Fatal Terrain
Page 59
ica's allies to cease their support. But now his plan has stalled,
and the attacks are coming from a colonial base near China
that is wholly occupied by the Americans-Sun's plan did not
affect American military operations out of Guam. We must
show the Americans that we will not tolerate their slaughter
from the skies. We must attack and neutralize Andersen im-
mediately."
"How do you propose to do it, Comrade General?" Min-
ister Chi asked.
FATAL TERRAIN 395
"The best way possible-a missile attack using our Dong
Feng-4 intermediate-range ballistic missiles," Chin said. "We
have ten such missiles on alert, headquartered at Yinchuan and
deployed throughout Ningxia Huizu and Nei Monggol prov-
inces. I would propose launching all ten missiles at Guam-
because of the poor accuracy of our missiles and the strong
anti-missile defenses erected on Guam, we may need all of
them to neutralize the American military installations on the
island. The missiles carry different warheads, depending on
the serviceability of the missile itself. most missiles carry a
single sixty-kiloton warhead, although some carry a single
two-megaton warhead, and the most advanced missiles carry
three sixty-kiloton warheads."
Jiang Zemin was astounded by the power at his command-
he had never, ever considered using these weapons in all his
years of service to China. "You must find out exactly what
we have ready to attack," President Jiang said, his voice heavy
and shaking with emotion. "I want to- limit the number of
launches so it will not appear to America's long-range sensors
that we are starting a large-scale intercontinental war. The mis-
siles with three warheads is my first choice, followed by the
low-yield single-warhead weapon, and finally the large-yield
missile. What other strategic forces will we have in reserve
that hold the United States at risk?"
"This will leave us all twenty of our DF-5 missiles in re-
serve," Chin replied. "Ten of these reserve missiles have
small, multiple warheads; five of the remaining ten have single
one-megaton warheads, and the other five have single five-
megaton warheads. The Dong Feng-5 missiles are our largest,
most accurate, and deadliest weapons-we can target Ameri-
can intercontinental ballistic missile sites and ninety percent
of the population of North America with them. Of course, we
still have approximately one hundred H-6 bombers that could
possibly reach Alaska or the West Coast of the United States;
they can carry nuclear bombs or nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
We also have a number of road-mobile Dong Feng-3 missiles
and Q-5 attack planes deployed, but these are only capable
against targets in Asia, such as South Korea, Singapore, or
Japan."
Jiang nodded, understanding but not quite believing the
awesome power that lay at his fingertips, waiting for his word
to send them on their deadly way. "This is incredible," Jiang
396 DALE BROWN
said breathlessly, shaking his head. "The Party has promised
we would never be the first to use nuclear weapons. We have
already broken our pledge by using these horrid weapons
against Taipei, but we reasoned that we were using these
weapons against a rebel government within our own territory,
not against a foreign power. But I ordered a nuclear attack
against a Nationalist warship, then an American warship, and
then a nuclear attack against an ally, simply to try to distract
the Americans from attacking us. Now I must consider a full-
scale nuclear attack against an American military base. I do
not know if I can make this decision, Comrade General. It is
too much."
"You have almost the entire Politburo and Central Military
Committee assembled here this morning, Comrade President,"
Chin reminded him. "Call an emergency meeting with them
right now. I will speak to them; together, without all the phil-
osophical ramblings from Sun, we shall get their full support
before issuing your orders."
Jiang relented and gave a faint nod. In three minutes General
Chin Po Zihong had called an emergency meeting to order on
behalf of the president to present his plan to stop the Ameri-
cans-and twenty minutes later, he had his orders.
ABOARD THE EB-52 MEGAFORTRESS
THAT SAME TIME
"I've got an L-band Phazatron pulse-Doppler radar beating us
up," David Luger called out. "It's a Sukhoi-27, all right. Clear
me for maneuvers and all countermeasures."
"Clear!" Brad Elliott shouted, tightening his grip on the
side-mounted control stick. "You're clear for all maneuvers
as long as you nail that bastard! Just keep us out of the rocks!"
Patrick McLanahan called up a God's-eye view of the area
surrounding their bomber. "Very high terrain northeast,"
McLanahan said. "River valley west and northwest, almost
sea level."
"Then let's start with northeast and take this son of a bitch
into the rocks," Luger said. He put his fingers on the manual
decoy dispenser button. "Stand by for maneuvers, crew. Pilot,
break right!"
FATAL TERRAIN 397
Elliott jammed the Megafortress hard to the right, feeling
his butt press into the seat as the EB-52 started a hard climb
to start cresting the rapidly rising terrain of the Boping Moun-
tains. When he reached sixty degrees of bank, Elliott pulled
on the control stick until he heard a stall warnin tone, then
released the back pressure but maintained the turn right at the
edge of the stall. As Elliott started the hard turn, Luger
punched out one small tactical decoy. The glider decoy, similar
to the ones used in the Wolverine SEAD cruise missiles, had
radar cross-sections dozens of times larger than the Megafor-
tress itself. "Roll out, pilot," Luger ordered, when they
reached ninety degrees heading change, and Elliott quickly
rolled the big bomber left.
