Twilight's End: The Next War (Kirov Series Book 43) by John Schettler

Author:John Schettler [Schettler, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Writing Shop Press
Published: 2019-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

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The AEW Yaks off the Kuznetsov saw the next air strike coming, clouds of airborne contacts rising from the distant American carriers, and heading northeast. There were 14 F-35’s at Bodo, but only enough missiles to arm eight for a fighter sweep. The remaining six would load for a ferry ride back to Orland.

Admiral Volsky’s fleet was now about 55 miles northeast of Andoya. The cruiser Slava had a lot of systems damage, and was left behind, unable to keep up. So it hovered just off shore at Andoya, the only SAM defense left for that beleaguered airfield. The attack was coming at a very bad time. There were a dozen good SU-35’s up on CAP, now assigned to Bardufoss, but they were low on fuel, and would have to land in 40 minutes. They nonetheless maneuvered west, over the rocky terrain along the coast to take up a blocking position. That was the only defense. Volsky had no more fighters on his carrier.

The US F-35’s started supercruising, accelerating to 740 knots to start their fighter sweep, four more had come off the Truman, so there were a dozen now moving to intercept those Su-35’s. The Russian fighters saw all the Superhornets, but the lightning remained hidden in the darkness and clouds. They would put missiles in the air before they would ever be detected.

The Russian pilots saw the train of missiles coming their way, but persisted on their intercept heading until they had to begin evasive maneuvers. The combination of stealth, and a missile that had just 15 miles more range, was making all the difference. Yet the Su-35 wasn’t an easy plane to kill, and they dove swooping down over the craggy coast. They were super maneuverable, extremely agile, and though a dozen missiles had been fired at them, only two hits were scored.

Now, however, the second and main group of F-35’s approached from the south, and more missiles were after them from unseen planes. When they finally got a contact, they unleased a storm of missiles that would end up catching a pair of F-35’s, but this engagement would exhaust their fuel and force them to return to Bardufoss. Some would be running on vapor soon, staying in the fight to defend their countrymen when they should have broken off long ago.

The first of the Rampagers bringing the SLAM were now in position to fire, taking aim at the Kuznetsov, which was now about 115 miles off. The American strike planes now had free reign in the skies, and they were switching on active radars with impunity, knowing their enemy had depleted their long range SAM’s. A second group from the Rampagers was carrying Harpoons, and seeing Slava near Andoya, three broke formation to attack that ship.

The Black Lions, also carrying SLAM-ER, were now in range, and they split their fire between the cruiser Admiral Ustinov, the frigate Admiral Golovko, and the Kuznetsov. The attack was on in earnest now. Only the main body of the Jolly Rogers carrying the JSOW ordnance had yet to weigh in.

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