by Dale Brown
flashed a "Missile Launch" indication. "Liang flight, break!" he
shouted on the radio. In a pre-determined sequence, the J-7 fighter
climbed and turned right, and the JS-7 fighter, because it was more
powerful and could climb faster to re-attack, descended and turned left.
The JS-7 fighter also carried radar-jamming and chaff and flare pods,
and the pilot made sure all were activated as he brought his weapons
on-line and prepared to attack. "Fayling, Fayling, Liang-Two flight
under missile attack!" He dumped chaff and flare bundles, rolled right,
went to military power, and raised the nose to re-acquire the bomber. .
. or whatever it was. Just as he did, he saw a flash of light above and
a bit behind him, then a growing trail of fire, and he knew his wingman
was hit. "Fayling, Liang-507 is hit. 507, 507 can you hear me? You are
on fire. Repeat you are on fire. Eject! Eject! Eject!" No response.
The trail of fire began to grow as the J-7 fighter spiraled to the sea
and disappeared. CHINESE DESTROYER EAIFRNG The radar blips first
appeared as helicopters and were classified as such by the destroyer's
Sea Eagle three-dimensional search radar, but it was quickly obvious
that the air target was climbing and accelerating much too quickly for a
rotary-wing machine. The radar operator aboard the destroyer Kazjeng
immediately rang his superior officer in the ship's Combat Information
Center. "Sir, rapidly moving air target launched from a vessel in the
Sterett surface-action group, bearing one-four-eight, speed . . .
speed approaching four hundred knots and accelerating, altitude
decreasing to below one hundred meters, range five-zero nautical miles."
There was no aircraft carrier out there, so it could only be one
thing-Suspected Tomahawk cruise missiles in flight..." The officer in
CIC reacted immediately: he hit the alarm button and rang the line
direct to the bridge: "Bridge, CIC, missile alert, missile alert, we
have suspected American cruise missiles being launched from the Sterett
surface action group."
"Bridge copies, " came the reply. "Give us a count and stand by to
engage."
"CIC copies." "Sir! Aircraft warning, attack warning, Liang-Two fighter
group reports they are under fighter attack "Fighter attack!" the
commander shouted. "Whatfighters? You said there was only one bomber
up there!"
"Liang-Two reports a missile attack, sir. He reports his wingman has
been hit by a missile. Sir, the B-52 bomber aircraft rapidly
decelerating, range closing to sixty nautical miles, airspeed
six-one-zero and accelerating, altitude now seven thousand meters. ..
six thousand meters. . . five thousand.. . sir, heavy jamming on my
scope... attempting frequency jumping... heavy jamming persisting on
all search frequencies. I cannot hop away to clear frequency!" CHINESE
DESTROYER JINAN, IN THE CELEBES SEA, NEAR DAVAO GULF "Sir, destroyer
Kaifi'ng reports incoming Tomahawk cruise missiles from the southeast
and has issued an air-defense warning for all vessels. He also reports
a suspected B-52 bomber in a rapid descent heading northwest, and heavy
radar jamming on all frequencies. There was also a report about a
fighter attack, number and type unknown." Captain Jhijun Lin of the
People's Liberation Army Navy destroyer Jinan nodded resolutely. "Sound
general quarters, alert the task force, begin intermittent radar search
pattern. We can expect our own air threats any-"
"Sir! Frigate Yingtan reports radar contact, aircraft, bearing
two-zero-five, range forty-seven nautical miles, altitude . altitude
three hundred meters, sir, speed four hundred seventy knots. No IFF
codes observed. They report possible multiple inbounds on this
bearing."
"Understood, " Captain Jhijun acknowledged. As the combat-readiness
alarm sounded throughout the ship, the manual track operator on the
bridge of the EF4-class destroyer Jinan drew in the position of the
radar contact on a large grease board. "I want a positive
identification immediately." It was finally beginning, Captain Jhijun
told himself. Although the intruder aircraft were detected very
late-seaskimming targets should be detectable at twenty miles by the
frigate Yingtan 's Sea Eagle radar, but targets at three hundred meters
should be seen easily at fifty miles-he wished it were starting a bit
more dramatically. After learning what the American Air Battle Force had
in their arsenal on the island of Guam, he would have expected an attack
by B- 1 or FB- 111 bombers, flying supersonic at seaskimming altitudes.
