Dancing with the Dragon (2002) (40 page)

Considering the change in the time zone between Hong Kong and Chengdu, Scott expected to arrive at the Shuangliu Airport at 1:58 P. M. The only problems they had encountered so far were a couple of controllers who didn't understand English very well.

As they began their approach to the Shuangliu Airport, the weather rapidly began to deteriorate. They descended into dark clouds and steady rain. Scott flew a smooth instrument approach to an uneventful landing. During the rollout, he saw three jet fighters parked at the far end of the terminal ramp. The warplanes seemed incongruous with the lush grounds and the beautiful flowers.

"What are MiG-21s doing here?" he asked.

She innocently smiled. "Actually, they happen to be Jian Ji F-7s."

Scott gave her a blank look. "I've never heard of them."

"The Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Corporation--that's a mouthful--is licensed to build them."

"Okay, I'll bite." He turned onto the taxiway and shut down one engine. "How did you know that little tidbit of trivia?"

She contacted ground control. "When I was checking the weather and the airport particulars, out flowed all this chamberof-commerce info."

He chuckled. "Well, as far as I'm concerned, I would be much happier if we weren't flying from an airfield with jet fighters sitting on it."

They parked close to the bright orange-and-white Agusta and shut down the other engine.

Scott grabbed two dark-green raincoats out of their equipment bag and handed one to Jackie. They slipped into them and stepped out of the Learjet to greet the line service representatives. A large black car entered the ramp area and stopped near the helicopter.

Dalton ordered fuel for the plane and then followed Jackie to the Russian-made Volga. The shiny, chauffeur-driven car contained the two Medical Flight Service executives and their interpreter, a young Chinese woman with short hair and humorless eyes.

When the trio stepped out of the car and opened their umbrellas, Jackie and Scott detected an obvious aloofness in their demeanor. The Chinese businessmen, both of whom were short and trim, stopped about five feet from the Americans and kept their hands in their pockets. Scott elected not to extend his hand and place everyone in an awkward situation.

"We are pleased to meet you," Scott said. "I'm Barton Rutherford, senior vice president of international sales, and this is Lauren Isaacs, our chief pilot."

The two men merely nodded and spoke to their interpreter. "Is it safe to fly today?" the woman with the dull eyes asked. "I'll have to defer to our demonstration pilot, one of the very best," Scott said, and glanced at Jackie.

"Yes, it's safe," she replied with a courteous smile. This should be interesting "We have about a four-hundred-foot ceiling, so we can stay under the clouds."

The men conferred with their interpreter. She spoke slowly and deliberately to Scott and Jackie. "Their time is extremely limited. Fifteen minutes is all they can spare."

"That's fine," Jackie said. We'll keep it to ten minutes.

Holding an umbrella over the interpreter's head, Scott helped everyone board the Agusta while Jackie gave the helicopter a thorough check before climbing aboard. The Chinese executives sat in the two seats designed for the medical technicians; Scott and the interpreter occupied the temporary seats adjacent to the two litters.

The flight was a short, uncomfortable affair characterized by a total lack of enthusiasm on the part of the prospective buyers. The Chinese didn't ask any questions and they didn't respond to Scott's sales pitch or to Jackie's friendly inputs.

After Jackie landed the Agusta, the reticent executives opened their umbrellas and went straight to their Volga, while their interpreter turned to Scott.

"They will be in touch," she said to him, and turned to Jackie. "Thank you for your consideration and patience."

"You're very welcome."

The interpreter walked to the car and got in. Jackie and Scott stood in the rain, smiling and waving. They talked without moving their mouths.

"That went exceedingly well," she said.

"Oh, yeah." Scott watched the Volga drive off. "We're attempting to sell these people a helicopter while both countries are in each other's face--great timing for us."

"It does seem crazy."

"Yeah, I'm amazed that we haven't been taken into custody." "Don't even think it," Jackie said. "We played our roles and now it's over--move on to our other 'project.'"

"I'm just glad we're not real salespeople--we'd starve to death." "For sure." She looked at the hotel. "Let's get checked in and get an update from Hartwell."

