Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

The Phone Rings

As President Stein, his cabinet and advisors were trying to determine if the nuclear bomb originated from the Islamic Republic and what their response would be, an aide interrupted the discussion to announce the IR Foreign Minister and Caliph Mohammed were on the phone and would like to speak with the President. The room suddenly fell silent and all eyes turned to the President.

“Please put them through. We have a lot to discuss,” said the President, eyes ablaze with fury.

“Mr. President, this is Talal bin Abdulaziz, the Foreign Minister for the Islamic Republic. I also have Mohammed Abbas, our Caliph, and General Rafik Hamza on the line with us. We wish to discuss a matter of great urgency with you.” Back at the Command Bunker in Riyadh, Talal looked nervously back and forth from General Hamza to Caliph Mohammed. However, the anxious thoughts he was having did not translate into his voice; in a feat of great acting, he sounded as confident as any great number of dictators delivering a monologue to a brainwashed crowd.

President Stein believed the IR was either calling to claim this attack or to try and assure the Americans they had nothing to do with it. In either case, the President was about to ensure Caliph Mohammed knew his only choice was to surrender and end this war.

“This is President Stein. Please go ahead with whatever it is you wish to discuss; then I have something I would like to say since we have everyone on the line talking.”

Mohammed had rehearsed this conversation in his mind hundreds of times. Now he was talking directly to the President of the United States and about to make the ultimate demand.

“Mr. President, this is Caliph Mohammed. For over one hundred years the West has propped up dictators in the Middle East and waged countless wars over our oil. America has led most of these aggressions against the Middle East, and we hold America accountable for the millions of people who have died at the expense of Western interventions in the lands of the Prophet.”

“Today, the first of many of Allah’s Swords was delivered to America with the destruction of New York City. If America does not begin an immediate ceasefire and withdraw of all military forces from the Middle East and North Africa, and surrender the Jewish State to the Islamic Republic, then additional nuclear bombs will be detonated in American cities,” announced Caliph Mohammed with a steady and commanding voice.

President Stein sat back in his chair for a moment in complete surprise and shock at the callousness in Mohammed’s voice and his willingness to wage total war on civilian targets. “Caliph Mohammed, you may believe that you have struck a great blow against America and that we can be defeated. If you were talking with any of my predecessors, you may have been able to intimidate them with your threats and demands. I, however, will not be intimidated.”

“I want to make something crystal clear to you. We will respond with a proportional response for this attack on New York City, but if another nuclear device is detonated against one of our cities, then I will give the order for your largest one hundred cities in the Islamic Republic to be obliterated from the face of the earth. We will use every nuclear bomb, chemical and biological weapon if need be to utterly destroy your nation. We will completely eradicate your country and people from the face of the earth, including Mecca and the Kaaba. Do I make myself clear?” President Stein said with conviction.

General Hamza knew if the Americans were bent on completely destroying the IR, they could do it, but it would take time. Whether or not the Americans knew it, time was not something they had on their side, especially as the Chinese moved into their second phase of their war and the Russians began their offensive in a few more days. He also believed the Russians and Chinese would intervene and force the Americans to keep the war conventional in order to keep them from using their own nuclear weapons. General Hamza whispered his thoughts to Caliph Mohammed, assuring him that the IR would take severe damage but would ultimately survive.

Caliph Mohammed felt better about the country’s chances after General Hamza’s brief comments. With the mute button still on, he looked at General Kalel Rafi, the IR Special Operations Commander, and ordered, “General Rafi, please have our agent with the second device detonate it immediately.”

Without a second thought, General Rafi picked up his cell phone and sent a text message to his operator, who would martyr himself and detonate the second device personally. They had offloaded the device from the ship and had moved it in a specially shielded utility truck into downtown Baltimore, where it would do the most damage. Unfortunately, it was starting to get late in the evening on the East Coast of the United States so a lot of the people were starting to leave the city.

As President Stein and his advisors were discussing the threat made by Caliph Mohammed and what to do next, a Secret Service Agent walked over to the President and informed him that another device had gone off in Baltimore. One of the aides turned on one of the wall TVs to Fox News, and immediately the image of a newly formed mushroom cloud started to rise out of the downtown skyline.

President Stein could barely contain his rage and frustration at this point. With the mute button still on, he looked at the director of the FBI, DHS, NSA and CIA and asked a very simple question. “Do you believe they have additional nuclear devices, or it possible that these are the only two bombs they have?”

The FBI Director Jane Smart replied, “We had not received any word or credible evidence that the IR had smuggled any nuclear weapons into the country, so I cannot say with certainty that these are the only two bombs.”

