by Ira Tabankin
“How much time do you think you’ll need to put them in working order and send them to the debarkation port?”
“At least two weeks.”
“General, in two weeks I’ll expect to see you here.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”
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The Mahdi returns from an inspection tour of the command bunker after the suicide attack.
“Damn them. The only satisfaction I have is knowing they are burning in hell with the rest of the infidels who will soon join them. Hell is going to be overflowing with infidels. Send the warning order to all of our holy warriors, Allah’s soldiers, to be ready for an invasion. I expect they’ll repeat their Desert Storm playbook and begin with an air attack. They lost the element of surprise. I never thought they had the faith or courage to use suicide bombers.”
Unknown to the Mahdi two B2 stealth bombers are fifty miles away from his bunker armed with ground penetrator bombs.
“Sir, air defense says they see a weak signal. They can’t get a lock on it. The signal fades in and out.”
“Damn, that’s Great Satan’s stealth bombers. Do we have fighters up?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell them to search with their IR sensors, the bombers won’t show up on their radar until they open their bomb bay doors when it’ll be too late. I’m not sure if their bombs will penetrate through our reinforced roof.”
“Yes, sir.”
Six Caliphate fighters, two ex-American F14 fighters, and four ex-Russian Mig 35s are flying search patterns for the American Bombers. The F14s have long-range video cameras which they’re using to scan the sky for an object that blocks the stars.
The lead B2 bomber calls his wingman.
“Nightshade one to two, we’re picking up some search and target radars, none can lock onto us. Let’s try to stay in the clouds.”
“Roger one, we’ll follow you.”
One of the F14 radar operators who is watching the camera feed yells,
“I’ve got them, thirty miles ahead. Angels 30. They’re trying to hide in the cloud cover.”
“Roger.” The pilot fires four American Phoenix missiles the Shaw of Iran purchased in the seventies. The Iranian pilot smiles thinking of the rewards that will be his if he can shoot down an American stealth bomber. The pilot presses the missile fire button, “FOX 4, FOX 4. Missiles away.”
Nightshade one says, “SHIT! We’ve got inbound, computer says they’re ours.”
Two calls back, “What do you mean they’re ours?”
“Phoenix missiles from Iran. SOB missiles will fly up to 100K feet and hit us from above, they’re fast suckers, Mach 5.”
“Two to one. Can their radar see us?”
“Two, I don’t know, we’re going to find out soon enough.”
Nightshade one’s radar operator yells, “ABORT, ABORT. Launch decoys. They’ve locked onto us.”
Both B2s turn forty-five degrees trying to escape the incoming missiles. They hope the decoys they dropped will fool the incoming Phoenix missiles. The decoys are the newest generation, while very small, they broadcast a large RF signature and thermal signature to attract anti-air missiles.
“I’m calling it in.”
The Phoenix missiles are forty years old, they easily take the bait the decoys are emitting, they blow the two decoys out of the sky. The F14 pilots radio their headquarters.
“We got them! We blew up the infidel bombers! We shot down stealth bombers! Allah Akbar! We really did it. We’re the first pilots to shoot down the Great Satan’s stealth bombers.”
“Two to one. Roger, RTB, repeat, RTB.”
“Roger, RTB.”
The fighters land to a hero’s welcome. Their crew paints the outlines of two B2 bombers under their canopy. The Mahdi sends his personal thanks to the pilots and aircrews. He orders a quick press release telling the world the Caliphate with Allah’s help shot down two American stealth bombers.
Hours later Nightshade one and two lands at Ramstein Air Force Base in Central Germany. They’re met by their wing commander,
“What happened?”
“Damn F14s must have caught sight of us on their camera. We may be invisible to radar, but we’re still visible to the mark one eyeball.”
“You made a good decision. Bring your tape, maybe the intel weenies can figure out a way to overcome their cameras. I can’t believe they’re still flying those planes; they must be over forty years old. I wonder where they’re getting parts for them.”
“Sir, I’ve heard rumors they were locally making parts to keep the planes in the air.”
Chapter 5
General Green slams the mission report to bomb the Mahdi’s bunker on the table,
“My friends, we failed to infiltrate the Mahdi’s bunker, we failed in bombing it, I think we have to prepare for a general war, a full invasion of the Caliphate. They’ve proven to be more creative than we thought.”
Colonel General Georgy Zhukov picks up the reports,
“I didn’t realize the Iranians could keep the F14s flying this long. I’m sorry to say, I agree. I think we have to launch the air and missile campaign to take out their air defenses before we even think about invading. General Richman, what says the IDF?”
“I agree. We’ve opened all of our bases. We’re ready to fuel, arm and repair any Allied planes. We’re flying CAP over Israel. We’re ready.”
