machine. I saw it too late to warn him. Besides, they were jamming our radios.'
Ran leaned forward in his chair. A missile hit Kadar's aircraft?
Ran had seen nothing but the explosion. But neither had he seen the number four Skyhawk go down.
The IO ran a hand through his thick dark hair. He expelled a breath and looked at the two pilots. 'Well, we know two things. The enemy has a new guidance system that we evidently weren't aware of, and we know where the next mission is headed. You brief in five minutes.'
By sunset David Ran had flown two more missions and his squadron had lost two more planes, though one pilot ejected safely. Meanwhile, Egyptian tanks pushed eastward from their three bridge-heads in increasing numbers.
During the next forty-eight hours the Israeli nation and its armed forces scrambled to compensate for the deficit of 6 October. There were the inevitable cries, recriminations, and how-could-this-happen agonizing. However, at air force headquarters the mood was more detached, if no less concerned. Late on the night of the sixth, a panel of senior officers reviewed the, opening day's events and counted the cost. It was staggering.
The
Brigadier General Schmuel Baharov, head of air technical intelligence, took the floor. He was a balding, portly man in his late forties whose appearance belied an intellect bordering on genius. He had two passions in life: electronics and gardening. This night his flowers were the farthest thing from his mind.
'Gentlemen. The Egyptians have assembled a well-organized, self-supporting armored force with overlapping air defense. Their tank formations contain organic bridging equipment plus tracked missile launchers and antiaircraft artillery which moves as fast as the tanks themselves. Additionally, the enemy enjoys coverage within the envelope of fixed surface-to-air missile sites on the west side of the canal. This gives him antiaircraft protection from ground level to sixty thousand feet to a distance of some thirty miles.'
Lieutenant General Natanial Abrash, director of operations, interjected. 'Schmuel, we need to know about the lack of radar detection. My squadrons report almost no indication of electronic scanning, yet we're losing aircraft and crews to missiles and guns that must be radar-directed. What new equipment does the enemy seem to have?'
'I'm just coming to that. We've known that the Soviets provided SA-6 units to Egypt, but we had little indication they were deployed in such strength. Let me show you.' Baharov turned on a slide projector and dimmed the lights in the room. Clicking the hand controller, the intelligence chief brought up the first picture. It showed a low-slung tracked vehicle with surface-to-air missiles on launchers.
'This is the SA-6, what NATO calls the Gainful system. It actually consists of two units; this one with the SAMs'-he clicked the selector-'and this one with the radar unit. We've determined that this so-called Straight Flush radar operates, in continuous wave versus pulse mode. Not only that, it is capable of two frequencies. As you know, our radar warning receivers are calibrated to detect pulse radar. They can't pick up continuous wave at this time.'
The screen changed to another image, this time a tank chassis fitted with a four-barrel antiaircraft gun.
'The Soviet ZSU-23-4 is similar to the Gainful in that it is mounted on a vehicle capable of operating with the fastest tanks. The weapon can be fired under local control or under its Gun Dish radar. The important thing to know in this case is that the radar is a much higher frequency than we can currently detect-up to twelve thousand megahertz or so. I don't have the actual figure yet, but I believe the Gun Dish frequency may be as high as sixteen thousand megahertz.' There was an awkward pause as Baharov cleared.his throat. 'I expect to have that information for you shortly.' He turned off the projector and brought the lights back up.
General Abrash sat back in his padded chair. 'Well, we have discussed tactics since this afternoon, but frankly there's no easy cure. Ordinarily we'd send our airplanes in at low level to get under the missiles, but then we're exposed to antiaircraft artillery and small arms. It's what the Americans encountered over Vietnam.'
Rolling his sloped shoulders, Baharov said, 'I seem to have nothing but bad news for you tonight, but there's more. The Russians have equipped the Arabs with vast numbers of SA-7s. At least in the Egyptian units, there seem to be Grails down to squad level.'
Baharov did not need to elaborate. The SA-7 first appeared in the Middle East in 1969. A hand-carried missile five feet long and weighing only forty pounds, it required no elaborate guidance radar. It homed on the hot exhaust of its target and, being completely passive, gave no warning to its intended victim. Grails could hit a jet from as far as four miles away.
Abrash, the director of operations, spoke again. 'We'll concentrate on deception measures using chaff and flares until we can counter the electronic problem. Meanwhile, we're going to continue taking heavy losses.' The general, who had flown in two wars, bit the end of his pencil. Almost to himself he said, 'You know, I had a call from the army chief of staff today. He said his frontline commanders were reluctant to call for air support because they saw so many of our boys shot down.'
No one in the room needed to respond. Such a thing had never happened in Israel's turbulent history.
The Phantoms came in low and fast from the north, parallel to the east bank of the canal. The short overwater leg of their outbound flight had been in two compact four-plane flights, but now, over Sinai, they adopted combat spread. Modi Tal, the twenty-seven-year-old captain in the lead F-4E, waggled his wings and the formation smoothly broke into four two-ship elements.
Another captain leading the second flight had anticipated the move and smoothly slid abeam of his own second section.
It was typical of the Israeli Air Force. The
It was Day Three and Israel was fighting on two fronts against the most competent adversaries she had yet faced.
Captain Solomon Yatanahu, one year younger than Modi Tal, had flown combat six years before under very different circumstances. The Six-Day War had gone entirely Israel's way from the opening hour. He had actually regretted the limited opportunity for combat. But this new war was entirely the opposite. Back-to-back sorties, friends dead or missing, aircraft destroyed and damaged at a terrific pace. Even MiGs over his home base-unheard of! And though the
Still, morale remained high. The squadron ready room bore the neatly lettered boast CEILING 80 METERS, a mark of professional pride. In order to destroy Egyptian tanks and avoid the heart of the air defense system, the Israeli pilots regularly flew at or below 250 feet, or 80 meters, altitude. It was hard enough in a high-performance jet making 400 knots or more on a training mission. Doing it in combat, retaining awareness of all that happened within shooting distance, called for skill and experience of exceptional order.
In the lead Phantom, Modi Tal shot a glance at his map. He didn't need it, for he'd flown almost a dozen missions over this area in the past two days. But he was too thorough, too professional, to wholly trust memory or habit. A gloved finger tapped the point on the canal indicating his run-in to the target. He — spoke into his oxygen mask. 'Estimate six minutes to initial point.'
The 'hot mike,' continually open to his backseater, carried his words with electronic clarity. The response came almost instantly. 'Concur.' The radar operator, a twenty-two-year-old reservist, was backing up the pilot's navigation.
With a rock of his wings Tal indicated that the formation should split. Yatanahu led his flight to the southwest, pushing his throttles to accelerate ahead of the main formation and arrive from a different quadrant a few seconds before the lead flight, orbiting to intercept any Egyptian fighters.