Tiger's Claw

ELEVENTH TACTICAL ROCKET DIVISION HEADQUARTERS, BEIJING, CHINA

A FEW MINUTES LATER

Major General Hua Zhilun hurried into his command center almost at a run. “Report!” he shouted as soon as he was in the door.

“Datalink confirmed, sir,” the senior controller reported. “A navy patrol plane, about fifteen kilometers north of the target. Solid lock.”

“No, damn you, Hu Zhao,” Hua said. “ ‘Tiger’s Claw.’ Status report!”

It took several moments to check all the available batteries, but soon: “No Tiger’s Claw batteries available within range, sir,” the controller reported.

“Méiyou?” Hua exclaimed. “None?” But he shouldn’t be that surprised: although tensions were high in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans that the DF-21s covered, they did not keep them on alert, but safely stowed in garrisons until ordered to deploy to presurveyed launch points. They were quite mobile, but they still took the crews some time to get them ready to launch. The missiles they had now were armed only with nonnuclear high-explosive payloads, which severely restricted their range. “What else do we have available within the next ten minutes?”

“Stand by, sir,” the controller said. A few moments later: “Sir, Battery Two, CJ-20 Changjian, Wuzshan, Hainan Dao, reports up and ready,” the senior controller said with a smile. “It was participating in a simulated launch drill. The commander reports the missile is armed with a high-explosive warhead only. Awaiting orders.”

“That is most excellent,” Hua said. The CJ-20 Changjian, or “Long Sword,” was a new class of long-range antiship cruise missiles being fielded by the People’s Liberation Army. Developed from the CJ-10 supersonic land-attack cruise missile, the CJ-20 was fired from a road-mobile transporter-erector-launcher. Like the Dong Feng–21, the nonnuclear version of the CJ-20 did not have the long range or high speed as the nuclear-tipped version, but in this case it was well within range and would do the job. It used the same high-speed radar terminal guidance system as Tiger’s Claw and was extremely accurate, even at long range, high speeds, bad weather, and against moving targets.

Hua’s expression was deadly serious as he contemplated what they had been ordered to do, but when he looked at the smile of anticipation on his senior controller’s face, he couldn’t help but smile himself. “Battery released,” Hua said in a quiet voice. “Launch when ready.”