Sky Masters Read online

  SKY MASTERS

  ALSO BY DALE BROWN

  Flight of the Old Dog (1987)

  Silver Tower (1988)

  Day of the Cheetah (1989)

  Hammerheads (1990)

  DONALD I. FINE, INC.

  G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS New York G. P. Putnam's Sons Publishers Since 1838

  200 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016

  Copyright Qc 1991 by Dale Brown, Inc.

  All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced

  in any form without permission.

  Published simultaneously in Canada Endpaper maps and maps on pages 267

  and 370 by Lisa Amoroso.

  Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Brown, Dale, date Sky

  masters / Dale Brown.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 0-399-13705-X

  (Putnam) I. Title. PS3552.R68543S58 1991 90-56053 CIP 813'.54~c20

  Printed in the United States of America

  This book is printed on acid-free paper.

  sky Masters is dedicated to General Curtis E. LeMay, the "Iron Eagle"

  and the "Father of Strategic Air Power," a man who envisioned much of

  what Sky Masters is all about.

  Sky Masters is also dedicated to the men and women who served as part of

  Operation DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM.

  I wish to especially dedicate this story to my brother, Second

  Lieutenant James D. Brown, 3-35 ARMOR, First Armored Division, United

  States Army, and his wife, Leah, and all of our military forces serving

  ashore, afloat, and aloft for all the sacrifices they made in their

  personal and professional lives.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  To my friend Lieutenant Colonel George Peck (who was instrumental in the

  research for Day of the Cheetah and who, like Loki's eternal fate in

  Norse mythology, seems destined to be forever bothered by my insistent

  questions and requests); TSgt Alan Dockery, Captain Harry G. Edwards,

  and the other helpful and professional persons in the Office of Public

  Affairs, Headquarters, Strategic Air Command (SAC), Offutt AFB,

  Nebraska, for their assistance in gathering information on SAC

  conventional and maritime operations and the Strategic Warfare Center,

  and for their help in reviewing the manuscript; To all the men and women

  of the Strategic Air Command and Pacific Air Forces whom I met during

  GIANT WARRIOR '90, a multinational, multiservice combat strike and

  deployment exercise conducted by SAC's Fifteenth Air Force in August of

  1990 at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. I wish to especially thank

  Lieutenant General Robert D. Beckel, Fifteenth Air Force commander, for

  allowing me the privilege of observing his super exercise; Brigadier

  General DavidJ. Pederson, Third Air Division commander, and Colonel Alan

  Cirino, Third Air Division deputy commander, and their staff for their

  hospitality and helpfulness in explaining the intricacies of Pacific

  theater combat operations; and to Colonel Arne Weinman, Ninety-second

  Bomb Wing commander and joint air forces commander of GIANT WARRIOR '90;

  Special thanks to Captain Cynthia Colin, Fifteenth Air Force Public

  Affairs, and the other professionals at Fifteenth Air Force Public

  Affairs, March AFB, California; MSgt Ron Pack, Ninety-second Bomb Wing

  public affairs; MSgt Al Dostal, Ninety-sixth Bomb Wing Public Affairs;

  Second Lieutenant Darian "Slick" Benson, Fifty-seventh Air Division

  Public Affairs; the feared terrorist-group-turned-media-pool known

  throughout the Pacific as the Dream Team; and everyone who helped make

  my visit to Guam and GIANT WARRIOR '90a pleasure and a success; To

  Brigadier General Larry Dilda, DCS I Communications and Computer

  Operations, HQ SAC, for conducting a very special tour of SAC

  Headquarters, where I learned much about the "new" Strategic Air Command

  and its people and its new arsenal of weapons; and to Ron Silverstein,

  B-2 Project Senior Engineer and Chief Spokesman, and the others at

  Northrop Corporation, Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, for an

  amazing tour of the B-2 bomber assembly facilities; To Colonel Thomas A.

  Hornung, Chief of Public Affairs, Air Force Public Affairs-Western

  Region in Los Angeles, for his invaluable assistance throughout the

  making of Sky Masters and for arranging a spectacular tour of SAC

  headquarters; and to Major Ron Fuchs, former Deputy and Chief of Media

  Relations in Los Angeles, for his time in reviewing the manuscript and

  offering some valuable comments; To CDR Bruce R. Linder, commanding

  officer of the guided missile frigate FFG-55 USS Elrod, who was

  extremely helpful in providing details pertaining to naval operations in

  the South China Sea, Palawan Passage, and the Philippines; To Richard

  Herman, famous author of Warbirds and Force of Eagles, for his technical

  knowledge on aerial combat in the F-4E and other facets of fighter

  combat; To Rockwell International for information on the B- 1 bomber;

  also to Orbital Sciences Corporation for information on the Pegasus

  air-launched space booster; To my executive assistant, Dennis Hall, for

  his hard work and support.

