by Dale Brown
“This is a fully functional production model, Patrick, ” Ormack replied. “Everything is done on the MFDs or using switches on the throttles and control stick. The screens show menu choices for selecting options for each piece of equipment, and you just push a button to select it or use the set button on the stick.”
“But I don’t see any flight-control system switches, ” McLanahan persisted. “What about a flap lever? Gear handle? How do you raise the landing gear-haul it up with a rope?”
“This is almost the twenty-first century, my friend, ” Ormack replied. “We don’t move levers-we tell the plane what to do and it takes care of it.” He pointed to the right-hand MFD at each station, which showed a simple five-line menu: BATT POWER, APU POWER, ALERT START, NORMAL START, and EMER START. Each item was located next to a corresponding button on the screen. “To start engines, you simply press the button and advance the throttles to idle, ” Ormack explained. “The computer takes care of everything else. Start engines, and up comes a different menu of items. Select TAKEOFF. The computer configures the plane for takeoff and continues to configure the plane during the climbout and all the way to level off-it’ll raise the gear and flaps, monitor the power settings, everything. Once at cruise altitude, you select CRUISE and it’ll fly the plane, manage the fuel, and report any errors. It has several different modes, including LANDING, LOW LEVEL, GUST for bad weather conditions, GO AROUND, and ATTACK modes.”
“Computerized flying, huh?” McLanahan muttered. “Pretty slick. You almost think they could do away with the pilot and nav. “It’s advance hardware, but not totally foolproof, ” Ormack said. “The pilot in the loop is still important.”
“And the nav in the loop as well, ” McLanahan said with a smile, examining the right-hand seat. “Or should I say, ‘mission commander’? I like the sound of that.” The right-hand instrument panel had boles and slots for the same size and number of color MFDs as the pilot’s side, but technicians had already removed the monitors themselves. “This looks like a duplicate of the pilot’s side, ” McLanahan observed. “I think it is, ” Ormack said. “The original idea was to have two pilots, remember. They decided it-” As Ormack watched, Patrick suddenly reached down to an awkwardly mounted keyboard on the right bulkhead and pulled it out of its slot. “Hey-!”
“Sir, having these nice color MFDs on the right side for the nav would be fine, ” McLanahan said, “but it would also be a huge waste. Small MFDs are nice, but they’re old technology… “Old technology? These MFDs are the latest thing-highresolution, high-speed, one twenty-eight K RAM per pixel, the whole nine yards… “Compare it with pilot’s side, ” McLanahan said. “Look here. The pilot can sit back, set up a scan, and fly his plane with complete ease and confidence. What does the nav have? The nav has got to focus on one screen at a time to do his job. His eyes lock on one screen-they have to, because you got one screen that displays only one set of information. What happens then? He loses track of what’s going on around him. He loses situational awareness. Something important might be happening on one of the other screens, but he doesn’t know that because he’s got to stare at this screen for several seconds. The setup forces him to divert his attention in several different directions at once, and by doing so you make him less effective, not more. “These are the best MFDs available, ” Ormack said wryly. “You can swap displays around on each screen, split the screens and have two displays on one screen, even have the computer shift displays for you-sort of an autoscan. What’s wrong with all that?” “They’re great, but they’re outdated, ” McLanahan repeated. “We can get something better.” He shook the keyboard at Ormack, then tossed it over his shoulder. “And no important keyboards on the side instrument panels. If the nav has to take his eyes off the scope on the bomb run, it’s no good and it shouldn’t be in the plane. That’s what gets crews killed.”
“We can rig up a swivel arm for the keyboard.. .” Ormack began, but McLanahan was clearly unimpressed. “I don’t know exactly what you have in mind, Patrick, but I don’t think you can just decide to replace the entire avionics suite . “You want my recommendations, you’ll get them, ” McLanahan said. “You didn’t mention any restrictions or specifications, so I’ll build you the best cockpit I can think of.” He paused for a moment, then said, “And we’ll start with the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory at Wright-Pat.”
“Armstrong? What… ?” And then he realized what Patrick was getting at: “The Super Cockpit program? You want to put one of those big six-square-foot screens in the B-2?”
