OTS Part 9

Operation Tidespring Part 9

Earth Orbit, 25^th April 1983, Stardate -28800, (03:00 GMT)

Both the Allies and the Seattle Pact had extensive surveillance Satellite systems in orbit, and even though no war had been declared officially (as that would trigger various treaties) the Falklands War saw extensive use of it.

The Pact network was neither as advanced nor as widespread as that of the Allies, but both sides had massive gaps in coverage over the South Atlantic. Both had re-routed several birds to remedy this, RAF Space Command[1] had even thought about halting the launch of the Endeavour (a Hermes Type Space Plane)at the Weston Space Centre in Sierra Leone to recompute the flight data for the Longview Mk.3 Satellite so that it didn't cover the Chinese coast, but in the end the Powers that Were decided not to bother and had directed SCC[2] near Inverness to re-route an additional Longview.

The Americans had done the same, and at the (humble and very very cautiously presented) request of the Argentines concentrated their coverage of the South Atlantic concentrated on the area where the SIGINT stations that the Argentines had constructed at great expense estimated the British Fleet was, and the American RORSATs happily obliged.

Longview 010ADC, dubbed 'Carville' by one of it's operators for some reason on the other hand did not have a maritime capability, none of the British satellites had that because the Intelligence organs of the Allies tracked Pact Fleet movements with other means, but it could photograph the Argentine Harbours both visually and with infra-red film, so the British were aware that the Carriers and more importantly the Cruisers had sailed. Instead the satellite had a look at the Falklands Islands themselves and this showed the Admiralty that the Argentine Fleet was not there.

Longview 010ADC[3]

The American RORSATs however located the British Fleet within two hours of being redirected had located the British fleet with their powerful Radars and Infra-Red sensors and transmitted their findings to the Air Defense Tracking station in what once was Colorado and by the time the British sailors went to lunch, their position had been transmitted to the Argentine Carrier Force.

HMS Duke of Wellington, somewhere south of the Falklands, 25^th April 1983, 09:08 GMT

The Duke Class Submarine was not very young, in fact she was older than most of her crew and therefore had been on the way to retirement and the breakers yard, but the outbreak of the war had given the old girl a reprieve. She was unarmed except for the two fishes in her forward tubes, but even if she had been filled to the brim with the new Stingray Torpedo she wouldn't have attacked, because the crew was under orders to merely act like a hole in the ocean, observe and report the position of the Argentine Battlegroup that they had been stalking for the last three days. Like most Officers in the Fleet the command crew of “The Duke” had expected the Argentines to sit in port for another couple of days after re-fuelling as the FAA hadn't even seriously started to degrade the Air Defences yet, only several raids on the RDF installations had been flown, and those had partially been to cover the insertion of additional Special Forces and supplies for the same. Some fear that it would descend into a stalemate, the Argentines had placed a huge part of their striking power on the Islands and couldn't risk it, and by the time the Fleet could bring up more Aircraft Carriers the Argentines would have dug in so deep that a Blue Steel would be needed to dig them out. At the same time these risks also forced the hand of the British, and HMS Duke of Wellington was part of that. All Fleet submarines had orders not to engage unless they were fired upon, and the Captain of the Duke almost winced as he watched the Belgrano slip past his tubes through the periscope.

As he watched the Argentine Battlegroup was splitting up, the Carriers and their escorts heading north-east to where Force Z was waiting somewhere while the two Cruisers and four escorting Destroyers headed south-east. The British Submarine fell back by cutting speed to two knots and shadowed them from afar, while the communications mast was raised at a safe distance and a short burst transmission was flashed to the NAVCOM satellite over the South Atlantic. Within minutes of the message arriving at the Admiralty HMS Vanguard who had covered the approaches to South Georgia was dispatched to shadow the Cruiser Squadron while the Duke of Wellington continued after the Carriers. In the Ops room aboard Ark Royal the British Admirals quickly decided to request increased coverage by every available asset. That the Argentine forces split was bad news, and it forced Kavaney to seriously contemplate a gamble that he had theorized but not risked so far.

The Captain of the Duke of Wellington was blissfully unaware of this and simply continued to do his job, following the Argentines at great distance and with just enough speed not to loose sight, banking on the inferior passive sensors of the Argentines and the flawed tactics that they used, as they hammered away with their active systems in a forward sweep that left their rear almost totally uncovered, showing once more that the entire Fleet was geared towards the offensive, something that would haunt them in days to come.

East Falkland, somewhere west of Port Stanley, 25^th April 1983, exact time unknown, close to midnight

The Argentines confined themselves to patrolling the roads, just like if, say, Russian paratroopers had occupied Iceland[4]. It wasn't as if there was much else than Port Stanley in this part of the Islands at this point in time and most of the population and the single most important piece of real estate that did exist were here. The Argentines probably knew that they would have to deal with British Special Forces sooner or later, and to that end they flew helicopter patrols out of the airport several times a day, but the SAS was trained to melt into the background and even at a place as desolate as this one this presented not that great a challenge as long as one moved only at night. Unlike in the 'regular' Army in the SAS all the troopers were issued with infra-red sights for their weapons and they had all been issued with the latest and still packaged intensifier goggles even though to preserve batteries and night sight they were currently hidden in the packs of the troopers.

“So, what are the Argies doing, Michael?”

“Boring the buggery out of me, Lieutenant.” the sentry said without lowering the night field glas. “Usual two-man patrol within the base perimeter, one man in front of every building I can see the entrance off and at least two rotating around the planes at the far end. Still no blackout.”