  ACTUAL NEWS EXCERPTS Date: 5/21/90 PENTAGON DECLARES PHILIPPINES

  "IMMINENT DANGER" AREA WASHINGTON (MAY 18) UPI-The Defense Department

  designated the Philippines Friday as an area of imminent danger for

  special pay purposes, which means US military and civilian employees

  will be getting slightly larger paychecks. The Pentagon said it took the

  action because of the "current unstable conditions" in the Philippines,

  where three American servicemen have been killed in politically

  motivated attacks this month alone. Imminent danger pay is an additional

  15 percent of basic salary for American citizens who are department

  employees and $110 per month for all US military personnel. Date:

  5/22/90 "Well, first in my mind, the communist dream in the Philippines

  will always be there. The communist dream of taking over and dominating

  the country will always be there because you can't kill an ideology."

  General Renato S. de Villa, Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the

  Philippines, from Asia-Pacific Defense Forum, U.S. Pacific Command,

  Winter 1989-1990 Date: 11/2/90 ... Turmoil in China... combined with

  speculation about U.S. forces departures from the Philippines, have

  merged to cause a new appreciation for U.S. regional security presence.

  . . . I believe there is a growing realization in the Pacific that

  U.S. presence cannot be taken for granted. If the U.S. presence is

  substantially reduced, many Pacific nations perceive the danger of other

  nations moving into the vacuum created by our departure, with a

  potential result of conflict and instability." 22 ACTUAL NEWS EXCERPTS

  Admiral Huntington Hardisty, U.S. Navy, Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific

  Command, from Asia-Paczfic Defense Forum, U.S. Pacific Command, winter

  1989-1990 Date: 11/6/90 MELEE MARS INAUGURATION OF AUTONOMY IN SOUTHERN

  PHILIPPINES COTABATO (Nov 6) REUTER-Police punched and clubbed 17 Moslem

 
; students before dragging them off by their hair on Tuesday after they

  disrupted President Corazon Aquino's inauguration of an autonomous

  government in the southern Philippines, witnesses said. The students,

  members of an organization supporting Moslem rebels demanding a separate

  state on Mindanao island, chanted slogans against the autonomous

  government about 20 meters from where Aquino was speaking. Manila has

  set up the autonomous government, dominated by Moslems, as a way to end

  separatist violence on Mindanao, the second-largest island in the

  Philippines. The government, headed by former Moslem rebel commander

  Zacaria Candao, can pass its own laws, collect taxes and license fees,

  and set up a regional police force in the four predominantly Moslem

  provinces on Mindanao island it controls. Manila would retain control of

  defense and foreign policy. -from U.S. Naval Institute Military

  Database Defense News. Date: 14 January 1991 AIR FORCE TO CREATE TWO NEW

  COMPOSITE AIR WINGS BY 1993 WASHINGTON-The U.S. Air Force will develop

  by 1993 two composite tactical air wings that combine different types of

  aircraft in the same unit. The new wings will serve as prototypes for

  the possible reorganization of the service's tactical force structure

  along more mission-oriented lines. . . . [The composite air wings]

  would include aircraft that could perform attack, defensive, standoff

  jamming, and precision-strike missions. -from Aviation Week and Space

  Technology magazine, p.26 AUTHOR NOTE Although the BIB bomber is now

  officially called "Lancer," the author will still use "Excalibur." Every

  effort has been made to present realistic situations, but all of the

  persons and situations presented here are products of my imagination and

  should not be considered reflections of actual persons, products,

  policy, or practice. Any similarity of any organization, device,

  weapons system, policy, person, or place to any real-world counterpart

  is strictly coincidental. The author makes no attempt to present the

  actual military or civil policies of any organization or government. The

  author hopes readers will note the chronological setting of this novel

  in regards to some of his previous books, most notably Day of the

  Cheetah. While certain characters and backdrops in that book appear

  here, the events described in this book come a full two years earlier

  than those in Day of the Cheetah. Moreover, this book, like that one,

  stands completely on its own-neither a prequel nor sequel. MONDAY, 6

  JUNE 1994, 0812 HOURS LOCAL SOMEWHERE OVER SOUTHERN NEVADA < minus two

  minutes and counting. . . mark." Lieutenant Colonel Patrick McLanahan

  glanced up at his mission data display just as the time-to-go clock

  clicked over to 00:01:59. Dead on time. He clicked open the command

  radio channel with the switch near his left foot. "Vapor TwoOne

  copies," he reported. "CROWBAR, Vapor Two-One requesting final range

  clearance."

  "Stand by, Two-One." Stand by, he thought to himself-not likely.

  McLanahan and his partner, Major Henry Cobb, were flying in an FB-111B

  "Super Aardvark" bomber, skimming two hundred feet above the hot deserts

  of southern Nevada at the speed of soundevery five seconds they waited

  put them a mile closer to the target. The FBI 1 lB was the "stretched"

  version of the venerable F-1 11 Supersonic swing-wing bomber, an

  experimental model that was the proposed interim supersonic bomber when

  the B-1 Excalibur bomber program was canceled back in the late 1970s.

