Executive Intent

The space thing was back, Stacy Barbeau thought as the space general blathered on about all the stuff his station could do. President Joseph Gardner had vowed to kill the space station and spend the money on more carriers. The carriers were indeed on order-she had procured at least two to be built in her home state of Louisiana, thanks to her intimate relationship with the president-but the Air Force’s push for space was apparently still going strong. That was a very interesting development indeed…“Tell me about this Chinese aircraft carrier, General Raydon,” she interrupted without knowing or caring what he had been talking about. “You said that’s a live picture?”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s a nighttime shot of the carrier performing a night underway replenishment-a very tricky maneuver for any carrier navy, and a very impressive feat for China ’s very young carrier navy,” Raydon said. “The Project 190 carrier was laid down three years ago in Novosibirsk, Russia. It was meant to be Russia’s second carrier and first true angled-deck catapult-equipped supercarrier-they had been using ‘ski-jump’-equipped carriers before this-but China made Russia an offer it couldn’t refuse.”

“ Russia actually sold its aircraft carrier to China?”

“Military cooperation between the two has been increasing over the past ten years at least,” National Security Adviser Carlyle said. “I wouldn’t say it’s as close as it was in the sixties, but it’s an easy way for China to quickly and easily build a world-class military.”

“What else has Russia been selling to China?”

“You name it, Madam Secretary,” Carlyle said. “Naval weapon systems, long-range precision-guided weapons, spacecraft, maritime attack, air-launched missiles-big-ticket, relatively low-tech, high-volume items.”

“Is this carrier a threat to us?” Barbeau asked. “Is it like our carriers?”

“It is a monster, on a par with any of the world’s carriers with the exception of America ’s,” Raydon went on. “It is over nine hundred feet long, two hundred and fifty feet wide, and has a seventy-five-thousand-pound displacement fully loaded. It features two aircraft elevators, four steam catapults, almost thirty-knot top speed, and forty fixed-and rotary-wing aircraft aboard, including thirty-two former Russian Sukhoi-34 advanced fighter-bombers ruggedized for catapult and tailhook operations. Total crew complement is four thousand sailors, and it usually embarks a company of special operations forces. Because it was designed for ‘greenwater’ operations, within easy reach of supply ports, it does not have a nuclear power plant, although the 190 has been deployed as far as East Africa in support of Somali antipiracy missions, which means the Chinese have gotten very good at long-range naval operations with extended supply lines.”

“But it can’t match an American carrier, right?” Barbeau asked. “It’s smaller, and they only have one? We have twelve, plus its escort ships, and are building four more.”

“The 190 is China ’s second carrier-they have a smaller carrier, purchased from Iran, that’s been used to train crews on carrier ops,” Carlyle said. “But a Chinese carrier shadowing an American carrier battle group is emblematic of a growing trend: China is building its ability to project naval power far beyond its home waters in order to protect its business interests around the world, protect shipping lanes, and counter American hegemony.”

“American hegemony?” Barbeau asked with playacted southern-belle innocence. She knew exactly what that term meant, but she wanted to hear the military’s spin on it. “What are the Chinese worried about? We’re not at war-we don’t even compete with them. We buy billions of dollars of their goods, and they buy trillions of dollars of our debt. China is under no threat of invasion from anyone I’m aware of, except perhaps internally, and they employ very effective anti-insurgency intelligence and interdiction forces to eliminate unrest.”

“The situation is plain and simple, Madam Secretary: the U.S. Navy is the world’s best, and the second-and third-string players don’t like it and will do anything they can think of to bust us up,” Raydon said.

“Thank you, General Raydon, but I can take it from here,” Carlyle said. He spread his hands and nodded. “But as the general said, Stacy, China depends on exports-selling their goods to every corner of the globe, sent mostly by oceangoing vessels. Everywhere they go, in every ocean and sea near any major port of call anywhere on the planet, they are confronted by the same thing: the U.S. Navy. They know the Navy patrols and controls the world’s sea-lanes, and has the power to deny access to anyone if they so choose.