Able Sentry Page 5

  Yet deep down, Wade knew that any one of those eight ASROC torpedoes could have landed just a little too close and locked on. Then it would have been the torpedo at 50 knots, and his boat at 35, and the wild evasive race would have been over. As it was, all eight torpedoes had landed one to two miles from Seatiger, allowing him to turn, and run, sending both the hunting torpedoes and helicopters into a fit.

  The Seatiger would live to fight again, he thought, but I’m going to see that the rest of these Chinese ships won’t do the same.

  Chapter 5

  18:00 Local, 3 JAN 2026

  Captain Jiang Li was furious. His task force was now just four ships, three behind him limping and wounded. He knew that enemy sub was out there, but he had expended all eight of his YU-7’s, and both helicopters had failed to find and kill the demon. They were now returning to the ship, and would be hours rigging out for another mission. There was no longer anything he could do for his comrades, and though he hated to break off, as they were all SAM depleted, his only thought now was to save Nanchang. So he sent an order telling all ships to make their best speed home. His flagship was undamaged, with three short range SAM’s remaining, and he went to 30 knots, leaving the wounded warriors behind. One of them, the frigate Yueyang, had a Z-9 helo ready for ASW operations, and it would try and stand the sub watch as the retreat continued west. Nanchang was now 115 miles east of Aden, and running all out.

  * * *

  Aboard Prince of Wales, Admiral Wells looked at his watch. 19:00. He knew his planes were now ready and spotted on deck for one more throw. This time he would sent an escort of four fighters in Saber Flight, and then Victorious would send up six strike planes, two for each of the three contacts he still had on the threat board. He had been informed that an American submarine was stalking the Chinese ships, and like a lion protecting his kill from the Jackals, he wanted to get there first and finish what he started here.

  Saber flight led the way, with Skybolt-6 flying a route to the south of its position, well behind that fighter screen. At 19:45, the British planes were about 250 miles to the west of the carrier, closing on the enemy stragglers. The Saber Flight Leader picked up incoming enemy fighters.

  “Looks like we have company, lads. Bandits at 15 degrees, Angels 36. Let’s greet them.”

  The Meteors locked on and went streaking out to find four J-10’s that had just scrambled from Riyan airfield on the coast. All four would die, but the Chinese flight leader was a lone J-20, the last in theater here, and that plane was not seen at all. When Saber Flight fired, the J-20 saw them on radar, and seeing his comrades killed, the pilot gritted his teeth and moved to attack. He had four long range PL-15’s and two more short range PL-10’s, and he was out for vengeance. He could see the British planes on radar, but could not get a missile lock on them.

  Getting closer, he finally got a lock and sent all four PL-15’s out after them. The British had not seen the plane until it fired, and were caught completely off guard. Saber four became Saber one in the flash of an eye, and the Chinese plane turned and raced for home.

  As this was happening, Skybolt-6 had reached release range on the first two stragglers, and the flight leader ordered the attack. Sixteen SPEAR’s were allocated to each of three ships, and they would track in unerringly this time, ripping them from stem to stern with one hit after another. DDG Yangwei was dead in the water, flames all over her superstructure. Frigate Yueyang was down to seven knots and badly damaged. DDG Yuyuan was still limping away at 9 knots with system damage all over the ship. It was not a knockout blow, but a death of a thousand cuts.

  Both Yueyang and Yangwei would sink, but not because of those SPEAR’s. The ships were mission killed, to be sure, but had no flooding—until Captain Wade and the Seatiger came up behind them and put both ships out of their misery with a couple torpedoes. Now Wade kept right on at 35 knots, slowly closing on the lone destroyer Yuyuan.

  “Range to target?”

  “Sir, estimate 13 nautical miles and closing.”

  “Very well. Steady as she goes.”

  The seconds ticked on as the tiger closed on its prey. This wildebeest could not run, and Captain Wade knew it was his kill for the taking.

  “Sir, getting variability on the sonar reading.”

  “Helm, come to 10 knots.”

  “Sir, aye, slowing to 10 knots.”

  “Sonar. Range to target?”

  “Estimate inside 8 miles.”

  The boat will creep. Right ten degrees ridder. Set course 295.”

