by Dale Brown
combat generation begun immediately-no simulated weapons or
procedures-until I give the word, " Tamalko continued. "Major Esperanza
will command the battle staff until I return. Inform the flight leaders
that I will have Security arrest any crew members they find that do not
respond to the recall. "After you start the recall, call headquarters at
Cavite and advise them that we are generating combat sorties in response
to an all-units emergency message, and give them the details. Then call
Zamboanga Naval Yard and get a confirmation on this Captain Banio. That
is all." Tamalko let the receiver drop back into its hook. Well, a
squadron recall was the most active thing he could have ordered, he
thought. He had no alert fighters, no aircraft configured for combat on
a day-to-day basis. Launching two fighters, even if unarmed, would be a
positive action as well. As long as the first follow-on fighters were
armed, fueled, and manned within the next sixty minutes, he would have
done everything possible to respond to this "exercise." Finally relaxed,
knowing that he had done the right thing, Tamalko turned his attention
to the young girl's oral ministrations, and he was quite pleased to find
that his nearly fifty-year-old body still responded quickly to the task
at hand. CHINESE REVOLUTIONARY NAVY DESTROYER H0NG LUNG THIRTY MINUTES
LATER "Talon Eight-One reports one vessel afire, the PS-class patrol
craft, " came the report from Admiral Yin's combat section. "One vessel
believed to be an LF-class fire-support landing craft has moved
alongside to assist. The PF-class frigates have split up north and
south of the stricken vessel and appear to be in position to provide
fire support." Admiral Yin pushed himself away from his seat on the
bridge of the destroyer Hong Lung and cursed everyone he could think of,
especially the manufacturers of the once-vaunted Fei Lung long-range
antiship missile. The sonofabitches responsible for the missiles should
be shot. The Shuihongz5 attack plane had fired both its C101 antiship
missiles and had hit the patrol boat with one, but four Fei Lung-7
missiles launched from Hong Lung had either missed or been destroyed. In
Yin's long experience with the missile, this was by far its most
miserable performance, and coming at the worst possible time. His
destroyer had only two Fei Lung-7s remaining. With those two missiles he
would have to defend himself against two of the Philippines' largest
warships. He cursed angrily at the gods while pacing the bridge, feeling
more boxed in by the moment, seeing his glorious career destroyed by the
tiny, insignificant Philippine nation. That would not happen. Could
not happen. It would be a dishonor to himself, to his commanding
officer, to his Premier, to all Chinese. He calculated his options. The
Hong Lung did carry two more long-range missiles, the Fei Lung-9
supersonic missiles. Unlike the Fei Lung-7s, the 9s were designed for
extreme long-range naval attack, as far as one hundred and eighty
kilometers, and the missile could travel as fast as Mach 2.5 during the
high-altitude portion of its deadly flight. The Fei Lung-9 was an
unlicensed copy of the French-German ANS missile, which had been
intended as a high-performance replacement for the Exocet missile (of
which the C801 was a copy-the Chinese were never shy about stealing
other weapon designs). Fei Lung-9 was similar in size to Fei Lung-7 and
was launched by four solid rocket boosters and sustained by a
boron-hydride ramjet engine . And they had nuclear warheads. Each Fei
Lung-9 carried a single twenty-kiloton-yield RK-55 thermonuclear
warhead, a copy of the Soviet RK-55 warhead carried on sub-launched
cruise missiles and nuclear-tipped torpedoes. All deployed Chinese
flagships carried nuclear weapons, and Admiral Yin's Spratly Island
flotilla was no different-even though the RK-55 warhead was the smallest
and "dirtiest" warhead in China's arsenal. Roughly equal in yield to
the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II, it could easily
sink the largest aircraft carriers or devastate a port city. Admiral Yin
had never considered the use of these missiles, and still did not
consider it-as distasteful as it was to him, he would withdraw from the
fight and run for the safety of the Spratly Islands or the Paracels
before employing them. The nuclear warhead could be removed, however,
and a conventional 513-kilogram shaped-charge warhead installed. The
Fei Lung-9 was a superior weapon, much more accurate, much faster, and
was much more difficult to shoot down. But Yin did not order the RK-55
warheads removed from the Fei Lung-9 missiles. He still had two Fei
Lung-7 missiles and the firepower of the rest of his task force to use,
and besides it was somewhat dangerous for the crew to download a missile
from its launch canister and change high-explosive warheads at night
during a combat situation-never mind that two of those warheads would be
nuclear. "Status of Talon Eight-One, " Yin ordered. "Combat-ready, sir,
" Captain Lubu replied after relaying the request to Combat. "Armed
with six NTL-90 torpedoes. Data link is still active in all modes.
