Black Tiger IV, 2015

A Fictional February, 2015 After years of tolerating American sanctions and overbearing naval presence in the Persian Gulf, the balance of power may be about to shift. Iran has entered into a new secret alliance with Russia, one of the goals of which is to bring the United States and her allies low so that each nation might have its way in the middle east and eastern Europe, respectively. As part of the alliance, Russia has transfered advanced aircraft, weapons, and the components to establish a top-line integrated air defense system. In an odd twist, Russia and Iran have also borrowed from the pages of history, mimicing the one-time alliance between the United States and China in 1940-41. A select group of Russian volunteers have resigned their positions in the Russian armed forces to come to Iran as paid military advisors- mercenaries, in much the same vein as the Flying Tigers of American and Chinese fame. In the past two days, several incidents have increased tensions to the boiling point. Iranian fighters have harrassed U. S. maritime patrol aircraft and flown aggressively in the airspace surrounding the two naval groups. Several missile-armed gunboats fought a surface action against the 5th Fleet on the night of February 6th, and on the 7th, a U. S. naval vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz struck a mine, prompting a brief, sharp surface action in which the U. S. Navy came out on top. Today the USS Carl Vinson and her escorts plan to transit the strait behind their amphibious group, but they have no idea the horror that awaits them. For decades, it has been nothing more than a respect for the strength of the United States that has kept the Strait of Hormuz open to the world. With Iran on the brink of becoming a nuclear power and with the windfall of top line military equipment they have obtained, the time has come for the regional balance of power to shift decisively. The Iranians are planning to hand the United States Navy the most crushing defeat it has ever