Wings Of Fire

by Dale Brown

  "What are you doing?" Wickland asked.

  "We've got to nail those guys before the fighters join up," Tanaka said. "Those are Tupolev-22s-they're just as fast as the MiGs. Once they join up, they'll accelerate to attack speed, and we'll never catch them."

  Wickland was silent, but Tanaka could sense the fear in his body as they quickly closed in. "Eight miles to go ... seven miles, coming up on max missile range," he said. "Six miles ... five ... the bombers will still get away...."

  "At this point, we'll just have to hope we take the tailend Charlie fighters out-maybe the bombers will break

  up once they find out their fighters are gone," Tanaka said.

  "We're in max range." Wickland quickly touched the supercockpit display and spoke: "Attack target."

  "Attack MiG-23 Scorpion, stop attack," the computer responded. Moments later, the first AIM-120 air-to-air missile shot out of the starboard external weapon pod and streaked off into the darkness.

  But the MiGs must have sensed something was wrong, or maybe one of the pilots was checking his six, because the MiG-23 fighters suddenly peeled away from the formation, dropped decoy flares, climbed rapidly, then reversed direction. Seconds later, they heard a high-pitched DEEDLE DEEDLE DEEDLE! warning and a female computerized voice announcing, "Warning, fighter search radar, MiG-23, eleven o'clock, sixteen miles," followed immediately by a fast-paced DEEDLEDEEDLEDEEDLE! and "Warning, fighter radar lock, MiG-23, eleven o'clock, high, fifteen miles."

  "The Scorpion broke lock," Wickland said. At that moment the second MiG-23 turned sharply right, and the two Tu-22 bombers accelerated and rapidly descended. "The second fighter is coming at us, and the bombers are getting away!" Wickland cried.

  Tanaka hit his voice command button: "Evasive action! Configure for terrain following!" he spoke. Immediately the flight computer responded to the voice command, nosing the EB-52 bomber over in a hard twenty-degree nosedown dive. Tanaka kept the power in, diving right to max airspeed-the throttles automatically pulled themselves back to keep from exceeding the airframe's design speed. "Where are those fighters, dammit?"

  "Got 'em!" Wickland shouted. "Closest one is coming around to our nine o'clock. The nearest bomber is at our one o'clock, thirty-two miles." He touched the icon for the Tu-22 bomber, then hit his voice command stud: "Attack priority," Wickland told the attack computer.

  "Target out of range," the computer responded.

  "We know the bomber's heading for Jaghbub," Tanaka said. "We'll head over that way and bushwhack -him." He

  turned the bomber farther to the northeast, cutting off the corner of the route to try to head the Libyan bombers off. "Warning, MiG-23, seven o'clock, eleven miles, high." The Megafortress was now down at three hundred feet above the desert, flying at nearly full military power at four hundred and twenty knots airspeed. "I think we're losing the MiGs," Wickland said. "They're trying to get a shot off from up high."

  "Warning, MiG-23, six o'clock, eight miles, high." "If he stays high, he'll try a radar shot any second," Tanaka guessed. "If he follows us down, he'll try a heater next."

  "Then let's see if we can make him stay up high," Wickland said. To the attack computer, he said, "Deploy towed array."

  From a fairing in the tail of the bomber, a small aerodynamic cylindrical object extended out in the bomber's slipstream on an armored fiber-optic cable, quickly going out three hundred feet from the tail. The object was a transmitter that could broadcast a variety of signals-radar jamming, spoofing, noise, heat, or laser signals. When the array was extended, Wickland called up a program on the defensive system and activated it.

  On board the Libyan MiG-23, the pilot's radar warning receivers started to go crazy-it was as if an entire squadron of American F-15 fighters was closing in on him. As he was wondering why he didn't see them coming, suddenly the radar warning receiver told him every one of the F-15s was launching missiles at him!

  He knew it couldn't be true-there were no F-15s in the middle of Libya. But he could not ignore the warnings. The pilot immediately dropped radar and missile-decoying chaff and flares and executed a tight left break to escape what he believed were a dozen AIM-7 Sparrow missiles heading toward him.

  The second MiG-23 did the same, breaking in the opposite direction-but not before he fired an R-60 heatseeking missile from less than six miles away.