Loiter time... estimated at one more hour for min fuel return to the
Paracels, one point five hours for an emergency landing on Spratly
Island. They're still transmitting targeting data and awaiting orders to
reattack. " Yin nodded. The Murene NTL-90 dual-purpose torpedoes,
capable against both surface vessels and submarines down to depths as
great as five hundred meters, were substantial weapons of their own.
Their maximum range was slightly greater than the eight kilometers-which
was greater than the range of the guns on Philippine warships, although
it was much less accurate against surface targets and, for greatest
accuracy, the Shuihong-5 patrol aircraft would have to move in to four
or five kilometers to drop the torpedo. Yin hesitated sending the
Shuihong-5 back in within gun range, because if the patrol aircraft was
struck down, he would have no choice but to move his precious Hong Lung
in closer to the enemy to target his remaining antiship missiles, but he
knew he had little choice. "Order Talon Eight-One to attack with
torpedoes, " Yin told Captain Lubu. "Order them to specifically target
the northern frigate. I want targeting information for the southern
frigate and a second Fei Lung-7 salvo launched against it immediately."
"The waters in the Palawan Passage may be too shallow for torpedoes,
sir, " Lubu reminded Admiral Yin. "The torpedoes dive as far as fifteen
meters before beginning their climb to the surface-there may not be
enough depth in the area to accommodate that."
"Then order Talon Eight-One to attack at slower speeds, " Yin ordered,
"but I want the northern frigate prosecuted immediately. If the
Filipino fleet is allowed to cross the Passage toward Palawan, we will
have to withdraw before shore forces can react. I do not want these
people to escape, Lubu, do you understand me? I will teach these
Filipino cowards a lessonthe People's Republic of China wil
l defend its
territory and its borders with all the power at its command. We will
destroy ten ships for every one of ours that is attacked. Now carry out
my orders, Captain." HIGH TECHNOLOGY AEROSPACE WEAPONS CENTER (HAWC),
NEVADA SAME TIME If there was a room in all the huge expanse of desert
known as HAWC in the restricted area known as Dreamland that was more
classified or more restricted than any other, it was Building Twelve,
otherwise known as Hassle Hall. It was so named because every occupant
undergoes a scrupulous security check before entering the building, and
each and every room in the complex conducts it own security check for
every individual, arriving and departing. On the second-floor offices of
the project known as PACER SKY, a huge high-definition TV monitor had
been set up against one wall. A bank of computers and control equipment
fed satellite data from the expansive Earth station mounted atop Skull
Mountain within the Dreamland complex, and the digitized satellite data
was unpacked from its microburst transmission format, decoded,
processed, reassembled, and displayed on the huge monitor. The four
occupants of that super-secret room could scarcely believe what they
were seeing-a real-time image of a Chinese warship over eleven thousand
miles away, taken from a satellite about the size of a welder's
acetylene tank traveling five hundred miles overhead at seventeen
thousand miles per hour. The image was so clear that they could count
the different antennae on the vessel. "My God, that's incredible, " Air
Force Colonel Andrew Wyatt, one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's senior
project officers, exclaimed. "And that photo was taken at night? It's
amazing."
"We can do everything but read the name on the stern, sir, " Major
Kelvin Carter said proudly. Carter was one of the heads of the EB-52
Megafortress strategic escort "battleship" bomber project, a command
pilot, and the special project officer in charge of interfacing the
PACER SKY satellite system with the Megafortress fleet. "It's not an
actual photo-it's a composite image, combining radar, infrared, and
low-light visual-spectrum data. We can do this with every ship that's
out there. We've spotted whales, dolphins, schools of fish, and even
people on some of the smaller inhabited islands. But keep in mind, this
is not the usable display." Carter motioned to the console operators,
who switched the display to a larger-scale map of the area. The screen
was filled with icons representing different vessels, along with data
blocks near each icon. "Here's the plan view of the area around the
vessels out there. The computer issues identification icons to each and
computes its track, speed, and plots past and probable courses. In
attack mode, the computer will plot routes around the different threats
displayed, select weapons to strike each target, and prioritize targets
according to parameters entered by the commander." Carter turned to a
young Air Force officer beside him. "Ken?" Air Force Captain Kenneth F.
James, assisting Carter with his presentation to the Joint Chiefs of
Staff representativ~, motioned to a smaller monitor on another console.
"As you know, Colonel McLanahan is out flight-testing his modified B-2
Black Knight at SWC. Here's what he's watching in the bomber, sir, "
James explained. "It's an instant intelligence and operations display.
With this, a bomber doesn't need to launch with a completed flight plan,
decode targeting messages, or even stay in touch with his headquarters
or task force commander. He can launch and drive right to the target,
knowing that he'll have the best and most current intelligence and
flight plan available." Wyatt shook his head with amazement.
