Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

A Very Un-Merry Christmas

Prime Minister Stannis Blair and the Allies knew the Russians were going to launch their attack against the EU on December 25^th. What they did not know was what time of day the skirmish would start. Rather than waiting for the hammer to fall, at midnight of the 24^th, the Prime Minister ordered the military to initiate a covert attack against the known Russian positions before they were able to begin their aggressions.

In the deep dark trenches of the ocean floor, the submarines of the Royal Navy launched torpedoes towards eight Russian submarines that they had been shadowing the last several days since leaving their port in Murmansk. The Russians had been moving their subs into the North Atlantic in preparation for their invasion of the EU; their goal had been to attack the Allied shipping lanes and stop additional troops and material that were being moved from the US to Europe. However, within minutes, the Royal Navy had destroyed a total of fifteen Russian submarines, completely dashing their hopes of launching their own surprise assault.

At the same time, the Royal Air Force JF35 stealth fighter bombers and B5 stealth bomber drones began hitting Russian fixed based laser defense and S500 SAM systems, along with sixteen forward airfields. The Russian air defense systems were able to shoot down twenty-nine of the forty-five B5s and twenty-one of the eighty-six JF35s, but not before they successfully destroyed their targets, creating a temporary wide hole in the Russian air defense.

With the newly created gap in security, the Americans fired 4,300 cruise missiles at the Russian 1^st and 3^rd Shock Armies, and targeted dozens of power plants across Western Russia. They also hit a dozen more laser defense systems, along with one hundred and thirty-two mobile laser defense vehicles. The Russians managed to destroy nearly half of the cruise missiles and two thirds of the attacking drones; however, several hundred tanks and other armored vehicles were destroyed by the American missiles.

The Russians, eager for revenge, immediately launched their offensive. 3,000 Spetsnaz soldiers began destroying bridges, damns, dikes, power transmission nodes, and cell towers throughout the EU and Great Britain. One third of the Netherlands and Belgium began to flood as the dikes keeping the seawater at bay began to wreak havoc on the country. With one phone call, the Russians also activated all of their assets to engage in targeted assassinations. 1,321 EU government officials were murdered within the first several hours.

The first four hours of Christmas saw some of the most intense combat that Europe had seen since the height of World War II. Thousands upon thousands of manned fighters and fighter drones were engaged in aerial combat, vying for control of the skies of Europe. While the battle in the clouds was taking place, nearly five thousand Russian main battle tanks and twelve thousand light drone tanks began to move across the borders of Russia into Romania, Hungary and Poland. In total, four million Russians advanced across Europe, led by the famed General, Dimitri Putin II.

When the Russian 3^rd Shock Army crossed the Polish border, they immediately ran into heavy resistance from the German 10^th Panzer Division. General Schoen had prepared his positions well, knowing exactly where the Russians would advance. With the cover of allied drones and air support, he struck fast and hard.

The main tank battle took place at a crossroad between highway 63 and highway 19, just south of Lukow at a city called Radzyn/Pdlaski. General Schoen had moved 430 Leopard 3C main battle tanks and 530 Puma anti-tank infantry fighting vehicles to this position. Each Puma carried eight anti-tank guided missiles, a 30mm autocannon and six infantrymen. The Germans fought courageously and with all their might against the Russians, and blunted their initial assault. The German infantrymen savaged the Russian armored vehicles as they advanced near any of the Polish cities. During the 24-hour running tank battle, nearly 1,124 Russian tanks were obliterated. In comparison, the Germans lost just 243 tanks and 343 Pumas before they fell back to the city of Garwolin, 10 miles south of Warsaw. The German Army was once again proving to be a formidable foe.

General Wade still had not unpacked his bags when the fighting began. The British had presented their plan to him to hit the Russians hard and blunt their pre-emptive strike. With war a near certainty, there was no need to wait to be attacked. General Wade agreed, and persuaded President Stein to give the go-ahead. When the British attacked, General Wade hit the Russians with nearly every cruise missile he had available. They had the element of surprise, so there was no reason to hold anything back.

As General Wade looked up from the desk he was sitting at, he saw Major General Bryant from the British Royal Army walk in with a battle damage assessment (BDA). “Were the raids successful?” asked the SACEUR.

Major General Charles Bryant was the NATO liaison Officer for the Royal Army and was responsible for coordinating the RA and USA ground and air forces in Europe. He was also General Wade’s new XO. With the death of the previous SACEUR CG, General Wade had been relying on General Bryant a lot.

“We hit them hard. BDA shows we destroyed three hydroelectric plants and five other power plants. Another six were heavily damaged. It’s going to cause some rolling blackouts and wreak havoc on their communications and logistical networks. We also hit their rail and bridge networks pretty hard. Twelve of their airfields are temporarily taken out as well.”

“Excellent. At least we scored some immediate hits before everything kicked off. How are we fairing in the air war?” General Wade asked cautiously.

Bryant glanced down at his tablet and cycled through a few slides to get to the information he was looking for. “It’s still touch and go right now. We are starting to see those new MiG 40s we’ve been hearing so much about, and the Su-37 is as fearsome as we thought it would be. They are tearing through us right now.”

