by Dale Brown
“Bridge copies, ” came the reply. “Give us a count and stand by to engage.”
“CIC copies.” “Sir! Aircraft warning, attack warning, Liang-Two fighter group reports they are under fighter attack “Fighter attack!” the commander shouted. “Whatfighters? You said there was only one bomber up there!”
“Liang-Two reports a missile attack, sir. He reports his wingman has been hit by a missile. Sir, the B-52 bomber aircraft rapidly decelerating, range closing to sixty nautical miles, airspeed six-one-zero and accelerating, altitude now seven thousand meters. .. six thousand meters. . . five thousand.. . sir, heavy jamming on my scope… attempting frequency jumping… heavy jamming persisting on all search frequencies. I cannot hop away to clear frequency!” CHINESE DESTROYER JINAN, IN THE CELEBES SEA, NEAR DAVAO GULF “Sir, destroyer Kaifi’ng reports incoming Tomahawk cruise missiles from the southeast and has issued an air-defense warning for all vessels. He also reports a suspected B-52 bomber in a rapid descent heading northwest, and heavy radar jamming on all frequencies. There was also a report about a fighter attack, number and type unknown.” Captain Jhijun Lin of the People’s Liberation Army Navy destroyer Jinan nodded resolutely. “Sound general quarters, alert the task force, begin intermittent radar search pattern. We can expect our own air threats any-“
“Sir! Frigate Yingtan reports radar contact, aircraft, bearing two-zero-five, range forty-seven nautical miles, altitude . altitude three hundred meters, sir, speed four hundred seventy knots. No IFF codes observed. They report possible multiple inbounds on this bearing.”
“Understood, ” Captain Jhijun acknowledged. As the combat-readiness alarm sounded throughout the ship, the manual track operator on the bridge of the EF4-class destroyer Jinan drew in the position of the radar contact on a large grease board. “I want a positive identification immediately.” It was finally beginning, Captain Jhijun told himself. Although the intruder aircraft were detected very late-seaskimming targets should be detectable at twenty miles by the frigate Yingtan ‘s Sea Eagle radar, but targets at three hundred meters should be seen easily at fifty miles-he wished it were starting a bit more dramatically. After learning what the American Air Battle Force had in their arsenal on the island of Guam, he would have expected an attack by B- 1 or FB- 111 bombers, flying supersonic at seaskimming altitudes. From these radar contact’s flight profiles, these appeared to be nothing more than B-52 bombers lumbering in. And they were coming in from the south, which was totally expected as well-the two layers of destroyers, frigates, and patrol boats in the Philippine Sea east of Mindanao were designed to herd the American bombers in the only “safe” flight path they could take-fly in from the south right into the mouth of Davao Gulf. “Sir, missile warning. Yingtan ‘s escorts report missiles inbound, no count, all sea-skimmers. Patrol boats maneuvering to intercept. Good radar track on all inbounds, intercept confidence is high. Identity now confirmed by flight profile as B-52 bombers.” So it was confirmed-not B- Is, only B-52 bombers. An easy kill. The B-52s were flying right into a trap. Four frigates, one destroyer, and sixteen antiaircraft escort patrol boats were waiting for anyone stupid enough to allow themselves to be steered around by surface threats. Two of the frigates, Yingtan stationed on the southern perimeter and Xiamen on the northern side, were armed with short-range Hong Qian-6 I surfaceto-air missiles-deadly within their limited range-but his destroyer Jinan, in the center of the two-hundred-kilometerlong gauntlet, had the HQ-9I surface-to-air missile system, a licensed copy of the French Masurca medium-range SAM system. The HQ-9 1 was deadly out to forty-five kilometers even to low-flying supersonic aircraft-this B-52 would be an easy kill. Jinan had already seen action-it was that ship that had successfully guided the fighters in on the arrogant American Navy fighters over the Celebes Sea not too long ago. The little patrol boats were deadly as well-their guns could knock down any antiship missile in the American inventory and throw up a cloud of lead in front of any aircraft stupid enough to stray within a few kilometers of them. But even the B-52s could carry a big punch. “Radio to all attack-group ships and to Task Force Master, we are under attack, request air support against incoming B-52 bombers, ” Jhijun said. Obviously Harpoon antiship missiles, he thought. They were lucky-they did not start their attack until they had a radar fix on Yingtan. That meant the Americans had no other radar aircraft in the area spotting targets for the B-52s. Jhijun checked the plot board. The B-52s will be coming within range ofjinan ‘s radars in a few minutes-if they survived that longand the longer-range HQ-91 missiles would not miss. But Jh jun fully expected the B-52s to turn tail and run after all thei1r Harpoon missiles were expended. “Patrol boat 682 engaging antiship missiles. . patrol boat 688 engaging missiles… Yingtan now reporting six incoming aircraft, all from the south, range to closest aircraft twenty nautical miles. Same flight profile, reported as B-52 bombers on low-level antiship attack.” The reports began coming in as one by one the Harpoon missiles were destroyed. “First B-52 turning west, appears to be disengaging.”
