by Dale Brown
Shadow Command
( Patrick McLanahan - 14 )
Dale Brown
General Patrick McLanahan's new Aerospace Battle Force has grown into a full-fledged task force based on the Armstrong Space Station. Providing almost instant access to space and every corner of the globe using the Black Stallion spaceplanes, the ABF's powerful network of satellites and unmanned aircraft controlled from space can not only attack any target anywhere on the planet within hours but can even invade any computer network as easily as making a phone call.
But the program has its critics and doomsayers, including Russia, the United Nations, and the American press. Wealthy, Western-educated, and sophisticated Russian president Leonid Zevitin uses a combination of top-secret anti-spacecraft weaponry, fearmongering, and new U.S. president Joseph Gardner's own egotism in an effective plan to eliminate all support for the space program. Gardner and his allies in Congress and the Pentagon will stop at nothing-even destroying one of their own-to get what they want.
Yet McLanahan and his forces refuse to allow the Russian aggression to stand. McLanahan ignores directives from the White House and Pentagon to stand down and orders the ABF to attack secret Russian bases in Iran.
President Gardner orders McLanahan's immediate arrest. But before authorities can throw him in jail, they have to figure out how to retrieve him from the space base orbiting the earth. Currently in control of the Aerospace Battle Force from Armstrong Space Station, McLanahan closely watches Russia's movement of weaponry while defending himself against the President's attempts to discredit him. In a race against time, McLanahan must outmaneuver his own countrymen, defeat the Russians, and expose the truth. . or die trying.
Dale Brown
Shadow Command
DEDICATION
This novel is dedicated to all who make the often difficult decision to do one simple thing: Go For It. When you see it happen, it’s more exhilarating than a space launch, and twice as powerful.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
AMERICANS:
JOSEPH GARDNER, President of the United States
KEN T. PHOENIX, Vice President
CONRAD F. CARLYLE, President’s National Security Adviser
MILLER H. TURNER, Secretary of Defense
GERALD VISTA, Director of National Intelligence
WALTER KORDUS, White House Chief of Staff
STACY ANNE BARBEAU, senior U.S. senator from Louisiana, Senate majority leader; Colleen Morna, her aide
GENERAL TAYLOR J. BAIN, USMC, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
GENERAL CHARLES A. HUFFMAN, Air Force chief of staff
AIR FORCE GENERAL BRADFORD CANNON, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
ARMY GENERAL KENNETH LEPERS, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
MAJOR GENERAL HAROLD BACKMAN, commander of the Fourteenth Air Force; also commander of Joint Functional Component Command-Space (JFCC-S) of U.S. Strategic Command
LIEUTENANT GENERAL PATRICK MCLANAHAN, commander of the High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC), Elliott AFB, Nevada
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID LUGER, deputy commander of HAWC
COLONEL MARTIN TEHAMA, incoming commander of HAWC
MAJOR GENERAL REBECCA FURNESS, commander of the First Air Battle Force (air operations), Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base (ARB), Nevada
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAREN MACE, Air Battle Force operations officer, 111th Bomb Wing commander, and EB-1C mission commander
MAJOR WAYNE MACOMBER, deputy commander (ground operations) of the First Air Battle Force, Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, Nevada
MARINE CORPS MASTER SERGEANT CHRIS WOHL, NCOIC, First Air Battle Force
U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAPTAIN CHARLIE TURLOCK, CID pilot
CAPTAIN Hunter “Boomer” NOBLE, XR-A9 Black Stallion spacecraft commander, Elliott Air Force Base, Groom Lake
U.S. NAVY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LISETTE “FRENCHY” MOULAIN, XR-A9 spacecraft commander
U.S. MARINE CORPS MAJOR JIM TERRANOVA, XR-A9 mission commander
ANN PAGE, PH.D., former U.S. senator, astronaut, and space weapon engineer
AIR FORCE MASTER SERGEANT VALERIE “SEEKER” LUKAS, Armstrong Space Station sensor operator
IRANIANS:
GENERAL HESARAK AL-KAN BUZHAZI, leader of the Persian military coup