General Wade was afraid the new MiG and Su’s might do this. “How bad are they hitting us?”

“We have shot down three MiGs and ninety-two Su-37s, at a loss of seventeen JF35s and one hundred and twenty-three of our F-38 drones.”

General Wade knew these types of losses were not sustainable, particularly if the Russians had a large quantity of these new MiGs. He thought to himself, “How many of these do they have?”

Putting his thoughts into words, he said, “These are not maintainable losses. Do we know where the aircraft are flying out of? Is it possible for us to try and launch a raid on the airfields?”

“No sir. We have not identified where they are flying out of yet. The issue that the pilots and intelligence are having is that the MiG is technically invisible. As in, they literally cannot see the aircraft.”

“I remember reading about that in one of the intelligence briefs. What are we doing about it?”

“The one weakness to the MiG is its heat signature. The rest of the aircraft operates as such a low temperature in comparison to its exhaust that it stands out when using a specialized Doppler radar system. Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of these specific types of instruments in Europe, nor do we use them in our missiles.”

“I want more of these radars brought in from the States immediately. Also, get in touch with some reps from the manufacturers and see if they can figure out a way to get them incorporated into our heat seeking missiles. Get on the horn with whoever you need to, and get more of these radars in theater immediately.”

“Yes sir.”

“How is the rest of the air war going with the drones?” Wade asked.

The allies had nearly 12,400 fighter drones and 1,900 manned fighters in Europe. At the start of the war, the Russians had nearly 17,000 fighter drones and 3,600 manned aircraft. The primary advantage the Allies had was their railgun defensive systems. Both sides had fixed and mobile laser defense and missile systems, but only the Allies had railguns.

“It’s too early to determine how the air war is shaking out. Right now, the 1^st Shock Army is rolling over the Romanian and Hungarian armies. We’ve directed both armies to fall back to their defensive positions as we speak. The 3^rd Shock Army is being slowed down by General Schoen and the German 10^th and 13^th Panzer Divisions at Rzeszow, Lublin, and Radzyn/Pdlaski. During a running 24-hour tank battle, they destroyed over 1,200 Russian tanks before falling back to just 10 miles south of Warsaw.”

“The bigger concern we are seeing with some of the drone fighter squadrons is cyber-attacks. Not all of the squadrons are being affected, but in one instance the entire squadrons’ fighter drones simply went offline and crashed before the technical folks could figure out what was happening,” General Bryant said, a bit concerned with the report.

General Wade was very concerned about cyber-attacks as well. The IR had used them in Mexico and caused a lot of communications problems for his forces there. Those issues were supposed to have been fixed, and thus far, it appeared that the secured military communications grid ‘battle net’ had not gone down. However, the Air Force apparently still had some vulnerabilities in their drones that would need to get sorted out.

“I am also getting some reports from the civilian sector of massive cyber-attacks taking place all across the EU. Water treatment plants are being turned off, or in some cases destroyed. Some of the power plants are going off line and there are all sorts of other issues hampering daily life. But this issue with the Air Force drones is concerning. If we don’t fix that, we may not have anything left to save. Any word from the Air Force on what they are doing to fix the problem?” asked General Wade.

“Before I came in here, I spoke with a Colonel in the cyberwarfare division who said they believe they have identified the problem and are working to close the vulnerabilities as we speak. He also said we should expect many more cyber problems as the war progresses.”

“Great,” Wade replied sarcastically. “Well, stay on this. Actually, assign one of your deputies to make this his top priority. I need you focused on helping me run and coordinate the ground and air war right now. Make sure your deputy gets in touch with our NSA Liaison Office or LNO, and tell them they need to get this fixed or the Russians will be all over our tanks.” General Wade sat back down, and signaled for General Bryant to sit down as well. An aide walked in a second later with a cup of tea for General Bryant and a cup of black coffee for General Wade.

Wade knew things were going to get dicey; he also knew the EU Army had to hold the line for at least two weeks before the American Fifth Army would be at 100 % strength and able to take the 3^rd Shock Army head on. They were stripping the Sixth Army of all of its equipment and personnel in order to get the Fifth Army operational immediately.

Bryant and Wade continued to discuss the ground war and how it was impacting the civilian populace as well. “I know it may seem like things are falling apart quickly; I assure you they will start to stabilize over the next forty-eight hours as the Russians start to run out of steam. The Reds are explosive in their attacks, but they lack the ability to sustain them. We just need to hold the line for a couple of weeks. The Fifth and Sixth Armies are coming.”

The US had rerouted 90 Pershing tanks that were originally heading towards Israel to reinforce the Fifth Army. General Gardner was not happy about losing such valuable MBTs, but understood the need for them in Europe if Fifth Army was going to have a chance at stopping the two Russian Shock Armies. The US had also agreed to a 96-hour ceasefire with the IR after the nuclear attacks; the halt had given General Gardner’s Third Army a chance to consolidate their gains in Israel and gave his forces a chance to rest.