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Praetorium Honoris

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

The Missiles of August*

PLAN Type 052C (Luyang II class)
U.S Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Manda M. Emery
Source
USS Tang (SSN-805) had picked up the contact on sonar nearly an hour ago. STS1¹ Kurt DeVries was on the console now, one of his new folks had first spotted the anomaly on the waterfall display. DeVries liked the new kid, she was sharp and paid attention, this was a good example of just how good the new kid was.

He had watched the trace for a bit before tapping her on the shoulder, "Nicely done, Sarah, mind if I take over?"

STS3 Sarah MacIver nodded and turned her station over to her LPO². She hovered nearby, eager to learn. She knew that this track, now designated Sierra 46, was important. They had received a message from USPACFLT late the day before, directing them to a certain location with orders to be on the lookout for units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN. While neither DeVries nor MacIver was privy to that location, they knew something was up by the look on the captain's face.

So she and the rest of the crew were pretty excited. Little did they know that a shooting war was breaking out between the PLAN and two US allies: the Philippines and the Japanese. It all felt like an exercise, but to some sailors not 140 miles away, drowning in the waters of the South China Sea, roughly 35 miles east of the Spratly Islands, it was very real indeed.


"Message traffic from USPACFLT, Mr. President." LCDR Higgins said, handing Nakagawa a clipboard with the message attached.

The President glanced at it, initialed the "Rec'd by" block, then read, it didn't take long.

"So Admiral Friedman ordered this on his own hook?"

"Yes Sir."

Nakagawa nodded and smiled, "Outstanding, message USPACFLT that POTUS concurs. Let him know that he's the man on the ground, I trust his judgement."

Higgins nodded and headed to the comms room.

He noticed Bill Aspinall at the entrance to the room, "You have something for me, Bill?"

"Yes Sir, had a call from 8th and I, the Pentagon has been secured. They've rounded up everyone who was in the building and are holding them in the basement there."

"They have cells?"

"No Sir, they're just storage rooms but they can be locked."

"How many people are we talking about?"

"Several hundred I would think."

"And there was no resistance?"

"No Sir, the security guards on duty accepted the orders of the Marine in charge. About all that was left in the building were administrative and clerical staff, very few uniformed military."

"I see."

The President turned to look for LCDR Higgins, but he hadn't returned. He said to Aspinall, "Are the Joint Chiefs still in the briefing room, or have they returned to their offices?"

"They were still there a minute ago."

"Tell them I need them in here, yesterday."


Lieutenant Commander Chen Yuxuan, commanding destroyer 171, Haikou, was deeply worried. He had ordered his ship to the northwest at flank speed as soon as he saw missiles impacting Haikou's sister ship, destroyer 170, Lanzhou.

Lanzhou had opened fire on a Philippines Navy patrol craft, Jacinto-class according to Haikou's Executive Officer. It was supposed to be a show of force, weapons release had not been authorized by Beijing, but Commander Zhang, a party member with an uncle on the Politburo, was something of a "cowboy" as the Americans might say.

Neither ship had detected another ship in the fog nearby, they were under emission control, EMCON, so that the Filipinos didn't detect their presence. That ship, a Japanese Maya-class destroyer had apparently launched a torpedo at Lanzhou, then immediately opened fire with her forward five inch gun mount.

Chen had ordered a hard turn to starboard, towards another fog bank, and had loosed an anti-ship missile at the Maya, which apparently had hit somewhere aft on the Japanese vessel.

"Comrade Captain, we must contact Beijing, immediately."

Chen turned to look at his political officer, "What do you propose Comrade? Tell them that Zhang opened fire without authorization? Tell them that Commander Zhang is probably dead now, along with most of his crew? What exactly do you propose, Comrade? Enlighten me with your political wisdom."

Commissar Wang looked nervous, "I don't mean immediately, Comrade Captain. But when we are clear of ..."

Wang was interrupted by one of the lookouts screaming, "Incoming missile, dead aft!"


The UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile had been fired by one of Japan's latest submarines, the JS Raigei³ (SS-516). They had been running at periscope depth some ten thousand yards from JS Haguro when Haguro was hit by Chinese gun and missile fire. Under her standing orders, an attack on any ship in their small task force by Chinese forces was to be answered. So Raigei had launched a Harpoon at a second Chinese ship retreating into the fog.


"Heavy damage aft. Captain, we've lost our aft missile launchers and our helicopter was on fire, so the crew pushed it over the side. Many casualties."

"Propulsion?" he asked, looking at the Officer of the Deck.

"Helm is responding, engine room reports no issues below."

Captain Chen nodded, "Flank speed, give me everything she has. Zhang, prepare a situation report for Beijing, keep it brief, we'll use a burst transmission to the satellite as soon as we put some distance between us and the Japanese."


"Captain, sonar."

"Go ahead."

"Heavy explosions to the west, Sir. Sounds of a ship breaking up, someone over there is sinking Cap'n."

