by Dale Brown
"I'm not, but I'd be an idiot if I didn't get some background on the accident, wouldn't I, Colonel?" Patrick retorted. "Most of your bomb runs are level radar bombing, right?"
"All of our bomb runs are level radar," Rebecca replied. "The Joint Direct Attack Munition will give us a little more flexibility, but without precision-guided bombs or imaging sensors like LANTIRN or Pave Tack, we pretty much do it the same way strategic bombers have been doing it since the beginning."
"But your squadron flies very aggressively," Patrick pointed out. "Maybe too aggressively. Some might say recklessly. If all your bomb runs are the same, why all the gyrations?"
"My opinion, sir, is that we're asked to do more with less," Furness replied. "We have fewer bombers, smaller budgets, and more taskings over more dangerous battlefields. We don't set up the threats. We do whatever it takes to destroy the target against whatever threat we encounter."
Furness regarded Patrick for a moment before continuing: "You're a bomber guy, sir." Patrick had no response. "I remember hearing a little about you, back when I flew tankers and later when I got into the RF111s. You know how bombers used to fly-low, fast, and alone, mostly with gravity nukes or SRAMs. Well, it's not done that way anymore. We fly as packages. We go in high, or low, or slow, or fast, depending on the threat and the weapon we employ.
"But we don't train that way. We still train like you and I did years ago-alone against the threats, the area defenses, and the target. Instead of having a cruise missile or stealth bomber take out the threats from standoff range followed by Bones with fighter cover, we drive a couple of Bones through a gauntlet of fighters and SAMs. It's unrealistic. We'd never do that in the real world. But that's the way we train because it's cheap and it's easy.
"Our job is to destroy the target, no matter what the threat," Furness went on. "That means pushing ourselves and our machines to the limit. The Bone has the payload of a BUFF but the speed and agility of a Strike Eagle. We've got the horses, so we're going to use them."
"Well, what do you think about Bones going in alone?" Patrick asked. "Are they capable? Or do they need a package to do the mission?"
"Of course we're capable," Rebecca replied hotly. "When you flew BUFFs, you flew against every threat in the book without any support. True, in the SIOP missions, you expected to go in long after the initial ICBM laydown, so most of the threats would be taken down for you. But if that's true, why did BUFFs and Bones and Aardvarks and even B-2 stealth bombers start going low? Why did we start training in ranges with fighters and SAMs and triple-A? Because we were expected to fly against any target, any threat, whether there was a strike package or nuclear laydown preceding us or not.” We can do the same thing again-but we need better tools. Give us a standoff capability, like JSOW or SLAM or TSSAM, and we can take out our own threats as we encounter them, like a HARM shooter such as an EA-6 or F-16CJ. Or give us an imaging infrared or TV capability, and we can hunt down our own targets like an F-15E or F-16 Block 50. The Bone can do all that. We can carry four or five different weapons at the same time. I guess it's politically better to build fighters and deploy carriers. But we're still training like we did in the seventies and eighties. We should train like we're going to fight."
Patrick nodded, pleased with the way this woman was thinking. He knew he was on the right track-he knew his plan would be accepted by the crews. Now he just had to make it work and then sell it to the brass.
"What's everyone got against Rinc Seaver?" Patrick asked. "He's a good stick, a good systems operator, a good crewdog. Is he a good team player or more of a loner?"
"No one has anything against the guy," Furness said.” You ever lose a crew and a plane in your unit before, sir?" Again, Patrick had no answer, so Rebecca assumed the answer was no. "It tears the unit apart like nothing you'd ever believe. But we're still technicians, pilots, systems officers. We need to find a reason for the accident . . ."
"You mean someone to blame?"
"We're human too," Rebecca said. "Maybe part of the healing process is assigning guilt, blame, responsibility. Rinc is it. He had the controls, he was the commander, he pulled the handles, and he survived, and all that makes him culpable. It's shitty, but it's the way it is."
"How do you feel about Rinc Seaver, Colonel?" Patrick asked.
