Empire of the Ring

The U.S. government delivered 300 cruise missiles to the Kazakh Royal Navy, which it had originally promised to sell.

As the issue of the Arctic Ocean was settled amicably through mediation by the Kazakh royal family, the U.S. handed them over at half price, calling it a gift.

It even announced to the media that it would hand over cruise missiles to Kazakh naval forces.

The series of measures were taken with an intention to inform Russia and China. The U.S. wanted to show its involvement in the armament of the Kazakh Navy.

The reason why Kazakhstan was able to purchase missiles, each costing nearly a million dollars, at half price was because it was in line with the U.S. Navy's policy to dispose of inventories of the Mediterranean fleet. They were old-fashioned, but their performance had not changed much.

For Kazakhstan, which had yet to produce long-range precision missiles, it was not in a position to select what they could receive. The Aegis and frigates without missiles were nothing short of scrap metal.

The cruise missiles, which were delivered from the U.S. naval base in Naples, Italy, were moved to Arirang Base in the Aegean Sea.

"I've been informed that we've moved all the missiles to the island. I'm not sure if those missiles' performance is still great since they're outdated."

Cho Chul-hwan was reporting that all the cruise missiles were moved as he entered Youngho's office.

"The U.S. Navy said there will be no performance problem for the next few years, so we should trust them. I brought it for less than half the price, and it's hard to expect it to be fresh."

"I feel very uncomfortable. I feel like we received bad quality missiles."

"We should test them out and return them if they're no good."

"You bring in missiles that are as good as free and return them? Is that possible?"

"What are you going to do when we say we're going to return it?"

"This kind of matter can't be done just because we nag. We should get it fixed on our own and use them since we brought the surplus weapon at a bargain. No, we have to develop long-range missiles quickly so we won't have to rely on foreign countries forever. It's only our loss if those items are banned for export."

"The projectile technology has been already passed down from the Soviet era. But the precision guidance system is the problem."

"Shall we ask the Korean government to transfer technology?"

"We'd be in the completion stage of development soon, so let's wait for now. If the performance is not good, we will either work together on technology or bring in complete precision guidance devices at least."

The technology of the Korean surface-to-air missile, Cheongung, and the ship-to-ship missile, Haeseong, boasted the world's best.

The missile technology, which had been developed with huge development costs for more than a decade, could not be easily handed over to Kazakhstan even for their strong relationship with Korea.

"It's no use having a projectile technology because of the poor electronics."

"It's just a lack of precision, but it's not useless at all. If we're in a hurry, we can put them in action."

"What good is it to have no precision?"

"The explosive power is about the size of a football field. I guess we can roughly take down the target."

If an urgent situation arose, Youngho intended to ignore the precision and use the missiles as a bluff. Just having intercontinental projectiles was a big threat to the enemy.

A projectile could carry out more precision strikes if precision electronic components were bought and installed.

"I don't know what China is up to these days but it's been quiet."

"They were clamoring that they built a second aircraft carrier this time. It looks like they're going to station the previously imported aircraft in the Indian Ocean. I met Michael in Tromsø, Norway, and he was pretty serious. That's why he was quick to deliver cruise missiles to us."

"You don't think they'll ever cross the Indian Ocean? There's a U.S. Fifth Fleet stationed in Bahrain."

The 5th Fleet belonged to the Indian Ocean fleet, and its headquarters were in the western part of the Middle East such as, the Gulf of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Oman, and the Gulf of Aden.

"China is not a threat to us, but the problem is the pirates. To escort Arirang shipping vessels from the Mediterranean to India, I think we should deploy a frigate in the Persian Gulf now to the Arabian Sea."

"There's the U.S. 5th Fleet and the naval ships from 23 countries on guard, and what kind of crazy pirates would come at us?"

"These days, pirates are armed with heavy weapons. We can't deal with them with the weapons that our security teams have."

"If you threaten a large vessel with a heavy machine gun, it will be difficult for you to withstand it even with the fastest speedboats."

"Why not bring in the frigates in rotation to build our operational capabilities?"

"Discuss it with Commander Jun. If the Kazakh navy deploys a destroyer in the Gulf of Aden, our allies will welcome it. Ask them to do their guard duty on a trial basis."

Recently, Arirang Shipping also pioneered regular container routes to and from Indian and the Mediterranean countries, but because of the pirates still active in the Gulf of Aden, safety could not be guaranteed.

***

The vessel Astana 901 was on patrol in the middle of the Gulf of Aden and Arabian waters after a mission swap with the vessel 903.

The captain of the 901 was Lt. Col. Diaghilev, a former missile ship captain in the Kazakh Navy.

Diaghilev took office as captain of the Astana 901, a 3,000-ton frigate of the Royal Navy, when he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

He himself was full of dreams of taking office as captain of the Aegis destroyer, which would be launched at the Danish Shipyard a few years later.

Looking at the morning waters of the Gulf of Aden, he was dreaming a rosy dream, and an emergency report was made by a communications officer.

"Sir, this is an emergency report from the Arirang 11 container ship that has just passed through the Red Sea. It's being chased by an unidentified ship."

"Arirang 11… Isn't that an 8,000-TEU container ship?"

"Yes. That's right. Captain."

The 8, 000 TEU-class container ship was a 300-meter-long, 43-meter-wide, 25-knot-speed vessel with 80,100 commodity weight tons.

Since it was a huge ship with a high hull, pirates could not easily get on board.

"How many security personnel is on board?"

"There are two members of the Royal Security Company on board."

"Well, I guess it'll be all right. It's equipped with a 12.7-millimeter heavy machine gun. Who's going to come after it?"

