by Dale Brown
and have already received permission to return to Zamboanga for
refueling. Sichuan-One-Zero flight of four Q-5 fighters are three
hundred kilometers northwest of the B-52, headed southeast to take over
for Liang-Two flight." Damned sparse fighter coverage, Kafeng 's
commander thought to himself. Because that bomber was a "ferret, "
running away at the first sign of trouble, they were not giving it as
much fighter attention as they should. Well, that was going to stop
right here and now. "CIC, bridge, chase that damned plane out of here,
" Kaifeng 's commander ordered. At this point chasing "Old Gas" out of
antiship-missile range was more important than revealing radar
frequencies. "Hit them with the fire-control radar." That was usually
plenty to make the B-52 turn and run. "Yes, sir, " the combat
information officer responded. "Shall I recall Liang-Two flight to
provide air cover?"
"Get a fuel state from them. If they have not reached bingo fuel yet,
have them engage. If they have reached bingo, engage with the HQ-9 1
system. Then vector in Sichuan-Ten flight and have them chase that B-52
out past two hundred kilometers." The warning tone over the interphone
system for a missile acquisition radar was different from a search
radar-in general, the more serious a threat, the faster and more
insistent the tone. The appearance of a "Search" radar gave a rather
leisurely "Deeedle... Deeedle... Deeedle. "When the Chinese Golf-band
air-search radar changed to an India-band missile acquisition radar, the
tone was a fast, loud "Deeedledeeedledeeedledeeedle!" At the same time,
"Missile Warning" lights illuminated at every station of the EB-52C
Megafortress bomber orbiting at thirty thousand feet over the Philippine
Sea. "Missile warning, twelve o'clock, " the electronic warfare officer,
First Lieutenant Robert Atkins, announced. "Indiaband radar... 'Fog
Lamp' SAM director for an HQ-91 missile. This'll change to missile
launch at any second." Atkins' voice became squeakier with every
passing moment-he was an engineer, not a crew dog, and he never thought
he'd be taking these behemoth modified B-52s into battle. "Don't sweat
it, " Major Kelvin Carter, the Megafortress's pilot, said, trying to
project the most confident voice he could. "They're just trying to
scare us out. Easy on the jammers until the shit starts rollin'."
Carter's words did little to calm young Atkins down, so he turned back
to the peace and security he usually got from the one thing that he knew
he could trust in this screwed-up world-his equipment. Designed at the
High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center several years ago by a
near-mythical engineer named Wendy Tork, Atkins had improved on Tork's
groundbreaking designs and produced what was probably the best
electronic warfare suite ever to leave the ground. Atkins was sitting
before a complex of multi-function displays on the Megafortress Plus's
upper deck, scanning the skies for enemy radars and programming the
bomber's array of jammers against each one. His ECM system
automatically processed the electronic signals, analyzed them,
identified them, pointed out their range and bearing from the
Megafortress, and selected the appropriate jamming packages to use
against them. It could do the same with a hundred other signals from
very long ranges. The system would also automatically dispense decoys
against radar or heat-seeking missiles to protect them from missile
attacks. A B-52G or -H Stratofortress bomber had performed all the other
"ferret" flights from Guam in the past few days, but tonight it was an
EB-52 Megafortress pulling the unenviable task of drawing the attention
of the Chinese Navy and assessing the threats present around eastern
Mindanao-a regular B-52 was hardly qualified to take such a risk. All in
all, the system relegated Atkins to a "verbal squawk box" role-what the
others called "crew coordination" was still a foreign concept to him,
since everything on the Megafortress was so automated-as it should be,
of course. Why risk an extra human life on board, when a computer could
do the job faster, better, and cheaper anyway? His directed defensive
weapons were designed to operate automatically as well. The
Megafortress had eight AGM-136A TACIT RAINBOW antiradar cruise missiles
in clip-in racks in the forward part of the bomb bay, plus a rotary
launcher with eight AGM-88B HARM High-Speed Anti-Radar Missiles in the
aft bomb bay. The electronic countermeasures system would automatically
program both the HARM and TACIT RAINBOW missiles for a particular enemy
radar system they encountered. In case that particular radar was shut
down during a TACIT RAINBOW attack, the missile would stay aloft for
several minutes, search for just that radar, home in on it, and destroy
it after reactivation. If another ship tried to shoot down the subsonic
TACIT RAINBOW cruise missile with radar-controlled guns, Atkins could
launch supersonic HARM missiles at the radar and destroy it. The bottom
line: he had designed all this to be totally automatic, and it was
obvious that he didn't fit in with this crew. Why in hell then was he
here? Seated beside Atkins was the Megafortress's "gunner, " Master
Sergeant Kory Karbayjal. Karbayjal and the other noncommissioned
officers flying that position still liked the name "gunner" or "bulldog,
" although the term was an anachronism-the old .50-caliber machine guns
or 20-millimeter Gatling gun of other, more conventional BUFFs were
gone, replaced by the EB-52's array of defensive missiles. The
Megafortress carried twelve AIM-120C AMRAAM missiles on wing pylons, and
it carried fifty small Stinger rear-firing heat-seeking antiaircraft
missiles in the tail launcher. That was another job that could be done
by computers, too, although Karbayjal obviously enjoyed his work.
