Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 27
Before midnight, Judith was on a small Cavill Aerospace business jet and on the way south to Perth.
Judith was waiting at the Perth airport when the RAAF jet transport carrying Admiral Clarke arrived. As soon as the jet taxied up, Judith was in a position to intercept the senior officer of the Australian military.
As soon as Judith saw Admiral Clarke step off of the plane, she quickly walked up to meet him. Having met Judith multiple times in the past, the Admiral immediately recognized Judith.
“Admiral Clarke, we need to talk right now, preferably someplace private. We heard about the Indonesian attack and need to discuss what we can do to help you defeat this attack.”
For a moment, the tall, lanky senior naval officer attired in his dress white uniform stood motionless like a deer caught in the middle of a lorry’s headlights. He wasn’t prepared for this encounter, especially after already having to deal with the shock of the Indonesian attack.
But this was the senior member of Australia’s most powerful family, who still provided the lion’s share of the equipment used by the Australian military. Judith Cavill-Singer could not be ignored.
“Mrs Singer. I suppose that you know that I am in the middle of a crisis situation.” He quickly yelled out over the noise of the jet engines that were still spooling down.
“Yes, Sir. I do. I’m here to discuss how my corporation and its various assets can assist the Australian military in defeating this attack.” Judith immediately replied.
“Alright, Mrs. Singer. I’ve got a few minutes. Let’s go inside and quickly find a room so that you can tell me what you want to do and what you need for me to do.” Admiral Clarke replied.
The Admiral and Judith quickly made their way to a nearby private terminal building with Toolie following close behind Judith and the Admiral’s aide following behind him.
Judith and Admiral Clarke quickly found an empty room. Toolie came inside with Judith, but the Admiral’s aide stood outside of the door to prevent anyone else from coming inside.
“So what do you have in mind, Mrs. Singer?”
“First, what is the situation with the two ships that were attacked by Indonesia.” Judith asked.
“One of our older frigates was torpedoed by an apparent Indonesian submarine and has sunk. Another frigate was attacked by Indonesian warplanes. She is still afloat, but burning and dead in the water. We don’t have any other surface warships operating west of Papua at the moment. We are trying to sortie ships from Freemantle and Darwin, but it may take some time with the current threat environment.”
“Admiral, we have a Cormorant-class ship of ours in the Indian Ocean conducting contract anti-piracy operations right now. We can recall it here to help in the defense of our New Guinea territories.
We also have a second ship of the same class in port at Derby that we can quickly prepare to sail to do the same mission. Their crews are all members of the Derby Militia, so they can be called to active duty for legal purposes.” Judith explained.
“I don’t want to send a couple of lightly armed merchantmen into the middle of a war zone. The Australian people would up in bloody arms if they learned that several hundred of their countrymen died for nothing.”
“Admiral, I assure you that our ships will be able to take care of themselves. We just ask that the Department of Defense officially call up the Derby Militia to active duty and agree to pay for the cost of any munitions that we expend.”
Admiral Clarke wasn’t quite sure about paying for a bunch of Cavill Industries missiles, but this was wartime now and he didn’t have the luxury of putting out bids for competitors.
“Alright, Mrs. Singer. Just tell me what you will be able to bring into the fight. Right now, our military just isn’t ready for this fight.”
“Cormorant is carrying a quartet of the latest version of Goshawk fighter-bombers. She is also carrying a small variety of manned and unmanned rotary-wing aircraft. She has a fully-equipped short combined-armed company. Cormorant herself has multiple containerized defensive and offensive weapons also.”
Admiral Clarke paused for a moment before responding. He had heard rumors before about the Cavill Shipping vessels that were being employed by their private military corporation International Security Services and just how well-armed they were. Now, the Cavills were confirming this.
“Will your second ship be equipped in the same manner?”
“It depends on whether you want us to focus on land operations or maritime operations, Sir.” Judith responded.
“I don’t know yet. I will have to talk to my staff to see what we might need in that regard. I understand that you have equipped the Cavill Militia to be able to defend much of Western Australia’s territory.”
“Yes, Sir. We have fixed site and mobile batteries to provide anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and ballistic missile defense for the northwestern coast from south of Derby to just east of Kalumburu. Most of this involves the utilization of our existing missile test facilities, but we also have mobile batteries that are part of our existing test programs. The rest of the equipment has been assigned to the Derby Militia.” Judith explained without getting into the details about just how many missiles and launchers were actually available.
“Alright, Mrs. Singer. On my authority, I am ordering that the Derby Militia be called up for active duty. I would ask that you coordinate your operations with our liaison to the Militia as soon as possible.
The Australian Army will also certainly need as much transport as possible to get troops and equipment into New Guinea to stop this Indonesian attack. We would like to contract as many of your transport aircraft as available to do this.”
“We will get that information to you as quickly as possible. We do have several Behemoth Wing in Ground Effect transports and Goliath heavy-lift aerial transports that we can make available to you within the next few hours. They can supplement the existing RAAF aerial and shipboard transport fleet. We also have some other aerial assets that you may find very helpful, both manned and unmanned, Admiral.”
