by Dale Brown
fast, and he could see that the missile's motor had already burned out.
His AWG-9 radar showed the Chinese missiles already accelerating to six
hundred knots, but the Sparrow was closing at only eight hundred knots
because it had to climb so high to sustain its unpowered glide. "Shit,
shit, it's not gonna make it "Bullet Three has ajudy on the missiles, "
Douglas' wingman suddenly shouted on the radios. "I got a lock-on! I'm
going after them!" "Bullet Two is clearing off the missiles, " Douglas
radioed to the inbound Tomcat fighters as he pulled into a steep left
climb and turned away from the Chinese fighters. "Bullet Two is clear."
The incoming Tomcat pilots immediately let loose with a four-missile
barrage of Phoenix missiles-some designated for the Chinese fighters,
others for the missiles that were now headed for the Ranger and her
escorts. With their heavy missile loads gone, however, the Chinese
fighters really began to move. Seconds after the missiles were in the
sky, the AWACS reported the Chinese going nearly supersonic and making a
sweeping left turn back to the northeast. "Bullet flight, be advised,
Basket's got music, " the AWACS radar plane reported-they were picking
up jamming signals from the enemy fighter-bombers. "Bullet Two, bandits
at your ten o'clock position, twenty miles. Bullet Three, bandits at
your six o'clock, ten miles." Suddenly a huge explosion, followed by a
ripple of orange and yellow fireballs, erupted in the sky ahead of
Douglas as one of the Phoenix missiles found its target. "Splash one
bandit, splash one! Bullet Two's got the other one, " Roberts cried
out. The last remaining Chinese fighter had pulled directly into his
line of fire as he made his postattack turn, and even at his present
speed the tight turn bled off all his energy, which made the shot even
easier. The steady warbling tone in Douglas' headset was replaced by a
high-pitched tone as the AWG-9 radar switched from range-while-search
mode to pulse-Doppler-single-target-track mode for missile lock-on, and
Douglas squeezed the trigger and let fly his third Sparrow missile. But
the jamming from the Chinese attackers was too greatthe missile tracked
well for only a few seconds before veering right and beginning a
death-spiral to the dark waters below. There was still one enemy
fighter out there. Douglas found himself in a near-panic. He had only
one Sparrow remaining-his Sidewinders were useless against a target so
far away-and no fuel to continue the chase. He was helpless. If he
jammed in the afterburners to chase down the last fighter, he would run
out of fuel long before reaching Ranger. The decision was made for him
moments later: "Bullet Two, disengage, " the AWACS controller called.
"Bullet Six flight is at your six o'clock, thirty miles. Clear up and
starboard and RTB; I show you four past your bingo." Douglas checked
their fuel, and it was worse than that-they were just a few minutes from
emergency fuel-they needed an AK-6 tanker immediately. Douglas and
Roberts could do nothing else but head back to Ranger and hope they
still had a deck to land on as they listened to the chase unfold. .
ABOARD BULLET THREE "Bullet Three, contact home plate immediately, " the
AWACS controller reported. Lieutenant Commander John "Horn" Kelly
flicked his radios as fast as his shaking fingers could work the
buttons. "Bullet Three, go." "Bullet Three, take a shot and clear, " the
controller aboard Ranger said. "Five-two is ready to engage in sixty
seconds."
"Five-two" was CG-52, the USS Bunker IIill, an Aegis-class
guided-missile cruiser-escort that could detect targets out to 175 miles
and track and engage sea-skimming targets out to 40 miles; it carried
SM-2 Aegis vertical-launch surface-to-air missiles. In addition, a
special system called BGAAWC, or Battle Group Anti-Aircraft Warfare
Coordination, allowed the Bunker Hill to remotely control the SM-2
Standard antiaircraft missiles aboard the cruiser Sterett and the Sea
Sparrow missiles aboard the destroyers Hewitt and Fife, which were the
Ranger's other three escorts. Kelly's RIO, Lieutenant "Faker" Markey,
sang out immediately, "Got a judy on the missiles, Horn. . . I got
'em locked up. Shoot away."
"Good work, Faker." On the Ranger's tactical frequency, Kelly radioed,
"Bullet Three, copy, fox. Suddenly, on the emergency Guard frequency,
they heard, "Missiles! Bandits firing missiles! Horn, check six. . .