“Lost contact with patrol boat 642, sir, ” the combat information center officer onjinan reported. “Patrol boat 688 reports two vessels afire, suspect the other as patrol boat 651. Frigate Yingtan reports minor damage from antiship missile, but is still under way and combat capable.” With six B-52s on the loose, each with the capacity to carry twelve Harpoon missiles, they had to expect some attrition. “Second B-52 disengaging So the B-52s were going to be content with launching a few Harpoon missiles and fleeing. The fighters would be able to mop them up then, Jhijun thought-they still had to contend with the Harpoon missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles, though. … This was incredible, the Chinese pilot of the JS-7 fighter thought-one moment he was leading an eight-ship attack group on a routine night patrol, the next moment he was alone and under attack by an unseen, unidentified foe. “Fayling, Fayling, ” the pilot radioed to the destroyer Kaifeng~ which was controlling the intercept in this sector, where is the target? I need a vector.”
“Liang flight, target is in a rapid descent at your eight o’clock position, thirty kilometers, altitude four thousand meters, ” the radar controller reported-apparently he was too excited to remember that the other J-7 fighter had been destroyed. “Turn left heading two-niner-five and descend to three thousand meters to intercept.” Four thousand meters? Less than sixty seconds ago he was at ten thousand meters! The JS-7 pilot threw his fighter into a steep left turn and pushed the nose down, using his airbrakes judiciously to avoid ripping his PL-7 and PL-2 missiles from their pylons. “Liang, your target is at your eleven to twelve o’clock, twenty-seven kilometers.” He was getting heavy jamming, but his French-made radar was sophisticated enough to frequencyhop and avoid most of it. “Intermittent contact, ” the JS-7 pilot reported. The lock-on was good enough for a radar range and firing solution, so he quickly selected a PL-7 radar-guided missile. “Liang shooting radar one… He waited a few seconds, then fired his second one. “Shooting radar two… Atkins was so sure the fighter back there was going to take a shot that he found himself staring at the threat-indicator light. As soon as it illuminated, he shouted, “Missile launch! Level off!” He found himself crushed into his seat by G-forces as Carter pulled the B-52 out of its high-banked dive, the fuselage and wings creaking so loudly from the stress that it seemed they would shatter like a crystal champagne glass. “Break left!” Atkins shouted on interphone as he ejected chaff out the right ejector racks. Carter heeled the EB-52 Megafortress hard left, so hard that Atkins’ helmet banged against his left instrument panel-but he kept his finger on the chaff button long enough to create a good-sized cloud. Carter shoved the Megafortress’s nose down below the horizon to regain his airspeed, and the negative-Gs he created caused dirt, loose checklists and papers, and all sorts of unrecognizable garbage to float around the cabin as if they were suddenly weightless in orbit. Atkins felt his stomach go up with the floating junk, and he ripped off his oxygen mask to keep from filling it up with vomit. “You OK, E-dub?” Karbayjal
said. Atkins turned and saw his gunner with a worried expression on his face and one hand on his shoulder. The plane was in a gut-wrenching turn, they were under attack by a Chinese fighter-but Karbayjal was worried about him. “Sure . ‘ . sure . . . Atkins moaned. “Good, ” Karbayjal said. He settled himself back into his seat as calmly and as easily as could be, as if being tossed around and squished by four times Earth’s gravity were a normal occurrence for him. “You’re doing good, E-dub, ” Karbayjal added. “Keep it up and let’s get that sucker. Set up your jammers and take care of the uplink.” Atkins struggled to refocus his eyes on his threat display. His automatic jamming system picked out the best frequency range and applied it to the correct antennae for the threat-in this case, an X3-band uplink signal driven to the tail antennae-and it would pump out chaff as well, but it would not tell the pilot when or in what direction to turn to avoid the missile. Tracked on the tail radar, the Chinese missile appeared to be wavering from the chaff