Brown, Dale - Independent 02

by Hammerheads (v1. 1)

  “Let’s get to air traffic.” The computer-sketched chart changed; now the area was much wider. “This depicts the Air Defense Identification Zone, the ADIZ. All aircraft entering the United States are required to contact air traffic control before entering the ADIZ. Fewer than fifty percent do it. They know we don’t have resources now to respond with. They know that they have only a one in twenty chance of being intercepted. Military air-defense forces key in on very specific flight parameters—high speed, low altitude, military strike flight profiles. Their job is not to go after the smugglers, even if they can see them and track them. Understandably, we don’t like our military chasing civilians, even if they’re criminals.

  “In spite of the Customs Air Service’s fine record, they don’t have the resources to intercept every unidentified aircraft they detect,” Hardcastle said. “Like air defense, they key on specific flight parameters. They go after big targets, obvious smuggling profiles and intelligence reports—”

  GefiFar broke in. “If we had a hundred aircraft, we’d do it the same way—we’d only expand those flight parameters you mentioned. Instead of keying in on aircraft exceeding one hundred and eighty knots, for example, we’d go after planes exceeding one-fifty. You can’t pair one law-enforcement aircraft with one inbound aircraft. It can’t be done—”

  “There’s a way it can be done, Inspector,” Hardcastle said. He motioned to the right screen, which showed the territorial waters in orange around the United States, and the right screen, which showed the ADIZ in orange. He pressed a button and ten white lines were drawn across the orange bands leading into the U.S. coastline aimed right at the major port cities of the southeast. The center screen changed, showing an expanded view of the southern tip of Florida, with a blinking dot in the center of the screen. The territorial waters and ADIZ airspace were still outlined in orange. The white line, which in the center screen led from the Gulf of Mexico toward Miami, was now a thin corridor, with the blinking dot at the edge of the territorial waters area.

  “This is how we propose to do it. The area in orange, from twelve to two miles out, becomes a positive identification zone for both aircraft and vessels. Neither may transit this area without permission and without positive identification at all times. Our surveillance systems can detect any vessel larger than fifteen feet in length and track it with precision. We’ve demonstrated capability for detecting and tracking any vessel within two hundred miles of our shores.

  “This is how authorized vessels in the positive control area can be tracked and monitored, sir. The computers that operate with our radar systems can monitor hundreds of vessels simultaneously. Anyone operating inside the positive control area can be monitored continuously.”

  “But,” Customs Service Commissioner Crandall interjected, “we can monitor those ships but they can still be smugglers and they can still operate inside our waters. What’s different about your system?”

  Hardcastle pointed to the blinking dot on the center screen outside the edge of the orange area. “This dot is our location, sir. Hammerhead One, forty-five miles southeast of Homestead. With this system in full operation all vessels entering our territorial waters must stop at one of these platforms for registration, inspection of documents and cargo and positive identification before proceeding.”

  “You’re suggesting,” Crandall said, “that we set up these oil platforms as offshore border-inspection points for ships?”

  “This’s right, sir. Hammerhead One can accommodate several large ships alongside, and we can service others within a few hundred yards. A vessel must stop, have its papers examined, must submit to a Coast Guard or Customs Service inspection; these can be like border-crossing points on land. We can decide to do a documents- only review, a cursory inspection, a more detailed inspection, or a full-vessel search with the crew removed. Once cleared through the entry point it must follow this corridor to its destination unless it is cleared to deviate.

  “It seems you could have some serious bottlenecks at these inspection points,” Crandall said.

  “More platforms and extra manpower could be added as traffic increased.”

  “What happens to unidentified vessels in the orange zone?” Secretary of Transportation Coultrane challenged.

  “They’re violating American law and are subject to arrest.”

  “Which brings us back to the original question, how do you get the guy that’s in violation? You said yourself that detection is not a problem. Interception is. How do you propose doing it?”

  “Isolating the target is the primary way to get him. It’s easier to intercept if he’s all alone in restricted waters. Deploying helicopters or aircraft like the Sea Lion tilt-rotor offshore on oil platforms such as Hammerhead One is the other answer. We also propose, as a part of the interdiction mix ...”

  He hit another button on his remote-control device and two of the three screens changed at once, showing two different aerial video images—one focusing on the sky, the other scanning the crystal blue waters below. The aircraft taking the shots were from different altitudes, some very close to the water, some apparently at very high altitude.

  “What’s you’re seeing are video shots from two different UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles—drones. These drones are controlled right from this console in front of you by computer commands radioed to the drones via secure UHF data links—if we have a radar that can see a target we can steer a drone over it.”

  Hardcastle moved over to the console in front of the giant screens. “Older drone-control centers used to look like aircraft cockpits with throttles and control sticks and flight instruments and you had to be a pilot to fly a drone. Now we highlight a target and the computer controlling the drone’s autopilot flies it to intercept its target.” Hardcastle reached over to the console and picked up a large model of what appeared to be a V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft. It had the same twin rotors mounted on the ends of its main wing, a cylindrical fuselage, ski-type landing rigs and ports for bulbous sensors and scanners.

