Tiger's Claw: A Novel (26 page)

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“Why, Zhou and Zu have got to be smoking some wacky terbacky,” Vice President Ann Page said with a laugh. “Are they kidding? No submarines in the South China Sea? One usable catapult on our aircraft carriers? Are they serious?” Along with the president and vice president in the Oval Office were Secretary of State Herbert Kevich, National Security Adviser William Glenbrook, Secretary of Defense Fredrick Hayes, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Timothy Spellings. Ann turned to Kevich. “And where is President Zhou, Herbert? No one has seen him in quite some time. Who’s in charge out there?”

“The real question is, Ann: What can they do to enforce these restrictions?” President Ken Phoenix asked. “General Spellings, what’s China got out there that could threaten us if they decide to carry through with these restrictions?”

“A lot, and growing every day, sir,” Spellings said. He read from his secure tablet computer: “As Zu mentioned, they have two carrier battle groups deployed right now. One, the
Zhenyuan,
is a ski-jump carrier, but it carries several advanced aircraft, although not with the same heavier loads as American carriers can carry. The
Zheng He
is a different matter: it’s a slant-deck carrier with steam catapults, very much like a Nimitz-class carrier except a bit smaller, and it can carry more aircraft with heavier payloads. They have an amphibious assault aircraft carrier, the
Tongyi,
which is based in the East China Sea and is expected to lead any operations against Taiwan or the Paracel Islands, but it could be swung into action farther south. It is another ski-jump carrier, but it carries mostly helicopters and amphibious assault craft, plus about five hundred Chinese marines. All these battle groups are supported by at least ten vessels, including guided-missile cruisers, destroyers, frigates, replenishment vessels, and submarines. Most of these support vessels are modern ex-Russian ships or indigenously built and stack up well against our legacy ships. They should be activating a third aircraft carrier battle group soon. Bottom line: they definitely geared up to match whatever we can put into the South China Sea.

“The big problem is offensive capability from the Chinese mainland, sir,” Spellings went on. “We have a qualitative advantage at sea—maybe slight, but still an advantage—but we start to lose it when it comes to support from shore. China has at least two dozen ballistic- and cruise missile antiship batteries within range of what they call the first island chain. That’s equivalent to another ship at sea but with vastly expanded coverage. The missiles are mobile, and they only take an hour to align and launch even if launched from an unsurveyed spot. They also have at least three bases with dozens of long-range H-8 bombers fitted with supersonic antiship missiles.

“And all this doesn’t include what we
don’t
know about the Chinese military,” Spellings went on. “We still don’t know for sure what knocked down the P-8 Poseidon or the Sea Eye drone. Military bloggers and some analysts who have reviewed the transmissions from the P-8 think that China may have employed some kind of microwave, nuclear, laser, or cyber weapon that knocked out the P-8’s electronics for a short time, similar to our netrusion technology we’ve used in the past. We just don’t know. But if they have a directed-energy weapon that can down any aircraft within a hundred miles or so from their carrier, we could be at a distinct disadvantage. We don’t have anything like that in our deployed arsenal right now.”

“That’s still not going to stop us from patrolling the South China Sea,” the vice president said, “and we’re going to put our aircraft on our carriers wherever we want. It was a silly statement for Zhou to make. They won’t risk a general war by attacking the United States, so when a ship goes through the area unmolested, it makes them look weak.”

“I agree with the vice president, sir: China wouldn’t dare attack an American aircraft carrier in the South China Sea,” Secretary of Defense Fredrick Hayes said.

“I agree too, sir,” Secretary of State Herbert Kevitch said. “All that statement will do is drive up the insurance rates for all ships going through the area—that’ll hurt their economy the worst because they rely on exports to drive their economy.”

“Bill?” the president asked his national security adviser.

“I’m not as positive as the others, sir,” Glenbrook said. “If the United States was up to full AirSea Battle strength, I’d be a lot more positive, but we’re barely holding on as it is. Like the general said, they have a lot of firepower in that region. If they challenged us, they could make it look ugly.”

“It was a bold statement that directly challenges every nation on Earth,” President Phoenix said. “It puts everyone on notice.” He looked at his vice president. “This makes it even more imperative to get that emergency funding for the full complement of McLanahan’s bombers, Ann, and perhaps get more funding for the Navy, Air Force, and Space Defense Force again as well.”

