“Sir! Frigate Yingtan reports radar contact, aircraft, bearing two-zero-five, range forty-seven nautical miles, altitude… altitude three hundred meters, sir, speed four hundred seventy knots. No IFF codes observed. They report possible multiple inbounds on this bearing.”
“Understood,” Captain Jhijun acknowledged. As the combat-readiness alarm sounded throughout the ship, the manual track operator on the bridge of the EF4-class destroyer Jinan drew in the position of the radar contact on a large grease board. “I want a positive identification immediately.”
It was finally beginning, Captain Jhijun told himself. Although the intruder aircraft were detected very late — sea- skimming targets should be detectable at twenty miles by the frigate Yingtan's Sea Eagle radar, but targets at three hundred meters should be seen easily at fifty miles — he wished it were starting a bit more dramatically.
After learning what the American Air Battle Force had in their arsenal on the island of Guam, he would have expected an attack by B-l or FB-111 bombers, flying supersonic at sea-skimming altitudes. From these radar contact’s flight profiles, these appeared to be nothing more than B-52 bombers lumbering in. And they were coming in from the south, which was totally expected as well — the two layers of destroyers, frigates, and patrol boats in the Philippine Sea east of Mindanao were designed to herd the American bombers in the only “safe” flight path they could take — fly in from the south right into the mouth of Davao Gulf.
“Sir, missile warning. Ying tan's escorts report missiles inbound, no count, all sea-skimmers. Patrol boats maneuvering to intercept. Good radar track on all inbounds, intercept confidence is high. Identity now confirmed by flight profile as B-52 bombers.”
So it was confirmed — not B-ls, only B-52 bombers. An easy kill.
The B-52s were flying right into a trap. Four frigates, one destroyer, and sixteen antiaircraft escort patrol boats were waiting for anyone stupid enough to allow themselves to be steered around by surface threats. Two of the frigates, Ying- tan stationed on the southern perimeter and Xiamen on the northern side, were armed with short-range Hong Qian-61 surface-to-air missiles — deadly within their limited range — but his destroyer Jinan, in the center of the two-hundred- kilometer-long gauntlet, had the HQ-91 surface-to-air missile system, a licensed copy of the French Masurca medium-range SAM system. The HQ-91 was deadly out to forty-five kilometers even to low-flying supersonic aircraft — this B-52 would be an easy kill. Jinan had already seen action — it was that ship that had successfully guided the fighters in on the arrogant American Navy fighters over the Celebes Sea not too long ago. The little patrol boats were deadly as well — their guns could knock down any antiship missile in the American inventory and throw up a cloud of lead in front of any aircraft stupid enough to stray within a few kilometers of them.
But even the B-52s could carry a big punch. “Radio to all attack-group ships and to Task Force Master, we are under attack, request air support against incoming B-52 bombers,” Jhijun said.
Obviously Harpoon antiship missiles, he thought. They were lucky — they did not start their attack until they had a radar fix on Yingtan. That meant the Americans had no other radar aircraft in the area spotting targets for the B-52s. Jhijun checked the plot board. The B-52s will be coming within range of Jinan’s radars in a few minutes — if they survived that long — and the longer-range HQ-91 missiles would not miss. But Jhijun fully expected the B-52s to turn tail and run after all their Harpoon missiles were expended.
“Patrol boat 682 engaging antiship missiles… patrol boat 688 engaging missiles… Yingtan now reporting six incoming aircraft, all from the south, range to closest aircraft twenty nautical miles. Same flight profile, reported as B-52 bombers on low-level antiship attack.” The reports began coming in as one by one the Harpoon missiles were destroyed. “First B-52 turning west, appears to be disengaging.”
“Lost contact with patrol boat 642, sir,” the combat information center officer on Jinan reported. “Patrol boat 688 reports two vessels afire, suspect the other as patrol boat 651. Frigate Yingtan reports minor damage from antiship missile, but is still under way and combat capable.” With six B-52s on the loose, each with the capacity to carry twelve Harpoon missiles, they had to expect some attrition. “Second B-52 disengaging…”
So the B-52s were going to be content with launching a few Harpoon missiles and fleeing. The fighters would be able to mop them up then, Jhijun thought — they still had to contend with the Harpoon missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles, though…