  “This is a one-tenth scale model of the Sky Lion, the unmanned drones we’re using for today’s tests,” Hardcastle said. “The real UAV is about thirty feet long with a twenty-foot wingspan and carries two five-hundred-shaft-horsepower engines. It has a maximum speed of almost two hundred knots, a minimum speed of zero knots and can stay aloft for about six hours. It can be launched and recovered from a station platform, from shore or from a large cutter-class ship— stowed, each drone can fit in a standard one-car garage. Each carries sensors to help it carry out is mission. Also a small radar to help it guide itself to intercept, and a combined telescopic low-light and infrared camera for visual identification. They can also be outfitted with various payloads ...” He paused, studying the faces of the Vice President and the others in the room. “. . . Such as weapons.”

  The reaction was immediate from Customs Commissioner Crandall. “You want a fleet of robot planes with guns on board flying around out here with all the other air traffic?”

  Martindale held up a hand. “Let him finish, Commissioner. Go on, Admiral.”

  Hardcastle took a deep breath. He’d survived that one. “To clarify, we would have the option of placing a variety of payloads aboard the Sky Lion drones. Their normal configuration would be with sensors only. As with the Sea Lion aircraft, however, we would maintain armed aircraft and vessels and we would prevent any vessel or aircraft from entering restricted territory, with force if necessary.”

  Hardcastle nodded to the console operators, who quickly set up the next presentation. “We have a Sky Lion drone tracking a Coast Guard vessel at this very moment. Our surveillance radars have detected the target... here,” Hardcastle said, using his pointer. “It’s a Coast Guard forty-foot FCI, fast coastal interceptor, heading toward south Florida.”

  He motioned to the left screen, which showed a steady crystal- clear picture of the Caribbean. “Here on the left screen is the bird’s- eye view from the Sky Lion drone, along with its flight parameters
and status readouts.” At a signal from Hardcastle, McLanahan hit buttons on his console, then turned in his seat to face Martindale and the rest of the Cabinet officials.

  “As the Admiral has explained, sir,” McLanahan said, “the drones are controlled by computer, using sensors both on the drones and by radar and data-link commands from this platform and on shore. I’ve just commanded the Sky Lion drone to intercept that vessel.”

  The scene from the drone tilted sharply and soon it was in a fast descent toward the shimmering blue waters below. “Ten miles,” Hardcastle said. “The drone’s camera uses slaving signals from the main surveillance radar to aim its camera at the target. We should be picking it up any second.”

  Suddenly the screen changed from a standard video image to a black, wavy scene, with several lighter streaks and splotches running through the image. “I’ve switched to infrared scan to pick out the boat against the cooler water. The redder the color, the hotter the infrared return ... and there it is.” In the center of the image a bright red dot separated from the lighter pinks and yellows of the warm water, and a digital readout said that it had locked onto the suspected target. “The drone’? speed is about two hundred miles an hour in the descent. He’ll start slowing as he gets closer.” The infrared hot dot was getting larger. Occasionally McLanahan would switch back and forth from IR to normal video mode until the boat could plainly be seen against the choppy waters.

  “The drone is about a half-mile away now,” he said, pointing to the data readouts. “Its airspeed is now thirty knots—only a tilt-rotor type aircraft could decelerate from two hundred knots to thirty knots so fast, with such a stable platform. As it moves closer you’ll be able to make out more and more detail of the boat. In short, we’ve intercepted and identified a smuggling vessel.”

  “Of course, intercepting vessels in American waters is only one part of the process to close down the drug smuggling in this area,”

  Hardcastle said as McLanahan took his seat. “Stopping these boats in south Florida may slow drug trafficking nationwide only ten to fifteen percent, and although a ten to fifteen percent hike in the street price of cocaine or marijuana might help decrease the drug consumption, it’s not a guarantee and it’s not enough. The appetite is there. Dealing with it is a very long-range matter. Meanwhile, what’s isn’t available can’t be consumed.

  “In spite of the best efforts of the Customs Service and Coast Guard, more drugs are still brought in by air than by any other means. Air smuggling is fast, the smugglers retain control of their product longer, and they are relatively assured of success every time if they are organized well enough. If we can stop air smuggling, we can slow the rate of narcotics smuggling into the United States by thirty to forty percent. That’s significant.”

  Hardcastle motioned to the screen, which had changed to show thin white lines similar to previous depictions. “Our plan would use the same entry corridors for air traffic as with surface vessels. Incoming aircraft would be required to follow these corridors and stay at carefully specified altitudes. Surveillance radars along the corridors would track each aircraft to ensure he doesn’t stray from the corridor or from his assigned altitude. Any deviation from his assigned routing would be a violation and make him subject to interception.

  “Notice that these corridors are far from the popular drop sites used by smugglers, the Keys and the Everglades. The Everglades and remote areas of the Florida Keys would become one of the few restricted airspaces over land—areas where all aircraft must receive permission before entering.”

