“Okay, Main Formation, Raptor 20; Raptor 20 is located north of Raptor-10 Formation. All aircraft are now Main Formation. Main Formation, steady on course two-four-zero and maintain assigned altitude separation.”
Nearly thirty seconds passed before the four leaders acknowledged steady on course 240.
“Jolly good, everyone. You Yanks are getting the spirit of this exercise. Now comes what we hope is the coup de grace, so cross your fingers. We are going to do one churn and burn, but instead of to the side, we are going to do this one vertically. When I give the order, you will turn on your tails and ascend at current speed. Thirty seconds into the ascent, I will give the order to level out. You are to level out back onto course two-four-zero. All leaders will level out on triple-zero altitudes plus five hundred feet, while wingmen are to steady up at the triple-zero.”
“Triple-zero, five-zero-zero plus I understand,” Franklin said aloud. “But it sounds strange over a tactical frequency.” “Hopefully, this will keep you from colliding with each other. Everyone understand?”
A series of double clicks went through the airways, reminding Franklin of crickets.
“Good. Now, within thirty seconds of leveling off and steadying up on course two-four-zero, we will do it again. Then again.”
“Mother, Raptor Leader; I thought you said we were going to only one churn and burn. We are approaching a fuel problem.”
“Roger, Raptor Leader; this is one churn and burn, but it involves three maneuvers. We have confidence you can do it. I am told by our wardroom that the odds have dropped to three to one on the Americans successfully completing this multiple maneuver. Now, Main Formation, after the third leg of this one churn and burn, we will turn toward the orbiting bandits and engage.”
Engage! They were really going to fight them? A fresh wave of adrenaline rushed through Franklin’s body. This was what he was trained to do: fight and win. Then the thought of the three-leg churn and burn had him wondering how dizzy he was going to be coming out. He looked at his weapons system. It was still ready-energized. A flip of the switch and he’d have weapons filling the sky with “howdy-dos.”
“Do not energize your weapons systems until I tell you to do so.”
Franklin looked at his energized weapons systems. Seemed foolish to turn it off now since they were going to engage the bandits. He reached forward to flip it off, thought about it, and left it on. It had been on throughout the time they’d been weaving and dodging the Chinese Air Force. Why turn it off now?
“Okay, everyone, wait for my command. You Yanks who haven’t done this one, for it to succeed means everything has to be done in seconds, not minutes. It means you are going to go on an aerial roller-coaster ride. Every time you ascend, coastal radar is going to pick up you. They’re going to count you; then you’re going to disappear from their radar. When you do it the second and third times, their automated system is going to count you as new contacts. It won’t take an astute radar operator long to figure out the first contacts are the same as the second and third. But in those minutes while they are deconflicting their system, we will have perceived tactical superiority over the enemy. Any questions?” the AIC asked, and then without waiting for an answer, he said, “Okay, jolly good. All aircraft sharp ascent, now!”
Franklin pulled up. Ahead of him, filling his vision was nothing but blue sky — from the Air Force anthem. A few seconds later, Mother gave the order to level off. Franklin rolled left, pulling a few Gs as he checked his altitude, made a slight course correction, and steadied up on 240. About a mile ahead was Raptor Leader. He smiled. She’s as nervous as I am about us colliding with each other. Then, suddenly, he was in the second vertical ascent and without much thought about it, the third series came and went. He checked his altimeter each time, making sure the last three digits were around 000.
“Jolly good…”
They really do say “jolly good," he thought.
“Main Formation, start steady descent to 18,500 feet. All leaders to take five-hundred-foot altitudes and wingmen steady at eighteen thousand. Maintain course two-four-zero. Energize weapons systems, but weapons tight unless I give a different order, understand?”
Several clicks filled the air.
Franklin noticed that the AIC was using feet instead of the metric system. More likely for the safety of us “Yanks” than for the British formation.
“Roger, everyone. For the weapons-tight order, I would like a verbal acknowledgment from everyone.”
Franklin listened to everyone acknowledging the weapons-tight order. He waited until a moment presented itself, and then acknowledged the order also. Mother wanted to make sure no one misunderstood the weapons-tight order. Weapons tight meant that no matter what happened, unless it was an emergency self-defense issue, they were forbidden to fire.
“Report when weapons systems energized,” the Royal Navy AIC broadcast.
The same sequence occurred again with each pilot reporting compliance.
“Okay, here comes the fun, my illustrious fighter pilots. We will start with Black Formation, followed by Raptor Leader, Raptor-10, and then Raptor-20 Formations. We are going to illuminate the battle space with fire-control radars. Red Formation is approaching your position from the northeast.…”
“Red Formation? Where in the hell did they come from?” he asked himself, immediately realizing that while they had been doing this churn-and-burn tactic, the Elizabeth had launched an additional formation of F-35 stealth fighters.
“They have not been detected by our opponents. They will add their fire-control radars to the mix. Should be a fine electromagnetic mess for my counterparts along the coast. Black Formation, you may start emitting fire-control radar emissions.”
“What if we paint a target?” Franklin asked himself.
“You are not to lock onto any target, but if your system should malfunction and you achieve lock-on, Main Formation, you are not to achieve it for longer than two seconds. No longer than two seconds. Would hate for the Chinese to fire real missiles in self-defense, now wouldn’t we?”
“But, when we lock on, that is an act of war and they are allowed to fire at us,” Crawford broadcast.
“Yeah, you tell them, Tight End,” Franklin mumbled.
“Yes, it is, and they may opt to fire on you. Let’s hope they don’t,” the AIC replied calmly.
Franklin thought he heard the AIC chuckle just as the man cut off his transmission. It confirmed to Franklin that the AIC was showing a bit of sadistic pleasure about this whole thing. “Oh, well," Franklin imagined the AIC saying to a fellow sailor, “looks as if we screwed this up. See if any of the ships can recover anyone alive."
The Raptor-only circuit tweaked in Franklin’s ear.
“Tight End, this is Pickles; the bandits are still in racetrack orbit. They’d have to break out to fire. I don’t think a two-second lock-on will give them time to fire.”
“Raptor Leader; you and wingman are now clear to illuminate your fire-control radar.”
Within two minutes, the four F-35 Royal Navy fighters and the six F-22A U.S. Air Force Raptors were filling the sky with airborne fire-control radar. Seconds later, the fire control from the British Red Formation joined the fray.