The Egyptian General nods his agreement,
“Our bases are also open. I suggest we begin as soon as possible. The sooner we crush the Caliphate, the sooner the world will know peace.”
British Major General Nuttall smiles saying,
“I agree, let’s get the show going before they have a chance to strike our homelands again.”
General Green nods,
“We go tonight at 0300. Maximum storie generation rate. I’ll tell his Holiness.”
The other general officers nod their agreement; they file out to ready their forces.
Warplanes around the world prepare for their initial attack sorties against the Caliphate. Cold War advisories, Russian Bear, and American B52 bombers share the same runways. On other bases, Russian Backfire, Blackjack and American B1, B2 bombers sit side by side. Each receives their new tail cross, either the Templar’s cross or the Russian Orthodox cross. Pilots who practiced attacking each other’s countries share meals in the same mess halls. Russians enjoy teaching American pilots the right way to drink Vodka, the Americans teach the Russians the fine art of downing a mug of beer in one swallow. On other bases fighters are being prepared to escort the bombers. Air to air missiles are being loaded and bragged about. The Russians, Americans, and Israelis brag and make bets on who will down the most number of Caliphate fighters.
The last fighters to arrive are the Egyptians whose fighters have been painted with Caliphate markings hoping to fool some of the Caliphate fighters. The Egyptians also altered their IFF to generate Caliphate codes. The IDF Air Force and support techs refuse to share their electronic jamming secrets with their allies, they are paranoid about anyone learning their electronic tricks. They know that today they may be allies, but tomorrow, they may have to fight them. It’s been the history of their small nation. Israel buys American war planes, then she adds her own designed electronic jamming systems.
General Green agrees that the opening attacks of the war will be a mass cruise missile and land-based missile attack, thousands of missiles will be launched from ships, land bases and from American B52s. All of the missiles are targeted at air defense bases, power stations, military assembly locations and communication hubs.
At midnight the air raid sirens scream at the major Crusader bases, Caliphate surface to surface missiles are in transit trying to destroy the bases before the planes can take off. General Green orders the planes to take off ASAP. American Patriot, THAAD and Russian S400 missiles launch to intercept the incoming missiles, US Navy ships offshore add their Standard SM3 anti-missile-missiles to the intercepts.
Only computers can track the mass of incoming and intercepting missiles. The computers show the incoming missiles as red diamond symbols and the interceptors as green triangles. General Green and his staff watch the symbols merge. Monitors are covered in red and green trails of missiles. General Green shakes his head, saying,
“It’s like watching a large video game. It’s hard to tell, but, I think it looks like we’re winning.”
His aide whispers,
“Sir, if one gets through and it's nuclear-armed we could lose an entire base. We can’t allow one missile to strike us.”
As the Caliphate missiles get closer to the Crusader bases, short-range missiles launch and Army Phalanx gun systems attempt to engage the Caliphate’s missiles.
“They mixed ballistic missiles with low-flying cruise missiles. Some of their warheads exploded spreading chaff masking the missiles behind them from our interceptors. Others carried jammers we didn’t know they had. The number of red diamonds is dropping, but not fast enough. Is there anything else we can do?”
General Rickman whispers, “Pray.”
“We’ve got to stop every incoming missile; how many bombers are still on the bases under threat?”
“Sir, we still have over one hundred planes in the process of being armed and made ready to take off.”
“Get them off the bases unarmed, we can always land them on another base to arm them, bases we have, bombers are in limited supply.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll only be able to get a handful into the air.”
“Every one of them saved is one that can carry out its mission. We don’t have the two years it takes to build a new plane or the money to buy them. We came into this war with what we had. I don’t see us getting a lot of replacement materials. At one-time SAC alone had over 600 long-range bombers, we’re lucky we’re able to generate four hundred, counting fighters acting as bombers from all of the member nations.”
“Sir, we have teams working at both our and the Russian’s boneyards. Hopefully, they’ll be able to return some of the planes to action.”
“Each plane will require months of work, let’s try to save those we already have.”
“Yes, sir. We’re doing everything we can, the Army has positioned Navy Phalanx guns and short range missiles for last ditch defense.”
“I’ll take everything we have, and I’ll pray.” He stares at the monitors shaking his head. I’m fighting a war in the twenty-first century with planes over fifty years old. Some of the pilots are second-generation pilots of the same planes. I’d like to strangle the morons who decided we didn’t need more than two hundred long-range bombers. I wish the people who voted for weapons had experience fighting a war. They’d quickly understand that attrition and use could quickly sideline us without any heavy bombers.
