broad shoulders.
South of Dialan was the Xiaopingdao Submarine base where the new Type 094 and 095 submarines were docked, along with older Ming class diesel boats that had been hand-me-downs from the Russians years ago, their old Romeo class. Even further south was Lushan harbor, the old Port Arthur that had been a bone of contention in the 1890s between China and Japan. The Tiger Tai Peninsula protecting the bay there still had old scars of war, with the ruins of fortifications dating back to the 1800s. There were also several airfields, the airbase at Tuchengzi, weapons bunkers, SAM sites and other obvious signs of military activity.
There, sitting proudly in the harbor itself, was the Liaoning, the Ex- Varyag, brother ship of the Russian carrier Kusnetsov. Its freshly painted ski-jump forward deck swept upwards in an elegant yet highly functional design. The Chinese had acquired the unfinished carrier from Ukraine for the paltry sum of only 18 million, with an additional two million for the blueprints. After haggling with the Turks for three years to get permission to tow the ship through the Bosporus Strait, the Chinese set about with loving care and considerable industry to finished the job of her construction and fitting out. The old name passed to an aging Russian cruiser now based at Vladivostok, and the Chinese christened the ship Liaoning, all 67,500 tons, now trimmed out with navy white and gray paint and festooned with colorful flags.
Being the first fleet carrier in the Chinese Navy, Laioning occupied the place of honor that any elder son would have in the family. Two newer and larger carriers had been under construction since 2012 and were rapidly being readied for their trial by fire. Liaoning was now an elder brother indeed, as the first Shenyang J-15 fighter had successfully landed on its decks on the 25th of November, in the year 2012. The decks had been given a good zinc chromate primer and then covered with a durable non-skid surface. The superstructure and island had been fitted out with the new Sea Eagle search radars and electronics, including advanced phased array radar. Air defenses were added, including four Flying Leopard FL-3000N missile batteries in a big lunchbox of 24 fire and forget TY-90 SAMs, each capable of passive RF tracking and infrared guidance with a range of nine kilometers. It was, however, a last chance terminal defense weapon, just like the two Type 103 °CWIS 30mm Gatling guns that covered her rear port and starboard quarters.
The real bite from any carrier was in its air wing, and Liaoning would carry a minimum strike wing of thirty- two J-15 fighters, a Chinese knock off of the deadly Russian SU-33, their navalized version of the SU-27 Flanker. A subflight of six Z-8 helos and two new Russian K-31 AEW helos would complete her wing. In the months prior to its initial deployment, pilots and flight crews rehearsed their roles in an extensive training program that took place on the roof of the Naval Research Center at Wuhan. A complete full size mockup of the carrier’s deck and island had been built there for rigorous training.
The so called ‘threat environment’ a ship would find itself in was constantly evolving as new missiles and aircraft were deployed, and its defenses had to evolve to meet new challenges, year after year. The J-15Bs of 2021 were an upgrade from the originals, and now a proven and capable aircraft. The men who fought in the ships had also evolved. Now, nine years later, Liaoning’s original Captain Zhang Zheng had risen to the post of Admiral in charge of the entire Dialan Naval complex, overseeing all operations in the Yellow Sea Command.
Admiral Zhang Zheng was an intelligent, experienced and technically competent man. Born to a military family in 1969 he was now fifty two, and had sacrificed much for the navy life he so loved. At the academy he had pledged that he would not marry until he first became captain of a ship, and he had forsaken the lures of lucrative business opportunities to remain in the service all these many years. He had served on a frigate, guided missile destroyer, and eventually was given the great rose of the fleet when he took command of Liaoning in September of 2012.
Zhang studied abroad in the United Kingdom at the Defense Language Institute and the British Joint Services Command and Staff College. As such he was fluent in English, as were many others aboard Liaoning, which became China’s international ship for a time after its commissioning. Ninety-eight percent of the crew aboard the carrier were graduates of that same college. Now Zhang would be taking over as commander of the Dialan Naval District, though he still would hold the title of official commissar of the carrier Liaoning. It was a difficult moment when he left the ship, saluting proudly to the crew assembled on the deck in their dress whites, and struggling to hold his emotions in hand.
