Cobra One, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
‘Estimate two miles, Paul. Standby. Oh, shit. The last Scud’s just been launched.’
‘Copied.’
‘Stand by for one mile point. Five, four, three, two, one. One mile now, now, now. Get the fuck out of there.’
Chapter Twenty-Three
Monday
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Gennadi Malakov’s attention was directed almost entirely towards locating and obtaining a missile lock on the second Harrier. He was confident that his R-40T would destroy the first aircraft within seconds, as the idiot Englishman was actually making it easier for the infrared-guided missile to kill him, because he was climbing almost straight up. If he’d dived down to low level there would have been a chance, albeit a small one, that he could have got away.
Then he spotted his second target. The Harrier was in a gentle climb on the far side of the missile base. Malakov pointed his MiG-25 directly towards it, selected his second R-40T and waited for the seeker head to lock on.
Chiha-ri missile base, North Korea
Only after the last Scud had lifted off its TEL did the commanding officer finally answer the direct line from Chunghwa.
‘We’ve launched two missiles,’ he reported, ‘but the attacking aircraft destroyed the other four.’
The brief silence from the Air Command headquarters spoke volumes. ‘We will discuss your failure to obey the simplest of orders later, Colonel. Now, order your anti-aircraft guns and missile batteries to cease firing. We are sending in fighters to locate and destroy the British intruders.’
Cobra Two, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Richter had done a very rough calculation in his head. If the Acrid was travelling at Mach 4, that meant it was covering over half a mile every second. So from the one-mile distance, and with the Harrier flying at around four hundred miles an hour, the missile would hit him between two and three seconds later. It was, he knew, going to be very tight.
He waited for a quick count of two after Dick Long’s call, then acted. He slammed the nozzles into the fully-downward landing position, then chopped the throttle back. It felt as if he’d been kicked in the arse by an angry elephant, and the grey haze of g-loc swam in front of his eyes for a second or two before the ‘speed jeans’ began squeezing the blood back up towards his brain.
The effect on the Harrier was immediate. The aircraft had been climbing almost vertically: the change in nozzle angle stopped the climb and kicked the aircraft onto its back. When Richter cut the power, the GR9 completed the loop and began falling nose-first back towards the ground.
And that was exactly what he had intended. The violent manoeuvre punched his aircraft away from the flight-path of the Acrid. Cutting the power and instantly changing the Harrier’s direction of flight as he’d done – a manoeuvre no other aircraft was capable of performing – virtually eliminated its infrared signature. But he’d had to leave it until the last possible moment, so that the Acrid wouldn’t be able to lock on to him again. As the Harrier started descending, Richter looked ahead, down towards the ground, and saw the missile powering past him.
The moment the target’s infrared return vanished, the missile’s seeker head began trying to reacquire the heat source. It didn’t detect the Harrier, but right in front of it was the massive exhaust bloom from the Scud missile, half a mile ahead. The Acrid’s computer is a fairly basic device, and its target discrimination isn’t particularly sensitive, so it immediately began tracking the new contact.
The Scud was still accelerating, but the Acrid was travelling at close to its maximum speed of Mach 4.5, and overhauled it rapidly. Less than three seconds after Richter kicked his Harrier into a dive, the seventy-kilogram high-explosive fragmentation warhead of the Acrid hit the rear of the Scud and detonated.
The result was spectacular. The remaining fuel in the Scud’s tanks exploded in a massive fireball, blowing debris in all directions.
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Malakov didn’t see the Acrid destroy the Scud. Though aware of the explosion, he assumed it was just his missile bringing down the British aircraft. He was now waiting for his second R-40T to lock on to the other Harrier but, unlike the first one, this pilot wasn’t making it easy. He’d stopped his climb almost as soon as Malakov identified him, presumably because his ECM fit had warned him he was being irradiated, and went back to low level where the Saphir radar was finding it hard to detect him.
The Russian pilot overflew Chiha-ri, then banked left to retrace his route. The Harrier had to be somewhere down below him. It was now just a matter of finding it.
Cobra One, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Dick Long was looking for a way out, and a way past the Foxbat. The last Scud was already about five thousand feet above the ground and accelerating. There was no way his Harrier could catch it and, even if he could, he had no weapons left that could bring it down. And if he did climb up after it, the Foxbat would launch an Acrid and the Scud would be too high for Richter’s trick to work a second time.
That, he reflected sourly, was going to be the one that got away. Destroying five out of the six – even if the fifth one had needed a little help from a Russian missile – was still a remarkably good result. But he doubted if the residents of Seoul would agree with him when the sarin, or mustard gas, or botulinus toxin, or whatever the North Koreans had loaded inside the missile’s warhead exploded on the streets of the capital.
The Foxbat was the more immediate problem. The pilot was clearly looking for him, but by flying fairly slowly at very low level, now less than two hundred feet above the ground, Long believed the MiG’s radar wouldn’t be able to detect him. But then getting away from Chiha-ri clearly wasn’t going to be easy.
‘Cobra Two. You still here, Paul?’
‘Affirmative. I see the Scud, but where’s the Foxbat?’
