Sky Masters полностью

“Trial engage clear.” A muted horn sounded throughout the ship, followed by, “Attention all hands, missile alert actual, missile alert actual, stand by for missile launch.” The tech then reported, “Launchers in the green and reporting clear. CDS enable. Weapon commit in three, two, one, now.” The ASTAB monitors cleared, and they began to show the Mk 41 launcher status and the status of the missiles in the forward launcher that were being chosen by the Aegis system for the first ripple. A button marked “Hold Fire” was blinking rapidly in the lower-left comer of the communications panel, where both Hart and his data-entry tech could reach it — Feinemann had a blinking Hold Fire button as well, and he had full authority to use it.

Aegis selected ten missiles and began a pre-programmed ten-second warmup and target-data transfer cycle. “Missile counting down, ten missiles in the green… missile one forward in five… four… three… two… one… launch! Missiles away.”

Up on the forward deck of the Bunker Hill, a twenty-five- square-inch white door popped open atop the Mk 41 VLS launcher, and a cloud of white smoke engulfed the entire forward portion of the cruiser. Once every two seconds, an Aegis SM-2 missile lifted free of the Bunker Hill, climbed to ten thousand feet in just a few seconds, then arched over and began its intercept. The missiles’ autopilots steered them into an intercept “basket,” an area in which the incoming targets were predicted to fly. When the Aegis SPY-1 radar detected the SM-2 missiles approaching the “basket,” the SPY-1 would activate an SPG-62 X-band target illuminator which would “paint” the incoming Chinese missiles, and the SM-2 Aegis missiles would home in on the radar energy reflected off the enemy missiles.

“Six missiles away forward,” the tech reported. “Forward launcher secure and reporting clear, plenum status normal, refire status normal. Counting down on aft launcher… in three… two… one… mark.”

The canister door on the aft launcher flipped open and the first SM-2 fired…

But something happened.

Instead of shooting skyward, the SM-2 rose about twenty feet above the launcher, the solid-propellant motor stopped running, and the missile slipped backwards, crashed to the deck, and exploded.

The concussion threw half of the Aegis crew members to the deck. Feinemann was the only one able to react — he hit the Hold Fire button to ensure that no other missiles from the aft launcher tried to launch. “Status report!” he cried out. “Get me a status report!”

The damage-control alarm was ringing throughout the Bunker Hill, and there were a few seconds of momentary panic as the CIC lights went out, the emergency lights finally clicked on, and a few purple wisps of smoke issued from the ventilators, “Status report, dammit!”

Hart’s ears were ringing hard — from the blast, the confusion, or the sudden disorientation of having the normally steady deck heaving beneath him, he couldn’t tell which — but he managed to straighten himself in his seat and help his tech up. Several ASTAB monitors had gone down, and Feinemann’s LSDs were blank. “Mark 7 system is faulted… both launchers shut down.… SPY-1 is still on-line,” he reported. On the intercom, he shouted, “Bridge, CIC, Mark 7 system fault, recommend immediate AAW command transfer.”

“CIC, bridge, copy, command transfer to Sterett. ” With SPY-1 still operating, the cruiser Sterett could act as pseudoAegis cruiser by receiving Aegis data via the Battle Group

Anti Aircraft Warfare Coordination system on its Mk 76 weapons-control consoles.

The transfer was made, but far too late.

Three C601 antiship missiles, air-launched versions of the huge Silkworm missile, survived the Aegis counterattack made by Bunker Hill and the Sea Sparrow antimissile barrage by Sterett. One missile was destroyed by combined Sea Sparrow missile hits by Sterett and Phalanx Close-InWeapon System gunfire seconds before it reached Bunker Hill, and a second missile was destroyed by a last-second burst of gunfire from the Ranger's portside Phalanx gun just a few hundred yards before striking the carrier…

The last missile hit the carrier Ranger just aft of the port bow.

The missile’s titanium nosecap pierced the outer hull of the carrier before the eleven-hundred-pound high-explosive warhead detonated, ensuring that most of the missile’s deadly force was directed inside the vessel.

“Bullet Six flight, say your bingo status,” the controller aboard the Air Force E-3C AWACS plane radioed.

“Bullet Six is seven minutes to bingo,” Lieutenant Jason “Razor” Penrose reported.

“Ditto for Bullet Seven.”

“Copy. Stand by… Bullet flight, code is ‘slippery,’ repeat, ‘slippery.’ ”