Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 05 (56 page)

 
          
“What’s
our decision point?”

 
          
“Right
about now,” McLanahan said. “If we decided to abort from here, we’d reverse
course and bug out over
Burma
, head east, and pick up a tanker just east
of
Manila
. We can probably abort later on in the
sortie and bug out over
India
, but then we’d have to bootleg a tanker out
of Diego Garcia to meet us over the
Arabian Sea
or
Bay of Bengal
. Any way you cook it, AC, we’ll be skosh on
gas from here on in. The last time we’ll have the right amount of fuel on board
is right now.”

 
          
“Shit,”
Jamieson swore on interphone. “You know, this is exactly the situation I warned
General Samson not to get into. Don’t get backed into corners. Don’t do stupid
stunts. I guess it’s true— you never learn anything new when you’re yakking.”
He paused, then looked at McLanahan. “It’s your call, mission commander. I’ll
drive the bus anywhere you want.”

 
          
McLanahan
looked at Jamieson in surprise. “First time you’ve said that without the words
dripping in sarcasm, Tiger.”

 
          
“Yeah,
maybe I should check my oxygen—I might be getting hypoxic.” He shrugged, then
nodded. “You’re a pretty good stick after all, Mack. You got us this far. Make
the call.”

 
          
McLanahan
paused, thinking; then: “You know, I just found out I’m going to be a father.
Wendy’s pregnant.”

 
          
“No
shit? That’s great. Congrats. I got three of my own. Those critters will change
your life, believe me.” He looked hard at McLanahan. “So you thinking about
bagging this mission?”

 
          
“Couldn’t
think of a better reason ...” He hesitated, thought for a short moment, then
added, “. . . except there’s troops on the ground counting on us. We gotta do
it, Tiger. We go.”

 
          
“Then
we go,” Jamieson agreed. “We’re committed.”

 
          
The
trip across
Afghanistan
was quiet and uneventful, but things
changed immediately as the Spirit approached southeastern
Iran
. Their original chosen flight path had them
flying through the less populated parts of the provinces of northeastern Kerman
and northern Baluchistan va Sistan, but the closer they got to the Iranian army
air base at Zahedran, they realized they could not put the left wing toward any
emitters, so they flew east of Zahedan through western Pakistan.

 
          
Before
reaching the city of Zahedan, they briefly deactivated the “cloaking device” to
get a last GPS satellite navigation update to the inertial navigation system,
use the SAR radar to input an accurate pressure altitude into the flight
computer, and to pick up any last- minute satellite intelligence and targeting
data, including updates on the Iranian attacks on the United Arab Emirates and
Oman. “The battle is going into phase two,” McLanahan reported as he read the
retrieved messages. “Kamza Omani Naval Base on Musandam in the
Strait of Hormuz
, destroyed. Sib Air Base in
Oman
, heavily damaged along with nearly all of
Oman
’s air force. Mina Sultan Naval Base in the
UAE, heavily damaged—that’s where Madcap Magician was based. God, I hope
they’re okay.”

 
          
“Your
spy buddies made it this far, didn’t they?”

 
          
“Yep
. . . and I’d say they kicked some butt, too,” McLanahan said with a smile.
“Listen:
Peninsula
Shield reports a counterattack by commando
forces out of Mina Sultan on the rebuilt Iranian air defense emplacements on
Abu
Musa
Island
. Some injuries, no casualties, but the
Iranian defenses were destroyed—two Hawk, one Rapier SAM emplacements, the
command-and-control center destroyed, and the runway cratered. That sounds like
my friends, all right.”

           
As the B-2 A flew southwest past
Zahedan, they picked up the first indications of the air defense radar at Chah
Bahar. “Let’s head on down,” McLanahan said, punching in commands to the
flight- control computer. “COLA mode engaged.” He configured his supercockpit
display to provide a God’s-eye view of the sky and terrain around the B-2A
bomber.

 
          
“Ready,”
Jamieson said. “Deaf, dumb, and blind, we’re going TFing.” He engaged the
autopilot to the new commands being entered into the flight-control system, and
the B-2A bomber headed earthward at 15,000 feet per minute. Because the B-2 A
bomber used BEADS, the so-called cloaking device, it could not use a
conventional terrain-following or terrain-avoidance radar system as with the
B-52, F-lll, F-15E, or B-1B bombers—it could not even use a radar altimeter to
measure the distance below it, because BEADS would absorb all the outgoing
energy.

 
          
Instead,
this B-2A bomber used a system developed by the High Technology Aerospace
Weapons Center called COLA, or COmputergenerated Lowest Altitude. First used on
an experimental B-52H bomber nicknamed the “Megafortress”—so called because it
had pioneered many of the advanced stealth and attack systems used on future
war machines—the B-2A’s flight computers split up the entire globe into
one-mile blocks, then had the highest terrain elevation within that block
programmed into it. Using its inertial navigation system, accurate to 200 to
300 feet per hour, the B-2A’s flight-control system knew what terrain was
coming up all along its flight path, and it would choose the lowest possible
altitude while still avoiding the terrain. The flight-control computer could
look “into” an upcoming turn, evaluate its airspeed, gross weight, outside air
data, and flight performance, and fly as close as possible to the
earth—sometimes as low as 100 feet—even though neither crew member could see
out the cockpit windows! As the accuracy of the inertial navigation system
degraded over time—there was no way to update the inertial navigation system
with the “cloaking device” activated—COLA would select a higher altitude to
provide a greater margin of safety while still flying as low as possible.

