They zoomed out Skywalker’s sensor to take pictures of the entire carrier, then zoomed in to maximum magnification to take detail pictures of every section of the ship. Occasionally Skywalker’s threat warning system would beep, indicating that it was being scanned by a nearby radar, but there was never any indication that anyone had locked on to it, and no aircraft ever flew nearby to chase it away. There was an outside possibility that Skywalker’s satellite uplink back to the Valley Mistress had been detected and even intercepted, but no one in the Khomeini group ever attempted to jam or shut down the signal; White and Masters hoped that Iran didn’t yet possess the sophisticated computers needed to unscramble the uplink signals.
“Here’s the other stuff I wanted to look at,” White said excitedly as the Skywalker drone moved northward again, after orbiting over the Khomeini for nearly an hour. The drone had locked its sensor on a ship almost as large as the aircraft carrier, its center superstructure higher and clustered with twice the antenna arrays. “The Chinese destroyer Zhanjiang, the pride of the Chinese navy,” White said. “Supposedly out here to house the Chinese officers and troops training on the Khomeini, but I think it’s out here to protect the carrier and to add a little extra firepower to Iran’s carrier escort fleet. It’s got a full complement of non-nuclear weapons—long-range anti-ship and antiaircraft missiles, cruise missiles, rocket-powered torpedoes, big dual-purpose guns, three sub-hunter helicopters, the works. This one ship has more firepower than the entire Iranian air force, before they started buying up surplus Russian planes.”
“So basically the Chinese are escorting an Iranian aircraft carrier battle group,” Masters observed. “If anyone takes a shot at them, China gets involved in the fight.”
“No one knows what China would do if the group was attacked—or, more likely, what the Chinese would do if the Iranians attacked someone,” White said. “But Iran and China are pretty closely allied, economically if not ideologically—China’s been pumping billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware into Iran every year at bargain-basement prices, in exchange for cheap oil. It’s a win- win deal for both of them, and I’d think they’d try very hard to maintain their relationship.”
“But what for?” Masters asked. “What does Iran need with an aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer?”
“They’re the big boys on the block now, Jon,” White replied. “You got a carrier, or a nuke, and you’re the top dog. Iran maneuvers itself as the leader of the Muslim world by sailing five billion dollars’ worth of warships around the Gulf, daring anyone to take a shot at them.”
“Who’d be stupid enough to do that?”
“I’m not saying that’s their strategy,” White said, “but it’s a pretty big threat, and they’ve got a lot of firepower to back it up.”
“Like big chips on their shoulders,” Masters summarized. “More like bricks. I guess they’re out of the terrorist game then, huh?”
“I wouldn’t say that at all,” White said. “They’ve mastered the art of terrorism over the years. It didn’t earn them any respect, except with other fanatical fringe groups. But now, with a powerful navy and air force, they’ve got respect—at least, everyone’s wary of them now. The U.S. definitely is.”
Skywalker continued its patrol after orbiting Zhanjiang for almost an hour—still no sign of detection, even after more than two hours over the Iranian battle group. The operation had been a complete success so far. They decided they’d recall Skywalker after the battle group had headed south around the Musandam Peninsula and entered the Gulf of Oman. They programmed the drone to fly about twenty miles west of the warships instead of directly over them. Using the drones sideways-looking radars, they kept track of the ships as they sailed southward into the sea lanes.
There was more to see as they scanned the rest of the Iranian battle group: “Holy cow, look at that,” Masters exclaimed as they studied the vessel. “Looks like a big sucker....”
Paul White was examining several photographs; he started shaking his head and said, “Its not on the list of known ships in the Khomeini battle group. Lets see. .. destroyer from the looks of it. .. huge superstructure, but not as big as a cruiser . . . big missile tubes amidships ... aha, boys, looks like Iran really did get the Chinese destroyer it was looking for. That looks like a Luda-class destroyer, with two three-round Sea Eagle missile canisters. Sky- walkers paid off right away, Doc. I don’t think anyone knew another destroyer had joined the Khomeini group. This is a pretty significant find.”