"Ah, first we have to top off the jet and the helicopter and take care of the fuel bill."

"You do the fuel thing," she said with a smile. "I'll check us in to the hotel and contact Hartwell."

"Deal."

"See you in a few minutes." She headed toward the Learjet to get their bags and put on the engine covers.

During the short walk to the hotel, Jackie was surprised by the throngs of bicycle riders and their wildly colored rain gear. The steady stream of bright colors was offset by the stone faces and unfriendly looks.

"This isn't good." Jackie pulled the hood of her raincoat over her wet hair and cast her eyes down at the sidewalk. What a time for a covert operation in China.

Taiwan Strait

By midafternoon the tension was manifest on both sides of the strait. This was not going to be a sneak attack in the middle of the night. From all indications, the Chinese were going to mount an old-fashioned frontal assault on Taiwan--a heads-down, chargethe-line melee.

Taiwanese F-16s, Mirage 2000s, and F-5s patrolled the strait while U. S. Navy and Marine Corps carrier-based fighter planes provided backup. The F-14s and F/A-18s also supported the E-2C Hawkeye, and the S-3B Viking and SH-60 submarine hunter/killers. If needed, the air wing aboard the supercarrier Stennis was prepared and ready for combat.

F-15 and F-16 fighters watched over four U. S. Air Force intelligence-gathering and information-warfare aircraft. The daring flight crews were making it very difficult, if not impossible, for Chinese leaders to communicate with their military commanders in the field and those who were at sea.

Joining the two U. S. carrier battle groups, the attack submarines SSN Louisville and SSN Helena would provide additional firepower while they tracked two extremely lethal Chinese destroyers. The Russian-made warships carried supersonic, nuclear-tipped antiship cruise missiles.

United States Air Force E-3 AWACS, KC-10s, KC-135s, B-52s, B-lBs, and B-2s were in the air or standing by at various airbases, including Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; and Kadena Air Base, Japan (Okinawa). Closer to the narrow strait, F-15s, F-16s, and F-117s were ready to augment the carrier-based assets.

Over the coastline of China, from Songcheng to Fuzhou to Chinmen, a mixture of Su-27s, MiG17s, MiG19s, and MiG-21s flew in thirteen different holding patterns. Inland, aerial tankers and AWACS aircraft circled in oblong patterns. Far below and out to sea, the entire length of the Taiwan Strait was packed with Chinese destroyers, frigates, landing craft, and support vessels.

Without warning, China launched an opening salvo of short-and medium-range missiles from ships and shore installations. The missiles were aimed at two main southern Taiwanese ports and a dozen military facilities. Seconds later, scores of Chinese missiles were launched at military airfields and naval installations on Taiwan.

Two missiles went off course with disastrous results. One hit a parked China Airlines 747 at the Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, setting off a series of explosions that destroyed three other jumbo jets. The other wayward missile slammed into the famous Grand Hotel, one of Taipei's most luxurious, killing eleven people and injuring sixteen.

The missile barrage triggered a number of simultaneous responses from both adversaries. Taiwanese fighter planes engaged the Chinese Sukhois and MiGs while the U. S. F-14s and F-18s attacked the various warships, including the patrol boats and numerous landing craft. Other carrier attack aircraft went after shore-based mobile missile launchers and airfields supporting the military.

United States ships, submarines, and bombers launched a total of 136 Tomahawk missiles at preselected targets along the coastline. The massive attack destroyed much of China's reserve missiles, supplies, and airplanes, and damaged many airfields, port facilities, fuel caches, and other military installations.

High above the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, B-52 and B-1 B bombers, escorted by air force fighters, dropped nonlethal, air-launched weapons with very accurate inertial navigation systems. The bombs were programmed to descend on Beijing and Shanghai power grids and transformer yards, where they would scatter reels of flexible wire in the air. The specially treated wire would unwind and drape like huge spiderwebs over high-voltage lines, shorting them out and causing large explosions of sparks and flash fires.