‘Overhead Chiha-ri. I’m down in the weeds, south of the base, and he’s just overflown me, turning onto north. The anti-aircraft guns have stopped firing, which probably means more fighters are on their way. It’s time we got the hell out of here.’
Cobra Two, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Then something totally unexpected happened. Richter was looking up through his canopy towards the accelerating Scud when a streak of bright light shot across the sky from somewhere to the east of his position and smashed into the missile, which instantly exploded.
‘What the hell was that?’ he demanded.
‘That, my friend, was an alpha india mike one two zero, better known as AMRAAM. The new voice on the Harriers’ discrete frequency was unmistakably American.
‘This is Cobra Leader. Identify yourself,’ Dick Long snapped.
‘This is Blade One, lead cab of eight Super Hornets from the Mobile Chernobyl. My colleagues are having an exchange of views with some MiGs a few miles east, but I thought y’all could use some help over here, that’s if you don’t mind me joining the party.’
‘Did you bring a bottle?’ Richter asked, levelling his Harrier three hundred feet above the ground and turning onto north.
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
The explosion of the second Scud immediately attracted Malakov’s attention, and he looked up sharply through his canopy. It could, he supposed, have been some kind of a malfunction, though he knew the Scud was a generally reliable, if fairly inaccurate, missile. But the Russian didn’t believe in convenient malfunctions. He thought the weapon was far more likely to have been brought down by an air-to-air missile, presumably fired by the remaining Harrier. Or perhaps one of the Americans had done it.
‘Chunghwa, this is Zero Six. I’ve shot down one of the British fighters, but I’ve just seen a Scud missile explode shortly after lift-off. Where are the American aircraft now?’
‘About fifteen miles to the east of Chiha-ri, Zero Six. Wait. No, we now hold three contacts in y
our vicinity, two intermittent, probably at low level, and one solid.’
‘Three?’
‘Confirmed. The intermittent contacts are believed to be the British aircraft, so the other may be one of the American intruders.’
That couldn’t be right. He knew he’d shot down one of the Harriers – he’d seen the explosion. Chunghwa must be wrong, and there must be two American fighters in the area. He returned his attention to the radar display, and simultaneously began a right turn, back towards Chiha-ri. He still had three missiles, so he could handle two Yankees and the remaining Harrier, no problem.
But as he straightened up on north, his Sirena S-3M radar homing and warning system suddenly alerted him. He checked the readout: an APG-79 I-band radar on a bearing of zero eight two. That, Malakov knew, meant an American F/A-18, a much more dangerous opponent than a Harrier. But he also knew that on the first day of the 1991 Gulf War a MiG-25 had shot down an American Hornet – Iraq’s only air combat kill during the conflict.
He checked his weapons, engaged the ECM system, then pulled the Foxbat round in a right-hand climbing turn onto east, looking for a target.
Blade One, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
The Super Hornet’s APG-79 radar was suddenly flooded by spikes as the MiG-25’s ECM equipment blotted out the picture, and simultaneously the ALR-67 Radar Warning Receiver conveyed the unmistakable message that the aircraft was being irradiated by a Fox Fire radar.
The pilot immediately engaged full counter-measures, but that didn’t seem to have any effect. He’d heard about the sheer power of the Foxbat’s radar and its ability to ‘burn through’ any ECM system, but this was the first time he’d seen it in action. And it frightened him, because he’d no clue where the Russian-built aircraft currently was. Without his radar, he was both blind and effectively unarmed.
‘Cobras, Blade One.’ The American’s voice was noticeably louder and sounded more stressed than his previous transmissions. ‘I’m being irradiated and jammed by this guy, and I can’t get a lock on him. Turning away and streaming a decoy.’
He hauled his Super Hornet round in a tight left turn onto east and extended the aircraft’s ALE-50 Towed Decoy System, a combat-proven protection against both air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons.
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Gennadi Malakov’s Saphir radar was showing a solid contact twenty kilometres to the east, but the target was already turning away.
The type ‘TD’ and ‘RD’ variants of the R-40 missile – the initial ‘D’ standing for dorabotanaya, the Russian word meaning ‘more elaborate’ – have a range of fifty kilometres, but the earlier ‘R’ and ‘T’ types are effective at only just over half that distance. Malakov’s MiG-25 was carrying three R-40T weapons, so he knew he had to get closer to be sure of a kill. He pushed the throttles forward to increase his speed, and aimed his Foxbat directly at the fleeing aircraft.
Cobra Two, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Richter looked left, and there, about three miles to the west, he saw the unmistakable shape of a MiG-25 turning right onto an easterly heading. He glanced east, but the Super Hornet was too far away for him to see it. Despite that, Richter had no doubt that the Russian aircraft was now in pursuit of the American.
He also knew he himself was in an almost perfect position to intercept it. His Harrier was low level, probably invisible to the enemy aircraft’s radar in the ground clutter, and he still had a single Sidewinder. And because the GR9 has no radar, and the ‘winder uses infrared homing, the Foxbat pilot would have no way of detecting him, unless his Harrier painted on the MiG’s radar. Richter would just have to keep low and hope for the best.