Masters still looked green around the gills, but he grinned like a schoolboy. “Of course it is, Colonel,” he said, beaming with his usual bravado. “I’m here to serve up the surprises for you.” White had the communications section relay a message to the National Security Agency of the new Chinese destroyer’s presence. “Only the best from Sky Masters.”
“Uh-oh,” Knowlton said, “Mr. Modest is cranking it up again ...”
“No brag, just fact,” Masters said jubilantly. “The Air Force or CIA should buy a hundred HEARSE drones. You can’t get better intel than this—quick, reliable, accurate, and ...”
Just then, one of the Sky Masters technicians radioed, “Skywalker is reporting an overtemp in the primary hydraulic pack. Could be a bleed air-duct failure—might’ve got hit by a bird. Shutting down primary hydraulics ...”
Masters looked as if someone had just slapped him in the face, and White and Knowlton couldn’t help smiling over his sudden discomfort, even if it meant discontinuing their surveillance. “Recall it!” Masters shouted. “Issue the recall command!”
“Recall order transmitted and acknowledged,” the technician responded immediately. “Skywalker changing heading ... Skywalker’s on course back to home plate. It’s reporting capable of normal recovery; it will be ready for recovery in one hour, forty-two minutes.” Jon Masters shook his head. “If the Iranians are any good, Skywalker will never make it back,” he said. “Bleed air-duct failure near the primary hydraulic pack means a fire; a fire means visibility. With the hydraulic failure, Skywalker will start trailing hydraulic fluid, maybe fuel, maybe smoke and fire, and dragging control surfaces and maybe its arresting system, and bye-bye, stealth.”
“Then don’t aim it right back for the ship Jon,” White said. “Make it head to someplace over land, in Oman, or self-destruct it—”
“I am not self-destructing Skywalker while it’s still flyable! ” Masters shouted. “If it heads directly for us, it’ll highlight our position, highlight us. I’ll have to reprogram it manually. This was not supposed to happen . . . it’s designed to head back to its launch base on as direct a route as possible.”
“Turn it away, Jon,” White warned him urgently. “The Iranians will pick up on that thing and trace it back to us.”
“Skywalker reporting fire-control radar ... intermittent lock- on, Ku and X-brand radars, probably Crotale antiaircraft missile fire control.”
Masters turned to White, all hint of seasickness gone from his face—he was deadly serious now. “We can surely kiss Skywalker good-bye, Colonel,” he said. “And it’s not taking any navigation commands.”
“What?”
“It’s in emergency-nav mode, Paul,” Masters said. “Conserving power, conserving hydraulics—it might even have its controls locked. It won’t evade, won’t do anything but fly in a straight line.”
“I think we’d better prepare for visitors,” White said grimly. He clicked on his shipwide intercom: “Bridge, this is Lightfoot. We’ve been blown. I suggest you put the ship at action stations, institute Buddy Time procedures, head for the Omani coastline at flank speed, and be prepared for a boarding party alongside, a hostile aircraft overflight—or worse.”
“Bridge copies.” Immediately the alarm bell rang three times, and the captain announced, “All hands, action stations, all hands, action stations, this is not a drill.”
Aboard the Islamic Republic of Iran aircraft carrier Khomeini
“Bridge, radar-
contact aircraft, bearing two-one-zero, range seven- point-eight kilometers, speed two-four-one, altitude two-point-one K, course two-zero-zero.”
Major Admiral Akbar Tufayli, Commanding Admiral of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Seventh Task Force, turned his chair on the admiral’s bridge of the Khomeini toward the battle-staff area of the compartment. Within the admiral’s bridge, one deck down from the main bridge but still able to view all of the above-deck activities on the ship, Admiral Tufayli and his staff could monitor all the ship’s radio and intercom transmissions and, if he so chose, interject his own commands directly into the system, even to aircraft in flight or to nearby ships, bypassing all other commanders’ orders.
