Kevin Miller - Raven One

“‘tenshun on deck!”

Chairs shifted and conversation stopped as the room sprung to attention, eyes locked forward. CAG’s purposeful footsteps broke the silence, and halfway into the room, he grunted, “Seats.” Everyone relaxed and sat back in their chairs. DCAG followed, and to Wilson it looked as if neither had slept during the night. The bare Velcro of CAG’s flight suit, devoid of any patches but ready for imminent combat, was somewhat disconcerting. It indicated a mindset . Swoboda’s face was set in a taciturn frown as he prepared to address his aircrew. Weed noted it, too, and whispered to his roommate, “ That’s a game face.”

Swoboda wasted no time getting started:

“All right. You guys know the Iranians hit Richard Best last night as she was transiting Hormuz. Ambushed by a double-pince of boghammars . Five dead, seventeen wounded. The ship took heavy damage to the bridge and topside spaces from RPG’s and recoilless rifles on the boats and from mortars they staged on a sand bar in the narrowest part of the strait. You gotta hand it to them. Although I’m told the ship was alert for trouble and the captain did a great job, the Iranians waited till the last moment to show their hand. Their timing could not have been better. Richard Best did good work though… eleven boghammars sunk, several damaged and some 30 Iranians dead.

“The Revolutionary Guard conducted this attack. Iran has two navies, the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the Revolutionary Guard, or Pasdaran . They can work in concert or independently. This appears to be the Revolutionary Guard working solo. Since last night, commercial shipping through the strait has stopped. As a result, oil futures have shot up over thirty dollars per barrel, and the Asian markets are down five percent from their opening yesterday. You’ve seen CNN. Hormuz is the focus of the world right now as the Iranian action is a clear act of war. In Washington last night, the first question was “ Where’s the nearest carrier ?”

Wilson’s eyes wandered to the chart of Iran, figuring the distance from Shiraz to Bandar Abbas. Three hundred miles? Two fifty?

CAG continued:

“National command authority has tasked NAVCENT with the following objectives: severely degrade Iran’s ability to harass shipping in the strait, hit the Pasdaran bases of operations, and eliminate the Iranians’ Kilo subs wherever they are found. Imagery shows one of those subs in dry dock at Bandar Abbas. That’s the first one to go away. The others will be found and sunk , at their moorings or on the high seas. If the Iranian surface navy stays in port, we’ll leave them alone. But, if they come out, they are fair game and we’ll put them on the bottom. The friggin’ boghammars are what we’re after, and we’re going to hit them in their nests and degrade their ability to operate by destroying their fuel supply or maintenance facilities. Any boghammar we find underway? Gone.”

The room was silent, every aircrew focused on the air wing commander. He was clearly incensed at the Revolutionary Guard. Behind him, Wilson overheard a shipmate whisper, “CAG’s pissed .” Swoboda pointed to the chart.

“Our tasking is to hit targets in Bandar Abbas, Jask, and Chah Bahar. We will also conduct SUCAPs in the GOO and Hormuz to find any Pasdaran or Iranian navy assets underway. The coastal targets will take a couple of nights, and we’ll be flying a dozen or so strike packages to accomplish it. The international waters stuff will take as long as it takes, and the priority is to locate and to neutralize the Kilos .

“We’re going to have help, too. In the Gulf, SEALS are going to raid Pasdaran facilities on the Tunb Islands and Kisk. The Tinian ARG is coming up from the Horn of Africa with Harriers and Cobras to augment our SUCAP posture; they should get here by tomorrow. Air Force Buffs and B-1’s from Diego Garcia will fly with you on several strikes. P-3’s out of Masirah, with another four inbound, will help with the ASW picture. AWACS and more are coming. We are also going to have Tomahawk shooters from our own strike group and some more TLAM from one of the ARG small boys coming up. We’ve got lots of assets, and they are at our disposal . Right now we are the focus of national command authority.”