“Why should they? They have no idea yet that we are here, as far as they are concerned they might as well be guarding a whorehouse in Buenos Aires.” the Lieutenant replied. “In any case, time to phone home.”

With that the Lieutenant crawled back from the OP to the shallow ditch between the rocks that overlooked Port Stanley in the distance and the base somewhat closer. The Patrol was had spent the last day there and would move again tomorrow, but after the murderous trek across the Island they needed to rest, and the Lieutenant had the feeling that Aldershot was about to order them into action. If the activities on the base during the last day were any indication, the Argies too prepared for the big fight. Mechanics had been crawling all over the small airfleet the Lieutenant expected that at dawn they would be able to see the armourers loading the A-6s and the other aircraft being loaded up with missiles and bombs. During the day they had also seen the burning wreckage of what had once been the Air Traffic Control RDF and in the distance they had heard the explosions as the Navy had kept hitting the mobile AAM systems around Port Stanley.

The Lieutenant wasn't worried about his position, to find them either a helicopter would have to hover directly above or a patrol would have to climb the hill which was two miles from the next road.

Crawling under the camouflage net he reached for the two-way satellite wireless and extended the small dish. It searched for a few seconds before locking onto the nearest NAVCOM bird. Switching it to the correct channel and engaging the encryption took only a few seconds.

“Broadsword - Control, routine comms check.”

Within three seconds a reply came.

“Roger that, Broadsword. Any activity on Able Hotel?”

“Nothing but routine.”

“Righto, Broadsword. Activate directive Baker-Hotel-Charlie, repeat, Baker-Hotel-Charlie as soon as Able Hotel Vacated by tourists. Also be advised, Gunners left field on the right, repeat right.”

“Roger that, Broadsword out.”

“Anything good in the mail, Lieutenant?”

“Well, Hereford wants us to go and introduce ourselves to our guests tomorrow. They are expecting that the Andrew is going to stage something big tomorrow.”

Before he had disassembled the wireless again he turned to his men again.

“And Arsenal lost again.”

The groaning noises told clearly of what his men thought of it.

Port Stanley Airport/Somewhere South of the Falklands, 26^th April 1983, 07:27 local (11:27 GMT)

The British had beaten them to the punch, plain and simple. Minutes before the base commander had decided to give the order to launch towards the location of the British fleet in conjunction with their own, the working Radars and listening posts had detected at first the emissions from the British AEW aircraft, soon drowned out by heavy jamming from the east even as the F-4s of the first group thundered down the runway to the blaring sound of the Sirens

At the same time the Argentine Carriers were turning into the wind and prepared to launch the F-4s of the first wave into the air, closely followed by the strike force of A-6 and A-4s. The planes formed up into three separate strike groups and headed east towards their targets, knowing full well that they would have to fight through a fighter and missile screen put up by a force part of what was widely considered by professionals to be the Worlds best, most experienced and most powerful Navy and that a lot of them would not make it back, especially the A-4s which were loaded up with GP bombs only, so launching what the Navies on both sides called an Alpha Strike, relying on shore-based F-4s for cover.

Coming in from the South-East after having made use of Argentina's last operational KC-97 Stratotanker just west of the Falklands was the final ace up the sleeve of the Argentine High Command, a formation of six B-45/49 bombers[5], due to their age and limited systems only loaded up with GP bombs too, but each of them carried enough to turn any British warship into scrap metal, their crews were confident of that. To make the trip they had decided to dispense with the rear gunner, unloading ammunition and men, but leaving the guns in place.

To the east the three British Carriers turned back towards the Argentines, having launched their own strikes slightly earlier. Four Rapiers were hovering over Force Z-Able, with a Tanker-Buccaneer going south to re-fuel them, with the main strike package, escorted by the remaining fighters from Formidable sitting back until the main fighter force had broken up the Argentine strike. What was going to be the biggest Naval clash and the first Carrier-vs-Carrier Battle since the end of World War Two was about to begin.

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Comments, questions, rotten tomatoes?

Hoist Battle ensigns everyone! [IMG]http://i513.photobucket.com/albums/t338/britwank/3cf81a16.gif[/IMG]

[1] RAF Space Command is a mixture between NASA and US SPACECOM, meaning that it runs British military space efforts, and the spacecraft are registered with the RAF even though they are run by the British Space Agency (final name pending). The Hermes Space Plane is very similar to the OTL proposal, only that it hasn't originated from France nor is it a multi-national effort. It's still fired on top of a normal rocket (Ariane 5 IOTL), and as this rocket is a Saturn V derivate in all but name it has more load capacity than the OTL Hermes proposal and is also proportionally larger.

[2] Satellite Control Centre. NORAD doesn't really have a direct equivalent due to the scattered nature of the British Empire, the closest equivalent is probably Fighter Command HQ, as the whole early warning needs that led to the establishment of the Cheyenne Mountain Facility as we know it aren't there anyway. The SCC is jointly run by the BSA, Bomber and Fighter Commands. A Longview Mk.3 is equivalent in capabilities to a KH-11.

[3] In reality a picture of Hubble altered to look sort of like what some on the interwebs thinks the KH-11s look like.

[4] ;)

[5] Which makes them B-45Cs. UAPR Designation system is as follows: Type of Aircraft-randomly assigned model number-year current verion was introduced. Works also for ground vehicles.