As they approached the huge bomber, Curtis stopped short.
"You can't… Elliott, you really did it this time, dammit., Curtis was staring at a long pylon on each wing, mounted between the fuselage and the inboard engine nacelles.
Each pylon carried six long, sleek missiles.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Elliott asked. "Advanced MediumRange Air-to-Air Missiles. Radar guided, with terminal infrared and home-on-jam guidance. Twenty-five mile range.
High-explosive proximity flak warheads. We've modified the main attack radar to act as a guidance radar for these Scorpions."
"Scorpions," Curtis muttered. "Dammit, Elliott. We don't even have Scorpions on our front-line fighters yet."
"But I've put them on an SAC bomber, sir," Elliott said.
"And they'll go on your B-1s, too.
"Also on each wing we've put two thousand-gallon external fuel tanks instead of the one normal fifteen-hundred gallon tank. Both the missile pylons and all four external tanks are jettisonable.
" We also have split fibersteel bomb bay doors, which are lighter and more radar-transparent. You'll see why they're split in a moment.
There are many places in this beast that radar energy will just pass through with zero reflectivity. The radar cross-section of the B-52 used to double with the bomb doors open-but not anymore. By applying the same technology to a B-1, which already has half the radar cross-section of a B-52.
you can make it practically invisible."
They reached the strange, unrecognizable tail of the airplane. "We eliminated the typical horizontal and vertical stabilizers and replaced them with a short, curved V-tail assembly. We built all of the tail-warning receivers and aft jammer antennas into the tail. We've also included an infrared search and warning system that is designed to detect air-to-air missile launches from the rear."
"You took the tail guns MP" Curtis said, pointing up at the very end of the plane. "No big Gatling multibarrel gun, like on the H-models?"
"Tail guns are antiquated," Elliott asked. "Even a radar guided Gatling gun is not effective enough against the current class of Soviet fighters we're expecting. Hell, some Soviet interceptors can actually outrun a fifty-caliber shell."
Curtis checked the tail end closer. "Well, you've got something up there. A larger fire-control radar, that's for sure.
What else?A flame thrower or something?"
"Land mines, " Elliott explained. "Actually, air mines. That enclosed cannon in the back fires twelve-inch-long flak canister rockets. The aft fire-control radar on the Megafortress tracks both the rocket and the enemy fighter, and it transmits steering signals to the rockets.
When the range between the fighter and the flak rocket is down to about two hundred yards or so, the fire-control computer detonates the rocket. The explosion s a pattern of metal chips out a couple hundred yards, send which acts like thousands of fifty-caliber bullets being fired all at once. There doesn't have to be a direct hit on the fighter.
"The fire-control radar has an increased detection range of about thirty miles," Elliott continued, as Curtis shook his head. "The rockets have a range of nearly three miles, which is very close to optimum infrared missile firing range."
' "Elliott," Curtis asked. "This is too much. Way too much. I don't believe you-" "General," Elliott interrupted, "you haven't seen nothin' yet. "Elliott waved to a nearby guard standing near the left wing-tip.
The guard spoke briefly into a walkie-talkie, received a reply, then waved to the general in response. Crouching below the ebony belly of the plane, Curtis and Elliott went inside the back half of the bomb bay. Once inside, Curtis stopped short.
"What the Mounted on a large drum-like rotary launcher in the aft portion of the sixty-foot-long bomb bay were fourteen long, sleek missiles.
"Our ace-in-the-hole, sir," Elliott asked. "Ten more brandnew AIM-120
Scorpion AMRAAM missiles. They can be guided by the fire-control radar, the bombing radar, or they can home-in on an enemy fighter's radar or on the fighter jamming transmissions. We have them facing aft, but they can attack any threat at any angle. If one of those radars has found a fighter, or if the threat-warning receivers can see it, a missile can hit it. The rotary launcher can pump out a missile once every two seconds."
" Unbelievable," Curtis asked. "Well, I suppose I should say it's about time, eh, Brad?Nuclear bombers with little machine guns going against Mach one fighters seemed awfully silly to me. "He examined the launcher. "I can't wait for you to tell me what the other rockets do."
"Ah, yes. Glad you reminded me," Elliott asked. "Four AGM-88B HARM missiles. HARM stands for High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile. They were the stars over Libya in 1985.The missiles home-in on either the radars themselves or, if the radars are turned off, they'll fly the last computed path to the target.
"Twenty-two air-to-air missiles, four air-to-ground missiles, and a total of fifty air mine rockets, all for bomber selfdefense," Elliott said, summing up. "Together with the usual chaff and flares and specialized electronic countermeasure packages installed on board, we think we've greatly increased the chances of this Megafortress reaching the target. Like I said, sir-a flying battleship."
"Armed to the teeth, all right," Curtis said. He closely examined the long, slender missiles on their launcher and looked forward. "What's this?"
"The only space left for offensive weaponry," Elliott explained. "In using the Megafortress as a test-bed we've concentrated mostly on defensive armament for strategic bombers. But she can still carry fifteen thousands pounds of ordnance-nukes, iron bombs, missiles, mines, anything. Or we can put extra fuel, additional defensive missiles, decoys, even personnel up there. How about side gunners, like a B-17 in World War Two?We've already done that with the Old Dog.
"We've been running tests with the new AGM-130 Striker TV/infrared guided glide bomb, the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the inventory. The damn thing weighs a ton and a half but can glide twelve miles when released at low altitudes."
"I don't believe it," Curtis asked. "This thing is amazing."
The two men exited the bomb bay, and several security officers closed the four clamshell bomb bay doors. Elliott then led Curtis to the entrance hatch on the bomber's belly and both men climbed inside.
"Hard to believe," Curtis commented, "that a huge plane like this has so little room inside."
"Believe me, this is spacious now compared to a line B-52," Elliott asked. "A lot of things have been taken out, miniaturized, or moved to the fuselage area. There's almost room on the lower deck here for a couple airliner seats-in a line Buff, you can't stand side-by-side down here. We've taken out as much extraneous stuff as possible to lighten the plane."
They sat in the navigators' seats downstairs.
"Where's all the navigation and bombing stuff down here?"
Curtis asked, examining the blank panels before him. The entire compartment was almost devoid of equipment. There was the radar navigator's ten-inch radar scope and associated controls on the left side, plus a small video monitor beside it with a small typewriter keyboard. Between the left and right sides were three small control panels. The navigator's side had a few flight instruments, but nothing else. All the rest of the equipment slots were covered with blank plastic panels.
"The world's biggest video game," Elliott said with a smile.