Dancing with the Dragon (2002)

Dancing With The Dragon

From Book Cover
:

Dancing
With The
Dragon
Marks A Return To The Classic Techno-Thr
iller. With a plot that could be ripped from the front pages of tomorrow's headlines Weber delivers the real deal. China, with the earth's largest population, the largest and increasingly capable armed forces, equipped with nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles, is moving aggressively. Their goal: hegemony over the Pacific starting with the establishment of strategic outposts along South and Central America's Pacific coast. The world's only credible obstacle to China's ambitions is the United States of America.

During routine night operations off Southern California, an F/A-18 from the U. S. S. Abraham Lincoln is inexplicably blown from the sky. The Pentagon wants to throw a blanket over the incident: but then another navy tighter jet is mysteriously destroyed in midair. The president orders an investigation to find out who is responsible for the attacks, and why. Tagged for the job: ex-CIA operatives (and former military pilots) Scott Dalton and Jackie Sullivan.

As Dalton and Sullivan proceed, they are surprised to learn that the loss of the navy jets is the latest in a series of apparently unrelated and previously unexplained losses of American combat aircraft. Their investigation uncovers a deadly conspiracy that seems to lead directly to Bejing. Will China view the United States' role in long term war on terrorism as weakening American resolve in the South-China Sea and Asia? Will they miscalculate our global strategy and commiment to defend the democratic island nation of Taiwan? Is the time ripe for China to take advantage of the situation to settle these issues on their terms?

From Washington to Beijing, Honolulu to Bankok, Dancing with the Dragon s a page-turnin thriller from start to cliff-hanging finish. Topic and candid,Weber's mastery of current affairs an technology shines through.

About the author:

Best-selling author Joe Weber was a carrier-qualified fighter/attack-trained pilot for the Unite States Marine Corps. After his release from activ
e
duty Weber flew commercially until 1989.

PROLOGUE:
:

The People's Republic of China poses the most dangerous as well as least manageable military threat the United States faces early in the twenty-first century. During the year 2000, China's leaders proclaimed in a white paper, "The One-China Principle," that if the Taiwan authorities do not agree on a peaceful settlement of reunification through negotiations, Beijing would be compelled to use military force to bring Taipei into compliance.

The Taiwan Relations Act, public law 96-8, April 10, 1979, stipulates that an assault on the island of Taiwan will be countered by the armed forces of the United States of America. Invading Taiwan is tantamount to invading the United States.

In a confrontation between the United States and China, Beijing would need only local military superiority in the narrow confines of the Taiwan Strait to counterbalance American capability. Short of striking the Chinese mainland, there is no guarantee that U. S. forces would prevail in such a scenario.

The years since the Tiananmen Square massacre have been very tenuous for Chinese-American relations. Every time Beijing and Washington seem to be making positive diplomatic progress, disaster strikes. The accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May of 1999 caused a crisis from which Chinese-U. S. relations have never fully recovered. The tragic incident left a gnawing sense of uncertainty in Beijing and deepened nationalistic, anti-American sentiment in many Chinese citizens.

The diplomatic abyss widened on March 22, 2001,when Singapore allowed, for the first time, a U. S. Navy aircraft carrier to make a port call in the Republic of Singapore. The USS Kitty Hawk's visit to the new Changi Naval Base had a significant impact on Beijing. Chinese leaders viewed the port call as an official announcement of yet another U. S. naval base in the region, one with direct access to the South China Sea. Senior Chinese military officers considered the de facto U. S. base a frontline port in the escalating confrontation between China and the United States.

On March 31, 2001, nine days after Kitty Hawk arrived in Singapore, the uneasiness between Washington and Beijing snowballed into a quasi crisis when a Chinese fighter plane collided with a U. S. reconnaissance aircraft. Following the midair collision, which destroyed the jet fighter and killed its pilot, the navy EP-3E Aries II had to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan. The crew of twenty-four men and women were detained until April 12, 2001. Relations between the two countries took a dangerous nosedive before both sides stepped back from the brink.

The spy-plane affair reminded the world that China is an authoritarian, one-party state, resistant to political change, and dependent on its military, the ultimate power broker. The generals of the People's Liberation Army exploit emotional issues like the damaged reconnaissance plane to rally the citizenry against the United States and to legitimize their regime.

Faced with a new U. S. administration, China timed its belligerence to make a point. The United States is the only barrier to Chinese ambitions in Southeast Asia, particularly in the South China Sea. The military and civilian leaders in Beijing, believing the United States to be fundamentally lazy and corrupt, were not sure whether the newly elected U. S. president would stand up to a resurgent China, or whether he would expose the softness of Washington's willpower.

The standoff with China prompted the United States to revise its defense strategy to focus primarily on Asia rather than on Europe as the next potential battle theater. From the "think tanks" to the White House it was clear that China wanted nothing less than to replace the United States as the dominate force in Southeast Asia, if not the world.

On June 1, 2001, two months after the dustup over the U. S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft, Beijing state media announced large-scale Chinese war games that would include a practice invasion of an island near Taiwan. Code-named "Liberation One," the exercises included nearly ten thousand troops, amphibious tanks, missile units, submarines, warships, marine units, and Russian-manufactured Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft.

The extensive war games also included a mock attack on an aircraft carrier. The drill was designed with a U. S. carrier battle group in mind. The announcement ended with a warning not to underestimate Beijing's determination to use force to rein in Taiwan.

With a combination of favorable economic conditions, open ambitions in the region, and a growing military, Beijing was increasing tensions with Taiwan and other Asian neighbors. The long-range plans of the expansionist dictatorship guaranteed more confrontations with the United States, and more questions from Beijing. Would Washington continue its delicate dance with the dragon, and possibly trade Los Angeles for Taipei in a face-off with China, or would the United States quietly leave the South China Sea?