From these radar contact's flight profiles, these appeared to be nothing
more than B-52 bombers lumbering in. And they were coming in from the
south, which was totally expected as well-the two layers of destroyers,
frigates, and patrol boats in the Philippine Sea east of Mindanao were
designed to herd the American bombers in the only "safe" flight path
they could take-fly in from the south right into the mouth of Davao
Gulf. "Sir, missile warning. Yingtan 's escorts report missiles
inbound, no count, all sea-skimmers. Patrol boats maneuvering to
intercept. Good radar track on all inbounds, intercept confidence is
high. Identity now confirmed by flight profile as B-52 bombers." So it
was confirmed-not B- Is, only B-52 bombers. An easy kill. The B-52s
were flying right into a trap. Four frigates, one destroyer, and
sixteen antiaircraft escort patrol boats were waiting for anyone stupid
enough to allow themselves to be steered around by surface threats. Two
of the frigates, Yingtan stationed on the southern perimeter and Xiamen
on the northern side, were armed with short-range Hong Qian-6 I
surfaceto-air missiles-deadly within their limited range-but his
destroyer Jinan, in the center of the two-hundred-kilometerlong
gauntlet, had the HQ-9I surface-to-air missile system, a licensed copy
of the French Masurca medium-range SAM system. The HQ-9 1 was deadly out
to forty-five kilometers even to low-flying supersonic aircraft-this
B-52 would be an easy kill. Jinan had already seen action-it was that
ship that had successfully guided the fighters in on the arrogant
American Navy fighters over the Celebes Sea not too long ago. The
little patrol boats were deadly as well-their guns could knock down any
antiship missile in the American inventory and throw up a cloud of lead
in front of any aircraft stupid enough to stray within a few kilometers
of them. But even the B-52s could carry a big punch. "Radio to all
attack-group ships and to Task Force Master, we are under attack,
request air support against incoming B-52 bombers, " Jhijun said.
Obviously Harpoon antiship missiles, he thought. They were lucky-they
did not start their attack until they had a radar fix on Yingtan. That
meant the Americans had no other radar aircraft in the area spotting
targets for the B-52s. Jhijun checked the plot board. The B-52s will be
coming within range ofjinan 's radars in a few minutes-if they survived
that longand the longer-range HQ-91 missiles would not miss. But Jh jun
missiles were expended. "Patrol boat 682 engaging antiship missiles. .
patrol boat 688 engaging missiles... Yingtan now reporting six incoming
aircraft, all from the south, range to closest aircraft twenty nautical
miles. Same flight profile, reported as B-52 bombers on low-level
antiship attack." The reports began coming in as one by one the Harpoon
missiles were destroyed. "First B-52 turning west, appears to be
disengaging."
"Lost contact with patrol boat 642, sir, " the combat information center
officer onjinan reported. "Patrol boat 688 reports two vessels afire,
suspect the other as patrol boat 651. Frigate Yingtan reports minor
damage from antiship missile, but is still under way and combat
capable." With six B-52s on the loose, each with the capacity to carry
twelve Harpoon missiles, they had to expect some attrition. "Second
B-52 disengaging So the B-52s were going to be content with launching a
few Harpoon missiles and fleeing. The fighters would be able to mop
them up then, Jhijun thought-they still had to contend with the Harpoon
missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles, though. ... This was incredible,
the Chinese pilot of the JS-7 fighter thought-one moment he was leading
an eight-ship attack group on a routine night patrol, the next moment he
was alone and under attack by an unseen, unidentified foe. "Fayling,
Fayling, " the pilot radioed to the destroyer Kaifeng~ which was
controlling the intercept in this sector, where is the target? I need a
vector."
"Liang flight, target is in a rapid descent at your eight o'clock
position, thirty kilometers, altitude four thousand meters, " the radar
controller reported-apparently he was too excited to remember that the
other J-7 fighter had been destroyed. "Turn left heading two-niner-five
and descend to three thousand meters to intercept." Four thousand
meters? Less than sixty seconds ago he was at ten thousand meters! The
JS-7 pilot threw his fighter into a steep left turn and pushed the nose
down, using his airbrakes judiciously to avoid ripping his PL-7 and PL-2
missiles from their pylons. "Liang, your target is at your eleven to
twelve o'clock, twenty-seven kilometers." He was getting heavy jamming,
but his French-made radar was sophisticated enough to frequencyhop and
avoid most of it. "Intermittent contact, " the JS-7 pilot reported. The
lock-on was good enough for a radar range and firing solution, so he
quickly selected a PL-7 radar-guided missile. "Liang shooting radar
one... He waited a few seconds, then fired his second one. "Shooting
radar two... Atkins was so sure the fighter back there was going to take
a shot that he found himself staring at the threat-indicator light. As
soon as it illuminated, he shouted, "Missile launch! Level off!" He
found himself crushed into his seat by G-forces as Carter pulled the
B-52 out of its high-banked dive, the fuselage and wings creaking so
loudly from the stress that it seemed they would shatter like a crystal
champagne glass. "Break left!" Atkins shouted on interphone as he
ejected chaff out the right ejector racks. Carter heeled the EB-52
Megafortress hard left, so hard that Atkins' helmet banged against his
left instrument panel-but he kept his finger on the chaff button long
enough to create a good-sized cloud. Carter shoved the Megafortress's
nose down below the horizon to regain his airspeed, and the negative-Gs
he created caused dirt, loose checklists and papers, and all sorts of
unrecognizable garbage to float around the cabin as if they were
suddenly weightless in orbit. Atkins felt his stomach go up with the
floating junk, and he ripped off his oxygen mask to keep from filling it
up with vomit. "You OK, E-dub?" Karbayjal said. Atkins turned and saw
his gunner with a worried expression on his face and one hand on his
shoulder. The plane was in a gut-wrenching turn, they were under attack
by a Chinese fighter-but Karbayjal was worried about him. "Sure . ' .
sure . . . Atkins moaned. "Good, " Karbayjal said. He settled
himself back into his seat as calmly and as easily as could be, as if
being tossed around and squished by four times Earth's gravity were a
normal occurrence for him. "You're doing good, E-dub, " Karbayjal added.
