Aster-30 was a very capable system, the very same one that Kinlan’s air defense battery had used to get up after those incoming MIRVs from a Russian ICBM, though he had been using a special Block 2 version designed for that kind of defense. The missiles aboard Argos Fire were a derivative of the Aster PAAMS system, developed to seek and destroy incoming enemy missiles. As such they were very fast, agile weapons even when hurtling at their top speed of Mach 4.5. They could target virtually any kind of airborne threat with a high probability hit to kill ratio. During the “end game” when it would close for the kill, it had a lateral thrust pulse propulsion mode that allowed it to make incredible turns to get after an evasive target. It also used what was known as a directional blast warhead, where larger warhead fragments are directed towards the target on detonation. In short, it was going to get hits and kills, though the ratio was going to be closer to 1 to 1 than the Russian S-400, which had a very wide fragmentation radius when it exploded near a target.
The German Stukas of StG 1 were the unfortunate crows to be hunted down that day. They saw the incoming streaks in the sky, remembered the warning that had passed to them from the pilots off Graf Zeppelin, but no warning was good enough to protect them from what was coming at them. The reality of being hunted by these fast, lethal missiles was something no pilot would ever forget. The Vipers began to explode, sending the remaining Stukas wheeling in evasive maneuvers. The planes were chased by the hot fire of the missiles, and one by one they went down. Of the 30 Stukas in that formation, sixteen were killed with direct hits, and the missiles also got six Bf-109s that had vainly tried to swoop into the swirling engagement, their guns blazing on defense. Two more Ju-88D5 reconnaissance planes that had been assigned to fly point on this mission also went down. StG 1 had been all but destroyed, though it still had fourteen brave pilots in the sky, and they were slowly trying to reform after the attack, cursing and calling to one another on their headsets.
It was a hard lesson of war, but in the end the success or failure of this attack would come down to only one thing-how many missiles were Kirov and Argos Fire willing to use?
The planes came on, pressing through the 80 kilometer mark after 24 Vipers had smashed the initial formation of Stukas. Now the Klinok system on Kirov would come into play, the missiles rising to the challenge to strike at targets throughout the incoming arc. Kirov had only 82 of these missiles left, and so Volsky determined to fire 20 in two salvoes of ten missiles each. One salvo would find the JU-88s again, with nine kills and one plane there taking two missiles. The second salvo would take a significant bite out of StG 2 Stuka Squadron, and get eight kills there. The remaining two missiles found escorting fighter planes.
Disorganized and shocked by these deadly attacks from lightning fast rocket systems, the Germans struggled to regroup as they passed the 50 kilometer mark. Now Admiral Volsky had a difficult decision to make.
“That lowers our medium range defense system to 62 missiles,” he said to Rodenko. What is the status of this incoming strike now?”
“Sir, the situation is confused, but we’re still reading about 116 air contacts inbound.”
“More than all our remaining medium and long range SAMs,” said Volsky. We cannot engage further. I will turn the defense over to the Argos Fire and see what they can do. Who knows what we will be facing after this?”
Now he wished Fedorov were here with facts and figures on the German and Italian air strength they might be facing in the days ahead. Yet Volsky knew they could only do so much. He could hurt the enemy further, but at what cost to his future operations capability? So they waited, switching over to their Kashtan system, reserved solely for close in defense. The only missiles they would fire now would be aimed at any aircraft that managed to penetrate the final British defense and target Kirov.
The Argos Fire had topped off its ready ammo bank on the Viper-15 class missiles. MacRae had 48 in the silos now, and began firing just inside the 30 kilometer mark. They would hit nine more JU-88s, twelve more Stukas and three fighters with the first two salvos of twelve each. But the strike was coming in at speeds of 450 to 500 KPH and would be over the fleet in no more than 5 minutes. Firing cells of four missiles each, Argos Fire was lighting up the sky with missile tracks. They got eight Heinkels and four more Ju-88s, and then Dean announced a new contact on his long range radars.
The Germans had launched their second wave.
