Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

Drone Attack

Lieutenant Daniels was a drone fighter pilot. He had just been transferred to Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks after completing drone flight school four days earlier. Daniels was controlling an F38A fighter drone; his squadron was tasked with providing cover for the F38B ground attack drones that were supporting the infantry as they tried to repel multiple landing invasions.

Daniels heard his squadron commander sign in and began to give them a quick message before the squadron moved as a group to engage the hundreds of fighters heading in their direction. “Men, listen up. I know most of you are fresh out of flight school and this is your first real combat mission. It’s OK to be nervous and doubt yourself, but trust your training and remember this is the real deal. There are tens of thousands of soldiers on the ground depending on us to succeed, so our ground attack planes can provide the close air support they desperately need. Remember your training — I cannot stress that enough. Your preparation works, and so do the tactics we are about to employ. If your fighter is shot down, I want you to grab another and get back in the fight.”

As Lieutenant Daniels’ squadron began to head towards Anchorage, they began to detect hundreds of enemy fighter drones and manned Chinese aircraft. “All right. Our squadron has been directed to engage the fighter drones; one of the other squadrons is going to engage the manned aircraft. We will be in range to launch our AMRAAMs in three minutes. Everyone is to launch your missiles, one after the other, and then accelerate to get into knife range and engage with your sidewinders. Once we go weapons free, you and your wingman are on your own, understand?”

“Yes sir,” they all replied in unison.

The pilots continued to position their aircraft to engage the Chinese. Daniels’ squadron consisted of twenty-four drones; each pilot had three spare drones at the base, ready to be moved to the runway as soon as the pilot was ready to use it. The F38A was a powerful fighter drone; Without having to worry about the survivability of a pilot, the aircraft was able to incorporate some incredible new designs that allowed the aircraft to maneuver on a dime. It had a range of 520 miles, could travel at speeds of up to Mach 3, and carried a 20mm railgun for air-to-air combat. It was armed with six AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, which could engage an enemy aircraft as far away as 90 miles at a speed of Mach five. It also carried six Sidewinder 4 short-range heat seeking missiles, which had a range of 15 miles. The aircraft had an advanced suite of electronic countermeasures and defensive systems to assist in its survivability.

The squadron was engaging about 80 Chinese drones that were trying to secure the air over Kodiak Island. Daniels’ aircraft came into AMRAAM range just as his squadron began to release the first volley of missiles. Daniels toggled a couple of switches and released his six missiles towards their targets, when all of a sudden his warning alarms began to go off. His aircraft was being targeted by multiple enemy drones, who simultaneously fired their own missiles at him and his squadron. His aircraft now had five enemy missiles heading towards it. He hit the after burn, bringing his aircraft to its maximum speed as his wingman maneuvered to stay next to him. The two of them were going to bring their aircraft up to maximum speed and then begin to jink and pull a few other maneuvers as they closed the gap between themselves and the Chinese.

As Daniels followed his training, he was surprised to see that all of the missiles that had been fired at him missed when he conducted a series of tight turns and jinks designed to make it impossible for a missile to continue to track his aircraft, especially in light of his suite of countermeasures. Suddenly, he was within 15 miles of the remaining Chinese aircraft, and he began to cycle through his last remaining missiles. Just as Daniels’ last missile left his aircraft, he was hit by machine gun fire from a fighter that had somehow gotten behind him. In seconds, Daniels’ fighter drone was ripped apart by bullets and at the speed it was traveling, it lost control. He immediately disconnected from the drone and activated another that was now leaving the secured bunker and moving towards the runways.

In less than sixty minutes in the air, nearly all 24 of the drone fighters in Daniels’ squadron had been shot down, but not before shooting down 73 enemy fighter drones. Most of the pilots were in the process of piloting their second drone out to the runways or just taking off when the building’s alarms went off. A loud explosion could be heard nearby, and suddenly, a lot of machine gun fire. It sounded as it if it was coming from the floor above them, which was the Operations Room. That was the room where a lot of the analysis and fighter operations were conducted from.

A guard ran into the room and shouted to everyone, “Russians have infiltrated the building! They are on the floor above! Everyone, get your sidearm ready!”

BOOM! An explosion could be heard just outside the secured door, and suddenly, several objects flew into the room. Daniels had just enough time to realize the flying circles were hand grenades before one bounced off the wall near his pod, exploding and killing him instantly.

A 90 man Spetsnaz team had infiltrated the base perimeter, and began to attack several buildings before the base security knew they had penetrated the boundary defenses. Another team of Spetsnaz began to rain down 120mm mortars on the runways, which were now lined with fighter drones being prepared for takeoff. As the rounds began to land amongst the drones, they started a chain reaction of explosions, causing numerous secondary explosions. Their ordinance started to add to the chaos. The Russians knew exactly where the fighter drone pilots were operating from; they had long ago stolen the blueprints of the building from the contracting company that had built it. They painstakingly planned and prepared their mission around accomplishing two main tasks: 1) disabling the runway for hopefully 24 hours, and 2) attacking and killing the various drone pilot squadrons.

They were going to attack all eight squadrons worth of pilots and destroy the equipment. One after another, each building was successfully penetrated; the people inside were killed and then the buildings were destroyed. With the attack a success, the Spetsnaz teams were done, and began to exit the structures to head towards the base perimeter and the safety of the surrounding woods they had staged the attack in. Unexpectedly, several Razorback helicopters arrived on the scene and began to engage the Russians. The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) quickly wiped out the attacking group, which had very little in the way of cover to hide behind and no heavy weapons or missiles capable of disabling or destroying the armored helicopters.

In the thirteen-minute attack, the Russians had lost all but four members of the Spetsnaz team, but had killed the pilots and operational staff for all eight drone squadrons on the base. They had also substantially damaged the runway, making it impossible to use for at least a half day. This would prove disastrous for not just the American fighter drones in Alaska, but also for the manned aircraft; most of the pilots flying over Alaska originated from this airbase. The Russians had nearly neutralized the American airpower in the first day of the invasion.