Joshua Suthoff
Sometime in 2027, two US Air Force C-17s are on final approach somewhere in the Pacific’s first island chain. Over the last week, tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan have reached crisis level. Forty-eight hours ago, the US president gave the order to build combat power in the Indo-Pacific theater. The pair of C-17s are carrying key enablers and personnel to build and protect the growing intermediate staging base. However, US intelligence has missed indicators and warnings that Beijing intends to escalate to conflict, and the crews onboard the C-17s are not aware of the screen of small, one-way attack drones loitering near the airfield where they intend to land, just outside its protected ring and directly in the aircrafts’ flight path. The almost undetectable and nonattributable drones detonate in close proximity to the airframes, scattering aircraft debris and cargo—a cargo of personnel and equipment that was exquisite, expensive, and not quickly replaceable. The conflict has begun, Beijing finally turning its years of rhetoric and aggressive posturing vis-à-vis Taiwan into action.
Three weeks into the conflict, an infantry fire team on Taiwan is strongpointed in a destroyed building overwatching an abandoned open-air market that is now the team’s engagement area. Two of the team members are constantly wearing their first-person view goggles searching for an enemy target to strike or call for fire on. A third member lays wounded in the corner, sustained only by the medical expertise within the team because conditions are not right for a medical evacuation. The team leader knows he has to get other enablers in the fight as soon as the enemy appears. Remnants of the team’s company are spread in a defense across a wide frontage. A day ago, the company tried to mass to clear a building to initially establish a defense and paid dearly in casualties even before the commander could initiate the assault. For now, the teams continue to hunt with drones and fires assets all while trying to avoid the swarms of Chinese drones. Most of the core strengths the US Army once relied upon are now weaknesses. Night movements, tactical assembly areas, and causality evacuation operations are all quickly noticed by persistent enemy drones. Warfare has changed.
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