by Dale Brown
Plan of Attack
( Patrick McLanahan - 12 )
Dale Brown
The destruction of a Russian air base by robotic U.S. warplanes has reawakenedthe bear — and America must pay a terrible price. In retaliation, Russia's leader launches the most devastating military sneak attack since Pearl Harbor, decimating America's strategic air forces. Now an embattled U.S. president must choose between two horrific scenarios: a cease-fire on the enemy's terms… or respond with every weapon in the nation's arsenal, possibly triggering global thermonuclear war.
Disgraced and demoted to a desk job, aerial warfare expert Brigadier General Patrick McLanahan saw the nightmare coming — and only he can stop the relentless Russian war machine. But the fight for the future must take place in the blazing skies, a battlefield off-limits to the discredited former commander of Air Battle Force… unless McLanahan takes matters into his own hands.
Dale Brown
Plan of Attack
E-Book Extra “Death of the Dogfight”:
An Interview with Dale Brown
Interviewer: You began your first novel, Flight of the Old Dog, while you were still serving in the U.S. Air Force. What did your colleagues think of this?
Dale Brown: I never really told anybody what I was doing. Most of them thought I was just playing computer games. The others thought I was wasting my time. I enjoyed proving them wrong!
Interviewer: To what degree do you plan your novels before starting to write?
Dale Brown: Probably not as much as I should. When I get an idea, I research it, and if I get some exciting info or background, I’ll write a short outline for my editor, tweak it a little, then get busy.
Interviewer: Is there such a thing as a typical writing day for you? If so, what form does it take?
Dale Brown: Most days start at nine a.m. and go to four p.m., then restart at nine p.m. and go to eleven p.m. I usually rewrite in the morning and write new scenes in the afternoon and evenings. But every day is different. Some days the scenes flow like water — the next day it’s as dry as a desert. But the important thing is to be in the seat with the computer on, ready to go.
Interviewer: Dreamland is the first novel in a new series you’re co-writing with Jim DeFelice. Can you give us an idea of how the writing process works?
Dale Brown: It should be bylined “Jim DeFelice with Dale Brown,” by the way. I invented the basic backdrop of the “Dreamland” series — the time, place, circumstances. I help develop the plot and the characters, and I review the manuscript. Jim does everything else. He’s an incredibly talented writer and we work well together.
Interviewer: As well as describing the development of the weapons and their use in combat, Dreamland also details the crucial political background to the military action. Which part do you prefer writing?
Dale Brown: I prefer describing weapons and technology by far. But the fighting is actually just a tiny fraction of the conflict. The political/diplomatic stuff is not as exciting sometimes, but it’s every bit as important to the story.
Interviewer: Dreamland’s characters—“Dog” Bastian; his daughter, Bree Stockard; her husband, “Zen”; Mack “Knife” Smith — all face different challenges and all have different goals in mind at the beginning of the novel. To what extent are they based on real people?
Dale Brown: We all know characters like these — the hot dogs, the dedicated ones, the smart ones, the obsessed ones. So all of my characters are based on folks I know. But it’s also true that the characters take on a life of their own. Jim DeFelice and I talk about the characters as if they’re real persons: “Bree wouldn’t do that”; “Mack would say this.”
Interviewer: The novel depicts certain rivalries among those on the ground and those who take to the air. It’s the latter group who get the glory, yes?
Dale Brown: No one likes to admit it, because it doesn’t fit in with the “whole force” politically-correct concept, but the pilot is and will always be king of the U.S. Air Force. Only seventeen percent of USAF personnel are pilots, but they make up most of the unit commanders. Even if in ten to fifteen years most USAF combat aircraft will be unmanned, the pilot will still be king.
Interviewer: Life in a secret establishment such as Dreamland — or even on a “normal” military base — must be hard enough without the staff having relationships. In your experience, do these relationships lead to difficult situations?
Dale Brown: All the time — that’s why we authors put them in our stories! We are always looking for conflict. It’s another complication in wartime.