Jorge Perez, the Director for DHS, explained, “We knew the IR was potentially planning on smuggling some nuclear weapons into the US via commercial shipping. As of right now, we have no idea how many they may have tried to smuggle in or have in port. It is obviously clear that at least two devices made it to our coast. The Coast Guard and FBI have barely had time to get organized and begin a massive sweep of the ports. I cannot confidently say they do not have additional nuclear weapons.”

Patrick Rubio, the Director of the CIA, was deep in thought as the others gave their assessments. As the President began to look at him, he thought about his response for a second and pulled a file up from a folder on his tablet. “Mr. President, one of our agents within the FSB had overheard from one of his colleagues that the IR intended to smuggle two nuclear devices into the US and make use of other commercial ships and natural gas tankers as improvised bombs to destroy other major ports.”

“I only bring this information up right now because our agent sent this information to us this morning along with the 2nd Shock Army’s final orders for the Christmas Eve attack.” Nodding towards the NSA Director, he continued, “We were working to coordinate this information with the NSA to determine if there was additional collaborating information about the number of nuclear devices before we disseminated the threat. Obviously, since they used the devices today, we were unable to do that,” said Director Rubio.

Director Perez was clearly irate, and barked, “If you had provided that information while it was being vetted, then perhaps we could have pieced that together with additional information and may have prevented this from happening.”

President Stein knew this could get out of hand quickly, and moved to squash the disagreements before they went any further. “Jorge, if this information came in this morning then chances are we were too late. That said, Director Rubio, you will share these types of threats in the future even if they are not fully vetted. So… before we respond to Caliph Mohammed, are you certain these are the only two devices? Should we respond with nuclear weapons of our own?” asked the President.

“We need to identify the other commercial ships that may be used as improvised bombs; they can still hurt us. As for the nukes, I do believe these are the only two they have. Our agent we have in the FSB is assigned to the 2nd Shock Army; they are currently stationed in Turkey and one of his duties is to coordinate intelligence between them and their IR counterparts. He only learned of this information when his counterpart bragged about the Americans being forced to withdraw from the Middle East soon. He alluded to the two nuclear devices, but never mentioned any additional ones. They may have slipped additional nukes in, but I highly doubt it.”

Signaling for the communications officer to unmute the line, President Stein began to address Caliph Mohammed in a measured and calculated manor. “This is President Stein. I have just received confirmation and I am looking at the video feed of a second nuclear detonation in Baltimore. I assume this was detonated by your agents?” asked the President.

Caliph Mohammed was relishing this moment where he clearly thought he had the President of the United States over a barrel. “We needed to make sure you understand that if you do not withdraw your forces from the Middle East then we will detonate additional nuclear bombs in your cities. Your only choice is to withdraw or lose more American cities.” Caliph Mohammed said confidently.

Knowing that the US needed to strike back at the IR, the President began to give his response in a cool and calm manor. “Caliph Mohammed, your regime has shown no regard for human life. Your Army butcher’s innocent civilians while we go out of our way to minimize the loss of innocents. You have clearly indicated with these two nuclear detonations on civilian targets that you have declared complete and open war on our civilian population. Now it is my turn to tell you that we know that you only had two nuclear devices in our country; you have done as much damage as you can do. Now it is time for you to feel the complete and utter wrath of the American nuclear arsenal. I can assure you, you have no idea how much damage the US can do to the Islamic Republic, but you are about to find out.”

Click. With that, the President had the connection terminated.

“Admiral Juliano, how soon can we hit Riyadh?” asked the President.

“We have a nuclear attack submarine in position; the problem is their laser defense system. Our ballistic missiles will be destroyed quickly. We could use a cruise missile, but even those would most likely be destroyed. The cruise missile can fly under their laser defense system until just at the end, when it needs to climb to its effective altitude before detonating. It’s in those last two or three seconds that it would most likely be destroyed. We could do a ground burst but then we radiate the area for generations,” Admiral Juliano described, a look of disappointment in his face.

“Mr. President, if you are willing to give us some time, we can install a warhead on one of the X59 cruise missiles,” said General Rice, the Commanding General of the Air Force.

The President turned and asked, “I thought we had gone through our supply of them when we attacked their power grid at the start of the war, right?”

Eric Clarke interjected for General Rice and explained, “We had Mr. President. The manufacturer said they have five missiles ready for use right now. They began full production of the X59 at the start of the war, and with the current parts they had on hand, they were able to give us five additional missiles. They should be able to start supplying us with about 20 cruise missiles a month starting in January and will ramp up to 100 missiles a month by the end of ‘41.”