  Only a few remained, and the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center

  (HAWC)-the Defense Department s secret test complex for weapons and

  aircraft, hidden in the restricted desert ranges north of Las Vegas-had

  them. Most F1-11 aircraft were Seeing their last few years of Service,

  and more and more were popping up in Reserve unitS or sitting in museums

  or base airparks-but HAWC always made use of their airframes until they

  fell apart or crashed. But the "Super Vark" Was not the subject of

  today's sortie. Although an FB-111B could carry a

  twenty-five-thousandpound payload, McLanahan and Cobb were carrying only

  one twenty-six-hundred-pound bomb that morning-but what a bomb it was.

  Officially the bomb was called the BLU-96, but its nickname was

  HADES-and for its size it was the most powerful nonnuclear weapon in

  existence. HADES was filled with two hundred gallons of a thin,

  gasoline-like liquid that was dispersed over a target, then ignited by

  remote control. Because the weapon does not need to carry its own

  oxidizer but uses oxygen in the atmosphere to ignite the fuel, the

  resulting explosion had all the characteristics of a nuclear

  explosion-it created a mushroom cloud several hundred feet high, a

  fireball nearly a mile in diameter, and a shock wave that could knock

  down buildings and trees within two miles. Oddly enough, the BLU-96 had

  not been used since the Vietnam War, soHAWC was conducting experiments

  on the feasibility of using the awesome weapon again for some future

  conflict. HADES had been designed as a weapon to quickly clear very

  large minefields, but against troops it would be utterly devastating.

  That fact, of course, would go into HAWC's report to the Department of

  Defense. "Vapor, this is CROWBAR, you are cleared to enter R-4808N and

  R-4806W routes and altitudes, remain this frequency. Acknowledge."

  McLanahan checked his watch. "Vapor acknowledges, cleared to enter

  Romeo 4808 north and Romeo 4806 west routes and altitudes at zero-six,

  1514 Zulu, remain with CROWBAR. Out." He turned to Cobb, checking

  engine instruments and the fuel totalizer as his eyes swept across the

  center instrument panel. "We're cleared in, Henry." Cobb clicked the

  mike twice in response. Cobb never said much during missions-his job

  was to fly the plane, which he always did in stony silence. Romeo

  4808N-that was its official name, although its unclassified nickname was

  Dreamland"-was a piece of airspace in south-central Nevada designated by

  the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense as a

  "restricted" area, which meant all aircraft-civilian, commercial, other

  military flights, even diplomatic-were prohibited to fly over it at any

  altitude without permission from HAWC. Even FAA Air Traffic Control

  could not clear aircraft to enter that airspace unless in extreme

  emergency, and even then the violating aircraft could expect to get

  intercepted by Air Force fighters and the air-traffic controller

  responsible could expect a long and serious scrutiny of his actions.

  R-4808N was surrounded by four other restricted areas that were meant to

  act as a buffer zone to give pilots ample warning time to change course

  if they were-accidentally or purposely-straying toward R-4808N. If one

  entered R-4808N without permission, military aircrew members would at

  best lose their wings, and commercial and civilian pilots would lose

  their licenses-and both would be in for an intense multiday "debriefing"

  conducted by teams of military and CIA interrogators, who would discard

  most articles of the Bill of Rights to find out why som
eone was stupid

  enough to stray into Dreamland. At worst, one would come face-to-face

  with McLanahan and Cobb's FB-1 1 lB racing across the desert floor at

  the speed of heat-or nose-to-nose with a BLU-96 fuel-air explosive bomb

  or some other strange and certainly far deadlier weapon. Several

  thousand workers, military and civilian, were shuttled from Las Vegas,

  Nellis Air Force Base, Beatty, Mercury, Pahrump, and Tonopah every day

  to the various research centers there. Most civilian workers reported

  to the Department of Energy facilities near Yucca Flats, where nuclear

  weapon research was conducted; most military members traveled forty

  miles farther northeast to the uncharted aircraft and weapons facilities

  northeast of Yucca Flats called Groom Lake. A series of electronic and

  human observation posts was set up just south of Groom Lake in Emigrant

  Valley, where they could observe the BLU-96 HADES bomb's destructive

  power. At the northern tip of Pintwater Ridge, the navigation com puter

  commanded a full 60-degree turn toward the west. McLanahan clicked on

  the command channel: "CROWBAR, Vapor Two-One, 1P inbound, unlocking now

  at T minus sixty seconds. Out." It took only seconds to configure the

  switches for weapon release, and finding the target on radar was a

  snap-it was a six-story concrete tower, resembling a fire-department

  training tower, surrounded by trucks, a few surplus tanks and armored

  personnel carriers, and surrounded by about a hundred mannequins dressed

  in various combat outfits, from lightweight fatigues to bulky chemical

  suits. Obviously, HAWC was not concerned about evaluating the effects

  of a HADES bomb on minefields-they had "softer" targets in mind for the

  BLU-96. Surrounding ground zero were several thirty-foot-high wooden

  blast fences erected every one thousand feet, which would be used to

  gauge the effect of the HADES bomb's shock wave. McLanahan could shack

  this bomb with one eye-it was hardly a test of either his or Cobb's

  skill. This was going to be a "toss" release, where the bombing