Battlefield Ukraine

Geben Sie Ihren Zweck

Since they had finally received their attack order, Major Victor Schepin’s Spetsnaz team was anxious to get things going. It was just about time for them to execute an attack plan that had initially been drawn up during the height of the Cold War. The men of his unit were spread out in three vans, and each van had four members armed to the teeth, ready to carry out their mission. They were going to hit the NATO base at Geilenkirchen, which was responsible for providing the bulk of NATO’s E-3 Sentries (commonly known as AWACS); this would be a critical base to incapacitate in the early hours of the war.

Despite the Cold War having ended, the Russians still maintained a small contingent of Spetsnaz units operating in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They even had a team that was still operating in the UK. At the height of the Cold War, there were over thirty individual teams operating behind enemy lines, ready to be activated and carry out their mission at a minute’s notice; now that number was much closer to twelve.

Major Schepin checked his watch and saw that they had only a minute left. He signaled for the driver to proceed to the gate. While there was no official declaration of war between NATO and Russia yet, the guards at the NATO base were on alert and had been augmented by additional security. Instead of the standard three guards at the gate, there were now six of them. Beyond the guards, Major Schepin could see the runway and the aircraft hangers. Two of the E-3s were on the tarmac with a ground crew around them, getting them ready to fly.

As their repair van approached the gate, they rounded some cement vehicle barricades that had been placed there to force vehicles to slow down in order to navigate around them. As they neared the guard shack, they readied their weapons. They would have to be quick and neutralize the guards before they could sound the alarm and alert the rest of the base security.

Dieter depressed the button on his driver side window, lowering it as he approached the guard. “Papieren. Geben Sie Ihren Zweck,” barked the guard, asking for their identification papers and the purpose for their visit.

Dieter smiled at the guard innocently enough, then, instead of reaching down to pull his papers out, he pulled out a pistol outfitted with a silencer from the center console and shot the guard right between the eyes. As the guard’s body collapsed to the ground, Major Schepin opened the front passenger side door, bringing his silenced MP-5 to his shoulder and firing a quick three-round burst. He successfully hit the guard nearest him in the upper chest, dropping the man immediately.

The cargo door behind the driver opened up and two additional Spetsnaz soldiers leaped from the van, their silenced MP-5s at the ready. Each man fired several quick bursts at the guards in the guard shack before they could even react to what was unfolding. Dieter, the driver, fired several quick shots, hitting the final guard in the back as he was running to hit the alarm button on the side of the guard shack. In less than thirty-seconds, all six guards had been killed before they could alert anyone else on base or prevent Major Schepin’s team from gaining access to Geilenkirchen. One of Schepin’s men ran up to the guard shack and opened the gates so that the other vehicles in their group could follow them onto the base as well.

Their next goal was to drive towards the flight line and destroy all seven NATO E-3 aircraft. The remaining eight aircraft of the squadron were deployed at other bases and would be handled by other Spetsnaz teams. One of the vehicles in Schepin’s crew headed towards the flight line to destroy the aircraft. The second vehicle headed towards the building where the crew were usually located. The final vehicle headed towards the fuel depot, where they would place explosive charges to destroy the airport’s fuel farms. The operation went off without a hitch.

Captian Hermann Wulf pulled out another cigarette and lit it, pulling in a long drag, letting the smoke fill his lungs as his body absorbed the nicotine it so desperately longed for. As he exhaled the smoke through his nose, one of his staff sergeants walked up to him, signaling he wanted a smoke as well.

Captain Wulf tossed his pack to the sergeant and retrieved his lighter for him. “Many thanks, Captain,” the sergeant said as he handed him back his pack of cigarettes.

“Are the troops ready?” Hauptmann Wulf asked. Their unit had been placed on alert twenty-four hours ago as the Russian NATO deadline neared. They did not know if the Russians would try to attack Castlegate, but the German government and SACEUR were not going to take any chances. They had moved Captain Wulf’s company to a position near the NATO facility to help beef up the security.

Just as the sergeant was about to respond, the radio in their vehicle crackled to life. “We see a suspicious-looking vehicle from the right tower,” said one of the scouts, observing the only entrance to Castlegate.

Wulf did not want his unit to draw undue attention or give themselves away, so he had placed a couple of soldiers in hidden positions, covering the various approaches to the facility. He also kept his armored vehicle hidden, only a couple of blocks away.

Just as Captain Wulf reached for the radio to inquire what the scouts were seeing, they heard an explosion and then the unmistakable sound of automatic machine gunfire.

