Executive Intent

“Acknowledged,” the officer of the deck responded. He switched his radio to a second channel and keyed the microphone several times.

“Bridge, Watch!” the watch officer suddenly shouted. “Inbound patrol vessel has increased speed, heading straight for us!”

“Captain, patrol boat has picked up speed and is heading for us!” the officer of the deck shouted into his radio.

“Repel, sound battle stations, sound collision!” the captain ordered. He and the ship’s chief boatswain’s mate, who was with the captain supervising the refueling and resupply, began to wave crewmembers away from the stern and off the helicopter landing platform.

“Sound battle stations, sound collision!” the officer of the deck shouted to the boatswain’s mate on the bridge. “Watch, repel all attackers, repeat, repel all attackers!”

The boatswain’s mate reached up on the overhead communications panel and hit two large red buttons, and the earsplitting sound of horns and bells seemed to rattle every surface of the warship. He then pulled the shipwide intercom microphone up and shouted, “All hands, battle stations, all hands, battle stations, all hands, collision, collision, collision, brace for impact, starboard side!”

The officer of the deck grabbed his life vest and helmet and rushed out to the starboard overhanging deck as damage control teams and backup duty personnel started rushing into the bridge. He followed the watch officer’s binoculars and spotted the incoming patrol boat just as the number four machine gunner opened fire. There was a helicopter with a load of supplies slung underneath still hovering over the landing pad. “Boats, wave off that chopper!” he shouted inside the bridge.

But it was too late. At that instant the Yemeni patrol boat slammed into the side of the Wuxi. At first it appeared to just bounce away, heeling sharply over to starboard and scraping along the side of the warship…

…but then the three thousand pounds of explosives packed inside the patrol boat detonated, and a massive fireball obscured the destroyer’s entire stern. The Wuxi seemed to jump ten feet straight out of the water before being shoved violently to port. As the vessel came down, the entire stern dove beneath the churning waves, then bobbed back up…until the flaming wreckage of the stricken resupply helicopter, instantly engulfed in flames from the fireball, slammed down into the landing platform. The Wuxi was pushed into the refueling dolphin, severing fuel lines that ignited and fed even more flaming devastation on the Chinese warship.

In seconds, the entire aft half of the vessel was afire. It began to take on water from the huge hole in its aft port side and sink by the stern. An area of almost a half square mile of burning oil surrounded the Wuxi, dooming any sailors who decided to abandon ship or who had been thrown into the harbor by the force of the explosions. Ammunition began cooking off, followed moments later by exploding antiship missiles and their warheads, which leveled entire sections of superstructure.

CHINESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ZHENYUAN, 10 MILES OFF THE COAST OF YEMEN

THAT SAME TIME

“Sir, the frigate Wuxi has been hit,” the communications officer reported in a remarkably calm, almost nonchalant tone. “She is on fire and is sinking by the stern. We are not in contact with the captain.”

“Acknowledged,” the admiral in command of the Zhenyuan battle group replied. He turned to the carrier’s captain. “Sound battle stations, Captain.” As the horns and Klaxons blared, he then ordered, “Commence launch, Captain.”

On the Zhenyuan’s flight deck, two Jian Hong-37N fighter-bombers, already in place on the forward and waist catapults, lit their afterburners and blasted off into the late afternoon sky. Lined up behind them were six more JH-37s, their wings bristling with bombs and missiles. Every ninety seconds, two more JH-37s were catapulted skyward. They did not climb high, but stayed less than five hundred feet above the Gulf of Aden, speeding northward.

The first two JH-37s were each loaded with four Ying Ji-91 antiradiation missiles, which were versions of the Russian Kh-31 air-to-surface missile. Capable of speeds well over three times the speed of sound, the missiles had been programmed to destroy particular radars protecting the area around the city of Aden. Missiles targeted the air-surveillance and height-finding radars at Aden International Airport, air-surveillance and marine radars at the naval base, the air defense radars also at the airport, and coastal surveillance radars east and west of the peninsula.