“I’ve got the budget staff working overtime on all that, Mr. President,” Ann Page said.

“How many of McLanahan’s bombers do we have on Guam now?”

“Eight, sir,” Hayes replied. “He has two more ready for deployment and two more being refurbished—that was all last year’s emergency funding allowed, and his company couldn’t afford to rebuild more with their own funds.”

“We’ll find the money,” President Phoenix said. “In the meantime, Fredrick, you are cleared to send additional forces to Guam per the plan put together by Pacific Command. I want Guam to turn into a fortress: air defense, ballistic missile defense, long-range surveillance, the works. Whatever Guam or the outlying Pacific islands need, I want in place. This is going to turn into another Midway mobilization.”

“Do you want to change the profile of McLanahan’s bombers, sir?” Secretary of Defense Hayes said. “Right now they just perform over-the-horizon reconnaissance for small groups of surface ships—they’re not armed. The other bombers on Guam are armed for ground attack and antiship missions. The wing commander says they’ve been practicing loading weapons on some of McLanahan’s bombers to make sure the remote weapons system works, but they’ve flown no missions with weapons aboard.”

Phoenix thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, allow McLanahan’s bombers to participate in all the wing’s activities, including alerts with live weapons,” he said. “I understand his bombers can carry air-to-air weapons as well?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Those are authorized as well.”

“Yes, sir. McLanahan’s XB-1s are equipped with a system called SPEAR that has the ability to not only jam radar and radios but to insert commands and even malicious code into enemy electronic sensors,” Hayes said. “Is that authorized?”

Phoenix shook his head ruefully. “My old buddy Patrick McLanahan and his high-tech toys,” he said with a smile. “Yes, authorized. How are things working out with the Navy?”

“McLanahan’s forces so far have had very little to do with the aircraft carriers or other Navy fighters,” Hayes replied. “They perform as part of a Surface Action Group, providing long-range reconnaissance for small groups of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates that aren’t part of a carrier strike group—surface ships that don’t have their own air assets. They haven’t tried coordinating strikes with carrier-based fighters or Navy cruise missile attacks. But as part of the SAG, they seem to be fitting in well. Overall, I’d say the program is working.”

“Excellent,” the president said. “We’ll find the extra money and get more of those Excaliburs out there.”

After the meeting broke up, Ann Page stayed behind with the president. He picked up a telephone. “Get General McLanahan on his personal communicator, please.”

A few moments later the phone rang, and the president picked it up: “McLanahan here, Mr. President.”

“Patrick, I’m going to get you the funding for the rest of the Excalibur program,” the president said. “But it may take some time. I wanted to ask you if you could go to your company once again for initial funding for the remainder of the fleet, and perhaps a little more for some of the other planes you said you were working on.”

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“That is great news, Mr. President,” Patrick said. He had returned to Battle Mountain a day earlier to supervise the last of the XB-1s completing refurbishment and preparing to deploy. He was sitting in his office in the main hangar of Sky Masters Inc., which overlooked the final assembly area for the refurbished planes, talking with the president of the United States through his secure subcutaneous transceiver system. Through the large soundproof picture window behind him in his office he could see an XB-1 Excalibur at the head of the line closest to the hangar doors ready to be rolled outside, and an XF-111 SuperVark, a refurbished F-111G Aardvark medium supersonic bomber, was right behind it, still with a small knot of technicians around it finishing details. Like the B-1 bomber, the F-111 bomber was a swing-wing supersonic design, but it was originally intended to operate off aircraft carriers. Finally rejected by the Navy as being too big and cumbersome for carrier duty, the F-111 served an exemplary role in the U.S. Air Force as a medium and strategic bomber and electronic warfare platform, dropping 40 percent of the guided munitions in Operation Desert Storm before being retired shortly thereafter.

“I’ll schedule a meeting with the company president and ask her to go to the board and the shareholders and find out, sir,” Patrick said. “I’m looking at Excalibur number ten just rolling off the line, and we’re putting the finishing touches on the second refurbished XF-111 bomber.”