Without thinking, the sergeant yelled out to the soldiers outside their vehicle, “Mount up!”

Captain Wulf grabbed the radio and yelled, “All vehicles, converge on Castlegate!”

He also made a quick call to their headquarters letting them know, “The facility is under attack!”

The GTX Boxer armored vehicle lurched forward as the driver began to head towards the NATO facility. The rest of Wulf’s command quickly followed in their vehicles and raced to assist the soldiers who appeared to be under some sort of attack. It took less than three minutes for their vehicle to reach the facility and when they arrived, they could see four utility vans parked awkwardly near the road leading to the facility. As they moved past the utility vehicles, a barrage of bullets hit the armored shell of their vehicle, bouncing off harmlessly.

The Boxer armored vehicle was unique in that it was equipped with a remote-controlled turret operated by a gunner within the vehicle. When the vehicle started to take fire, the gunner immediately began to look for where the bullets were coming from and started to return fire with his 12.7mm automatic heavy machine gun.

As the vehicle came to a stop, Captain Wulf ordered the back hatch lowered, and eight soldiers immediately rushed out. The first soldier that exited the vehicle turned to the right of the vehicle and started to run forward, charging the attackers. He only managed to travel four steps before he was hit multiple times in the chest, collapsing to the ground, dead.

Captain Wulf was the last man out of the vehicle. He could see that several of his soldiers were pinned down by nearly a dozen attackers who had turned their attention to focus on his force. The other attackers had continued to try and fight their way into the NATO facility. As the rest of Captain Wulf’s unit arrived, the attackers quickly became outnumbered and overwhelmed. Before long, the Russians were all either killed or captured.

The attack on Castlegate lasted less than ten minutes. It was a vicious attack that resulted in 14 NATO soldiers killed and 23 injured. The four attackers that were captured turned out to be Russian Spetsnaz soldiers; another 43 had died during the incursion. The Russians never penetrated the facility, though they were able to substantially damage the external communications ability of Castlegate, which temporarily shut it down as an alternate command facility.

High above the skies of Myronivka, not far from the Dnieper River, an American Northrop Grumman RQ-4 “Global Hawk” surveillance drone was loitering 10,000 ft. above the countryside when it detected the movement of multiple Russian ground units heading towards the various American armored and infantry units along the demarcation line. The information was immediately relayed to the various ground commands, alerting them to the Russian advance.

Major General Mueller, the American ground commander, immediately sent a flash message to NATO and US European Command headquarters, warning them of the hostile Russian movement, and relaying to HQ that he was ordering his units to engage them. “The Russians are clearly moving to attack my forces,” he thought. “I’m not about to be caught flatfooted, waiting for the Russians to fire the first shot. My units are going to engage those Reds as soon as they are within range.”

MG Mueller yelled out to whoever was within earshot in the headquarters building, “Everyone, get on your IBA and helmets! We need to get ready; the Russians are on the move!”

“Yes, Sir!” came the refrain, and the men and women around him quickly scurried around to put on their body armor and then pass the word along to everyone else.

The army engineers, realizing that hostilities were likely eminent, began to place blast barriers around the buildings on the military portion of the Kiev International Airport airfield. While their forces would not be safe from a direct hit from a Russian bomb, these blast barriers would provide protection from flying shrapnel.

The advance party of the 2^nd Armored Division had just arrived and was in the process of offloading their Abrams M1A2 main battle tanks. They had 24 of them, along with a complement of 16 Bradley fighting vehicles for support. General Mueller saw what was happening and grabbed one of his officers. “Hey, I need you to run down to the battalion commander and tell him to get his tanks on the road to Pryluky airbase ASAP. 2^nd Cavalry has spotted a heavy formation of T-90s, T-80s and T-14s gearing up to cross the demarcation line, and they will need immediate armor support. I know it will take them close to two hours to get there, so time is of the essence.”

“Yes, Sir!” replied the officer, and he ran off to notify 2^nd Armored Division of their new orders.

While the “Global Hawk” was notifying NATO forces of the changes in the ground troops moving towards the demarcation line, a French-operated NATO E-3 Sentry AWACS was operating over west Ukraine to monitor changes in air capabilities. Suddenly, it detected the takeoff of 32 Su-34 “Fullbacks” (which are twin-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range fighter bombers). The Su-34s were notorious and feared in the military world; they were large aircraft that carried a substantial amount of air-to-ground ordinance, perfect for providing air support under heavy enemy fire. The E-3 also detected the takeoff of 23 MiG-31MB “Foxhound” interceptors, all heading towards Ukrainian airspace at supersonic speeds in a standard Russian attack formation.