Interviewer: Since the end of the Cold War, threats to “our way of life” are not so neatly geographically placed. Nor, aside from Saddam Hussein and various terrorist groups, is it clear where we should place our military priorities.
Dale Brown: There are plenty of bad guys out there — but it sometimes takes more background to explain why they are the bad guys. Fifteen years ago, everyone understood why we were fighting the Soviets. But if you set a war story in Ukraine or Lithuania or the Philippines, you need to take some time and explain why we’re fighting there.
Interviewer: What effect has the advent of improved technology had on the art of being a fighter pilot?
Dale Brown: It has changed it completely. The “dogfight”—two pilots, two planes — is all but dead. Life and death takes place in split-second battles that happen across dozens of miles, usually without either adversary ever seeing the other. Pilots are more systems operators than fliers nowadays. Sooner than most folks think, our fighters won’t even have pilots in them!
This interview was first published, in a slightly different form, at www.fireandwater.com, the website of HarperCollins UK.
Dedication
This novel is dedicated to the men and women serving as part of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to their families and loved ones. Thank you all for your service and sacrifice.
This is also dedicated to the peacemakers of all nations who are still wise and bold enough to know that free nations must still keep their swords sharp, their eyes open, and their resolve strong in order to be prepared to combat the evil in the world.
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction and a product of my imagination. Although I use the names of some real-world persons and organizations, their use is only to enhance authenticity of the story and is not meant to describe any real-world persons or organizations or depict their actual activities. Any similarity whatsoever is coincidental.
Cast of Characters
Brigadier General Patrick McLanahan, commander, 966th Information Warfare Wing; plans intelligence operations; 4 ops groups, 1 intel group
Major General Gary Houser, commander, Air Intelligence Agency
Colonel Trevor Griffin, deputy commander, 966th Information Warfare Wing, Lackland AFB
Command CMSgt Harold Bayless, Command NCOIC
Chief Master Sergeant Donald Saks, NCOIC, National Air Intelligence Center, WPAFB; produces foreign aerospace intel for DoD
Brigadier General David Luger, commander, First Air Battle Force
Brigadier General Rebecca Furness, commander, 111th Attack Wing; commander, 1 ABF/Air Operations
Colonel Hal Briggs, commander, 1 ABF/Ground Operations
Sergeant Major Chris Wohl, NCOIC, 1 ABF/GO
First Lieutenant Mark Bastian, Ground Ops squad leader
Staff Sergeant Emily Angel, ABF Ground Ops
Tech Sergeant James “JD” Daniels
Lance Corporal Johnny “Hulk” Morris
Colonel Daren Mace, Ops Group commander, 111th Attack Wing
Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Hellion, Fifty-first Bomb Squadron (EB-1C)
Colonel Nancy C
heshire, commander, Fifty-second Bomb Squadron (EB-52 and AL-52)
Colonel Kelvin Carter, operations officer, Fifty-second Bomb Squadron, AL-52 AC
Lieutenant Colonel Summer O’Dea, EB-52 AC
Major Matthew Whitley, EB-52 remote-control technician Major Frankie “Zipper” Tarantino, AL-52 MC
Captain Johnny “Soccer” Sammis, EB-52 MC
U.S. Marine Corps Captain Ted Merritt, Marine Special Purpose Forces platoon leader
Lieutenant General Terrill Samson, commander, Eighth Air Force
Brigadier General Charles C. Zoltrane, acting deputy commander and operations officer, Eighth Air Force
General Charles F. “Cuz” Kuzner, chief of staff, USAF
General Thomas “Turbo” Muskoka, commander, Air Combat Command
Lieutenant General Leah “Skyy” Fortuna, deputy commander, Air Combat Command
Admiral Charles Andover, chief of Naval Operations
General Walter Wollensky, commander, U.S. Space Command
General Randall Shepard, commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command; also commander of U.S. Northern Command
Colonel Joanna Kearsage, C-crew command director, Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station
Lieutenant Colonel Susan Paige, C-crew commander, Air Warning Center, NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, Colorado
Brigadier General Jerrod Richland, E-4 AOC battle staff commander
Thomas Nathaniel Thorn, president of the United States
Robert Goff, secretary of defense
Richard W. Venti, USAF general, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Charles Andover, chief of Naval Operations
