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 your 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-Gurevich 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.’
Chapter Twenty-Four
Monday
Cobra One and Two
Ten minutes later the two aircraft crossed the DMZ into South Korean airspace and turned west. They knew they wouldn’t make it back to the ship with what they had in their tanks, so instead landed at Seoul to refuel.
The airport was in a state of chaos, to put it mildly. The nuclear weapon in the Seersucker had detonated twenty miles away at around nineteen thousand feet, and the EMP had done considerable damage. Radars and radios weren’t working properly and, before they approached, the two Harriers had been forced to use Guard frequency, which someone in the Control Tower was monitoring on a standby radio. Fortunately, the pumps on the fuel bowsers were simple electrical devices, and so had been unaffected by the blast.
Just over four hours after they’d taken off from the Illustrious, the two aircraft landed back on board.
T’ae’tan Air Base, North Korea
When Kim Yong-Su had explained the reality of the situation to the ‘Dear Leader’, he’d received the most explicit instructions.
Clearly they couldn’t proceed with the invasion. They’d utilized almost all the plutonium in their vaults and, as two of the three EMP weapons had been destroyed, the ability of the South Korean forces to repel them was only slightly affected. To proceed would have virtually guaranteed that the Americans would land troops in South Korea, because obviously the Taep’o-dong bluff hadn’t worked. Within minutes of the attack starting, US Navy aircraft had entered North Korean airspace and destroyed fourteen of their MiG-25s and badly damaged three others, for the loss of just two of the Super Hornets.
With his plans in ruins, the ‘Dear Leader’ was looking for someone to blame, and he didn’t have to look very far. The plan had been suggested and conceived by Pak Je-San, and so its failure was clearly his fault. Which explained why Kim Yong-Su had just landed at T’ae’tan with a squad of soldiers in two Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters.
Twenty minutes after it touched down, one of the helicopters was airborne again, heading north with one extra passenger on board, the man lying bound, gagged and blindfolded on the floor. Fifteen minutes after that, the second aircraft took off and followed the first, a woman and two young children lashed together and secured to one of the fuselage side strakes.
HMS Illustrious, Yellow Sea
‘We paid a very high price, gentlemen,’ Captain Alexander Davidson said, ‘but, thanks to the two of you, I think the end result was better than we had any reason to expect in the circumstances.’ He was standing in the Main Briefing Room, with Roger Black beside him. Dick Long and Richter were slumped in the front row of seats, both looking exhausted.
‘We’ve had confirmation from Seoul,’ Black said. ‘Their patrols found the wreckage of both Harriers on the ground below the site of the airburst. The bodies of Charlie Forbes and Roger Whittard were still strapped in. The initial medical evidence suggests they were killed instantly by the blast when the weapon detonated.
‘According to the latest signals from CINCFLEET, based on American technical intelligence, North Korea’s now abandoned the invas
ion attempt. They’ve started withdrawing their additional troops from the area close to the DMZ, and their forces appear to be reverting to normal readiness. Despite the detonation of the North Korean nuclear weapon, it looks as if both sides are going to maintain the status quo. It’s possible that the cruise missiles they fired contained their entire supply of plutonium and, without the destructive effects of the EMP to cripple the South Korean forces, they weren’t going to risk proceeding.’
Black glanced at his watch. ‘The bar’s opened already, because of what happened to Charlie and Roger. You should both go down there. The rest of the squadron will want to talk to you about the mission, but be careful how much you tell them. Officially, neither of you ever crossed the DMZ, and all the action took place over South Korea. Sign the bar chits with “Viper”, as it’ll make accounting easier.’
An old Royal Naval tradition is that on the day an officer dies, the entire wardroom drinks on his mess bill, which is then written off.
‘Why not?’ Richter murmured, and stood up.
Office of the Associate Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Virginia
‘It looks like they’ve given up,’ Muldoon said. ‘The latest pictures show the extra troops dispersing, and there’s noticeably less activity at most of the North Korean bases.’
‘I’ve just got back from the White House, and the President’s decided we’re not going to embark on a military response,’ Hicks replied. ‘Pyongyang has sent an apology for the nuke that detonated over Seoul. They’re claiming that the release was an unauthorized act by a disaffected officer, and officially we’re buying that. They’ve already offered financial reparations for the damage caused, and that includes the two British Harriers that were lost trying to take out the Seersucker.’
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