Shadow Flight (1990)

Recent congressional actions have attacked full funding of the remarkable Stealth bomber. But sinister forces in the world apparently think more highly of this advanced weapons system than does the Congress. During a special training exercise, one of the famous B-2 bombers disappears. After intensive air-ground searches reveal nothing, the Air Force concludes that the top-secret aircraft has been hijacked.

Recovery of the Stealth and its crew is the president's highest priority. The Kremlin has its hands full with its own internal problems and disavows any knowledge of what has happened to the craft.

After developing information which points to Cuba as the likely destination of the Stealth's last flight, the CIA dispatches agent Steve Wickham to the island. Wickham's mission: find the B-2 before the president calls for an invasion.

As Cuban and American forces begin to clash, the world hovers on the brink of major power conflict.

*

Glossary

ACM Air Combat Maneuvering; dog
-
fighting.

ACO Air Control Officer.

ADIZ Air Defense Identification Zone.

ADVCAP Advanced Capability.

AEGIS Air Defense System on Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. ALCM Air Launched Cruise Missiles.

Alpha Strike All-out carrier air wing attack.

ASW Antisubmarine Warfare.

AWACS Airborne Warning And Control System.

Ball The optical landing device on an aircraft carrier. Also referred to as "meatball."

BARCAP Barrier Combat Air Patrol, used to protect vessels at sea.

Blue Water Operations Carrier flight operations beyond the range of land bases.

Bogie Unidentified or enemy aircraft.

Bolter Carrier landing attempt in which the tail hook misses the arresting wire, necessitating a go-around.

Bow Front end of ship.

Bridge Command post in a ship superstructure.

CAG Commander of the Air Group; oversees all squadrons embarked on a carrier.

CAP Combat Air Patrol.

CATCC Carrier Air Traffic Control Center (Cat-see).

Check Six Refers to visual observation behind an aircraft. Fighter pilots must check behind them constantly to ensure that enemy aircraft are not in an attack position.

CIC Combat Information Center--central battle management post in naval surface combat.

CINCLANT Commander In Chief of Atlantic Fleet.

CINCPAC Commander In Chief of Pacific Fleet.

CNO Chief of Naval Operations.

Dash Two Second plane in a two-aircraft section; the wingman. Departure Refers to an aircraft departing from controlled flight.

DME Distance Measuring Equipment. Distance provided to a pilot in nautical miles from a known point.

ELINT Electronic Intelligence.

Feet Dry / Wet Pilot radio call indicating a position over land/ water.

FOD Foreign Object Damage to a jet engine.

Fox One/Two/Three Pilot radio calls indicating the firing of a Sparrow, Sidewinder, or Phoenix missile.

Furball Multiaircraft fighter engagement.

G-force Force pressed on a body by changes in velocity, measured in increments of earth gravity.

G-LOC G-induced Loss of Consciousness. Gomers Air combat adversaries.

Hawkeye E-2C early warning and control aircraft; radar eyes of the fleet.

Hornet F/A-18 fighter/attack aircraft.

Hot pump Refueling aircraft while engine is running.

ICS Intercom System in cockpits of multiseat aircraft.

IFF Military transponder used to identify aircraft (Identification Friend or Foe).

IFR Instrument Flight Rules. Intruder A-6 attack aircraft.

Knot One nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile equals 1.1 statute miles.

LAMPS Light Airborne Multipurpose System; shipborne helicopter used for antisubmarine warfare.

LCAC Air-cushioned landing craft.

Loose Deuce Navy and Marine Corps tactical fighter formation.

LSO Landing Signal Officer. Squadron pilot responsible for assisting other aviators onto flight deck of aircraft carrier; also called Paddles.

Mach Term, named for physicist Ernst Mach, used to describe speed of an object in relation to the speed of sound.

MAD Magnetic Anomaly Detector, used to locate submerged submarines.

Main mount Aircraft main landing gear.

Marshall Aircraft holding pattern behind aircraft carrier.

MILSTAR Advanced military satellite communications system.

NATOPS Naval Aviation Training and Operations manual. Provides rules and regulations for safe and proper operation of al
l n
avy and marine corps aircraft and helicopters.

NEACP National Emergency Airborne Command Post (KNEECAP).

Nugget Rookie naval aviator.

PRI-FLY Control tower on aircraft carrier. Phoenix AIM-54 long-range air-to-air missile.

Plane Guard Helicopter assigned to search and rescue during carrier flight operations.

Push Time Designated time for aircraft to start approach to carrier.

RAM Radar-Absorbent Material.

Ramp Aft end of flight deck; rounddown. RCS Radar Cross Section.

RIO Radar Intercept Officer; naval flight officer in backseat of F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom aircraft.

ROE Rules Of Engagement. SAC Strategic Air Command. SAM Surface-to-Air Missile. SAR Search And Rescue.

Section takeoff Two aircraft taking off in formation. Sidewinder AIM-9 heat-seeking air-to-air missile.

Sparrow AIM-7 radar-guided air-to-air missile.

SUCAP Surface Combat Air Patrol.

