Later in the day.

Across the Pacific, Arlington County, Virginia.

Defense Secretary William Cohen, who has become an old fritter over the past two years of work, arrives in the office and begins to routinely review the day's official business and then asks the secretary to arrange the schedule.

Thanks to a series of scandals caused by the president of the Donkey Party in the past two years, although he is still the only member of the Elephant Party among the main ministers, his living conditions have improved significantly.

It even gradually began to compete for dominance in defense affairs.

Of course, at the end of the 90s, the United States, which had just won the Cold War, was at its peak.

When the cake is big enough, the differences between the two sides are not so big that they want to tear their faces.

For Cohen, compared with the state of being almost alone when he first took office, he has basically completed the replacement of the dignitaries around him, which is enough to handle all kinds of work in the department without having to do everything himself, and the pressure is naturally reduced.

Even his complexion is much more rosy than before.

"A Chinese delegation will visit next week for nine days, including a visit to the Fort Benning Army Reinforcement School, and needs to prepare for attendance and talks......"

"In the afternoon, I will discuss the details of Operation Desert Fox with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President's National Security Adviser......"

"There will also be a press conference in the evening on the recent situation in the Gulf region......"

The first and third tasks will have the secretary to prepare all the details for him, and he only needs to look at the memo, and only the second requires him to go to the White House in the afternoon.

Although there were inevitably some quarrels with several other people, there was no disagreement between the two parties about launching a large-scale air raid in West Asia.

Cohen hummed a little song in a cheerful mood.

It seems that today is another relatively easy day.

He poured himself a glass of sparkling water, then sat back down at his desk to work on a few papers that needed to be corrected.

However, at this moment, the internal phone next to it suddenly rang.

The voice of his new secretary rang out from the earpiece:

"Mr. Minister, Ms. Henrion is outside."

"Please let her in."

Triss Henryon, Director of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

She does not take a position between the donkey and elephant, and of course she can also be said to be flexible and always on the winning side

In this context, it is natural to be inclined to help Cohen.

"Good morning, Mr. Minister."

With a stack of papers in his hand, Henrion entered the door and sat straight down in the chair across from Cohen.

"Good morning, ma'am."

The latter greeted him and poured another glass of sparkling water and placed it in front of Henrion, while seeing the document in the other party's hand:

"Is there something new in the Gulf?"

Considering the content of this afternoon's defense meeting, Cohen asked logically.

After receiving the support of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he could see a lot of useful information earlier than the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and make effective responses in advance.

"Unfortunately, the direction of the bay is very calm."

Henrion shook his head, then put the information on his desk and pushed it forward in front of Cohen:

"It's news from the South China Sea, I think you might be interested."

"South China Sea ......"

Cohen said as he flipped through the folder, but it was clear that it wasn't going to take a few minutes to read it.

In the past, he had never understood why intelligence documents were written in such a lengthy and unfocused manner.

Later, I realized that this is the core competitiveness of Henrion that can be used for a long time-

It is impossible for government officials to have the time to read the contents word by word, and even if they do, they will deliberately add complicated technical terms to it, so that outsiders can only understand it at best.

So the conclusion depends a lot on how she reports.

Cohen has also tried to find some key points from it on his own, but even after two years of defense, he will still be confused by the divine logic of "the bigger the fish, the bigger the spines, the bigger the spines, the less meat, the less meat, the smaller the fish, so the bigger the fish, the smaller the fish".

He can only rejoice that the other party is at least on his side for now:

"So...... Is it related to Huaxia? ”

"Actually, it's news from Annan, as for whether it has anything to do with Huaxia...... It's hard to say. ”

Henrion picked up the cup and took a sip to soak in the water:

"Our intelligence officers over there reported that last week, an Annan frigate suffered a mysterious trek."

"With the GPS system turned on throughout the ship, there was a huge confusion in the satellite positioning data and magnetic compass pointing."

"There happened to be a group of media personnel on board at the time, and the reporters and the captain's reports were inclined to suggest that it was a paranormal phenomenon similar to the Bermuda Triangle."

