Later, as American superiority in naval air had become more and more apparent, the Soviet Union had begun experimenting with the taktiches kye avianostny kreysera, the tactical aircraft-carrying cruisers like the Kiev. These were odd combinations of capital ship and carrier, with an angled flight deck attached to a cruiser’s hull alongside and aft of the superstructure. The design was good only for the various Yak V/STOL aircraft, imitations of the British and American Harrier jump jets that even the Kremlin admitted were not as good as their Western counterparts.
It wasn’t until the eighties that the first true Soviet aircraft carriers had been conceived, designed, and constructed. Even then, there had been critics who’d insisted that the project would never work. An artificial carrier deck had been constructed on the Black Sea coast, and naval pilots had trained for carrier landings.
How many had lost their lives attempting something for which mere was no tradition and no experience anywhere within the Soviet military? And dozens more had died when the first landings were actually tried at sea, when the flight deck was moving in three different directions at once.
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ARMAGEDDON MODE
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But it had been worth it in the end. Kreml and his brothers represented an entirely new era for the Soviet Navy. Billions of rubles, hundreds of lives had been sacrificed to achieve this sleek and ultra-modern weapon.
And now, the world would see what that weapon could do.
It was necessary, a vital gamble. Russia’s military leaders feared that the Commonwealth would become a third-rate. Third World nation unable to affect the course of world events beyond her own, strife-torn borders.
The word had come through from Moscow a week before. Use this gigantic symbol of naval might to end the crisis between India and Pakistan. The Commonwealth could not tolerate the use of nuclear weapons on the very stoop of her back door.
And the orders had stressed that, if possible, Kreml was to beat the United States to the punch, to deliver the telling blow without the help of the American carrier group.
Dmitriev had not been certain how he was going to manage that part of the orders, though they did give him leeway in situations that allowed no alternatives. Vaughn’s short-sighted insistence on keeping control of the operation had played into Dmitriev’s hands. The Russian admiral now knew the Americans’ plan, the targets for their strike, the time the strike would be launched. By launching three hours ahead of time, the Russians would, as the Americans themselves might say, steal the show. Washington would be forced either to admit that they themselves had sabotaged any chance of the two squadrons working together … or adopt a face-saving stance which suggested that the Russian carrier had carried out the mission, supported by an American task force.
Yes, his superiors in Moscow would like that The President could shore up his battered public image by presenting himself as a strong man fully capable of taking charge in an international crisis for the good of his people and the world.
And for Dmitriev, this command would be a magnificent first step toward bigger and better things. The Commonwealth was still changing so quickly. There were opportunities, fantastic opportunities, for a man with the courage to grab them.
Thunder rent the air, and Dmitriev pressed against the flag bridge window, looking forward. Two navalized MiG-29s
shrieked against the catapult shuttles that bound them to
KremTs forward deck, eager to leap into the clean blue sky.
Their thunder spoke of the raw power of the Russian naval air
arm, of its reach beyond the borders of the Motherland. The admiral smiled. In one morning, Russian carrier aviation
was at last going to catch up with the Americans, ending the
superiority they’d enjoyed for forty years!
America and the Commonwealth were no longer face-to-
face at the brink of war. The world had changed so much from ;.,’, the old days of confrontation and incident. But the old rivalry, ..> Djnitriev knew, was still there. New world or not, new politics ‘Q. or not, he found he was looking forward to this particular £’, confrontation.
; 0845 boure, 26 March .. Tomcat 200