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  Strike Force

  ( Patrick McLanahan - 13 )

  Dale Brown

  The Battle For Control Of Iran…

  Begins In Space

  "When a disgraced former Iranian military chief of staff engineers an insurgency that threatens to destroy the theocratic regime in Iran, a new era appears to be dawning in the Middle East. But one must be wary of old enemies…"

  On the run from the Pasdaran, the theocrat's terror army, and unable to count on support from his friends in the regular army, Iranian rebel leader General Hesarak al-Kan Buzhazi desperately turns to his old nemesis, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Patrick McLanahan, for help. Unwilling to commit American forces in an Iranian civil war, and with time running out, the U.S. president authorizes McLanahan to utilize a new, top-secret fleet of globe-crossing spaceplanes, the XR-A9 Black Stallions, led by test pilot and astronaut Captain Hunter Noble. Within hours, McLanahan's Air Battle Force turns the tide, possibly changing the course of history in the Middle East for generations.

  The advent of almost instantaneous global reach, along with the reactivation of America's first military space station, Silver Tower, has rekindled fears of a space arms race, and the growing insurgency in Iran is threatening to erupt into a worldwide jihad. But McLanahan finds himself embroiled in even more bitter battles at the White House, between those who support his space-based military initiative and those who are working secretly to undermine it. When McLanahan is forced to concentrate on his political and personal battles back at home, it's left to Hunter Noble and his team of young American space engineers to keep the fires of freedom in the Middle East from exploding completely out of control.

  Filled with the latest cutting-edge weaponry, geopolitical intrigue, high-flying suspense, and a colorful cast of characters, "Strike Force" is "New York Times" bestselling master Dale Brown at his best.

  Dale Brown

  Strike Force

  DEDICATION

  This story is dedicated to my son Hunter, who has shown me time and again that he has inherited and embraced the greatest gift I can give any young person: the gift of imagination.

  You may be reading this story for the first time, but I can tell you that Hunter and I have told and retold this story to each other dozens of times.

  The old man thanks you, big guy.

  ACRONYMS AND TERMS

  2S6M Tunguska—combination missile and cannon mobile Russian air defense system

  AGM-170D—supersonic scramjet-powered attack missile

  Almaz S-300—Russian surface-to-air missile system, also capable against ballistic missiles

  ARB—Air Reserve Base

  Armstrong Space Station—first American military space station

  BDU—Battle Dress Uniform, the standard utility uniform worn by soldiers in combat

  BDU-58 Meteor—releases payloads over a target area after atmospheric re-entry

  BERP—Ballistic Electro-Reactive Process, the material worn by “Tin Man” commandos

  BOHM—borohydrogen tetroxide rocket fuel oxidizer

  CAP—Civil Air Patrol (U.S. Air Force Auxiliary)

  CID—Cybernetic Infantry Device manned combat robots

  CO—Commanding Officer

  COMSEC—communications security

  Condor—bomber-launched commando insertion and retrieval aircraft; also large unmanned new technology airship

  Crew Exploration Vehicle—next generation orbital and lunar manned space vehicle

  DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

  Doshan Tappeh Air Base—Tehran headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary GuardsCorps

  EVA—extravehicular activity; a spacewalk

  exfil—exfiltration

  G-forces—acceleration forces imposed on the human body, expressed in multiples of Earth gravity

  hypoplastic thumb—congenital birth defect where the thumb is reduced in size, missing, or fused with another finger

  IRGC—Iranian Revolutionary Corps

  ISAR—Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar

  JP-7—jet fuel refined with a higher flash point than more common JP-4

  KC-77—aerial refueling tanker and cargo aircraft

  komiteh—Iranian moral and religious enforcers

  LADAR—laser radar

  LakeSpotter—private individuals who camp outside secret U.S. military installations to spot classified aircraft test flights

  LPDRS—Laser Pulse Detonation Rocket System magnetohydrodynamic generator—using the movement of liquid metal moving through a magnetic field to generate electricity

