EPThttp://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=403664
Zhang Xianzhong closed his eyes, felt two of his men push the boat off the beach. Over one corner of his eyelids, his LED helmet display blinked out a steady stream of hexadecimals. A6FC1, 1A39C, 1BC17. Subconscious programming turned them into messages: calm weather, no satellites overhead, drone jammers in place. The helmet strap, some waterproof synthetic fiber, chafed on his unshaven cheeks, but he ignored it.
Xianzhong opened his eyes and locked them on Boat Two. Laden with the pilots and medical equipment, it sped sixty meters ahead of them, a lone black dot swimming under the gabardine sky. His XO nudged him, leaned in close, and raised his voice over the outboard motor. "First kilometer cleared. Vectoring to Beidou Three, bearing south-twenty-five-west." The direction change came hard, made abrupt by the increase to flank speed. Under their feet, the motor whined. Behind them was Boat Four, running rearguard, nervous boys shielding IR-seeking MANPADs from the salt spray with cold, miserable, bodies, like English gentlemen nursing a pack of eager bloodhounds.
In short, they were running stock and standard. Xianzhong composed a brief update, punched it into the relay deck. Red wires ran the report to a satlink mesh array and onward to command.
Less than ten seconds after the transmission was complete, the sea around him erupted. An enormous hand lifted the three-ton rigid-hulled inflatable and flipped the men and equipment aboard into the water.
When Xianzhong came to, he found himself floating amidst flaming wreckage. Somehow, by some the same miracle that had spared him years earlier in Kolkata, his body was intact. His mind, though, was racing in sixty different directions at once. Remembering his training, he forced the confusion somewhere into his gut and breathed into his headset, still firmly strapped to his chin.
"Tiger, tiger, status is tiger, repeat..."
"I thought that was supposed to be a warning shot?"
Lieutenant Commander Mori Hiroko, XO of the Matsushima, watched the drone feed, convinced his eyes were lying. Onscreen, the three attack boats circled around their stricken comrade, picking up survivors from amidst the debris, the thermal vision painting them as small gray patches of human warmth in a coal-black ocean speckled with burning white dots. Then he turned an accusing glance towards the drone operator, who shot a knowing look towards the ship's CO.
The CO shrugged. "It appears we may have... missed. Anyhow, I am sure we can assign responsibility to the Chinese side's signals jamming equipment for causing interference."
Hiroko was adamant; he had been one of the main proponents of unmanned platforms in the Japanese Navy. "But Commander Tanaka, the drone's feed is quadruple-encrypted and changes frequencies millions of times per--"
"It's alright. We have friends that will push a message across the right channels... the same friends that support this move. And come now, would anyone really believe the Chinese?"
Aerospace Power Journal, Spring 2001
Kicking Down the Door:
The Global Strike Task Force
The Global Strike Task Force
Gen John P. Jumper, USAF
...we have plans, capabilities, and CONOPS to address many of these challenges. Perhaps the most significant of the challenges—the lack of access assurance—now has a solution: the GSTF (Global Strike Task Force), a concept that maximizes existing and emerging joint capabilities and enables us to meet our nation’s toughest near-term challenges. GSTF empowers us to overcome range barriers by providing the means to rapidly roll back adversary threats. Once this is done, we can then provide the traditional 24/7 battlefield persistence America has come to expect: air superiority over friendly forces, interdiction, and close air support (CAS)—all enhanced by evolving technologies that will enable time-critical targeting.
GSTF will be the US Air Force’s contribution to the nation’s kick-down-the-door force. It will better meet the needs of commanders in chief (CINC) by leveraging our current and near-future capabilities to overcome the challenges our experience has identified and the threat to theater access. GSTF will rapidly establish air dominance and subsequently guarantee that joint aerospace, land, and sea forces will enjoy freedom from attack and freedom to attack. It will combine stealth and advanced weapons with a horizontally integrated command, control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C2ISR) constellation that provides lethal joint battle- space capability. The C2ISR constellation will team space assets, UAVs, and a consolidated wide-body platform that transforms data into decision-quality data for a CINC and the engaged component commanders. GSTF will be a rapid-reaction force employed within the Air Expeditionary Force (AEF) construct and timeline while maintaining interoperability with joint, coalition, and allied assets. It will initially leverage the mass and standoff of our bomber fleet and ISR platforms, protected by the F-22, to strike targets inhibiting our ability to gain access.