"I told you. He's a good crew member, a good OSO. But he had the bad luck to survive this unit's only training mission crash. It'll take some time for him to work his way back into the unit." Patrick hesitated, looking carefully into her eyes, expecting her to add something a little more. "If you have something to say, sir, please say it."
"No," Patrick said finally. "Forget it. Completely unrelated." He spotted Rinc Seaver and a few other crew members drifting back and forth in front of the open door, wondering if it was safe to enter, so Patrick decided to back off. They had a mission to prepare for, and everyone's attention had to be focused on the task ahead. The room filled up quickly with crew members and technicians ready to start the briefing.
Furness began precisely on time; she dinged one crewdog two dollars for showing up just as she was starting to close the door and gave him a warning glare, then began:
"This is the initial flight briefing for Aces Two-Zero flight of two." She put the first of a small stack of over- head slides on the projector. "Everyone is present. I am the flight lead, and Rodeo is second-in-command in Aces Two-One. We are the first strike package for our unit pre-D. Intelligence briefing."
A technical sergeant stood up and put his first briefing slide on the projector. It was marked "Confidential (Scenario Unclassified)." "Good morning, ladies and gents," he said. "The following is classified 'confidential,' with a fictional exercise scenario; the real-world briefing is available in the intel shop if you're interested.
"Two days ago the godless Communist dictatorship of North Kimchee moved eleven armor and infantry brigades to the border of the God-fearing democratic pro-American nation of South Kimchee, and stepped up fighter and antiship patrols over the ocean around its borders." Patrick always found himself struggling not to smile when the intelligence techs recited the fictional exercise scenarios; they were prepared with a vivid imagination and a good sense of humor. "The National Command Authority responded by ordering the full mobilization of all long-range bomber units, in case the North Kimchee Army decides to invade, and warned North Kimchee that we were guaranteeing the peace and sovereignty of South Kimchee and would use force to back our promise up. The warning order directed us to prepare to execute an attack-then-deploy bombing mission against North Kimchee ground units along the border. One Navy carrier battle group was already in the area when the warning order was issued, and another is en route."
As the briefing continued, Patrick was amazed at the level of detail. When he kicked off the exercise, he had given the squadron a simple notification order, a short message explaining the exercise scenario. The intelligence and operations support divisions had gleaned a massive amount of follow-up information from his exercise referees, then devised an entire realistic play-byplay mission profile based on the exercise scenario. He had no doubt that this was exactly what the real briefing would look like if this were an actual combat situation-with real-world country names, of course.
"In response to our mobilization," the intelligence technician continued, "North Kimchee moved a large number of antiaircraft weapon systems into the area. We have received fairly good data about the types and numbers of systems, but since they're mobile systems, it's been difficult to pinpoint them. Then, early this morning, North Kimchee declared our actions tantamount to war, formally declared war against the United States and South Kimchee, and crossed the border with eight divisions, leaving three in reserve. We received the execution order this morning, and we expect the launch order in about six hours.
"Our primary job is to blunt the invasion by destroying as many enemy vehicles as possible," the briefer went on. "Our prestrike satellite reconnaissance can tell us fairly accurately where th
e troop and vehicle concentrations are, so we'll plan saturation bombing and minelaying operations against them. The problem is, we don't have a very accurate picture of what the antiair defenses are, and we can't risk any manned aircraft to find out.
"So the plan is to have a large salvo of Navy Tomahawk surface- and sub-launched land-attack cruise missiles lead the mission. The cruise missiles will be going against fixed targets farther north, not against the divisions that are going across the DMZ. But the cruise missiles will certainly draw a lot of fire. The Air Force will send electronic reconnaissance aircraft to try to pinpoint the locations and types of enemy antiaircraft that will try to shoot down the cruise missiles. We're hoping that the recon planes will detect and pinpoint most of the surface-to-air missile sites during North Kimchee's response to the first salvo of cruise missiles, and pass the position info back to us. We hope they'll do a good job, because we'll be coming in right behind them, before North Kimchee gets a chance to reload and regroup.
"So our secondary mission is to destroy as many targets of opportunity as possible so we can clear the way for follow-on sorties. We'll use two-thousand pound JDAMs for plinking targets of opportunity. We can expect to receive target coordinates in a multitude of ways, so part of our tasking on this mission is to see how carefully we can monitor all of the data sources for target info."