“I didn’t think that your Derby Militia had any combat aircraft.”
“They have access to several of our test aircraft that can be quickly armed. Our pilots are also members of the Militia as well. Our unmanned aircraft can be brought into action just as quickly also.”
“I don’t know how much help that a few drone aircraft would be, Mrs. Singer.” Admiral Clarke commented.
“Sir, you do realize that we have been building and operating remotely piloted aircraft for over fifty years, don’t you? Please understand, that we built first built remotely piloted military aircraft to use against the Japanese during the Second World War. So no one in the world has the amount of experience that we have with this technology, especially its military applications.” Judith forcefully explained.
“So what are you proposing, Ma’am?” Admiral Clarke asked.
“We have more than a hundred unmanned aircraft of various types, including several designs that are capable of deploying weapons like bombs or missiles and then returning to their base to be rearmed for further missions. Other smaller craft can fly out there and loiter until their cameras detect a suitable target, then we will crash the craft and its explosive payload directly on the target with pinpoint accuracy. One of our new Mobula high altitude long endurance surveillance drones is already on station monitoring the situation. We have five more either ready to go or that will be completed within the next week.”
Judith didn’t mention that the Mobula drone was also armed and capable of shooting down aircraft and ballistic missiles as she continued.
“Admiral, what you will probably find of greatest importance is that we can fly all of these aerial vehicles over the Indonesian invasion force without risking a single Australian life. That should alleviate many of the concerns of the opposition in Parliament.”
“That is incredible. What about the cost of these drone aircraft, Ma’am?”
“We can build even our largest drone aircraft far less expensively than what is typical for a manned aircraft. After all, we don’t have to put in a cockpit, ejection seats, or armor for a crew. When we leave all of these things off, we can build a smaller aircraft that requires less mass and less fuel as a result. We can choose to instead add more fuel to give the aircraft a substantially greater range and endurance.
Our smaller kamikaze drones are far less expensive as well. They can be as inexpensive as only a few thousand dollars, though advanced features like night vision can potentially double the unit cost.” Judith explained.
“So, if you use these pilotless aircraft of yours against the Indonesians, the Australian government will be expected to compensate you for them, correct?”
“Yes, we would. But we would only expect fair compensation as an act of good faith. We would not attempt to extract an excessive amount from the government, I assure you. After seeing the combat performance of our unmanned systems, I would imagine that the Ministry of Defense would be quite eager to consider the possibility of procuring many more of our unmanned systems for our military personnel to use.”
“Will you be able to get enough of these assets into action to help our troops in New Guinea?” Admiral Clarke asked.
“I think so. But we will have to work out some manner of coordination so that the RAAF and other Australian forces do not shoot down our own drones by mistake.”
“I will set that up through our permanent liaison officer to the Derby Militia. At this point, your people may be the only blokes in the fight.
I must also tell you that we’ve got a pair of Bandfish-class submarines out there right now, including one of the new boats with the nuclear battery and vertical launch missile tubes.”
“They can be a very effective force to counter the Indonesian invasion fleet. They will have the advantage of not being vulnerable to any of those anti-ship missiles that the Indonesians have put on so many of their combatant vessels.” Judith noted.
“Thank you, Mrs. Singer. These are all issues that we will have to work on while on the fly. I will have someone contact your people as soon as this meeting is over. Get your aircraft into action as quickly as possible. I will be also ordering our submarines to go into action at the same time. Let’s kick these damned buggers off of our territory.”
“Admiral, please make sure that your submarine captains don’t sink any of my Cormorants. I’m sure that I will have one or two of them sailing not terribly far away also.”
“Perhaps you should order them to stay away from the combat zone, Ma’am.” Admiral Clarke advised.
“I’ve got people working and living in the areas that the Indonesians are attacking. I’ll be damned if I am not going to do something to help protect them. We will have members of the Derby militia active in the area regardless. I would hope that you will not allow anyone to interfere with our operations.
Everything that we do out there will remove an unnecessary burden from the regular Australian military in this fight.”
“Thank you again. I really must get going. I’m already running late for my next meeting. But at least we can do something out there to deal with those buggers.”
Chapter Thirty-Two:
Cavill Shipbuilding Shipyards
King Sound, Western Australia
February 28, 1999
Judith Cavill-Singer had driven out to the shipyards right at daybreak to meet with Douglas McFall, the current supervisor in charge of Cavill Industries maritime paramilitary operations. She has just flown back from Perth and a meeting with Admiral Clarke, the Australian military’s Chief of Staff. Douglas ran pretty much everything to do not only to do with Cormorant and her sister ships but also all vessels belonging to the naval arm of the Derby militia.
Judith quickly got out of her pickup truck and smartly walked into the administrative building where Doug’s office was located. As soon as Doug saw Judith’s strawberry-blonde hair, he knew that she was there to talk about something important.