The concept hinges on precision weapons and stealth capabilities inherent in the B-2 and F-22. The latter’s unparalleled combination of stealth with supercruise will reduce threat rings, allowing it to establish air dominance and deliver its PGMs deep inside enemy territory. Simultaneously, our bomber fleets will provide the “heavy lifting.” A few B-2s, enabled by F-22s and in conjunction with standoff platforms such as the B-52, will target the enemy’s antiaccess weapons, launch sites, and C2, rolling back his war-fighting capability, just as we have done with air defense networks in recent conflicts. These assets will provide substantial firepower where and when we need it most—against our adversary’s antiaccess threats in the early days of a conflict...
The mood in the conference room had darkened.
"...team Manta has triggered a hostile response. Forty minutes ago, unmanned assets sank or mission-killed one of the raider craft." Vice-Premier Zhang Shenghan shuffled the papers in front him, a signal his briefing was complete.
Admiral Sun, Vice Chairman of the CMC, was the first to respond. His voice wore a gruff tone miles away from its usual congeniality.
"We've got a bigger problem than just one commando team. USN assets are surging toward us at this time. CVN-78, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is sortieing out from Bahrain, probably to interdict our shipping lanes to and from the Middle East, and possibly to strike our airfield and deepwater facilities at Colombo. Its sister ship, the USS John F. Kennedy, is sortieing out of Pearl Harbor towards Guam. The USS John C. Stennis is sortieing out of the American Pacific Northwest towards Alaska. The USS George Washington is still undergoing maintenance at Yokosuka, but our intelligence indicates it could be made ready to sail in a day or so, if routine maintenance tasks are delayed and shore crews rush to top off the ship with fuel and weapons. The USS Ronald Reagan is somewhere off the east coast of North Korea with elements of the JMSDF, and the USS George HW Bush is holding exercises in the northern Phillippine Sea with the Australians. Both of those carriers are within a day's sail of each other. And last, but not least, the USS Harry S Truman is off the Horn of Africa, and can be expected to interdict our merchant shipping to and from Europe."
The General Secretary looked to his peers. "That's a lot of dead American presidents."
The room filled with brief laughter, save for Shenghan, who simply continued wearing a cryptic smile. Admiral Sun ignored it, continued. "It is. But that's just on the naval side of things. USAF assets at Kadena, Andersen, Elmendorf, Iwo Jima, and Hickam have all been placed on fifteen-minute takeoff alert. Most worrisome are the combined Global Strike Task Forces based out of Kadena and Andersen--each is composed of 48 F-22s and 4 B-2s backed up with refueling tankers, and both aircraft platforms are nuclear-weapons-capable. If our current-generation radar or command systems are hit, it'll be very hard for us to deal with those forces."
"Understood. Could they hit us from the US mainland?"
"Prompt Global Strike is active, sir. That's a mirror to our own DF-41c conventional ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicle research. We don't have any indications they're on alert, but once launched, they only take thirty minutes to get here."
"Why wouldn't the Americans use them again?"
"Escalating to launching PGS from the continental US would open North America as a theater of operations. Our prognosis is that would be politically unacceptable, as we have indicated our only weapons capable of counterstriking their PGS systems are non-conventional in nature, and we have integrated such counterstrikes into our publicly stated force posture."
"Got it. And cyber?"
Admiral Sun glanced around the table at the new faces from the civilian side of the Politburo. "That's classified, but we're reasonably certain we possess sufficient retaliatory capabilities to dissuade from causing too much damage. Tying together our nuclear command with cyber command also morally hardens our military networks from being the targets of interference."