“Sir, it’s tailor-made for the Black Knight, ” McLanahan said excitedly. “The screen would fit perfectly in this big cockpit, and they can rewrite the software in a matter of months. We can bring it in within a few weeks and have a demo flight within four months, I guarantee it.” He paused for a moment, then added, “And once we get Super Cockpit installed, we can install that Sky Masters PACER SKY system General Elliott is working on-real-time satellite target reconnaissance. That’d be awesome. A satellite sending you real-time pictures of a target area, a computer drawing your route of flight, and having it displayed on a huge mother Super Multi-Function Display? Oh, man, this is gonna be great!” John Ormack thought about the idea for several long mo ments. He knew McLanahan was nothing if not a walking idea machine, but he never expected him to devise two such radical ideas in so short a time. It was an interesting combination: Super Cockpit was a 1 980s technology demonstration program that had never been implemented in any tactical aircraft, and PACER SKY was a brand-new idea that was just now being operationally tested. Ormack knew Sky Masters’ NIRTSats could make combined synthetic radar, infrared, and visual photographs of a geographic area in one pass, uplink it to a satellite, then download it. But uplinking it to a TDRS satellite (Tactical Information Distribution System used by the Army and Air Force) then downloading it to a targeting computer on a strike aircraft was brilliant. The computer would be able to classify each return with known or suspected targets, measure the precise target coordinates, and load them into the crew’s bombing computers. The crews could then call up each target, evaluate the information and direct a strike against the targets in virtually real-time. It would be the first time crews would have access to virtual real-time imagery during a conflict. Leave it to McLanahan, Ormack thought proudly. “Jesus, Patrick, ” Ormack said, “you’ve already come up with six months’ worth of work and you haven’t been in the seat five minutes-and you’ve probably busted the bank as well.”
“Well, we can eliminate a lot of this stuff, then, ” McLanahan said, gesturing to a small shelf under the glare shield. “We can ditch this attempt at a work desk-with the Super Cockpit installed, we won’t need charts and books out cluttering the cockpit-but we’ll need coffee-cup holders, of course “Coffee-cup holders!” Ormack cried. McLanahan’s extraordinary capacity for coffee was well known throughout Dreamland. “On a B-2? Get outta here!”
“You think I’m kidding, sir?” McLanahan replied. “I’ll bet you lunch for a week that there’s not only coffee-cup holders for the pilot over there, but a pencil-holder and maybe even an approach-plate holder. How about it?”
“You’re on, buddy, ” Ormack said. “Coffee-cup holders on multimillion-dollar warplanes went out with khaki uniforms and nose art. Besides, everything on this plane is computerized-why would the pilots need pencils and approach plates when everything’s on the multi-function displays in living color?” Ormack searched the aircraft commander’s station for a moment as McLanahan confidently sat back in his seat and waited. A few moments later he heard a muttered, “Well, I’ll be damned…”
“Find something, General?”
“I don’t believe it!” Ormack shouted. “Chart holders, pencil holders, coffee-cup holders-no ashtray, hotshot… unbelievable.”
“Let me guess, ” McLanahan teased, “there’s a space up there for an inflight lunch box?”
“Box lunches and even a stopwatch holder. I just don’t believe
it. There are twenty systems on this plane that’ll give you a countdown. The plane practically flies itself, for God’s sake! If you want, a female electronic voice’ll even give you a countdown over interphone. But they went ahead and put in a black rubber stopwatch holder anyway. “The Air Force probably paid a thousand dollars for it, too, ” McLanahan added dryly. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ll have developed a hypersonic bomber that can circumnavigate the globe in one hour, and someone’ll still put a stopwatch holder in the cockpit.” Ormack tried to ignore McLanahan’s smug smile. “Well, you’ve got your work cut out for you over here, that’s for sure, but you’ve made a terrific start. When can you get to work?”