In addition to the attack aircraft, the E-3 spotted eight Tu-160 “Blackjack” bombers, coming in swiftly at low altitudes across Belarus towards Polish airspace. When the radar operator saw the Blackjacks, his stomach sank; they were more frightening to him than the fighters. They were a supersonic aircraft, intended to swoop in fast and low and deliver devastating conventional or nuclear attacks. NATO considered them to be a first-strike weapon, like the B-1 Lancer bombers.

While the group of radar operators began to identify and track all the inbound aircraft, one of the operators announced, “A new group of aircraft has just appeared.”

The Air Battle Manager, Major Brian Nicodemus, walked over to the young officer and looked at his screen. He immediately saw one, then two, then a total of four groups of 20 Tu-22M “Backfire” bombers, about a hundred miles behind the fighters, moving quickly towards Ukraine. The Backfire was a supersonic, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber, similar to the Blackjack. It also carried a large number of conventional bombs (or up to ten cruise missiles).

Major Nicodemus balked at the new information. “The Russians are clearly launching a full-out air attack against NATO forces… they’ve caught us completely flat-footed,” he thought.

Brian immediately began to alert the aircraft that were flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over Ukraine. There were four American F-15s armed with air-to-air missiles and six German Euro Fighters that were flying a combat patrol near the Poland, Belarus and Ukraine border. The E-3 immediately began to vector the American fighters towards the group of Fullbacks, since they were closest to them. The German Euro Fighters were vectored to engage the group of Blackjacks that were streaking in quickly from Belarus.

The French Commander on the E-3 also issued an alert to the two NATO airbases in Ukraine, along with the bases in Poland and Germany. The US had four F-22 Raptors on a five-minute ready-alert in the vicinity of Krakow, along with six F-15s at the Pryluky Airbase and another six Euro Fighters at the Kiev International Airport. In the next five minutes, NATO would have another sixteen aircraft in the air to meet the Russians.

For their part, the Ukrainian air force also scrambled their own MiGs and Su-27s to join the NATO aircraft. In short order, twelve Ukrainian aircraft would be in the air to help defend their country from what was now clearly a Russian invasion. Fortunately, the Ukrainians had also deployed nearly a dozen SA-10 air defense missile systems around their airbases and the capital of Kiev. These systems immediately began to engage the incoming Russian aircraft with support from the E-3s.

The key to air combat in the 21^st century was the ability of an air force to leverage the immense capability of an AWACs system, like the E-3s. Operating an AWACs allowed the fighters to operate with their search radars off, meaning they emitted no radar emissions, which would normally give their positions away. The AWACs could use their powerful search radars and vector the fighters towards the enemy aircraft, essentially sharing their radar screens with the fighters so they could see what they were seeing.

What the E-3 did not detect, at least not right away, was the six Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighters that had taken off thirty minutes earlier from deeper within Russia. These aircraft immediately began to head towards the NATO and American E-3’s that were operating in the area. Their objective was to blind NATO and prevent them from coordinating a proper air defense while their Su-34s attacked the American ground forces and the Ukrainian air defense units. The Backfires and Blackjacks were going for the NATO airbases in Poland and Germany, hoping to completely eliminate NATO’s air power, which was their most potent defense.

As the French E-3 was alerting additional NATO fighters and vectoring in the ones already aloft, one of the radar operators saw a brief blip of an aircraft no less than six miles from their position. His eyes suddenly grew wide as saucers as he suddenly realized that the aircraft that had appeared out of nowhere had just fired two air-to-air missiles at them. There was no time to react, or even to try to evade the missiles.

As the enemy missiles began to close the distance to the E-3, the pilot immediately began to fire off flares and deploy multiple chaff canisters, in hopes of spoofing the inbound missiles. In less than forty seconds, the two R-73M Archer missiles got within forty-feet of the E-3’s engines and exploded, spraying the area with shrapnel. This metal cloud ripped apart two of the airplanes’ engines and tore chunks from the wings and fuselage. The fires from the explosion quickly found the fuel bladders in the wings and exploded, causing both wings to snap off and forcing the aircraft to begin a steep dive as it started to spin out of control.

As the first NATO E-3 went down, the second E-3, operated by the American Air Force, immediately took over control of the air battle. A third E-3 was scrambled out of Ramstein Airbase along with additional fighters.