 
          
The
terrain in southeastern
Iran
was flat, with occasional high razorback
ridgelines plunging down into flat valleys, many with marshes or dry lake beds
at the bottom. Fifty miles south of Zahedan, they crossed a major superhighway,
the
Mashhad-Chah
Bahar Highway
. Their flight path took them about forty miles west of it, far enough
to stay away from any detection from populated areas along the highway but
close enough that Jamieson could see it. “Lots of traffic out there, heading
north,” Jamieson said. “Good idea to get away from the coast these days.”

 
          
About
180 miles north of Chah Bahar, they picked up the first threat indications from
radar sites out in the
Gulf
of
Oman
. They saw a bat-wing symbol with a small
circle on the apex—the symbol for an airborne early-warning radar. “There’s the
Iranian A-10 radar plane,” McLanahan said. “About two hundred fifty miles away—
seventy miles offshore. The radar guys say that if they’re going to pick us up,
we’ll be within one hundred twenty miles of the second site. That means we
might be visible to them for seventy to one hundred miles—ten, maybe fifteen
minutes.”

 
          
Just
then, another bat-wing symbol appeared on the scope—not an A-10 radar plane,
but an Iranian F-14 Tomcat fighter. “F-14 off the nose, about one hundred
miles,” McLanahan said. “Not locked on yet, but he’s headed right for us . . .”

 
          
“It’s
that loose screw or rivet or joint on the left wing,” Jamieson said. “It’s
screwing up our stealthy stuff. And the F-14’s designed to look for low-flying
targets as small as a cruise missile.”

 
          
“So
let’s start giving them something to shoot at,” McLanahan said. “It’s a little
earlier than we wanted, but we’re definitely an item of interest. I’m setting
five hundred feet—stand by for missile launch.” McLanahan switched the
terrain-avoidance system to 500 feet, then commanded the first launch of a
AGM-86C cruise missile. The subsonic AGM-86C cruise missile had a turbojet
engine that flew the missile at six miles per minute for 500 miles; this one
had no warhead, only radio transmitters that gave it the radar cross-section
and electronic profile of a large bomber. The cruise missile made an immediate
right turn and headed west toward Bandar Abbas—and the F-14 Tomcat turned west
to pursue. “He took the bait,” McLanahan said. “Let’s make a jog east, put
Iranshahr off our right wing.” McLanahan reselected COLA on the
terrain-avoidance computer, and they recrossed the
Chah Bahar-Mashhad Highway
again, heading east along the ridgelines.

 
          
“One
hundred twenty miles to go,” McLanahan said. “Threat scope’s clear. .. got an
SA-10 site at Chah Bahar searching, but so far we’re ...” And just then, the
F-14 Tomcat appeared on the threat scope again.

 
          
“Shit,
the F-14’s back—he must’ve downed the cruise missile and is searching for
wingmen.”

 
          
“Let’s
give him one—this time, bugging out,” McLanahan said. He commanded 500 feet on
the terrain-avoidance system again and launched the second AGM-86C, this one
programmed to head north, toward
Beghin
Airport
. “Missile away, resetting COLA .. .”

 
          
Just
then, they heard the computer-synthesized voice in their headphones shouting.
“WARNING, MISSILE LAUNCH, WARNING, MISSILE LAUNCH!” The SA-10 Grumble
surface-to-air missile site had opened fire on them—and with their bomb doors
open, the B-2A bomber was a very inviting target, even at very long range.
“MAWS activated! ” McLanahan shouted. “Track breakers active! ” But it was the
wrong decision—McLanahan recognized it seconds later. “No, the SA-10 launched
against the cruise missile! ” But it was too late— when he activated the
missile defense system and jammers, it briefly deactivated the BEADS cloaking
device, and the F-14 Tomcat, which had not yet detected the decoy cruise
missile, locked on to the B-2A.

 
          
“MAWS
down, track breakers in standby,” McLanahan reported—but they could see the
F-14 barreling down on them now, coming “down the ramp” from its high-altitude
combat air patrol straight at the B-2 A bomber. “He’s still headed for us.
Stand by to. ..” Suddenly they received another “WARNING, MISSILE LAUNCH!” as
the F-14 fired.

 
          
McLanahan
reactivated the MAWS missile defense system, and the system immediately dumped
chaff from the left ejectors as Jamieson broke hard right. “Track breakers
active, MAWS tracking! ” They could actually see the first missile, probably a
Phoenix or air-launched Hawk missile, depicted on the threat scope, getting
closer every second ... then another “WARNING, MISSILE LAUNCH!” as a second
missile was fired from long range.

 
          
The
HAVE GLANCE defense system started firing its high- power laser “blinding”
system only three seconds before the first missile hit—but it was enough. The
Phoenix
missile’s active terminal radar overheated,
causing a safety self-destruct. The
Phoenix
missile exploded less than 500 feet from
the B-2 A bomber. “Break left, second missile coming in!” McLanahan shouted,
and Jamieson executed a hard left turn, pulling on the control stick to tighten
the turn even more. The MAWS system pumped out chaff from the right ejectors in
response.

 
          
The
second Phoenix missile was momentarily decoyed by the chaff and by the loss of
radar lock when the damaged left wing dipped from view, but reacquired a lock
when the chaff cloud dissipated—however, it locked on to Kuhiri Mountain, south
of Iranshahr, not on the B-2 A. Again, the second missile missed by less than
300 feet—one-tenth of a second of missile flight time!—and exploded on the
barren desert highlands below.