Tally Derivative of tallyho; target in sight. Tomcat F-14 fighter aircraft; also called "turkey." Trap Arrested landing on aircraft carrier.

Unload Release pressure on aircraft control stick to ease g load. VFR Visual Flight Rules.

V/STOL Very Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Viking S-3 ASW aircraft; also called Hoover.

Vulture's Row Observation deck on superstructure (island) of carrier.

The Soviet economy had been disintegrating in the ruins of perestroika and glasnost.

Industrial growth had mired at less than 1 percent, and food production had fallen 32 percent short of the nation's needs. Absenteeism had become rampant as thousands of workers abandoned their jobs, shouting, "We pretend to work while they pretend to pay
US.
"

National polls conducted during January 1990 had indicated that 97 percent of the Soviet citizens felt that the economic situation was critical, if not completely out of control. The nation's patience, after years of perestroika, had run short. The domestic crisis threatened both the integrity and the political stability of the state.

The president of the USSR, beset with national animosities and Kremlin challenges, had become desperate in his attempt to hold the disintegrating Communist system together. Mikhail Gorbachev, when faced with increasing pressure to revive the moribund economy, had called a plenary session of the Communist party's Central Committee during February 1990. The 249-member committee had agreed to the president's plan to discard the Communist party's seven decades of monopoly on power. Gorbachev, arguing persuasively for a step toward democracy, had opened the door to political competition.

The astonishing shift in the dominance of power had shake
n m
any hard-line conservatives. The idea of casting aside total power and risking their positions under a system of political pluralism frightened the party members. Insurgents within the Central Committee, who had grudgingly voted for the multiparty plan, were confident that the large core of Communist hard-liners would win control again when the new system collapsed in anarchy. The Soviet military, led by deep-rooted conservatives, had the raw power to crush any political opposition.

Gorbachev, moving swiftly, convinced the Congress of People's Deputies to grant him unprecedented broad powers to save the Soviet Union from total collapse. With the world looking on, the Communist leaders watched in humiliation as the influence of the Politburo was methodically shifted to a Cabinet style of presidential council. The key members of the council included the defense, finance, and foreign ministers, along with the head of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB, the Committee for State Security).

The director of the KGB, feeling his power and authority slowly being eroded, had quietly aligned with hard-core critics who believed in a revolution from below. Many key hard-liners, watching the riots grow more violent, had been afraid that the expanding chaos would lead to civil war in the Soviet Union.

The growing number of discontented civilian and military leaders had discussed a conservative backlash to end demokratizatsia. A number of expelled Politburo members, filled with rage and embarrassment, had openly supported a military coup to quickly restore stability in the Soviet Union.

The KGB chief, Vladimir Golodnikov, who was convinced that the military leaders would reinstate the Communist party to absolute power, decided to implement a bold plan of his own. The first step was to get his hands on the American's B-2 bomber. The ambitious operation, worked out in secret by the chief during November 1989, was an intricate plan to acquire the radar-evading aircraft, reverse engineer the B-2, then manufacture clones when the military regained power.

Golodnikov was confident that he had thought of a politica
l e
scape route for every contingency. If the plan succeeded, the chie
f w
ould be held in high esteem by the leaders of the revived Communist party. If it failed, he would deny all knowledge of the operation.

The KGB Directorate, proceeding cautiously, had closely monitored the B-2 budget reductions. The Russian contingent in Washington, D
. C
., had lobbied tenaciously to either cancel the B-2 program or limit the number of aircraft produced each year. When production of the Stealth bomber was curtailed sharply, the KGB chief decided to take advantage of the situation. Golodnikov could now count on the American Stealth program to remain stagnant, and a vast strategic advantage would thereby be gained for the Motherland.

PROLOGUE:

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA

6:50 A
. M
.

Gennadi Levchenko leaned against the side of his Lincoln town car, braced his elbows, then stared at the B-2 through his binoculars. The senior KGB officer, dressed in khaki-colored slacks, brown loafers, and a green windbreaker, blended in with the throngs of spectators watching the Stealth bomber accelerate down the runway on one of its routine test flights.

Levchenko, shivering slightly in the brisk morning air, followed the takeoff and initial climb. He lowered the binoculars, zipped his jacket, and got back inside the warm, idling automobile. The KGB Stealth project officer was feeling more confident by the minute. After waiting eight months and enduring many arduous trips to Moscow, Levchenko had received permission straight from Golodnikov, chief of the KGB, to commandeer a Stealth bomber.

The crowd returned to their vehicles, and as the cars in front of him began to move, Levchenko placed the Lincoln in gear. He had a meeting in San Bernardino with the two KGB agents who were responsible for initiating the B-2 hijacking.

Irina Rykhov, astrikingly beautiful young woman with sensuous hazel eyes, and Aleksey Pankyev, a dashing and experienced agent, had spent the previous six months systematically organizing the operation. They were both distinguished graduates in military intelligence from the prestigious Bukharin Academy, and had worked a
s a
team for more than three years. They had been directly responsible for obtaining the classified Trident D-5 missile specifications.