Four minutes after the first E-3 went down, the US Air Force operator who had assumed control of the battle, Major Tony Giovani saw a similar blip on their radar screen. Just as the blip disappeared, four R-37M Arrow missiles appeared out of nowhere, about 62 miles away from their position.

Major Giovani immediately began to take evasive maneuvers; he started to steer the aircraft to a lower altitude immediately, to try and lose the missiles in the ground clutter. Tony immediately knew what must have fired those missiles — a Sukhoi Su-57, the Russian version of the American F-22 Raptor. Even while he had his aircraft in a hard pull, he grabbed his radio and contacted his superiors. “Ground Command, Ground Command, this is Watch Tower Two. There is a Sukhoi Su-57 in the air here. They have just launched a set of missiles at me. Performing evasive maneuvers. You need to get the Raptors and the F-15s airborne quickly. Send to my coordinates to engage the Su-57, over!”

“Watch Tower Two, this is Ground Command. Acknowledged. Currently scrambling additional aircraft to your location,” came the reply.

“I don’t know that we have much chance of surviving this encounter,” thought Tony, “but maybe I just increased our chances.”

As he continued to maneuver his E-3 rapidly, the air battle managers in the back of the aircraft also detected three Beriev A-100 Russian-built Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACs) aircraft, which had suddenly turned on their powerful search radars now that the air war had officially started. They would search for the NATO aircraft and then guide the Russian fighters towards them.

“Lord, help us. I don’t want to die right now,” Major Giovani prayed. “If the last NATO E-3 goes down, then the NATO fighters will have to either fly blind or turn on their own search radars, which will give away their positions to the swarm of enemy aircraft now heading towards them.”

Following Major Giovani’s coordinates, the American F-15s had successfully taken off and gotten within missile range of the MiG-31s. The F-15 pilots had wanted to go after the Fullbacks, but the MiGs had raced ahead to intercept them.

The lead F-15 pilot directed his team, “Fire your AMRAAM missiles at the MIGs from maximum range!”

As sixteen projectiles streaked across the sky towards the MIGs, they left ribbons of smoke and steam behind them. The Russian aircrafts immediately began to take evasive action, but not before firing off their own air-to-air missiles at the Americans. Each MIG discharged three missiles at the F-15s.

Both Russian and American aircraft began to pop flares and chaff canisters to try to spoof each other’s missiles and do their best to evade them. While the F-15s succeeded in shooting down 11 of the 16 MiGs that they had engaged, all four F-15s were shot down.

As the battle in the sky started, a group of Germans in a radar truck were continually adjusting the paths of a Patriot missile battery situated on the military side of the Kiev International Airport; they were attempting to keep aim on the numerous enemy aircraft heading towards them.

Once they finally received confirmation of hostile intent, the officer on watch, Captain Isaac Krüger, hurriedly ran over to the radar operator. “Hey, Alice, we have authorization to fire,” Isaac blurted out. “I want you to prioritize and engage the enemy aircraft; the most pressing threat at the moment is the Su-34s. I count 24 of those Fullbacks — if we are lucky, we will take them all down.”

Alice Weber quickly moved to activate one of the four-missile battery pods, and launched all four missiles at the incoming Fullbacks. She then moved to the next battery of missiles and began to launch the next batch of four Patriot II missiles. As she began to activate the third battery, the other radar operator, “Bucky,” announced, “The Backfires just fired off a wave of cruise missiles at us!”

Captain Krüger, immediately instructed them, “Ok, stop targeting the Fullbacks now. Engage the incoming cruise missiles with all of our remaining missiles. We still have sixteen left, so we should be fine.”

The mood remained calm; they felt confident in shooting down the incoming fire with their own missiles… until a second wave of cruise missiles appeared on their radar screen.

Krüger felt nauseous. He knew in that moment that they would not be able to take all of the incoming cruise missiles down. He had technicians at the first two batteries, doing their best to get the next set of missile pods reloaded, but even under the best training exercise, they had not been able to get them up and ready in less than ten minutes. There just wasn’t time.

Isaac calculated the situation mentally. “The targeting computer now has control of all 24 missiles, and it is going to guide the missiles to the Su-34s and cruise missiles we already locked them on. Well… there’s no reason for us to stay in these vehicles any more, since we are clearly going to be targeted ourselves.”

Captain Krüger yelled, “Everyone, out! Run to the closest bomb bunker and pray you survive!”

