USS Towers Box Set by Jeff Edwards

Author:Jeff Edwards
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781640620544
Publisher: Braveship Books
Published: 2018-07-21T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN (SOUTH OF THE KAMCHATKA PENINSULA)

SATURDAY; 02 MARCH

2217 hours (10:17 PM)

TIME ZONE +12 ‘MIKE’

The first wave of the attack came from the south, a flight of five TU-160 bombers, cutting through the night sky 13,000 meters above the dark surface of the Pacific ocean. Code-named “Blackjack” by NATO, the dart-shaped supersonic jet aircraft were equipped with variable-geometry wings that made them capable of covert low-altitude flight profiles. But there was no need for deceptive maneuvers tonight. The launch point for their weapons was well outside the detection range of any radars or sensors based on the Kamchatka peninsula.

The mission plan called for the bombers to approach at altitude, make their attacks, and retreat at altitude—all without concern for stealth. And the Russian pilots followed their orders precisely.

The only hitch in the plan was minor, and easily corrected. The bombers caught a tailwind on the north-bound leg of the mission, and they reached the designated launch coordinates three minutes ahead of schedule. In accordance with the strike plan, the aircraft turned left and circled once before re-converging on the launch point three minutes later.

At exactly 0920 Zulu (10:20 PM local time), the bombers launched their weapons. Twenty Kh-555 cruise missiles, four from each of the bombers, dropped away from the planes and fell several hundred meters before their engines fired.

In unison, twenty pairs of stubby wings extended and snapped into place, and twenty Soyuz R95-300 turbojets flared to life, smearing translucent streaks of blue flame against the night sky.

Immediately after the transition to powered flight, one of the missiles experienced an engine flameout. Robbed of its power, the weapon tumbled out of the sky, to disintegrate upon impact with the ocean below.

Each of the remaining missiles automatically initiated a satellite uplink, to check its geographic location against the constellation of Russian GLONASS positioning satellites in orbit 19,000 kilometers above the earth. Satisfied that their respective positions were within acceptable mission parameters, each missile dove to its programmed cruise altitude just 100 meters above the waves.

By the time the missiles reached their first navigational waypoint, the bombers had already turned west toward home. For the crews of the TU-160s, the mission was over. For the nineteen cruise missiles streaking toward Kamchatka, the mission was just beginning.

* * *

Russian Naval Formation:

The second wave of the attack came from a trio of Russian Sovremenny Class Destroyers steaming in a single column formation a dozen kilometers off the eastern coast of Kamchatka. All three ships—the Osmotritel’nyy, the Boyevoy, and the Burny—had seen hard duty during the Cold War, but not one of them had ever fired a shot under conditions of actual combat.

The strike plan had called for a fourth ship, but the Bezboyaznenny had suffered a crippling electrical fire during the transit, and had been forced to limp ignominiously back into port with the help of oceangoing tugs. Given the condition of the Russian surface navy and the high-speed transit from Vladivostok, most of the Russian Sailors considered it something of a minor miracle that three of the four ships had made the journey intact.

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