Men of War (2013) (18 page)

That
said, the Chinese were still new at the game, and on September 15th, 2021, a
small task force of was at sea off Diaoyutai or Senkaku Island to the Japanese,
showing the flag over the oil rich sea floor beneath the deserted rocks. It was
a continuation of the long war of words between Japan and China over the
territory, and this time it was also something more. The islands were located
about 125 miles northeast of Taipei, Taiwan, and in a perfect position to place
a screening force for operations that might be aimed at that larger objective.
If the Japanese came, they would come out of Okinawa and Japan proper to the
northeast, and so Diaoyutai was right astride the sea lanes they would use.

The
squadron assigned to the mission was therefore given ample resources. It was
centered on one of their new Type 052C Destroyers, dubbed the
Lanzhou
,
the lead ship in its class. With a stealthy design, this 7000 ton ship was
often referred to as the China’s
Aegis
, with its fixed panel AESA phased
array radar, and “it” was a very capable ship. The Chinese considered their
ships material objects, and did not personify them with either masculine or
feminine traits.

The
ship mounted 48 vertically launched HQ-9 surface to air missiles on its forward
a deck in eight cold launch cells of six missiles each. They could range out to
200 kilometers at Mach 4, providing a strong defensive anti-air umbrella over
the squadron. It was in many ways similar to the Russian S-300s aboard
Kirov
,
and almost as capable. The
Lanzhou
also carried eight C-805/7 anti ship
missiles in two 4-cell launchers. It was known as the YJ-82
Eagle Strike
system, a lethal sea skimmer on its terminal approach that was touted to have a
98% hit probability. Six torpedo tubes and a new 130mm single barreled deck gun
that was a knock off of the old Russian 130mm gun finished off the destroyer’s
main weapons suite, but she also had a pair of 30mm close in defense guns and
one Harbin Z-9C helicopter for additional ASW defense.

Cruising
to either side of the
Lanzhou
were two type 054A frigates at a little
over 4000 tons. The
Shouyang
and
Weifang
, both built in 2012.
They carried a multi-purpose 32 cell VLS system that could use either SAMs or
ASW rockets, and also mounted two 4-cell C-803 anti-ship missiles and six 324
mm torpedoes. Each ship also brought a Z-9C helicopter to the fight.

The
fourth member of the task force was not on the surface. The
Li Zhu
was a
7000 ton submarine in the 095 class with a modified hull that provided greater
acoustic stealth and flank linear array sonar. It was named for a legendary
pearl that grew under the chin of a powerful black dragon, a jewel from the
sea. In spite of the improvements made to the boat’s design it was still noisy
compared to the more stealthy Russian and American submarine designs. Even the
old Russian
Akula
and
Oscar
class subs were quieter, though this
boat was one of the stealthiest China now possessed. Undersea noise was never a
friend of any submarine, and it would betray the
Li
Zhu
that
night. Revealing her position to the capable electronic ears of the Japanese task
force approaching from the northeast.

The
sub
was out in front of the Chinese flotilla, cruising some twenty miles
in the vanguard. The boat’s captain, Kai Fan, had been slowly stalking the
Japanese flotilla, moving quietly into a position where he could block their
approach to the islands. His sonar operators had identified what they believe
to be two
Abukuma
class destroyer escorts, and
they were correct. These were the
Oyoko
and
Sendai
out of Sasebo, about 2500 tons each, older ships built between 1988 and 1991,
but still capable for the roles they were designed to play. They were not as
stealthy as the newer Chinese surface ships following the
Dragon Pearl
into battle that night, but they were well armed with 8 harpoons, octuple ASROC
launchers in the older deck mounted “Matchbox” design, six torpedoes, and a
76mm deck gun.

Behind
them came the more formidable presence of the guided missile destroyer
Kirishima
,
a 9500 ton vessel every bit as capable as an American Aegis Class cruiser. It
was already well aware of the presence of the
Dragon Pearl
beneath the
sea, and had a helicopter up off its aft fantail deck to refine the enemy
boat’s location. The ship’s captain, Kenji Namura had taken the precautionary
step of activating his RUM-139C VLS ASROC system, which could fire a
lightweight sub-killing homing torpedo out to 25,000 meters, his modern day
‘Long Lance,’ but he would not yet announce his displeasure by going to active
sonar.