“Right away, General, ” McLanahan replied. “The F-15F Cheetah project is off the flight line for a few months, so this’ll work out perfectly. I’ve got a staff meeting with J. C. Powell and McDonnell-Douglas in about an hour, and I’ll clear the desk and schedule an afternoon staff meeting on this project. We’ll be back out here taking measurements”-he paused, then gave Ormack a sly smile-“right after we get back from lunch. Your treat, I believe?” THE GOLD ROOM OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF THE PENTAGON, WASHINGTON, D.C. MONDAY, 15 AUGUST 1994, 0800 HOURS LOCAL CC6ood morning, sir, ” Navy Captain Rebecca Rodgers, senior staff officer, Pacific, of J-2, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Directorate, began. “Captain Rodgers with this morning’s intelligence report. The briefing is classified top secret, sensitive sources and methods involved, not releasable to foreign nationals; the room is secure.” She paused to doublecheck that the thick mahogany double doors to the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference Center, referred to as the “Tank” or the “Gold Room, ” were closed and locked and that the red “Top Secret” lights were on. Rebecca “Becky” Rodgers could feel the tension of the men and women in the Tank that morning, and her news was not going to help to cheer them up one bit. Captain Rodgers was at the briefer’s podium at the base of the Tank’s large, triangle-shaped conference table where everyone could see her and the screen clearly. It was a most imposing and decidedly uncomfortable spot-seven of the most senior, most powerful military men on the planet watching her, waiting for her, no doubt evaluating her performance every moment. The first few sessions in this room had been devastating for her. But that was a half-dozen crises ago, and it seemed like old hat now. She didn’t need the old trick of trying to imagine the Joint Chiefs naked to get through her nervousness-the fact that she knew something that these powerful men and women did not know was comfort enough. Present for the briefing was JCS Chairman General Wilbur Curtis; the Vice Chairman, Marine Corps General Mario Lanuza; the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Randolph Cunningham; Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Peterson; Air Force Chief of Staff General William Falmouth; and Army Chief of Staff General John Bonneville, plus their aides and representatives from the other J-staff directorates. Curtis insisted on attendance by all Joint Staff members and directorates for these daily briefings-it was probably the only opportunity for the staff to get together as a team during their busy week. The Chairman sat at the blunted apex of the triangle, with seats available beside him at the head of the table for the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States if they chose to attend, although in his two years of office, the President had never set foot in this place. The four-star Joint Staff members and their aides and staffers sat on the Chairman’s left, the J-staff directorate representatives on the right, and guests and briefers at the base of the triangle near the back. Each seat had a small communications console and computer I TV monitor embedded in the table, which was fed from the giant Global Military Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence Network operations center on another level of the Pentagon. The back wall of the Tank was a large rear-projection screen. Arranged above it was a series of red LED digital clocks with various times, and several members of the staff, by force of habit after long years aloft or at sea, gave themselves a time hack from those ultra-precise clocks every morning. “The number-one topic I have for you today is the Philippines and South China Sea incidents, ” Rodgers said after concluding her routine force status briefings. “In response to the attack on an oil-exploration barge a few months ago in the neutral zone in the Spratly Island chain, both the Philippines and China have stepped up naval activity in the area. “Specifically, the Chinese have not added any new forces except for a few smaller shallow patrol boats. They have a very strong contingent there, including the destroyer Hong Lung, which carries the Hong Qian-9 1 surface-to-air missile system, the Fei Lung-7 and Fei Lung-9 antiship missile systems, and a good complement of dual-purpose guns. Additionally, they have two frigates, four patrol boats, some minesweepers, and other support vessels. They usually detach into three smaller patrol groups, with a missile craft leading two groups and Hong Lung and its escorts comprising the third. Vessels from the South Sea fleet, headquartered at Jhanjiang, rotate with the ships about once per month; however, Hong Lung rotates very seldom. Their base on Spratly Island is very small, but they can land medium-size cargo aircraft there to resupply their vessels. “The Filipinos have substantially increased their presence in the Spratly Islands following the attack on the oil barge. They have sent two of their three frigates into the disputed area and are now patrolling their section vigorously with both sea and air assets. “But despite the naval buildup, the Philippine naval fleet is practically nonexistent, ” Rodgers concluded. “All of their major combatants are old, slow, and unreliable. The crews are generally not well trained and rarely operate more than a day’s cruise away from their home ports.”