While his men ran for protection, Isaac chose to stay behind and make sure the missiles functioned as they should. It was the last time his men saw him. The radar and control vehicle was demolished as soon as the second wave of cruise missiles began to pulverize the airport.

In less than 20 minutes, all of the NATO fighter aircraft flying over Ukraine were destroyed. The Russian Fullbacks began to focus their attack runs against the Ukrainian air defenses and airbases, especially the Kiev International Airport, where the rest of the NATO alert fighters were stationed and still in the process of taking off. They fired off two waves of twenty missiles each. As the first wave of cruise missiles began to streak across the skies to the runways, the missiles dispersed their cluster munitions. As those began to explode on the runways, large craters were formed, making it impossible for any aircraft to take off or land there. They also managed to destroy several German Euro Fighters that had been in the process of taking off.

Just as the Russians were beginning to feel cocky, six of the NATO Patriot missiles got into range of the Fullbacks they had been locked on. As the proximity sensors on the missiles were activated, a cloud of shrapnel was released right into the path of the Su-34s, ripping the hulls of those aircraft apart. Debris from the Fullbacks began raining down from the sky. The larger chunks of the wings and tails flew towards the ground at high speeds, impacting violently.

Two fortunate Fullback pilots had managed to perform evasive maneuvers and escape the path of the incoming Patriot missiles. They pulled their aircraft hard enough that the proximity sensors on the incoming projectiles were never activated. Those missiles streaked right past the Fullbacks, eventually exploding in mini-fireballs and releasing small clouds of shrapnel harmlessly.

Just before the cruise missiles arrived, two Euro Fighters had succeeded in taking off. Their luck was short-lived though; they were quickly shot down while they desperately tried to gain altitude and get into the fight. Even if another helicopter or plane had attempted to use the cratered runway, the MiGs had the airport blanketed in air cover at that point, preventing any additional aircraft or helicopters from getting airborne.

Of the 16 Patriot Missiles that had been aimed at the cruise missiles, 12 met their marks. Each time one of the cruise missiles came into range of one of the Patriot missiles, a scattered shotgun-like blast erupted from the Patriot, throwing chunks of metal into the path of the cruise missile. The cruise missiles were ripped apart, creating explosions that were almost beautiful, reminiscent of fireworks.

Twenty-eight cruise missiles continued unhindered towards the Kiev International Airport. As each one impacted, the sound wave from each blast created a mini-earthquake. Clouds of dust and debris began rising quickly into the air, like the tumultuous edge of a thunderstorm. There wasn’t an aircraft hangar left after that attack.

Following the two waves of cruise missiles, pairs of Su-34s began to drop the Russian version of 1,000 lbs. JDAMs on the fuel farms, and the dozens of NATO fighters that had been getting ready to fly. NATO engineers had erected dozens of blast walls separating the aircraft, which prevented a single bomb from causing damage to other nearby aircraft. However, the Russians knew this, so they used their guided smart bombs to destroy the remaining NATO aircraft.

The Fullbacks also targeted the US/NATO Command Center and communications equipment. They hit the temporary lodging facilities, and other military vehicles and positions as they found them. In the span of fifteen minutes, the Kiev International Airport was completely wrecked. Nearly every NATO aircraft and helicopter had been destroyed or severely damaged. Major General Mueller and his deputy, a German Brigadier General, had both been killed along with most of their staff during the attack. Nine hundred US and NATO soldiers had been killed, and nearly three times that number had been wounded.

In addition to the military loss of life, nearly a thousand civilians had been killed at the airport. Although the Russians had focused on the military side of the airport, several large commercial aircraft were destroyed during the cruise missile attack, causing further death and destruction.

While the attack on the international airport was taking place, a small group of MiGs headed towards the Polish border to protect the flight of twenty Backfires as they moved to get in range of two other Polish airbases being used by NATO. Their goal was to damage the Polish airfields where additional NATO aircraft were stationed. This would further inhibit the US/NATO ability to respond to the Russian invasion, and if they were lucky, would disable or destroy additional fighter aircraft. The Su-34s would not be following the Backfire attack like they had in Kiev and Pryluky, so the cruise missiles had to accomplish the job on their own.

Staff Sergeant Noah Troy was on watch in the radar vehicle of the Patriot battery at Pryluky when the Russian air attack started. He watched nervously as his radar began to track dozens of MiGs and other attack aircraft while they took off from their bases in Russia and started to head towards Ukrainian airspace. “Holy cow, this must be the attack they warned us about,” he thought to himself.