  Majlis—Iranian parliament

  MHD—magnetohydrodynamic

  mil power—full aircraft engine thrust without using afterburners

  muay thai—kick boxing

  NCOICNon Commissioned—Officer In Charge

  NSA—National Security Agency

  OPSEC—operational security

  Orion—next generation manned spacecraft

  Pax River—Patuxent River Naval Air Station

  Pilatus PC-6—Swiss-made single-engine turboprop trainer

  pollicization—surgical creation of a thumb from a finger

  PSID—pounds-per-square-inch differential, a measure of cabin pressurization

  RFID—radio frequency identification device

  RPG—rocket propelled grenade

  RTB—return to base

  SA-10, SA-12, SA-19, SA-21—Russian surface to air anti-aircraft missiles

  SAM—surface to air missile

  SDB—small diameter bomb

  Shahab-2, Shahab-3, Shahab-5—Iranian ballistic missiles

  Skybolt—space-based anti ballistic missile laser

  SPAW—supersonic precision attack weapon

  SPO—senior project officer

  sun-synchronous orbit—orbit that places a satellite over the same spot on Earth at the same time of day

  Supreme Defense Council—Iranian military advisory group to the president

  TEL—transporter-erector-launcher

  Tin Man—commandos who wear advanced protective suits and carry sophisticated weapons

  VFR—visual flight rules

  XR-A9—Experimental Reconnaissance Article Nine, Black Stallion spaceplane

  Zulfiqar—Iranian-made main battle tank

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  AMERICANS

  KEVIN MARTINDALE, President of the United States

  MAUREEN HERSHEL, Vice President

  ARMY GENERAL JONAS HARMAN SPARKS, National Security Adviser

  JOSEPH GARDNER, Secretary of Defense

  ARMY GENERAL WILLIAM GLENBROOK, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  DR. MARY CARSON, Secretary of State

  KEN T. PHOENIX, Attorney General

  CARL MINDEN, Chief of Staff

  U.S. MARINE CORPS MAJOR-GENERAL ANTHONY LEWARS, White House Press Secretary

  GERALD VISTA, Director of Central Intelligence

  LT. GENERAL PATRICK MCLANAHAN, special adviser to the President

  BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID LUGER, asst. special adviser to the President

  BRIGADIER-GENERAL REBECCA FURNESS, commander, First Air Battle Force (air operations), Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base (ARB), Nevada

  BRIGADIER-GENERAL DAREN MACE, Air Battle Force operations officer and EB-1C mission commander

  U.S. AIR FORCE COLONEL NANCY CHESHIRE, AL-52 Dragon aircraft commander

  U.S. AIR FORCE RESERVE MAJOR WYATT CROSS, EB-52 Megafortress aircraft commander

  U.S. AIR FORCE RESERVE CAPTAIN MARK HOURS, EB-52 mission commander

  AIR FORCE RESERVE CAPTAIN MARGARET “MUGS” LEWIS, EB-1C Vampire aircraft commander

  BRIGADIER GENERAL HAL BRIGGS, deputy commander for operations (ground ope
rations), First Air Battle Force, Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, Nevada

  MARINE CORPS SERGEANT MAJOR CHRIS WOHL, NCOIC, First Air Battle Force

  U.S. ARMY FIRST LIEUTENANT CHARLIE BRAKEMAN, Tin Man commando

  ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAPTAIN CHARLIE TURLOCK, CID engineer and pilot

  U.S. ARMY SPECIALIST MARIA RICARDO, Tin Man commando

  COLONEL MARTIN TEHAMA, commander, High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC), Elliott Air Force Base, Nevada

  CAPTAIN HUNTER “BOOMER” NOBLE, XR-A9 Black Stallion aircraft commander, Elliott Air Force Base, Groom Lake

  FIRST LIEUTENANT DOROTHEA “NANO” BENNETON, Ph.D., Black Stallion mission commander

  U.S. AIR FORCE CAPTAIN WIL LEFFERTS, XR-A9 mission commander

  U.S. NAVY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER JACK OLRAY, XR-A9 pilot

  U.S. NAVY LIEUTENANT LISETTE “FRENCHY” MOULAIN, XR-A9 mission commander

  STACY ANNE BARBEAU, senior U.S. senator from Louisiana, ranking member of Senate Armed Services Committee; Colleen Morna, her aide