Karbayjal, a twenty-six-year veteran of the B-52, had flown the old
D-model BUFFs, the ones where the gunner sat in the tail in a tiny
compartment with his machine guns and used only his eyes to spot enemy
fighters. He took it upon himself to look after young Atkins just as
much as he looked for enemy fighters, something that Atkins resented as
well. The navigators, Captains Paul Scott and Alicia Kellerman, were
downstairs keeping track of their position and preparing for fighter
combat-the four Megafortress strategic escort bombers on this mission
carried no ground-attack weapons because they were all designed to blast
through enemy defenses and give the other strike aircraft a better
chance of reaching their targets. Scott could use his attack radar to
designate and track targets for their AIM- 120 air-to-air missiles,
while Alicia Kellerman controlled the dorsal ISAR radar and kept track
of all other aircraft and enemy ships in the area. The pilots, Major
Kelvin Carter and Lieutenant Nancy Cheshire, were very quiet-they were
obviously steeling themselves for the battle that was about to begin.
Using the large dorsal side-looking radar in ISAR (inversesynthetic
aperture radar) mode, Kellerman had already ident
ified the largest ship
ahead as a Luda-class destroyer even before its weapons radars came up,
so Atkins had already anticipated what kind of radars and weapons the
vessel had and how to deal with each one. The Megafortress's ISAR
system had also mapped out the locations and movements of the other
vessels in the south and west groups of Chinese ships and had passed
that information to other aircraft. The "Missile Warning" light was
still on, and they were driving closer and closer to the Chinese
destroyer. Atkins still had nojammers on the missile acquisition
radar-jamming the signal too early would surely elicit a very angry
response from the Chinese. "We gotta shit or get off the pot here,
kids. . . a few more miles and we'll be under attack "Sixty seconds,
" the crew navigator, Captain Alicia Kellerman, announced. Like most of
the crews from the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, Kellerman
was an ex-crew member-formerly on KC- 135 tankers-who put their
engineering degrees to good use at the Dreamland research facility.
Although flying was part of their job descriptions, flying into combat
was completely unexpected-but Kellerman loved it. "Start countermeasures
in forty seconds, release configuration checks completed. . . thirty
seconds." Suddenly Atkins got an inverted "V" bat-wing signal on his
radar threat-warning scope. The computer monitor hesitated momentarily,
then issued a stream of identification data. "I've got a fighter,
twelve o'clock, range... range is undetermined yet, but he's outside
forty miles. Stand by, Paul." Paul Scott was ready to use the EB-52's
attack radar to lock onto the fighter and provide fire control
instructions for their AIM- 120 air-toair missiles, but it might not yet
be necessary. "I've got a range-only radar. Skyranger type 226,
probably a J-7 fighter, Chinese copy of a MiG-21F. Max range of the
radar is only twenty miles, and he's well outside that . . . fighter
radar's down." The Skyranger radar was useless for searching for
targets because it supplied only range information to the fighter's
computers-this J-7 fighter needed ground-controlled intercept radar to
attack targets. It was still deadly, but it was not very
sophisticated-Atkins' tiny AIM-120C missiles had a better radar than the
J-7 fighter. "There could be more than one out there." Great, Carter
thought. Here's where the shit hits the fan. "Paul, get a range and a
firing solution on them, " Carter said. "We can't stay radar-silent
forever."
"Copy, " Scott said. He slaved his attack radar antenna to Atkins'
threat-warning receiver bearing and switched it to "Radiate." "Got 'em,
" Scott called out, switching off the radar immediately. "I counted at
least four fighters, forty-five nautical miles, slightly above us. Could
be four groups of two." LIANG-2 FIGHT, CHINESE PLA NAVY j-7 FIGHTER
GROUP Aboard the lead JS-7 fighter of Liang-2 air-defense group, the
threat radar suddenly lit up with a fighter-style threat symbol-but it
was from one of his own fighters. "Liang flight, lead, keep your damned
radars off." The radar indication quickly disappeared. He was leading a
group of rather young, inexperienced pilots on their sixth overwater
air-defense mission, and they were constantly flipping switches in their
cockpits to keep from getting too bored. The JS-7 fighter was one of the
newest and best fighters in the People's Liberation Army Air Force.
Originally offered only for export as the Super-7, but later purchased
in small numbers by the Chinese government itself, it was a major
upgrade of the J-7 fighter, incorporating a lot of imported technology
to bring it up-to-date with the rest of the world's best fighters-a
French-made multimode attack radar and heads-up display similar to the
American F- 16 Fighting Falcon, West German] British] Italian-built
high-performance Turbo-Union RB199 engines, additional weapons racks to
carry ECM pods, and greater fuel capacity. Because there were so few,
and because they were so far advanced over their older J-7 cousins, they
were used only as flight leads for fighter patrols, where they could
vector other J-7 fighters in on targets while attacking targets of their
own. Another radar threat indication flashed on his ThomsonCSF BF
screen. He was about to chastise his charges once again. . . before
realizing it was from in front of him instead of beside him this time!