  “Sir, aye, coming right to 295.”

  Wade took the boat off angle to bring his hull sonar into play. They listened, but the Chinese ship at just nine knots was proving very difficult to localize. Wade knew it was out there, badly wounded, and so he decided to take a very dangerous risk.

  “Helm, make your depth 66 feet.”

  “Sir, aye, coming to periscope depth.”

  “Gentlemen, we’ll go old school here—World War Two style.”

  A minute later he had acquired the enemy ship with the periscope, and he ordered the killing blow with a Mark-48. The torpedo ran up the wake of the wounded destroyer at 65 knots and exploded in a stunning geyser of white water that soon became angry red fire. That killed the propulsion and brought the ship to a standstill. One more Mark 48 would finish the job, and Captain Wade and his Seatiger had just logged three more kills, bringing his total to seven if he counted the three replenishment ships. Of course he did, so he was now an Ace, and the war was far from over.

  That was the 15th Type 052D Class destroyer sunk to date in the war, exactly half of all ships in that class that had started the conflict. Five years of diligent shipbuilding production on those vessels was gone in less than 90 days. The only consolation for Captain Jiang Li was that his flagship, Nanchang, would reach Aden safely at 20:10 that night. There he saw all that was left of his task force, the frigate Liuzhou, which had been under repair, and the three amphibious ships that had brought the garrison troops here.

  He maintained a stolid face in front of the crew, ordering the replenishment of the ship—80 HQ-9’s, 8 more ASROC torpedoes, and all the rest would be the long range YJ-100, 32 in all. He still had 8 YJ-18’s in his VLS bays but he wanted the longer range missile to at least engage the enemy after seeing what their tactics had been, keeping him at arm’s reach the whole time.

  He had sunk a destroyer and two older LST’s, but lost seven ships, a clear and convincing defeat. He would report his ship safely at Aden, the casualties sustained, and then retire to his cabin, exhausted. The faces of the officers and men he had led into battle haunted him as he lay down on his bunk, and wept….

  * * *

  Operation Talisman Saber was now moving to stage II as orders were issued before midnight on the 3rd of January. Admiral Wells would split his fleet, taking Prince of Wales with five escorts to support the move deeper into the Gulf of Aden, and cover the AUSMTG with Canberra under Vice Admiral Ernest Moran. The rest of Wells’ fleet, including carriers Victorious and Ark Royal, would move to occupy Riyan AFB on the central coast of Yemen.

  The general aim of the operation was to neutralize and reverse the Chinese hold on the lower mouth of the Red Sea, all in preparation for bigger plans to the north involving Egypt and the Suez Canal. Before they would launch, both Aden and Djibouti had to be secured and cleared of enemy activity, and that was why the fleet had nearly a full brigade at sea. Wells met with his Australian counterpart on Canberra, flying over to brief the operation.

  “Well met, Ernie,” he said in his familiar way. He had rehearsed many similar operations with Admiral Moran in years past, and the two men knew each other well. “It’s down to the last of the brass tacks.”

  “So it seems,” said Moran, a big roughhewn man, with red hair, brawny arms, and always one to wear his camo pattern uniform and ball cap hat.

  “We’ve put seven of eight under,” said Wells, “thanks to help from that American sub, and we drove the last
of them to port. But that was the flagship, Nanchang, first of the Type 055’s. So it’s still to be reckoned with. That said, they will have limited offensive punch, and I don’t think we’ll need to be timid.”

  “Not a word anyone ever applied to me,” said Moran. “We’ll make this a piece of piss when we get in there.”

  “I’ve no doubt,” said Wells, “but getting in there has some hurtles to be leapt. We’ve got to put this Nanchang under, and anything else they might be floating, and then neutralize any SAM or SSM sites they may have so your helicopters can operate unhindered. That’s why we brought along Storm Shadows, and when we nail down the positions of those batteries, we’ll knock them hard. I’ll expect we’ll have air supremacy in little time, so count on support when you need it. We’ll be ready.”

  “The men are stoked, Admiral. That little jaunt to Socotra was just an appetizer. Now we’re on for the real thing. The Chinese must have been a few stubbies short of a six pack if they thought they could pull this business off. What’s the good oil from intel on their garrison force at Aden?”

