Tomahawk (27 page)

“Am I sure? Yeah, I'm sure. I want you to marry me.”

“You're not just doing it to ask forgiveness, or to make me forget last night?”

He thought about that; then he made himself tell the truth. Tell her the damn truth, if he could just hew to that… “A little. But I had it made specially for you. I ordered it when we were in Annapolis. Remember when I asked you to wait in the car? That's when I picked it out. I want you to forgive me, and I want you to marry me. And I'll never drink again.”

She sat silently, twisting it around her finger. He felt detached, light-headed, as he waited to hear what she would say next. Finally, she murmured, “I won't wear it.”

“You won't.”

“No. But I'll keep it. And we'll talk about it again in six months. All right?”

He nodded, closing his eyes. He'd been afraid she was not only going to refuse it but leave him, pack up and go back to the house and Carl. “So, what's the plan today? We could do a museum or—”

“Wait. Not so fast.” She reached to cup his face. “I want you to remember that promise. Because I remember the ones I make.”

“All right.” He had to blink back sudden tears, looking into a face transparent with love and doubt. “I'll remember it. I make mistakes. I don't always know the right
thing to do. But I don't make promises I don't keep. And I love you.”

Their lips met in a kiss that made him weep. And a little later, she whispered, “Since you're feeling better, let's go into the bedroom. And you can finish what you started last night.”

17

 

 

 

Captain Westerhouse called him in on Sunday. They worked into the evening, recasting the testimony to respond to an article that had just appeared in
Aerospace Daily.
The story had reviewed the budget shortfalls, Tomahawk's uninspiring test record, and Niles's “desperate” attempt to get the program moving again by threats, firings, and demotions. It concluded with a blunt assessment of what was likely to happen after the upcoming hearing: the supplemental defeated, the missile defunded, the program terminated. Dan's skin crawled as he read it. It was by—surprise—M. W. Tallinger. He couldn't imagine how the guy got this stuff. He called Kerry at seven and said he wouldn't be home. At midnight, he went into the ladies' room, taped a MAN SLEEPING sign on the door, and crashed on the couch.

Monday, appearance day, dawned with him back at the slides. Evans and Westerhouse had come in early, and they thought of things that needed changing. He broke only once, to run upstairs to Shirley Toya's office. He said hastily, leaning in, “Hey, can I talk to you a second? In private? We're leaving for the Hill in a couple minutes, but I wanted to tell you about something funny that happened Friday night.”

He'd thought this through over the weekend, and had decided to get it over with. If it meant Mei would catch hell, well, she shouldn't hang around guys like that. He told Shirley about the class, about dating Mei, and that she was employed at the embassy. He told her about the
dinner, and everything he could recall of what Uncle Xinhu had said. Though the card he'd given Dan carried another name, Zhang Zurong. Toya had started making notes, but when Dan said, “He says he's from the Chinese embassy, a military attaché,” she stopped writing.

She seemed doubtful as she examined the card. “He gave you this?”

“That's right.”

“Actually, attachés are supposed to do this sort of thing. And he's right—we're putting a lot of effort into helping the Chinese.”

“Well, I'm supposed to report recruitment attempts, right?”

“That's right. And thank you.”

“Wait a minute. Are you going to pass this on? To those guys from the FBI, or the NIS?”

“I haven't decided yet. If he contacts you again—”

Burdette, at the door. “Dan? We got to finish the rest of those graphs, get the progress reviews ready.”

“Look, I've got to go. We'll talk later, okay?”

She nodded.

He was kept running back and forth from the PR office—where the guy was who made the transparencies— right up till they were getting into the cars to go. Even then, some of the slides were still being worked; the PR director said he'd take them over to the hearing as soon as they were done.

An hour before the scheduled start, he followed Niles, Evans, and the senior staff up the steps into the Rayburn Building for the Procurement and Military Nuclear Systems Subcommittee hearings. He carried two file cases of documents, references, extra transparencies. Two Air Force sergeants were humping projectors, screen, handouts, and a complete Litton LN-35 inertial navigation unit in an aluminum shipping case as a show-and-tell. Dan wished he could have gotten home for a clean shirt. But he'd shined his shoes with the kit he kept in his desk, and brushed his blues. He wasn't going to testify anyway; all he had to do was sit behind the admirals and hand them whatever they needed during the questioning. He helped set up at a long table with microphones, then collapsed
into a chair in back. Then Evans asked him to go down the hall and see if he could locate some coffee.

From the
Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services,
Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES,

PROCUREMENT AND MILITARY

NUCLEAR SYSTEMS SUBCOMMITTEE,

Washington, D.C, Monday, January 16.

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:15 A.M., in room 2337, Rayburn Office Building. Hon. Vesey M. Osborn (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding.

MRS. ROMANICK. Our chairman is not yet here, but he is on his way. I think we should get started. I will read his statement:

Today, the subcommittee's hearings will consider supplemental funding of Navy strategic systems.

As the members are aware, the Procurement Subcommittee is responsible for authorizing the procurement of the Navy's Trident ballistic missile, maintenance of Poseidon ballistic missiles, and development and procurement of antiship and land-attack cruise missiles for either strategic or tactical purposes.

There has been much discussion of the Tomahawk missile now under development. This unproved missile may become an issue in the full committee this year. So that the members should have some familiarity with it before that stage, I have asked Navy witnesses to address the Tomahawk program in detail this morning.

Our first witness will be Vice Admiral Charles L. Willis, Jr., USN, Chief of Naval Materiel.