"That's a lot of arrows pointed at us. And on the eve of the talks, too." The General Secretary sighed. "Diplomacy. These bastards think they can conduct it the same way they did in the nineteenth century. What's our plan to deal with them?"
Admiral Sun nodded towards one of the younger aides, who unclipped a paper binder and passed out neatly stapled four-page copies.
“Our military forces will eliminate the larger US bases across the Western Pacific, with a heavy emphasis on reducing or disabling the US ability to launch retaliatory conventional strikes on China. The initial targets will be digital communications and military installations and equipment. If US naval forces come within 1,000 nautical miles of our coast, they will be engaged with surface and naval air assets, and as a last resort, attacked with terminally guided DF-21D missiles. Each of our designated launch bases will be protected by a triple-tiered defense network of mobile SAM batteries. We plan to empty the Western Pacific of civilian air traffic with PSYOPs in the leadup to the conflict, allowing us to detect counterattacks at long range by OTH radars, satellites, and fishing boats and UAVs loitering at hundreds of predesignated points throughout the Western Pacific, as well as HUMINT and cyber sources operating inside US DISN. Preparations will take place in underground airbase hangars to avoid observation by US spy satellites and drones. We have other assets prepared, as well as a full deception OPLAN, Operation Pegasus. General Secretary, here is the Military Tasking Order of the actual strike plan, Operation Zodiac."
None of the service chiefs appeared surprised. The General Secretary stared at the pages before him for a long, pregnant moment, then rubbed his temples and looked around the room.
"Guess you weren't kidding." The scope and scale of the OPLAN made the Pearl Harbor carrier strike look like a bunch of kids in a swimming pool.
Operation ZODIAC
CLASSIFICATION ABOVE TOP SECRET
CLASSIFICATION ABOVE TOP SECRET
Service Target Friendly Asset Weapon System Distance [NMI]
2nd Art Hamamatsu AB 822nd Br, Jingyu 2x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~685
2nd Art Hyakuri AB 822nd Br, Jingyu 2x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~732
2nd Art Yokota AB 822th Br, Jingyu 2x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~706
2nd Art Yokusuka FA 816th Br, Jingyu 6x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~716
& Atsugi NAF
2nd Art Komaki AB 822nd Br, Jingyu 2x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~637
2nd Art Nyutabaru AB 832nd Br, Tonghua 4x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~634
2nd Art Tsuiki AB 832nd Br, Tonghua 2x DF-21/CJ-10 Batteries ~538
Air Force Andersen AFB Yiwu AB 2x J-20A/H-10 Sqdrn, IFR 1656
Air Force Apra Harbor Yiwu AB 1x J-20A Sqdrn, IFR 1651
Air Force Guam Intl Yiwu AB 1x J-20A Sqdrn, IFR 1654
Air Force Kadena AFB Feidong AB 3x J-20A/B Squadron 624
Air Force Naha AB Feidong AB 1x J-20A/B Squadron 628
Air Force Chitose AB Jinzhou AB 1x J-20A Squadron 1029
Air Force Komatsu AB Jinzhou AB 2x J-20A/B Squadron 949
Air Force Misawa AB Jinzhou AB 2x J-20A/B Squadron 918
Air Force Kunsan AB Changxing AB 2x J-20A/B Squadron 454
Air Force Osan AB Changxing AB 2x J-20A/B Squadron 515
Air Force CVN 78 CVBG Colombo AB 2x J-20A/H-10 Sqdrn N/A
Air Force Diego Garcia Colombo AB 2x J-20A/H-10 Sqdrn 961
Navy Elmendorf AFB SSGN # 405 108xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy Hickam AFB SSGN # 407 108xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy Iwo Jima AB SSGN # 408 108xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy USPACOM SSGN # 409 108xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy RAAF Tindal SSN # 413 16xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy RAAF Darwin SSN # 416 16xDH-10/3M14E SLCM ~150
Navy JPN FO Cables Multiple SSKs Torpedoes + Self-destruct N/A
Navy CVN 76 CVBG Fujian CVBG 3x J-31A Sqdrn + SSK/SSNs N/A
Navy CVN 77 CVBG Liaoning CVBG 2x J-31A Sqdrn + SSK/SSNs N/A
Navy CVN 79 CVBG Shandong CVBG 3x J-31A Sqdrn + SSK/SSNs N/A
"As you will see, General Secretary, we will launch 300 J-20 strikers and H-10 bombers, over 150 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, and over 500 land- and sub-launched long-range cruise missiles against all major US, Japanese, and Australian assets between the International Date Line and the Persian Gulf. All the strikeforces are synchronized to hit their targets at roughly the same time. From start to finish, across all targets, the attack will last between fifteen and thirty minutes, giving the American forces and their allies very little time to react. Furthermore, the attack is scheduled to impact between two-thirty and three-thirty in the morning, Eastern Standard Time, to strike when the highest levels of US leadership are asleep."
