Executive Intent

“There’s no comparison,” Kordus said. “It’s apples and oranges. I remember when the so-called experts were saying carriers were obsolete because of the cruise missile and the stealth bomber. It’s not true. Eventually we’ll have hypersonic flying ships and laser guns and then maybe the aircraft carrier will go away, but it won’t happen in our kids’ lifetimes.”

The president looked uneasily at his friend, chief political adviser, and idea machine. “I hope you’re right,” he said. “I’m not afraid to say I was impressed. That Kingfisher thing is a game changer. But we’ve got a lot invested in building up the fleet again, and I don’t want some new cool technology to derail our plans.”

“If it looks that way, we’ll pull the plug on Kingfisher,” Kordus said. “It did miss, after all, and killed a lot of innocent people in the process. It may not be ready for prime time yet.”

SOUTH OF HAINAN ISLAND, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

DAYS LATER

The sea-launched ballistic-missile tube door opened on the spine of the USS Wyoming, the seventeenth Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine, but instead of launching a Trident ballistic missile, a missile-shaped vehicle called a Grebe slowly eased out of the missile tube and began floating to the surface as the submarine moved away. It listened for any sign of collision or interference using passive sonars, even halting its ascent at one point when it detected a nearby fishing vessel.

After reaching the surface, it assumed a semisubmerged tail-low stance while it updated its navigation system using GPS signals and continued to listen for threats. Once it determined the coast was clear, wings and skis popped out of the Grebe’s body, two rocket engines fired to lift the vehicle out of the water, and a small turbojet engine started when the vehicle reached a thousand-feet altitude. It climbed slowly, using a spiral flight course to avoid flying too close to Hainan Island before it reached its cruising altitude. Once reaching twelve thousand feet, it activated its low-light television and imaging infrared sensors and set a course for the Chinese naval base on Hainan Island. The Grebe’s composite structure and small size kept it from being detected by air defense radars on the heavily fortified island.

The objective of the mission was the Wenchang Spaceport, the southernmost and newest of China ’s four satellite-launch facilities. Because Wenchang was closest to the equator and could therefore use the Earth’s spin to help shove bigger rockets into orbit, the launch facilities, seaport, and rail lines had been greatly expanded to allow launches of China’s biggest boosters, including the new Long March-5 heavy booster intended for manned lunar missions, and lifting larger parts of Tiangong-1, China’s growing military space station, into orbit.

There were four launchpads at Wenchang, and the Grebe got busy photographing them in detail. It was risky using the Grebe to photograph the base at such a low altitude, but even advanced satellites could not provide the extreme detail that the large drone could; also, satellites were too easy to detect and predict when they flew over the base, making it simple for the Chinese to hide a classified project from sight.

Along with optical and infrared sensors, the Grebe also collected electromagnetic signals such as radar, radio, microwave, and cellular telephone. It would avoid any areas of greater radar-signal activity, especially the naval port on the south side of the island, to avoid being detected. When it encountered a suspected air defense radar lock, the Grebe would automatically stow the electro-optical and infrared sensor domes to reduce its radar signature, then redeploy them when the signals subsided.

The Hainan Island military complex was actually three bases in one: the naval airfield that housed long-range maritime patrol planes, air defense fighter interceptors, and the Chinese aircraft carrier’s air wing; the port facilities for the six ships in China’s first aircraft-carrier battle group; and an underground submarine base actually carved into the island, which hosted a dozen hunter-killer and ballistic-missile submarines. Although Wenchang was the main target of this mission, the Grebe drone also snapped a few pictures of the rest of the island superfortress when its sensors detected that any radars were no longer tracking it. The Chinese aircraft-carrier group had returned from its encounter with the USS George H. W. Bush, and its aircraft were safely on shore.

As the Grebe swept back to the north to take one last pass at Wenchang before returning for its rendezvous with the Wyoming, some new details began to emerge. Three of the four main launchpads were vacant. The fourth main launchpad held a very large rocket with an incredible twelve rocket motors strapped onto the lower section and an enormous cargo fairing atop the rocket.