MRS. ROMANICK. Admiral Willis, before proceeding, will you please introduce those witnesses who are accompanying you?

ADMIRAL WILLIS. Thank you very much for the introduction. I have looked forward to the privilege of testifying before this committee once more. I would like to introduce Rear Admiral Barry N. Niles, director of our Joint Cruise Missile Project. I will open with a statement, after which we will be happy to respond to your questions.

MR. OSBORN. I am informed by staff that the testimony you are giving is classified, so we will now go into closed session. Before we proceed, we will make sure that the room is secure.

ADMIRAL WILLIS. AS you know, I am here to represent the Tomahawk portion of a possible supplemental budget request. In addition, I will address those items for which your subcommittee has expressed a desire to receive information.

Dan slipped visual aids on and off the projector as Willis went through the prepared statement. The vice admiral called Tomahawk the next breakthrough in naval warfare. He pointed out the missile's antiship and land-attack capabilities, its ability to arm both submarines and surface ships, and its survivability against present and projected enemy defenses. He outlined the need for a supplemental to cover shortfalls and to procure long-lead items for the next fiscal year's buy. The vice admiral spoke calmly, with occasional touches of dry humor. Dan recognized the words he'd sweated over night after night, but it sounded as if Willis was doing it off the top of his head. He paused in his remarks while they showed the film, the in-flight and terminal-homing footage supplied by Convair. Finally, he closed, then asked for questions.

MR. OSBORN. Where do we stand in terms of the testing of this missile? My understanding is that you
are still having problems with it—it didn't perform well, so why should we put procurement money into it if it isn't working?

ADMIRAL WILLIS. It has performed in its tests, sir, and I will defer to Admiral Niles, the program manager, for the specifics. Admiral Niles.

MR. OSBORN. Before you begin, Admiral, let me welcome you to the committee. I do believe this is the first time we have had a—we have had you appear before the committee. Welcome, and we will try not to make it too hot for you here on your first appearance.

ADMIRAL NILES. I thank you, sir.

Mr. Chairman, the initial operational test-flight series on the antiship version was completed with three out of four flights being hits. We found several anomalies we will correct before we go into procurement. In the land-attack version, we have a total of—

MR. WOODRUFF. That doesn't sound as if you have an operational capability. We had trouble with our torpedoes during World War II. Two or three out of four didn't work. Now you say you've got three out of four. A 75-percent failure rate, is that what you consider good? Why should we get into this thing and start building it and spend $200 million dollars or whatever and then you'll say, well, geez, we had a little anomaly there and we'll have to spend fifty, sixty million to go back and tear it apart. It looks to me as if we're headed into the barrel again on this program. We are seeing some shocking overruns on the submarines, too.

MRS. ROMANICK. Mr. Woodruff, I believe what the admiral was trying to get across was that they had experienced a success rate of three out of four, not
a failure rate of three out of four. The actual failure rate would be 25%.

MR. WOODRUFF. All right, that is a much better rate.

MR. KOELPELS. But Mr. Woodruff has a good point—that we need to demonstrate a dependable system before we invest procurement dollars. And I would ask in addition, were these tests flown in an environment that simulates a combat environment—with enemy fire and so forth?

ADMIRAL NILES. Let me address those two issues separately, if I may.

The anomalies we need to resolve are in the software for the weapons control system and the transition-to-flight regime for this missile. We are currently participating in a series of Air Force tests in Canada. I have with me one of my staffers who witnessed the tests. The missile was recovered after an 1100-mile flight and the accuracy was spectacular.

Including the contractor's test and evaluation flights, we now have over seventy flights of one variety or another on this airframe, including numerous tests in a simulated combat environment. It is a mature missile, and it is reasonable to go into limited production. Lieutenant Commander Lenson is handing now to the committee a summary record of the tests, the reasons for each failure, and the modifications made to prevent further failures in that mode.

Dan got up and handed them the copies. He'd almost tuned out. He'd been wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his life. The merchant marine was shrinking, but there might still be opportunities…. He'd heard

of guys getting mates' licenses based on their conning experience.

But merchant guys spent a lot of time at sea, too. Did
he really want to leave his wife behind again? It hadn't turned out so hot with Susan.

MR. KOELPELS. Admiral Willis. Did I understand you to say in your testimony that the missiles we buy this fiscal year will not be delivered until two years after that?

ADMIRAL WILLIS. That is correct, sir.

MR. KOELPELS. YOU mean we will have to wait till then before we have a single operational Tomahawk on a ship?

ADMIRAL NILES. NO, sir. We have enough in the pipeline to support the first submarine and battleship platforms. From that time on, the numbers grow at a rate consistent with the number of ships configured to launch.

MR. KOELPELS. Exactly how many are we talking about?

ADMIRAL NILES. (Deleted).

MR. KOELPELS. YOU have around five hundred ships and how many missiles?

ADMIRAL WILLIS. (Deleted). That is only the initial capability. The number builds up rapidly from there on.

MR. KOELPELS. That's certainly encouraging, only (deleted) submarines with this weapon that is supposed to be the substitute for our carrier attack aircraft. What if one of them springs a leak? That cuts your capability in (deleted). Can you tell me what the Tomahawk is supposed to do that carrier-based aircraft can't?

ADMIRAL NILES. A carrier is a potent weapon, but also a very expensive one. That means that we can afford only very few—fifteen, in the current budget—a relatively small number compared to the number of trouble points the Navy is tasked to monitor on a year-round basis.