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Phase 16: No one likes the taste of a future war
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Part 5
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Spanish Intelligence uncovers Wakandan plot to arm insurgent groups in Africa!
Euronews
Two attacks against Moroccan police stations and a border post claim over thirty casualties! Rebels aligned with the controversial state of West Sahara claim responsibility!
Moroccan sources confirm the use of advanced energy weapons, likely sourced from Wakanda.
Associated Press
The Kingdom of Morocco formally requests NATO support in dealing with Wakanda-supplied insurgents!
Euronews
Elements of the Spanish and Italian navy launched cruise missiles at targets in West Sahara, targeting known and suspected camps and ammo dumps of the Polisario Front, the name of the West Sahara/Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, used by the countries which do not recognize it. This could be an implicit statement by NATO supporting Morocco's claim of the area.
AFP
Elements of the French Foreign Legion, Spanish, and Italian Marines are deploying to Morocco to aid the Royal Moroccan Military in neutralizing the Polisario front permanently and to secure the advanced weapons delivered to it by Wakanda.
Euronews
Politicians in the United States voice their approval at the European members of NATO finally pulling their own weight, stirring controversy.
CNN
The first, comprehensive reports on the Wakanda Air Campaign begin to emerge. Within Europe alone, we have confirmed nearly a thousand military casualties, both wounded and dead, with a minimum of twenty-three thousand wounded civilians across dozens of cities across the continent. Fortunately, the civilian death toll has been low, with three hundred and twelve confirmed dead.
NATO material losses remain classified. However, pictures and video evidence points to at least a couple of hundred vehicles and systems of all kinds being destroyed or critically damaged. We have confirmed that multiple NATO fighters and helicopters of various types have been lost.
BBC World News
Military and government sources concur that Wakanda might have lost as much as a quarter of its air force during its attacks. Depending on manufacturing capacity and reserve, that might be a crippling blow, significantly limiting future offensive operations that Wakanda's Air Force could afford to launch.
CNN
Eleven thousand civilian casualties are reported throughout the United States. Experts believe that we suffered fewer overall casualties than Europe due to relatively lower population density in the vicinity of targets struck by Wakanda and heavily contested by the US military. Two hundred and eleven are confirmed dead, with hundreds more remaining in critical condition nationwide.
CNN
After firm casualty figures of the Wakandan unprovoked attacks began to emerge, an atmosphere of anger gripped the United States and Europe. We are hearing more and more calls for extreme measures to ensure Wakanda would be unable to attack anyone ever again.
CBS
The United States military released a set of parameters required for new air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. The critical point of the new weapons program is the warhead and targeting capabilities. The warhead is necessary to defeat armored targets. At the same time, the targeting needs to be more than sufficient for the missiles to track and directly impact hard-to-detect targets. That is a significant departure from the decades-long trend for most anti-air missiles to be proximity-kill weapons, using high explosives, fragmentation, or similar warheads to neutralize targets they cannot hit directly. The requirements cite the need to defeat heavily armored aircraft, regardless of whether they are Wakandan or alien.
US Air Force Magazine
Taliban and Ten Rings militants launch counter-offensives, using the disruptions caused by Wakanda's attack to good effect.
ANA and Coalition forces' advances in Herat and Jalalabad have ceased. Taliban and Ten Rings localized counter-attacks managed to retake portions of the contested cities.
CNN
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The Pentagon
Washington DC
Generals from all US military branches met in a bunker below the Pentagon. In contrast, many others were present over video conference calls carried by hardlines.
"By now, you all should be familiar with what hard data we have, our estimates of the enemy's capabilities, and what we gathered from debriefing Wakanda's exiled royalty crosschecked with information gained by surrendered diplomatic personnel," Admiral Frederick, Tillman, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opened the meeting. "We are gathered today to discuss strategic options for dealing with Wakanda for good and begin developing them for presentation in front of the President for final approval. General Vance?"
"At this point, using air power to break Wakanda's capability to fight a modern war comprehensively is going to be unlikely. Their combination of stealth technologies and shields makes air strikes less effective than desired. A sustained long-term campaign has merit and is something I propose we continue and expand. However, until we find all Wakandan cities and facilities covered by holographic camouflage and can overwhelm their shields, the practical utility of the air strikes is limited. In practice, we are looking at strategic defense by tying down a significant part of the enemy's surviving air force, combined with eliminating defensive installations that aren't shielded, like the ring of energy cannons identified first by the French. In theory, a prolonged and sustained campaign of air strikes can overwhelm Wakanda's shields by sheer attrition on their systems and power sources. However, we do not know if going that route will be feasible in a reasonable amount of time. I regret to report that, at this point, using conventional means, we can't guarantee victory. There are too many unknown factors about Wakanda's capabilities. "
"That was sadly within my expectations," Admiral Tillman noted. "The same is true for the Navy's Carrier Battle Groups, with the added complication that getting them within strike range of Wakanda risk losing ships and thousands of crew due to the inability to stop Wakanda counter-strikes effectively. War games based on what happened to the French Charles de Gaule point at us simply not having the right tools for the task at hand. Even then, if the enemy smartens up and uses their new technologies smarter, it won't matter until we can effectively track and target their aircraft. That has implications for our primary strategic goals. You've read Stark's memorandum backed by all scientists and engineers working on the Royal Talon they're examining, right?"