There was another fighter out there! An American fighter-out here?
"Fayling, this is Liang flight, " the leadJ-7 pilot radioed, using the
universal call-sign for all Chinese seaborne radar controllers instead
of broadcasting the destroyer's name. "Fighter warning. Twelve
o'clock, type unknown. What are you tracking?" The Sea Eagle radar
operator aboard Kafeng replied, "Liang flight, we have been tracking a
B-52 bomber at your twelve o'clock position, not a fighter. Over."
"I have a fighter-type radar, not a bomber." Curse it, the destroyer
had been tracking this intruder all this time thinking it was a bomber.
How could he be so stupid... ? "Request permission to close and
identify. Over."
"Liang flight and Sichuan flight, you are clear to close and identify.
Liang flight, say your bingo."
"Liang flight is two minutes to bingo, " the flight leader reported.
"Request permission to send all but myself and one wingman back to base.
We will identify the aircraft and engage until Sichuan-Ten flight is in
position. Over." After a short wait, the radar controller aboard
Kazfeng replied, "Request approved. Homebound Liang elements, climb
clear to twelve thousand meters on heading two-nine-zero, vector clear
of inbound Sichuan-Ten flight. Liang-Two flight of two, your target is
at twelve o'clock, seventy kilometers, altitude ten thousand meters,
climb to twelve thousand meters to intercept. Sichuan-Ten flight
maintain heading one-five-three. Low patrol, descend to five thousand
meters and go to frequency yellow. High patrol, descend to nine thousand
five hundred and meet your controller on frequency yellow-5. Target is
four-four-zero bull's-eye. Good hunting." The lead pilot aboard the JS-7
fighter quickly determined the target's range by the bull's-eye call-the
distance from Davao Airport, a common navigation point for all Chinese
fighters-and found that he was within radar range. The JS-7 fighter
used an upgraded French radar system called CyranoIV, which was very
close in capability to the amazing American F- 16 fighter radar-it could
lock onto multiple targets at fantastic ranges and could attack several
targets at once with missiles or guns. "Liang flight, take combat
spacing and stand by to engage Up in the cockpit, Major Kelvin Carter
took a firm grip on the Megafortress's sidestick controller. This was
not going to be an easy run. A million things were zipping through his
head: G-limits on the composite fibersteel structures, angle-of-attack
limits, airspeed warnings, pitch-angle versus airspeed . "Fighter!"
Atkins suddenly screamed out. "Twelve o'clock... Jesus, very close,
X-band pulse Dop
pler... calling it a Chinese JS-7 fighter. Man, he's
right on top of us "Lock him up and engage, " Carter cried out. He
doublechecked the rows of consent switches on his left panel. "Stand by
for descent, crew. Scott reacted first, hitting the "Transmit" button on
his attack radar and letting the radar lock onto the fighters ahead.
"Two targets, twelve o'clock, closure rate eleven hundred... additional
targets, climbing and going away, looks like they're disengaging... I've
got a lock on the two heading for us Atkins reacted next, activating his
forward jammers to shut down the X-band fire-control radar. He readied
other jammers to get the Skyranger radar when it came up as well. .
Karbayjal activated his weapons computers and watched as each AIM-I 20
Scorpion missile completed its split-second built-in checks. "BIT
checks completed, data transfer... missiles away." Two bright streaks
of light flashed past the cockpit as two radar-guided missiles sped into
the darkness. Just then Kellerman noticed several low-flying objects on
her ISAR side-locking radar display, overtaking them from the left. They
formed a slowly dispersing trail of subsonic missiles, all traveling
northwestbound. "Tomahawks away, Tomahawks away!" she cried out.
"Missiles tracking... active seekers on... bad track on one Scorpion,
looks like a tracking fault, " Karbayjal called out. Carter could see
the missile plume from the right pylon wobble a bit, seconds before
exploding. "Lost track on one missile."
"Descending, crew, " Carter called out. "Nancy, watch my redlines. Here
we go . . ." Carter pulled the Megafortress's eight throttles to
70-percent power, waited for fifty knots of airspeed to bleed off,
raised the airbrakes, then tipped the Megafortress into a steep
70-degree right bank, keeping forward pressure on the control stick but
keeping the long, pointed 5ST-style nose on the horizon. With no more
lift being developed by the huge wings, the four-hundred-thousandpound
bomber descended like Lucifer cast into Hell.... The radar target on his
Cyrano-IV fire-control radar had suddenly started descending, so fast
the radar could hardly keep up with it-it looked like it was crashing,
and no one had shot a missile yet . Just then his radar threat-receiver
