Dark rings had formed under the President's eyes, he was noticeably thinner, and his shoulders drooped.
Well, it was a terrible strain on all of them, because this young President relied so heavily on his advisors in foreign affairs. He was extremely effective when it came to domestic problems and he was immensely popular at home, but overseas it was a different matter. He and his Cabinet had tried to convince the world that the Soviet Union was threatening the United States, trying to provoke a conflict-but few believed him, mostly because they were afraid to find out it was the truth. The consequences of that were too scary. The war of words had reduced Secretary of State Marshall Brent as well.
His usual polish and spirit were noticeably dimmed.
Now, the laser had taken another life, and the President was looking at what he feared most-a direct assault against Kavaznya. In the U.S.S.R.…
Assembled were his National Security Council, his Cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They had already held a hastily formed meeting of their own. Now it was time for them to present the plan they had come up with.
'Let's have it, General,' the President said, prompting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Wilbur Curtis nodded and stood.
'Yes, sir,' the general began. 'Two B-1B Excaliburs from the new Tenth Bombardment Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base will execute this mission.
Yesterday they were flown from Dreamland, where they were undergoing design modification, to Ellsworth, where each was armed with two AGM-130
Striker TV-infrared-guided bombs. Per your order, sir. It's the largest non-nuclear standoff weapon in our arsenal. It uses a small strap-on rocket motor to glide as far as fifteen miles from a low-altitude release, and it has the explosive power of one ton of TNT.
The bombardier can steer it to its target using a TV eye in the nose, or it can lock-on to a target with an infrared seeker.
'Two Strikers, General?'
'An added insurance factor, sir. Two weapons targeted for the same point. If the first weapon fails to detonate, the second, impacting five seconds later, will take out the target. If the first works, the second bomb will be destroyed in the blast. The second aircraft insures destruction of the primary target and has the additional task of air defense suppression.'
There was a rustle of uneasiness, even from those who had been in on the entire Kavaznya crisis from the start. This was not an exercise or simulation Curtis was talking about.
'The bombers have been equipped with the standard coded switch and permissive-action-link security arrangements,' Curtis continued.
'Those are the electronic switches between the weapons and the bombardiers' control panels. We're treating the Strikers just like nuclear weapons-no prearming or launch possible without a coded strike message from you, sir, transmitted via satellite communications or normal U.H.F traffic and entered into those switches. Two of the most experienced Excalibur crews will fly the missions-both senior Standardization-Evaluation crews. They've been briefed and are standing by.
'The aircraft will follow the routing as shown,' Curtis said, pointing to the large computer-drawn chart. 'From Ellsworth, they'll fly through Canada and then through Alaska. They'll be refueled by two KC-10 tankers out of Eielson Air Force Base, then proceed northward to the Arctic Ocean. They'll orbit just north of Point Barrow, in their SNOWTIME exercise orbit area, and wait for your first authorization message. The SAC Green Pine communications center at Point Barrow will relay the message.
'They will not be allowed to prearm the weapons at this point. If they are ordered to remain in this orbit area, it will appear to any outside observers as just another SNOWTIME arctic defense exercise. SAC holds them several times a year.
Both the Russians and the Canadians are accustomed to our bombers orbiting the Arctic Ocean on training missions.
'If they receive the first strike authorization, the aircraft will continue southwest to approximately sixty-seven degrees north latitude, escorted by the second group of KC-10 tankers. They will orbit in open airspace over the Chukchi Sea, north of Siberia, and wait for the second strike authorization message if we haven't transmitted both messages at the same time. If they receive the second authorization, they finish their final refueling and head over the target.'
'How accustomed are outside observers to bombers orbiting so close to Russia?' Secretary of Defense Thomas Preston asked. 'That's not one of our usual operating areas.'
'True, sir,' Curtis replied. 'But the B-1s will still be well outside Russian radar coverage and still well within international airspace.
It's unlikely they will even be spotted. If the Russians do detect them, they may be suspicious, but we feel it's unlikely they will mount any counterforce. Air defense forces are extremely light this far north.'
'Any chance of that laser attacking the B-1s?' the President asked.
He still could not believe the explanation he had been given for why the laser had managed to knock out the Fortress.
By timing their attack when they did, the Russians had managed to hit the space platform when the X-ray satellite launch cylinder was open and exposed. Had they waited only a few hours later, all the X-ray satellites would have been armed and the cylinder would have been closed.
'No chance, sir. 'The President looked skeptical.
'The Soviets have to find a target before they can hit it, sir.
The B-1s won't be in range of the main tracking radar at Kavaznya until much later, within twenty or thirty miles of the target-they'll be terrain-masking in the mountains along the Kamchatka peninsula until then-and by the time the radar does spot them they'll be within range of the Striker glide bomb.
'But the orbiting mirror?'
'They used the orbiting mirror against an I.C.B.M four hundred miles up,' Curtis asked. 'An I.C.B.M with its motors running and red-hot climbing through the atmosphere is an easy target to be tracked by infrared-seeking satellites, and the Soviets have a data-link setup with the laser to attack I.C.B.Ms tracked by satellite. An aircraft flying only seven miles high can't be tracked accurately by an enemy satellite. They can't hit what they can't see. But if they somehow did fire the laser against the B-1s, we feel the dissipation of heat from shooting through the atmosphere, then reflecting the beam down through the atmosphere again would dilute the energy sufficiently for the aircraft to escape. No, sir, the B-1s are safe from the laser until close to Kavaznya. Then, the standoff range of the Strikers will keep them away from the laser. The laser should be destroyed before it can get a shot off.'
Curtis now moved his pointer down into Asia. 'Our people encounter little resistance or even chance of detection until fairly close to the target. They drop to low altitude just prior to crossing the north coast of Siberia, just before entering highaltitude warning radar c overage around the town of Ust-Chaun, but they can return to high altitude all across eastern Siberia to save fuel until approaching the northern edge of the Kamchatka peninsula. They drop to terrain-following attitudes down the Korakskiy and Sredinny mountain ranges to the target.'
Curtis changed the slide, showing a greatly enlarged overhead photograph. 'This is the latest satellite reconnaissance photo we have of Kavaznya, Mr. President, taken early last year. The B-1's primary target is here. 'Curtis switched to an even more highly magnified view.
'This is the mirror housing, a large dome maybe forty feet in diameter from which, the CIA believes, the laser beam is projected into space.
Two Strikers will be programmed to impact here. Another glide-bomb is programmed for the main area and another is programmed for Ossora laser tracking rad Airfield north and east of Kavaznya.
'As you can see, sir, the mirror housing is very isolatedthe rest of the complex, except for the nuclear power plant, is underground. The nuclear power plant is considered an alternate target. If the crew experiences-' 'No,' the President asked. 'Not the power plant, for God's sake. We might as well drop a nuke on them if we destroy a nuclear power plant. I won't be blamed for another Chernobyl.
No alternative target. If the B-1s can't attack the mirror dome, they don't go.'
Curtis, not altogether happy with that, nodded, then again switched to a map of the North Pacific. 'After their attack, the B-1s get back into the mountains and stay there at terrain following altitudes until they exit low altitude radar coverage, then cross the water toward Alaska. Possible landing sites are Attu, Shrmya, Elmendorf, and