  "Warning, missile launch, MiG-23, five o'clock, six

  miles," the computer's female voice calmly reported. But as it reported the attack, it was already responding. The towed array instantly began transmitting infrared energy signals, making the heat-seeking missiles think they were pursuing a huge heat source the size of a house. Seconds later, the computer ejected decoy devices that emitted hot points of infrared energy that drifted down and away from the Megafortress, then shut off the infrared energy signal from the towed array. When the R-60 missile was able to pick up a target again, after being dazzled by the huge heat source, all it saw was the tiny, hot, slow-moving dot of the high-tech decoy-too inviting a target to ignore. The first R-60 missiles plowed into the decoy two miles behind the Megafortress, safely out of range.

  With the decoy destroyed, the second R-60 missile fired by the MiG-23 veered back toward the Megafortress. It was too close to be decoyed by the towed array again, so another defensive system activated: the active laser defensive system. Directed by the EB-52's laser radar, a large helium-argon laser mounted in a fairing atop the Megafortress fired beams of laser light at the oncoming R-

  60 missile. After a few seconds, the missile's seeker head was blinded by the laser's intense heat and light, and the missile could no longer track.

  "We got it!" Wickland shouted. "We-!"

  Just then, they heard a fast-paced DEEDLEDEEDLEDEEDLE! warning tone and the computerized voice say calmly, "Warning, radar missile launch MiG-23 R-

  24." The first MiG-23 had turned around, locked onto the EB-52, and had taken a shot with a radar-guided missile, then a second one.

  'Take defensive action," Tanaka told the computer. The computer was way ahead of its human commander: It immediately ejected decoy devices from the left ejection chambers, tiny winged canisters that had several times the radar cross-section and infrared signature of the largest aircraft in the world-then threw the EB-52 bomber into a steep right bank. The defensive systems in the EB-52 Meg,afortress bomber were completely automatic: The tiny decoys made

  invitingly large targets, and with the bomber in a tight turn, the decoys were all alone in space, dangling themselves in front of the Libyan missiles. Along with the decoys, the Megafortress emitted jamming signals to the MiG-23's India-band radar that prevented the radar from tracking any other targets but the decoy.

  With the power and airspeed already up, the bomber was able to sustain a tight ninety-degree bank turn for several long seconds, crushing both crew members into their seats with unexpectedly heavy G-forces. Both crew members caught a glimpse of one bright explosion out the left window-one of the missiles had exploded less than a hundred yards off their left wingtip. The second R-24 radar-guided missile was handled by the active laser defensive systemit took only a few seconds for the laser to completely blind the second missile, and it continued on straight ahead and harmlessly exploded on the desert floor below.

  But after its tight defensive break, the Megafortress was dangerously slow. Tanaka rolled the big bomber out of its tight turn, keeping the power in full military power and the nose pointed down to try to quickly regain lost airspeed. The first Libyan MiG-23 had overshot the EB-52-but the second MiG-23, which had stayed down low to maintain contact, was now in perfect attack position, directly behind the Megafortress. It closed in almost at the speed of sound in seconds. "Warning, bandit six o'clock, four miles, MiG-

  23," the computer warned. "Warning, MiG-23 six o'clock, three miles.. . warning, missile launch detected..."

  The Megafortress's next defensive weapon automatically activated: the Stinger airmine system. Instead of the fifty-caliber or
thirty-millimeter machine guns in earlier B-52 bombers, the EB-52 Megafortress carried a fiftymillimeter cannon that fired small LADAR-guided rockets. With a range of about three miles, the tiny rockets were steered toward incoming enemy aircraft or missiles and then detonated ahead of them, creating a cloud of titanium flak that could shred jet engines with ease. The crew heard a poof! poof! poof! sound far behind them and a hard jolt every few seconds as the small rockets were launched. The

  MiG-23 that stayed down low flew through a cloud of tungsten pellets that shredded the cockpit canopy and engine; the pilot punched out just before his fighter started to spin out of control.

  'Tail's clear, Zero!" Wickland crowed. "The MiG up high looks like he's staying up there trying to find us."

  "Where are those bombers?" Tanaka asked.

  Wickland expanded out his display. "Eleven o'clock, forty miles. Three fast-movers, low. They're within fifty miles of Jaghbub, going almost six hundred knots. I'm not sure if we can catch them. They'll be over the base in five minutes."

