Battlefield Korea

Missile Swarm

Major Chen’s squadron of H-6 bombers (which were essentially Russian Badger bombers) were now entering their maximum range for their anti-ship cruise missiles as they flew over the city of Tangshan. Off in the distance, the pilots of his squadron could still see the orange glow at the edge of the horizon from the destruction of Shenyang. It boiled his blood to know that such a great and beautiful city had been so violently taken from them. His squadron, along with the rest of the H-6 bomber squadrons, would now exact China’s revenge on the Americans who had killed so many of his countrymen.

Their bombers were each carrying two YJ-12 "Eagle Strike 12" anti-ship cruise missiles. The YJ-12 had a maximum range of 400 kilometers, and carried a 551 lbs. high-explosive semi-armor-piercing warhead. The missiles could also travel at speeds of Mach 3.2 if launched from high altitude, making them very hard to hit. The Chinese Air Force had learned from the Russians the swift effectiveness of a missile swarm, and they planned on hitting the Americans with them as often as possible.

Twenty-eight hours had passed since the Americans had destroyed the city of Shenyang, and they were still determining how many people had been killed when the city was destroyed. Initial estimates had placed the casualties somewhere between four and five million. The people of China were shocked and then terrified when news broke of the city being bombed by a nuclear weapon. Then, as the images of the devastation-the dead bodies littered everywhere, and others with horrific wounds-began to circulate on social media, anger began to boil over. People took to the streets, demanding the government retaliate.

As Major Chen’s bomber droned on, they moved ever closer to the American battlegroup, which was in the process of steaming away from the Yellow Sea back towards Japan. When they had moved to within 300 kilometers of them, they started to detect the powerful American search radars. Several of the advanced reconnaissance aircraft turned on their own potent search radars, and immediately began to feed the targeting data back to their squadron. Chen’s weapons officer immediately programed the missiles and let him know they were ready for launch.

A voice came over the radio to the squadron. “Everyone, prepare to fire your missiles.”

It was a very tense 60 seconds, until the voice from the radio commanded them, “Fire all missiles and return to base!”

Chen’s weapons officer followed the order, letting loose the cruise missiles on board. Seconds later, Chen felt the aircraft lift slightly as the weight of those missiles was suddenly released from his wings. He saw the flashes as the rocket motors started and the YJ-12s began to move towards their cruising speed.

He nodded in satisfaction; all his missiles had been successfully launched without incident or failure. Then Chen turned the aircraft and began to head back to their base, presumably to rearm for another mission.