Dilandu
I'm dissatisfied, which means, I exist.
Several years ago I worked on technothriller story about then-future (2020s) Sino-American war over Taiwan. Admittedly my story didn't progress general outlines, but working on it I got several ideas that I'd like to disucss.
In the story, the Chinese opening move (after it became obvious that USA got involved and wouldn't step back) was the attack on America homeland by the use of missile-armed Q-planes. They essentially were Boeing 747 jet lines, operated under remote control & filled with about 100 long-range stealth cruise missiles (HE, tandem penetrator or cluster warheads) in rotary launchers each:
Those Q-ships were inserted in American airspace by using identifications from real civilian liners, operated by Chinese-controlled dummy air companies in East Asia. The real liners over Pacific were diverted to Chinese island military bases & temporarely detained (passengers were told that they suffered a malfunction, and forced to land temporarely on military airfield), and Q-planes took their place in air traffic. Under remote control (with all communications retranslated through sattelite link, so the remote crew could realistically pretend that they are flying the planes and talk with air controllers), they entered American airspace and launched a surprize attack from within the perimeter.
So the situation:
* About 400 long-range, stealthy ALCM released from within US airspace
* The attack came as total surprize, US air defense did not expect massed attack from WITHIN the perimeter, so the absolute majoriy of missiles reached their targets
* The targets were strictly military ones & some command centers (destroying Pentagon is pretty much a cliche for technotriller, after all)
How much damage could realistically be expected from such dastardly plot? The Chinese main goal is to create enough damage & confusion among US military, so no significant reinforcements could be sent to East Asia at least in short time.
In the story, the Chinese opening move (after it became obvious that USA got involved and wouldn't step back) was the attack on America homeland by the use of missile-armed Q-planes. They essentially were Boeing 747 jet lines, operated under remote control & filled with about 100 long-range stealth cruise missiles (HE, tandem penetrator or cluster warheads) in rotary launchers each:
Those Q-ships were inserted in American airspace by using identifications from real civilian liners, operated by Chinese-controlled dummy air companies in East Asia. The real liners over Pacific were diverted to Chinese island military bases & temporarely detained (passengers were told that they suffered a malfunction, and forced to land temporarely on military airfield), and Q-planes took their place in air traffic. Under remote control (with all communications retranslated through sattelite link, so the remote crew could realistically pretend that they are flying the planes and talk with air controllers), they entered American airspace and launched a surprize attack from within the perimeter.
So the situation:
* About 400 long-range, stealthy ALCM released from within US airspace
* The attack came as total surprize, US air defense did not expect massed attack from WITHIN the perimeter, so the absolute majoriy of missiles reached their targets
* The targets were strictly military ones & some command centers (destroying Pentagon is pretty much a cliche for technotriller, after all)
How much damage could realistically be expected from such dastardly plot? The Chinese main goal is to create enough damage & confusion among US military, so no significant reinforcements could be sent to East Asia at least in short time.
