"Brown, Dale - Fatal Terrain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

Sun opened his mouth to respond, but thought better of it.
It was a bad idea. The war plan for the invasion of Taiwan
was supposed to be a rapid reaction plan-the invasion was
supposed to begin within twenty-four hours of the execution
order. The world, especially Taiwan and its de facto ally, the
United States of America, would immediately detect any mas-
sive troop or equipment movements; the element of surprise
would be lost, and China no doubt would be forced to stand
down its forces. If there were huge gaps in the reaction time
of forces key to the plan-especially the Dong Feng-15 missile
bombardment units, which were supposed to destroy key air
defense and coastal defense sites in western Taiwan-the en-
tire invasion plan was in jeopardy.
But now was not the time to argue this point. "Very well,

Comrade General," Sun acquiesced. "As long as the chief of
staff is aware of the degradation, and immediately advised as
to the steps being taken to correct the deficiency, a briefing
note such as you suggest could be acceptable. But it is cer-
tainly not acceptable to brief that a certain element in the attack
plan is mission-capable if it is in fact not so. The war plans
are not carved in stone-they must be continually modified or
FATAL TERRAIN 23
they are useless. Please do not commit that error again, Com-
rade Colonel."
"Yes, Comrade Admiral," Colonel Ai responded, nodding
contritely. Ai took a moment to take a sip of water, collect his
thoughts, and find his place again-and immediately pro-
ceeded to give his briefing exactly as prepared, effors and all.
There were at least two more instances that Sun knew of where
attack units were not in place-in one case, an attack unit that
Ai briefed was key to the destruction of a radar site on the
Pescadores Islands in the Formosa Strait did not even exist any
longer! The planning committee had done virtually nothing to
the original Central Military Commission war plans drafted
several years earlier.
"Another question, Comrade Colonel," Sun interjected,
swallowing his exasperation. "You seem quite content to sail
the carrier Mao and her escorts right up to Kaohsiung, sup-
ported by air forces from Pingtan and naval air units from
Quanzhou. But that means our J-6s will be up against the
Nationalists' F-16s from T'ainan......
"We enjoy a six to one superiority in fighters, Comrade
Admiral," Ai responded. "Also, the DF-15 bombardment is
guaranteed to destroy all of the runways that might possibly
be used by the F-16s. Even if we do not destroy many F-16s
on the ground, they will be trapped either aloft running out of
fuel and weapons, or on the ground unable to launch."
"Your estimates of the amount of damage our rockets might
do to the Nationalists' bases is arguable, since they have a