"Keep it up and let's get that sucker. Set up your jammers and take
care of the uplink." Atkins struggled to refocus his eyes on his threat
display. His automatic jamming system picked out the best frequency
range and applied it to the correct antennae for the threat-in this
case, an X3-band uplink signal driven to the tail antennae-and it would
pump out chaff as well, but it would not tell the pilot when or in what
direction to turn to avoid the missile. Tracked on the tail radar, the
Chinese missile appeared to be wavering from the chaff to the EB-52, not
entirely fooled. This close-in, the missile might lock onto the
Megafortress if they made another turn. "Pilot, roll out!" Atkins
called out. "Guns, stand by with Stingers!" Karbayjal smiled at
Atkins-he was finally taking charge of this intercept. "Roger, E-dub."
Karbayjal already had a good lock on the incoming Chinese missiles and
was waiting for them to close in. It was a risky move-hoping that the
Megafortress's low radar cross-section would defeat the missiles more
than maneuvering would. They needed to build up a new speed reserve as
well, since even the Megafortress bled off a lot of airspeed in tight
turns. But thejammers weren't completely shutting down the Chinese
fighter's uplink-the missiles were still tracking. "Missiles still
coming!" Atkins shouted on the interphone. "I'm ready with Stingers, "
Karbayjal told him, "but you gotta do it. My Stingers are strictly last
resort . . ." Atkins took another calculated risk-as he began pumping
out chaff once more from the left ejectors, he overrode the automatic
jammers and reduced the transmitter power in half, letting a strong
fighter fire control lock on the bleedthrough, then shouted, "Pilot,
break right!" The missiles continued to bore in. . Now there were three
radar targets out there, the Chinese JS-7 pilot cursed. The first was
obviously a chaff cloud-it had begun to dissipate very quickly, and his
PL-7 missiles weren't fooled. His radar seemed to get a firm lock-on
just then on the real target, but it turned out it was a firm lock on
another chaff cloud. The target was scooting right at nearly a thousand
kilometers an hour, while the big, bright, original target was dead
ahead-at zero kilometers per hour. Obviously a chaff cloudand his
missiles were both going for it. A clean miss. "Fayling, Liang, where
is Sichuan-Ten flight? I have no radar missiles left."
"Liang, Sichuan-Ten flight has been separated into two flights of two,
high patrol diverting north to intercept air targets under control by
destroyer Zunyi. Your helpers will be designated Sichuan-3 I flight of
two, now at ten thousand meters, range two-one-five bull's-eye."
"What about the rest of my Liang-Two flight?"
"Lia
ng-Two homebound are still at twelve thousand meters,
northwest-bound."
"Are you crazy?" the JS-7 pilot shouted. "Turn those bastards around!
Liang-Two flight of six, reverse course, descend to three thousand
meters, prepare to engage!" There was a scratchy reply on the radio-they
heard him, although they probably wished they did not. If they turned
around, there was no chance they'd land back at Zamboangabut ditching in
the Celebes Sea or landing at Cotabato was better than allowing this
B-52 or whatever it was to head in toward the fleet unopposed. He had
one more chance before he had to return to basethrottles to max
afterburner, close in fast, two PL-2 heat-seeking missile shots, a gun
pass with his 23-millimeter cannon, then abort. The JS-7 pilot pushed
his throttle to max afterburner, watched the range quickly decrease to
less than fifteen kilometers, got a seeker lock-on from his two
remaining PL-2 missiles, then launched them both at once. ... "Bandit
at six o'clock, crew, descending behind us, " Karbayjal called out,
carefully watching the Chinese fighter on his tail radar. The Chinese
fighter was sending out jamming signals, but at this range even the
Megafortress's smaller tail radar burned through it easily. "Bandit's
accelerating... Jesus, stand by for missile attack . . . E-dub, stand
by for flares on the right The infrared tail warning receiver's "Missile
Warning" light in all crew stations, which detected the heat of a
fighter in the rear quadrant and locked onto it, was immediately
replaced by a high-pitched tone in everyone's headset and a "Missile
Launch" warning light. "IR missile attack!" Atkins shouted. "Break
left!" Atkins immediately released four bundles of flares
simultaneously from the right ejector. But Karbayjal had seen the
missile launch and was ready. Careful not to aim the Stinger airmine
rockets at the flares, he waited until the missiles tracked, then
ejected the flares and re-acquired the Megafortress's hot engine
exhausts, then opened fire with a stream of missiles. He launched six
Stingers, then watched for any sign of pursuit. When he saw at least
one Chinese missile survive, he shouted on interphone, "Reverse! Climb