The intel briefer put up a new slide with all of the various communications systems, their security authentication routines, and times of operation. "The primary source of target information will be via SATCOM hookup between us and the theater commander, which for the exercise will be simulated by the exercise referees. But we must also maintain listening watches on HAVE QUICK, VHP, UHF, and even HF for data relays by radar planes, mostly via the E-8 Joint Surveillance Targeting and Reconnaissance plane. We can get target info through a list of geographic coordinates that we can plug directly into JDAM, or receive a set of grid coordinates where we can look for targets on the attack radar. We also have to be prepared to upchannel any target coordinates we mensurate ourselves."
Next came another slide, this one of area enemy defenses and threats. "We can expect everything in the book out there," the briefer continued. Patrick liked the way he said "we," as if he were going along on every sortie-which, judging by the way this unit pulled together, was figuratively true. "North Kimchee has an extensive list of Soviet and Chinese antiaircraft systems, from long-range modern stuff like the SA-10 and SA-12 to low-tech, optically guided antiaircraft artillery. They're playing it smart, keeping their radars shut off and their units on the move, so we may not be able to detect or pinpoint these systems until close to your target times. Therefore, expect extensive last-minute in-flight replanning and retargeting.
"After the attack, we will be deploying to a barebase location in southern South Kimchee, approximately five hundred miles from the border. Weapons, fuel, equipment, and supplies have already been moved there under cover of darkness, so we feel fairly certain that we can conduct operations from there for at least two days before the bad guys realize where we are and start counteroffensive actions. We can expect to conduct three-per-day surge bombing sorties from this location. By that time, the Navy will have moved two carrier battle groups and more cruise missile shooters into the area to help out.
"Our sources tell us that, although not involved right now, the People's Republic of Chowdown may support North Kimchee's war effort by sending fighters and bombers to harass or even attack us during our deployment," the intelligence briefer concluded. "Of course, if we fail to stop North Kimchee's advance, we may come under direct attack by North Kimchee artillery. Therefore, supplies and support might dwindle. We'll learn more later. Questions?" There were a few; after they were answered and discussed, Furness took the podium again.
Before she began, she wrote the acronym "BOTOTCHA" as item number one on the list of objectives of the mission. "Our overall objective on this mission is, as always, 'Bombs on target, on time, come home alive,' " she said. "Our primary objective is to stop or blunt the North Kimchee invasion by destroying as many high-value strategic targets such as artillery sites, rocket sites, air defense sites, armor and vehicle concentrations, and vehicle marshaling areas as possible. Our secondary objective will be to destroy targets of opportunity transmitted to us by reconnaissance and intelligence sources. Our subobjectives, as always, are: no withholds due to crew or switch position errors; no unreacted-to threats; and clear communications and transmission of threat and intelligence information.
"Each sortie has two assigned targets, which will be attacked using Mark 82 AIRs from the forward bomb bay and CBU-89 cluster bomb dispensers from the aft bay. The Mark 82 attacks will generally be against armored-vehicle marshaling areas, vehicle and troop concentrations, and enemy weapons and supply depots inside South Kimchee. The CBU operations will generally be against air defense sites, artillery emplacements, and vehicle and troop concentrations inside North Kimchee, since we don't want to hamper friendly vehicle movement with our mines.
"We will then withdraw to a refueling anchor area and await any follow-on targets transmitted via SATCOM. Follow-on targets will be attacked using JDAMs from mid- or high altitude. These can be any type of target, deep inside North Kimchee or over South Kimchee. You hit as many as you can, then withdraw to the forward operating location.
"The forward operating location for us will be Tonopah Air Force Base, Nevada," Rebecca went on. "The Operational Support Squadron, Civil Engineers, and the Air Base Group have already deployed. After you arrive, you'll reload with Mark 82s and CBU-89s, go on crew rest, and get ready to accept new strike packages."
"What!" John Long exclaimed. A loud, surprised murmur of voices in the room echoed him. "We're going to fly strike missions from a bare-base location?"
