Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06 (31 page)

 
          
“Beginning
today, those three air wings shall have one-third of their flyable planes on
twenty-four-hour combat alert,” Sun ordered. “I want as many J-6 fighters
loaded with air-to-air weapons and cannon ammunition and launched as possible,
and be sure they have functioning gun cameras. Their target is any unidentified
aircraft in the vicinity of
the Mao
carrier
group. What about the Sukhoi-27s?”

 
          
“The
Second Air Wing at
Haikou
currently has twelve Su-27 fighters operational.”

 
          
“Twelve?”
Sun retorted. “It was reported all forty planes allotted for combat operations
were operational! Damn you, Major, it is the command section’s responsibility
to see to it that the general staff has accurate information!” Dai stiffened
and lowered his head in submission. It would be far too late to launch the
Su-27s, Sun thought—the J-6s would have to do. “Get those J-6s airborne, and I
want an Ilyushin-76 radar plane launched as well to assist in the search. Where
is the chief of staff right now? ”

 
          
“I
will check, sir,” the senior controller said. His staff was working more
quickly now. “Sir, the chief of staff is in quarters. Shall I ring him?”

           
“Negative. Notify me at once when
the chief of staff checks in with the command section.”

           
“Yes, sir. . . . Sir, Admiral Yi on
the carrier
Mao
is on channel two.”
Sun switched his communications selector to the proper setting: “Admiral Yi,
this is Admiral Sun. How do you copy?”

           
The transmission was heavy with
static—obviously this was an HF shortwave radio patch, not a satellite hookup.
“I read you, sir,” replied the voice. “Do you wish a status report?”

 
          
“Go
ahead with your status report, Admiral.”

 
          
“We
are in visual contact with a Taiwanese flagged warship, the
Kin Men,
a guided-missile frigate,” Yi
reported in a loud voice, as if he were shouting across the sky. “The frigate
has opened fire on my group, hitting the destroyer
Kang
with missile fire. The
Kang
suffered minor damage and is still operational. The
Mao
destroyed several inbound missiles with terminal defenses but
was hit by small anti-radar missiles launched by a suspected stealth aircraft
operating in the vicinity in concert with the rebel ship. Minor damage only. We
are still operational. We attempted to return fire but have encountered heavy
jamming and anti-radar cruise missile attacks, and we are currently running
silent and relying on passive sensors. I have launched two fighters in air
defense configuration. We are still in contact with the Nationalist vessel.”

 
          
“Have
you made contact with the stealth aircraft?” Sun asked excitedly.

 
          
“Negative,”
Yi replied. “We get intermittent radar contacts, but nothing solid. We are
currently attempting to make contact via Optronics, and our fighters are
airborne and beginning the search. Over.” “Admiral Yi, you will destroy that
Nationalist frigate,” Sun ordered. “Order a full-scale attack by every vessel
in your battle group. You are permitted to use every weapon in your arsenal...”
He paused for a moment, then emphasized, “. . .
every
weapon. Do not allow that rebel frigate to escape under any
circumstances. Do you understand?”

 
          
“Yes,
sir,” Yi replied.

 
          
“Admiral
Yi, you will then launch an immediate attack on
Quemoy
Island
from long range,” Sun said. “Again, you are
ordered and authorized to use
every
weapon in your arsenal. Do you understand?”

 
          
There
was a very long pause, during which Sun thought they had been cut off; but
then: “Comrade Sun, I must have clarification,” Admiral Yi radioed. “You are
authorizing and ordering me to use
any
weapon
in my battle group to attack and destroy the Nationalist military forces on
Quemoy Tao. Is that correct?”

 
          
“Yes,
that is correct,” Sun said. “Any and every weapon in your arsenal is free to
use. Your attack will commence immediately. And find that stealth bomber and
blow it out of the sky! ”

 
          
When
Sun looked up after that interchange, he saw almost everyone in the command
center staring at him. The senior controller’s eyes were bulging. “Sir ... I am
sure you are aware that the
Mao
battle group carries nuclear attack weapons. Your order to the
Mao
could be interpreted that you
ordered a
nuclear
attack against—”

 
          
“I
ordered nothing of the kind, Comrade Dai,” Sun said. “Only the minister of
defense or the president can issue such an order, correct?” The senior
controller nodded blankly. “Now, what I want is an immediate launch of those
fighters. Crews should be responding to their planes by now. ”

 
          
“Yes,
sir,” the aide said. “The alert has been issued. I shall type up the order and
submit it to the chief of staff for his approval.”

 
          
Sun
swung on his aide angrily and shouted, “Did I order you to type anything or
submit anything to General Chin? I want those fighters in the air in less than
thirty minutes—I will notify the general and get his approval. I want to be
notified personally of every development immediately. Now,
move!”

 
          
As
the aide hurried off, Sun knew that he was never going to tell Chin or anyone
else of this—until and unless the American stealth bomber was brought down.
Then his hope was to personally deliver a gun camera tape of an American
stealth bomber being shot down to President Jiang—and use it to begin his
campaign to rid China’s waters of the United States and its lackeys.

ABOARD THE EB-52 MEGAFORTRESS

           
In attack mode, AGM-177 Wolverine
missiles moved too fast to be tracked by NIRTSat satellite snapshots, but the
missile’s datalink information allowed McLanahan to watch in absolute
fascination as the missiles closed rapidly on their quarries.