Wilson glanced at Cajun, who remained focused on CAG. As Cajun’s assistant strike leader, Wilson wondered what target they would receive, and surmised CAG would assign the skipper a tough one — probably in and around Bandar Abbas.

“Iran isn’t a pushover like Iraq was five years ago. Two hundred and fifty combat aircraft, many of them fourth-generation, and as we found out last month, fifth- generation jets. Double-digit SAMs. Effective triple-A ranging from light to 100 millimeter. Modern, sea-skimming antiship missiles. And hundreds of boghammars using swarm tactics. These guys don’t have what we have, but they present us with a formidable military problem. They are smart and they have will . They know we are heading back to the GOO, and they are dispersing their forces and getting their defenses ready. Again, our goal is not to invade Iran or even destroy the Iranian Navy, but to degrade their ability to conduct these raids in and around Hormuz and the GOO. This response option is limited and proportional, and it needs to be timely. That’s why we are doing this now, because we don’t have time to wait for help, and these guys need to know that we can smack them down with just a portion of the forces we have in theater. We need to make them think twice before they engage in another act of war, against us or anybody.

“Our first strike is tomorrow night in Bandar Abbas, followed by packages going to Jask and Chah Bahar. So as not to tip them off using any land-based activity, these strikes will be Navy and Marine only, from us and Tinian , and lots of TLAM in a coordinated manner. This could run just one night, probably two, with the Air Force bombers joining us then.”

Wilson studied the known SAM rings along the Iranian coastline, as well as the fighter bases at Bandar Abbas and Chah Bahar, defenses which offered little in the way of sanctuary and reached well into the Gulf of Oman. Coordination, timing, and contingency planning, from launch to recovery, were going to be extensive. His mind raced through what they needed to plan within the next 36 hours: the weapons plan, the launch sequence plan, the tanking plan, the defense suppression plan, the strike plan, and the search and rescue plan. Each had myriad requirements and considerations, and each carried its own set of variables that required detailed answers.

For the air wing strike leaders — senior squadron aircrew such as himself — striking anywhere along this heavily defended coastline would become a monumental challenge of coordination and execution. They had to accomplish the mission and keep losses to an absolute minimum. He knew the air wing would be up all night planning it, and up the following night flying it. And the next night, according to CAG. Air Wing Four and Valley Forge were up to the task, but CAG was right: by no means would this be easy . And by the looks of the huge black circles on the chart that signified the SAM threat rings, it was damn dangerous. CAG finished his message to his aviators.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have frontline aircraft with stand-off weapons, accurate cruise missiles, superior sensors, and state-of-the-art electronic warfare capability — both active and passive. And we have you, the most highly trained and combat-experienced aircrew in the world, all purchased at great expense by our country. We will prevail, but we’ve gotta be smart and keep mistakes to a minimum. Keep it simple, and maximize the effectiveness of your blows. USS Richard Best, our sovereign U.S. territory in the Gulf, was there to defend the economic lifeline of an allied country. While conducting innocent passage through a vital international waterway, she was attacked by the forces of Iran, an attack which killed Americans and has thrown the world into economic turmoil. The Iranians miscalculated, and whether it was on a national or local level doesn’t matter. Washington is tasking us with significantly degrading Iran’s short-term ability to attack again, and to keep Hormuz open for commerce. Maybe the diplomats will de-escalate this, but you and I are going to be ready to go tomorrow night with fused ordnance on our aircraft and a detailed plan to use it. After the spy briefs you on the order of battle, each strike planning team will be assigned a target… and a secondary target for night two, if we get to that. Strike leaders, today at 1500 I want you and your assistant strike leads to brief me or DCAG on your thoughts and plans regarding your primary target. Later tonight, once we approve your choices, you’ll visit the admiral’s staff and brief him. Just give an overview, and we’ll provide any rudder you need at that time. Obviously, this is all classified, and the crew can see we are transiting west at high speed, but we are to discuss this only in cleared spaces — not the wardroom, not in the passageways.”