Noah had a sick feeling in his stomach. He turned to one of the soldiers next to him and ordered, “Go get the lieutenant. She needs to see this now.”

1^st Lieutenant Nichole Mattie was standing not far from the radar vehicle, talking with one of her soldiers who was having a problem with his girlfriend back home. “One of the many duties of being an officer — listening to your soldiers’ life drama,” she thought.

While Nichole was in the middle of telling this young kid that there were plenty of fish in the sea, she looked up and saw one of her soldiers exit the radar truck, frantically waving to get her attention.

“LT! Sergeant Troy needs you in the truck ASAP!” the soldier yelled with a distraught look on his face.

“Ugh, what the heck is wrong now?” she wondered.

“I’m on my way,” she responded, and she ended her conversation with the other soldier and began to walk swiftly back to the radar truck.

“What do you have, Sergeant Troy?” Lieutenant Mattie asked as she closed the door behind her.

Troy looked up nervously as the lieutenant walked in. “Ma’am. I think the Russians are about to attack. If you look here, see? We are tracking over forty aircraft heading in our direction and a lot more heading towards Kiev. I think we should sound the base alarm,” he said, hoping someone else would agree with his assessment.

Lieutenant Mattie saw the radar display and the color drained from her face. This was the most Russian aircraft she had ever seen at one time, and she knew it meant only one thing. “Yes, I agree with you. Hit the base alarm, and get the missile pods spun up to engage those aircraft once they cross into Ukrainian airspace. I’ll be back shortly; I’m going to run over to the operations center and let them know what’s going on,” she said as she left Troy to get the battery ready to respond to the threat.

Sergeant Troy sighed in relief, then reached over and hit the red button that would sound an air raid alarm across the base. Once the siren began to wail, he immediately activated the missile pods and turned them in the direction of the incoming enemy aircraft. “Man, we’ve only been here four days — and now the Russians decide they want to attack?” he thought to himself.

The Specialist who had been sitting next to him interjected, “Sergeant, the Russian aircraft are about to cross into Ukrainian airspace — are we cleared to engage?”

Sergeant Troy paused for a second and looked at Specialist Matthews, who appeared to be moments away from completely freaking out. “Listen up, when those Russians cross the border, we are going to start engaging them with our missiles. If they launch any cruise missiles, then we are going to switch targets and go after those instead. Remember your training, and just do what we have practiced a million times. There are alert fighters being scrambled right now and other fighters above us. We do our part, and let them do their part OK?” he said, trying to calm his fellow soldier’s nerves down and keep him focused.

A minute later, the Russian aircraft began to cross into Ukrainian airspace, heading right for them. Trevor nodded towards Specialist Matthews, who lifted the cover off the firing button and began to discharge the first pod’s worth of missiles. In seconds, the pod fired off its volley of Surface-to-Air Missiles at the incoming Russian aircraft. They switched to the second pod of missiles and began to lock on to additional aircraft; then they fired off that pod’s worth of missiles as well.

All of a sudden, they spotted a volley of cruise missiles being fired from the Russian bombers.

“Oh crap — that’s a lot of cruise missiles,” Sergeant Troy thought. “We don’t have enough missiles to stop them all.”

Noah immediately blurted out, “We’re changing targets. Let’s go after those incoming cruise missiles. Hopefully we can thin them out a bit.” He was not feeling at all confident in their chances. Even under the best training circumstances, they could not get the spent missile pods reloaded in enough time to reengage the incoming missiles and aircraft.

Just as they began to switch targets and go after the incoming cruise missiles, they felt the concussion of a massive explosion rock their vehicle. Overwhelming noise from the blast soon followed. Then, the roof of their vehicle imploded, and their worlds went black as a mortar round scored a direct hit on their radar truck.

Lieutenant Mattie had just walked out of the operations center when the radar truck exploded. She was shoved to the ground by the shockwave from the blast, right before her ears were overpowered by the boom from the mortar. As she laid there on the ground, stunned for a second, she caught her breath and then heard the C-RAM’s 20mm cannon open fire on additional incoming mortars, too late to save her soldiers in the radar vehicle. Several additional explosions could be heard from rounds that were still getting through the C-RAM. She pulled herself up to see soldiers running to different fighting positions and protective bunkers. It was controlled chaos as the base began to respond to the attack.