Each of the Service Chiefs' heads nodded in agreement. The General Secretary, though, frowned slightly. "Two questions--why Guam International, and what does JPN FO Cables mean? I didn't see those on the last version of the plan."
"To answer your first question: we know that some military aircraft are parked in the hangars to the north of the airfield, but our main target is the fiber-optic hubs near the airport. Breaching those and our strikes on PACOM will terminate much of the US mil-net digital communication across the Pacific. This will force the American military and their allies to use the limited bandwidth on their satellites--and we'll be knocking those down too. The second question also relates to the communications issue: we will be destroying most of Japan's undersea fiber optic cables with heavy torpedoes, cutting the country off from the outside world. Those cables which are too deep for such demolition methods will be targeted by filling some of our remaining Ming-class submarines with high explosives and scuttling the subs atop them."
"So we're going to blind them?"
"Yes--and we'll mute them as well, eliminating the ability for the two countries to coordinate. Of course, we expect retaliatory degradation of our systems too, but we only will need top-level coordination for the first hour of our plan. After that, all of our surface assets will be conducting air defense and naval interdiction against Japanese tanker shipping along the Eastern coast of Honshu. We will retaliate against Japanese infrastructure targets with PGMs and EMP weapons if any strikes are launched against the Chinese mainland. We plan to enforce a complete naval blockade of the main islands, and then begin negotiations."
"How feasible is the blockade?"
Behind the General Secretary, Shenghan's smile developed into a full-blown, teeth-baring grin. He watched the admiral continue. "Very much so. We simply plan to declare a quarantine zone around the home islands with conventional submarines, strike aircraft, and most of our surface assets, as well as liberal amounts of sea-mines and unmanned fishing boats rigged to explode, on top of our anti-ship ballistic missiles, which can reach the Japanese coast from launch sites deep in the Chinese interior. Any merchant ships entering the area will be sunk. Any flights in and out of Japan will be shot down. And the total communications blackout from severing the fiber-optic cables will make Japanese requests for aid from the outside world difficult, to say the least."
"Got it. Do you have a second phase of operations planned in case negotiations don't pan out?"
"Yes... but, for reasons of operational security, we'll be discussing that in private."
"Got it. One final question: when do we declare war in this plan?
"Well, that is up to you, sir."
Shenghan raised his hand. The General Secretary nodded in his direction.
"General Secretary, I don't think the Americans will be in a mood to negotiate, given the human and materiel losses they will sustain following what they will perceive to be a surprise attack. I think a casus belli will be necessary."
"The loss of our commando team isn't enough?"
"No, not for a strike of this magnitude. We'll need more than that."
"You have an idea for this?"
Shenghan stopped smiling. Thin fingers went up to brush the perfect silk knot atop his red tie. Then he spoke.
Read part 22 here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=404531
... then I won't fear accidentally rewarding the one-star troll with an undeserved novel
