“Twenty B-2s and sixty B-ls to cover all of the long-range strike contingencies around the world?” McLanahan muttered. “You can’t do it, sir. Deploy the force to Diego Garcia for a Middle East conflict, then swing them to Guam for an Asia conflict? Maybe for a few days, but not for more than that. Who leads the way for the little guys?”
“That’s why we got the Navy and the F-117,” Samson said. “Bombers aren’t the only answer, MC, you know that. You’re forgetting the other twenty-five Air Force, Reserve, and Guard combat strike wings, the thirteen Navy air wings, the four Marine air wings…”
“Tactical bombers need forward airstrips, lots of tankers, and lots of ground support,” McLanahan reminded the general, “and naval bombers need carriers that can sail safely within range of the target. A conflict in Asia, for example, could do away with all of these.”
“But a B-52 can’t stand up to modern-day air defenses, Patrick,” Samson said. “All of the reports and studies prove this. Even with two- hundred mile standoff weapons, a B-52 can’t survive. Put it in a low- or zero-threat environment and it could chew up a lot of earth, but it’s not worth the money to support a bomber that can only be used once the war’s almost won.”
“General, the Megafortress will cream anything the Air Force, Navy, or Marines can put up against it,” Jon Masters. “All by itself, it’ll go up against a squadron of whatever you want to put up and ‘destroy’ every strategic target in the RED FLAG range — and it’ll come out alive, ready to fight again.”
“Spoken like a true salesman, Doc,” Samson said over his shoulder, with a broad smile. To McLanahan he said, “I’m not promising that anything will come of this, you two, remember that. I did this flight test as a favor to you and Dr. Masters. You and Jon might.not get a contract from the Air Force after all this is over, no matter how well your gear works or how much of your own money you spend.”
“When the Air Force sees what we can do, they’ll make a deal,” Masters said confidently. “They won’t be able to resist.”
“General, Jon’s business is making money — we all understand that,” McLanahan said earnestly. “But my objective is to build the best long- range rapid-deployment attack fleet possible with our shrinking defense budget, and I believe part of that objective is the EB-52B Megafortress, combined with smart standoff attack and defense-suppression weapons. Jon and his company are backing my ideas. All I want is a chance to show the brass what we can do, and we need your help. We’re the best, General. We need the chance to prove it.”
Samson smiled and shook his head in amusement. “You better watch yourself, Colonel — you’re starting to sound an awful lot like that old warhorse friend of yours, Brad Elliott.” McLanahan smiled at the mention of his mentor. “He’s a good buddy and one fine man, but he sure got stung by the hornets from all the nests he stirred up. A friendly word of caution: don’t be like him.”
Judging by the silence, Samson guessed that McLanahan hadn’t heard a word he said.
“Loyal fathers of the Party, stand and pay respect to our Paramount Leader!”
The assembled general officers and ministers of the People’s Liberation Army stood and bowed deeply as the president of the People’s Republic of China, Paramount Leader Jiang Zemin, entered the conference chamber, bowed slightly to the others, and took his place at the head of the table. They remained standing, all bowing at the waist except Jiang, until the Chinese anthem, “Xiang Yang Hong,” or “East Is Red,” was played. They stood at attention until after the Intonation of Strength and Solidarity was read; then the ministers applauded the Paramount Leader as he took his seat. The Intonation was a solemn promise to support and defend the Communist Party, Zhongguo Renmin Gongheguo, the People’s Republic of China, and the people; but unlike the American Pledge of Allegiance, the Intonation contained a threat of the particular punishment one might expect if he or she did not sacrifice ones life for the Party and for the people — disgrace, humiliation, death, and public dishonor of self and ones ancestors.
Jiang Zemin carefully watched the faces of the assembled ministers and generals as the Intonation was read, looking to see if anyone’s eyes glanced over toward his or to anyone else’s — the threat of death and humiliation in the Intonation was sometimes enough to make a guilty or conspiratorial man fidgety. It was of course possible to bury any outward signs of treason, but Jiang knew that a man bent on betrayal sometimes looked for reassurance from coconspirators or for evidence that he was under suspicion. Jiang was an expert in detecting such subtle, outward signs of a mans innermost fears.
Paramount Leader and President Jiang Zemin was seventy-one years old, in excellent health and looking far younger than his years. He had a square, tough-looking face with a high forehead and thick dyed black hair combed straight back. He wore a simple olive short-sleeved open-collar rough-cotton tunic shirt belted at the waist, with matching pants. His horn-rim spectacles were plain; he wore no jewelry except a wristwatch. Educated as an engineer but trained in Communist Party doctrine and theory in Moscow, formerly the mayor and Communist Party chief of Chinas second-largest city, Shanghai, Jiang was a master at power politics in China, a man well-suited to run his nation’s large and complicated Party mechanism.
Today, Jiang Zemin was president of the worlds most populous nation and, as such, arguably the most powerful man on planet Earth. Among his many responsibilities and duties, the engineer from Jiangsu Province was general secretary of the six-member Chinese Communist Party Secretariat, the genesis for all political thought in China; chairman of the Politburo, the group of twenty-one senior Party leaders who determined all Chinese political ideology and direction; chairman of the Standing Committee, the highest policy-making body in China and the body who actually wrote legislation (the 3,500-member National People’s Congress always rubber-stamped their approval of all legislation drafted by the Standing Committee and Politburo); chairman of the powerful Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party, who determined Party policy in military affairs; chairman of the Central Military Commission, responsible for implementing Party military policy in the People’s Liberation Army; and commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army — a force of two hundred million regular, reserve, paramilitary, and militia troops.
Jiang not only had the power to enforce laws, but also made laws and even created the philosophy and ideas behind the laws, the ideals that formed the very basis of Communist Chinese thought. He was not only leader and chief executive of the most populous nation on earth, but was also commander in chief of the largest military force on the planet — and now he was planning to set that huge machine in motion.
Jiang was presiding over a crucial late-night meeting of the Central Military Commission, made up of civilian and military members in charge of the key divisions of the military infrastructure: the Minister of National Defense, Chi Haotian; High General Chin Po Zihong, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA); General Yu Yongpo, chief of General Political Affairs of the PLA; General Fu Qanyou, chief of the PLA General Logistics Department; the chiefs of staff of the army, air force, navy, and the East China Sea Fleet; and the chiefs of China’s ten military and civilian intelligence agencies and institutes.