Skimming the surface of the Pacific are four supersonic missiles flying faster than their own roar.Ĭhances are that a war between China and the United States will not happen in 2015, or at any other time. The Taiwan Strait is still more than 1000 miles away, but the war has come to the Nimitz. There are more missiles in the air, this time headed straight for the carrier group. With Kadena's satellites gone, the Nimitz and its flotilla of eight escorts, including Aegis-guided missile destroyers and a pair of submarines, are steaming toward an enemy possessing one of the world's largest submarine fleets and an arsenal of land-, air- and sea-launched antiship missiles.Ībout 8 hours after the mass raid on Taiwan, klaxons start blaring aboard the Nimitz and her escorts. Also, F-22 stealth fighters based at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, now cannot land on the base's shattered runways and reinforce the F-15s. The F-15s on the way to Taiwan must bank for Guam, 1300 miles southeast-they have the range to reach the base there, but only Kadena is close enough to stage efficient combat patrols. Kadena is far from destroyed, but until its runways can be repaired, it is out of the fight. Others air-burst over the base, devastating barracks, radar arrays and hangars. Some of the GPS-guided warheads contain bomblets that crater the base's two runways. Kadena's Patriot batteries fire missiles in response, but they are off-network and in disarray-10 missiles are struck by multiple interceptors, but an equal number slip through the defensive screen and hit Kadena. The 20 remaining missiles re-enter the atmosphere over Okinawa. and China have knocked down satellites-it's the first outbreak of a hot war in space, and it partially blinds U.S. While not a technical first-both the U.S. Five detonate in orbit, shredding American communication and imaging satellites. Next, early-warning satellites detect the infrared bloom of 25 ballistic missiles launched from the Chinese mainland. An army of hackers operating throughout China swarms the base's networks, tying up communications with gibberish and cluttering the digital screens of radar operators with phony and conflicting data. Modern air defense systems share sensor information and targeting data to better coordinate their actions, but this connection is going to become a liability. First, error messages begin popping up on computer screens. Half of them are airborne when Kadena comes under attack. By 0515 hours, Air Force pilots are taking off in 40 F-15E fighters to conduct combat air patrols over the island. Until the Nimitz arrives, it's up to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, 400 miles northeast of Taiwan, to defend the island. The closest other carrier group, near Pearl Harbor, is six days out. The Nimitz battle group needs at least two days for the carrier to reach the strait, more than 1300 miles southwest. president orders the Nimitz and its escorts to the Taiwan Strait. Although Beijing has promised to attack anyone who interferes with this "internal security operation," the U.S. The nearest aircraft carrier is the USS Nimitz, which had just left the Japanese port of Yokosuka on Tokyo Bay when the missiles landed on Taiwan. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play Now, in 2015, only the United States can offer Taiwan protection from China's warplanes and invasion fleet. Ever since 1949, when Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan following the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Beijing has regarded the island as a renegade province of the People's Republic. This is a battle between an old superpower and a new one. But they know what the world knows: This is no longer Taiwan's fight. Taiwanese troops mobilize in downtown Taipei and take up positions on the beaches facing China, just 100 miles to the west. Taiwan's air force is grounded, and if China maintains air superiority over the Taiwan Strait, it can launch an invasion. The mass raid overwhelms the defenses as hundreds of Chinese warheads blast the island's military bases and airports. Taiwan's modest missile defense network-a scattered deployment of I-Hawk and Patriot interceptors-slams into dozens of incoming warheads. Instead, 1200 cruise and ballistic missiles rise from heavy vehicles on the Chinese mainland. There are no naval bombardments or waves of bombers: That's how wars in the Pacific were fought 70 years ago. The war for Taiwan starts in the early morning.
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