War with Russia

The Task Group commander faced a classic dilemma, similar to that faced by Admiral Sandy Woodward while retaking the Falklands: how to protect his all-important carrier, while at the same time protecting his amphibious force as it closed with the land. The commander had gone for a trade-off, protecting his amphibious ship with the only pair of escorts he could muster, and standing out at sea; thus improving the radar picture, which got ever more cluttered the closer to land a ship got. To reduce the vulnerability of the carrier from a submarine attack, he had the remaining Type 45 destroyer Daring, which was principally a state-of-the-art anti-aircraft platform, but still had a credible anti-submarine capability with its sonar and Merlin helicopter.

Finally, far out in the eastern Baltic, HMS Astute, the hunter-killer sub, was searching for any movement of the Russian Baltic Fleet by conducting a continuous all-sensor underwater search. Occasionally she would stick up her periscope to suck in the electronic picture, all the while being ready to attack any submarine posing a threat to the Task Group. The trouble was, as Bush knew all too well, the Task Group really needed more killer subs, to say nothing of additional escorts. The sea, even at the western, “friendly” edge of the Baltic, was a very big space and a well-operated enemy submarine a very small object.

On top of this, to be conducting a demonstration amphibious landing when the Royal Navy was at war with Russia—because that is what he understood by Britain signing up to Article 5—offended Bush’s common sense. Close with the enemy in the finest Nelsonian traditions by all means, or stay well back and out of trouble until you are ready to take the fight to them. But do not “poise” and present a target for no clear strategic gain.

On the flight deck below, Bush watched the organized chaos as men, guns and equipment of the Commando Artillery Regiment and the Commando engineers cross-decked to the amphibious ship in order to take part in the landing. Brightly colored figures, jackets colored and coded according to their role on the flight deck, controlled and guided Merlin troop carriers as other long lines of commandos in full battle gear, laden with bergens, body armor and all the paraphernalia of war, stood patiently on the elevators, waiting to be called forward to board them. Larger, twin-rotored Chinooks hovered low as they picked up guns and Viking lightly armored tracked vehicles and transported them forward to the beaches. Film crews filmed it all and, to the watching world, this was a magnificent projection of Royal Navy sea power by the pride of its battle fleet.

Clad in white flash hood and gloves, he stepped into the darkened calm of the Ops Room, the nerve center of the ship. It was here that the ship’s radars and the weapons systems that protected the ship were operated from; kept separate from the flight operations, which were conducted from the control tower, as on any airfield. As Bush’s eyes adjusted to the low light, he saw banks of computers manned by masked operators, on whom the blue light from radar screens and other monitors cast an eerie glow.

In the center of the Ops Room stood the tall figure of Commodore Tony Narborough, the ship’s captain, flanked by his Principal Weapons Officer, the conductor of the complex orchestra that defended the ship.

“Hello, Number One. We’ve got a bit of a flap on,” said Narborough, trying to appear calm. “Daring has just signaled that she’s picked up a sonar trace. Possibly a Kilo.”

“Any indication of the direction she’s heading in, Sir?” asked Bush, his voice muffled by the flash hood everyone wore when at “action stations” to reduce the risk of the catastrophic burns that, after drowning, were the greatest risk in warships.

“Looks like she’s heading in the general direction of the Amphib group, to our south,” replied Narborough. “Lancaster and Dauntless are covering the Amphib group with an active sonar search, while Daring is covering us to the north.”

“Shouldn’t we delay the landing until we’ve dealt with the sub threat?” suggested Bush.

“Fair point, Number One, but the Admiral’s made it clear that the landing exercise goes on. The world is watching and filming and we don’t want them to see us turn and run at the first bit of bother. Anyway, the Int boys fully expected the Russians to test our defenses, but no one thinks they are going to actually attack. That said, we’ll assume they might, so we’ve got to be ready for anything. Trouble is, we’ve yet to get clearance to move from passive to active ROEs—our Rules of Engagement—so, until they change, all we can do right now is monitor, track and observe… Unless, of course, we need to apply self-defense.”