by Dale Brown
slid open, and the single CSRL launcher ejected a SLAM guided missile
into the slipstream. The missile fell about fifty feet as its gyroscope
stabilization system steadied the fifteen-hundred-pound missile; then,
when the air data probes detected the proper airflow and deceleration
parameters indicating a clean release from the Black Knight bomber, the
powerful turbojet engine kicked in. Following the initial heading from
the B-2's master computer, it descended to less than one hundred feet in
the blink of an eye and steered immediately on course for the frigate,
taking it on an "over-the-shoulder" trajectory as the B-2 sped away.
Seven seconds later, the launcher had rotated and ejected a second
missile. The radar operator on Yingtan had just reactivated the Sea
Eagle air-search radar at that precise moment-and what he saw caused
stars to shoot through his head. "Two aircraft, bearing two-eight-one,
altitude two hundred meters, speed. . incoming missiles, incoming
missiles, bearing two-eight-one, range fifteen miles, speed six hundred
twenty knots, altitude twenty meters!" And then he made a fateful
mistake-he shut down his radar a second time, thinking they were under
attack by antiradar missiles again. The CIC officer in charge realized
the Sea Eagle radar was down again, but hesitated a few seconds before
ordering it reactivated so the antiaircraft guns could train on the
supersonic targets. There were other supersonic antiradar missiles in
the American arsenal, such as the HARM missile-this could be one of
them. "Deploy decoys. Bridge, CIC, incoming missiles, evasive action,
radar down." He waited a few seconds for the antiradar-missile decoys
to be ejected, then ordered the Sea Eagle radar reactivated and the
antiaircraft guns brought on-line. But at almost Mach one, it took only
sixty seconds for the first SLAM missile to reach its target. With less
than thirty seconds left in the first missile's flight, they had just
enough time to acquire the missile and let the Sea Eagle search radar
slave the I-band "Rice Lamp" fire-control radars on the incoming
missiles. The 37-millimeter guns on the Yingtan were just as accurate
as on the TACIT RAINBOW missiles, but only the two starboard mounts were
committed this time. . The left half of the Super Multi Function
Display was displaying video transmitted from the imaging infrared
camera on the first SLAM missile, and even Henry Cobb, who normally sat
with eyes caged straight ahead on his instrument panel, couldn't help
but take a few glances at the picture as the missile bore into its
target. The image was incrediblethe sea, seen as shimmering green
streaks along the bottom of the picture, whizzed past like some sort of
early sci-fi warp drive; and, in the center, the hot dot slowly enlarged
and took the shape of a huge warship. The missile was right on course.
Suddenly, several flashes of light could be seen popping from the
warship. "They got a lock on the SLAM, " McLanahan said. On the right
side of the SMFD, he touched the spinning circular cursor on the 3-D
image of the destroyer, spoke "Change target, " then slid his finger to
the left. The SLAM missile veered left in response. Just as the video
image of the destroyer was about to disappear off the screen, McLanahan
slid the cursor to the right, and the missile followed. A few seconds
later, McLanahan replaced the cursor on the destroyer. "Thirty seconds
to impact, " he told Cobb. "C'mon, baby, you can do it..." But his
efforts were useless. As soon as the missile settled back on course to
the destroyer, another large flash erupted, and the video went dark.
"Dammit! Lost the first SLAM." The words SLAM 1 NO CONTACT flashed
three times on the left half of the SMFD, then the video from the second
missile filled the screen. "You're not getting this one, " Patrick said.
Using the touchscreen, he pre-programmed a zigzag course for the second
SLAM. "Hit that, you peckerheads..." The ship's defensive guns
successfully hit the first SLAM seconds before it hit them, but the
second missile was impossible to hit-it was all over the sky, skimming
just a few meters above the water, and the guns could not keep up with
it. The missile finally plowed into the starboard gunwale just below
the number six 37-millimeter gun turret. The penetrating warhead cap,
propelled by the missile's powerful rocket motor, drove the missile
through the numbertwelve lifeboat on its davits and barely managed to
pierce the heavy armor of the number-six gun turret before detonating
the five-hundred-pound high-explosive. The blast ripped a gaping hole
in the side of the frigate, killing the gun turret's ten-man crew and
instantly knocking the gun out of commission. "Good hit!" Patrick
McLanahan cried out. "One impact . . . only minor secondaries, good
hit but no kill." The Super Multi Function Display automatically
switched back to full integrated "God's-eye" view, and Patrick scanned
the area. "Search radars ....... cancel that, search radars back up.
Everybody's transmitting... I've got air-search radars at five o'clock
and a new one at two o'clock. India-band missile radar's still up at
five o'clock. Damn... we didn't knock out that frigate yet. So he can
still launch missiles . Just then a "Missile Warning" light began to
blink on both the Super Multi Function Display and the pilot's center
CRT monitor. Patrick said, "Now I've got another Charlie-band missile
director radar at one to two o'clock-that must be from the center
destroyer." He was about to touch the electronic countermeasures icon
on the bottom of the SMFD, but the computer had already brought the ECM
status panel forward on the screen-and what he saw caused his throat to
go instantly dry. "Charlie-band missile director . . . computer's
calling it a DRBC-51 radar directing an HQ-91 SAM system... "A -91?"
