Fatal Terrain

by Dale Brown

  inviting target for enemy spy subs, then laying out the net and

  hoping that an unwary, complacent sub captain sailed into it.

  A louder volley 'of laughter erupted when the American

  news showed three old fishermen in their dilapidated old boat,

  which the Iranian Navy had allowed into the patrol area, their

  dirty canvas trousers pulled down around their ankles and their

  bare asses hanging over the side of the junk, defecating into

  the Strait of Hormuz next to the American submarine. CNN

  also showed people of all ages throwing buckets of trash and

  sewage onto the captured sub, burning American flags and

  4hen tossing them into the Strait. A piece of video even cap-

  tured a brief glimpse of an antenna buoy that had broken loose

  from the American sub when the depth-charge attack had be-

  gun, and retrieved by a small motorboat with young children

  at the helm. The children circled the area, scanning the water

  with flashlights and torches to try to find more souvenirs.

  "Excellent, excellent!" President Jiang shouted, clapping

  and smiling like a schoolboy at a football match. "I am almost

  embarrassed for the American president and his submarine

  ailors! He must be the laughingstock of the entire world!"

  382 DALE BROWN

  He received congratulations and acknowledgments from sev-

  eral Politburo and CMC members, then stepped over to Ad-

  miral Sun. "What do you think the Iranians will do with their

  American captives, Admiral?"

  "I have already been in contact with the Iranian military's

  chief of staff," Sun replied, rather wistfully. "The crew will

  be tried as spies, and their vessel held. It is quite a catch for

  them, and it is perfect payback for what the United States did

  to the aircraft carrier Khomeini when it was in their hands. In

  time, the crew and the vessel will probably be released, but

  not until the Iranians have examined and photographed every

  square centimeter of that submarine."

  "You seem disappointed, comrade," Jiang said. "Their vi-

  olation of international law is obvious to all. Should they not

  be made to pay for their crime?"

  "I believe they are paying more severely now than anything

  the Iranians could possibly do to them," Sun said. "Destroy-

  ing a helpless, hapless submarine and its crew would be cruel,

  and the Iranians would lose face in the eyes of the world. Sun-

  tzu tells us that to attack the enemy's tao is more hurtful than

  attacking his armies. I respectfully suggested that the Ameri-

  cans be released, but I do not think the Iranians will listen to

  MY suggestion. Perhaps if you could call the Ayatollah Kha-

  menei directly, he might listen to you." China and Iran had

  forged a strong new military alliance in the past few months,

  and the level of cooperation between the two nations had

  grown rapidly despite the severe damage the aircraft carrier

  Khomeini, now the Mao Zedong, had sustained while in Ira-

  nian hands.

  "Very well-I shall do as you suggest, Comrade Admiral,'

  Jiang said, with a smile. "I will of course issue a communique

  demanding an explanation from President Martindale as to

  why his submarine was so far into Iranian waters."

  "May I suggest you follow up the communique with a live

  televised address on CNN or the British international news

  network, demanding an apology?" Sun added. "Nothing galls

  the American people more than to be forced to offer an apol-

  ogy, especially to an Asian or to one from the Middle East-

  both are seen as far inferior races. It will help to solidify the

  opposition to President Martindale's military and foreign af-

  fairs policies."

  "Very good-I shall instruct my staff to do as you sug-

  FATAL TER RAI N 383

  gested," Jiang said happily. He turned to accept the congrat-

  ulations of more high-level Party members, then turned back

  to Sun and asked, "So. What is the next step, Admiral?"

  "My task is nearly complete, Comrade President," Sun

  said. "My objective was to eliminate the United States as a

  threat to Zhonggua and to pave the way for us to retake For-

  mosa. My task is done."

  President Jiang looked startled. "Your task ... isfinished?"

  he asked incredulously. "But we have not retaken any terri-

  tory, and the armies of the world are on heightened alert

  against us."

  "General Chin and the People's Liberation Army may re-

  take any of the rebel-held islands at his leisure," Admiral Sun

  said casually. "There is none to oppose him now. But I sug-

  gest we do nothing but offer overtures of peace, friendship,

  and reunification to everyone-I predict our loyal brothers on

  Formosa will choose to be reunited with us very soon. The

  limination of the rebel Nationalists' major weapons of war,

  and the erosion of the Western alliance structure in Asia,

  means that the Nationalists are defenseless. They can choose

  reunification ... or death."

  "But what about the Americans, Comrade Admiral?" Jiang

  asked. "Will we not soon face the wrath of the American

  military? Certainly the threat from them has not yet dimin-

  ished?"

  "The United States dares not attack us now-they are in

  the wrong, and will be forever chastised throughtout the world

  if they attack," Sun said confidently. "The North Korean Peo-

  ple's Army is massing on the demilitarized zone and will prob-

  ably attack, and now the Iranians have captured proof of

  additional American aggression against them, so the conflict

  in the Persian Gulf may threaten to reignite. These conflicts

  will occupy all of America's attention-Taiwan is not as se-

  rious a concern to the United States compared to Korea or the

  Persian Gulf."