“So without the United States forces to back them up, they’re sitting ducks for the Chinese, ” Admiral Cunningham said. “Sir, the Chinese fleet is not that much more advanced than the Philippine fleet, at least the vessels that operate near the Spratly Islands, ” Rodgers said. “Most are small, lightly armed patrol boats. The exception, of course, is the flagship, Hong Lung. It is without question the most capable warship in the entire South China Sea, comparable in performance to U.S. Kidd-class destroyers but faster and lighter. The frigates are heavily armed as well; most have HQ-6 1 SAM missiles, which would be very effective against the Filipino helicopters and may even be capable against the Sea Ray antiship missile. All are comparable in performance to U.S. Oliver Hazard Perryclass frigates, except without helicopter decks or the sophisticated electronics. “The main Chinese offensive thrust would obviously be their overwhelming ground forces-they could land several hundred thousand troops in the Philippines in very short order, ” Rodgers concluded. “Although we generally classify the Chinese Navy as smaller and less capable than ours, their naval forces are very capable of supporting and protecting their ground troops. An amphibious assault on the Philippines by the Chinese would be concluded very quickly, and it would push the necessary threshold of an American counter strike to very high levels-very much along the lines of our DESERT SHIELD deployment, although without the advantage of forward basing.”
“So if the Chinese want to take the Spratly Islands, there’s not much we could do about it, ” General Falmouth summarized. “Sir, at the current force levels in the area, if the Chinese wanted to take the Philippines, there would be little we could do about it…” There was a very animated murmur of voices at that comment. Curtis was the first to raise his voice above the others: “Wait one, Captain. Is this a J-2 assessment or an opinion?”
“It is not a directorate finding, sir, but it is nevertheless a statement of fact, ” Rodgers replied. “If they so decided, it would take the People’s Liberation Army Navy less than a week…”
“Ridiculous…” “They wouldn’t dare…” “Absurd…” “According to the directorate’s preliminary report, sir, ” Rodgers explained, getting their attention, “if the Chinese captured five strategic military bases-the naval facilities at Subic Bay and Zamboanga, the Air Force bases at Cavite and Cebu, and the Army base at Cagayan de Oro-and if they defe
ated Second Vice President Samar’s militia at Davao, they could secure the entire country.” She paused, then looked directly at them. “Gentlemen, the New Philippine Army is nothing more than a well-equipped police force, not a defense force. They have relied on the United States for its national defense-and obviously would have to again, if the need arose. General Samar’s Commonwealth Defense Force is a welltrained and well-organized guerrilla-fighting force, but they cannot stand up against a massive invasion. The Chinese have a thirty-to-one advantage in all areas. General Wilbur Curtis surveyed his Chiefs of Staff with a look of concern-the information Captain Rodgers had just conveyed had silenced them all. He had heard a lot of bad news during the past six years that he’d chaired the Joint Chiefs. He had learned to quickly decipher between isolated incidents and incidents that had a broader, far more serious impact if left untended. He knew the implications of what Rodgers was saying could be far more serious than any of them had previously thought. “I think we all wanted to believe this was just another skirmish. But with the United States out of the Philippines, there is a large power vacuum in the area. We knew there’d be that danger. Still, I don’t think anyone believed the Chinese would consider moving so soon-if they really are.” Curtis turned to Captain Rodgers again and asked, “Are the Chinese likely to attempt an invasion?”
“Sir, if the Joint Chiefs would like a detailed briefing, I should get Central Intelligence involved, ” Rodgers said. “I had been concentrating on the military aspects and hadn’t prepared a full briefing on the political situation. But J-2 does feel that the Philippines are ripe for the picking.” Curtis waited for additional thoughts from the Joint Chiefs; when there appeared to be no concrete suggestions, he said, “I’d like to review the current OPLANS for dealing with a possible Chinese action in the Philippines, then. I need to know what plans we have built already, and if they need to be updated. Captain Rodgers, I’d like Central Intelligence to get involved, and I’d like Current Operations to draft a response plan that I can present to the Secretary of Defense for his review. Include a Philippines update in the daily briefings, including satellite passes and a rundown on naval activity in the Spratlys and in the Chinese South China Sea fleet. Let’s get on top of this thing and have a plan of action before it threatens to blow up in our faces.” HIGH TECHNOLOGY AEROSPACE WEAPONS CENTER (HAWC) DREAMLAND, NEVADA WEDNESDAY, 17 AUGUST 1994, 0905 HOURS LOCAL The phone line crackled. “Brad! How the hell are you?” Lieutenant General Brad Elliott leaned back in his chair and smiled broadly as he recognized the caller. “I was expecting you to send young Andy Wyatt out here to harass me again, sir, but I’m glad to hear from you. “Can the ‘sir’ stuff with me, you old warhorse, ” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Wilbur Curtis said over the snaps and crackles in the scrambled phone line. “You know better. Besides, it’s been a long time since we’ve spoken. When are we going to get together?”