  "Nike, this is Headbanger," Tanaka radioed to Chris Wohl.

  "Go."

  "You've got three inbounds, ETE five minutes. We can't catch them unless you can get them to turn around."

  Wohl turned to Hal Briggs. "Sir, we need a distraction for those bombers," he said. "What do they have in storage?"

  "Just about anything you want," Hal said. "I'll be right back." Briggs jet-jumped out toward the underground weapon-storage area. He came back a few minutes later carrying a twin-barreled 12.7-millimeter truck-mounted antiaircraft gun and a large metal box of ammunition. He jet-jumped to an isolated area about two miles west of the airfield, as far away as possible from the underground shelters where Sanusi's men were taking cover. 'This what you had in mind, Sarge?"

  "It's about time, sir," Wohl said. He was already scanning the sky with his battle armor's sensors for the incoming bombers. "Get ready."

  "Nike, one minute out. We're still just out of missile range."

  Hal Briggs had to work fast with an unfamiliar weapon, trying to quickly get the ammunition belt fed-snto the feeder. Normally the action was engaged electrically in the

  gun, but luckily Briggs found a manual crank that he used to wind a spindle that would fire the first round-after that, gas from the cartridges should initiate the action.

  "What are you doing over there, sir?" Wohl called out.

  "Hey, you try and load this thing." In a second Wohl dashed over to him, gave Briggs his electromagnetic rail gun, and started unfeeding the backward-looped ammunition belt. "Now we're talking!" Briggs shouted as he hefted the big high-tech weapon.

  "Just don't miss, sir-we're running out of projectiles," Wohl growled.

  "Oh, pul-leese." Briggs plugged in the data cable to his belt, charged the weapon, raised it, and followed the cues in his helmet-mounted electronic visor. His visor gave him a complete status readout-Wohl was right, only two projectiles remaining. "Never bagged a bomber beforethis'll be fun."

  "Fifteen seconds."

  "I see it!" Briggs shouted. The Tupolev-22 bomber was coming in straight and level, about a thousand feet above ground, at six hundred knots on the dot-the target was small, fast, and low. The aiming system in the battle armor wasn't a lead-computing sight-this was going to be a thousand-in-one shot. Briggs fired at two miles out, just as he saw a stick of bombs drop from the bomb bay. "Take cover!" he shouted. "Bombs away!"

  The streak of burning air from the projectile passed in front of the bomber's nose by several hundred feet-he had led the target too much.

  The bomber dropped a stick of six five-thousand-pound napalm canisters that created a tremendous wall of fire and a wave of heat that nearly pushed both of them over. The intent was obvious-he was marking the target area for the second bomber.

  Briggs whirled around and aimed. The first bomber was in a steep climbing right turn in full afterburner-a perfect profile. This time, the streak of superheated air passed right through the forward section of the Tupolev-22's fuselage. Just when Briggs thought he might have missed it again, a

  tongue of flame spat out from the left engine compartment. The Tu-22 twisted unnaturally to the left, its nose moving higher into the sky. Both afterburners winked out-Briggs could now see it through only the rail gun's electronic sights. The bomber seemed to hang in midair, like a big graceful eagle climbing on a thermal-then there were four puffs of light and smoke as all four crew members ejected, and the bomber did a tail-side straight down and crashed into the desert just north of the minefield.

  Meanwhile, Chris Wohl had finally loaded the dual antiaircraft cannon. He held the gun up in his left hand by its mounting pedestal, held the ammunition can in his right hand, then swiveled to the west and scanned the sky, looking for the oncoming bombers. Suddenly, Wohl started firing into the sky. The big antiaircraft gun bucked and shook, but thanks to Wohl's exoskeleton, he was able to keep the weapon fairly steady. Every twelfth shell from the can was a tracer round, and as he swept the sky to the west, he created a snakelike wave of light in the sky. The ammunition was gone in a few seconds; Wohl dropped the gun and the ammo can, and both he and Briggs jet-jumped away from that spot-they knew what was going to happen next....

