Carter immediately threw the Megafortress into a screaming right bank and held it until the stallwarning horn came on. “Can’t climb, guns!” Carter shouted. “Disregard, ” the gunner said as the last missile disappeared from his radarscope. “Fighter’s coming in, four miles… three miles… Stingers firing.. .” The Megafortress crew could hear the heavy Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! and a rumble throughout the bomber as Karbayjal fired four more missiles at the fighter closing in. … It had to be a fighter, the JS-7 pilot thought, since only a fighter could possibly move thatfast. The flares that the target was ejecting seemed as bright as the sun in the complete darkness of the Celebes Sea. His PL-2 missiles obviously thought so, because they tracked and destroyed the flares with ease. He was now weaponless except for his twin-barreled 23-millimeter cannon. But the stream of flares pointed to the target’s location, even if it wasn’t apparent on radar, so the pilot kept his throttle at min afterburner and closed in to cannon range. Suddenly four bright bursts of light erupted right in front of his fighter, stretching from his left wingtip all the way across the nose. His JS-7 fighter began to shudder, as if shivering with fear, and the shudder continued right into a full-blown stall. “Fayling, Fayling, Liang-Two, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, I’m hit, I’m hit. . .” He saw the “Engine Overspeed” and “Hydraulic Press” lights illuminate and pulled his ejection handle seconds before his controls locked and his fighter began a death spiral to the sea. DESTROYER JINAN “Sir! Destroyer Zunyi reports he is under attack by antiship missiles from the east, ” another report suddenly came in. “Zunyi is engaging. Sichuan- Ten flight of two Q-5 fighters are engaging suspected B-52 bombers at low altitude.”
“Where’s Zunyi?” Jhijun shouted. The answer came a few moments later-only one hundred nautical miles east ofjinan. Zunyi was an older Luda-class destroyer, part of the Philippine Sea cordon; it carried no surface-to-air missile system because it was designed to engage surface ships and submarines, not aircraft. “Get a feed from Zunyi’s CIC and integrate their plots on our-“
“Sir! Incoming missiles! Bearing two-six-five, high altitude, range twenty nautical miles, speed subsonic, multiple inbounds, intercept course!”
“What?” Jhijun resisted the urge to swivel around in his seat and look at the west-it was pitch black outside, with a light overcast sky, and he knew he wouldn’t see a thing. “How the hell could missiles get that close? Radar, get your heads out of your asses or I will have you on deck when those missiles hit! Report on fire-control statusimmediately!”
“Fire control reports fully operational, good track on all inbounds, intercept confidence is high.” Jhijun wished he could be more confident himself-first contact at twenty miles was far, far too close. “Targets maneuvering slightly, ” the CIC officer reported. “Range to air targets, mark, fifteen nautical miles, bearing two-six-five, speed five hundred The targets weren’t maneuvering. . . offset range was decreasing . . . bearing was constant . . . Antiradar missiles!” Jhijun suddenly shouted. He knew all about the Americans’ radar-homing missiles, especially the loitering cruise missilesthis was probably a flight of them coming in now. But how in hell did those missiles get so close before being detected…? Pushing the big Megafortress bomber to descend at over twelve thousand feet per minute, it took less than three minutes to descend to two hundred feet-yet with Chinese warships all around them, it felt like an eternity. “Golf-band search radar at eleven o’clock . . .” Atkins shouted on interphone; “India- band gun fire control radar now at one to two o’clock position . . . Christ, Golf-band radar changing to Charlie-band missile director . . . another Indiaband fire control radar at two-thirty . . . dammit, are we in range of that destroyer yet? We’re going to get nailed… ! I’ve got a possible fighter GCI signal from that destroyer now, he might be vectoring in more fighters.”
“Ready in range with the first TACIT RAINBOW missile, ” Kellerman called out after checking the information on the side-looking radar display once again and updating her map of all the ships in the area. “Right turn thirty degrees to escape, next target will be off the nose at twenty miles.” Atkins rechecked the weapon indications one more timemissile engine, guidance, autopilot, data link, warhead continuity all reporting ready. “Doors coming open… missile one away. . . missile two away. . As the Megafortress banked away to the right, the AGM136A TACIT RAINBOW missiles sped off to the left and descended to less than one hundred feet above the sea, then continued their left turn until they were aiming directly at the Chinese destroyer. At the same time, Atkins programmed another missile on the next target, what ISAR reported as a Huangfeng-class guided-missile patrol boat transmitting with an India-band gun fire control radar. “Missile three reporting ready.”