!" The AAR-47 infrared warning receiver beeped just then, and several
flare cartridges shot off into the night sky as Markey's left index
finger began to madly jab the "Flare" buttonthe supercoded electronic
eye of the infrared warning seeker had detected the motor-ignition flash
of a missile less than eight miles behind them. Kelly pulled the
throttles to near idle power, rolled inverted, and pulled the nose to
the ocean, trying to get his hot tail vertical and away from the
missile's seeker. "Find that missile!" Kelly shouted. Markey's response
was almost immediate: "I see it! I see it! High above us... it's
passing over us... A flash of light caught Kelly's attention-to his
horror, he noticed the flash was one of his own decoy flares. The hot
phosphorus blob seemed to float just a few yards alongside the American
fighter. It was bright enough to attract the enemy missile. "Stop
ejecting flares!" Kelly screamed. "It'll follow us down. 1" But it was
too late. In his panic, Markey kept on ejecting decoy flares as the
Tomcat continued its break and dive, and the trail of flares caused the
Chinese Pen Lung-9 heat-seeking missile to snap down in the wake of the
Tomcat, where it reacquired the F-14's hot exhaust and finished its
deadly voyage. The PL-9's twenty-two-pound high-explosive warhead
detonated on contact, shredding both engines instantly and destroying
the Tomcat long before the crew had a chance to eject. ABOARD THE
TICONDEROGA-CLASS CRUISER USS BUNKER HILL The Combat Information Center
in an Aegis-class guided missile cruiser was like sitting in a giant
big-screen video arcade. Four operators-the embarked group commander of
the Ranger battle group and his assistant plus the TAO, or tactical
action officer, and his assistant-each sat in front of two
42inch-square, four-color computer screens that showed the entire Ranger
battle group, using computer-generated symbology and digitized coastal
maps, creating a "big picture" of the entire battle area and
highlighting friendly and enemy vessels and aircraft in relation to the
fleet and any nearby political boundaries. The incredible MK-7 Aegis
weapon system could track and process over one hundred different targets
beyond five hundred miles in range by integrating radar information from
other surface, land, or airborne search radars; the SPY-I phased-array
radar on the Bunker Hill itself had a range of almost two hundred miles
and could spot a sea-skimming missile on the horizon at a range of over
forty miles. Aegis was designed to defend a large carrier battle group
from dense and complicated enemy air and sea assault by integrating the
entire group's air-defense network into a single display and control
area, and then providing long-range, high-speed decision-making and
automatic-weapon employment for not only the Aegis cruiser's weapon
itself, but for all the ships of the battle group-Bunker Hill's Aegis
system could control the weapons of all the Ranger's battle group. It
all sounded complicated, very high-tech, and foolproofbut at that
moment, staring down the barrel of a gun, it did not seem very
foolproof. The Aegis air-defense system was designed to have the battle
group commander and the ship's commanding officer direct fleet defense
from the Tactical Flag Command Center, but with an aircraft carrier in
the group and a rather tightly packed deployment of ships, the Ranger
battle group commander, Rear Admiral Conner Walheim, was aboard Ranger
consulting directly with the carrier's officers, so his deputy for
antiaircraft warfare, Captain Richard Feinemann, was on the Aegis
console. And because the Bunker Hill's skipper preferred to stay on the
bridge during such operations, the ship's Tactical Action Officer was
representing him on the Aegis console. Lieutenant Commander Paul Hart
was the Bunker Hill's TAC, and the Aegis system was his pride and
joy-while the captain preferred to stay on the bridge during these
engagements and monitor them on his ASTAB automated status board
monitors, Hart was in his element in the dark, rather claustrophobic
confines on the CIC. Feinemann was a lot like Hart's skipper-he was a
boat driver who had little patience for the dazzling and sometimes
confusing array of electronic gadgets deep within the heart of a
warship. He was an exdestroyer skipper and antisubmarine-warfare action
group commander who had spent a length of time on shore studying newer
antiair radar integration systems such as Aegis, but had little actual
experience of it. Although Hart was the Aegis expert, Feinemann was
still in overall command of antiair fleet defense and would command all
antiair assets in the group from Bunker Hill. The big LSDs, or
large-screen displays, were a bit intimidating for Feinemann, so he had
his data-input technician give him a constant verbal readout of
significant events on the screen while he tried to keep up. The
data-input officer made a comment to Feinemann, prefaced with a short
expletive, and the group AAW officer scanned the screen in momentary
confusion-both because he couldn't spot the event and because no one in
BunkerHill's CIC seemed very excited. "We've lost contact with one of
our fighters?" Feinemann asked incredulously. "Yes, sir, " Hart
responded. "That B-6 must've got him before Bullet Three could take a
shot. It was a long-range crossing snapshot, too-he must've been
carrying PL-9 missiles." Feinemann stared at Hart in complete surprise,
wondering what in hell the young officer was babbling about. Hart
continued. "Those C60 1 missiles got past both the Tomcats and the
Phoenix missiles." He turned to the tactical alert intercom and
radioed, "Bridge, CIC, I show four inbounds, altitude seven hundred
feet, speed five hundred fifty knots, bearing two-niner-seven, range
forty-two miles and closing, Charlie-601 antiship missiles. One bandit
turning outbound, range now six-seven miles." To his communications
officer he said, "I need all Bullet aircraft to stay clear. Have Basket
take them northwest for their refueling and to counter the new inbound
bandits, but tell Basket to keep them away from my engagement lane. If
Ranger launches the ready-alert birds, make sure Hawkeye or Basket takes
them well north."