The President turned to General Rice and directed, “I want you to pick five of their largest and most strategic cities, and I want them obliterated. What are your immediate suggestions, and how long until we can hit them?” asked the President.

General Rice thought about that for a minute. The US had secretly converted a number of mk-41 thermonuclear warheads to be fitted to cruise missiles. The yield was nothing short of amazing. “Mr. President, we will install a cruise missile variant of the mk-41, called the w-100 warhead, on the cruise missiles. The warhead has a maximum yield of 25 Megatons; it will essentially flatten anything within ten miles of ground zero and radiate everything within a fifty-mile radius of detonation.”

“Alternatively, we also secretly developed an experimental a 25 Megaton neutron bomb. Before anyone says anything, yes this directly violated every nuclear arms reduction treaty we ever signed. It was an ‘eye’s only’ project with a limited number of scientists who worked on it. It was developed to essentially eliminate the population of a city without destroying it. It still produces an EMP, so there will still be damage, but it will not obliterate a physical target. We also worked out the bugs in it and raised the yield from 10 Kilotons to the 25 Megaton beast I am now talking about. The bomb needs to be detonated as an airburst, approximately 15,000 feet above the targeted area. Once it detonates, it will release roughly 8,000+ rads of radiation to everyone within a ten-mile radius, killing them nearly instantly. Everyone within a thirty-mile radius of ground zero will also receive a lethal dose of radiation as well,” General Rice explained, reading the effects from his tablet.

The Secretary of Defense interjected, “Aside from the fact that this bomb should never have been developed, this is a particularly nasty weapon, Mr. President. No country in history has ever used a bomb with these kinds of effects before and I am afraid of the retaliation we may receive from the Chinese and Russians. Not to mention what our allies will say. I agree that we need to retaliate against the IR for these two attacks; I am just not sure if this is the right weapon to use. The million-dollar question is — what will the Chinese and Russians do? And do we risk it?” asked Eric Clarke, a bit concerned that this could escalate out of control.

The President thought for a moment, trying to determine how to respond to what General Rice said. His gut told him not to go down this route — that this could lead to disaster — but his brain said this needed to be done to avenge the lives taken in New York and Baltimore. He was also committed to using whatever weapon necessary to win the war and bring it to a swift conclusion. With the internal battle of the mind having been settled, the President said, “Let’s move forward with the neutron bomb as it will leave the least amount of fallout and long-term damages. I do not want to destroy the global environment if possible… If I am not mistaken, there is a portion of the IR not protected by their laser defense system — correct?” asked the President.

“Yes, Mr. President. During the blackout, we hit a number of their laser defense sites. Egypt and most of North Africa are completely open. We could hammer North Africa and their forces there. We can move forces in to secure the area once the situation in the Middle East is stabilized. If we use the neutron bombs, we’ll minimize the damage and environmental fallout. When our forces move in, they should encounter little (if any) radiation,” Eric said, offering the President some options.

“Then I want their strategic, logistical, military and high density civilian centers in North Africa destroyed immediately by conventional nuclear weapons,” Stein ordered. “One more thing, make sure our attacks do not appear to threaten Russia or China. I do not want this to escalate any further than it already has.”

Secretary of State Jim Wise interjected, “Mr. President, we can inform the Russians and Chinese that our nuclear attacks are being directed at the IR. If they interfere or threaten the US with nuclear weapons, then we will not hesitate to use our nuclear weapons in retaliation.”

Taking a minute to think about things, the President said, “I am concerned about things escalating out of control. At the same time, I do not want to limit ourselves in bringing this war to a swift and decisive conclusion. That said, the Chinese already used nuclear torpedoes on our naval facility at Pearl Harbor. We retaliated by hitting their naval headquarters—”

“Mr. President, with everyone having laser defense systems, the likelihood of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) or Submarine Launch Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) being used against each other is rather slim. Our biggest problem is material shortages. The war in Israel has depleted not just our prepositioned equipment stocks in Israel, but most of our cruise missiles in the US. We burned through our entire year’s production capability of war stocks in three days. We need to slow the pace of the war down,” the SecDef said, almost pleading, and craftily changing the subject away from the use of nuclear weapons.

“How long until these cruise missiles could be ready with the neutron warheads to strike at the heart of the IR?” asked the President, rubbing his temples.

“Probably 24 hours, and another 10 hours to get them in range of being used,” General Rice responded.