“Left turn ten degrees to escape, ” Kellerman called out. “I’ll take us within ten miles of that patrol boat unless a missile radar comes up.” In which case, Kellerman thought, Atkins better hold it together long enough to warn the crew. She knew it was a big mistake to send that scrawny little BB-stacker on this mission-Atkins might have an IQ larger than the national debt and could modify a wristwatch to jam half of Cleveland, and he seemed to do OK with Karbayjal holding his hand, but he simply wasn’t cut out for combat. “Pilots copy, ” Carter acknowledged. “Missile three counting ……. missile three away… doors closed, clear left turn.” DESTROYER JINAN “Sir, destroyer Kazfeng reports their patrol boats are engaging inbound cruise missiles. Admiral Feng is recommending frigate Yingtan move east to help cover the southeast approaches.”
“Negative, ” Captain Jhijun shot back. “My vessels are under attack by antiradar missiles-they are right on top of us. Yingtan will remain where it is until And then he realized that if antiradar missiles were appearing out of nowhere-it had to be a stealth bomber attack. The stealth bomber itself would not show on radar right away, but the antiradar missiles would show once they were launchedthe missiles would have a smaller radar cross-section than the bombers that launched them Radio to all task force vessels, suspect stealth bomber attack, number unknown, ” Captain Jhijun cried. “CIC, directed search for carrier aircraft by visual and infrared scanners. Find that damned bomber! Find it!”
“Sir, Kaijeng reports B-52 bomber is launching subsonic missiles . . . no successful hit on any Tomahawk missiles because of heavy radar jamming. B-52 bomber closing to within thirty miles of Kafeng. “Sir, destroyer Kafeng reports one hit by a Tomahawk cruise missile.” No one spoke on the combat bridge. They couldn’t believe it. What was going on? ‘Kazjeng radioing for assistance. Task force group commander dispatching frigate Yingtan to assist. . . Kazfeng reports additional hits by antiradar missiles from the B-52, sir! Destroyer Zunyi now reports under attack by sea-skimming antiship missiles… patrol boat 6114 hit by Harpoon antiship missile, extensive damage . . . lost contact with patrol boat… Zunyi reports contact with B-52 bombers east of their position, number unknown Damn them! With Yingtan moving out of position and Kaifeng damaged, Jinan was now the southernmost warship guarding Davao Gulf. Ships as large as destroyers needed a frigate for heavy close-in air support, and Jhijun was losing his! Well, he was not going to suffer the same fate as Kafeng. “Emitters in standby!” the commander of the destroyer Jinan shouted. “Turn the radars off! Use all available personnel with infrared and electro-optical spotters, but find those bombers!” The nightmare was back. Only two days since first stirring up the hornet’s nest with their reconnaissance overflight, McLanahan and Cobb were back at it again in their B-2 Black Knight stealth bomber-only this time they not only had to examine and count the hornets coming out of the hive, they had to swat at them. To make things worse, there appeared to be more hornets than ever out here, and they seemed mad as hell and ready to inflict some serious stings. “Radar down on that destroyer… fire-control radars going down on all area vessels, ” Patrick McLanahan reported to Henry Cobb. “Fourteen miles before impact-they figured it out pretty fast. Most operators won’t figure out their radars are under attack until the first few hit.” He expanded the God’seye view on the Super Multi Function Display before him, inundating his screen with NIRTSat satellite data received only a few minutes earlier. “I’ve got a few fire-control radars still up from those patrol boats, but most don’t have anything but surface-search radars.” Cobb clicked his mike in reply, still seated in his usual frozen position-hands on stick and throttles, eyes straight ahead, unmoving. How the hell could Cobb stay so calm? McLanahan wondered to himself. He sees everything that goes on, he studies the Super Multi Function Display, he sees the threat warnings, yet he sits as calmly as ever, staring straight ahead. He looks the same on training flights as he does in combat. “TACIT RAINBOW missiles are entering their holding pattern until the radar comes up, ” McLanahan added. “Go to five- twenty on the airspeed and let’s get out of here before the radars come back up.” Cobb clicked again and pushed power up to full military thrust-the faster the B-2 could get past these ships, the better. McLanahan’s B-2 Black Knight had a few stings itself this time around-no more reconnaissance pods, now that the NIRTSats appeared to be working again. The B-2 carried four AGM-I36A TACIT RAINBOW antiradar cruise missiles and four AGM-88C HARM antiradar missiles in clip-in racks in its left bomb bay, plus a Common Strategic Rotary Launcher with six AGM-84E SLAM TV-guided missiles in the right bomb bay. The TACIT RAINBOW antiradar missiles horned in on radar transmissions, and they had turbojet engines, wings, and autopilots that allowed them to stay aloft and, if an enemy radar was turned off, orbit a suspected target area to wait for the radar to be reactivated. The four TACIT RAINBOW missiles that McLanahan had launched from thirty miles away would remain in their orbits for another ten minutes within a few miles of the last-known position of the radars-this would give all the strike aircraft the chance to get past the Chinese warships and move into the target area. FRIGATE YJNGTAN, FORTY MILES SOUTH OF