  '.'You are obviously correct," a Politburo member com-

  mented, "because the United States does not directly threaten

  China as yet. They have their nuclear missiles and bombers

  on alert, but even their lawmakers are opposed to their de-

  ployment and urge negotiations. They may even sponsor leg-

  islation to kill President Martindale's attempt to recognize the

  384 DALE BROWN

  rebel Nationalist government's independence, and support re-

  unification."

  "We do not know what will happen in Washington, com-

  rade," Sun Ji Guoming said. "But all in all, it does not matter.

  America is confused and splintered, and it has confused and

  fractured its Asian alliances as well. It can no longer oppose

  us.'

  "But what about the invasion of Quemoy?" Jiang asked.

  "Our troops are restless as medieval warhorses, biting at the

  bit and ready to honor themselves in battle. Why not begin the

  attack now?"

  "Is there still a danger of radiation or fallout from the sur-

  face-to-air missile attack?" one of the Politburo members

  asked. "Is this why you do not begin the invasion?"

  "It is not because of radiation, comrade," Sun replied. "We

  do not invade because we do not need to invade."

  "Wh
at ... ?"

  "Sun-tzu teaches us that victory is best achieved by attack-

  ing, an enemy 's tao instead of its armies or cities," Sun ex-

  plained. "We have three hundred thousand troops stationed

  around Quemoy Bay, ready to begin the assault. We may take

  the island and capture nearly fifty thousand rebel troops any-

  time we wish. So we have already won the battle, comrades.

  With the tip of our sword touching the rebels' chest, we do

  not need to thrust it into their heart to prove our domination

  or power. The rebels have been defeated, but it would be better

  for them to surrender to us. I expect to receive terms of sur-

  render at any moment."

  OVER THE FORMOSA STRAIT, NEAR XIAMEN,

  FuilAN PROVINCE, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  THAT SAME TIME

  The attack began with a single AIM-120 Scorpion missile

  launch, but it was the deadliest-because it downed the Chi-

  nese Ilyushin-76 airborne radar plane stationed over the For-

  mosa Strait near Quanzhou, which was monitoring all air

  traffic between Fuzhou and Shantou, the vital Chinese military

  bases opposite Formosa. The EB-52 Megafortress was thirty

  FATAL T E R R AI N 385

  miles away, flying just a hundred feet above the sea, tracking

  the 11-76 with its 360-degree radar array on the dorsal fuselage

  fairing; the Scorpion air-to-air missile hit the fuselage of the

  II-76 squarely at the right wing root, shearing off the wing and

  sending the Russian-built plane and its twenty-two crew mem-

  bers spiraling into the Formosa Strait. Within seconds, almost

  all of the Chinese military's long-range surveillance capability

  had been eliminated.

  It was David Luger's first kill after returning to the Mega-

  fortress's crew; and if he hadn't been so busy finding and

  lining up more targets, he would have stood up and whooped

  for joy. But the mission, and the killing, had just begun.

  Because of the completely unknown performance capabili-

  ties taking off from the Republic of China's Kai-Shan under-

  ground airfield complex, the Megafortress was lightly loaded

  for this mission. Each of the two rotary launchers in the bomb

  bay contained four Wolverine cruise missiles and two Striker

  attack missiles, the configuration mixed so the attacks could

  continue even if one launcher was damaged or had malfunc-

  tioned. The Megafortress also carried one Striker attack missile

  on each wing weapon pod, along with four AIM-120 Scorpion

  air-to-air missiles in each pod-there were no Stinger airmine

  rockets in the tail cannon. The weapon load was a full 12,000

  pounds under normal mission capacity. To save even more

  weight, no fuel was carried in the fuselage tanks, except the

  lowest amount necessary to stay within the weight and balance

  center-of-gravity envelope, which saved an additional 50,000

  pounds.

  "Crew, stand by for bomb-bay missile launch," Patrick

  McLanahan announced. "Quadruple Wolverine missile

  launch. Radar coming on ... radar stand by." McLanahan

  took a thirty-second satellite update for the navigation corn-

  puters, in order to tighten down the accuracy of the system as

  much as possible prior to launch. Then he checked the accu-

  racy of the nav computers by taking a three-second attack ra-

  dar fix and then comparing where the aiming crosshairs lay on

  the stored radar image. When McLanahan moved the cros-

  shairs onto the exact preprograrnmed spot, the difference be-

  tween the radar fix and the nav computers was only fifty-seven

  feet. He decided to accept the satellite fix.

  "Launch point fix in, bomb doors coming open." He

  386 DALE BROWN

  clicked on the voice command switch: "Commit Wolverine

  attack. "

  WARNING, MISSILE ATTACK 11-4MATED, the computer replied,

  and automatically entered a launch hold until the order could

  be verified.