He glanced again at the Foxbat, estimating its speed and heading, then turned right to match its track. He selected the Sidewinder, checked that the broken circle symbol appeared on the HUD, and increased speed so that when he had to climb, he’d be able to gain height as quickly as possible.
‘Two from One. Position and intentions?’
‘Just east of the missile site, low-level, tracking zero nine zero. I’m just going to try and slip my last Sidewinder up that Foxbat’s tailpipe.’
‘You what? You have to be out of your fucking tree. The Harrier’s no match for the MiG, and we’ve barely enough fuel now to get back across the DMZ. Let the Hornets handle him.’
‘Reality check, Dick. Even if we stay low-level, the moment we start heading south that guy’s going to see us on radar and then we’re in real trouble. If we’re going to get out of here, we have to take him down first.’
‘And how do we do that?’ Long asked.
So Richter told him.
‘I hope you know what we’re doing,’ Long muttered, turned his Harrier east and started climbing.
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Malakov was waiting for his R-40T to lock on to the fleeing American aircraft, but he was still very much aware that there were another two enemy fighters somewhere in the area.
His Saphir radar detected a contact in his right two o’clock position, less than four miles away and climbing out from Chiha-ri. It had to be the second Harrier. Malakov instantly changed his priorities. He would pursue the American once he’d dealt with the British aircraft.
He turned towards the new contact. The R-40T infrared seeker head-locked on almost at once and Malakov fired the weapon.
Cobra Two, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Richter waited until the Foxbat was just ahead of him, then pulled up into a steep climb. Almost immediately he heard the growl as the Sidewinder detected the MiG-25’s jet exhaust.
He saw the flare from the aircraft’s port wing as the pilot fired an Acrid at Dick Long’s climbing GR9. At the moment of release, the Harrier was only about three miles from the Foxbat. The R-40T would cover that distance in roughly six seconds.
‘Missile fired!’ Richter called. ‘Stand by. Evasive action now, now, now.’
Cobra One, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
One of the problems with a heavy, very fast missile like the Acrid is that it’s not particularly agile, but in most cases this doesn’t matter because no aircraft currently flying can outrun its Mach 4.5 maximum speed, and few can manoeuvre fast enough to get out of its path. But the Harrier could.
Long waited until he heard Richter’s call. Then he rotated the nozzles fully forwards, almost stopping the aircraft dead in mid-air, and chopped the throttle back, a virtual repeat of Richter’s manoeuvre just minutes before. The Harrier dropped like a stone and the Acrid punched a hole through the air where the GR9 had been three-tenths of a second earlier.
Cobra Two, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Richter’s Harrier was a thousand feet below the Foxbat when the broken circle in the HUD solidified, showing that the ‘winder had locked on. He didn’t hesitate, and immediately fired the missile. The solid-fuel rocket motor ignited and boosted the Sidewinder to two and a half times the speed of sound in a matter of seconds.
Richter watched critically as it curved away from his Harrier and angled towards the Foxbat, already travelling close to Mach 2. Then he turned his aircraft away, heading back towards Chiha-ri, where Dick Long should also be heading. If the missile killed the ‘bat, they might just get away unscathed. If it missed, they were in deep trouble.
MiG-25 Foxbat, callsign Zero Six, over Chiha-ri, North Korea
Gennadi Malakov wasn’t entirely sure he believed his eyes. The grey Harrier had apparently stopped dead in mid-air, then dropped straight down into a valley as his R-40T had been about to impact it. Now he’d either have to reacquire it and use another missile, or simply forget about it and catch up with the American Hornet.
But before he had a chance to make a decision, Richter’s Sidewinder smashed into his starboard engine exhaust at a relative speed of about three hundred miles per hour and the twenty-pound warhead exploded.
When they designed the MiG-25, the Mikoyan-Gurevic
h team had included a firewall between the two engines, but this was intended to protect against an engine failure, not the impact of a missile, and offered little resistance to the high-explosive detonation.
For the briefest of moments, Malakov thought his aircraft might have suffered some kind of mechanical problem, then he realized what must have happened. The Foxbat lurched sideways and the cockpit came alive as fire-warning klaxons sounded and engine instruments began showing the extent of the damage. If it had just been the starboard engine that the missile destroyed, he might have been able to save the aircraft, but the warhead’s detonation had also blown lumps of steel through the firewall and into the combustion chamber of the port engine, which almost immediately caught fire.
With both engines destroyed, the MiG-25 was going nowhere but down, and Malakov had no intention of staying with it, so he did what any prudent pilot would have done – he ejected.
Fifteen seconds later, the burning Foxbat crashed into a hill eight miles east of Chiha-ri. And, ninety seconds after that, Gennadi Malakov landed hard, but unhurt, two miles away. An army patrol found him four hours later and automatically shot him as a deserter.
Cobra One and Two
‘Now can we go home?’ Long asked, as he pulled his Harrier up to join Richter.
‘Yes,’ Richter said, with a final glance back towards the burning wreckage of the MiG-25. ‘Now we can go home.’
Foxbat Page 35