The jink worked-but for only a few seconds. The Chinese
Sukhoi-27's Phazatron N001 pulse-Doppler radar was a
"look-down, shoot-down"-capable radar-it could stay at
high altitude and look down to find enemy aircraft because the
pulse-Doppler radar could reject radar clutter caused by ter-
rain. One way to beat a pulse-Doppler radar system was to
reduce the closure rate between aircraft, so in effect the aircraft
looked like a piece of terrain on radar. By dropping a cloud
of chaff and then turning ninety degrees to the Su-27's flight
path, the closure rate between the Megafortress and the Su-27
equaled the airspeed of the Su-27, which caused the system to
reject the Megafortress as a possible target. And since the de-
coy glider proved to be a much more inviting target and still
carried a good closure rate on the Su-27, the fighter's attack
radar programmed the decoy as the new target.
The Chinese Su-27 fighter pilot selected a Pen Lung-2 radar-
and infrared-guided missile, rece
ived a lock-on tone, and got
ready to press the LAUNCH button-until he realized his target
was rapidly slowing down. The unpowered glider decoy made
an invi ting, easy-to-kill target, but it could not maintain the
same airspeed as the Megafortress. The Chinese pilot canceled
the attack when the target's airspeed began to decrease below
300 knots-no military attack plane was going to fly that slow
unless it was getting ready to land. He verified his decision by
closing within five miles of the target, then attempted to lock
onto the target with his Infrared Search and Track System. It
would not appear on the IRSTS-the pilot knew it had to be
a decoy, then. Any military attack plane would show clearly
in the large supercooled eye of the IRSTS. He broke radar
398 DALE BROWN
lock and commanded another wide-area search.
That delay gave Luger an opportunity: "Stand by for Scor-
pion launch, crew!" he shouted. He hit the voice command
button: "Launch one Scorpion missile at target number one."
WARNING, LAUNCH COMMAND INIT`IATED, the computer re-
sponded in a soft, calm, female voice.
"Launch," Luger ordered.
SCORPION MISSILE PYLON LAUNCH, the computer announced,
and a single AIM- 120 AMRAAM collected target azimuth
from the threat warning receiver, streaked out of the right wing
weapon pod, climbed a few hundred feet, then arced left to-
ward the Sukhoi-27. A few seconds after launch, the computer
said, WARNING, ATTACK RADAR TO TRANSMIT, and the ornni-
directional attack radar activated for four seconds, enough to
lock onto the fighter and feed updated target range and bearing
to the Scorpion missile. ATTACK RADAR STAND BY, the corn-
puter said as it shut the radar down itself With a fresh target
update, the AIM-120 missile activated its own on-board radar
seeker, instantly locked onto one of the Su-27 fighters, made
a slight correction as its pilot detected the brief Megafortress
radar lock-on and tried to make a last-ditch evasive break, then
exploded just as it detected that it had closed to well within
lethal range of its forty-four-pound high-explosive warhead.
The attack worked. The explosion occurred just a few feet
behind the Su-27's right wing near the fuselage, sending shrap-
nel through the fighter's right engine and piercing right wing
fuel tanks.-The Chinese pilot was quick, and managed to save
his prized jet by immediately shutting down the right engine
before it seized or tore itself apart, but this jet was out of the
fight-he had just enough fuel and control of his plane to keep
himself upright and limp home. Even more important, his
wingman, another Sukhoi-27, was ordered to lead his stricken
comrade back to base-a Su-27 was too valuable and too ex-
pensive a weapon to be allowed to make an emergency single-
engine landing at night in rugged terrain without assistance.
"Threat scope's clear, gang," Luger reported, with a sigh
of relief. "Clear to center UP."
"Left turn heading three-three-two to the next turnpoint,"
McLanahan said. "High terrain twelve miles, commanding on
it. Minimum safe altitude in this sector, six thousand one hun-
dred feet. "
"Good going, Major Luger," Nancy Cheshire offered.
FATAL TERRAIN 399
"Sounds like you've been doing your homework."
"I've never left this thing, Nancy," Dave Luger said, wear-
ing a broad smile under his oxygen mask. "Even after all these
years, it's as if I've never left. I've. . . " He hesitated, studying
the new threat signals, then reported, "Looks like bandits at
ten to eleven o'clock, well below detection threshold, closing
in on us but not locked on. Now I got fighters at five o'clock,
not locked on but heading this way. We got fighters all around
us.'
