from, and now were being delivered to the customer by that country. China had upgraded the navigation system of each missile as a part of the deal. And added a thermonuclear payload.
At only 800 pounds, the Chinese knockoff of the American W88 thermonuclear warhead mated to each of the DF-21s was well within its payload capacity of 1320 pounds. The light weight of the W88 would not hamper the ability of the missiles to deliver them to their targets at the missile’s maximum range of approximately 2,100 miles. Once over its target, each missile’s upgraded accuracy of under 100 meters of Circular Error Probability, or CEP, from the aim point ensured the absolute obliteration of that target.
The American-designed W88 device packs into a very small container a blast capacity of .475 megatons, nearly half-a-million tons of TNT, or approximately 25 times more explosive yield than the weapons used against Japan to end the Second World War in the Pacific.
The W88 is a miniaturized, tapered thermonuclear warhead, the most sophisticated strategic weapon in the arsenal of the United Sates – and the world. Its two-point detonation, non-spherical atomic fission primary trigger and final thermonuclear fusion of a lithium secondary combine to deliver a large amount of explosive yield from a small and lightweight package, and to create thermal and radiation signatures unique among thermonuclear weapons.
These warheads had been provided by the People’s Republic of China for the simple reason that small, lightweight thermonuclear devices were beyond the technical reach of the DPRK. Absent successful espionage against the United States in the mid-1990s, this warhead also would have been beyond the capability of the PRC.
China’s using a uniquely American warhead presented them with several obvious advantages.
To ensure that the goal was reached of putting the warheads on the several targets at coordinated times, and because the Chinese leadership was too smart to teach terrorists, or their erstwhile allies in the DPRK, how to target the missiles, Colonel Li had been provided from the Second Artillery Corps to perform the final guidance and targeting tasks.
The North Korean dictator had been pleased to do his large friends to the north a favor. When China asked if they could be of assistance in helping him sell six of his missiles by providing nuclear warheads and up-rated guidance systems, and a customer, the DPRK dictator was more than happy to oblige. He needed the cash, and the warheads simply increased the price he could charge.
12
Washington, DC
Thursday, 11 April, 12:35 hours GMT (08:35 Local)
President Mike Hopkins looked around the table in the Cabinet Room, catching the eye of each of the six others present. They were finalizing the statements and discussion points with which each would be involved in the dinner this evening with the Chinese premier.
Hopkins was 54, tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. West Point, a combat command in Kuwait during Desert Storm, discharged and back home, he had decided to move into politics. He rose quickly through the political ranks in his home state, moving from State Senator to Governor in record time. Tall, trim and energetic enough for the campaigning and responsibilities, and both experienced and egotistical enough to know he had something to offer, he had thrown his hat into the Presidential ring. As in the rest of his political life, he had succeeded.
The terror attack in late October on American soil, quickly dubbed the “election attack,” had sealed the fate of his predecessor. Overnight the polls had changed to show Hopkins moving up and he had won a narrow electoral victory. Now he was faced with the reality of how difficult the job really was.
Terrorist training camps in South America. Thousands of people murdered every year by Mexican drug cartels on both sides of the US-Mexico border, violence that neither America nor Mexico seemed able or willing to stop. An economy just beginning its recovery after the “election attack.” The problems facing him were many and varied.
Around the table in the Cabinet Room sat Secretary of State Richard Dawson, Secretary of Defense Dan Caldwell, Vice President Charles Flanagan, Secretary of Commerce Shari Striplin, Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Mary Berglund, National Security Advisor Carol Kleinen, and Director of Central Intelligence Bob Shafer.
The meeting with the Chinese premier tonight had been requested only a month ago, and the date requested had been quite firm. Because it was China, Hopkins had agreed.
In requesting this meeting, Premier Fang had explained to Hopkins the loss of income suffered by China, and the setback to its modernization plans whenever an attack like the “election attack” occurred: Americans simply stopped spending. The Chinese economy always took a huge hit, his modernization plans came to a halt and millions of his countrymen remained in poor, rural environments, rather than being moved to the cities and modern jobs in China’s ongoing modernization.
Premier Fang wanted to know what the new President was going to do to ensure that America remained a reasonable place for him to invest his nation’s money, and what he was doing to ensure it was not attacked again. Hopkins agreed to the discussions and added the topic of China’s growing investment in resources in African countries, and the concern of the West that locking-up these resources might not be good for global markets, as well as a concern about what the media were beginning to label ‘Chinese imperialism.’
The problem vexing the president and his staff this morning, in addition to planning for the discussions at dinner, was that the terror chatter on the internet, and in NSA radio and telephone intercepts, was increasing across-the-board and around the world.
Waiting for the President to get started, defense secretary Caldwell looked across the Cabinet table at Secretary Berglund of the Department of Homeland Security. He still wasn’t comfortable with that name. Why did Congress do that? America already had a Department of Defense – and wasn’t that responsible for, umm, defense?
It seemed obvious to Caldwell that, when you wanted to go to war, well, you called it that. After all, America never had lost a war when it was called the ‘Department of War’. The tradition of losing wars – at best, of not winning them - began in Korea, the first war following the renaming of the ‘Department of War’ to the ‘Department of Defense’ by the 1947 National Security Act, that seemed, in retrospect, only to have decreased America’s security.
This new and uncomfortable tradition then continued through Vietnam, Somalia, almost Iraq, and though it seemed that Afghanistan was “won,” whatever that meant nowadays, you never could be sure.
What did these conflicts have in common? All were military conflicts occurring after the Department of War had been renamed, after the last time America actually waged war, real war, rather than limited combat engagements, to accomplish – or to try to accomplish – national goals. And now defending the nation became the job of some department with the hoked-up name of “Homeland Security.” Crap, he thought, why not call things by their right name?
“Well,” Hopkins began, “so much for the Middle East and Africa. I think we are prepared on those. What about South America? Did you tell me we have things going on down there we need to discuss with the Chinese, Richard?” he asked his Secretary of State.
“Mr. President,” Dawson responded, “We still are working to get a handle on the large numbers of terrorist training camps in South America. At these bases local guerrillas, socialist revolutionaries, cocaine cartel militias, and Islamist terrorists are trained.”
Secretary Dawson nodded to Defense Secretary Caldwell, “Secretary Caldwell has more
