"Let's get this pony into the air," said Dog, putting his hand on the throttle.
Dreamland B-1B/L Testbed 2—more commonly and affectionately known as Boomer—rocked as her engines revved to life. The four General Electric F101-GE-102 engines she was born with had been replaced by new GE models that were about seventy percent more powerful and conserved much more fuel. Unlike the Megafortress, the B-1B was a supersonic aircraft to begin with, and thanks to its uprated engines, had pushed out over Mach 2.4 in level flight — probably a record for a B-1B, though no one actually kept track. More impressive— at least if you were paying the gas bill—Boomer could fly to New York and back at just over the speed of sound with a full payload without needing to be refueled.
"I have 520 degrees centigrade on engines three and four," said Sleek Top.
"Roger that," replied Dog. The temperature readings were an indication of how well the engines were working. "Five twenty. I have 520 one and two."
They ran through the rest of the plane's vitals, making sure the plane was ready to takeoff. With all systems in the green, Dog got a clearance from the tower and moved down the ramp to the runway.
"Burners," he told Sleek Top as he put the hammer down.
The afterburners flashed to life. The plane took a small step forward, then a second; the third was a massive leap. The speed bar at the right of Dog's screen vaulted to 100 knots; a half breath later it hit 150.
"We're go," said Dog as the airplane passed 160 knots, committing them to takeoff.
The plane's nose came up. Boomer had used less than 3,000 feet of runway to become airborne.
Like the stock models, the B-1B/L's takeoff attitude was limited to prevent her long tail from scraping, and the eight-degree angle made for a gentle start to the flight. Gentle but not slow — she left the ground at roughly 175 knots, and within a heartbeat or two was pumping over 300.
Dog checked the wing's extension, noting that the computer had set them at 25 degrees, the standard angle used for routine climb-outs. Like all B-1s, Boomer's wings were adjustable, swinging out to increase lift or maneuverability and tucking back near the body for speed and cruising efficiency. But unlike the original model, where the pilots pulled long levers to manually set the angle, Boomer's wings were set automatically by the flight computer even when under manual control. The pilot could override using voice commands, but the computer had first crack at the settings.
The wings' geometry capitalized on improvements made possible by the use of the carbon composite material instead of metal. The goal of these improvements had been to reduce weight and improve performance, but as a side benefit the new wings also made the plane less visible on radar.
They were also, of course, considerably more expensive to manufacture than the originals, a problem the engineers were finding difficult to solve.
It was also a problem that Dog no longer had to worry about or even consider. All he had to do was finish his climb-out to 35,000 feet and get into a nice, easy orbit around Range 14a.
"Way marker," said his copilot. "We're looking good, Colonel. Ready for diagnostics."
"Let 'em rip," said Dog.
The B-1Bs flown by the Strategic Air Command were crewed by four men: pilot, copilot, and two weapons systems operators. Boomer had places for only the pilot and copilot, with the weapons handled by the copilot, with help from the threat and targeting computer. The arrangement was under review. Experience with the Megafortress had shown that under combat conditions, dedicated weapons handlers could be beneficial. There was plenty of room for them on the flight deck, but the additional cost in terms of money and manpower might not be justifiable.
Indeed, Dog wasn't entirely sure the presence of the pilot and copilot could be justified. The Unmanned Bomber project, though still far from an operational stage, demonstrated that a potent attack aircraft could be flown effectively anywhere in the world from a bunker back in the States. The next generation of Flighthawks — the robot fighters that worked with the Megafortress as scouts, escorts, and attack craft — would contain equipment allowing them to do just that, though they still needed to be air-launched.
The next generation of Flighthawks was very much on Dog's mind as the diagnostics were completed, because the afternoon's test session was a mock dogfight between a pair of Flighthawks and the B-1. The aim of the test was to put Boomer's airborne laser through its paces, but of course from the pilots' point of view, the real goal was to wax the other guy's fanny.
Dog wondered if the computers thought like that.
"Boomer, this is Flighthawk control. Hawk One and Two are zero-five minutes from the range. What's your status?"
"Rarin' for a fight, Starship," responded Dog. "Are you ready, Lieutenant?"
"Ready to kick your butt," said Starship.
Dog laughed. Starship — Lieutenant Kirk "Starship" Andrews — seemed to have broken out of his shell a bit thanks to his temporary assignment with the Navy. In fact, he'd done so well there that the commander he'd been assigned to, Captain Harold "Storm" Gale, had tried to keep him. Considering Storm's general attitude that Air Force personnel rated lower than crustaceans on the evolutionary scale, his attachment to Starship was high praise.
"I didn't mean any disrespect, sir," added Starship hastily.
"No offense taken," said Dog. "Let's see how you do, Lieutenant."
Dog and Sleek Top turned over control to the computer and settled back to watch how Boomer did. The tests began quietly, with the two Flighthawks making a head-on approach at Boomer's altitude. The B-1's radar tracked them easily, identified them as threats, presented itself with several options for striking them, then worked out the solution most likely to succeed.
The computer system used to guide the Flighthawks— known as C3—already did this, but the task was considerably more difficult for a laser-armed ship. While in sci fi flicks lasers regularly blasted across vast tracts of space to incinerate vessels moving just under the speed of light, back on earth lasers had not yet developed such abilities — and might not ever. The laser weapon aboard the B-1 fired a focused beam of high-energy light that could burn a hole through most materials known to man, assuming it stayed focused on its target long enough.
And that was the rub. Both Boomer and its airborne targets were moving at high rates of speed, and while there might be some circumstances under which the B-1B/L could count on getting off a sustained blast of ten or more seconds, dogfight conditions meant that blast length would often be measured in microseconds.
For the laser to be a practical air-to-air weapon, its enemy's specific vulnerabilities had to be targeted and then hit repeatedly. That was where the computer did most of its number crunching. It was able to assess the typical vulnerabilities of its opponent, prepare what was called a "shooting plan" to exploit those vulnerabilities, and then direct the laser fire as both aircraft moved at the speed of sound. And it could change that plan as the battle progressed.
For example, if the B-1 was tangling with a MiG-27, the computer would realize that the motors the MiG used to adjust its wings in flight were extremely heat sensitive. Depending on the orientation of the two planes, the computer would target those motors, crippling his enemy. As the MiG slowed down to cope with the malfunction, the computer would then fire a series of blasts on the port wing fuel tank, aiming not to punch holes in the wing, but to create a series of hot spots in the tank, which would disrupt the fuel flow, slowing the plane down. For the coup de grace, the computer would ignite the antiair missile on the plane's right wing spar, in effect having the MiG destroy itself.