Bombers take off nose to tail trying to get away from their bases before the incoming missiles arrive. If one plane failed to take off, the ones behind it would crash. It’s a gamble since it’s not been practiced since the Cold War when SAC used to practice quick alert drills where B52s took off every couple of seconds. The runways are loaded with Russian and American bombers, the crews see flashes of light in the night sky, interceptors striking the incoming missiles getting closer and closer to their bases. Crews watch as short-range interceptors launch, covering the runways in thick gray smoke from the missiles exhaust. Bombers continue taking off, half are empty, just to get away from the incoming attack when the all clear signal is broadcast. The empty bombers turn around to land so they can be armed and have their fuel topped up. Bomber crews smile thinking they avoided the Caliphate’s trap. God is really on their side.
As the last of the unarmed bombers are landing, the air raid alarm screams again, the bombers are told to get off the ground again. Many are out of position. They’re in their shelters being armed. Live bombs are being transported from underground storage to the planes. The new alarm catches the crews by surprise. The planes are surrounded by live weapons and fuel trucks. Some of the ground crew people begin running away from the planes hoping to get as far away from them as possible. They know an exploding weapon close to the planes will ignite the fuel and explode the live weapons destroying the shelters and possibly even the entire base.
The Caliphate held back some missiles knowing the Crusaders have a limited number of interceptors. They watched how long it takes to reload Patriot and S400 missile batteries. The Caliphate fired a second round of missiles at the bases before the Crusaders have time to reload their missiles. The follow-up attack catches the Crusaders by surprise. Interceptor missiles tubes are empty, reload trucks are just beginning to move towards the launching sites. The bomber bases which a moment earlier were rejoicing, turn to chaos and panic; they know their defenders haven’t been able to reload. What’s worse is the bases have live bombs and fuel trucks out in the open. The Caliphate caught the Crusaders flat footed.
Only eighteen empty bombers are able to take off before twelve Caliphate cruise missiles explode over the base’s runways. The attacking missiles carry runway cratering warheads. They fly over the runways ejecting small penetrators which are rocket powered into the concrete runway before their warheads explode, causing large craters closing the airport until the repair crews can cover the holes with patches. Twenty bombers are caught on the runway; all are destroyed by the runway cratering bomblets. Some of the bomber crews eject when they see the missiles arriving. They are blasted above the explosions, saving their lives, they float down under their parachutes watching their planes explode and burn out of control.
General Green shakes his head counting the number of lost bombers.
“We have to solve the incoming attack missile problem; we don’t have enough anti-air missiles ready to fire. They must have overhead coverage because they knew how many SAMs we had, when we used up our interceptors, they fired their second round. The Russians have a good system, but each launcher holds only four missiles, we have a similar problem with the Patriot batteries. We should look at installing the Navy’s vertical cells on land like the AEGIS Ashore uses. That could give us sixty-four ready missiles. See how quickly you can get the vertical cells installed.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll check with the Navy and Lockheed to see if they have any vertical cells hanging around. We’ll have the surviving empty bombers refueled and armed at the backup bases within ninety minutes.”
“At little bit of good news, since we just lost twenty irreplaceable bombers. Some were over fifty years old. We’re going to need more planes. See if we can increase the crews working in the boneyards. Somewhere, somehow we need to locate more airpower.”
“I’ll see what we can do.”
“Thanks.” Said General Green, who’s checking on-line databases trying to find air assets. What did the Brits do with their Vanguard bombers? Where the hell does one find bombers in the twenty-first century?
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Halfway around the world, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona is inspecting the inventory. The crews are working 24 hours a day. They’ve identified forty-eight B52s and twelve B1s, which they’ve marked for refurbishment. Their commander sends a short email to General Green,
“Total of 60 bombers available, each will take at least 9 months, however, have hundreds of F4s, F16s, and A6s we can turn around. The F4 makes a decent bomb wagon, it was used by both the AF and Navy.”
“Approved. We need planes, rebuild everything you can. If you come across any A10s, put them high on your list. Please send me a list of anything you need.”
“Yes, sir.”
General Green turns to his aide,
“How about a couple of hundred F4s and A6s?”
“I’ll take them. We fought Vietnam with them, they both make good bomb wagons, I don’t know if the F4s can handle smart bombs, but anything is better than nothing.”
“That’s what I thought. I told the 309th to do everything possible to get us planes. How’s the effo
rt with the tanks going?”
“The first two ships are loaded and leaving port today. Each is holding two hundred fifty M1A2s.”
“Escort those ships like they are carrying gold, which in a sense they are. I want subs and destroyers surrounding them so that nothing can reach them.”
“Already in process, a carrier is going to provide air cover. Sir, speaking of carriers, we found the Enterprise. They were going to start unfueling her, she has enough power in her cores for another nine to twelve months. It’ll take us six months to get her into the war. She won’t be the lady she was, but she’ll be able to launch and recover planes. They had already stripped her of much of her radar and computers. I suggest we get people working on her ASAP.”