Cobb asked. "Shit, we're well inside that mother's range!"
"I know, I know, " McLanahan moaned. He had spent too long screwing
with the SLAM missiles and lost track of all the other warships around
them. "All trackbreakers active, missile warning system and HAVE GLANCE
jammers ready, chaff and flares ready, HARM missile programming against
that radar... shit, shit! Charlie-band tracker changing to
Charliethree command.. The "Missile Warning" indication changed to a
"Missile Lock" warning. "Missile radar locked on!" McLanahan shouted.
"Trackbreakers on... descend and accelerate if possible They were
already as low as they could safely go at nightthe huge B-2 was less
than one hundred feet above the Celebes Sea, with Cobb hand-flying the
Black Knight, since the terrainfollowing computer would not fly the
bomber overwater below two hundred feet. "C'mon, you guys, where the
hell are you.... McLanahan was rewarded a second later with precise
range and bearing information from his B-2 to the destroyer displayed on
his SMFD. He knew he was not using radars or lasers to get that
data-that meant that his wingman, the second B-2 stealth bomber in his
attack formation, was ranging on the destroyer and data-s
haring the
information with him. The question was, who was going to get there
first? CHINESE DESTROYER JINAN "Locked onto first air target, " the
operator of Jinan 's aft HQ91 missile fire control radar reported.
"Slight jamming on lower bands, switching to frequency-agile mode...
Temporarily clear of jamming, ready with missile detector, sir."
"Understood, " the chief of the Jinan 's Combat Information Center
replied. "Aft launcher, report." In the large aft missile magazine, a
large eighteen-missile rotating drum dropped an HQ-9 1 onto a rail and
fed it forward to an open station, where four missileers snapped large
triangular fins on the nose and tail sections of the missile body. Two
other technicians made a fast check of the finning process, and the
missile was sent forward, erected, and rammed upwards onto the launcher
rails. A second magazine crew had done the same with a second missile
for the twin-rail launcher. As the missiles clicked into place on the
launcher, a continuity check was automatically performed and an
electronic report received from each missile-if the "report" was missing
or erroneous, the launcher would immediately swivel over and down and
spit the bad missile down an armored safety chute for examination or
disposal. Thirty seconds after the alert was sounded, the aft launcher
was loaded and ready, with two more missiles belowdecks finned and
ready. "Aft launcher reports ready, sir, " the aft launch operator
reported. "Deck clear, stand by to launch on three, two, one, launch...
"The HQ-91 missiles operator checked his readouts, gripped the launch
handle, squeezed the safety grip, pulled the trigger, and hit the launch
button with his thumb. "Missile one away . . . missile two . . .
!"
"Incoming missiles!" one of the Sea Eagle radar operators suddenly
shouted. "High-speed, bearing two-four-one degrees.. ." Two AGM-84E
SLAM missiles from the second B-2 Black Knight in McLanahan's attack
formation had detected the HQ-9I missile fire-control radar and horned
in on it just after missile launch. But like the TACIT RAINBOW
missiles, the SLAMS were big, subsonic targets, and easy for the
destroyer to lock on radar. The vessel's guns began firing, and with
full radar tracking and fire control, they could not miss-both SLAMS
were destroyed well before they reached Jinan. But that left them
vulnerable to two HARM missiles fired from McLanahan's B-2. Like TACIT
RAINBOW, the HighSpeed Anti-Radar Missiles horned in on enemy radar
transmission, but instead of cruising to their targets over long
distances and being very inviting targets for enemy gunfire, HARM flew
at speeds over Mach three and were often untouched or even undetectable.
The longer Jinan kept radars on to track the incoming SLAM missiles, the
easier it was for the HARMS to find their targets. The missiles horned
in precisely on the fore and aft radar dishes of the "Fog Lamp"
fire-control radars, hit, and exploded. Although the HARMs only hit the
emitters on the tall foreand-aft antenna masts on the destroyer Jinan,
and the two HARMs' warheads were a scant fifty pounds, the results in
the Combat Information Center belowdecks were as disruptive as a nuclear
bomb blast. All the cabin and console lights in CIC flicked off
immediately, replaced by emergency lights for the cabin only-most of the
weapons control systems were dead or in rest. "Hold your positions!"
the CIC officer shouted to his console and weapons technicians. "Put
your sets in reset and stand by!" The CIC officer picked up the
emergency batterypowered telephone. "Bridge, CIC, weapons systems and
sensors in full reset. I say again, weapon systems in full reset.
Over."