Douglas R. Morgan, director of Central Intelligence
Maureen Hershel, secretary of state
Darrow Horton, attorney general
Russians
General Anatoliy Gryzlov, president of the Russian Federation
Army General Nikolai Stepashin, chief of staff of the Russian military and commander, ministry of state security (chief of all intelligence bureaus)
Aviatskiy Kapitan Leytenant Josef Leborov, Tu-95MS-16 pilot
Aviatskiy Starshij Leytenant Yuri Bodorev, his copilot
Turkmen Starshiy Leytenant
General Jalaluddin Turabi, interim commander of Turkmen armed forces
Abdul Dendara, his aide
Aircraft and Weapons
MV-32 PAVE DASHER tilt-jet special-operations transport, cruise speed 320 KIAS, endurance 5 hours (conventional takeoff/vertical landing/vertical takeoff/vertical landing), carries 18 combat-ready troops plus crew of three; cargo ramp allows Humvee-size vehicles to fit inside; 2 retractable weapons pods for defensive or attack missiles; 1 20-millimeter Gatling gun in steerable chin turret; satellite and inertial navigation plus imaging-infrared sensor and millimeter-wave radar allows global terrain-following flight
MQ-35 CONDOR air-launched special-operations transport, cruise speed 300 KIAS, endurance 3 hours (glide insertion/conventional takeoff from rough field/conventional landing on rough field); carries 4 combat-ready troops plus up to 260 pounds of cargo; remotely piloted; mission-adaptive skin and lifting-body technology allows aircraft to be controlled without wings or flight-control surfaces; small turbojet engine and tricycle landing gear allows aircraft to take off from unimproved fields
RAQ-15 StealthHawk long-range reconnaissance and attack cruise missile; turbojet engine, 600 KIAS max cruise speed, max range 2,000 miles; lifting-body design, mission-adaptive flight controls; carries 6 AGM-211 mini-Maverick guided attack missiles; 2 can be carried by EB-52 Megafortress bombers on wing pylons or 2 in center bomb bay of EB-1C Vampire bomber; reloadable and refuelable by EB-1C bombers; launch weight 3,500 pounds
AGM-211 mini-Maverick, small TV-guided attack missile, 28-pound thermium nitrate (TN) warhead, glide-and rocket-boosted, 6-mile range
AGM-165 Longhorn TV-and IIR-guided attack missile, 200-pound TN warhead, MMW radar guidance, 60-mile range, 2,000 pounds each
AIM-120 Scorpion AMRAAM air-to-air missile, 50-pound warhead, 35 miles max range, triple-mode active radar, passive radar, or infrared, max speed Mach 3, 350 pounds each
AIM-154 Anaconda long-range radar-guided air-to-air missile, 50-pound TN warhead, 150-mile max range, ramjet engine, active-passive radar/IR guidance, max speed Mach 5, weight 6,000 pounds
AGM-177 Wolverine cruise missile, turbojet powered, max 50-mile range, 3 weapon bays, IIR or MMW radar terminal guidance, 2,000 pounds
AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), range 15 to 40 miles depending on release altitude, 1,500 pounds, unpowered glide weapon, carries 200 antipersonnel/antivehicle bomblets, 10 BLU-108/B antiarmor submunitions, or 500-pound high explosive; EB-52, B-2, or EB-1C can carry 8 on rotary launcher
ABM-3 Lancelot air-launched anti-ballistic-missile weapon, 200-mile range, plasma-yield or conventional warheads, 3,000-pound launch weight
Russian:
AS-17 “Krypton” (Kh-31P) medium-range air-launched antiradar missile, max 120-mile range, speed in excess of Mach 3, 225-pound blast/fragmentation warhead; carried by Tu-22M Backfire bombers
AS-X-19 “Koala” (Kh-90) long-range air-launched attack missile, ramjet powered, max range 1,800 miles, speed in excess of Mach 8, 1-kiloton nuclear warhead with delayed trigger fuze and armored nose cap, designed for destroying deep underground or armored facilities; two carried by Tu-95 Bear bombers
AS-16 “Kickback” (Kh-15) inertially guided supersonic attack missile, 90-mile range, max speed Mach 2, 300-pound high-explosive warhead or 1-kiloton nuclear warhead; Tu-160 bomber can carry 24 internally on rotary launcher
Prologue
Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, Nevada
June 2004
SA-17 target-detection radar, twelve o’clock, fifty miles, no problem, well below detection threshold…oh, wow, a newcomer, SA-12 surveillance radar, one o’clock, eighty-five miles,” the reconnaissance technician reported. The guy looked all of nineteen years old and sounded even younger. He could’ve been commenting on the appearance of aliens in a video game — he was neither excited nor surprised, just gleefully energized. “SA-12 datalink signals being transmitted…still not locked on, but he knows we’re out here. He — Wait, radar’s down. He shut it off in a big hurry.”