The resulting power surges would cause power-plant circuit breakers to pop, shutting off the distribution of electricity to disrupt military communication systems and delay command decisions to air-defense centers and the entire command-and-control network. Without electricity, the military computers would become worthless--masses of useless wires, metal, and plastic. The PLA commanders on the edge of the sword would be left totally in the dark.

While the scenes over the strait and in Beijing and Shanghai were very chaotic, the surface ships were in another dimension. The officers and sailors monitoring information systems in the combat direction center aboard Theodore Roosevelt were strained to the limit. Like shipmates on other combatants, everyone in CDC was suffering from some degree of information overload. Missiles were flying in every direction as alarms sounded and people shouted orders.

Separated by the length of the Taiwan Strait, the surviving pair of Russian-made Sovremmennyy-class guided-missile destroyers fired supersonic sea-skimming missiles at Roosevelt and Kitty Hawk. The Russian antiship cruise missiles, NATO-code-named Sunburn, approached the mammoth carriers at twice the speed of sound.

Kitty Hawk's powerful CIWS defensive system opened fire, spewing 20mm shells made of depleted uranium at the SS-N-22 missiles. The Phalanx close-in weapons system combined a six-barrel Gatling gun with search-and-tracking radar to provide surface ships with terminal defense against weapons that had penetrated other fleet defense systems.

With a range of 6,000 yards and a muzzle velocity of 3,650 feet per second, the CIWS put up a fence of steel between the carrier and the incoming targets. Howling at 4,500 rounds per minute, the Gatling gun pulverized the two missiles, sending harmless debris floating into the sea.

Roosevelt wasn't as fortunate. Her CIWS system destroyed one of the Sunburns and then malfunctioned for a few seconds, allowing the second nuclear-tipped missile to breach the steel curtain.

The missile impacted the starboard bow thirty feet below the flight deck, shaking the mighty carrier like a rowboat. The horrendous, blinding explosion ripped through the forward end of the ship, destroying the bow catapults and leaving a gaping hole in the hull.

Quick reactions by the captain and crew saved the supercarrier from sinking, but she would be out of action for an extended yard period in the United States. Between the ship's crew and the air wing personnel, 239 officers and sailors would not see another sunrise.

The attack submarine Louisville had been stalking one of the Sovremmennyy-class destroyers while Helena pursued the sister ship, the Fu Zhou. In a matter of seconds after the Chinese ships attacked the carriers, the submarines fired torpedoes at the destroyers. Both Chinese men-of-war were on the bottom of the strait eighteen minutes after Roosevelt was heavily damaged.

In all, after seventy-eight minutes of hard-fought battles and tumultuous confusion, the People's Liberation Army and Navy had lost nine warships, including five destroyers, Xian, Luhu, Jinan, Zhuhai, and Kaifeng, four of itsfiangwei-class frigates, six Houku-class missile boats, and three guided-missile patrol craft. The PLAN had also lost eight submarines, including two Mings and one Kilo, fourteen assorted patrol boats, and twenty-seven of their seventy-nine amphibious landing craft. Many other vessels were damaged to the point of being dead in the water.

Taiwanese losses included a Kidd-class guided-missile destroyer, the Knox-class frigates Yi Yang and Ning Yang, the La Fayette-class frigates Cheung Ho and Cheung Ping, three Kuang Hua-III patrol craft, the Hsin Chiang, Tan Chiang, and Jing Chiang, and four Kuang Hua-VI guided-missile patrol vessels. Various smaller boats were sunk or extensively damaged.

United States Navy losses included the frigate Rodney M. Davis and the destroyer Hayler. Besides Roosevelt, the cruiser Cowpens was severely damaged, as was the destroyer Fife. The American submarines came through the clash without any damage.

Not counting the Roosevelt tragedy, the loss of life had climbed to 93 with 176 injured, many seriously. The most serious cases were being flown to Okinawa for treatment or sent to Japan or Hawaii for specialized care and rehabilitation.

The heavy and sustained antiaircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles (SAMS), and air-to-air missiles took a big toll on both sides. Chinese losses were staggering, due primarily to the inability of the outdated MiGs to compete with the state-of-the-art fighters flown by the United States and Taiwan.