiral in here quickly! Commander, activate the battlegroup’s automated defense system. CAG, get your aircraft in the air and engage those fighters and the bomber group.”
In walked Vice Admiral Jeremiah Lewis, moving briskly. “Captain Jordan — what are we facing?”
“Sir, we are tracking 62 missile boats, most likely equipped with four Exocet missiles each. There are also 60 medium bombers, 230 Su-43s and 600 drones heading towards the battlegroup,” said Captain Jordan.
“How far until the first missiles come into range?”
“Six minutes,” said one of the Petty Officers.
“How long do we have until those fighters and bombers are in range to launch their missiles?”
“Roughly 12 minutes if they launch from optimal range; if they launch from maximum range, then its closer to nine minutes,” said a Petty Officer at one of the radar stations.
“Captain, the fighter CAP from the Enterprise and our ship are going supersonic to engage those fighters and bombers. All of our drones are also in the air — 90 fighter drones to their 600,” said one of the officers manning the battlegroup communication stations.
“The CAG is launching aircraft as fast as he can, about four aircraft a minute right now,” said one of the air boss commanders. The Admiral began to issue attack orders to the ships in the battlegroup and ordered the frigates to move further out towards the incoming missile boats to increase the battlegroup’s missile defense shield.
The three cruisers in the fleet began to launch their anti-ship missiles and started to engage the smaller IR missile boats with their railgun turrets. Just as the Admiral was thinking this could not get any worse, their “eye in the sky” detected multiple ballistic missile launches tracking towards the battlegroup.
Suddenly, one of the destroyers in the battlegroup detected multiple torpedoes in the water. Several torpedoes had locked onto the cruisers protecting the carriers, the ships began evasive maneuvers and increased speed while launching torpedo counter measures. Four of the eight torpedoes went for the decoys while the remaining torpedoes zeroed in on two of the cruisers. Both cruisers were hit and began to list heavily to one side. Both cruisers began to sink within minutes of the torpedo hits, depriving the carriers of much needed anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses from their advanced railguns.