Dale Brown - Sky Masters

“Speed six-five-zero kilometers per hour, altitude… altitude now twenty-three thousand meters.” The destroyer captain could do nothing but smile in astonishment. Twenty-three thousand meters-that was almost twice the altitude that any Chinese fighter could safely go, and very close to the upper-altitude limit of the Hong Qian-61 surface-to-air missile system on the Chinese frigates stationed in the Philippine Sea. “No response to our warning broadcasts, I assume, ” the captain said. “None, sir. Continuing west as before, on course for Davao.”

“Then we will make good on our promise, ” the captain said eagerly. “Have Zhangyhum and Kasjeng moved into position?”

“Yes, sir. Destroyer Zunyi ready as well.” “Very well. Let us see if we can get ourselves an American spy plane. Range to target?”

“Eighty-three kilometers and closing.” “Begin engagement procedures at seventy-five kilometers.” The frigates had only the shorter-range HQ-61 SAM system, but four of the five destroyers in the Philippine Sea and eastern Celebes Sea area had the Hong Qian-91 surface-to-air missile, with four times the range of the HQ-61-and the U-2 was coming within range of Feylin ‘s system right now. Undoubtedly the U-2 would be able to evade the first missile, but two more destroyers, Zhangyhum to the north and Kazjeng to the south, were surrounding the U-2, so that no matter which way it turned, it would be within range of someone’s missile system. The U-2 was being tracked by another destroyer, Zunyi. This destroyer carried only surface-to-surface missiles, but it had the Sea Eagle radar system, which could direct missile attacks launched from other ships without using the telltale DRBR-51 missile-tracking radars. They would not have to activate target-tracking radars until a few seconds from impact, so the U-2 would have no chance to react. They were going to make their first kill since October first, which, ironically, was Revolution Day. This would serve as a warning to all other American aircraft: stay away from the Philippines. “Bomb doors coming open, stand by… bomb doors open. This had to be the first time in Patrick McLanahan’s recent memory that he was going to open the bomb doors on his B-2 Black Knight stealth bomber-and not attack something. He and Major Henry Cobb had already flown their B-2 nearly two thousand miles, right into the heart of what seemed like half the Chinese Navy, all to carry two bulbous objects that would not go “boom.” They were flying at two thousand feet over the dark waters of the Philippine Sea, threading the needle through what apinside detection range now-if we lower the pods, we’ll definitely be in range. “Then let’s get it over with, ” Cobb said. It was one of the few words he had said throughout the entire flight-obviously he wished he were someplace else right now. “Rog. Pods coming ……. True to his word, the second the two pods were deployed, the computer re-evaluated their new radar cross-section, remeasured the Sea Eagle radar’s output power, and redrew the radar’s effective detection range “dome”-this time placing it squarely over the B-2 icon at the lower center part of the SMFD. The radar cross-section of the two pods was so large that Patrick estimated they’d have to fly at least forty miles to get out of enemy radar coverage. “Air-search radar got us, three o’clock, range . . . range forty miles.” As the UPD-9 pod finished its first circular sweep, more details of the area surrounding them appeared-including one very unwelcome one. “Surface target, nine o’clock, ten miles, no radar emissions, looks like a patrol boat . . . shit, we got another patrol boat at twelve miles, two o’clock position. Jesus, we’re surrounded by Chinese patrol boats . . .” McLanahan commanded the pods to retract immediately before any one of them got a lock on the B-2. “Air target warning! Bearing one-eight-eight degrees, range seventy-four kilometers… no speed or altitude reading available . . . search radar active . . “What? Are you sure? Get a track on that last contact!” the skipper of the Feylin shouted. “Negative track. . . target disappeared, sir. Lost contact.” The new radar contact puzzled the destroyer commander, but it was obviously an anomaly or a very small target, like a flock of birds. The real quarry was still driving closer. “Status of the U-2.”

“Range approaching seventy-five kilometers… now. “Very well. Combat, bridge, commit forward HQ-91 system, stand by on DRBR-51 missile-guidance radar… now. Order Kazjeng and Zhangyhum to prepare to engage.” At that order, two HQ-9 1 missiles were fired from the forward twin launchers of the destroyer Feylin at the U-2 spy plane, lighting up the deck with brilliant flashes of light and a long tongue of flame as the missiles shot skyward. The big supersonic missiles reached full speed in seconds, exceeding twenty-five kilometers per minute in the blink of an eye. There was no other radar that came up, but even at a range of forty miles the sudden glare of the HQ-9 1 missile’s rocket motor streaking off into space could clearly be seen. The Chinese patrols were going after the U-2 spy plane. The fortyyear-old U-2 used a new aerial camera, the CA-990, which could take high-resolution pictures from long standoff distances, but to get pictures of Davao, the U-2 had to fly as close as possible to the Mindanao coast-very close to the Chinese warships. McLanahan risked it: he deployed the reconnaissance pods again to get more photographs-and perhaps to divert the Chinese warship’s attention away from the vulnerable U-2, although he realized that was a real long shot-and at the same time hit the “Transmit” switch on his scrambled command radio: “Kelly, this is Shadow, Giant Zero, Giant Zero. Out.” “Giant Zero” was a standard code name to warn an aircraft of a missile launch without an associated missile-guidance radar appearing first. McLanahan let the pods out for two spherical radar scans, about fifteen seconds, then quickly retracted them once again… But even as he did, the yellow dome surrounding them turned briefly to red, with riblike lines through it. “Sea Eagle radar switching to target acquisition mode… they may have found us. Pods retracted, bomb doors closed. Suddenly, more radar domes appeared north and south of the B-2. “Air-search radars from those patrol boats!” McLanahan shouted. He looked on in horror as the southernmost radar dome engulfed them, then changed from yellow to red. “Target-acquisition radar got us, bearing one-six-three, range eleven miles. No missile-tracking radars yet, but he might be radioing our position to his big sister out there. Henry, take us down to two hundred feet, and let’s hope these bozos can’t lock onto us “New radar contact aircraft, bearing from destroyer Zunyi, two-zero-zero, range seventy-four kilometers, speed nine-three-zero kilometers per hour, altitude six hundred meters.” Curse it! the skipper of the destroyer Feylin thought furiously. An aircraft somehow managed to sneak past their gauntlets. “Order all patrol boats to begin air search immediately…”

“Sir, target number one turning north, appears to be disengaging . . . altitude of target one increasing to twenty-four thousand meters, speed increasing to eight hundred.” “Activate DRBR-51 missile-tracking radars. Do not let the U-2 get away.”

“Sir, patrol boat 124 reports radar contact on air target.” The technicians at the vertical-plot board on the bridge of the destroyer Feylin drew in the location of the contact-it was between two patrol boats, heading northwest, near the Indonesian archipelago called Nenusa. “Sir! Destroyer Zhangyhum reports radar contact north of his position, intermittent contact, low altitude. He suspects an American stealth aircraft.” That was it! Stealth aircraft, probably stealth bombers launched from Guam. Obviously they were on reconnaissance runs, because if they were carrying antiship missiles they would have sunk a half-dozen vessels by now. So… a U-2 and a stealth bomber . “Alert all task force vessels, inbound stealth bombers, suspect at least two inbound toward Davao Gulf. No weapons fired at outer gauntlet vessels, but suspect an attack against inner defenses. Warn all patrol aircraft to search the area north and northwest of Nenusa Archipelago for low-altitude bombers. “Sir! Destroyer Zhangyhum reports engaging with HQ-91 missiles… they may have hit the U-2. Dispatching a frigate and patrol boat to investigate.”