Commander Willis Jefferson nodded, "Very well. XO, prepare a message for USPACFLT, let 'em know we've got a shooting war going on out here."

"Aye aye, Cap'n."


The President looked at his Joint Chiefs, only one of whom was of the usual rank, four stars, the most junior was an Air Force Major General. But most of the old Joint Chiefs had skipped town, except for the Marine Commandant who had thought to take power for himself. His own Marines had turned on him when a lieutenant colonel had ordered the men to stand down, the Commandant was clearly committing sedition, most of the officers and staff NCOs had concurred in that assessment. They had held a drum head court martial and sentenced the man to death by firing squad, sentence was carried out immediately.

"Gentlemen, I do not want to get into a shooting war with China, but I'm not going to let them push our allies around. Both the Japanese and Filipino governments have requested our help and I believe we should help them. What say you?"

All three men and the one woman, Lieutenant General Amanda Jackson, nodded their heads. 

The new Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jack Whalen spoke, "Sir, I've ordered Pearl to full alert, Ford and Enterprise are completing their refitting, we're going to defer some upgrades to later, and they should be putting out to sea within three days. Truman put to sea from Yokosuka this morning, Reagan is taking on fuel and weapons right now and should be standing out to sea around midnight."

Lieutenant General Mark Attleboro, acting Commandant, chimed in, "I've alerted the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit⁴ on Guam to prepare for immediate deployment. Just tell us where you want us, Sir."

Major General Allen "Pam" Grier of the Air Force looked up, "I've alerted the 18th Wing on Okinawa to be ready to deploy to Clark in the Philippines. I've also alerted the 25th Wing out of Hawaii to prepare to move to Okinawa to fill in for the 18th and to backstop the 8th and 51st Wings in Korea. In case the Norks get froggy."

The President nodded, "Alright troops, let's make it happen."

Turning to Aspinall he said, "Alert HMX-1 that I need a ride to DC. In the meantime, we need to talk to the leadership in the Philippines and Japan. Probably our other allies in the area as well. I hope you had plenty of sleep last night, Bill. It might be a while before you see your rack again."

Aspinall grinned, "I can sleep after I retire, Boss."



* With a tip of the hat to one of my favorite historians, Barbara W. Tuchman.
¹ Sonar Technician (Submarine) 1st Class.
² Leading Petty Officer, senior member of a team, leads day-to-day operations.
³ The "Thunder Whale" is the fourth boat of the Taigei, Big Whale, class.
⁴ The 31st MEU is currently on Okinawa, plans are in the works to move them to Guam. I assume that will have happened by the time this story occurs.

46 comments:

  1. Am really enjoying this tale yet am hoping that a world war doesn't result like the Guns of August Sarge. Interesting to find out that the USS Tang has four vertical launch tubes which can carry seven Tomahawks each. Your Muse does do her research........ :)

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    1. I do like the old submarine names, renaming them was pandering to crooked politicians. Rickover was right, but he was wrong at the same time.

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    2. I also prefer the old fish and marine life names. I do find it odd that entire family Isuridae was ignored.What better names for attack subs that PORBEAGLE, MAKO, and GREAT WHITE?

      I heartily approve of the USS BLUEGILL. Those little buggers are aggressive!

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    3. SSN-591, a Skipjack-class submarine, was named after that great hunter of the deep, USS Shark. But yeah, what not Mako, Tiger, Bull, etc?

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    4. Oh, to go back to the naming practices of WWII era shipping.

      And that goes for Japan, too. Their destroyers should be named Something-Wind. (Japanese word)aze.

      Sigh. Politics. Bleh.

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    5. Japanese warship naming conventions are better than ours. Destroyers were named after natural phenomenon, many had the word "wind" (kaze, 風) in their names, but not all of them.

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    6. In WW2, there was (related in a 1950s-1960s magazine) an obscure part of the navy department was responsible for naming ships. Subs are named after fish, the US was building a lot of subs, and there just weren't that many appropriate fish common names (USS Sardine would not pass muster). Sometimes they would propose a common name for an unnamed fish to the Natural History Dept, who would adopt it so that they could use it to name a sub.

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  2. Thought Clark AFB was destroyed by volcanic eruption?

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    1. Oh no, it's still there, still in use. It was renovated and is in use by the Philippine Air Force and word is that the Philippine government wants the US back, in a smaller way but still, Clark is in use again.

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    2. Things were going very well between the Philippines and the US (well, except for the State Department, bastids all) during President Trump's tenure, but fell off, go figure, when the stealection results took over. Go figure.

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    3. Now that Brandon has awakened the Chinese, the Philippines realizes that without the US, China takes what they want.

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  3. First, I'll have you know that with what Muse is serving up I have set aside a Clancy novel (Executive Orders - a reread, but I'm always finding new details). Still rereading Shogun, though.