AZAR ASSIYEH QAGEV, heir presumptive of the Peacock Throne of Persia
LIEUTENANT COLONEL PARVIZ NAJAR AND MAJOR MARA SAIDI, Azar Qagev’s aides-de-camp
COLONEL MOSTAFA RAHMATI, commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, Tehran-Mehrabad Airport
MAJOR QOLOM HADDAD, leader of Buzhazi’s personal security team
MASOUD NOSHAHR, Lord High Chancellor of the Qagev royal court and marshal of the court’s council of war
AYATOLLAH HASSAN MOHTAZ, supreme leader in exile of the Islamic Republic of Iran
RUSSIANS:
LEONID ZEVITIN, president of the Russian Federation
PETER ORLEV, president’s chief of staff
ALEXANDRA HEDROV, minister of foreign affairs
IGOR TRUZNYEV, chief of the Federal Security Bureau
ANATOLI VLASOV, secretary of the Russian security council
MIKHAIL OSTENKOV, minister of national defense
GENERAL KUZMA FURZYENKO, Russian chief of the general staff
GENERAL NIKOLAI OSTANKO, chief of staff of the Russian army
GENERAL ANDREI DARZOV, chief of staff of the Russian air force
WOLFGANG ZYPRIES, German laser engineer working with the Russian air force
WEAPONS AND ACRONYMS
9K89—small Russian surface-to-surface missile
ARB—Air Reserve Base
ATO—air tasking order
BDU-58 Meteor—precision-guided vehicle designed to protect payloads from the heat of re-entry through the atmosphere; can carry approximately 4,000 pounds
CIC—Combat Information Center
coonass—a person of Cajun ethnicity
E-4B—National Airborne Operations Center
E-6B Mercury—U.S. Navy airborne communications and command post aircraft
EB-1D—B-1 Lancer bomber modified as an unmanned long-range supersonic attack plane
ETE—estimated time en route
FAA Part 91—regulations governing private pilots and aircraft
FSB—Russian Federal Security Bureau, follow-on to the KGB
HAWC—High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center
ICD—implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
Ilyushin—Russian inflight refueling tanker aircraft
MiG—Mikoyan-Gureyvich, Russian military aircraft maker
OSO—offensive systems officer
RQ-4 Global Hawk—high-altitude long-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft
SAR—synthetic aperture radar; also search and rescue
Skybolt—space-based anti-ballistic missile laser
SPEAR —Self-Protection Electronically Agile Reaction network intrusion defense system
sun-synchronous—an Earth orbit on which a satellite passes over the same spot at the same time of day
Tupolev—twin-engine Russian jet bomber
USAFE—U.S. Air Forces in Europe
VFR—Visual Flight Rules
Vomit Comet—aircraft used to fly parabolic flights to simulate weightlessness
XAGM-279A SkySTREAK (Scramjet Tactical Rapid Employment Attack, or “Streaker”) — air-launched hypersonic attack missile, 4,000 pounds, 12 feet long, 24 inches in diameter; uses a solid rocket motor to boost the missile to Mach 3, then switches to a JP-7 jet fuel and compressed atmospheric oxygen scramjet to cruise at Mach 10; inertial and precision GPS navigation; satellite datalink operator mid-course reprogramming; ballistic fligh
t profile max range 600 miles; after accelerating to Mach 10, releases precision-guided warhead with millimeter-wave radar and imaging infrared terminal guidance with auto-target discrimination or satellite datalink remote operator target selection; no warhead; two can be carried aboard EB-1C Vampire bomber in aft bomb bay; four carried internally or four externally by EB-52 Megafortress; four carried internally by B-2 stealth bomber
XR-A9—single-stage to orbit “Black Stallion” spaceplane
REAL-WORLD NEWS EXCERPTS
STRATFOR MORNING INTELLIGENCE BRIEF, 18 JANUARY 2007–1216 GMT — CHINA, UNITED STATES
— U.S. intelligence agencies believe China destroyed the aging Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite in a successful anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test Jan. 11, China Daily reported Jan. 18, citing an article to appear in the Jan. 22 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. U.S. intelligence agencies are still attempting to verify the ASAT test, which would signify that China has a major new military capability…
…The new cloud of debris orbiting the Earth is an indication of things to come should two space-faring nations face off in a conflict. Especially in the case of the United States, space-based assets have become too essential an operational tool to be ignored any longer in times of war.
