With the exception of two destroyers for close-in air defence, the warships of the group had remained off the coast. With the approach of the storm they stood out to sea, giving them sea room well clear of the rocky coast in case the main fury of the storm swerved their way.
The last container ships to pass through the Bering Straits before the shooting started, were passing the mouth of the Ust’-Kamchatsk bay enroute to ports of call on the Chinese mainland. All three merchantmen’s radars picked up the warships and their captains ordered the speed reduced and lookouts posted, fearing collisions in the crowded sea.
On shore, a powerful sea and air search ground radar swept its beam through 360’. Six SA-10 Grumble air defence batteries were manned and three of their Tombstone radars also swept the horizon, augmenting the long range cover of the A-50 forty thousand feet above whilst the remainder had slaved their systems to the A-50.
Four Z2S62S6 Tungushkas, two ZSU-57-2 and four ZSU 23-4s were scattered about the port and on the higher ground above, their radars were at standby whilst they received data down-linked from the A-50, but the Tungushkas IR scanners were active. The operators aboard the aircraft were peering intently at their screens, concerned with submarine launched anti-ship missiles attacking the ships below, and as such their radar was sweeping back and forth through 100’, rather than 180. The typhoon had degraded the reception they were getting and almost constant sweeps enhanced the chances of detecting incoming missiles. They were not watching for aircraft because the only enemy carrier within a thousand miles was reportedly severely damaged and fleeing south. It came as a surprise to them when they picked up interference of a kind more severe than they had previously experienced with tropical storms. They delayed for five minutes before concluding that it was not a natural source but man-made interference and heading towards Ust’-Kamchatsk. The A-50 put out the alert to the nearby fighter station with its detachment of three Su-27s, coastal air defence batteries and the warships. Neither carrier could launch its air group as the ships were anchored and needed to be underway, heading into wind at a minimum of twenty-four knots, for their aircraft to have a chance at getting aloft. The military district headquarters passed the air raid warning upwards and ten minutes later the Premier was informed, he was not a man given to indecision.
The PRC aircraft that had first attacked the USS John F Kennedy, had staged out of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, some miles south of Ust’-Kamchatsk and had since returned to their home bases. The reason for the choice was that it was a long-range bomber base, built in order to attack Japan, if necessary, in the 1950’s and had all the facilities they needed. Russia could just as easily staged the attack, but because the American carrier fleet had been such a thorn in their side, inhibiting their ambitions for so long, it had been agreed that China should be allowed to sink the Americans.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy was the home of three regiments of Backfires, two of Mig-31s and the A-50s that patrolled the region, along with a regiment of An-72P maritime patrol aircraft of the Border Guard.
Whilst the three Su-27s at Ust’-Kamchatsk were scrambling the four A-50s and fifteen An-72Ps were being ordered into the air to find the carrier that the attackers came from. In the meantime the Backfires were to upload for an anti-shipping strike, the three most experienced crews would have a pair of AS-17 anti-shipping missiles each, with 500kt nuclear warheads.
Had the weather not been so foul, the two seat F/A-18F Hornets that had made landfall to the south of the port would have been down in the weeds, but in the pitch dark with buffeting winds that was highly inadvisable.
Before the clouds had obscured the area, the US satellites had seen the enemy carriers approaching the port and the latest RORSAT’s radar images were unclear as to where in the mass of returns, the big ships were.
The leading four F/A-18Fs in this group were configured for wild weasel SAM suppression, whilst the other half carried four AGM-84A anti-ship missiles apiece, five minutes behind them. They were going for the port and if the ships weren’t there they would take on the warships at sea from the landward side.
Coming in from the sea were a further twenty-two F/A-18Cs and F-14 Tomcats, two carried nothing but jammer pods whilst the remainder were loaded with HARMs and AGM-84A Harpoons, they carried only two Sidewinders apiece for defence.
In order to burn through the jamming, the A-50 focused its radar beam even further, to the annoyance of the self-propelled ZSUs who had a quick radio conference, after which they killed the downlink and went active.
At 250 miles the A-50 burnt through the jamming and launched six land based SA-10 Grumble, supersonic missiles their way before quickly slaving the nearest four ships by data link, and launching a further fifteen of the Grumbles naval variant at the attackers also. The A-50 was in the process of slaving a further six ships air defence systems when two HARMs impacted within a split second of each other. The missiles were fired from the wild weasel element in the valley that ran parallel to the bay, they guided onto the
A-50s huge radome and the fuselage split in two, spilling out those operators not strapped in as both sections began the 40,000 foot plunge earthwards.
With the loss of their external guidance data, the twenty-one SA-10 missiles reverted to their own narrow aperture internal sensors, as they approached the incoming American aircraft, none acquired a target and they flew right on by.
Commander ‘Freddie’ Kruger led the anti-ship element of F/A-18Fs as they sped along the valley, which would dogleg east at the far end where it opened out to the sea. His RIO, Lt Slim Templar had his eyes glued to threat screen, which with the destruction of the A-50 had cleared. They were at 500’ above the valley floor, although had it been daylight they would have been at 50’. “Sixteen miles to the turn, threats clear,” he told the pilot. Ahead of them on the ground a light appeared. The preceding element had awoken at least one resident of the tiny village of Kirganik, who had come outdoors to see what all the fuss was about. It was very rare for his country's air force to be aloft at night, even rarer for them to venture down low. The approach to the small field was out over the bay.
Both elements were in trail as they flew between the steep sided mountains flanking the valley, until the first Hornet banked hard right, pulling four G’s as it shot clear of the valley, straight into the path of an Su-27 as it took off on burner from the small airfield. The vertical stabilisers were sheared from the Hornets fuselage, sending it cartwheeling toward the small town that surrounded the port.
Admiral Li had been awoken by a phone call, stating that they were under attack, at first he refused to believe it until he heard the shore based SA-10 Grumbles launch with a roar. Pulling on his trousers he shouted for his aide, asleep in a rickety chair outside his door. He snapped at the man as he entered, the Admiral was struggling to button his flies as he ordered him to open the curtains and tell him what he could see. Having flung the curtains wide both men froze… and then screamed as they saw the crippled Hornet, a split second before it impacted the front of the house.
The Sukhoi’s left intake had struck the Hornets stabilisers and sucked in fragments, which shattered the fast spinning turbine blades of the left Turmanski engine. A fragment of blade severed the left main fuel feed and the interceptor turned into a comet, trailing a 200m long tail of fire across the bay. In the thirty seconds before the second Hornet appeared, two ZSU-23-4s, a ZSU 57-4 and two of the ZSU-2S62S6s had pivoted in the direction the first American had appeared from, what followed was a slaughter. Two of the ZSUs were destroyed along with one Tombstone radar, but so were the next three Hornets, with two falling to a mixture of 57mm and 23mm cannon fire, whilst one was blotted from existence by a heat seeking SA-8 missile.