high-explosive warheads) right at the doors of aircraft shelters. But if you've planned this right, those doors will be open anyway, and many of the aircraft will be in the open, because the whole idea of this sort of mission is to catch the other fellow unaware. There have even been reports of 'special warhead' variants of the Tomahawk, including one that fires rocket-propelled conducting filaments over high-tension power lines to short out an enemy's power grid. You see, the U.S. Navy learned its lesson at Pearl Harbor. It's better to give than to receive.
So who might have aircraft that we might not like? Well, consider those perennial western favorites, the Iranians. Since the end of Desert Storm (with its unexpected windfall of Iraqi warplanes), the Iranians have been conducting a truly huge arms buildup. One report even has them trying to buy a regiment of ex-Soviet Backfire bombers complete with heavy antiship missiles. More mundane, but probably a bit more useful (and affordable) are the large number of Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft they have acquired from Iraqi defectors and the Russians. These medium bombers have excellent range and radar, and can be equipped with a variety of air-to-ground ordnance and antishipping missiles such as the Kh-35 (roughly equivalent to the U.S. Harpoon missile). And considering that the Russians will sell almost anything for hard currency these days, you can bet that the Iranians can buy even the latest in CIS missile technology at bargain prices.
Just suppose that the Iranians, having initiated one of their periodic misunderstandings with their Persian Gulf neighbors, begin to hint that they might initiate another tanker war the way they did in the 1980s. And let's just suppose that the Iranians follow habit and decide to hold a live-fire demonstration for television of their new- found capability. They seem to believe that such demonstrations will cause others to bow to their will. More likely, though, it will result in the signing of a presidential finding authorizing the use of force to preemptively remove the Iranian Su-24 threat to shipping in the region.
The question now is just what kind of force to use. A carrier airstrike, long a favorite of presidents, risks the possible loss of aircraft and the death and/or capture of the aircrews. Use of F-117As, so successful and invulnerable during Desert Storm, requires the cooperation of a friendly government in the region to provide basing. And use of long-range B-2As flying directly from a U.S. base, such as Diego Garcia, would place at risk the crown jewels of the Air Force's Air Combat Command. All for taking out a couple dozen fighter-bombers whose net worth would not pay for a single lost B-2A. Surface vessels could launch a TLAM strike but would be sitting there visible after the strike. Clearly what is needed is something discreet and safe for the American attackers. That something may well be a submarine-launched TLAM strike.
To render the airfield useless and destroy the Su-24 Fencers and Kh-35s will probably take between twenty-four and thirty-six TLAMs. Thus a pair of VLS-equipped Los Angeles-class boats will be needed to deliver the missiles. If submarines with the necessary numbers and types of missiles are not already in place, the missiles can be delivered to the boats at a forward base or tender. In addition to the missiles, the submarines will take delivery of the computerized mission plans developed at one of the Theater Mission Planning Centers (TMPCs). This plan, which can be used as is or updated via a satellite link, will have been designed to put the maximum number of TLAMs over the target airfield in the shortest duration possible. It should be noted that not one TLAM will be aimed at the runways. This is because, as Desert Storm proved, it makes little sense to attack concrete, which is quite easy to repair. Destroy an airplane, it is gone forever. And that is the goal of the planned strike.
The run-in to the target probably can be on the coast of the Indian Ocean, though USS
Each submarine probably loads three torpedo tubes with TLAMs, and only one tube is loaded with an Mk 48 ADCAP 'just in case.' The three missiles in the tubes will be fired first, followed by the twelve in the VLS tubes. Approximately every 30 seconds another TLAM is ejected from its firing tube and headed on its way. While this is being done, each boat's torpedo room crew quickly reloads the empty tubes with three additional TLAMs, so these can also be launched on their way to the target. This makes a total of thirty-six TLAMs headed for the target airfield. Once this is done, the submarines just slip quietly away, leaving no sign of ever having been there.
Once its engine has ignited and the wings have deployed, each missile skims the ocean and maneuvers to what is known as the prelandfall waypoint. This a spot in the ocean that leads to the first land-fall navigation point. From here, each missile navigates via a combination of GPS fixes and Tercom updates. The idea is for all thirty-six missiles to arrive over the target at precisely the right time and in order. The first few missiles, say four to six of the 1,000-lb high-explosive (HE) warhead TLAMs, are dedicated to reducing the radar and SAM defenses of the airfield. The missiles have been programmed either to dive into a radar and explode, or to fly over the radar vans and destroy them by overpressures created by the high-explosive warheads.
With the way now clear for the remaining missiles, the actual attack on the airfield develops. It will probably be over in just a matter of several minutes. Several of the TLAMs armed with the CEM submunitions will run down the ready ramps, scattering bomblets over any aircraft waiting there. Once each of the missiles has expended its load of submunitions, it will probably be programmed to dive into one of the smaller buildings (such as the aircrew quarters) on the airfield, adding its remaining fuel to the destruction. In addition, each of the large hangars has probably been allocated a pair of HE-warhead TLAMs to destroy any aircraft being serviced there. The fuel storage areas and weapons bunkers also receive the attention of their own TLAMs. The last item for the TLAMs is any revetments or hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) that might possibly contain some of the Su-24s.
Before the base personnel have even had a chance to react, the attack will be over. Most if not all the offending fighter-bombers will be either destroyed or severely damaged. In addition, the antishipping missiles are probably blowing up in their bunkers, and the jet fuel will be blazing in its tanks. And with this, the threat of these aircraft and missiles preying on the tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf will be at an end. All of this has been accomplished without a single American life being placed in harm's way.
Mission #5 — Intelligence Gathering
Nobody really listens at keyholes anymore, mainly because keys are smaller than they used to be. But electronics have made the doors rather wide, and they also allow things to leak out more readily than before. The majority of the world's major cities are near the water-they started off as ports and trading centers-and thus are within the reach of submarines and their sensors. Those sensors and their associated analysis equipment help give the United States and her allies an edge in figuring out the policies of foreign governments, and their potential to cause mischief in the New World Order.
Tactical Example — Reconnoitering an Enemy Harbor
