use a Fleet Auxiliary stores ship, but that would mean a long surface transit as well, and it might be pretty difficult to hide the sonsabitches.
“If you ask me, it would be a whole lot better to use the platforms in the Indian Ocean. That way we can fly the weapons direct into Diego Garcia and load ’em right there in private. Then it’s 2,700 miles up to the northern end of the Gulf of Iran, leaving us a missile flight of only 400 miles to the most easterly of the dams, flying direct.
“That option would allow us plenty of indirect routing, but we’d have to conceal the launch platforms.
“That means submarines. And because of the number of weapons, that means both of them.”
“Just as well they can both fire the birds, right?” grunted Morgan. “And what about the goddamned birds? Have we got any? Hughes got ’em stowed away somewhere?”
“They sure have. I could hardly believe our luck. They’d gone right through to 24 production models, on the shelf, ready to go. They’re not gonna be cheap. Probably double normal cost, because Hughes wanna get their money back. And you can bet your goddamned life they’ll charge us plenty to make a rush modification. But they can do it and have them ready to ship out in ten days flat.”
“Well get on the horn and do it…NOW!”
“I already have, Admiral. In your name. You got plenty of cash?”
Ben Adnam shook his head, ruefully, at the apparent ease with which the Americans could deploy really major weapons of war, like big guided-missile nuclear submarines, and he pondered briefly all the troubles he had encountered just trying to acquire a diesel-electric submarine for his missions. Aloud he said, “I can’t see much of a problem getting the submarines into the Gulf and up to the launch area around latitude 29 North. But it’s not as deep as we would like up there, especially if we have to evade any opposition. And the high seawater temperature does place limits on maximum reactor power and high speeds.
“On the other hand the Iraqi Navy does not possess any real threat to an American SSN…except in the unlikely event they had a patrol craft lurking right in the launch area. I suppose our COs could either blow it away, or wait a few hours till it left.
“Even after we’ve fired off the missiles, even if the Iraqis were somehow able to trace the flight paths back to our launch area, they still couldn’t do a damn thing about it. They simply do not own a weapons system capable of catching a U.S. SSN. Fortunately, they do not have any allies in the area either. I imagine the Iranians could make things quite awkward for us down in the Strait of Hormuz with their new Kilo. But I can’t see them helping the Iraqis, of all people, can you?”
Bill Baldridge shook his head. “Not a chance,” he said. “But, of the launch areas, the Gulf of Iran wins it hands down…just on the basis of the spare 200 miles range it gives us for a deceptive approach and defense avoidance. Arnold, I could only recommend the Med if you have overriding political reasons.”
“Well, I can think of one overriding political reason why we should consider only the Gulf,” replied the admiral, grinning. “If we let ’em go from the Med, just a little farther to the north, it would look as if they were coming in from Syria. Or, taking a slightly more roundabout route, from Israel, which would have the effect of causing a full- scale war in the Middle East, which no one needs. Let’s just bag the Med and everything to do with it.”
“The same thing would apply to routing the missiles in anywhere from the west,” said Commander Adnam. “But I do have one thought. Surely even the Iraqis know that no one except the U.S.A. can fire this kind of a missile accurately?”
“We’re not sure of that anymore,” said the ex — weapons officer from Kansas. “The Brits have something similar. And the French and the Russians. Probably the Indians and possibly the Iranians. But the Iraqis are gonna look no further than the Americans, so we wanna leave them with a few nice little choices. Then we can sit back and try to let them prove it was us. Which will be just about impossible.”
“If we’re very careful,” said Adnam, smiling. “Oh, by the way, Admiral, we did find out that the water levels in the dams are unusually high all over Iraq. It’s been an unusually hard and wet winter. A lot of flooding.”
Admiral Morgan stood up. “Right,” he said, with an air of finality. “That’s it. I want you to set up to use the south and southeastern approach routes. Send the missiles in along the western foothills from the Iraq-Iran border. East around the Baghdad city defenses is also good sense. If anyone should say anything to us, we’ll just ask politely if they are
“And make sure the goddamned eggheads understand we’re using two launch platforms, firing at the same time, each SSN taking a separate dam, in case one of ’em doesn’t get to the launch area right on time. We don’t want one platform
“Aye, sir. You want me to work on these clearances right away?”
“No, Bill. We have to go right to the top on this one. Just get it set up to move into gear, real quick, as soon as I’ve seen the President. Keep it moving, guys. This one’s gonna fly.”
The admiral picked up his briefcase and decided to take just the big chart with him, the one on which Bill Baldridge had sketched out the projected route of the Tomahawk cruise missiles. Then he got on the secure line to Admiral Mulligan, warned him of the broad requirements he was about to make of the U.S. Navy, and told him to meet him in the outer office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in forty-five minutes. The Navy helicopter was already running, as the President’s national security advisor marched resolutely forward, preparing to teach the government of Iraq a very severe lesson.
Inside the Pentagon, Admirals Morgan, Mulligan, and Dunsmore studied the general plan. The launch platforms would be two SSNs, both 7,000-ton boats of the Los Angeles-Class,
Both submarines would clear DG at first light the following morning, and make their way north to the Gulf, submerged and fast, stopping off for a test-firing of one missile each 600 miles out. They would clear the Strait of Hormuz, and enter the Gulf of Iran on June 1. Moving slower up the Gulf, they were scheduled to arrive in the small hours of June 2. Launch time was dusk—021910JUN06.
Both
It took only a few minutes to brief Scott Dunsmore. Arnold Morgan was happy. First thing in the morning he and the CJC would go straight to the White House to obtain formal clearance on the plan from the President. Both men assumed this would be instantly forthcoming, since the entire operation was being mounted at the behest of the Chief Executive.
They arrived at 0900. They walked immediately into the West Wing, where a Secret Service agent escorted them to the Oval Office. The President was waiting, and coffee was served as soon as they arrived.
“’Morning, gentlemen,” he said. “Are you going to frighten me to death?”
“Absolutely not, sir,” replied Admiral Morgan. “But we are about to frighten the President of Iraq to death.”
“Could I ask you to inform me of
“Certainly.” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs took over, formally. “In retribution for Iraq’s attack on the
