Джон Шеттлер - Condition Zebra - The Next War - 2025

“Their VLS bays are full,” he said to the messenger.

“No sir, our missiles did not get close enough to make their terminal runs. They were intercepted by enemy fighters.”

That news struck the Admiral, though he showed no emotion. Clever, he thought. Our lack of air power at sea allows the enemy fighters to do this without being challenged. We cannot allow this to continue. Those planes could neutralize the great advantage we have in the YJ-18.

“Order all our ready YJ-20’s at Mombasa and Dar es Salam to sortie at once! The mission is fighter sweep. They must clear the enemy F-35’s before we launch our next missile strike. Signal Victoria airfield in the Seychelles. All J-31’s must launch and undertake the same mission. We must neutralize the enemy fighters at all cost!”

What happened next would decide the outcome of this naval engagement. While both Admirals had been counting SSM’s, the action now became a contest for the airspace between the two fleets. The two J-20’s that had taken off from Victoria earlier had been hovering, and now they rushed in toward the suspected position of the enemy F-35’s, but they were seen, and one was immediately killed by two British Meteors. The second plane was driven down on the water to escape, then poured on the power to climb and fire. The pilot could see the enemy fighters on radar after they fired, but could not get a confident target lock on them. As he climbed into the clear morning sky, two more Meteors would end his war forever….

Livewire was still up there, scoring the music of war in the sky above the wild sea below. The air picket strike controller was now using his radars to surveille the space between the two fleets, and coordinate ten other F-35’s that were still in his zone of operations. Four had gone Winchester and returned to the carriers, and after fighting off a rush by a pair of J-20’s, the remaining ten fighters still had 16 Meteors between them. The defensive shield they represented was thin, but it was still there.

“Livewire, Sundog. What about those two bandits east of the carriers barking on radar?”

“Negative Sundog. Hold your position and await further instructions. Livewire Over.”

“Roger Livewire, standing by.”

The pilots saw eight cruise missiles launching from their friendly TF’s, looking down on them as they passed well below them on the sea. Then four more fired, much faster, coming off the decks of the Argos Fire . They were all being aimed at a single enemy destroyer to the north, a Type 055 Renhai Class ship that was leading the enemy charge. It was then that the first of the four J-31’s from the Seychelles were picked up on radar. Two more planes were detected a few seconds later.

“Sundog, Sundog, be advised. Bogies at One-Zero-Zero degrees northwest, range 112, bearing 250…. Now turning to 215 on intercept vector. You’ve been made. All planes Winchester, break, break, break. Armed planes cleared hot.”

“Roger that Livewire. Tally Ho!”

As Sundog flight turned to challenge the J-31’s, destroyer Gloucester , a Type 42 escorting Vengeance , saw them stray into their SAM defense zone and fired a Sea Dart. It spoiled the party, because when the Chinese pilots realized they were under threat, they turned, put on speed, and slipped away to the north. They had not seen the British planes, but it looked as if they had.

“Livewire, Sundog. No Joy. Over.”

“Roger Sundog. Standby.”

Livewire was keeping his fighters on a tight leash. The missile off the destroyer had chased off the prey. So he would hold his planes in their defensive role unless challenged again. He had just seen two Chinese ships fire cruise missiles, and knew every missile counted as a possible kill on one of those deadly SSM’s.

“All hounds, Livewire. Turn on a heading of 350 and descend to Angels 30. Close on Vampires, Over.”

The planes tipped their noses down to attack, and they would expend the last of their Meteors, getting nine of the 32 Vampires tracking in from the west. As they turned for home, Prince of Wales launched the last of its ready CAP, just four planes that had been spotted on deck while the remainder were being rearmed as ordered. Those would need at least another hour before they could be ready.

As the fighters finished their attack on the Chinese cruise missile trains, they were seen and attacked by the four J-31’s off Victoria, and after their missiles had all been expended. The PL-15’s were merciless, coming in to savage the formation, and getting four kills, which was a very costly loss for the British, their only consolation being the fact they at least took down two of the four J-31’s in that brief engagement.

At 07:30, the British strike of twelve SSM’s was well to the west and bearing down on designated targets. DDG Yinshen , came under sudden and unexpected attack. Their radars had seen nothing until the four LRASM’s off the Argos Fire were almost on top of them. The Eagle God reacted, radars locking on as the HQ-9’s began firing. It was just barely able to fend off the missiles, getting the last inside the two mile marker.

Now the Chinese strike was also getting close, and there were only two fighters ready to scramble, on HMS Victorious . Designated Seafire, that flight roared off the deck and climbed west, even as the first of the surviving Chinese SSM’s were closing on Vengeance .

All 16 of the YJ-100’s off the Eagle God had been killed by the F-35’s, but there were still eleven of the more deadly YJ-18’s, and they were just reaching their jump point for the terminal run. Twenty miles from Vengeance , their turbojet engines ignited with sudden fire, and they began to accelerate rapidly, jogging with evasive maneuvers as they came. Destroyers Edinburgh and lightning were east of the carrier, and that left Type 23 class frigate Sutherland as the only ship screening Vengeance from immediate harm, nine miles due west of the carrier.

It was those two brave pilots in the Seafire flight that rushed in to attack, putting all their eight Meteors out after the Vampires in an attempt to defend that carrier. They would get only two of the speedy enemy lances, which screamed right past the bow of the Sutherland , intent on bigger fish.

Commodore Jack Westfield was back on his ship, aghast as he saw the enemy missiles ignore the frigate and come burning in after Vengeance . Four Sea Ceptors off the Sutherland were fired, all failing to even get close to the Vampires, which were just too fast for them. Then Vengeance lit off with every gun it had, knocking down the lead missile with a Phalanx.

Chaff and decoys fluttered into the sky all around the carrier. Defensive jammers wailed like banshees, but none of the enemy missiles were fooled. That target was just too large, dead ahead, and they came in like sharks to the kill. When the first missile hit, the ship was jolted and the radar screens on the bridge fluttered and went dead.

Two more missiles were finally spoofed, but the next three would slam into the carrier with heavy explosions amidships. The port side of the ship was ravaged, open to the sea, and fires leapt from the great yawning gash in the ship’s hull. Inside on the hangar deck, the feverish rearming effort on the F-35’s was caught up in a holocaust, which set off a series of explosions that rocked the ship heavily as the planes blew up. Six more Merlin helicopters that had been assigned to the planned assault on Victoria were now consumed by the raging fire. Men were down everywhere, some killed in the blast, others groping through the choking black smoke. Captain John Grant on the Victorious was out on the horizon to the southwest, and he saw the heavy column of smoke rising up into the morning blue. In spite of every effort, the YJ-18 had scored again.