  Hardcastle motioned to the left large-screen monitor, where another drone was in flight. “This scene is from another drone we have orbiting nearby. Air interdiction requires different techniques than sea interdiction, so we’re using a different drone for this job.” He held up another model, but of a completely different aircraft than the Sky Lion. “This is called Seagull, although it hardly looks like a gull. Damned if I know how it got its name. It’s a fixed-wing drone, with a big delta main wing, canards—these smaller wings near the nose— for increased maneuverability, a three-hundred-horsepower, constant-speed pusher prop and a payload of almost seven hundred pounds. It can fly at speeds close to four hundred miles an hour down to about eighty and can stay aloft for better than ten hours. The aircraft has a forty-foot wingspan and is twenty feet long. Like the Sky Lion, it can be launched and recovered from the sea platforms, from shore or from special recovery ships.”

  “What about general aviation?” Coultrane pressed. “You’d be forcing non-commercial aircraft into the corridors. They’re often the worst trained pilots but they’d be in the most congested airspace.”

  “Mr. Secretary, it would be no more dangerous than a civilian plane transiting a terminal control area over a major city or a high- density airway,” Hardcastle told him.

  Coultrane shook his head, clearly not convinced.

  Hardcastle hurried on. “The problem of aircraft veering off from their intended landing point at the last minute and evading surveillance radar is at least mitigated with this system. Aircraft are tracked all the way to landing along these corridors—each corridor terminates at a port of entry, such as Miami International, Opa-Locka, Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa. If a plane tries to run away he can be tracked and an intercept set up, again using the Seagull drones or manned aircraft.”

  Hardcastle received a hand signal from McLanahan. “We’ve set up a special demonstration of this capability, Mr. Vice President,” McLanahan said. “At this moment we’re tracking a smuggler trying to cross into the United States from the southern Bahamas island chain. We’ve kept the Seagull drone in the vicinity of the target ever since first detection.” He motioned to the right large-screen TV, which showed the V-22C Sea Lion aircraft lifting off the landing pad four stories overhead.

  “With Brad Elliott in command,” Hardcastle picked it up from McLanahan, “we’ve scrambled the Sea Lion to pursue. On a normal intercept the Sea Lion would carry a ground assault team, usually two officers armed with rifles and sidearms.” The Sea Lion could briefly be glimpsed out the huge panoramic storm windows as it raced away from Hammerhead One after its quarry, its rotors slowly transitioning from vertical-lift to aircraft configuration as it picked up speed.

  The center screen showed an enlargement of the main control- console digital-radar scope. “Major McLanahan is designating the target now, and the drone will move to intercept and identify.” The scene from the drone, showing on the left screen, suddenly veered sharply right and descended at a tremendous rate as the drone raced after its new target.

  “The drone’s on-board radar has locked-on at eleven miles,” Hardcastle said. “It has a two-hundred-forty-knot overtake, which will eat up the distance between them in less than three minutes.”

  The target aircraft emerged seconds later in the center of the Seagull drone’s camera eye, a beige twin-engined aircraft. Gradually the aircraft loomed larger and larger as the drone closed in.

  “Three miles,” Hardcastle said. “With the telescopic camera, it looks like a Beech Baron, about eight or nine years old. Using its radar, the drone will now automatically move in close enough to read the aircraft’s registration number.”

  Moments later the drone had pulled in right on the target’s right rear quarter; the radar rangefinder indicated it was only a hundred feet away, with zero knots closure. “The drone is now flying in formation with the target,” Hardcastle said. “It will match all but the most violent maneuvers and stay within about a hundred feet.”

  The scene shifted slowly as McLanahan began manipulating a joystick to scan along the plane’s fuselage, and soon the center of the scene was filled with a series of small black letters and numbers.

  “You can read the registration numbers now,” McLanahan said, manipulating the camera controls. “This individual has an N-num- ber, indicating that this is an American-registered aircraft. It has small numbers, which is illegal—they’re supposed to be twelve inches high. Notice
the number 8 and the letter O. This registration number has been altered; the 8 used to be a 3, and the O used to be a C.

  “It’s a common trick to confuse agents in the air and on the ground,” Hardcastle said. “When we do a hot-list check this aircraft will come up with a clean rap sheet. A more intensive registration check will reveal that the number is bogus, but many times an agent will break off a pursuit when the computer reports ‘no wants, no warrants.’ ”

  The scene moved away from the numbers to the entire aircraft, and then slowly the full left side of the aircraft could be seen. “The drone is now moving around the aircraft off to its left, in full view of the pilot. Notice that the drone has moved out farther away from the suspect. This is because the drone’s radar is not being used to track the suspect—the drone is using steering signals from our tracking radars to keep up with the suspect.

  A moment later, the drone was ahead of the aircraft, with its camera focused on the aircraft’s cockpit. The pilot could be seen in the shot, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a thick black mustache. As the camera zoomed in, the Vice President gave a short gasp of surprise.

  “Look at that! That plane is full of drugs!” Visible just over the pilot’s right shoulder were bales of what appeared to be marijuana.

  “This guy is small-time,” Hardcastle said dryly. “He might be carrying only eight or nine hundred pounds—street value, about a quarter of a million. This might be his second run today. If he made three runs he could make a half-million dollars profit today even if he ditches his airplane in the Everglades at the end of the day.”