The next time a flotilla of surface action vessels took to the sea they would not have to wait for fighters lumbering in from coastal bases over 400 kilometers away. This time the swift, agile Shenyang J-15 Feisha ‘Flying Sharks’ would be circling overhead, waiting for prey. China’s eldest brother was going to war, but Liaoning would not sail alone.
Far to the south a second carrier was ready to put to sea at the Sanya naval base at Hainan, the new Taifeng, or Typhoon class super-carrier, China’s first of two in this class. It’s sister ship the Haifeng or Seawind was also feverishly fitting out at the Jiangnan Shipyards of Shanghai. Laid down in 2012 and 2014, these two new designs would be China first indigenous aircraft carriers, all of 72,000 tons, with an air wing of sixty-eight advanced strike fighters. Taifeng knew a challenger was coming in CVN Eisenhower, and the ship was being readied to bar the way on her maiden voyage.
The war of words at the United Nations had reached as startling and final an end as the sudden lethal descent of the ballistic missiles that fell on Naha, Okinawa. Now the gloves were off, and the next time ships and planes deployed in the region it would be with the expectation that any contact they encountered was a hostile enemy.
“So what do we do about this situation?” said Rod Leyman, White House Chief of Staff. He was meeting with Lt. Commander William Reed, a defense analyst expert for many years who had been called in to the West Wing to brief the civilian decision makers there. After the startling theater at the UN that day, secure phone lines had been jammed throughout DC, Langley and the Pentagon. “Are the Chinese blowing smoke up our ass here with this nuclear threat?”
“It was very unusual to see the military march in like that, sir, and with such a pronouncement one might easily think it was meant for public consumption.”
“Yes, just a little taste of fear to get the folks back home here all worked up. Well I must tell you that several senior officers think we ought to take this very seriously.”
“Of course, sir. Any aspect regarding potential use of nuclear weapons needs to be taken very seriously. Thank God we’ve only seen one go off in anger over all these decades.”
Leyman wasn’t quite sure what Reed meant with that, but moved on, and the Lieutenant Commander kicked himself inwardly for the slip. Yes, there had only been one-the one that put down the Mississippi in 1941, and though the United States had two bombs ready for the Japanese by late 1944, saner heads had prevailed and Japan surrendered before they had to be used. But even now, over eighty years later, few men really knew the whole story of what had happened in the Atlantic that day in early August, 1941. He made a note to watch himself, and listened to Leyman’s next question.
“There’s been a recommendation that we take down their satellites, and do it now.”
“That’s a sound preventative strategy, sir. The real high ground in modern warfare is outer space. We’ve got systems in place that can go after their birds; they have some limited capability to go after ours. But whoever strikes first is going to have a real edge. Thumbing the other guy in the eye in the first round is a tried and true tactic.”
“I’ll take that as a yes from you. Now, speaking of satellites, we got a report that the Chinese were moving some planes from inland airfields to the coast.” He handed Reed a photo from his briefing file. “Can you tell me about them?”
Reed took a long look, nodding his head as if he expected the development. “J-20s,” he said matter of factly. “It’s an advanced stealth type strike aircraft, sir.”
“Well is it as good as our fighters? The Navy is all up in a tither over this.”
“It’s a decent aircraft, sir, low-observable airframe, particularly from the forward aspect, and a good weapons suite. It’s fast, and it has the range to get out after targets well off shore-a combat radius of over 2000 kilometers. Our older fighters will have some trouble with it one-on- one. Put a Vampire out there against a Hornet and the other side may have the edge.”
“Vampire? I thought these things were called Dragons?”
“The Chinese name is Mighty Dragon, sir. We just call them Vampires, or bats for short. In some ways they’re a stealthy version of the old Russian Mig-25 Foxbat… hence the handle.”
