Tiger's Claw

THE SOUTH CHINA SEA, SIXTY MILES SOUTH OF KAOHSIUNG, REPUBLIC OF CHINA

TWO DAYS LATER

“Incredible weather this morning for this operational tasking, sir,” Hai Jun Da Xiao (Lower Admiral) Weng Li-Yeh said, smiling proudly as he surveyed activity on his ship down below. Even though this was their first mission after completing trials and a shakedown cruise, his sailors appeared to be in excellent spirits and worked with fluid precision.

“It is indeed most excellent, Admiral,” Weng’s superior officer, Hai Jun Shao Jiang (Rear Admiral) Hu Tan-sun, replied. “You may commence launching when ready.”

“Shì, haijun shàng jiàng,” Weng replied. He picked up a telephone. “Operations, this is Flag. You may commence air operations as briefed, Captain.”

Slowly, activity down below began to increase in tempo. Hu and Weng were watching the activity from the flag bridge of the aircraft carrier Zheng He, the People’s Republic of China’s second aircraft carrier, just recently made combat-ready. Named after a world-traveling Chinese fleet admiral from the fifteenth century, the Zheng He was formerly the Brazilian Navy’s Sao Paulo, which in turn had formerly been the French Navy’s Clemenceau-class carrier Foch. As the Sao Paulo, the fifty-five-year-old carrier had been extensively upgraded and modernized, so even though it was smaller than the Zhenyuan, it embarked just as many aircraft, a mix of Chinese and Russian multirole fighters and helicopters. Brazil was in the process of beginning an extensive upgrade of its navy, including an indigenously built carrier, and the two carriers being built by China were experiencing some construction delays, so China gladly purchased the surplus vessel. Unlike the Zhenyuan, the Zheng He had an angled deck, which allowed for simultaneous takeoffs and landings, and it used steam catapults instead of the ski-jump ramp to launch aircraft, which allowed launching more heavily armed aircraft.

After the Harbin Z-5 rescue helicopters and Harbin Z-9 antisubmarine warfare helicopters were launched, the crew of the Zheng He prepared to launch one of the largest carrier-launched strike aircraft in the world from its deck: the JH-37 Fei Bào, or Flying Leopard. The Leopard was a carrier-based version of the Russian-built Sukhoi-34 fighter-bomber, modified with folding wings and vertical stabilizer, stronger undercarriage to withstand carrier landings, and more powerful Xian WS9 turbofans. It used canards—small moving wings on either side of the nose—for extra maneuverability in dogfights, but its primary purpose was long-range strikes—it could carry almost twenty thousand pounds of a wide variety of weapons, from mines to cruise missiles. The JH-37 was also able to perform long-range electronic submarine searches, radar patrols, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance, using underwing sensor and emitter pods. On this sortie, the JH-37 was carrying six APR-3E rocket-powered torpedoes, three under each wing.

Watching a JH-37 launch was always an exciting event, and many of the off-duty crew came up on deck to watch the magnificent beast taxi up to the catapult shuttle and unfold its long wings and tall tail. There were only six JH-37s in the Zheng He’s complement simply because the bombers were so massive that there was no room for more. The nearly ninety-thousand-pound JH-37 took the number three catapult, its left wing hanging far over the port side—no aircraft could use any of the other catapults at the same time as the Leopard because of its enormous size, and landings had to be carefully planned because no aircraft could park on the fantail when the JH-37 came in for landing. Because of its long range and size and because getting it back on board the carrier took so much preparation, the JH-37 was often sent off to land bases until the decks could be made ready. In accordance with the carrier operations restrictions initiated by China, the number one and two waist catapults had aircraft parked on them.

