Aboard the lead JS-7 fighter of Liang-2 air-defense group, the threat radar suddenly lit up with a fighter-style threat symbol — but it was from one of his own fighters. “Liang flight, lead, keep your damned radars off.” The radar indication quickly disappeared. He was leading a group of rather young, inexperienced pilots on their sixth overwater air- defense mission, and they were constantly flipping switches in their cockpits to keep from getting too bored.
The JS-7 fighter was one of the newest and best fighters in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. Originally offered only for export as the Super-7, but later purchased in small numbers by the Chinese government itself, it was a major upgrade of the J-7 fighter, incorporating a lot of imported technology to bring it up-to-date with the rest of the world’s best fighters — a French-made multimode attack radar and heads-up display similar to the American F-16 Fighting Falcon, West German/British/Italian-built high-performance Turbo-Union RBI99 engines, additional weapons racks to carry ECM pods, and greater fuel capacity. Because there were so few, and because they were so far advanced over their older J-7 cousins, they were used only as flight leads for fighter patrols, where they could vector other J-7 fighters in on targets while attacking targets of their own.
Another radar threat indication flashed on his Thomson- CSF BF screen. He was about to chastise his charges once again… before realizing it was from in front of him instead of beside him this time! There was
“Fayling, this is Liang flight,” the lead J-7 pilot radioed, using the universal call-sign for all Chinese seaborne radar controllers instead of broadcasting the destroyer’s name. “Fighter warning. Twelve o’clock, type unknown. What are you tracking?”
The Sea Eagle radar operator aboard
“I have a fighter-type radar, not a bomber.” Curse it, the destroyer had been tracking this intruder all this time thinking it was a
“Liang flight and Sichuan flight, you are clear to close and identify. Liang flight, say your bingo.”
“Liang flight is two minutes to bingo,” the flight leader reported. “Request permission to send all but myself and one wingman back to base. We will identify the aircraft and engage until Sichuan-Ten flight is in position. Over.”
After a short wait, the radar controller aboard
The lead pilot aboard the JS-7 fighter quickly determined the target’s range by the bullseye call — the distance from Davao Airport, a common navigation point for all Chinese fighters — and found that he was within radar range. The JS-7 fighter used an upgraded French radar system called Cyrano-IV, which was very close in capability to the amazing American F-16 fighter radar — it could lock onto multiple targets at fantastic ranges and could attack several targets at once with missiles or guns. “Liang flight, take combat spacing and stand by to engage…..”
Up in the cockpit, Major Kelvin Carter took a firm grip on the Megafortress’s sidestick controller. This was not going to be an easy run. A million things were zipping through his head: G-limits on the composite fibersteel structures, angle-of-attack limits, airspeed warnings, pitch-angle versus airspeed…
“Fighter!” Atkins suddenly screamed out. “Twelve o’clock… Jesus, very close, X-band pulse Doppler… calling it a Chinese JS-7 fighter. Man, he’s right on top of us….!”
“Lock him up and engage,” Carter cried out. He doublechecked the rows of consent switches on his left panel. “Stand by for descent, crew.”
Scott reacted first, hitting the “Transmit” button on his attack radar and letting the radar lock onto the fighters ahead. “Two targets, twelve o’clock, closure rate eleven hundred…. additional targets, climbing and going away, looks like they’re disengaging… I’ve got a lock on the two heading for us…”
Atkins reacted next, activating his forward jammers to shut down the X-band fire-control radar. He readied other jammers to get the Skyranger radar when it came up as well…
