How China Could Use Civilian Ships and Quantum Computing to Fight America at Sea
It would be a bad day for America. This fictional story shows how it would all go down.
This commission has not determined for certain what caused the loss of feed. But what is known is all the satellites (22) orbiting over the South China Sea at the outbreak of hostilities three days later, were lost to unknown malfunctions as they all began to de-orbit. We never regained control of these systems, essentially making us blind and deaf in the opening bouts of the war.
Convoy 16 was tasked from Diego Garcia to the U.S. naval complex at Yokosuka Japan with stores of munitions including SM-6, SM-3, JASSM, LARSM, and TLAM. Other weapon systems including short-range air defense systems (SHORAD), and updated radar systems destined for the Japanese mainland in response to rising tensions in the region. The loss of this war material and weapon systems crippled the American response to the seizure of Taiwan. It can be inferred that this preemptive strike was meant to limit the United States’ ability to respond to the seizure of Taiwan with standoff weapons and offer up a defensive bubble with BMD capable destroyers.
We are unable to investigate the wreckage of the ships as it currently sits well within the Chinese missile umbrella that has gone up since the seizure of Taiwan. Though the open war has ended, the United States no longer can operate freely within the region as was possible before the outbreak of war.
Austin Reid has worked in the maritime industry overseeing breakbulk and automated terminal operations. He has served as a stevedore superintendent in Mobile Alabama and an operations monitoring role at a remote operations center in Texas for a leading automated container terminal on the west coast. Austin is a master’s candidate at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. He is pursuing an MPA with a focus on policy analysis and concentrations in cybersecurity and security policy management. Austin intends to pursue a career in infrastructure security upon graduation from the Bush school in either the public or private sector. You can find him on Twitter at @AggieIslander.
This originally appeared on CIMSEC in 2019. Image: Reuters.