“Well, well — the Russkies sneaked an SA-12 into the theater,” Major General Patrick McLanahan remarked. He was well accustomed to the youthful expressions and seemingly laid-back style of his soldiers, and he tried not to impart his own “red alert” mentality on them. The forty-seven-year-old two-star Air Force general typed in commands on his computer terminal, calling up any additional information on this new contact. “Possibly a full SA-12 battery — six transporter-erector-launchers plus five loader-launchers tied into a surveillance radar vehicle, sector-scanning radar vehicle, and command post. He’s pretty far outside Ashkhabad — it’s obviously not intended to protect Russian forces in the capital. It’s a clear violation.”
“They’re moving the heavy guns a little farther east every day,” Air Force Colonel Daren Mace remarked. The fifty-one-year-old Air Force veteran watched as the large, full-color tactical display updated itself with the location and identification of the new Russian surface-to-air missile unit. The SA-12, similar in performance to the American Patriot antiaircraft system, was one of the Russian Federation’s most advanced surface-to-air missile systems, capable of destroying large aircraft out as far as sixty miles. “You’d think they didn’t want us out there watching them or something.” He made a few inputs on his own keyboard. “The task force has been updated with the new intel, and we’ve sent warnings to all the United Nations participants,” he went on. “The Russians are threatening past the sixtieth meridian now with the SA-12, sir. If they keep this up, they’ll have surface-to-air missile coverage over Mary itself in just a few days.”
Patrick nodded. The Republic of Turkmenistan had been cut in half since the Taliban invasion
last year, with the Turkmen government and military virtually exiled to the city of Mary in the east and the Army of the Russian Federation in control of the capital city of Ashkhabad in the west. The United Nations Security Council had ordered all parties to stand fast until peacekeeping forces could be moved into the country to try to sort everything out, and to everyone’s surprise the resolution passed without a veto from Russia. Now it appeared that the Russians were violating the order and moving steadily eastward, taking steps to control the skies first and then slowly taking more and more of the countryside. “I’ll go to Eighth Air Force again and make sure they know that the Russians haven’t stopped pushing east.”
“Think that’ll do any good, sir?” Daren asked. “We’ve painted a pretty clear picture of the Russians moving east across Turkmenistan, in violation of the Security Council’s resolution. The SA-12 is a lot more than a tactical defensive weapon — one battery can shut off two hundred thousand cubic miles of airspace.”
“Our job is to surveille, monitor, analyze, and report — not attack,” Patrick said with a hint of weariness in his voice as he keyed in commands to submit a report to Eighth Air Force’s senior duty controller. Eighth Air Force, located in Shreveport, Louisiana, was the Air Force major command in charge of all of America’s heavy bomber forces. “I’m taking it upon myself to have the assets in place in case we’re asked to respond. I have a feeling I’m lucky to continue to be doing that.” Daren Mace said nothing — he knew that the general was definitely correct.