"How do you know those are C601 missiles, and how do you know those were
Chinese B-6 bombers, son?" Feinemann snapped. "You're making reports to
your bridge on enemy aircraft that, as far as I can see, you have
absolutely no information to make. You're also chasing away three
air-defense fighters from possible engagements without knowing all the
facts."
"The flight profiles, sir, " Hart explained patiently. "They launched
two missiles each from over a hundred miles' range-that's too far for a
C80 1. Those missiles climbed first, but now they're descending to
about a hundred feet, and they're cruising at about six hundred
knots-typical profile of a C601 missile. "It's also the profile of an
Exocet, a Harpoon, or a Soviet ASS missile, or any number of antiship
missiles, " Feinemann pointed out, his eyes narrowing on Hart. "If we
were facing off against the French or the Soviets, I'd agree, sir, "
Hart replied. "The reports from the recon plane say that a Chinese
EF4-class ship was in the area and that Chinese troops invaded Mindanao;
I'd assume that the fighters and these missiles are Chinese. My guess
is still a C601, and that's what I'll assume when we begin responding.
"As far as the carrier aircraft-each plane was carrying two missiles
plus air-to-air weapons, and it was doing some heavy active jamming, not
just uplink trackbreaking. That's too much payload for a J-7, B-7, or
Q-5 fighter-it has to be a B-6 Badger bomber. "And as far as the Tomcats
are concerned, I want them out of the way. Aegis can prosecute
sea-skimming targets better than a Tomcat, and I'm not worried about
enemy fighters right now-I'm worried about those missiles. In sixty
seconds I'll start worrying about the inbound fighters." Hart was
expecting a reply; when he got none, he added, "Sir, I need clearance to
release batteries and engage when those missiles cross the horizon."
"Your captain might be impressed with your amateur intelligence
analysis, Commander Hart, " Feinemann said irritably, "but the Admiral
needs concrete data before he can commit any forces under his command.
He can't operate on guesses."
"Then you can tell him, sir that we've got four subsonic inbounds that
broke the group's bubble a minute ago, " Hart said, trying to control
his temper. He couldn't believe he was having an argument over target
identification with this man, with four deadly-and possibly
nuclear-missiles heading straight for them. "I make estimates on the
threat based on my observations, but the bottom line is that I want
weapons online to stop these things from hitting the carrier. In thirty
seconds I start acting on my own authority; I'm requesting permission to
commit now."
"You commit when the Admiral tells you to!" Hart had had enough. He hit
the intercom button. "Bridge, CIC, emergency, request permission to
release the batteries fore and aft and engage." The Bunker Hill's
skipper did not hear the argument between his TAO and the group
commander's AAW deputy, and he certainly knew the procedures with an
embarked group commander, but with a threat this big heading in, he
didn't hesitate. "Bridge to CIC, batteries released fore and aft, clear
to engage." "Understand clear to engage. Clear forward and aft missile
decks, clear forward and aft missile decks." From that point on, Hart
ignored Feinemann-everything else was inconsequential except his radar,
his console, and his weapon system. If t
he man had anything to say, it
would have to wait until after he dealt with the inbounds. The Bunker
Hill was the first Aegis cruiser to use the Mk 41 vertical-launch
system, where missiles were loaded into individual canisters and then
fired vertically-the system was far less complex, more redundant,
faster, and required fewer guided-missile mates to operate the launchers
than the older Mk 26, Mk 22, or Mk 13 "merry-go-round" launchers. Bunker
Hill had two VLS launchers, one fore and one aft, each with sixty-one
missiles-combinations of SM-2 Aegis antiaircraft missiles, Tomahawk
shipand-landattack cruise missilessome with low-yield nuclear
warheads-and ASROC antisubmarine rocket torpedoes. Hart had been
extensively briefed on exactly what options were open to him as tactical
action officer-he knew that the only weapon in his arsenal right now was
the SM-2 Aegis missile, and his only job was to protect Ranger and its
escorts. Even though this was probably the exact situation that the
Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy was in when they launched their
nuclear antiship missile at the tiny Philippine fleet near Palawan, Hart
knew he would never be authorized to let fly with one of his
nuclear-tipped Tomahawks, even in retaliation. Hart checked to be sure
the Aegis system was in AAW COMMIT mode and used a trackball on his
console to move a circle cursor to the data blocks representing the
inbound antiship missiles. The ASTAB monitors instantly gave him
performance data on the inbounds, displayed IFF radio-identification
information-there was none-and classified them as hostile. If they were
friendlies-unlikely but possible-they were flying without radios,
without exchanging coded identification signals, and flying well off the
established fleet approach procedures-and they were going to die. "Give
me trial engage, " he told his data-entry technician. "Trial engage, "
the tech replied. Instantly the data block began to blink and a readout
on the ASTAB monitor gave a list of the missiles that Aegis would
select. On the LSD, a yellow line showed the computer's best guess as
to the Aegis missile's track, the intercept points with the incoming
missiles, and the positions of all the ships and aircraft in the battle