“Let’s hope they still have a few arrows in their quiver…” MacRae thought for a moment. He had 50 Aster-30 missiles that could join the long range air defense, but he had said nothing of these to the Russians, and had not sent them any IFF data on those missiles. Now, seeing the obvious threat coming at them, he felt foolish. The Russians were out there with the Naval Ensign flown by Nelson himself on their mainmast. They were fighting right alongside the Royal Navy, and the thought that he held on to the enmity between Britain and Russia in the 21st Century now seemed an embarrassment.
I’d best let that go, he thought. No sense dragging that war into this one. If the Russians are willing to square off against the Germans, then by god, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
“Mister Dean… Have Haley contact the Russians. Tell them we are prepared to cover intermediate air defense zones out to 100 kilometers. We can fire after they conclude their initial barrage.”
“The Aster-30s sir?”
“I’ve a feeling we’ll need them. All hands!” He raised his voice now. “Prepare to oppose incoming air strike. Ready on all systems. We begin with Viper-30.”
Volsky got the message just after he had fired his initial salvo of 12 missiles from the Klinok system. They had seen the incoming strike on the Fregat system as soon as it emerged from the storm infested cloud cover over Sicily. Apparently many of the formations had formed up over the mountainous terrain there, and they were now moving at good speed to make their strike.
“I was afraid of this,” he said to Rodenko. “They were probably forming behind the mountains, getting up just ahead of that storm front.”
“Agreed, sir. That’s why we didn’t see them earlier. The terrain on Sicily provides them with lots of dead zones in the radar coverage, but I have over 150 contacts now.”
“Then we had better get busy. As before, Mister Samsonov, but give me six S-400s, wide dispersal please. I want to give them something to think about. Perhaps they heard what happened to the Italians. You may fire at once.”
There was a tense expression on the Admiral’s face now. Air power… It was the one factor in this whole situation that could change everything. If the British fleet could not be protected, then everything they won against the Italians might soon be lost. The problem he faced was evident in the strength of the incoming attack, but more than that, he was worrying about their SAM inventory now. Then, shortly after the first missiles were up and on their way, he received a message from the Argos Fire.
“Ah,” he said to Rodenko. “It seems this Captain MacRae has decided to come clean and empty his pockets after all.” He smiled.
“Sir?”
“That ship is a refit of a British Type-45 destroyer, Mister Rodenko. That class carried both Aster-15 and Aster-30 missiles. The British made no mention of the latter, did they.”
“No sir, we only received IFF data for their Aster-15. You knew they had these missiles?”
“It was a very educated guess. So now it appears they’ve had a better look at the situation and suddenly remembered they have the number 30 missile under their forward deck as well. Good enough. We’ll be forgiving. Mister Nikolin, signal the Argos Fire that they may now cover for long range fires. We will resume inside 80 kilometers with our Klinok system. You may designate it the SA-N-92 in your communication.”
They watched as the first six missiles exploded in the midst of the enemy formation. The naval engagement with the Italians had opened at about 275 kilometers east of Sicily, but moved within the 240 kilometer range before it was concluded. Now the enemy air strike was coming from the vicinity of Syracuse and Catania, with planes spread out over an arc that was 50 kilometers wide. The six S-400s had found a segment of that arc infested with Ju-88s from Catania, about 220 kilometers out, and Rodenko soon reported nine kills and three other planes aborting. They had traded the six missiles for twelve German planes, but now there were only 14 more S-400s in the magazines. One of Germany’s most successful aircraft, they would build 16,000 JU-88s before this war ended…
“Looks like the Russians are getting stingy with those long range missiles,” said Dean. “They only fired six.”
“Aye,” said MacRae, “which tells me they must be running thin. Alright then, we fire at 100 klicks. Full cell salvos of 4 missiles each. Ready on cells one thru six. Target that formation coming in here.” He tapped the thick cloud of radar contacts approaching from Syracuse, and a minute later the missiles began to fire.