Stein knew this was one of the most critical decision points in World War III, one that could potentially escalate the conflict into a nuclear hot war. That was something he desperately wanted to avoid. “General Rice, continue to use the Air Force to hurt the IR and see if there is anything we can do to go after the IR laser defense system with our stealth bombers. Also, begin destroying every piece of infrastructure we can in Lebanon and Syria. If the 2nd Shock Army is going to invade, they will have to go through Syria and Lebanon. There is no reason to make their passage any easier than it needs to be.”

“Also, see if our stealth bombers can get through their laser defenses and start to attack their power grid again. If their grid goes offline, or those laser defenses go offline, then I want our submarines and bombers to launch a wave of nuclear cruise missiles at the IR and hit every city they can,” said the President, anger burning in his eyes.

The United States had been dealt a massive blow with the effective destruction of New York City and Baltimore. Tens of millions of Americans were frightened and livid, not sure of what to do next or what to expect. The President addressed the nation that evening, letting the American people know that it was in fact the Islamic Republic who detonated the nuclear bombs. The President assured the American people the IR would be dealt with in due time. Then he asked the American people to continue to do their jobs and go to work. The war effort counted on people carrying on with their work and doing their jobs, not fleeing to the countryside and making matters worse.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs assured the American people that the laser ballistic missile defense system was fully operational. The IR could not use their ballistic missiles against the US and neither could China. Despite the shock and horror of nuclear bombs being used on American cities, the majority of Americans resolved themselves to carrying on. America would not be subdued by a foreign power.

Jeff Rogers, the WH Senior Economic Advisor, and Joyce Gibbs, the Treasury Secretary, continued to do what they could to improve the American economy and ensure the financial sector did not implode. With the destruction of NYC, a large number of the investment banks were destroyed, along with the vast majority of their staffs. This was a terrible loss, requiring Secretary Gibbs to close the stock market for the following two weeks until these organizations could reorganize themselves and establish where things in the financial market stood.

Jeff had worked with the various American manufacturers, and they were now converting almost all manufacturing capabilities over to producing military vehicles, aircraft, cruise missiles, rifles, body armor and everything else that the American military needed. It was going to take close to a year to retool the economy to a war footing; once it was running at full speed, America would be producing tens of thousands of tanks, aircraft and other materials for the war.

The Navy’s National Defense Reserve Fleet had been activated at the start of the war, essentially reviving the Ghost Fleets. This gave the Navy an additional 120 ships (frigates, destroyers, cruisers, submarines and carriers) once the refurbishments and new weapon systems were upgraded. Among the ships being upgraded were five retired supercarriers from the 1990s and early 2000s. Some of these carriers were sixty and seventy years old, but once all of the renovations were completed, they would still be operational and ready to fight. Within six months, the Navy would nearly double in size, buying time until the shipbuilders could finalize construction of the new Navy.

The biggest addition to the fleet was actually the roll-on-roll-off ships and troop transport vessels. Moving vast amounts of equipment, munitions and people required a tremendous sealift capability, something the Chinese and Russians were still struggling to match the US on. There were also twelve additional attack submarines being reactivated. Fortunately, most of the Ghost Fleet was stationed in Beaumont, Texas and Norfolk, Virginia, so they had been relatively protected and unaffected by the war. The older fleet bases in New Jersey and California had been deactivated in the 2030s.

The various American shipbuilders had eight supercarriers under construction, along with forty-two new destroyers, thirty-eight cruisers, twelve of the newly redesigned battleships and forty-five attack submarines. The battleship of old had been massive armored floating artillery weapons; the redesigned battleships of the 21^st century were incorporating the latest railgun technology and pulse beam lasers. These laser batteries could be upgraded later to plasma lasers once the newer energy systems could be miniaturized to fit on a ship. In addition to the lasers and railguns, the battery of 1,600 cruise missiles added significant long-range punch. The newly designed ships could effectively keep enemy aircraft from attacking the battlegroup from 400 miles away and could deliver a massive cruise missile strike as deep as 2,200 miles.

The new basic combat training facilities were starting to come on line, and would eventually churn out some of the most fearsome warriors the world had ever seen. Each basic training course could train and graduate 72,000 new recruits a week. All of the new soldiers had to undergo a sixteen week long grueling training process that pushed them physically and mentally to their breaking points. Recruits were being physically conditioned harder than any other military grunts in history. In addition to the standard boot camp, they also spent three weeks in simulated villages practicing house-to-house combat. Then they would progress to fighting and survival scenarios in the desert, forests, mountains, and flat plains. These new recruits were conditioned to be effective in combat in all global environments, and were going to be the most fearsome warriors America had ever trained.