For
years the two sides had quarreled over the islands, with incidents where one
side or another would paint a target with active fire control radar systems, or
overfly a ship with a flight of fast strike jets. Namura had more support
available, including Naval Marines at nearby bases. He would soon need them,
for tonight China would send men from the their surface action group, and they
would land by helicopter on the Island of Peace to plant the flag of the
People’s Republic there. A meaningless gesture of defiance, it would set the
stage for far a more serious confrontation between China and Japan that was
even now beginning to spin slowly out of control.

What
submarine Captain Kai Fan did not know, or hear that night, was the overhead
deployment of
Kirishima’s
helicopter. It already had buoys in the water
and was feeding good location data back to the
Japanese
flotilla as she
slowly closed the range with her two smaller destroyer escorts. Kai Fan was
nervously watching the range close to under 22,000 meters when his sonar man
heard what he believed was the splash of a deck fired torpedo entering the
water. It was actually another guided motorized sonobuoy, but the inexperienced
sonar man interpreted the sound of its search pattern wrongly, and it had grave
consequences. In modern war at sea, where computers aim and guide weapons to
unseen targets, seconds become an eternity. He announced torpedo in the water,
which prompted an immediate reaction from Captain Kai Fan. He already had his
forward tubes primed and ready, and he fired a spread of four torpedoes.

When
the sonar men shouted out their torpedo warnings on the three Japanese ships
they were in deadly earnest. Kenji Namura was aghast when he realized his
flotilla would very likely be hit by this flagrant attack, and he immediately
gave the order to fire back. His MCH-Merlin 101 helo quickly had a
Stingray
torpedo in the water from above, and
Kirishima
added two VLS ASROCS to
the soup as the ships and subs now both deployed their countermeasures and
jamming suites to try and defend against the incoming ordinance.

Two
of the Chinese torpedoes were fooled, the others found
Oyoko
and split her port side hull open in a violent explosion that would end that
ship’s brief career forever. She would give her name to the sea that night, and
sink within the hour.

As
for the
Li Zhu,
the boat would become a pearl of great price that would
soon fall to the bottom of an angry sea. The sonar man would pay his share, the
boat’s Captain Kai Fan would also sign the bill, but the world itself was set
to pay the greatest price of all when the
Dragon Pearl
was hit and sunk
on that September night off the Island of Peace.

* * *

Light
helicopter escort carrier
Akagi
, wasted little time getting out to sea,
and she would be in good company. The ship was originally classed as a
helicopter destroyer, Class 22DDG to replace an older 1970s legacy destroyer by
the same name that had been built around an aircraft hanger capable of housing
three helicopters. The new
Akagi
was something much more, however, now
reclassified as a light escort carrier after it had been modified to carry and
operate the JF-35B STOVL
Lightning
fighters, which was tech speak for a
short takeoff and vertical landing capable plane. The aircraft had been
replacing the aging AV-8B
Harrier
jump Jets over the last decade, as
well as slowly filling out air wings that had once been largely composed of
F-18
SuperHornets
,
though these
squadrons were few and far between. By 2021 the bugs had been worked out and it
was a reliable and deadly fifth generation strike fighter asset. It had a stealthy,
fuselage-mounted 25 mm gun pod and a combat radius of more than 450 nautical
miles.

Akagi
was one of four such ships in the Japanese Navy now, based in Sasebo with her
sister ship
Kaga
. They were the largest surface combatants in the
present Japanese Navy at a length of 248 meters and 27,000 tons fully loaded.
That load today was partly composed of the seven JF-35Bs, nine SG-60J
Seahawk
helicopters and two Merlin CH-101s. There was room for more, with a maximum
capacity of nine aircraft on deck and fourteen in the hangers, but
Akagi
had received an abrupt invitation to an event in the East China Sea, and it was
a come as you are party. Depending on conditions encountered, the JDF could
airlift additional assets out to her at sea—if she survived.