  GENERAL CHARLIE ZOLTRANE, commander, Eighth Air Force

  GENERAL COLLEEN EDGEWATER, commander, Air Force Matériel Command

  ANN PAGE, Ph.D., former U.S. senator, astronaut, and space weapon engineer

  COLONEL KAI RAYDON, Space Shuttle aircraft commander

  CIVIL AIR PATROL CADET MASTER SERGEANT DOUG LENZ, Cadet Lieutenant Katelyn VanWie’s NCOIC

  IRANIANS

  MAJOR-GENERAL HESARAK AL-KAN BUZHAZI, former chief of staff of the Iranian military

  CIVIL AIR PATROL CADET LIEUTENANT KATELYN VANWIE, aka Shahdokht Azar Assiyeh Qagev, heir presumptive of the Peacock Throne of Iran

  IMAM SAYYED MOSTAFA SHĪRĀZEMI, religious leader of Iran

  MASOUD AHMADAD, president of Iran

  BRIGADIER GENERAL MANSOUR SATTARI, Buzhazi’s aide

  BRIGADIER-GENERAL KAMAL ZHORAM, commander of the Second Rocket Brigade of the Pasdaran-i-Engelab, or Revolutionary Guards Corps

  GENERAL HOSEYN YASSINI, commander-in-chief, Iranian armed forces

  FLIGHT CAPTAIN ALI-REZA KAZEMI, transport pilot

  LIEUTENANT GENERAL MUHAMMAD BADI, commander of the Pasdaran (Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps)

  COLONEL/GENERAL ALI ZOLQADR, replacement Pasdaran commander; Major Kazem Jahromi, his aide

  AYATOLLAH HASSAN MOHTAZ, Director of the Supreme National Security Deputate and military adviser to the Faqih

  MAJOR PARVIZ NAJAR, Lieutenant Mara Saidi, Katelyn’s bodyguards

  COLONEL JAMAL FATTAH, chief political officer, Iranian embassy, Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan

  RUSSIANS

  LEONID ZEVITIN, president of the Russian Federation

  GENERAL KUZMA FURZYENKO, Russian chief of staff

  REAL-WORLD NEWS EXCERPTS

  PENTAGON PLANNING FOR SPACE BOMBER

  — By Robert Windrem, MSNBC NEWS, August 14, 2001

  — An experimental NASA spacecraft could well be the harbinger for a small armada of billion-dollar space bombers—“space operations vehicles” that could be launched from a U.S. base and fire weapons at almost any target on Earth, all within 90 minutes of a presidential order.

  …The next generation of America’s bomber fleet will be a far cry not only from World War II’s B-17 but from the stealthy B-2 bomber as well. Speed to target is likely to be just as high a priority as a bomber’s payload in the 21st century.

  …In June, Rumsfeld directed the Pentagon to investigate “suborbital space vehicles” that “would be valuable for conducting rapid global strikes,” according to a Pentagon planning document issued under his name. And as recently as last month, Boeing said it was talking to the Air Force about investing millions of dollars more in Boeing’s X-37.

  Then, in congressional testimony this month, Gen. Michael Ryan, the Air Force chief of staff, acknowledged that a futuristic “space bomber” is being contemplated by the Pentagon’s long-range planners…

  STRATEGIC FORECASTING INC., www.stratfor.com, 9 November 2004

  — An Iranian official said Nov. 9 that Iran has acquired the capability to produce medium-range ballistic missiles in mass quantity. Defense Minister Rear Adm. Ali Shamkhani told journalists in Tehran that the Islamic republic is able to manufacture in bulk the Shahab-3 missile, whose range was recently upgraded to 1,250 miles.

  IRANIANS REFUSE TO TERMINATE NUCLEAR PLANS

  — by Elaine Sciolino, New York Times—26 November 2004—VIENNA — Iran refused Thursday to abandon plans to operate uranium enrichment equipment that could be used either for energy purposes or in a nuclear bomb-making project, European and Iranian officials said.

  The refusal threatened to scuttle a nuclear agreement Iran reached 10 days ago with France, Britain and Germany to freeze all of Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, the European officials added. It also gave new ammunition to the Bush administration, which asserts that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program and cannot be trusted…

  U.S. FORCE EYES RAPID SATELLITE CAPABILITY

  — Jane’s Defense Weekly, 7 January 2005—The U.S. Air Force, along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), plans to conduct a flight experiment mid-year to see if it can rapidly place a light satellite payload into orbit aboard a small space launch vehicle. If successful, the demonstration could herald a new technology for space access, said officials involved with the launch.