STRATFOR DAILY INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY, 3 APRIL 2007—U.S./IRAN:
U.S. attacks against Iran would not lead to a decisive military defeat of Tehran and would be a political mistake, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said. He added that it is possible for the United States to damage Iran’s military, but not to win a conflict outright.
STRATFOR INTELLIGENCE BRIEF, 7 SEPTEMBER 2007
— Cooperation between the Russian Federal Security Service and Iran’s Interior Ministry will enhance Iran’s border security, First Deputy Director-General of Russian Federal Security and Border Services Viktor Shlyakhtin said, according to an IRNA report. Shlyakhtin is in Iran to inspect Iranian-Russian projects in areas of Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province that border Afghanistan and Pakistan.
RED OCTOBER: RUSSIA, IRAN, AND IRAQ
— STRATFOR
Geopolitical Intelligence Report, 17 September 2007—Copyright © Strategic Forecasting Inc.
— …The Americans need the Russians not to provide fighter aircraft, modern command-and-control systems, or any of the other war-making systems that the Russians have been developing. Above all else, they want the Russians not to provide the Iranians any nuclear-linked technology.
Therefore, it is no accident that the Iranians claimed over the weekend that the Russians told them they would do precisely that.
…[Russian president Vladimir] Putin can align with the Iranians and place the United States in a far more complex situation than it otherwise would be in. He could achieve this by supporting Syria, arming militias in Lebanon, or even causing significant problems in Afghanistan, where Russia retains a degree of influence in the North…
STRATFOR INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY, 25 OCTOBER 2007, © STRATFOR INC.
— During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Oct. 16 visit to Tehran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asked him to order Russian experts to help Iran figure out how Israel jammed Syrian radars prior to the Sept. 6 air raid, a Stratfor source in Hezbollah said. Iran wants to rectify the problem associated with the failure of Syrian radars because Iran uses similar equipment, the source added.
RUSSIA, IRAN: THE NEXT STEP IN THE DIPLOMATIC TANGO
— STRATFOR
Global Intelligence Brief, 30 October 2007, © 2007 Stratfor, Inc. — …Russia has a fine-tuned strategy of exploiting its Middle Eastern allies’ interests for its own political purposes. Iran is the perfect candidate. It is a powerful Islamic state that is locked into a showdown with the United States over its nuclear program and Iraq. Though Washington and Tehran are constantly battling in the public sphere with war rhetoric, they need to deal with each other for the sake of their strategic interests.
Russia, meanwhile, has its own turf war with the United States that involves a range of hot issues, including National Missile Defense, renegotiating Cold War — era treaties, and Western interference in Russia’s periphery. By demonstrating that Moscow has some real sway over the Iranians, Russia gains a useful bargaining chip to use in its dealings with the United States…
ALTAY OPTICAL–LASER SOURCEBOOK, 28 December 2007
— The Scientific Research Institute of Precision Instrument Engineering [of the Russian Federation] has established a branch satellite tracking facility called the Altay Optical-Laser Center (AOLS) near the small Siberian town of Savvushka. The center consists of two sites, one of which is now operational and the other of which is intended to go into operation in or after 2010.
The present site has a laser rangefinder for precision orbit determination, and, for the first time in Russia, a telescope (60 cm aperture) there has been equipped with an adaptive optics system for high-resolution imaging of satellites. The second site will be equipped with a 3.12-meter satellite-imaging telescope generally similar to the one the United States operates in Hawaii.
…Successful implementation of the AOLS 3.12-meter system would allow satellites to be imaged with a resolution of 25 cm [9.8 inches] or better out to a range of 1,000 km [621 miles].
PROLOGUE
Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON
OVER EASTERN SIBERIA
FEBRUARY 2009
“Stand by…ready…ready…begin climb, now,” the ground controller radioed.