Colonel Joe Jenkinson had arrived at Pryluky Airbase twenty-four hours ago as part of the advance party for elements of the 82^nd Airborne. The Division had started to arrive in country to help reinforce the 2^nd Cavalry Regiment and the 173^rd Airborne, which had already deployed to the field. Colonel Jenkinson had just walked into the operations center to meet with the base commander, when the air raid sirens began to wail. He looked around and saw the highest-ranking officer in the operations center was an Air Force Major. The base commander must still have been on the way.

“Major Dusty, we have incoming Russian aircraft!” yelled a young female lieutenant as she walked into the operations center. All eyes turned to face her, not sure what to make of what she just said.

Major Dusty was the base’s operations officer; this was his second month in Ukraine, so he had gone through this type of drill many times. He knew the next few minutes were going to be critically important to the survival of the base if this was the main attack they thought might happen. He turned to one of the NCOs from flight operations. “Order the alert fighters to scramble immediately. Flush the rest of the fighters from the base right away, and get our helicopters airborne!” he barked.

As orders were being issued to the various groups throughout the base, the C-RAM system began to engage an unseen target. Then, a loud explosion shook the building. A tense moment went by before another powerful blast shook the building, only this time, they heard shrapnel hitting the outer walls, and debris must have been raining down on the ceiling above them.

“Everyone get your IBA on, we are under attack!” Major Dusty yelled.

Colonel Jenkinson moved quickly to the major, grabbing hold of his arm to get his attention. “Get me a radio to the QRF now!” he said. The major just nodded and pointed to one of the soldiers manning a bank of SINCGAR radios.

The colonel walked over to the soldier. “Hey, I need the radio to the helicopters,” he said.

The soldier nodded, then handed him one of the handsets he had just used. “This one is setup to talk to the Apaches right now,” he responded.

Colonel Jenkinson picked up the radio and let them know to head to a specific area, not far from the base and look for the enemy mortar team. One of the first things Colonel Jenkinson had done when he arrived at the base was to look for where the Russians would most likely set up their mortars or launch attacks. Once the rest of his unit arrived, he had planned on placing several listening posts in those areas to watch them. Unfortunately, the rest of his unit wasn’t going to arrive for a couple more days.

Major Igor Yelson’s men were ready to attack the Americans. They had moved into position less than an hour ago, as soon as they had been given the attack orders. He had had his men split up into several teams. He had two mortar teams that would attack the American air defense systems, while one of his ground teams would pour a ton of heavy machine gun fire at the perimeter, in hopes of drawing the American soldiers out in the open once the cruise missiles would start to hit.

Major Yelson’s main concern was the Apache helicopters that his scouts had identified. They would need to take those choppers out quickly or they would shred his force. To counter the Apaches, he had six of his soldiers ready, equipped with the newest MANPADs available, the SA-25 “Willow.” Yelson knew the American helicopters would come for his mortar teams, so he had the MANPADs positioned just right to take them out.

“It’s time,” Major Yelson announced. “Start hitting the base with the mortars,” he ordered one of his lieutenants.

The lieutenant nodded, lifted a radio to his mouth, and spoke a single word.

In seconds, they heard the first thump, thump, thump, of the mortars being fired. Then, they heard a noise they were not expecting. It sounded like a piece of linen being torn or ripped apart. Then they saw two strings of tracer fire emanating from the base into the sky where their mortars had just fired.

An explosion could be heard as the first couple of mortars hit. There was a pause, and then a secondary blast could be heard as the next group of mortars hit.

“Those blasted Americans,” thought Igor. “They must have set up an anti-mortar-rocket system.”

At least some of the mortars were still getting through though, because they were still hearing additional explosions within the base. Then, the unmistakable sound of chopper blades slapping rhythmically rose above the din. Major Yelson squinted as he looked off in the distance of the runway; he saw an Apache helicopter taking off and start heading in their direction. He also observed a pair of fighters hit their afterburners as they raced down the runway to get airborne.

As the first Apache got closer to their positions, it let loose a slew of anti-personnel rockets at one of his mortar positions. In that instant, he thought to himself, “This is it. My mortar team is doomed.”

Then, Major Yelson saw the first of his MANPADs fire from the tree line towards the helicopter, then a second. The helicopter moved incredibly quickly and somehow evaded the first missile, but was hit by the second one. Igor thought the helicopter would have blown up or crashed, but it resumed its attack on his men. In seconds, it was nearly on top of his second mortar team, when another MANPAD reached out and nailed it. The helicopter began to spew smoke and flames, and quickly turned to head back to the base. It only stayed aloft for a few more minutes before it made a hard-crash landing at the edge of the perimeter.

