Sky Masters полностью

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 launched — the 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, Kaifeng 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 Kaifeng…”

“Sir, destroyer Kaifeng reports one hit by a Tomahawk cruise missile.”

No one spoke on the combat bridge. They couldn’t believe it. What was going on? “Kaifeng radioing for assistance. Task force group commander dispatching frigate Yingtan to assist… Kaifeng 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 Kaifeng. “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’s-eye 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-136A 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 homed 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.