“Acknowledged,” the pilot of the Russian Federation’s Mikoyan-Gurevich-31BM long-range interceptor responded. He gently eased back on his control stick and began feeding in power. The twin Tumanski R15-BD-300 engines, the most powerful engines ever put on a jet fighter, barked once as the afterburners ignited, then quickly roared to life as the engines’ fuel turbopumps caught up with the massive streams of air flooding inside, turning air and fuel into raw power and acceleration.
The pilot’s eyes darted back and forth from the power gauges to the heads-up display, which showed two crossed needles with a circle in the middle, similar to an Instrument Landing System. He made gentle, almost imperceptible control inputs to keep the crossed needles centered in the circle. His inputs had to be tiny because the tiniest slip or skid now, with his nose almost forty degrees above the horizon and climbing, could result in a disruption of the smooth airflow into the engine intakes, causing a blowout or compressor stall. The MiG-31, known as “Foxhound” in the West, was not a forgiving machine — it regularly killed sloppy or inattentive crewmembers. Built for speed, it required precise handling at the outer edges of its impressive flight envelope.
“Passing ten thousand meters…Mach two point five…fifteen thousand…forty degrees nose-high…airspeed dropping off slightly,” the pilot intoned. The MiG-31 was one of the few planes that could accelerate while in a steep climb, but for this test flight they were going to take it higher than its service ceiling of twenty thousand meters, and its performance dropped off significantly then. “Passing twenty K, airspeed below Mach two…passing twenty-two K…stand by…approaching release speed and altitude…”
“Keep it centered, Yuri,” the MiG’s backseater said over intercom. The needles had drifted slightly to the edge of the circle. The circle represented their target tonight, transmitted to them not by the MiG-31’s powerful phased-array radar but by a network of space tracking radars around the Russian Federation and fed to them by a nearby data relay aircraft. They would never see their target and would probably never know if their mission was a success or failure.
“It’s getting less responsive…harder to correct,” the pilot breathed. Both crewmembers were wearing space suits and full-face sealed helmets, like astronauts, and as the cabin altitude climbed, the pressure in the suit climbed to compensate, making it harder to move and breathe. “H
ow…much…longer?”
“Ten seconds…nine…eight…”
“Come on, you old pig, climb,” the pilot grunted.
“Five seconds…missile ready…tree, dva, adeen…pazhar! Launch!”
The MiG-31 was at twenty-five thousand meters above Earth, one thousand kilometers per hour airspeed, with the nose fifty degrees above the horizon, when the ship’s computer issued the launch command, and a single large missile was ejected clear of the fighter. Seconds after ejection, the missile’s first-stage rocket motor ignited, a tremendous plume of fire erupted from the nozzles, and the missile disappeared from view in the blink of an eye.
Now it was time to fly for himself and not the mission, the pilot reminded himself. He brought back the throttles slowly, carefully, and at the same time started a slight left bank. The bank helped decrease lift and bleed off excessive speed, and would also help bring the nose down without subjecting the crew to negative G-forces. The pressure began to subside, making it a bit easier to breathe — or was it just because their part of the mission was…?
The pilot lost concentration just for a split second, but that was enough. At the moment he let a single degree of sideslip creep in, the fighter flew through the disrupted supersonic air created by the big missile’s exhaust tail, and airflow through the left engine was nearly cut off. One engine coughed, sputtered, and then began to scream as fuel continued to pour into the burner cans but the hot exhaust gases were no longer being pushed out.
With one engine running and the other on fire, with not enough air to restart the stalled engine, the MiG-31 launch aircraft was doomed. But the missile it fired performed flawlessly.
Fifteen seconds after the first-stage motor ignited, it separated from the missile and the second-stage motor fired. Speed and altitude climbed quickly. Soon the missile was at five hundred miles above Earth, flying at over three thousand miles per hour, and the second-stage motor separated. Now the third stage remained. High above the atmosphere, it needed no control surfaces to maneuver, instead relying on tiny nitrogen-gas thrusters for maneuvering. A radar in the nose of the third stage activated and began looking at a precise spot in space, and a second later it locked onto its quarry.