“Then you can tell him, sir, that we’ve got four subsonic inbounds that broke the group’s bubble a minute ago,” Hart said, trying to control his temper. He couldn’t believe he was having an argument over target identification with this man, with four deadly — and possibly nuclear — missiles heading straight for them. “I make estimates on the threat based on my observations, but the bottom line is that I want weapons on-line to stop these things from hitting the carrier. In thirty seconds I start acting on my own authority; I’m requesting permission to commit now. ”
“You commit when the Admiral tells you to!”
Hart had had enough. He hit the intercom button. “Bridge, CIC, emergency, request permission to release the batteries fore and aft and engage.”
The Bunker HilPs skipper did not hear the argument between his TAO and the group commander’s AAW deputy, and he certainly knew the procedures with an embarked group commander, but with a threat this big heading in, he didn’t hesitate. “Bridge to CIC, batteries released fore and aft, clear to engage.”
“Understand clear to engage. Clear forward and aft missile decks, clear forward and aft missile decks.” From that point on, Hart ignored Feinemann — everything else was inconsequential except his radar, his console, and his weapon system. If the man had anything to say, it would have to wait until after he dealt with the inbounds.
The Bunker Hill was the first Aegis cruiser to use the Mk 41 vertical-launch system, where missiles were loaded into individual canisters and then fired vertically — the system was far less complex, more redundant, faster, and required fewer guided-missile mates to operate the launchers than the older Mk 26, Mk 22, or Mk 13 “merry-go-round” launchers. Bunker Hill had two VLS launchers, one fore and one aft, each with sixty-one missiles — combinations of SM-2 Aegis antiaircraft missiles, Tomahawk ship-and-land-attack cruise missiles — some with low-yield nuclear warheads — and ASROC antisubmarine rocket torpedoes.
Hart had been extensively briefed on exactly what options were open to him as tactical action officer — he knew that the only weapon in his arsenal right now was the SM-2 Aegis missile, and his only job was to protect Ranger and its escorts. Even though this was probably the exact situation that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy was in when they launched their nuclear antiship missile at the tiny Philippine fleet near Palawan, Hart knew he would never be authorized to let fly with one of his nuclear-tipped Tomahawks, even in retaliation.
Hart checked to be sure the Aegis system was in AAW COMMIT mode and used a trackball on his console to move a circle cursor to the data blocks representing the inbound antiship missiles. The ASTAB monitors instantly gave him performance data on the inbounds, displayed IFF radioidentification information — there was none — and classified them as hostile. If they were friendlies — unlikely but possible — they were flying without radios, without exchanging coded identification signals, and flying well off the established fleet approach procedures — and they were going to die. “Give me trial engage,” he told his data-entry technician.
“Trial engage,” the tech replied. Instantly the data block began to blink and a readout on the ASTAB monitor gave a list of the missiles that Aegis would select. On the LSD, a yellow line showed the computer’s best guess as to the Aegis missile’s track, the intercept points with the incoming missiles, and the positions of all the ships and aircraft in the battle group once the engagement was made. “Aegis wants to commit ten missiles,” the data-entry tech reported. “We got Bullet Two within twenty miles on impact.”
The number was significant because if there were nuclear- tipped €601 antiship missiles, the Tomcats would fry in the blast. But if Hart waited any longer, Bunker Hill would be doing the frying. It was also significant because the Mk 41 launcher could rapid-fire only seven missiles at one time. He selected sixty-four nautical miles range on his LSD to keep careful watch on the intercept, then said, “Understood. We’ll do six from the forward launcher and the rest from the aft launcher. Clear trial engage, sound the horn, engage weapon commit.”