to the EB-52, not entirely fooled. This close-in, the missile might lock onto the Megafortress if they made another turn. “Pilot, roll out!” Atkins called out. “Guns, stand by with Stingers!” Karbayjal smiled at Atkins-he was finally taking charge of this intercept. “Roger, E-dub.” Karbayjal already had a good lock on the incoming Chinese missiles and was waiting for them to close in. It was a risky move-hoping that the Megafortress’s low radar cross-section would defeat the missiles more than maneuvering would. They needed to build up a new speed reserve as well, since even the Megafortress bled off a lot of airspeed in tight turns. But thejammers weren’t completely shutting down the Chinese fighter’s uplink-the missiles were still tracking. “Missiles still coming!” Atkins shouted on the interphone. “I’m ready with Stingers, ” Karbayjal told him, “but you gotta do it. My Stingers are strictly last resort . . .” Atkins took another calculated risk-as he began pumping out chaff once more from the left ejectors, he overrode the automatic jammers and reduced the transmitter power in half, letting a strong fighter fire control lock on the bleedthrough, then shouted, “Pilot, break right!” The missiles continued to bore in. . Now there were three radar targets out there, the Chinese JS-7 pilot cursed. The first was obviously a chaff cloud-it had begun to dissipate very quickly, and his PL-7 missiles weren’t fooled. His radar seemed to get a firm lock-on just then on the real target, but it turned out it was a firm lock on another chaff cloud. The target was scooting right at nearly a thousand kilometers an hour, while the big, bright, original target was dead ahead-at zero kilometers per hour. Obviously a chaff cloudand his missiles were both going for it. A clean miss. “Fayling, Liang, where is Sichuan-Ten flight? I have no radar missiles left.”
“Liang, Sichuan-Ten flight has been separated into two flights of two, high patrol diverting north to intercept air targets under control by destroyer Zunyi. Your helpers will be designated Sichuan-3 I flight of two, now at ten thousand meters, range two-one-five bull’s-eye.”
“What about the rest of my Liang-Two flight?”
“Liang-Two homebound are still at twelve thousand meters, northwest-bound.”
“Are you crazy?” the JS-7 pilot shouted. “Turn those bastards around! Liang-Two flight of six, reverse course, descend to three thousand meters, prepare to engage!” There was a scratchy reply on the radio-they heard him, although they probably wished they did not. If they turned around, there was no chance they’d land back at Zamboangabut ditching in the Celebes Sea or landing at Cotabato was better than allowing this B-52 or whatever it was to head in toward the fleet unopposed. He had one more chance before he had to return to basethrottles to max afterburner, close in fast, two PL-2 heat-seeking missile shots, a gun pass with his 23-millimeter cannon, then abort. The JS-7 pilot pushed his throttle to max afterburner, watched the range quickly decrease to less than fifteen kilometers, got a seeker lock-on from his two remaining PL-2 missiles, then launched them both at once. … “Bandit at six o’clock, crew, descending behind us, ” Karbayjal called out, carefully watching the Chinese fighter on his tail radar. The Chinese fighter was sending out jamming signals, but at this range even the Megafortress’s smaller tail radar burned through it easily. “Bandit’s accelerating… Jesus, stand by for missile attack . . . E-dub, stand by for flares on the right The infrared tail warning receiver’s “Missile Warning” light in all crew stations, which detected the heat of a fighter in the rear quadrant and locked onto it, was immediately replaced by a high-pitched tone in everyone’s headset and a “Missile Launch” warning light. “IR missile attack!” Atkins shouted. “Break left!” Atkins immediately released four bundles of flares simultaneously from the right ejector. But Karbayjal had seen the missile launch and was ready. Careful not to aim the Stinger airmine rockets at the flares, he waited until the missiles tracked, then ejected the flares and re-acquired the Megafortress’s hot engine exhausts, then opened fire with a stream of missiles. He launched six Stingers, then watched for any sign of pursuit. When he saw at least one Chinese missile