Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Trifecta

The Russian commander for the 2nd Shock Army was meeting with his Chinese counterpart and the IR military leadership to discuss the pending operation. They knew the Americans were going to launch an offensive soon, and wanted to launch a spoiler attack to throw them off balance. The challenge was going to be determining how to attack an Allied army that had now swelled to over one million troops with a force close to that same number. When launching an assault, it is best to have a 5:1 advantage, which clearly they will not have.

General Abdullah Muhammed was the overall military commander for the IR in Israel. He knew the Russians and Chinese wanted to launch a new offensive, but they lacked the numbers to make it successful. That meant the IR would have to carry the brunt of the manpower used in this next offensive. “General Lodz, I agree that the Americans are going to launch a new offensive, probably in the very near future. I am authorized to commit up to one million IR regular army forces, but that is the extent that I can pledge. Any more, and we lose the ability to even prevent the Allies from invading our own lands.”

“General Muhammed, I understand your concerns, and they are valid. We will accept your contribution, but I would like to have operational control over them so that I can coordinate their attacks properly with ours,” General Lodz said, knowing this was a bit of a reach.

Having realized already that this request may come, General Muhammed had already made his mind up to agree if it was asked. The IR had already fouled up the first invasion and lost nearly 1.5 million troops; if the Russians believed they could do better, then perhaps it would be best for them to take the lead. “I am reluctant to agree to this; however, we share the same goals and I want to see the Allied army crushed before it can gain in strength any more than it already has,” General Muhammed responded.

General Fang, the overall military commander for the Chinese 1st Expeditionary Force, saw this as an opportunity to get some additional forces for his own army group. His reinforcements were still a month away, and the Russians wanted to launch this new offensive immediately, not wait for Chinese reinforcements. “General Muhammed, if I may. China would like to request a much smaller contribution of forces from the IR. We are going to make a push for Southern Israel and attempt to cut them in half, whence we can then take control of the Suez. We would like the IR to commit 200,000 troops to our effort,” Fang requested, hoping he could strike a deal, especially since he asked for 1/5 the number of troops.

“General Fang, the IR appreciates everything the Chinese have done to help us. Because of this, I will grant your request. You will receive 200,000 IR reinforcements and their commanders will report to your chain of command for the duration of the operation,” General Muhammed replied (he had also already anticipated this entreaty as well). The Chinese had assisted the IR tremendously these past four months, so there was no real way he could turn down their invitation and not insult them.

“Excellent, then we will begin to issue orders to the respective units and prepare for the coming attack. The offensive will begin in four days; we need to move quickly as our intelligence sources say the Americans plan to start their offensive in five. We need to throw them off balance before they are able to get organized into their offensive formations. I also have two additional squadrons of MiG40s in route to our positions in Turkey; they will begin providing high altitude air cover and precision bombing of the enemy laser and railgun positions just as they have been doing in Europe. This will limit the Allied air support capability and increase the likelihood of our success. My military planners will send the details to your staffs immediately so you can plan accordingly.” General Lodz was authoritative as the overall area commander. Muhammed and Fang both nodded in compliance and left for their respective commands.

General Lodz had been General Putin’s executive officer for several years prior to him being promoted and given command of the 2nd Shock Army. General Lodz was a brilliant tactician and military leader. He had led the modernization efforts to turn the older Shock Army concept into a 21st century killing machine, heavily incorporating the use of drone tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

The following four days was a flurry of activity as hundreds of thousands of troops began to move to their various jump off points and the MiG40s arrived. The increased MiG activity had an immediate impact; four MiGs had been shot down during the preparations, but they had shot down sixty-eight allied aircraft and destroyed five laser defensive sites and twelve mobile railgun anti-aircraft systems.

The arrival of additional MiG40s was a complete surprise for the Allies, who had only been dealing with them in limited numbers in Europe, not the Middle East. The Allies worst fear was starting to come to fruition; enough MiG40s were being produced that the Russians could now field them in two active war theaters in greater numbers. Unbeknownst to the Allies, the two squadrons of MiG40s were actually part of the European group; the Russians had transferred two of their five squadrons to the Middle East to specifically support the upcoming operation. Then they would be returned back to Europe once the campaign was completed. The Russians were still only able to produce thirty aircraft a month, which was barely keeping up with the losses. It would be another three more months before production levels would reach 60 aircraft a month, and a year before it would reach 120 a month.

The Russian offensive started off like all Russian attacks; there were immense amounts of artillery and rocket attacks, quickly followed by scores of tanks and mechanized infantry in their wake. The MiG40s were in the sky and quickly downing Allied aircraft, trying to attack the Russian armor units and bombing mobile railgun and laser systems as they found them. The goal was to use the artillery and rockets to draw the laser and railgun systems out into the open, and then destroy them with direct munitions from several of the MiG40s (which were designated purely for bombing missions) while the other MiGs were hunting for Allied aircraft.

The assault was swift and vicious as most Russian attacks were, and was followed up by an attack from the Chinese six hours later. The goal was to distract the Allies and potentially draw additional forces to the north to deal with the Russians; then the Chinese would launch their own attack in the south against a potentially weaker Allied flank.