  The second Tu-22 bomber veered hard to the south, away from the tracers-but the third bomber came in hard and fast and laid down a stick of thirty or forty fivehundred-pound high-explosive bombs, right on the spot where Briggs and Wohl had been positioned. The incredible pounding from the bombs knocked both men off their feet, and it seemed like dirt, dust, sand, and all sorts of debris rained down on them for at least the next ten minutes. Their battle armor's power was almost depleted by that time-but they survived the attack.

  The third bomber stayed low and accelerated straight ahead without using afterburners, as it was supposed to do in a defended area, so it was able to escape. But the second Tu-22 that did the hard bank turned away from the airfield-right into the waiting missile range of the Megafortress's AIM-120 missiles. Wickland dispatched it quickly with one Scorpion missile.

  "You guys all right back there?" Tanaka asked.

  "Everyone's in one piece," Briggs said, "and they didn't hit the airfield, so I think we're still in business. Where did that third bomber go?"

  "He's bugging out-probably wondering where his two wingmen went," Tanaka said. "We're going to head back and finish the job on Zillah, then see if there's anything we can hit at Al-Jawf. Keep your heads down. Headbanger clear."

  Wickland pressed the attack at Zillah Air Base thirty minutes later by first firing one antiradar missile at the airfield surveillance radar at Zillah Air Base, then at another unexpected SA-10 mobile surface-to-air missile site that had just activated its radar, both from high altitude. After defending themselves from the SAM sites, Wickland used the laser radar and took second-long snapshots of the base, magnifying and enhancing the images until he could identify them as precisely as possible, then designated specific targets and loaded their coordinates into the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons. Once the target coordinates were entered, the attack computer loaded a released track into the autopilot.

  The attack computer automatically opened the bomb doors and started releasing weapons when the bomber reached the release track. The AGM-154 JSOW did not need to be at a precise weapon-release point-at high altitude, they could glide unpowered for up to forty miles and flew to their targets with uncanny accuracy. Four of the six JSOWs were programmed for Zillah's main runway, cratering it enough so no heavy or high-performance aircraft could use it. For the other four targets, Wickland switched on an imaging-infrared sensor in the weapon's nose as it got closer to its target, and if the weapon was off-course he could lock it onto their exact impact points-a building they suspected as the base command post and communications center, the fuel farm, a power plant, and the surveillance radar facility at the base of the control tower. The one-thousand-pound high-explosive warheads made short

  work of all targets-Zillah Air Base wa
s effectively shut down with just eight well-placed hits.

  The EB-52 then headed toward Al-Jawf, three hundred miles to the southeast. Attack procedures for the Wolverine cruise missiles were much different from those of the other precision-guided weapons: They didn't need any procedures. Each missile was programmed with a large set of targets in memory, and the missiles were simply released when about fifty miles from the target area. Wickland used the laser radar to try to spot targets and designate final impact points for the missiles, but the Wolverines liked it best when they were on their own. They used millimeter-wave radars to search for targets; then they would fly over the targets and drop either anti-armor CBU-97 Sensor-Fuzed Weapons or CBU-87 Combined Effects Munitions on light armor or other vehicles. The missiles would continue their search for targets, even turning around and reattacking if they found they missed a target. Then, before the missile's jet fuel ran out, the missile would either find a building or use a designated target sent to it from the Megafortress and fly into it, destroying the target with a two-hundred-pound high-explosive warhead.

  With no air defenses detected, Tanaka and Wickland were able to orbit the area, taking LADAR snapshots of the base, looking for targets to direct the Wolverines, releasing the cruise missiles one every three to five minutes so each had plenty of time to find new targets that might present themselves. Aircraft parking areas, helipads, large vehicle parking areas, fuel storage areas, and weapon storage bunkers were favorite targets for the Wolverines' cluster munitions and sensor-fuzed weapons.

  Wickland picked out buildings that looked like headquarters buildings, barracks, security buildings, and hangars for the terminal targets-but what he was really looking for were the rocket storage sheds, or even some surface-to-surface rockets themselves. According to the soldiers who joined Sanusi's Sandstorm warriors, the rockets at Al-Jawf were housed in long half-underground

  sheds. When it was time for deployment, trucks would hook up to the rocket transporter-erector-launchers and tow them to presurveyed launch points. They could be moved in a matter of minutes, and readied for launch in about a half hour after arriving at the launch point.