Tufayli had immense power for a relatively young man. He started as a common street fighter and gangster, staging wild, bloody executions of known spies and informants of the Shah before the revolution. He’d joined the elite Pasdaran in 1981 and risen swiftly through the ranks, commanding larger and larger special forces and shock forces. Now he was the fifth-highest-ranking officer of the Pasdaran, and had been honored over all other field generals when he’d been awarded command of the Pasdaran forces—nearly three thousand commandos, infantrymen, pilots, and other highly trained specialists—aboard Iran’s first aircraft carrier.
Tufayli’s battle staff was a mirror image of the ship’s captain’s own, and they were assembled in the admiral’s bridge now, monitoring all essential ship’s departments and reporting to Tufayli’s chief of staff, Brigadier General Muhammad Badi. “General,” Tufayli called out, “is that an aircraft? How did it get so close to my battle group without detection?”
“Unknown, sir,” Badi responded. “Though it is possible .. . very small aircraft, weighing less than five thousand kilograms, flying less than two hundred fifty kilometers per hour, and greater than fifteen kilometers from the center of the group, would be squelched from the combat radar display as a non-hostile. Once our attack began, something that small might be ignored or omitted.”
“Damn your eyes, Badi, that so-called non-hostile is now an unidentified aircraft less than ten kilometers from my battle group! ” Tufayli shouted. “I want it destroyed immediately—no, wait! Is it transmitting anything? Can we identify any signals it might be sending ... ?”
“Stand by, sir,” Badi said. A few moments later: “Sir, the object is transmitting non-directional microwave signals in random, frequency- agile burst patterns. We can detect the signals, but only for very short periods of time. We cannot record or decode the signals.” Tufayli felt his anger rising up through his throat. Badi was very fond of jargon—it was one of his few faults. “Non-directional signals, burst patterns . . . are they satellite transmissions, Badi?”
“They do not appear to be jamming, uplink, or radar energy patterns, so the best estimate would be satellite signals,” Badi responded.
“Before that contact gets out of optimal Crotale or SA-N-9 missile range, I want those microwave signals identified and analyzed,” Tufayli ordered. “Then I want a listing of all vessels between us and the contact’s course to the southwest. Maybe the contact is some sort of reconnaissance aircraft, returning to its home. I want that identified and reported to me immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” Badi acknowledged, and ordered the batde staff to work on this new problem. “Sir, unidentified aircraft is at eight kilometers, still on a constant heading south-southwest at two hundred kilometers per hour.” Badi was handed a report, message form. “No luck in identifying or decoding the signals it is transmitting.”
“Very well. Destroy it,” Tufayli casually ordered.
Fifteen seconds later, just before the first assault helicopter left the Khomeini*s deck forward of the island superstructure, the battle staff turned and watched as a bright streak of fire shot upward from the deck of the Chinese destroyer Zhanjiang, then gracefully arced toward the southwest and dived straight down. The first French- made Crotale surface-to-air missile launch was followed by two more, but the other two were unnecessary. Three seconds later they could see a bright blob of light in the sky, and a sharp boom! rolled across the water.
“Unidentified aircraft destroyed, sir,” Badi reported.
“Very good,” Tufayli said. He was still amazed at the incredible power at his fingertips. Yes, the Khomeini and its air group was an awesome weapon, but the destroyer Zhanjiang had as much long- range killing power as an entire Iranian artillery battalion. Tufayli controlled the skies, seas, and soon the land for 100 kilometers from where he sat, and the feeling was almost beyond comprehension. “Have one of the escorts send a launch to search for wreckage.” “Yes, sir.”
“Where is the report on the ships along that unidentified aircraft s course?”
“Still cataloging all vessels along that projected course line, sir,” Badi responded. “The flight path takes it very close to the Omani and UAE coastlines, and there are several major oil platforms ...”
“It won’t be an Arab base—no Gulf states possess such sophisticated systems,” Tufayli said irritably. “Any major Western vessels reported in this area recently?”