"We need that technology even if it means walking through a river of our blood," Commandant Steven Hacket, the commander of the US Marine Corps, grimaced. "We will do it if we absolutely have to. However, Wakanda isn't our only strategic threat. Breaking a branch of the military to take it won't be advisable in the short to medium term. Does someone disagree on that point?"
It all went back to Wakanda's stealth fighters. As few as they were, and they were still more than most countries on the planet could muster as an air force, they were damn tough. During the first day, it became clear that the enemy could adapt, and it wouldn't take much to ensure they could cripple the logistics efforts of an invasion force. That was the issue. It didn't help that elements of the Kenyan and Tanzanian military and government managed to survive the coups and called for international support against Wakanda and the traitors who backed the coup. Under different circumstances, this would have meant the US Marines and the Army had the welcoming mat ready to receive them with friendly harbors available for uncontested landing and to act as logistics hubs.
In the present strategic situation, providing them with practical aid was easier said than done.
Ascribing reasonable competence to the enemy, any such attempt while their air force could operate with near impunity would mean thousands, if not tens of thousands, would commit expensive suicide. The rest would be stranded in Eastern Africa without logistics. The US air force was reasonably sure they could do that, tho the US Navy, even with heavy Air Cover from all air bases in reach, just used the known surviving Wakanda aircraft and their capabilities displayed to date.
One of the reasons for this meeting happening this late after the initial attacks was to give time for simulating an attempted landing and logistics efforts from Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. After the first war game ended as a disaster for the US military and their allies, two more took place, with the defenders learning lessons from their defeat.
The other two war games ended up looking a bit better until NATO ran out of cruise missiles due to the constant heavy barrages they threw at Wakanda to pin down as much of its air force as possible. That meant that if Wakanda went for a defensive posture instead of focusing on first crippling the invasion buildup, the US military and allies could get a few hundred kilometers from the ports before their logistics got cut to pieces. Then the people playing Wakanda released their air force to go for the ships and planes vital for supplying them.
What killed the idea of a cheap invasion was that a Wakandan aircraft could fly invisible until it was above a carrier, for example, then open its rear ramp and just push enough explosives on the deck to mission kill it.
Everyone relevant knew that for a fact after Wakanda deployed commandos on top of the building where Tony Stark was bunkering, while their aircraft hovering above it remained cloaked until they finished deploying ground forces and joined the battle.
The best scenario would be Wakanda losing an aircraft for every such stunt, something they could afford. It would be a bargain to cripple the US Navy's strike capabilities. The infuriating reality of the situation was that even more conventional attacks on naval assets could end up with painfully one-sided Wakandan victories. When the bastards crippled Charles de Gaule, the French carrier had only a few Rafales left to protect it. However, it had whole squadrons of the US Air Force from bases in the Persian Gulf covering it for all the good it did. They could not target the enemy effectively, and the combat environment was far different from the ones that produced the heavies Wakandan casualties to date.
If the conflict remained conventional, and there was no counter to Wakanda's stealth, the rest of the world would need years of buildup for the kind of logistics and expeditionary forces that could absorb punishing losses yet push through to Wakanda and take place.
That was a worst-case scenario, and they would plan for it but shelve the idea. The odds were the conflict would escalate into nuclear before anyone sane contemplated that kind of bloodbath.
"Wakanda's action in Kenya and Tanzania do give us an opening for an indirect approach," General Scudder offered. "They won't miss the buildup for a proper invasion or an attempt to insert special forces in Wakanda. We all know their detection and response capabilities dramatically increased after the French hit them."
The best theory was that the French raid caught Wakanda while still confused after the coup. After all, once the enemy reacted, everyone watched the cream of the French Navy Air Wing get wiped out in short order. The reaction to follow-up cruise missile strikes kept improving, if not so dramatically, as it did over the first couple of days.
"We might be able to insert special forces and equipment to aid the loyalists in Kenya and Tanzania. They can also aid by giving us targets for cruise missile strikes and give us hands-on experience fighting Wakanda's ground forces. We need to know more about the enemy's capabilities to plan an invasion better when we have an answer for their air force."
"Speaking about an indirect approach," General Vance interjected, "we have a few ideas. Nothing likely to be a war winner; however, every little bit helps. We suggest dropping leaflets all over Wakanda and using drones to establish a way for our exiled Royals to speak with their people and do their best to convince as many of them as possible that we aren't their enemy. We want the people who launched the coup and attacked us, not the regular citizens minding their own business."
Vance raised an eyebrow at the surprised reactions he got. "What? Blowing up everything is not the only solution we can come up with!"
"I want two sets of fully developed invasion plans based on staging grounds at Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. The first one will assume we can reasonably counter the enemy air force, though not necessarily guarantee friendly skies. The second one will plan for the kind of buildup needed to survive and remain effective under constant air attacks we can't counter effectively," Admiral Tillman ordered. "Generals Scudder and Vance, I want viable options for inserting special forces, supplying them and the local loyalists with weapons and other supplies they will need to hold on until we can begin deploying to the region in reasonable numbers. General Vance, the cruise missile strikes will continue to keep up the pressure. Get me viable proposals for the psychological war you suggested, and I'll present them to the President. Do we have any other viable conventional options?"
"What will be our response if Wakanda escalates?" Ross asked. He wasn't happy. Recent events ensured he didn't have time to indulge his Hulk obsession and ensured everyone knew it.
"Nuclear submarines are making their way to optimal launch positions, just in case."