  RUSSIANS HELPING IRAN CREATE EUROPE MISSILE THREAT:

  British Paper (AFP) Oct. 16, 2005

  — Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran obtain the technology needed to make missiles capable of hitting European capitals, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday.

  Citing anonymous “Western intelligence officials,” The Sunday Telegraph said the Russians were go-betweens as part of a multimillion-pound deal they negotiated between Iran and North Korea in 2003.

  “It has enabled Tehran to receive regular clandestine shipments of topsecret missile technology, believed to be channeled through Russia,” the newspaper reported in a front-page article.

  The allegations came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice feuded openly with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over Iran’s nuclear programme while on a brief trip to Moscow on Saturday.

  …According to the Telegraph, Iran would be able to use its new technology to build a missile with a range of 3,500 kilometres (2,200 miles).

  “It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device,” the newspaper said.

  It quoted a senior U.S. official as saying Iran’s programme as “sophisticated and getting larger and more accurate. They have had very much in mind the payload needed to carry a nuclear weapon.

  RUSSIA WARNS AGAINST MILITARY FORCE

  —© Stratfor Inc., August 17, 2005

  — Military force against Iran would be “counterproductive and dangerous,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Aug. 17. The ministry called for a diplomatic solution to the tensions surrounding Tehran’s nuclear program, warning of “grave” and unpredictable outcomes if force were employed.

  ARMS SALE TO TEHRAN FUELS TENSIONS WITH ISRAEL

  — Janes Defence Weekly, 14 December 2005

  —© Janes’ Information Group

  — Tel Aviv

  — Russia confirmed earlier reports on 5 December of the deal with Iran, which includes the upgrading of Iranian Su-24 attack aircraft and MiG-29 multirole fighter aircraft, along with the acquisition of an unspecified number of patrol boats, 32 Antey Tor-M1 (SA-15 “Gauntlet”) low- to medium-altitude surface-to-air missile systems (16 tracked, 16 wheeled) and the upgrade of an unspecified number of T-72 main battle tanks. Russian news agency Interfax reported that the missiles would be deployed to protect Iran’s soon-to-be-completed nuclear reactor in Bushehr.

  The Tor-M1 can simultaneously detect and track up to 48 airborne targets out to a range of 40 km and can engage targets at a maximum range of 12 km and at altitudes f
rom 10 m to 6,000 m. During a test in Russia, the Tor-M1 achieved a high kill probability against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and jet fighters…

  LOW-COST ACCESS TO ORBIT: MARINES TO THE RESCUE, by Taylor Dinerman, www.thespacereview.com, 6 January 2006…

  In July 2002, the Marine Corps released a Universal Needs Statement that defined the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) concept that, if successful, will give the U.S. a “…heretofore unimaginable assault support speed, range, altitude, and strategic surprise” capability. SUSTAIN is an RLV that will carry a squad (13 men) into space and land it anywhere on Earth within two hours with, among other requirements, “flexible launch on demand to any orbital inclination.”

  A fully operational SUSTAIN-type vehicle would also be the preferred low-cost way to get cargo and personnel to and from LEO [low earth orbit]…

  TWO-STAGE-TO-ORBIT “BLACKSTAR” SYSTEM SHELVED AT GROOM LAKE?

  —© Aviation Week and Space Technology, 5 March 2006…

  U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery…

  …A large “mothership,” closely resembling the U.S. Air Force’s historic XB-70 supersonic bomber, carries the orbital component conformally under its fuselage, accelerating to supersonic speeds at high altitude before dropping the spaceplane. The orbiter’s engines fire and boost the vehicle into space. If mission requirements dictate, the spaceplane can either reach low Earth orbit or remain suborbital.

  …Exactly what missions the Blackstar system may have been designed for and built to accomplish are as yet unconfirmed, but U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) officers and contractors have been toying with similar spaceplane concepts for years. Besides reconnaissance, they call for inserting small satellites into orbit, and either retrieving or servicing other spacecraft. Conceivably, such a vehicle could serve as an anti-satellite or space-to-ground weapons-delivery platform…