Badi searched the initial list quickly, then put his finger on one line: “Yes, sir, just one. An American rescue-and-salvage vessel, the Valley Mistress. Identified by Sudanese coast patrol transiting the Red Sea three days ago, en route to Bahrain ...”
“Identification?”
“Former Edenton-class salvage-and-rescue ship, three thousand tons, one hundred thirty men, long endurance, helicopter pad, and hangar facilities,” Badi responded, reading from a copy of a Sudanese coast guard patrol report that had been forwarded to the Iranian battle group commander. “Privately owned but registered under the U.S. Navy Ready Reserve Fleet. Not inspected since leaving Port Said on its Suez Canal transit.”
Tufayli was positive the unidentified aircraft, which he suspected was a small reconnaissance aircraft, possibly a balloon or drone, had come from that ship—it had the right size to handle such complex operations. “Send an electronic reconnaissance helicopter out to take some photos and scan the ship for unusual electronic emissions,” Tufayli ordered. “In particular, try to get the ship to respond to a satellite communications transponder enquiry. I want a direct overflight—let us see what that so-called salvage ship does when threatened. Launch photo or decoy flares, drop a bomb, fire a marker rocket toward that ship—anything, but try to elicit a reaction.” .
Badi issued the orders, and a Kamov-25 reconnaissance helicopter, fitted with sensitive electronic warfare sensors and transmitters, was airborne within five minutes and headed southwest toward the American salvage ship.
Aboard the s.s. Valley Mistress
THAT SAME TIME
“Lost contact with Skywalker,” the reconnaissance technician reported. “I had a brief lock-on by the Ku-band Crotale radar, then gone.”
Jon Masters was mad enough to chew on a bulkhead door. “They got Skywalker, dammit!”
“Well, we’re out of the recon business—and the Iranians will be gunning for us next,” Paul White said. On shipwide intercom, he radioed, “Attention all hands, this is Lightfoot. Our reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by hostile action. We can expect a visit from Iranian patrols any minute now. All stations, begin a code-red scrub, repeat, begin code-red scrub procedures immediately. Initiate Buddy Time profile procedures. Helm, steer a direct course for Omani territorial waters, best speed. All section team leaders, meet me on the bridge. Lightfoot out.”
“Hey, wait a minute, Colonel!” Masters said. The technicians in the reconnaissance section had immediately begun deactivating their equipment—not by using the checklist, but instead by yanking cables and pulling plugs. It didn’t matter if yanking a hot plug caused a computer subsystem to lock up or suffer damage, because they were going to fit hundreds of pounds of explosives to all of it, drop it over the side, then set off the explosives. All paper records went into red plastic “burn bags” for shredding and burning; software disks went into “smash bags”
for magnetic erasure and destruction. “You called for a code red without even consulting me? It’s my gear, you know!”
“Jon, buddy, stop thinking with your nuts or your pocketbook for one damned second,” White said as he helped prepare the equipment for disposal. The control units were mounted in large suitcaselike enclosures, all of which had spaces built into the frames for cooling and access—those same access spaces made it easy to slip half-pound bars of C4 plastic explosives into the equipment cases. Fitted with simple timers activated by seawater, the explosives would sink several feet before automatically detonating. The pieces would be very, very difficult to find.
Yes, they were now in international waters, and soon they would be in Omani territorial waters, but White had no doubt in his mind that Iran would try to recover any evidence that the Valley Mistress was a spy ship. They would violate a stack of international maritime laws to get what they wanted.
“It’ll take one of those Iranian fighters just five minutes to shoot an anti-ship missile into us and disable the ship,” White went on, helping carry the first of several dozen containers out to the rail. “Ten minutes after that we could have an Iranian helicopter assault team dropping on deck. Sixty minutes after that, we could have an Iranian frigate pull up alongside. Now if they find any of this gear on board, we’ll be hauled away as spies, and we’ll never see the United States again—if they let us live.”
Masters wasn’t listening. “But at least let me transmit some of the data, save some of the records,” Masters protested. “This is supposed to be an operational evaluation—I’m still trying to collect performance data.”
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