After hooking up to the catapult shuttle and holdback bar, the big Xian turbofans were run up to full military power, the exhaust so powerful that it shook the heavy steel blast deflector behind it. When the catapult was fired and the breakaway holdback bar released, it always appeared as if it was impossible for the big bomber to actually accelerate quickly enough to make it down the three hundred feet of deck and become airborne before tumbling over the edge and splashing into the ocean. But, sure enough, the big bomber rumbled into the sky, shaking the deck with the blast of its big engines, and it was quickly lost from view. In its antisubmarine role, it could patrol as far as three hundred miles from the carrier and stay aloft for six hours.

After the JH-37 was away, the air defense fighters were next. Like the Zhenyuan, China’s first aircraft carrier, the Zheng He had a mix of fighters in its arsenal: two squadrons, each with fifteen JN-15 multirole fighters, China’s first domestically produced carrier-based fighter, a reverse-engineered copy of the Russian Su-33 carrier fighter; and one squadron of ten JN-20 advanced air superiority fighters. The JN-20s were definitely the “show” planes of the fleet and were rarely flown except for qualifications, proficiency, or when foreign patrol planes were in the area, so the JN-15s were used for routine patrols.

Along on this sortie but not part of the Zheng He’s complement was another aircraft orbiting around the carrier battle group at five thousand feet above the South China Sea: a Shaanxi Y-8 medium four-engine land-based turboprop transport plane, a Chinese-made copy of the Russian Antonov-12 transport, that had launched a few hours earlier. The Y-8 was configured as both an airborne early-warning aircraft and an antisubmarine warfare plane, with a fixed “Balance Beam” air search radar mounted atop the fuselage, a surface search radar on the chin, and a magnetic anomaly detector, or MAD, mounted on a long boom on the tail. The MAD sensed the change in the earth’s magnetic field when a submarine moved through it, alerting an operator to its presence. Once alerted, the Y-8 would start a search pattern, dropping sonobuoys to help track the submarine, and once located, it would drop depth charges to try to destroy the sub or vector in carrier-based antisubmarine helicopters to attack. The Y-8 was China’s first long-range surveillance and antisubmarine warfare aircraft, purpose-made for patrolling China’s long coastline.

For this special patrol, the Y-8 was armed with a special weapon, one that was designed to cement China’s claim on the inner island ring once and for all.

Normally the Y-8 would not patrol more than one or two hundred miles from Chinese mainland ports and coastal military bases, but they had special intelligence of a target that had to be located, and they were determined to do so.

Less than two hours later: “Bridge, Combat, the Y-8 has made MAD contact and is beginning its orbit, range one-thirty kilometers, bearing three-zero-zero,” the combat systems officer radioed to Admiral Weng.

The range was too great for their helicopters, Weng knew, and it would take them a couple hours to close the distance. “Have the Y-8 maintain MAD contact, but make sure it does not drop sonobuoys,” he ordered. “I do not want our friends to be alerted yet. Helm, steer three-zero-zero, best possible speed. Operations, ready a flight of Z-9s to prosecute the target when we are in range. Make sure the crew of the JH-37 is advised and tell them to be ready.”

The phone from the flag bridge beeped, and Weng picked it up immediately. “Report,” Admiral Hu ordered.

“Right where our intelligence said it would be, sir,” Weng replied. “Our intelligence agents reported that the Taiwanese intelligence-gathering submarine Fùchóu zhe was going to put to sea yesterday from its base in Kaohsiung and attempt a simulated missile and torpedo attack on the Zheng He battle group. I have ordered the Y-8 to maintain contact. The JN-15 fighters are on normal air patrols. I have ordered another flight of antisubmarine helicopters to be ready when we receive the order. The JH-37 is standing by and ready. We should be in position for helicopter and escort ASW operations in about two hours.”

“Very well, Admiral.”

“Sir, on our present course and speed, we will intercept the Fùchóu zhe in Taiwanese waters,” Weng said. “Am I approved to continue, sir?”

“There is no such thing as ‘Taiwanese waters,’ Admiral Weng,” Hu said, the derision thick in his voice. “Yes, you will continue. The submarine is in violation of operational restrictions on submerged submarines. An example must be made.”