Many of Beijing's questions were answered when the Islamic extremists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. In the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the damage to the Pentagon, the crashed airliners, and the thousands of dead and injured U. S. citizens, the American people had galvanized behind their president. Not since Pearl Harbor had their resolve been as strong and resilient. The message: "Assault the United States of America and we will rise up to vanquish you arid your ilk."

Would Beijing view America's commitment to a long-term war on terrorism as an inherent U. S. weakness in the South China Sea and Asia? Would they miscalculate Washington's resolve to defend the democratic island nation of Taiwan and attempt to settle the issue on Beijing's terms by using force?

Chapter
1.

Knifing through the calm seas off the coast of southern California, USS Abraham Lincoln and her battle group turned into the wind for the last aircraft launch of the evening. High above the Nimitz-class supercarrier, a luminous commander's moon dominated a black canvas splashed with millions of twinkling stars. Except for a few isolated thunderstorms in the southern California operating area, the balmy night was perfect for carrier training exercises.

The slippery flight deck, dangerous enough during the day, but extremely hazardous during night operations, was alive with airplanes, tow tractors, yellow-shirted aircraft directors, and green-shifted aviation boatswain's mates prepping the two forward catapults. Bathed in a soft haze of red floodlights, shadowy figures with yellow flashlight-wands carefully guided pilots around the crowded maze of airplanes waiting to taxi to the catapults.

From bow to stern, the 4.5-acre flight deck of Abraham Lincoln was a genuinely hostile environment of screaming jet engines, blazing exhaust gases, whirling propeller blades, guillotine-like arresting gear cables, and foul-smelling catapult steam mixed with jet fuel and salt spray.

Listening to the low whine of his two jet engines, Lt. Comdr. Sammy Bonello saw two wands of light suddenly flash on in front of his plane. The time had arrived--no turning back now.

Following the taxi director, Bonello released the Super Hornet's brakes and taxied his sleek two-seat F/A-18F across the jet-blast deflector behind the starboard bow catapult. Despite all my years as a fighter pilot, these night carrier operations still give me the creeps, he thought.

Unlike day operations, when pilots can visually and viscerally tell if a catapult shot is good, night operations rob aviators of critical visual cues. When the catapult fires, the pilot accelerates under heavy G-forces straight into a seemingly endless black hole. The sensation is an eerie feeling of being completely at the mercy of fate. To say the least, night catapult shots and landings (traps) on the boat are character-building exercises.

Manning the backseat of the supersonic, twin-engine strike fighter, Lt. Comdr. Clarence "Chick" Fossett went through his checklist and then gazed across the busy flight deck.

Even with the additional anxiety of night operations, Bonello and Fossett could wring the best from the Super Hornet's combination of performance and firepower. The single-seat F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F are evolutionary upgrades of the combat-proven F/A-18C/D Hornets. The newest night-strike fighters are able to conduct unescorted missions against highly defended targets early in a conflict.

This evening Bonello and Fossett would be flying a routine training mission with a more junior crew from the VFA-113 Stingers of Carrier Air Wing Fourteen.

Fossett, the weapons-systems officer, adjusted his oxygen mask and then looked down at a sailor holding a lighted weight board. Noting their total weight for the catapult shot was correct, he gave the teenager an okay signal with his flashlight.

"There's a confirmation on sixty thousand pounds." Chick glanced at his kneeboard. "Lookin' close this evening."

"Yeah, we'll be a little tight on gas." Feeling the normal amount of oxygen escaping from his mask, Sammy completed his takeoff checks and set the trim for takeoff. He glanced at the full moon and then looked at his instruments. "If we run short on gas, we'll hit the tanker."

"We're always short." Fossett glanced at the catapult officer. "That's what makes this so damn much fun."

Sammy adjusted his helmet visor. "If we lose an engine, I'm
gonna concentrate on the HUD--you back me up.

The heads-up display could easily spell the difference between a deadly crash and a successful single-engine landing back aboard the ship. Projected at eye level on the windscreen, the HUD provided the pilot with his plane's angle of attack, airspeed, attitude, and rate of climb.

"Roger that." Fossett checked the status of their wingman. "Ham's gone into tension--looks like a go."

Casting off a momentary feeling of claustrophobia, Sammy glanced at the other Stinger F/A-18F; it belched long, jagged white/orange flames from its powerful General Electric turbofans, each producing twenty-two thousand pounds of thrust. He turned his flashlight on in case of an electrical failure--nothing like a dark cockpit when the grits hit the fan.

Shortly after Bonello saw the Hornet's exterior lights flash on, the all-weather, Mach 1.8 fighter squatted on the catapult, then blasted up the flight deck and thundered into the inky darkness.

Sammy watched the twin yellowish-orange streaks as the pilot made a shallow clearing turn and started climbing. Okay, God, it's our turn.

"I'll counter any roll or yaw with rudder and stick," Sammy said. Swirls of hazy, reddish superheated steam drifted out of the port catapult track, but Bonello's practiced routine was taking over and shoving his anxiety attack aside. "Throttles will remain at military or min burner. I'll snap the rollers up and jettison the luggage if we have a problem."

"Roger."

On cue Sammy followed the yellow-shirted taxi director as he positioned the airplane in the catapult shuttle. Following a signal from the taxi director, Bonello eased off the brakes. The catapult fires with such force that brakes would be useless in trying to stop the launch. The tires would simply explode, sending deadly shrapnel flying down the cat track.

Deck crewmen scurried beneath the powerful aircraft as they prepared the jet to be launched. Bonello and Fossett felt the Hornet squat, then, at the command of the yellow-shirt, Bonello raised the launch bar. Out of habit, he reached for the ejection handle between his thighs to make sure he wasn't sitting on it--split seconds count in the carrier business.