Sea Strike

GLOSSARY

Aegis — A mating of a sophisticated cybernetic battle management system with a series of advanced planar array radars, giving a surface warship a sea-and air-control capacity out to a 250-mile radius.

The augmented SPY-2A variant deployed aboard the Cunningham-class DDG combines increased range and firecontrol capacity with improved definition and simplicity of operation.

AEW (Airborne Early Warning) — The doctrine of mounting a highpowered search radar aboard an aircraft to enhance its coverage area. The Boeing AW ACS is the premier example of this technology.

In Stormdragon, both the Taiwanese Air Force and the U.S. Navy also utilize variants of the Grumman E-2 Hawk eye, a venerable but still effective twin-turboprop AEW aircraft, while the Cunningham’s Sea Comanche helicopters can mount a padded version of the British-built Clearwater radar.

ASW (antisubmarine warfare) — The delicate and deadly art of submarine hunting.

Barracuda — The Mark 50 Barracuda is the U.S. Navy’s latest-generation antisubmarine torpedo. A small, highspeed weapon utilizing multimode guidance, it is designed to be dropped from ASW aircraft, delivered to target via a V-ROC antisubmarine missile, or launched from the deck tubes of a surface warship. It is also being studied as a possible “interceptor” torpedo for use in an active antitorpedo defense system.

Black Hole System — A combination of anti-infrared technologies used to reduce the heat signature of a military vehicle.

Aboard the Cunningham-class destroyer, blowers mix cooler outside air with the ship’s engine-exhaust gases before they are vented outboard, reducing the thermal plume from the turbines. Likewise, seawater is circulated through cooling jackets surrounding the ship’s funnels to prevent “hot spotting,” which could provide a target for home-on-heat guided munitions.

Ching-Kuo — Produced by Taiwan’s Aero Industry Development Center, the Ching-Kuo is that nation’s first domestically produced combat aircraft. A light, twin-engined, air-defense and antishipping fighter, its design was inspired by the U. S.-built F-5. Its development, along with that of the rest of Taiwan’s rapidly developing aerospace and armaments industry, has been spurred by Red China’s continuing policy of interfering with international arms sales to the Nationalist government.

Cold Fire Launching System — A vertical-launch technology that utilizes a charge of inert gas to project a missile out of a launch cell for a midair ignition. Utilized aboard the Cunningham-class DDG to protect the RAM decking from exhaust-flame damage.

ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) — Jamming and decoy systems used to confuse and degrade search sensors and weapon-guidance systems.

Elint (Electronic Intelligence) — The collection of battlefield intelligence (target location, systems type, nationality, force strength, etc.) via the analysis of emissions produced by radars and other electronic systems.

EMCON (Emission Control) — An operational state in which a naval vessel or aircraft maintains complete radio and radar silence, rendering them undetectable to Signal Intelligence systems.

ESSM (Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missile) — Uprated follow on to the current NATO Sea Sparrow system. A medium range, surface-to-air system using radar guidance, it can be fired either from its own dedicated launcher or from a quad pack fitted into a cell of a Mark 41 or 42 VLS array.

F/A-18E Super Hornet — A stretched and souped-up variant of the current-model C F/A-18. The U.S. Navy’s next generation maid-of-all-work warplane, equally capable as both a fighter and bomber.

F/A-22 Sea Lightning — American naval aviation is facing two urgent needs in the immediate future. One will be a replacement for the elderly F-14 Tomcat fleet defense fighter.

The other will be for the deployment of a carrier-borne stealth strike aircraft. One proposed solution has been for the development of a navalized fighter-bomber variant of Lockheed’s F-22 Lightning II stealth fighter.

Fenestron — Literally “fan in tail,” an advanced helicopter technology that replaces the conventional tail rotor with a ducted fan inset into the tail fin, reducing noise, vibration, and radar cross section.

GPU (Global Positioning Unit) — A mobile navigation system that utilizes radio impulses beamed down from a network of satellites in orbit around the Earth. Simple, compaci, effective, and extremely accurate, this technology is finding literally hundreds of new uses in both the civil and military arenas, so much so that serious consideration has been given to a proposal to build a GPU into the stock of every rifle issued to the U.S. Armed Services.

Han — Class name of Red China’s first and, to date, only class of nuclear attack submarine.