"Bridge copies, " a reply came. "Missile impact on both main and aft
mast." The CIC officer felt his jaw drop. Both masts-that meant both
HQ-9I missile directors were down. The Sea Eagle search radar, which
was still operational, could be used for fire control, but it was highly
inaccurate. They could still direct attacks by the other patrol boats,
however, but in just a split second a four-thousand-ton warship was
rendered virtually impotent... ... But not entirely impotent. When the
lights came back on a few moments later, most of the C1C's equipment was
still in working order. "There's a second bomber out there somewhere,
and I want it, " he shouted at his Combat Information Center crew. Get
a report from up on deck, make sure all our weapons are clear to
fire-the forward 100 and the aft HQ-91 launcher should both be clear. I
want infrared and low-light sensor manned, and I want Sea Eagle slaved
to the one-hundred-millimeter cannon and HQ-9 1. Bridge, CIC, I show
the aft HQ-9 1 system still operational. Clear me to engage the second
stealth bomber."
"C-3 band uplink shut ....... search radar only, " McLanahan reported.
"I think I got the missile director. Damn, I wish I could say thank you
to those guys in the other B-2. I think they saved our bacon with those
SLAM launches." His eyes were glued to the SMFD, checking the rear
hemisphere tail warning radar for any sign of tracking Masurca missiles.
But after two minutes, nothing appeared. Patrick took a deep breath, as
if it were the first time all day he'd been able to breathe, and Cobb
rustled uneasily in his seat as the threat from the destroyer passed-for
Cobb, that was akin to a wild shout of relief. McLanahan said, "Still
got two India-band control radars at two o'clock. Give me thirty
degrees left, let's give these guys a wide berth." He opened the left
bomb bay and readied two more HARM missiles of his own to engage the
patrol boats. "Search radar only, six o'clock... that destroyer must
still have its air-search radar on.. ." Patrick considered turning back
to get within range of one more HARM missile launch at the destroyer's
big search radar, or perhaps even a SLAM missile launch at the destroyer
itself, but the patrol boat's gun-control radars ahead were a bigger
threat now. With the destroyer's big threat, the HQ-9 1 surface-to-air
missile, gone, the B-52s could take care of the destroyer now. . . 1
"Tracking air target at bearing three-four-two, range eleven miles and
increasing, altitude less than eighty meters.. ." The radar operator
quickly checked the track history of that target; it had none. It had
literally appeared out of nowhere, right in the middle of the Chinese
fleet, and it was about to disappear once again... So this is what a
stealth bomber looked like on radar! "Commit aft HQ-91 missiles, " the
CIC officer aboard Jinan ordered. "Yes, sir... aft HQ-9I missiles
showing faulted, track error." "Bypass it. Slave to the Sea Eagle
system for command guidance. "Copy... fault log cleared, HQ-9I slaved
to air-search radar only, no target illuminations, beam-riding mode only
. launcher crew reports ready."
"Four-missile salvo . . . shoot." It was the definition of a long
shot all the way-a faint radar return from the suspected stealth bomber,
no solid lock-on, heavy jamming, no target illumination for the HQ-91 to
<
br /> follow, no lead-computing mathematics or sophisticated intercept
trigonometry, no proximity detonation-the missiles were going to either
miss or hit the target square-on. The second B-2 had the unfortunate
luck to make a slight turn to line up on a Chinese patrol boat that had
locked onto it with a fire-control radar. The first HQ-9I streaked by
just to the left of the bomber, but the second of the four-missile salvo
hit the Black Knight on the left wing, exploding and turning the entire
left side of the high-tech bomber into a huge yellow fireball in
seconds. The bomber hit the warm waters of the Celebes Sea with the
force of a car crusher, killing the crew instantly. The
boomerang-shaped aircraft cartwheeled edge-on across the water for
several thousand yards before plunging into the waters and disappearing
from sight forever. "Target hit! Good hit on number-two aircraft!" A
cheer went up in Jinan 's Combat Information Center... ... but it was
very short-lived. "Warning! Incoming missiles, multiple contacts,
bearing . . . opposite side, one-four-three, range thirty miles,
altitude. . . altitude less than fifty metet speed six hundred
knots!" It had to be the Tomahawk missiles, the ones that had vived
Kafeng 's counterattack. "Radio to all vessels, missile warning, direct
defensive fire on. "B-52 bombers launching missiles, bearing
two-zero-LIFE, range fifty-one nautical miles... encountering heavy
jamrnlr now, all frequencies . Missiles coming from two sides now. . .
one, maybe n B-2s roaming around. . . a B-52 that everyone has lost
track of... things were not going well all of a sudden. At less than
thirty miles' range, the Tomahawk missiles were his first priority.
Captain Jhijun screamed so loud into the intercom that it probably
didn't need an amplifier: "CIC, bridge, I need an intercept estimate.
Can you get the Iomahawk missiles?"
"Jamming is heavy, but I think we can manually maintain a lock.
Intercept confidence is good. But the number of inbounds is unknown...
"Engage as many as you can, ' Jhijun said. "Our close-in weapons should
get the rest." Along with its 130-millimeter, and 25-millimeter
antiaircraft guns, the destroyer Jinan carried two American-made Mk IS