survive, he shouted on interphone, “Reverse! Climb if possible!” When Karbayjal made his call, Atkins had switched ejector racks, selecting the left ejector, and pumped out four more flares. Simultaneously, Carter immediately threw the Megafortress into a screaming right bank and held it until the stallwarning horn came on. “Can’t climb, guns!” Carter shouted. “Disregard, ” the gunner said as the last missile disappeared from his radarscope. “Fighter’s coming in, four miles… three miles… Stingers firing.. .” The Megafortress crew could hear the heavy Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! and a rumble throughout the bomber as Karbayjal fired four more missiles at the fighter closing in. … It had to be a fighter, the JS-7 pilot thought, since only a fighter could possibly move thatfast. The flares that the target was ejecting seemed as bright as the sun in the complete darkness of the Celebes Sea. His PL-2 missiles obviously thought so, because they tracked and destroyed the flares with ease. He was now weaponless except for his twin-barreled 23-millimeter cannon. But the stream of flares pointed to the target’s location, even if it wasn’t apparent on radar, so the pilot kept his throttle at min afterburner and closed in to cannon range. Suddenly four bright bursts of light erupted right in front of his fighter, stretching from his left wingtip all the way across the nose. His JS-7 fighter began to shudder, as if shivering with fear, and the shudder continued right into a full-blown stall. “Fayling, Fayling, Liang-Two, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I’m hit, I’m hit. . .” He saw the “Engine Overspeed” and “Hydraulic Press” lights illuminate and pulled his ejection handle seconds before his controls locked and his fighter began a death spiral to the sea. DESTROYER JINAN “Sir! Destroyer Zunyi reports he is under attack by antiship missiles from the east, ” another report suddenly came in. “Zunyi is engaging. Sichuan-Ten flight of two Q-5 fighters are engaging suspected B-52 bombers at low altitude.”
“Where’s Zunyi?” Jhijun shouted. The answer came a few moments later-only one hundred nautical miles east ofjinan. Zunyi was an older Luda-class destroyer, part of the Philippine Sea cordon; it carried no surface-to-air missile system because it was designed to engage surface ships and submarines, not aircraft. “Get a feed from Zunyi’s CIC and integrate their plots on our-“
“Sir! Incoming missiles! Bearing two-six-five, high altitude, range twenty nautical miles, speed subsonic, multiple inbounds, intercept course!”
“What?” Jhijun resisted the urge to swivel around in his seat and look at the west-it was pitch black outside, with a light overcast sky, and he knew he wouldn’t see a thing. “How the hell could missiles get that close? Radar, get your heads out of your asses or I will have you on deck when those missiles hit! Report on fire-control statusimmediately!”
“Fire control reports fully operational, good track on all inbounds, intercept confidence is high.” Jhijun wished he could be more confident himself-first contact at twenty miles was far, far too close. “Targets maneuvering slightly, ” the CIC officer reported. “Range to air targets, mark, fifteen nautical miles, bearing two-six-five, speed
five hundred The targets weren’t maneuvering. . . offset range was decreasing . . . bearing was constant . . . Antiradar missiles!” Jhijun suddenly shouted. He knew all about the Americans’ radar-homing missiles, especially the loitering cruise missilesthis was probably a flight of them coming in now. But how in hell did those missiles get so close before being detected…? Pushing the big Megafortress bomber to descend at over twelve thousand feet per minute, it took less than three minutes to descend to two hundred feet-yet with Chinese warships all around them, it felt like an eternity. “Golf-band search radar at eleven o’clock . . .” Atkins shouted on interphone; “India-band gun fire control radar now at one to two o’clock position . . . Christ, Golf-band radar changing to Charlie-band missile director . . . another Indiaband fire control radar at two-thirty . . . dammit, are we in range of that destroyer yet? We’re going to get nailed… ! I’ve got a possible fighter GCI signal from that destroyer now, he might be vectoring in more fighters.”