    Well done. The domestic situation seems to be clearing up some, now mostly a matter of rebuilding and restoring. I think. Muse can be tricky with what she dishes up. Which brings us to the second remove, the international situation. Loss of life, but limited enough that China could disavow the actions of the Lanzhou (hey! Spellcheck didn't underline that!) as a rogue captain acting without orders during an exercise. Then use the inevitable negotiations to redeploy and reinforce "out of an abundance of caution against the brutal attacks of the running dog imperialist Japanese, remember Nanking."

    But it does seem like Pres. Nakagawa have the brass to tell them to shove it, we have the proof that your ships fired first without provocation.

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    1. Nakagawa is tough and focused. No doubt the Chinese will go apeshit as he is of Japanese ancestry.

      Executive Orders, one of my all time favorite novels. Clancy was a genius, his successors are simply "okay." (Just can't get into the new stuff, it's like going from eating prime rib to eating a "meat substitute" made from soy beans.)

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    2. There were some really good story tellers who's name still shows up on a book but with someone else's name there also. They are not the same sadly. Time marches on...

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    3. Tom Clancy and Vince Flynn to name a couple.

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    4. I miss them both because the authors that have picked up their mantles are not nearly as good.

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    5. Great analogy for postmortem Clancy Sarge! Mostly read nonfiction now; 'cept yours, ERJ's and of course Schlichter
      Boat Guy

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  4. I imagine that the USCG Great Lakes District, the Corps of Engineers, and the Michigan National Guard are watching the Soo Locks like hawks, or maybe shutting them down, while the Canadians have been alerted to considering doing the same with the Welland locks. Keeping the Saint Lawrence Seaway open is quite important.
    Since we have no idea what might be the actual cargo of foreign flag ships, I suspect that the Wisconsin Naval Reserve Squadron VP-666, The Grumpy Badgers, will be flying 24/7, loaded for bear, and hoping not to show up in your story.

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    1. There you go! Chinese submarines sneaking into the Great Lakes...

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    2. I hope the Muse isn't planning a global war! (Nor anyone else for that matter.)

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    3. ChiCom ships in the Great Lakes? A serious possibility under Trudeau.

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    4. But, but, Fidel's boy will invite them in, so they can run on the surface if they want.

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    5. I am thinking more along the lines if a cargo ship with a Very Special Cargo.

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    6. Too complicated, couple guys with C4 can disable the locks for a long time.

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    7. But a ship with the right cargo can eliminate Duluth, or Indiana Harbor.

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    8. Or two ships, one scuttled in the Duluth Canal, and one across the Superior entrance would put an end to taconite shipments for a year.

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    9. StB 1 - And you reckon we would do nothing?

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    10. StB 2 - By water at any rate.

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    11. I reckon the CCP would bet on our not doing anything.

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    12. The Party sure, but their military is smarter than that. I hope.

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  5. Part of the pivot to the wider world is simple due to it being the wolf closest to the sled. I also think that, as with most conspiracies, taking out ringleaders (by one method or another) tends to dry them up. That said, everyone domestically will likely be on pins and needles as the dust settles. The problem did not go away, it just slipped in importance.

    Once things start happening, it just rolls per the proscribed protocols. This is how things get out of control rather quickly.

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    1. Life has a momentum all its own, on the personal and on the grand scales.

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  6. From what I have heard, JMSDF guys are very competent, and even the traditional names of ships evoke respect. PLAN better finds way to back off before things get even worse for them. Of course, PLAN being completely subservient to CCP, it all hinges on mood of one man. Xi.

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    1. The Japanese are warriors, have been for thousands of years. Push them too far and you'll find out. China, if the leaders are smart, should tread cautiously. Both countries have long memories.

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    2. I am amazed that people don't remember that the Japanese are very into war & have been about forever.

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    3. A nation with a deep warrior tradition.

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    4. I observed them; complete professionals and indeed; Warriors.
      BG

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  7. I am so glad the ex-Marine Commandant took it in the neck for his actions. Done correctly, captured, tried, executed. Swift and sure. Did anyone get it on video?

    Can't wait to find out what happens to the rest of the cabal.

    As to Japan, would not want to cross them. They have kept up their 'Self Defense Forces' to a very high standard, and when they get riled, oh, boy, talk about releasing a tsunami. And the other nations in that area, South Korea and Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan, are all pretty tough nuts to crack and have been arming up against the ChiComs for years. Heck, even Vietnam has made motions of joining others against the ChiComs.

    Seems the ChiComs aren't welcome in other peoples' waters much due to the ChiCom's 'not militarily run' fishing fleets wiping out whole areas.

    And the Philippine Navy, small and underfunded, ain't too bad, either. Though I'll make this prediction, that if anything starts happening with the Philippines, the local peaceful followers of the religion of peace will choose that moment to get froggy internally in said Philippines, and that will piss a lot of Filipinos off.

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    1. Intelligent nations realize that the China is not anyone's friend. Not sure we qualify under our current "leadership."

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    2. But the "big guy" still gets his 10%!

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  8. By the way, nice play on words in the title.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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