Sky Masters полностью

“Incoming missiles/” one of the Sea Eagle radar operators suddenly shouted. “High-speed, bearing two-four-one degrees…” Two AGM-84E SLAM missiles from the second, B-2 Black Knight in McLanahan’s attack formation had detected the HQ-91 missile fire-control radar and homed in on it just after missile launch.

But like the TACIT RAINBOW missiles, the SLAMS were big, subsonic targets, and easy for the destroyer to lock on radar. The vessel’s guns began firing, and with full radar tracking and fire control, they could not miss — both SLAMS were destroyed well before they reached Jinan.

But that left them vulnerable to two HARM missiles fired from McLanahan’s B-2. Like TACIT RAINBOW, the High-Speed Anti-Radar Missiles homed in on enemy radar transmission, but instead of cruising to their targets over long distances and being very inviting targets for enemy gunfire, HARM flew at speeds over Mach three and were often untouched or even undetectable. The longer Jinan kept radars on to track the incoming SLAM missiles, the easier it was for the HARMS to find their targets. The missiles homed in precisely on the fore and aft radar dishes of the “Fog Lamp” fire-control radars, hit, and exploded.

Although the HARMs only hit the emitters on the tall fore-and-aft antenna masts on the destroyer Jinan, and the two HARMs’ warheads were a scant fifty pounds, the results in the Combat Information Center belowdecks were as disruptive as a nuclear bomb blast. All the cabin and console lights in CIC flicked off immediately, replaced by emergency lights for the cabin only — most of the weapons control systems were dead or in rest. “Hold your positions!” the CIC officer shouted to his console and weapons technicians. “Put your sets in reset and stand by!” The CIC officer picked up the emergency battery-powered telephone. “Bridge, CIC, weapons systems and sensors in full reset. I say again, weapon systems in full reset. Over.”

“Bridge copies,” a reply came. “Missile impact on both main and aft mast.”

The CIC officer felt his jaw drop. Both masts — that meant both HQ-91 missile directors were down. The Sea Eagle search radar, which was still operational, could be used for fire control, but it was highly inaccurate. They could still direct attacks by the other patrol boats, however, but in just a split second a four-thousand-ton warship was rendered virtually impotent…

… But not entirely impotent. When the lights came back on a few moments later, most of the CIC’s equipment was still in working order. “There’s a second bomber out there somewhere, and I want it,” he shouted at his Combat Information Center crew. “Get a report from up on deck, make sure all our weapons are clear to fire — the forward 100 and the aft HQ-91 launcher should both be clear. I want infrared and low-light sensor manned, and I want Sea Eagle slaved to the one-hundred-millimeter cannon and HQ-91. Bridge, CIC, I show the aft HQ-91 system still operational. Clear me to engage the second stealth bomber.”

“C-3 band uplink shut down… search radar only,” McLanahan reported. “I think I got the missile director. Damn, I wish I could say thank you to those guys in the other B-2. I think they saved our bacon with those SLAM launches.” His eyes were glued to the SMFD, checking the rear hemisphere tail warning radar for any sign of tracking Masurca missiles. But after two minutes, nothing appeared. Patrick took a deep breath, as if it were the first time all day he’d been able to breathe, and Cobb rustled uneasily in his seat as the threat from the destroyer passed — for Cobb, that was akin to a wild shout of relief.

McLanahan said, “Still got two India-band control radars at two o’clock. Give me thirty degrees left, let’s give these guys a wide berth.” He opened the left bomb bay and readied two more HARM missiles of his own to engage the patrol boats. “Search radar only, six o’clock… that destroyer must still have its air-search radar on…” Patrick considered turning back to get within range of one more HARM missile launch at the destroyer’s big search radar, or perhaps even a SLAM missile launch at the destroyer itself, but the patrol boat’s gun-control radars ahead were a bigger threat now. With the destroyer’s big threat, the HQ-91 surface-to-air missile, gone, the B-52s could take care of the destroyer now…

“Tracking air target at bearing three-four-two, range eleven miles and increasing, altitude less than eighty meters..The radar operator quickly checked the track history of that target; it had none. It had literally appeared out of nowhere, right in the middle of the Chinese fleet, and it was about to disappear once again…

So this is what a stealth bomber looked like on radar!

“Commit aft HQ-91 missiles,” the CIC officer aboard Jinan ordered.

“Yes, sir… aft HQ-91 missiles showing faulted, track error.”

“Bypass it. Slave to the Sea Eagle system for command guidance.”