  “Battalion strength,” said Wells, “but they have some light armor, even a few tanks. Satellite recon has them mostly south of the airport, and the rest over near the RO/RO berth on the west end of the harbor. The Chinese spent a good amount dredging and deepening the draft of that approach channel so it would accommodate heavy ships. Damn shame that we lost our knights. There went most of our own armor.”

  “We’ve got four tanks for the boats here on Canberra,” said Doran. “And some lighter APC’s.”

  “That will be the lot of them until Choules and Charlton come up,” said Wells. “Everything else was on those two LST’s.”

  “We’ll manage,” said Moran. “No worries. I’ll have mobility, and we’re carrying the six Apache Guardians you sent over. That should handle any armor they may have, and then some. We’ll give them a hospital pass, you’ll see. Well Admiral, I’m as dry as a dead dingo’s donger. What do you say we head down to the mess and open a King Brown? You can meet some of the mates.”

  22:00 Local 3 JAN 2026

  Berbera AFB in Somalia was busy that night. An Osprey Crow’s Nest went up with the two Raptors, and immediately saw a pair of warships about 35 miles southeast of Aden. Captain Jiang Li wasn’t about to sit in the harbor like a duck in a pond. He had replenished, taken his frigate Liuzhou with him, and put out to sea.

  The Raptors were screening the Osprey as it climbed to its radar post, and they were suddenly surprised to see a couple SAM’s out from the Chinese ships. They were both directed at the Osprey, but it was twenty miles beyond the range of the HQ-9B.

  Berbera AFB had received a cargo flight that day from Diego Garcia, and some new visitors. There was now a flight of advanced F-35C’s at the base, and several crates of new munitions were brought in that airlift—new tricks for the magicians. Among them was a new air launched cruise missile, the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept, or HAWC. It had been tested on the B-52 successfully, and then adapted for specially modified F-35’s, and a flight of three hopped in from Port Darwin to Diego Garcia to Berbera. While not as fast as the Russian built hypersonics, the missile could run at 1600 knots, making for a difficult target, and it carried a 200KG warhead. They were taking off that hour to test the missile against these newly acquired contacts.

  Compared to the HAWC, the SPEAR’s being carried aloft by Whalesign off Prince of Wales seemed an anachronism. The British had six planes up in that flight to get after Nanchang, and three more carried the Storm Shadow to begin interdiction strikes against Aden.

  Coded Flight 555, the three F-35’s took off at 22:40, and headed east up the coast of Somalia. They would soon turn north to release, as the HAWC had a standoff range of 135 miles, and they were already that close on takeoff.

  “Five-Five-Five, Wolf Den. Cleared Hot at release point. Over.

  “Roger Wolf Den. Turning on target.”

  The F-35’s began their turn out to sea, but then the Raptor watch broke in with a warning. “Wolf Den, Watchmen. Be advised, target is hot. We have missile warnings—YJ-100, now turning east on a heading of 076. Permission to engage? Over”

  It didn’t take Wolf Den, the tower at Berbera, long to match that heading to the two allied task forces out there. The Chinese had managed to spot them somehow, and the Nanchang was already out for blood.

  “Roger Watchmen. Cleared hot. Wolf Den, Over.”

  That sent a pair of AIM-120D’s out after the low and slow YJ-100’s and they would both get kills. Seconds later the HAWC’s fired and lanced away from the F-35’s at 1600 knots.

  22:48 Local, 3 JAN 2026 – Gulf of Aden

  Captain Jiang Li was leaning over the radar station. They could see the speedy vampires, but they were also stealthy, and at 60 miles out, there was insufficient radar reflection to track them accurately enough for defensive missile fire.

  What was this, thought the Captain? Was that speed reading accurate? It had to be the new American LRASM, but he did not know they had this faster model in an air launched version. He made a mental note to notify Beijing, but now his mind was riveted on the outcome of this attack.

  At the 34 mile range mark, his system finally got a target lock and he heard and saw the HQ-9B’s firing from the forward deck. He took a deep breath, confident in his missile defense. Eight had gone out, two for each of the four missiles heading his way. Three were killed, the last needing two more missiles to defeat it before he rested easy.

  “Missile count?” he asked of the CIC Operator.

