north. The anti-aircraft guns have stopped firing, which probably means more fighters are on their way. It’s time we got the hell out of here.’
Then something totally unexpected happened. Richter was looking up through his canopy towards the accelerating Scud when a streak of bright light shot across the sky from somewhere to the east of his position and smashed into the missile, which instantly exploded.
‘What the hell was that?’ he demanded.
‘That, my friend, was an alpha india mike one two zero, better known as AMRAAM. The new voice on the Harriers’ discrete frequency was unmistakably American.
‘This is Cobra Leader. Identify yourself,’ Dick Long snapped.
‘This is Blade One, lead cab of eight Super Hornets from the Mobile Chernobyl. My colleagues are having an exchange of views with some MiGs a few miles east, but I thought y’all could use some help over here, that’s if you don’t mind me joining the party.’
‘Did you bring a bottle?’ Richter asked, levelling his Harrier three hundred feet above the ground and turning onto north.
The explosion of the second Scud immediately attracted Malakov’s attention, and he looked up sharply through his canopy. It could, he supposed, have been some kind of a malfunction, though he knew the Scud was a generally reliable, if fairly inaccurate, missile. But the Russian didn’t believe in convenient malfunctions. He thought the weapon was far more likely to have been brought down by an air-to-air missile, presumably fired by the remaining Harrier. Or perhaps one of the Americans had done it.
‘Chunghwa, this is Zero Six. I’ve shot down one of the British fighters, but I’ve just seen a Scud missile explode shortly after lift-off. Where are the American aircraft now?’
‘About fifteen miles to the east of Chiha-ri, Zero Six. Wait. No, we now hold three contacts in your vicinity, two intermittent, probably at low level, and one solid.’
‘Three?’
‘Confirmed. The intermittent contacts are believed to be the British aircraft, so the other may be one of the American intruders.’
That couldn’t be right. He
But as he straightened up on north, his Sirena S-3M radar homing and warning system suddenly alerted him. He checked the readout: an APG-79 I-band radar on a bearing of zero eight two. That, Malakov knew, meant an American F/A-18, a much more dangerous opponent than a Harrier. But he also knew that on the first day of the 1991 Gulf War a MiG-25 had shot down an American Hornet – Iraq’s only air combat kill during the conflict.
He checked his weapons, engaged the ECM system, then pulled the Foxbat round in a right-hand climbing turn onto east, looking for a target.
The Super Hornet’s APG-79 radar was suddenly flooded by spikes as the MiG-25’s ECM equipment blotted out the picture, and simultaneously the ALR-67 Radar Warning Receiver conveyed the unmistakable message that the aircraft was being irradiated by a Fox Fire radar.
The pilot immediately engaged full counter-measures, but that didn’t seem to have any effect. He’d heard about the sheer power of the Foxbat’s radar and its ability to ‘burn through’ any ECM system, but this was the first time he’d seen it in action. And it frightened him, because he’d no clue where the Russian-built aircraft currently was. Without his radar, he was both blind and effectively unarmed.
‘Cobras, Blade One.’ The American’s voice was noticeably louder and sounded more stressed than his previous transmissions. ‘I’m being irradiated and jammed by this guy, and I can’t get a lock on him. Turning away and streaming a decoy.’
He hauled his Super Hornet round in a tight left turn onto east and extended the aircraft’s ALE-50 Towed Decoy System, a combat-proven protection against both air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons.
Gennadi Malakov’s Saphir radar was showing a solid contact twenty kilometres to the east, but the target was already turning away.
The type ‘TD’ and ‘RD’ variants of the R-40 missile – the initial ‘D’ standing for
Richter looked left, and there, about three miles to the west, he saw the unmistakable shape of a MiG-25 turning right onto an easterly heading. He glanced east, but the Super Hornet was too far away for him to see it. Despite that, Richter had no doubt that the Russian aircraft was now in pursuit of the American.
He also knew he himself was in an almost perfect position to intercept it. His Harrier was low level, probably invisible to the enemy aircraft’s radar in the ground clutter, and he still had a single Sidewinder. And because the GR9 has no radar, and the ‘winder uses infrared homing, the Foxbat pilot would have no way of detecting him, unless his Harrier painted on the MiG’s radar. Richter would just have to keep low and hope for the best.
He glanced again at the Foxbat, estimating its speed and heading, then turned right to match its track. He selected the Sidewinder, checked that the broken circle symbol appeared on the HUD, and increased speed so that when he had to climb, he’d be able to gain height as quickly as possible.
‘Two from One. Position and intentions?’
‘Just east of the missile site, low-level, tracking zero nine zero. I’m just going to try and slip my last Sidewinder up that Foxbat’s tailpipe.’
‘You what? You
‘Reality check, Dick. Even if we stay low-level, the moment we start heading south that guy’s going to see us on radar and then we’re in real trouble. If we’re going to get out of here, we have to take him down first.’
‘And how do we do that?’ Long asked.
So Richter told him.
‘I hope you know what we’re doing,’ Long muttered, turned his Harrier east and started climbing.
Malakov was waiting for his R-40T to lock on to the fleeing American aircraft, but he was still very much aware that there were another two enemy fighters somewhere in the area.
His Saphir radar detected a contact in his right two o’clock position, less than four miles away and climbing out from Chiha-ri. It had to be the second Harrier. Malakov instantly changed his priorities. He would pursue the American once he’d dealt with the British aircraft.
He turned towards the new contact. The R-40T infrared seeker head-locked on almost at once and Malakov fired the weapon.
