SSN

    When the final message traffic had come in, Mack ordered Cheyenne to once again proceed below four hundred feet. His normal routine was to call a meeting in the wardroom, but these orders had been expected and did not require a full meeting. Instead, he then instructed the communicator to type up a summary and distribute it to the appropriate officers.

    To: All officers on board USS Cheyenne

    From: Captain Mackey

    RE: Combat operations

    We have just been radioed our new orders. As you are all aware, the Independence Battle Group had been tasked with a preemptive attack on the Chinese task force currently heading for the Spratly Islands.

    Cheyenne has been tasked with running out in front of the Independence Battle Group on course 090. Once we are in position, west of the Spratlys, we have been ordered to wait for the Chinese submarines to exit the shallow waters near the islands. If we encounter any such contacts, which we invariably will, we have been granted permission to break off from the Battle Group and pursue the contacts.

    We have been offered any support that Independence can provide. This may come in the form of S-3s, SH-60s, a surface ship, or even a submarine. However, if the battle becomes heavy, and we expect that it will, we may have to operate on our own.

    Bremerton and Columbia will remain with Independence, protecting her port and starboard flanks. Because of the successes we've had in these waters, we have been given a great amount of authority to operate independently from the carrier. So let's stay cautious and keep on our toes.

    Mack finished the letter with his plain, recognizable signature and had the communicator run off the appropriate number of copies.

    On board Independence, flight operations were beginning to take on a tone of tension as well. While all carrier flights involved a fairly high level of risk, combat operations increased this risk. On top of that, within the past hour an ES-3 electronic warfare aircraft flying from the carrier had detected strong Chinese radio activity coming from the direction of the Spratfy Islands. Since the invasion of the islands, this had frequently been the case, except that this time the heavy traffic was coming from naval vessels, not ground units.

    Currently, two of Independence's E-2Cs were operating around the carrier, providing radar coverage out to many hundreds of miles. F-14Ds, armed with AMRAAM and Phoenix missiles, were providing air cover around the clock for the Battle Group. This was all happening while two dozen F/A-18s were being armed with two Harpoon antishipping missiles, two undenting fuel tanks, and two Sidewinder missiles each, in an effort to prepare them for the ensuing battle. Twelve F/A-18s also were being kept in reserve in case the air battle got too sticky for the F-14s to handle alone.

    On board the carrier's escorts, their crews were preparing as well- The entire group's radars, including the Aegis radars, were shut down. The surface group was relying entirely on the APS-145 radars flying overhead on board the E-2 Hawkeyes. The Battle Group commander wanted to deny the Chinese the opportunity to detect American radar waves via ESM. Without an exact location on the American warships, the Chinese would not be able to launch their missiles until they came within either visual range or their own radar range-and the commander did not intend to allow them to get anywhere near that close.