The Secretary of Defense frowned. "Stop beating around the bush. Get to the point."
"First, the seizure of the USS McCain was simply unbelievable. The USS McCain had not docked at the time, so the enemy could only have boarded from the air or underwater. But the Aegis Combat System could detect something as small as a baseball within a hundred and sixty kilometers. No one could parachute in without being noticed. There should also have been soldiers on duty on the deck. It was daytime, the weather was clear—if anyone had parachuted in, they couldn't possibly have missed it."
"The USS McCain's sonar system should likewise have ensured its safety underwater."
"And yet, the USS McCain was still infiltrated. Unless everyone in the command center had gone insane, or the enemy truly was a superhuman as they reported, there was only one explanation: they suffered total signal suppression across all frequencies. The enemy carried out a boarding operation right under their noses, and they were completely unaware of it."
"Who could do something like that?" the Secretary of Defense asked.
The Arleigh Burke class was the United States' most advanced destroyer. The USS McCain and the Ramage had been launched only two years earlier. They were equipped with the finest radar early-warning system in the world—the Aegis Combat System—as well as specialized electronic warfare and anti-jamming enhancement modules. Who in the world could silently shut down a warship packed with such advanced technology?
"Could it have been... the Soviet Union?" The Secretary of Defense pondered. "What was the second matter you mentioned?"
"At 9:45, British warships were struck by torpedoes," the intelligence officer said. "After the USS McCain was hit by torpedoes, British warships were immediately struck as well. But our combat orders had not yet been issued. Who