“Hello, Doug. We’ve got an urgent situation west of New Guinea.” Judith said before Doug could even say good morning.
“I saw the news before I drove into work, Ma’am. I reckon that we have a war on our hands.” He said while motioning towards a chair in his office for her to sit down in while he sat down at his desk.
“You could say that, Doug. Obviously, we aren’t going to be able to sit this out either. We’ve got Cavill Industries facilities and personnel scattered all over New Guinea right now. There is no way in hell that we are going to abandon them to Indonesia.”
“So what do you need for us to do, Ma’am?”
“To start with, we need to recall Cormorant from her current mission in the Indian Ocean and push her sister ship Heron out to support her as quickly as possible. Let everyone know that this is going to be a combat mission. Anyone onboard them who are members of the Derby militia have been officially called onto active duty. That will give them official cover as lawful combatants.” Judith quickly instructed.
“Yes, Ma’am. But Heron is still under refit. It will take her at least a week before she is fully operational.” Douglas replied.
“Tell our shipwrights and Heron’s crew that they have twenty-four hours to get underway. Anything that isn’t finished by then will either have to be finished en route or will simply have to be ignored until their return. I will be ordering additional personnel from the militia to reinforce Heron’s complement.
Her flight deck will need to be ready to receive aircraft as soon as possible. We will use a crane to load as many aircraft as possible, especially since most of what we will have Herron carrying will be unmanned types. But she will also need to receive a full complement of Goshawks and rotary-wing combat aircraft as well.”
“Cormorant has all of our available Goshawks, I’m afraid. But we still have six operational Kestrels available that we can put aboard Heron.”
“I reckon that will have to do then. Make sure that we have our best available Kestrel pilots aboard her. They may have an opportunity to shoot at some enemy aircraft.
We will need Heron’s missile launch containers to be focused on air defense and anti-ship operations, though they will need at least two rocket-launched ASW torpedoes in the mix as well. The Indonesian submarine force appears to be fully deployed and shooting at our ships already.” Judith explained as Doug quickly took down notes on a pad of paper.
“I’ll check to see what our available inventory of weapons looks like. I figure that we will put the standard gun package along with a clip-on towed sonar array aboard Heron. We already have the containerized systems ready on the wharf to be hoisted into place. I want to put our extra modular towed array sonars onboard some fishing trawlers along with some other equipment so that they can be looking for enemy submarines.
We might as well throw on a few automatic weapons and MANPADS aboard the trawlers at the same time that we fit them with sonar. Who knows if some damned enemy pilot might decide to come in and have a go at our trawlers just because they happen to be there?”
“That sounds like a bloody good plan to me. We might want to let our shipwrights know that there is a possibility that they may be called upon to perform repairs for battle damage on Navy warships. So we will need to be prepared to clear a dry dock or two on short notice.”
“Is there anything else that you need for me to do, Ma’am?”
“I want you to get as many of our patrol boats mobilized and patrolling the coastline between just south of King Sound, all the way north and east to just past our facilities at Kalumburu. I’ll make sure that you have sufficient personnel from the Militia to man the craft.
We need to pay special attention to King South, our offshore platforms as well as our artificial islands where we have the new rocket launch and landing pads. We need to have patrols running 24/7. We know that the Indonesians also have mini-subs in their inventory. So there is certainly a possibility that those craft could be used to land saboteurs near here.
Our larger armed patrol craft will need to be ready to escort transport ships to Port Moresby as well. That is one of the missions where the sonar-equipped trawlers might be of some assistance as well.”
“Do you really think that it is going to be that bloody bad, Ma’am?” A clearly concerned Doug asked.
“The stakes are far too high for us to ignore the possibilities, I’m afraid.”
“I see, Ma’am. I’ll be sure that everything is ready as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you, Doug. Now, my next stop will be to visit Major Wells, our Australian Army liaison to the Derby Militia. I’m sure that she has already received a warning order from Canberra about the activation of the militia to active duty. But she and I need to discuss just what assets that Cavill Industries can make available to the militia.” Judith said as she got up and began to walk to the door.
“Good luck, Ma’am.” Doug said as Judith left.
A couple of minutes later, Judith was back in her hybrid pickup truck and on the way to the eastern outskirts of Derby. Next to the big airfield was a large assembly area for barracks, administration buildings, maintenance buildings, storage facilities, and vehicle assembly areas for the Derby Militia.
While not as large as it had been during its wartime expansion fifty years earlier, the ground element of the Militia could be very formidable when mobilized. The assembly areas alone had enough vehicles to support at least one reinforced combined-armed brigade. Few people outside of the Cavills and senior Militia leadership knew that a full mobilization could add another four to five battalions of motorized light infantry to that force if necessary.
The security guard at the gate was obviously already on full alert and had been reinforced with a couple of additional personnel. Even though they recognized Judith as she pulled up to the gate, the guards there insisted on checking her identification as well as making a close examination of her pickup truck.