With
the light escort destroyer
Oyoko
already at
the bottom of the sea, that question weighed heavily on the mind of Captain
Shoji Yoshida. At only 2500 tons,
Oyoko
was
really a frigate class vessel, and went down with two torpedo hits. While
Akagi
might be more durable in combat with her 27,000 tons, size was no guarantee of
safety, a lesson the Japanese knew all too well as they remembered the demise
of their proud old fleet carriers in the Second World War. His ancestor ship
was nearly twice the displacement of the modern day
Akagi
.

So
it had finally happened, he thought as he stared over the short forward flight
deck, watching the first two F-35s being spotted. The Chinese thought they were
finally going to settle the matter. They paid a high price for
Oyoko
.
Kenji Namura aboard
Kirishima
had collected a heavy toll in reprisal when he took down the Type 095 submarine
Li Zhu
that had launched the bold attack. Now he wondered just how far
the Chinese were prepared to go with this.

They
were already holding another small Japanese Coast Guard cutter hostage in the
deadly game, and they had the impudence to actually land a small naval marine
contingent on the main Senkaku island of
Uotsuri
Jima, the old ‘Island of Peace,’ to plant their flag. Seven years ago it had been
simple activist protestors who had dared to land on the islands, but this was
something altogether different. This was the first real flexing of the vast
Chinese military, and it gave Yoshida the shivers to think Japan was now boldly
sailing off to confront their great hostile neighbor to the west.

 Huge
demonstrations outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing had been raging for
months, and now the gold chrysanthemum emblem there was besmirched with eggs
splattered on the walls, and the solitary flag of the rising sun waved bravely
in a sea of anger in that distant city. Japanese stores and restaurants had
been broken into and vandalized, then draped with bright red Chinese flags. The
discord had spread to many other cities, spilling over from Shenzhen to the
normally more civil Hong Kong where there had been flag burnings. The rising
demonstrations had prompted the Chinese government to offer the protestors a
bone by committing the further insult of placing the Japanese ambassador in
Beijing under house arrest, an unprecedented breach of international
protocol—but then again, war was nothing more than an ever escalating failure
of manners and civility, neh?

He
shook his head, disheartened. The dispute over these worthless islands had
deeper roots in the bad blood between China and Japan dating back to WWII, and
now the oil and gas rights there would also play a part. It was starting
again—blood for islands in the endless sea, blood for oil and gas. How many of
his men would have to pay that price with their lives today, all so that Toyota
and Honda could keep their wheels turning? He knew Japan had been foolish to
try and purchase the islands outright instead of negotiating some amicable
agreement with China. It was not a thought he wished to carry into battle at
this moment, however, and so he pushed it aside, deep into an inner compartment
of his mind, and focused on the task at hand.

He
had seven JF-35s, enough to do what he had been ordered. They could easily
cover the swift dash of his
Seahawks
, each capable of carrying a squad
of his own elite naval marines to the argument. Then we will see what to do
about that coast guard cutter. First he would get up some air cover. We’re
playing one of our aces, he knew, and there were only four in the entire fleet
just like a good deck of cards. His sister ship
Kaga
was still in
Sasebo, and the first two ships in the class were both assigned to Yokohama to
the north. This ship is one of our very best, he thought, and I must not let my
nation and my people down.

It
had already started in the darkness of the East China Sea, and now it would
continue, with this proud man in his proud ship, with a proud heritage at
stake—and much, much more. Pride, it is said, goeth before the fall, and the
abyss that was now yawning open in the Pacific was impenetrably deep. Captain
Yoshida was sailing swiftly towards its edge.

He
would to rendezvous with the
Kirishima
, and he would bring the new
destroyer
Ashigara
along, one notch up on the
Kongo
Class ships with the new Type-90 SSM and a
suite of good SAMs to give him some solid air defense beyond his seven
fighters. At 10,000 tons, she was the largest surface combatant in the navy,
only a seventh the displacement of the last vessel class to hold that
distinction,
Yamato
. That said,
Ashigara
would have ripped the superstructure of
Yamato
apart, piece by piece,
just as
Kirov
had, and the great menacing battleship of old would have
never come in range to once fire her guns in anger.