The ship also had several personal firearms in addition to heavy machine guns.

"The unidentified ship is not a high-speed boat, but a patrol boat size of over 100 tons."

"Isn't it a Somali government patrol boat? How can pirates get around on that big boat?"

"I don't exactly know how they do it. The crews asked about its identity, but they did not get any answer, so they are considering it an enemy vessel and are sailing at full speed, but they said they'll catch up to it in an hour."

"Is there no other country's warship around?"

"Our ship is the closest to the container ship."

The Gulf of Aden was located on the side of the Suez Canal, the world's largest maritime transportation hub linking Europe and Asia.

Also, the Gulf of Aden was home to oil-producing countries, which were frequented by oil tankers from around the world.

It was home to Somalia, which had experienced a long civil war and an area infested with armed forces such as pirates.

Somali-based pirates often attacked foreign vessels with maneuverable small ships, holding sailors hostage and demanding ransom, prompting a joint operation by a 23-nation navy fleet to drive pirates out of the Gulf of Aden.

"How far is our ship from the container ship?"

"It's about 300 kilometers away. It's a five-hour drive at full speed."

"Then launch the Lynx helicopter first."

The 3,000-ton frigates were equipped with Lynx helicopters to search and attack submarines.

The Lynx helicopter had a maximum flying distance of 630 kilometers and a maximum flying time of three hours, so it was a sufficient distance to travel back and forth to the container ship.

The Lynx helicopters had heavy machine guns, torpedoes, and air-to-ship missiles, so they had the power to deal with decent enemies' attacks.

"Why not figure out the coordinates and subdue them with a ship-to-ship missile?"

"Do you have any idea how much it cost to purchase each missile? We don't want to waste it on a small patrol boat. And there's no guarantee that it'll get the target. It's more effective to send a helicopter. It'll be there in an hour, so contact them and make sure they can hold out until then."

The size of a 100-ton patrol boat may also be armed with 20mm cannons or 40mm guns.

Of course, it would be carrying RPG missiles as well.

RPG missiles could attack any object within 500 meters of distance.

It didn't mean a huge container ship would be ruined just by being fired by with a portable anti-tank gun, but it would be fatal if it went straight to the bridge.

No matter how well-trained security guards were guarding the ship, it was difficult to repel machine guns and portable missiles fired by more than 10 people.

***

Lieutenant Janelle, the Lynx helicopter pilot, and Lt. Nardin, the co-pilot, were flying to the designated coordinates after being ordered to move.

The gauge on the dashboard was pointing at 340 kilometers per hour.

When they were 10 minutes away from the container ship, they could be in direct communication with the Arirang 11.

"Arirang 11." Can you hear me? This is 901 ship Lynx helicopter. I'm the captain of the pilot."

-This is Arirang 11. It's a communication operator. We're engaged with a mysterious ship.

"How far is it from the enemy?"

-It's about 1.5 kilometers away. The enemies are firing 20-millimeter machine guns.

"Is there any damage to our side?"

-No one's hurt yet. The machine gun is pointing at the bridge, so we're circling at the moment.

"Are our security guards attacking, too?"

-We are firing to warn the enemies and keeping the enemy from approaching. When will the helicopter arrive?

"We'll arrive in about seven minutes. We will attack the enemy ship as soon as we arrive."

-Roger.

Upon finishing communication, he increased the output from the helicopter.

The dashboard pointed at number 400 in an instant. In other words, the speed was the highest. The good thing about Lynx helicopters was their mobility.

"Captain Janelle. I've identified the right target."

"It's a high-speed patrol boat. There's no way pirates could be riding that thing, and it looks like the Somali Navy, so why is it attacking our container ship?"

"It's almost caught up with our container ship. Shall we launch the attack?"

"It'll be a waste of air-to-ship missiles. Fire a threat with a heavy machine gun. If the boat belongs to the Somali government, we'd get into trouble later."

As soon as the order was made, a 12.7-millimeter heavy machine gun was fired, a high-speed patrol boat approaching the container ship was seen steering for evasion.

The helicopter continued to follow and fire threatening shots, but soon, a machine gun from the enemy boat was held up high and it began firing at the Lynx helicopter.

"They're attacking?"

"Is the camera working?"

"Yes, I've got everything on camera.

"Then turn off the camera and finish them."

Even though he gave them a chance to escape with threatening shots, they fired back at the helicopter, leaving him no choice but to sink the boat as a defense.

Moments later, a heavy machine gun was turning an unidentified patrol boat into a beehive.

There was no ship that could withstand heavy machine gun firing 600 shots per minute from the sky.

The enemy ship was quickly devastated and flames began to rise on the bridge.

Then, the container ship, which was watching, was also firing heavy machine guns.

It was revenge for making the crews suffer for over an hour.

"Let's take a look around and go back. The oil is tight, so we should fly back without wasting time."

"All right. It seems to have completely lost its function as a ship."

"Here's 901 Lynx helicopter. Captain, we're done eradicating the enemy's vessel. Fire and smoke are currently leaking from the enemy's ship. We only have fuel left to return, so we need to pull out of the field."

-Thanks. I just got a communication from Arirang 11. Return immediately. Our ship is 200 kilometers from the scene.

"All right. I'll get back to you 10 minutes before arrival."

When the 901 Lynx helicopter turned around, the container ship sent the Lynx helicopter back with a loud whiff of ships.

The crew applauded it for successfully neutralizing their enemies with relentless attacks.

The Lynx helicopter left the scene at a rapid pace after circling the container ship once in response.