Nearly every Army Reserve and National Guard base in the country was being activated to federal service, and either had or was establishing a basic training facility. Over 250,000 NCOs and officers who had retired within the last 10 years were being asked if they would return back to active duty to fill drill instructor roles (which was a critically short position with most of the active duty force deployed). Of the 310,000 soldiers completing training each month, roughly 40,000 of them were being sent for additional military training in areas such as armored vehicle operation, artillery, communications, medical, cyber, and other essential functions, while the remaining 270,000 would attend an additional thirty-day advanced infantry course before forming new military divisions or being filtered in as replacements for other units currently engaged in Asia or the Middle East. Close to 5,000 soldiers were selected to attend the elite Army Ranger School. Another 2,000 Airmen were being selected for the Air Force Special Operations programs, and 3,000 Seamen were being held back to attend BUDs/SEAL training. Not to be left out, 3,000 Marine recruits were also being chosen to attend Marine Force Recon and Scout Sniper schools. The growth of Special Operations Command was exponential to its regular rate of increase; however, it was going to take time to train these special operators. The typical turnaround from recruitment to being battle ready in these jobs would be around 2–3 years.

Judges were once again offering certain convicted felons the choice between serving honorably in the military for four years instead of spending time in prison. This was having a double benefit of reducing the resources spent on jailing people for offenses such as robbery or assault, and providing legitimate rehabilitation and job training to people who weren’t beyond saving. The recidivism rate at the country’s prisons went way down, and the program was so successful that many communities saw a rise in voluntary recruitment.

The Army had reactivated several Armies that had been retired since the end of the Cold War and World War II. First Army had been activated to defend the Homeland; their numbers would soon swell to over 750,000 troops. Second Army was also forming and would stay in the US for the time being as well. The goal was to get these Armies established quickly and then have them train hard together for a number of months while the battles in Europe and the Middle East played out. Afterwards, the determination would be made as to where they should go.

In Europe, the US Army had activated the American Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Armies, the same Armies that had helped to defeat Nazi Germany that had been later deactivated with the end of the Cold War. Initially, the Fifth and Sixth Army were operating at 35 % strength just prior to the Russian invasion, while the Seventh was still being formed in England. General Gardner’s Third Army in the Middle East had been augmented with two additional Army groups, which pushed his operational strength to over 500,000 troops. He had five armored divisions and six mechanized infantry divisions to counter the Russian 2nd Shock Army, the Chinese 1st Expeditionary Force and nearly 2 Million Islamic Republic forces. General Gardner had asked to activate the American Fourth Army and position them in the Middle East as well. Once he was able to secure a breakout, he was going to need an additional Army to punch through it and fully exploit it. His goal was to finish the war with the IR as soon as possible so his forces could be fully turned on the Russians.

The challenge with all of these armies being formed was keeping up with the demands for equipment and soldiers. Both the Army and the Air Force lacked the necessary gear to support these forces, and it would be some time until that equipment could be produced. Both services quickly turned to their boneyards to find serviceable equipment that could be brought to bear quickly. It would take nearly five months for the Fifth and Sixth Armies to reach 100 % manning strength and that would largely depend on the number of casualties the Third Army continued to sustain in Israel.

The Air Force had reactivated most of the aircraft at the Davis-Monthan boneyard in Tucson, AZ. Nearly 500 A-10 ground attack aircraft were being retrofitted and upgraded with modern avionics and the new railguns, replacing the venerable 30mm chain gun it was known for. The aircraft would once again resume its role of “tank buster” and close air support, with the vast majority of these aircraft being sent to Europe. There were also 600 F15s, and 700 F16s being reactivated, along with 34 KC135 refueling aircraft and five additional JSTARs. These aircraft were not the most modern aircraft of the day, but compared with the fighter drones they would be going up against, they could still hold their own. Plus, their ability to attack ground targets also gave them the multi-fighter role the F22 did not have. However, finding qualified pilots and training new ones was going to be an enduring problem.

The Army’s Sierra Army Depot was hard at work refurbishing nearly 6,000 main battle tanks and over 16,000 assorted armored vehicles for deployment to Europe. With the creation of several new tank divisions, there was a huge need for tanks. The Anniston tank depot and the General Dynamics Ohio facilities could only produce so many Pershing tanks a month. The 300 new tanks being built each month could not keep up with the demand needed to keep both the Third Army and Fifth Army supplied, let alone sustain the creation of three other Armies. It would take time to build the military industrial complex to meet the war time needs; once fully operational, the entire manufacturing and technological capability of America would once again be pitted against the Superpowers of the world.