 
          
All
Wolverine missiles were programmed to execute a turn shortly after launch so
the enemy could not simply trace the missile’s flight path directly back to its
launch point; missiles coming from many different directions also made it
appear as if there were more attackers out there. Each Wolverine missile
executed its “dogleg” as it glided down from launch altitude to sea-skimming
altitude, between fifty and one hundred feet above the sea, guided by a
pencil-thin radar beam that precisely measured the distance from the belly of
the missile to the waves. During the glide, the missile automatically opened
its turbojet engine air inlets and exhausts, warmed up the electronics for its
radar and imaging infrared sensors, and activated its threat sensors,
countermeasures system, and GPS satellite navigation system. With the GPS
locked on to at least three satellites, it now had target circular error
accuracy of less than thirty feet; once it locked onto eight satellites, its
navigation precision was good to within
six
inches
in both position and altitude. Just before reaching its cruise
altitude, the computer commanded the turbojet engine to start, accelerating the
missile to over four hundred miles an hour.

 
          
With
a ripple of microhydraulically controlled skin, the Wolverine missile turned on
a dime and headed for its first target. Once lined up on target, it activated
its radar for just two seconds and compared the range to the target received
from the radar to the range to target on its navigational flight plan—the two
figures were within seven feet of each other. The missile sampled the GPS
navigation information again, then took a longer radar fix of the target,
getting bearing as well as range— now the two were within two feet of each
other. Satisfied, the missile signaled back to the EB-52 Megafortress that it
was on course and ready to attack.

 
          
Patrick
McLanahan opened a new computer window on his large supercockpit display, then
ordered the sensor feed from the missile displayed in the window. The radar
image showed a bright white rectangle, with the missile’s sensor’s crosshairs
centered on it. McLanahan switched to imaging infrared, and a small orange
speck appeared; magnified, McLanahan could discern the long, gracefully swept
bow, tall amidships superstructure, and huge bow-mounted 100-millimeter gun of
the big Chinese Jiangwei-class guided-missile frigate. McLanahan ordered the
missile to alter course to align itself with the longitudinal axis of the
Chinese frigate for its attack.

 
          
Just
then, a bright orange circle superimposed itself on the Chinese frigate’s icon
on the supercockpit display; simultaneously, Vikram called out, “Foxtrot-band
air search radar up. ...” Then, a few seconds later, along with a slow-paced
deedle
. . .
deedle
. . .
deedle!
warning tone: “. . . India-band target tracking radar ...”

 
          
“Looks
like they’re locked onto all four Wolverine missiles,” McLanahan said.

 
          
Suddenly
they heard a fast-pitched
deedledeedledeedle!
warning tone in their headsets. “Missile launch!” Vikram shouted. “No uplink
bearings in our direction . . . second missile launch .. . three, four missiles
in the air, tracking the Wolverines ... X-band gun control radars up on the
patrol boats, looks like they got a lock-on too. Shit, looks like every
Wolverine missile is an item of interest.”

 
          
“Pick
up my window numbers twenty and twenty-one,” McLanahan suggested, “and watch
the Wolverines in action.”

 
          
The
instant the first Hong Qian-61 antiaircraft missile left the Chinese frigate’s
rails, the Wolverine missile immediately matched bearings to the uplink
signal’s bearing, which meant that both missiles were heading nose-to-nose.
Then, an instant before impact, the Wolverine missile accelerated to its top
speed of 600 miles an hour, released bundles of radar-decoying chaff and
infrared-decoy flares, and jinked away, using its mission-adaptive fuselage to
turn twice as fast as the antiair missile could possibly turn. The HQ-61
missile still had a solid radar lock and hit— on the cloud of chaff.

 
          
As
soon as it executed the first twenty-G turn, the Wolverine missile immediately
dropped more chaff and flares and executed another turn toward its first
target. It picked up the “Round Ball” fire-control radar trying to track it,
and dropped more chaff and flares. The gunners aboard the Chinese Huangfeng-class
patrol boat opened fire with their 30-millimeter guns, shredding the chaff
cloud with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Seconds later, the Wolverine
missile, untouched, sped overhead and dropped its first bomb-bay load of
thirty-six baseball-size bomblets. The Wolverine missile couldn’t fully align
with the vessel’s longitudinal axis after evading the gunfire, so only about
half of the bomblets hit the vessel—but it was enough to cause a fire in two of
the patrol boat’s Hong-Yang-1 anti-ship missile canisters. With the two port
launch canisters on fire and the two starboard canisters damaged, the skipper
of the patrol boat had no choice but to stop his attack run and jettison all
four of his missiles overboard before they exploded and sank his ship. With nothing
but his 30-millimeter gun remaining, he was effectively out of the fight.

 
          
The
same Wolverine missile did better on the second and third PLAN patrol boats.
Instead of crossing perpendicular to the target’s path, the missile scattered
its second load of bomblets directly down the second vessel’s centerline. The
two aft HY-1 missile canisters exploded, driving the vessel’s stern down, then
flipping the 173-ton patrol boat end- over-end through the air before crashing
down into the sea. The Wolverine’s third target, a lightly armed but faster
sixty-eight-ton Houku-class patrol boat, managed to start a fast turn toward
its stricken partner just as the Wolverine began dropping bomblets, so only a
few of the one- pound bomblets hit the ship, causing minor damage. The
Wolverine’s final suicide-attack target, the lead Jiangwei-class frigate,
finally stopped it with a double punch from two HQ-61 antiaircraft missiles and
murderous fire from the frigate’s two starboard 30
_:
millimeter guns.

 
          
But
even as advanced as the Jiangwei-class frigate was, its biggest fault was its
downfall—its lack of antiaircraft armament. The Jiangwei had a single Hong
Qian-61 sextuple missile launcher forward—only six missiles, and no magazine
reloads. The frigate fired one missile at each Wolverine missile shortly after
they got within range, then fired the last two at the first Wolverine missile
to get close. It stopped that Wolverine—but two more Wolverines, attacking from
different directions, struck the frigate with 250-pound warheads after
successfully attacking their assigned primary targets with bomblets.