Blackmail

67 FURY 21

High above southeastern Turkey, Air Force Major Mike Peck checked the map on the multifunction display of his B-1B Lancer long-range bomber, call sign Fury 21. Seated beside him in the four-person cockpit was his co-pilot, while behind them sat the DSO and OSO — Defensive Systems Operator and Offensive Systems Operator. Also behind Peck was a second B-1B from the U.S. Air Force’s 9th Bomb Squadron, headed to the same target. Sixteen other Lancers had similar assignments, with their flight paths and speed coordinated such that all eighteen Lancers commenced their attacks simultaneously.

As his B-1B bomber approached the Iranian border, Peck adjusted his wings to full sweep, pulling them back to a fifteen-degree angle, then dropped in altitude and increased speed to just under Mach 1. As the ground rushed up to meet his aircraft, he engaged the ground-hugging, terrain-following mode of his AN/APQ-64 radar, and the B-1B leveled off, skimming across the landscape just above treetop height in an effort to avoid detection by Iranian radars and Russian anti-aircraft missile batteries.

Peck adjusted his flight path, running parallel to the Zagros Mountains as they cut southeast across Iran, hugging the valleys of the multi-ridge mountain range. After an hour-long transit, the mountain peaks tapered off and Peck turned south, cutting between the Folded Zagros Mountains, not far from his target. As the second Lancer pulled alongside, Peck’s OSO began final preparations to drop their payload of twenty-four GBU-31s: two-thousand-pound bombs, each outfitted with a JDAM — Joint Direct Attack Munition — a bolt-on guidance package with aerodynamic control surfaces and GPS capability, converting free-falling gravity bombs into precision-guided munitions.

The voice of Peck’s OSO came across the speaker in his flight helmet. “One minute to release point.”

Peck lifted a switch on his panel, opening the triple bomb bay doors. After a green light illuminated on his panel, he activated the microphone in his flight helmet. “OSO, you have permission to release.”

The OSO acknowledged the order, and when the Lancer reached the release point, he dropped their ordnance. On Peck’s left, the second B-1B did the same.

Peck banked to the right for a return trip home as twenty-four tons of ordnance streaked toward their targets.