THE WHITE HOUSE OVAL OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, D.
TUESDAY, 24 JUNE 1997, 1419 ET
"One of our subs is caught in a fishing net in the Strait of
Hormuz?" Senate Majority Leader Barbara Finegold asked in-
credulously, the surprise and exasperation etched in her elegant
features. "How in the world did that happen?"
As Senator Finegold spoke, the President of the United
States moved from the high wingbacked chair near the fire-
place, where he and leaders from both the House and the Sen-
ate-which the media were calling the "President's crisis
team--had had their most recent "crisis team photo
opportunity," and back onto his more comfortable leather
chair at the head of the coffee table in the formal meeting area
of the Oval Office. He made a show of loosening his tie and
taking a sip of orange juice, as if he were ready to settle down
and get comfortable while talking to the Senate Majority
Leader.
Seated beside him was Vice President Ellen Whiting; and
seated around them were members of the President's national
security team-Secretary of Defense Chastain, Secretary of
State Hartman, and National Security Advisor Freeman, along
with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Balboa and
Chief of Staff Jerrod Hale. Seated next to Senator Finegold
was the Senate's chief political counsel, Edward Pankow, then
House Majority Leader Nicholas Gant, and House Minority
Leader,Joseph Crane.
"It was obviously not a normal fishing net-the crew char-
400 DALE BROWN
acterized it as a large drift net made of Kevlar, a synthetic
material used in protective armor, as light as nylon but stronger
than steel," Philip Freeman replied. "It was obviously a trap."
"Where was the sub trapped, General Freeman?" Finegold
asked.
Freeman hesitated, but the President nodded, and he re-
sponded, "About three miles south of Bandar-Abbass, in the
Strait of Hormuz. It's a busy channel, used by hundreds of
deepwater ships a day. The Miami was shadowing the Kilo-
class attack missile submarine Taregh when it was-"
"Was it in international waters?" Finegold asked warily, as
if afraid of the answer.
"That is in some dispute," Philip Freeman said. "The Ira-
nians claim all waters up to the center of the Strait of Hormuz,
plus three miles around its islands. The International Maritime
Court gives Iran three miles from the mean high-water line."
"Then I'll rephrase the question, General Freeman-was
the Miami in Iranian waters at all? Did we provoke the Iranians
in any way?" Finegold asked.
"Senator, we seem to provoke the Iranians simply by our
very existence," Freeman responded. "Yes, our submarine
was on patrol in Iranian waters, but I don't think it's fair to
say we provoked any kind of action against our submarine or
its crew."
Finegold shook her head and gasped in amazement. "We
had a nuclear attack submarine that actually sailed up to an
Iranian naval base, in Iranian waters? That's like an Iranian
attack sub sailing up into the Mississippi River all the way to
New Orlea
ns, isn't it?"
"Senator Finegold, we've briefed the Senate on our intel-
ligence procedures before," Secretary of Defense Chastain
said. "Our mission is to monitor the whereabouts of the Ira-
nian missile submarines. Normally, that can be done by sat-
ellite or patrol planes flying out of Saudi Arabia or Bahrain.
The current emergency situation between China and Taiwan,
and the recent events between us and Iran, prevent us from
flying patrol planes in the area, so we need attack subs to
shadow the Iranian subs. To prevent the Taregh from sneaking
past us, as well as to monitor the Iranian fleet at Bandar-
Abbass and in the Persian Gulf, we made the decision to send
our patrol subs right near the Iranian naval bases. Normally,
FATAL T E R RAI N 401
the mission is relatively safe. The channel is deep and wide,
and the subs can roam around fairly freely."
"But they're inside Iranian waters, Mr. Chastain!" Fine-
gold said incredulously. "We've committed an act of war!"
"We do missions like this all the time, Senator," the Pres-
ident interjected. "You're reacting as if you've never heard of
such a thing before. It's a cat-and-mouse game. Once in a
while, one side gets caught. The information we gather about
Iranian naval forces is valuable enough to take the risk."
"What if the Iranians decided to sink the Miami, Mr. Pres-
ident?" Representative Joseph Crane interjected. "Would the
deaths of one hundred and thirty more sailors still be worth
it?" The President seemed to wince at that remark. The loss
of the aircraft carrier Independence to a nuclear blast was still
obviously very painful to him. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Presi-
dent," Crane added, without any real conviction, as he saw
the ashen expression on the Chief Executive's face.
"But they didn't sink it," Chastain said. "The crew was
under attack and, unable to maneuver, the captain made the
correct decision and surfaced. The captain is guilty of nothing
more than trespassing, and we expect our crew and our sub to
be returned to us in short order."
"But not before the entire world gets a look at our nuclear
attack sub on CNN, caught in a fish net well within Iranian