"Shut up, all of you," Furness broke in hotly. "I know this isn't standard. Our usual scenario is to turn our birds over to a forward-deployed active-duty unit that has already been set up in the forward location. Well, we're not doing it that way. The bare-base operation at Tonopah will be ours-our gear, our spares, our planes, our staff, our plans. We can expect to do this for as long as ten days, so I hope you brought your toothbrushes and gave your honeys the full monty, because it's going to be us in the sand with the bugs for a long time."
Rebecca pointed to the list of tasks on the whiteboard. "Here's your jobs, here's the schedule. We'll have a 'how d'ya do?' in thirty minutes." She paused, then glanced at Patrick. "I suppose you all know that we'll be having an evaluator aboard Rodeo's flight. General McLanahan will be in the copilot's seat, so I guess that makes him invulnerable to SAMs, right, sir?" No response from Patrick. "Remember, we follow peacetime safety-of-flight rules," Furness concluded. "We play it by the book. Any questions?" No reply. "Rise."
As Rinc Seaver headed for the door, he placed several piles of papers on the table in front of Furness, then began checking off items on the whiteboard. "What's this, Rodeo?" Furness asked.
"Got all these things done already," Seaver replied.
"What? How? I just got the info myself an hour ago."
"I got it an hour ago too," Rinc said, "and I finished the planning. Computer target predictions, fly-through simulation, threat assessment, sun position, terrain analysis-it's all there. I'll get the latest intel briefing materials and plug 'em into the flight plans."
Furness looked very irritated. She glanced up at MeLanahan, who instantly got the message and stepped out of the briefing room. When he was out of earshot, Furness said angrily, "You better not have busted crew rest, Rinc."
"Not that you know about," Rinc shot back. Furness looked as if she was going to explode. "Lighten up, Beck. The general was already out on the ramp. I saw Heels coming out of the in-flight kitchen when I was going to the command post, so she was obviously on base before five." Captain Annie "Heels" Dewey, one of the 111th's three other female Bone crew members, was Furness's copilot for this mission. "I showed up at the command post at five after f
ive to get a copy of the frag order. They said you already picked a copy up twenty minutes before me. Let me know when you're ready to bust your own ass-I'd like to see it for myself."
Rinc stepped closer to Furness, looked her right in the eye, and said in a low voice, "This is my requal check ride, Beck, my first evaluation after losing my crew and my friends. Let me sink or swim on my own. You do your job and let me do mine, and we'll see if I got what it takes to keep my wings. If I don't, I'm outta here."
"No one wants to see you flunk, Rinc." She lowered her voice a bit, then added, "Especially me. But we're all under the gun here. We've got to do it like we always do it, by the book and together." But Furness could see that Rinc wasn't about to believe anything she said right now. "Rodeo, get together with the other crews and see if they need some help."
"I've got a better idea, Colonel," Patrick said from just outside the door. He reached into a flight suit pocket and pulled out a small stack of envelopes. Fanning them out like a deck of cards, he held them up to Furness. "Pick a card. Any card." Furness looked puzzled, then selected an envelope. Patrick opened it, read it quickly, then nodded. "Good one. Very good." He left the room with a smile on his face.
"What was that about?" she wondered.
"Change in scenario," Rinc said. "He must've seen us arguing and decided to shake things up a bit."
Sure enough, a few moments later the intercom buzzed, summoning Furness to the senior controller's desk in the ready room. The ready room was filled with crew members scurrying around, collecting information and getting ready for the mass prestrike briefing in a couple of hours. "What is it, Scarecrow?" Furness asked the senior controller, Major Sean "Scarecrow" Asterman.
"Just got a note from the exercise referee," Asterman said. "ACC wants to send three bombers straight to the forward operating location ASAP, without doing bomb runs. Battle staff will be meeting in five minutes."
"Shit, shit, shit!" Furness exclaimed. That meant that the four remaining bombers would have to take up the target list of the three scratched bombers. And that meant a complete replanning-new weapons loads, which would take time, all new frags, all new target times, all new intelligence briefings, all new mission tapes. And they had less than six hours in which to do an entire day's worth of planning.