"Incredible. Really incredible. Do you see that display in your plane
someday, Captain? I understand you're involved in a very futuristic
fighter program. James glanced at Carter, momentarily unsure how to
respond. "Captain James is a stickler for security, sir, " Carter
explained. James smiled, apparently relieved that Carter had stepped in
to intercede for him. "He's understandably hesitant to talk about his
DreamStar project, even to you."
"I understand, " Wyatt said. "You guys live with security measures that
really infuriate the Joint Chiefs. I don't think there could be a bad
guy within five miles of this place, right, Captain James?" The young
test pilot looked a bit startled at the question directed at him, but
gave Curtis' aide a weak smile and replied, "Security becomes a way of
life around here, sir. You get very close-lipped after a while."
"I'll bet you do." "I think we can safely say that DreamStar is
light-years ahead of even PACER SKY, sir. In my Megafortress strategic
escort project, which I know you are well familiar with, PACER SKY would
be ideal. One EB-52 acting as escort to a flight of bombers on a
long-range strike mission will use PACER SKY to plan and update strike
routes, pre-plan defenses, and optimize weapons usage. "All this. . .
from a satellite that weighs only four hundred pounds, " Wyatt said.
"Amazing."
"It looks like Colonel McLanahan is getting ready to enter the low-level
route, sir, " James pointed out. "When he switches between his Super
Multi Function Display modes, we'll be able to watch his entire run on
this screen." POWDER RIVER MOA, NEAR BELLE CREEK, MONTANA SAME TIME They
called it Powder River. It was a pleasant-enough sounding name, almost
relaxing-completely out of place for a high-tech bombing, navigation,
and gunnery range. The Powder River weapons complex encompassed the
southeast corner of Montana, a bit of the northeast corner of Wyoming,
and an even smaller part of northwestern South Dakota. It was almost
perfectly flat, with only a few windswept rolling hills and gulleys to
break up the awful monotony of the terrain. In nearly eight thousand
square miles of territory, there were only six towns of any size, mostly
along route 212 that ran between Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and Crow
Agency, Montana. The northern edge of Powder River A contained parts of
Custer National Forest, while the very southern tip of Powder River B
claimed an even greater landmarkDevil's Tower, the unusual cylindrical
rock spire made famous in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Other than Devil's Tower, however, there was almost nothing of
interest-this was truly the "badlands, " as depicted by writers of the
Old West. It was truly the badlands this day. Sixteen men had already
been "killed" in Powder River in one day. Men were "dying" because the
Happy Hooligans from Fargo, North Dakota, were having an exceptionally
good day. The 119th Fighter Interceptor Group was out in force, with
four F-16 ADF Fighting Falcon air-defense fighters and two F-23 Wildcat
advanced tactical fighters rotating shifts, plus two KC-10 aerial
refueling tankers, and they were running rampant through the wide-open
expanse of sky under Powder River MOA (Military Operating Areas) A and
B. The training sorties, which they had been running for the past<
br />
several weeks, were all a part of General Calvin Jarrel's Strategic
Warfare Center program designed to train the aircrews that made up the
newly integrated First Air Battle Wing. Late on this particular
afternoon, two F-23 Wildcat fighters were patrolling the Powder River
MOA. In the lead was Colonel Joseph Mirisch, the deputy commander of
operations of the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Fargo; his
wingman was a relatively low-time Wildcat fighter named Ed Milo. After
checking his wingman in, Mirisch took him over to the tactical intercept
frequency and keyed his mike: "TOPPER, this is raider Two-Zero flight of
two, bogey-dope." No reply. "TOPPER, how copy?" Still no response. They
were within rangewhat was going on here? On interplane frequency,
Mirisch said, "I've got negative contact with the GCI controllers. Looks
like we might be on our own."
"Two, " was Milo's response. Mirisch tried a few more times to raise
TOPPER, the call sign of their ground radar intercept team in the
Strategic Range Training Complex, at the same time steering the
formation toward the entry point of the military operating area. When
they were at the right spot, Mirisch called out on an interplane,
"Raider flight, still negative contact with GCI. Go to CAP orbit...
now."
"Two, " Milo said. On Mirisch's order, Milo made a hard left bank and
executed a full 1 8O-degree turn until he was heading southeast toward
the center of the MOA, while Mirisch continued heading toward the entry
point of the MOA. They would continue to orbit the area in
counter-rotating ovals, offset about twenty miles apart, so that their
radars would scan a greater section of sky at one time. When radar or
visual contact was made, the other plane would rendezvous and press the
attack. There was only one more training sortie scheduled that day,
call-sign Whisper One-Seven, that was not identified by type of
aircraft. That didn't matter, of course-it was a "bad guy, " it was
invading the territory of the Happy Hooligans, and it was going to go
down in flames. That is, as soon as they could find it. For some reason,
both the VIPVO GCI radar sites at Lemmon and Belle Fourche had failed to