Just then, the cruise missiles started to hit the NATO base, exploding across the runways and then the rest of the base buildings. Major Yelson smiled, knowing that his unit had done their part; they had helped to eliminate the Patriot missile battery, which was the only real threat to the air raid now destroying the base.

He picked up his radio and ordered, “Disengage. Return back to our rally point. We need to regroup, rearm, and get ready for our next mission.”

Captain Ian Hawk had been getting his Apache ready for a routine flight when the base alarm went off. They received an alert, letting them know of a possible Russian air raid, and telling them to get airborne as quickly as possible.

Captain Hawk closed the window to the cockpit and began to bring the helicopter to full power. In less than a minute, he began to steer out of their revetment towards the taxiway while continuing to gain power. Then, he saw the C-RAM system fire at an unseen target towards the opposite side of the base. A voice came over the radio and told them to head towards a specific grid to see if the mortar team was near there.

Ian applied power to the helicopter and began to fly towards the coordinates he was given. He got the attention of his gunner, at the front of the chopper, “Hey Tom, if you spot that mortar team before I do, engage them with the rockets and take them out. We can’t let them walk those rounds in on the runway.” Captain Hawk was concerned about the pair of F-15s that were beginning to head towards the end of the runway to take off.

Suddenly, he spotted a projectile flying from a small clearing near some wooded areas, roughly two kilometers from the base perimeter. “Over there! Hit them with the rockets quick!” Hawk yelled to his gunner, who proceeded to let loose a number of their anti-personnel rockets. As Tom was firing the rockets, Hawk increased speed and started to race towards the position, betting there were additional enemy soldiers in that area.

As he moved closer to the Russian positions, his air defense alarms began to growl in his ears, and then a blaring alarm overpowered him. Before he could even react, the helicopter’s automated defense began to spit out flares and it jerked hard to one side, just in time for him to watch an enemy missile fly right past them. Then, they felt a sudden jolt and heard the explosion. All kinds of alarms began to go off in the cockpit of the helicopter.

Tom continued to stay focused on engaging the ground soldiers, who were now shooting at them. Hawk regained control of the helicopter, hitting the fire extinguisher on the engine that was damaged. He pulled the helicopter into a hard-right turn as he looked to gain some altitude and pull them away from the ground fire. Then, several more missiles raced towards their position. Captain Hawk fired off more flares and jinked hard from side to side, trying to evade the new missiles.

Suddenly, the glass canopy above him exploded. As soon as he stopped shielding his face from the falling shards of glass, Ian realized that his left arm didn’t work. His right leg was on fire, and there was smoke pouring into the cockpit from the engine intake above him. Hawk turned the helicopter back towards the base, trying to get them back to safety. He attempted to use his left hand to reach for the fire extinguisher, but it still wouldn’t work. He looked down and saw his left hand had been severed and was squirting blood. As he tried to bring the helicopter in for an emergency landing, he lost too much blood, and lost consciousness.

Several of the F-15s fought to gain altitude and engage the enemy fighters just as the first wave of cruise missiles began to arrive. The C-RAM switched from engaging the mortars to the cruise missiles and threw a sheer wall of 20mm rounds at the incoming missiles, destroying dozens of them.

However, while the C-RAM was occupied with the incoming missiles, several pairs of Su-34s began to release a series of JDAMs on the airfield. They specifically targeted the C-RAM system, the base communication systems, power generation, command and control buildings, and the dozens of US and NATO aircraft and helicopters that were trying to get into the air and join the battle.

As the airbase’s defenses went down, the waves of enemy cruise missiles and JDAMs began to systematically destroy the base and hammer units of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and 173rd Airborne that were not already dispersed at their marshalling points away from the base.

While the base was under air and ground attack, two Russian surveillance drones loitered not far away, providing exceptional video coverage of the attack. The recordings from these drones would be immediately used by the Russian psychological operation groups and Russian media to produce graphic and gripping descriptions of the battle. This, of course, would be promulgated across social media to the entire world.

While the initial air battle was over, NATO’s two Patriot batteries had successfully shot down sixteen Russian aircraft and fourteen cruise missiles; however, they were still destroyed. NATO’s most potent air defense system had been destroyed in the first thirteen minutes of the war. The Ukrainian air defense systems had fared slightly better, shooting down seventeen Russian aircraft before they were taken offline. Still, the defeat was demoralizing.