At this, she didn't hold back herself, and let out a chuckle.

The defense minister on the other side also couldn't help laughing.

The legendary Bermuda Triangle is just on the edge of Miami, and with the status of the two of them, it is natural to know that almost all of the legends in it are just good things made up by the media.

"So, does Hanoi also believe this kind of rhetoric?"

There was a hint of contempt in Cohen's tone.

But Henrion shook his head:

"Of course not, this kind of rhetoric is just to deceive ordinary people."

"They tend to have some kind of interference with the GPS system, which is also consistent with the assumptions of our intelligence officers."

Cohen wanted to refute, but before he could speak, he was blocked back by the other party:

"Because at about the same time that the report went wrong, we had a nuclear submarine USS Helena in the nearby waters, and it happened to be doing position correction at periscope depth, and some similar anomalies were found, of course, far less exaggerated than reported by the Annanes."

Cohen's expression, which was still smiling just now, froze on his face:

"How is that possible?"

"As the Navy told me before, the GPS terminals we provide to Annan are equipped with directional antennas, although they only have access to rough capture, unless the Russians use their satellites to send the same signal...... But their satellites should no longer be able to cover the near equator......"

The frequency bands preset by the GLONASS system are almost exactly the same as those of GPS, so there is theoretically the ability to disguise themselves as the latter.

But the Russians clearly have no incentive to do so at the moment.

Because of the directional antenna, only signals from the upper cone will be received, so they will not be affected by interference from other angles at all......

"That's not wrong on the Navy's side, Mr. Minister."

Henrion shrugged:

"Actually, there can be many reasons for interference, but based on our past experience, the positioning error caused by purely environmental factors is not so large."

"So the intelligence services still think someone is doing something?"

The defense minister felt that the other party's statement was a bit similar to those intelligence documents, and he went around and around, but he just didn't give a definite conclusion.

Highlight a nonstick pan.

Sure enough, Henrion immediately shook his head:

"This is speculation by intelligence officers, and it cannot be considered our official conclusion."

"So, that's why I'm coming to you today."

Cohen didn't reply, just gestured for her to continue.

"I hope you can apply and mobilize a few electronic reconnaissance planes to go around there to see the situation."

"Hiss......"

This blunt request made Cohen gasp immediately.

On paper, the Minister of Defense is a civilian officer in charge of administrative affairs and does not have the power to command and mobilize the armed forces in principle.

However, we all know that the so-called "in principle" is actually the same as can.

So Cohen must have a way.

But he also has his own concerns, so he did not immediately give a positive answer:

"Send the planes over...... The risk is a little too high......"

"Now that Operation Desert Storm is imminent, the Balkans are not clean, and there will be a Chinese delegation to visit next week...... It's not suitable for this kind of thing......"

Cohen was born in a think tank, although the main purpose was to make money, but the think tank in the seventies and eighties was still somewhat real.

So he knows very well that it is best not to make too many enemies at the same time.

Henryon, however, was rather unimpressed:

"Mr. Minister, you have been a little too careful."

She shook her head with a smile and said:

"Didn't we prove at the beginning of the year that they were just bluffing? In just two years, nothing can change. ”

"And at the time of the press conference last month, didn't you say that we could win two wars in two different locations in the world?"

"I'm ......"

Cohen almost blurted out that it was fooling outsiders, how could you really believe it.

But after thinking about it, he reacted that the other party was deliberately gagging him.

If you think deeper......

Then the real purpose of sending electronic reconnaissance planes in the past may not necessarily be just to investigate the cause of the interference of GPS signals.

But after all, due to Henryon's relatively special status, it was not easy for him to directly refuse the other party.

Otherwise, it is difficult to guarantee whether you will be able to get useful information in advance in the future.

But if it is really necessary to mobilize a large number of troops at this juncture, it is not like that.

After some struggle, he decided to find a moderate solution:

"We have an Air Force Intelligence Squadron in Misawa with a strength of 2,000 men and two EP3E Aries, and although there is no guarantee of 24-hour rotation, it should be able to meet your needs."

(End of chapter)