  “Sir, 64 HQ-9B’s remain active and ready.”

  The sharks had been killed easily enough, but now the minnows were coming….

  22:50 Local, 3 JAN 2026 – Whalesign-6

  The six British F-35B’s had come inside 80 miles to make their strike, undetected by Nanchang or a lone J-20 that was watching the British fleet. They saw the fast missiles out after the enemy, and thought the Yanks were at it again, trying to steal the show, but the high Tech HWAC’s were just a jab. The attack had no mass for any chance of breaking through, relying on speed and stealth. Now the British would use the old tried and true method that had already put damage on seven Chinese ships, and sunk four of them—saturation attack. Whalesign-6 was throwing SPEAR’s, 48 of them.

  Nanchang did not see the attacking planes, even after that launch, and then only acquired contacts on the incoming cloud of Vampires when they were 25 miles out. At 15 miles, both Chinese ships began to pour out intense SAM fire, a long stream of missiles leaping off the decks, one after another.

  The British planes had turned away, seeing the enemy missiles heading for the Australian ships, and getting clearance to engage them. After firing off Meteors, they turned again to repaint their targets, and watched the attack go in, but with some disappointment.

  “Merlin, Whalesign-6. No joy. Repeat, no joy on targets. Over.”

  “Roger Whalesign. RTB. Merlin, over.”

  Not a single hit had been scored. The Chinese defense had just enough missiles to defeat all 48 SPEAR’s—but just barely. Every last HQ-9B was exhausted on Nanchang, and all but six HQ-16’s were used by the frigate Liuzhou. Captain Jiang Li knew the danger that posed, and being just 35 miles from port, he turned for home, all ahead flank. They were just a little over an hour from that safe harbor, where more missiles would be waiting for them on the quays…. If they were still there.

  Chapter 6

  As Nanchang turned and began to put on speed, Captain Jiang Li took some comfort in knowing that he was still under the defensive reach of shore based HQ-9’s at Aden. He realized he had to stay close to the harbor now, fighting right near his corner. As the ship settled onto its new course, he turned to his CIC station and ordered a counterattack.

  “Target the leading enemy formation, every ship!”

  That was going to send a huge column of steamy smoke over his shoulder as the destroyer raced west. At 23:35, the CAP patrol of Prince of Wales, Saber
Flight, saw the Vampires about 90 miles from the Canberra group, and they were immediately ordered to engage. At the same time. DDG Hobart fired SM-6 at the leading targets. That defense was highly effective, with the Meteors cutting up the SSM formations, and Hobart cleaning up the scraps. But at 23:48, the destroyer skipper reported that Hobart had exhausted all its SM-6 missiles, and would now rely on SM-2 and the ESSM.

  That meant the few remaining Vampires would track in closer before they could be engaged, and the Australian ships waited until the last two YJ-100’s were within 15 miles before they got sufficient reflection to get a target lock. Then the ESSM’s were a fairly sure bet, clearly one of the best intermediate range SAM’s in the world. So Captain Jiang Li’ parting shot was easily defeated.

  The Captain took that news stoically, glad that he was already nearing the harbor. Aden was actually situated on the caldera of a dormant volcano, and connected to the mainland of Yemen by a narrow isthmus. Ten miles to the west was a similar formation known as “Little Aden,” and so these two rugged fists of stone jutted into the Arabian sea, leaving a shallow bay between them. Nanchang was passing the western fist, heading for the commercial port that served the oil refinery and tanks farms on Little Aden, as the main port was just too shallow for the big destroyer.

  It was just after midnight when six American Super Toms out of Berbera tried to get in one last shot at the ship before it could reach port. The planes were 80 miles to the south, and they fired ten Slammers at the retreating Chinese ships, all aimed at Nanchang. The last two were saved for a pair of Type 022 missile boats the pilots had spotted as they set up to make this attack.

  Almost immediately, the HQ-9A battery at Fort Sirah on the eastern fist saw the big fighters and fired at them, making the mistake of going after planes that had already delivered their ordnance. Then the HQ-16 battery on the left fist defending the refinery and RO/RO berth joined the action. A third battery, also HQ-16’s positioned at the airport north of the east fist also joined.