  "Commit Wolverine attack," McLanahan repeated to verify

  the order.

  LAUNCH COMMIT, WARNING, BOMB DOORS OPEN, the com-

  puter's female voice responded. The Megafortress's bomb

  doors slid inside the fuselage, and the forward rotary launcher

  in the bomb bay released the first AGM-177 Wolverine cruise

  missile. In eight-second volleys, three more Wolverine missiles

  dropped clear of the bomb bay, two total from each of the

  forward and aft rotary launchers. The missiles glided in a shal-

  low descent as their flight computers sampled the air mass and

  did a microsecond flight-control check, exercising hundreds of

  tiny microhydraulic actuators built into the skin, then ignited

  their turbojet engines, throttled up to full power, and sped off

  toward their targets. As they began their 500-mile-per-hour

  flight, they downloaded navigation data from the GPS navi-

  gation satellite constellation and adjusted course, following the

  flight plan transferred to their computers from the Megafor-

  tress.

  All four Wolverine missiles carried SEAD, or Suppression

  of Enemy Air Defense, packages in its sensor bay and three

  internal munitions bays. The missiles' sensor section contained

  combination infrared and radar-homing sensors, which would

  lock onto an enemy radar, then slave an infrared sensor onto

  the vehicle or building carrying the radar, and send targeting

  data to the missile's navigation computer. Two munitions corn-

  Partments contained a total of eighteen anti-vehicle "skeets,"

  and one weapon bay contained twelve Sky Masters ADM-151

  decoy devices. The Wolverines had a preprogrammed flight

  plan based on Jon Masters's NIRTSat satellite data showing

  where some known garrisoned road-mobile SA-5 surface-to-

  air missile (SAM) sites, Honggi-2 SAM sites, and heavy an-

  tiaircraft artillery sites were located.

  When the missiles flew within the estimated lethal range of

  the mobile SAM sites, the Wolverine missiles ejected a decoy

  glider. The decoys were tiny gliders with a specially designed

  shape, and contained tiny transmitters that made each glider

  appear as big as a full-size fighter-to a Chinese SAM radar

  FATAL TER RAI N 387

  operator scanning the skies for enemy aircraft, the decoys

  made it appear as if an enemy attacker had suddenly appeared

  out of nowhere right on top of them. When the SAM site

  operators activated their target-tracking radars to try to shoot

  down the "attacker," the seeker head in the Wolverine missile

  detected the signal and locked onto the location of the emitter,

  then used that new position plus its satellite navigation system

  fix to update its flight plan.

  The Wolverine cruised over the target location and seeded

  the area with anti-vehicle skeets. Each skeet had a canister that

  contained infrared sensors and several copper rods. The can-

  ister would spin as it was ejected from the Wolverine missile.

  When the infrared sensors detected a vehicle-size target below,

  it would detonate a small explosive charge that would instantly

  melt the copper rod and s
hoot it at the target. The high-speed

  slug of molten copper was powerful enough to penetrate the

  thin steel of heavy trucks or light tanks. Each skeet could fire

  several slugs at once in all directions, sometimes shooting sev-

  eral slugs into one vehicle.

  The Wolverine missile would fly its preprogrammed flight

  plan, cruising over the area, dropping decoys, and then drop-

  ping skeets over any SAM sites detected. Each Wolverine Mis-

  sile had the capability of destroying dozens of targets on its

  flight, so with four Wolverine cruise missiles operating in a

  thirty-by-thirty-mile target box, almost a thousand targets were

  instantly at risk. The skeets worked their devastating magic

  with gruesome efficiency. Not only were surface-to-air missile

  sites at risk, but any hot vehicles within a hundred yards of

  the skeets were likely targets-troop carriers, transports, sup-

  ply trucks, even small buildings, anything with a warm core.

  Once a copper slug burned through the outer layer of its target,

  it had cooled sufficiently so that the second hard surface it hit

  caused the slug to break apart instead of burning through. For

  most targets, this meant that the copper slug first penetrated

  inside a passenger or crew compartment of a vehicle, rico-

  cheted off a second hard surface, then instantly turned into

  thousands of bits of bulledike projectiles that bounced around

  inside, shredding anything in its path.

  The results of the Wolverine missile's deadly flight was ev-

  ident to the crew of the Megafortress as they approached the

  Chinese coastline. Off in the darkened distance, they could see

  numerous patches of bright red flashes as the skeets went off,

  388 DALE BROWN

  followed seconds later by bright yellow or white flashes as a

  truck, tank, or other vehicle was hit and destroyed. Many times

  they saw spectacular secondary explosions, as a skeet activated

  over a missile or antiaircraft artillery site, causing missiles to

  explode or entire ammunition magazines to cook off. After

  each Wolverine missile's deadly cargo was expended, the mis-