The “Missile Warning” light was still on, and they were driving closer and closer to the Chinese destroyer. Atkins still had no jammers on the missile acquisition radar — jamming the signal too early would surely elicit a very angry response from the Chinese. “We gotta shit or get off the pot here, kids… a few more miles and we’ll be under attack…”
“Sixty seconds,” the crew navigator, Captain Alicia Kellerman, announced. Like most of the crews from the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, Kellerman was an ex-crew member — formerly on KC-135 tankers — who put their engineering degrees to good use at the Dreamland research facility. Although flying was part of their job descriptions, flying into combat was completely unexpected — but Kellerman loved it. “Start countermeasures in forty seconds, release configuration checks completed… thirty seconds.”
Suddenly Atkins got an inverted “V” bat-wing signal on his radar threat-warning scope. The computer monitor hesitated momentarily, then issued a stream of identification data. “I’ve got a fighter, twelve o’clock, range… range is undetermined yet, but he’s outside forty miles. Stand by, Paul.” Paul Scott was ready to use the EB-52’s attack radar to lock onto the fighter and provide fire control instructions for their AIM-120 air-to-air missiles, but it might not yet be necessary. “I’ve got a range-only radar. Skyranger type 226, probably a J-7 fighter, Chinese copy of a MiG-21F. Max range of the radar is only twenty miles, and he’s well outside that… fighter radar’s down.” The Skyranger radar was useless for searching for targets because it supplied only range information to the fighter’s computers — this J-7 fighter needed ground-controlled intercept radar to attack targets. It was still deadly, but it was not very sophisticated — Atkins’ tiny AIM-120C missiles had a better radar than the J-7 fighter. “There could be more than one out there.”.
Great, Carter thought. Here’s where the shit hits the fan. “Paul, get a range and a firing solution on them,” Carter said. “We can’t stay radar-silent forever.”
“Copy,” Scott said. He slaved his attack radar antenna to Atkins’ threat-warning receiver bearing and switched it to “Radiate.”
“Got ’em,” Scott called out, switching off the radar immediately. “I counted at least four fighters, forty-five nautical miles, slightly above us. Could be four groups of two.”
Aboard the lead JS-7 fighter of Liang-2 air-defense group, the threat radar suddenly lit up with a fighter-style threat symbol — but it was from one of his own fighters. “Liang flight, lead, keep your damned radars off.” The radar indication quickly disappeared. He was leading a group of rather young, inexperienced pilots on their sixth overwater air-defense mission, and they were constantly flipping switches in their cockpits to keep from getting too bored.
The JS-7 fighter was one of the newest and best fighters in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. Originally offered only for export as the Super-7, but later purchased in small numbers by the Chinese government itself, it was a major upgrade of the J-7 fighter, incorporating a lot of imported technology to bring it up-to-date with the rest of the world’s best fighters — a French-made multimode attack radar and heads-up display similar to the American F-16 Fighting Falcon, West German/British/Italian-built high-performance Turbo-Union RB199 engines, additional weapons racks to carry ECM pods, and greater fuel capacity. Because there were so few, and because they were so far advanced over their older J-7 cousins, they were used only as flight leads for fighter patrols, where they could vector other J-7 fighters in on targets while attacking targets of their own.
Another radar threat indication flashed on his Thomson-CSF BF screen. He was about to chastise his charges once again… before realizing it was from in front of him instead of beside him this time! There was another fighter out there! An American fighter — out here?
“Fayling, this is Liang flight,” the lead J-7 pilot radioed, using the universal call-sign for all Chinese seaborne radar controllers instead of broadcasting the destroyer’s name. “Fighter warning. Twelve o’clock, type unknown. What are you tracking?”
The Sea Eagle radar operator aboard Kaifeng replied, “Liang flight, we have been tracking a B-52 bomber at your twelve o’clock position, not a fighter. Over.”
“I have a fighter-type radar, not a bomber.” Curse it, the destroyer had been tracking this intruder all this time thinking it was a bomber. How could he be so stupid…? “Request permission to close and identify. Over.”
“Liang flight and Sichuan flight, you are clear to close and identify. Liang flight, say your bingo.”
“Liang flight is two minutes to bingo,” the flight leader reported. “Request permission to send all but myself and one wingman back to base. We will identify the aircraft and engage until Sichuan-Ten flight is in position. Over.”
After a short wait, the radar controller aboard Kaifeng replied, “Request approved. Homebound Liang elements climb clear to twelve thousand meters on heading two-nine-zero, vector clear of inbound Sichuan-Ten flight. Liang-Two flight of two, your target is at twelve o’clock, seventy kilometers, altitude ten thousand meters, climb to twelve thousand meters to intercept. Sichuan-Ten flight maintain heading one-five-three. Low patrol, descend to five thousand meters and go to frequency yellow. High patrol, descend to nine thousand five hundred and meet your controller on frequency yellow-5. Target is four-four-zero bullseye. Good hunting.”
The lead pilot aboard the JS-7 fighter quickly determined the target’s range by the bullseye call — the distance from Davao Airport, a common navigation point for all Chinese fighters — and found that he was within radar range. The JS-7 fighter used an upgraded French radar system called Cyrano-IV, which was very close in capability to the amazing American F-16 fighter radar — it could lock onto multiple targets at fantastic ranges and could attack several targets at once with missiles or guns. “Liang flight, take combat spacing and stand by to engage…”
Up in the cockpit, Major Kelvin Carter took a firm grip on the Megafortress’s sidestick controller. This was not going to be an easy run. A million things were zipping through his head: G-limits on the composite fibersteel structures, angle-of-attack limits, airspeed warnings, pitch-angle versus airspeed…
“Fighter!” Atkins suddenly screamed out. “Twelve o’clock… Jesus, very close, X-band pulse Doppler… calling it a Chinese JS-7 fighter. Man, he’s right on top of us….!”
“Lock him up and engage,” Carter cried out. He doublechecked the rows of consent switches on his left panel. “Stand by for descent, crew.”
Scott reacted first, hitting the “Transmit” button on his attack radar and letting the radar lock onto the fighters ahead. “Two targets, twelve o’clock, closure rate eleven hundred… additional targets, climbing and going away, looks like they’re disengaging… I’ve got a lock on the two heading for us…”
Atkins reacted next, activating his forward jammers to shut down the X-band fire-control radar. He readied other jammers to get the Skyranger radar when it came up as well…
Karbayjal activated his weapons computers and watched as each AIM-120 Scorpion missile completed its split-second built-in checks. “BIT checks completed, data transfer… missiles away.” Two bright streaks of light flashed past the cockpit as two radar-guided missiles sped into the darkness.