Hellfire — U.S.-designed antitank missile. A powerful and accurate weapon utilizing a laser guidance system, the Hellfire is finding a second niche as an and-small-craft missile utilized by the Navy’s LAMPS helicopter force.

Hsiung-Feng (Male Bee) — The standard Taiwanese antiship missile. Air and sea launchable, the weapon is a copy of the superb Israeli Gabriel ASM.

LAMPS (Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) — The family of maid-of-all-work helicopters that operate off the helipads of the U.S. surface Navy. While primarily intended for ASW operations, they also perform a wide variety of secondary tasks, ranging from surface search and attack to intelligence gathering and cargo and personnel transport.

Oto Melara Super Rapid — A 76mm, water-cooled autocannon produced by the Oto Melara corporation of Italy. A dual mode weapons system with an exceptionally high rate of fire, it is capable of engaging both air and surface targets with a wide variety of different munitions types. A popular and efficient design, it serves as the primary gun armament of the Cunningham-class destroyer.

PLA — People’s Liberation Army. The armed forces of Communist China. Technically, the Red Chinese Air Force and Navy are not independent services, but are merely divisions of the PLA.

RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) — A family of composite materials used in the creation of stealth weapons systems. They work by “soaking up” incoming radar waves, converting them into thermal energy within their structure rather then reflecting them off.

RBOC (Rapid Blooming Overhead Chaff) Projector — A shipboard antimissile defense system, originally intended to protect vessels against radar-guided missiles by screening them with clouds of metal foil.

In recent years, however, additional projectiles have been developed for the system, including flare and multispectral smoke rounds that can provide protection against infrared and laser-guided munitions.

Raven’s Roost — Shipboard nickname for the Intelligence Systems bay. Because of their stealth capacity, the Cunningham-class destroyers have been given an enhanced capability to perform “Raven” missions — i. e., to act as a Sigint (Signal Intelligence) and Elint (Electronic Intelligence) gathering platform.

SAH-66 Sea Comanche LAMPS (Light Airborne Multipurpose System) — The original SAH-66 Comanche was intended as an Army scout/gunship helicopter utilizing low-radar-observability technology. The SAH-66 Sea Comanche is a naval variant produced to complement the stealth capacity of the Cunningham-class guided-missile destroyer.

Intended for ASW and surface search/recon operations, the Sea Comanche mounts a powerful APG 65 radar in its nose.

It can also be equipped with a number of different pod mounted sensor systems, including dunking sonars, Magnetic Abnormality Detectors, and the Shearwater AEW system. In addition, the SAH-66 can be armed with a broad spectrum of torpedoes, missiles, depth charges, and gun pods.

SCM (Stealth Cruise Missile) — The follow-on to the Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile, SCM is a sophisticated, long-range strike weapon incorporating low radar visibility in its design. A multimode weapon, it can be configured for either antishipping or land attack.

Sea SLAM — A ground-attack variant of the Harpoon antishipping missile. Utilizing an infrared, electro-optical targeting system developed for the Maverick air-to-surface missile, it is a sea-launched weapon, primarily intended for precision strikes against land targets.

Sigint (Signal Intelligence) — The collection of battlefield intelligence via the interception and antidecryption of enemy radio and landline communications.

Standard HARM (Homing AntiRadiation Missile) — A derivative of the Standard surface-to-air missile. The Standard HARM is designed to seek out and destroy enemy land and sea-based radio and radar systems by homing in on their EM emissions. The missile is equipped with a memory system that allows it to prosecute the kill even if the target transmitter is shut down.

Tomahawk Cruise Missile — A currently existent and battle proven long-range strike weapon for use against land and sea targets. Turbojet powered and launchable from surface ships, submarines, and aircraft, the Tomahawk is undergoing a continuing evolution of systems improvements that will keep it viable for many years to come.

UDFC — The United Democratic Forces of China.

Xia — Like the majority of the other major nuclear powers, Red China has divided its strategic nuclear arsenal among a triad of different delivery systems: bomber aircraft, plus land and sea-based ballistic missiles. The Xia-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarine makes up the seagoing leg of their triad. Resembling the early-model American Polaris SSBN, the prototype Xia carried twelve solid-fuel Ju Lang 1 IRBMs. The later Block II variants had this battery stretched out to sixteen of the more potent Ju Lang II.