“That’s the one I was thinking about, the other swing-wing plane, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Patrick said. “It doesn’t have the long legs or payload of the XB-1, but it’s better than anything else in the Pacific right now.”

“Be in a position to put a few together to send out to Guam.”

“Yes, sir,” Patrick said. “I was watching the address by Foreign Minister Tang and General Zu. I guess they really believe they can dictate terms in the South China Sea.”

“Most everyone in the White House seems to think China won’t follow through,” Phoenix said. “I’m not so sure. Pacific Command came up with a plan to fortify the defenses around Guam and our other Pacific bases in the region, and I’ve ordered that implemented as well. With all of China’s saber-rattling going on, I think Congress will come up with the extra money. But no matter how belligerent China seems to be getting, somebody will squawk when we start talking about raiding their piggy bank.”

“If you’d like me to talk with the folks in Congress, sir, let me know,” Patrick said. “I’ve been out of uniform for a while now, but if you think it’ll help, I’ll be there.”

“You’ve been out of uniform but not out of the news, my friend,” the president said. “Everyone around here still winces when they hear your name. But a lot of people still admire and respect you—like me. We might have you come back and do just that.”

“Thank you, sir,” Patrick said. “I’ll even bring one of the Excaliburs. They have a jump seat—we can even offer congressmen and staffers some rides.”

“What about me?” the president asked. “I remember when President Martindale said he wanted to be the first sitting president to go into space. I nearly dropped my teeth when he said that. But I’d like to fly low-level in one of your monstrosities. The First Lady would kill me, but I’d sure like to do it.”

“I can be at Andrews in four hours, sir—just say the word.”

“I think we both have enough work to do without going off on joy rides,” the president said. “But when all this is over with, I might take you up on that. Later.” And the connection was terminated.

“Kylie, ask Dr. Oglethorpe to come and see me,” Patrick called to his assistant. “And get me an appointment with Dr. Kaddiri for as soon as possible.” The first call he made was to Tom Hoffman. “I just spoke with President Phoenix,” he said. “He wants more Excaliburs and maybe even some XF-111 SuperVarks, but he doesn’t have the money and asked if our company can kick in for a few more until they get funding. I’ll have to go to the company board and find out how much money we can get advanced to us for more planes and training until the funds from Washington show.”

“Excellent, General,” Hoffman said. “I’ll call my next group of pilots and techs and get them started. They’ve already been doing academics, so I can have them headed out your way in a few weeks for flight, simulator, and hands-on maintenance training.”

“Bring them out as soon as you can, Tom.”

“Yes, sir!”

While Patrick was speaking to Hoffman, Linus Oglethorpe arrived in Patrick’s office. Oglethorpe was always amazed and amused to watch Patrick talking in midair with no phone or Bluetooth headset in sight. When he was done speaking with Hoffman, Patrick turned to him. “The president wants more Excaliburs and maybe even SuperVarks,” he said. Linus punched the air in triumph. “However, he doesn’t have the money, so I’m going to ask Helen to kick in. Where are we with the next batch of airframes?”

“We’ve received two from AMARG this past week, Patrick,” Linus said. “Both are in the stage-two inspection hangar ready to start detailed structural inspections. One airframe down at Davis-Monthan did not pass the stage-one inspection, and another is questionable, so you may assume we’re down to twenty. The rest have all completed stage-one inspections and are awaiting their train ride up here. We’ve identified forty-three F-111G and FB-111 airframes that are ready for stage-one inspections.”

“Great. I’m going to meet with Helen, hopefully soon, to see if we can get some advanced funds to start, and I’ll let you know when we can start shipping them up here.” Dr. Helen Kaddiri was the longtime president and chairman of the board for Sky Masters Inc. With multiple doctorates in both business and engineering, the exotic, almond-eyed woman from Calcutta, India, started out in the company as one of founder Jonathan Masters’s assistants. Helen’s resentment at having to work for the boyish, immature, free-spirited Jon Masters propelled her to quickly move her way up the corporate ladder just to get away from him, and she eventually became company president. “I don’t want to wait around for Washington to send contracts and money.”

“We shall be like sprinters in the starting blocks at the Olympics, waiting for you to fire the starter’s pistol, old chap,” Linus said excitedly. “We shall be ready!”