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.