Blackmail

69 ARABIAN SEA

Lieutenant Commander Bill Houston cruised at twelve thousand feet, headed northwest toward the Gulf of Oman, where the Russian surface combatants awaited. Houston and the other seventeen Super Hornets in Truman’s first cycle were divided into nine two-fighter packages, with each package assigned a different target. At this point in their approach, the eighteen fighters were strung out side by side at half-mile intervals, with an EA-18G Growler on each side of the formation, jamming incoming missiles and aircraft radars.

Three more waves of aircraft were headed northwest, one from each of the other carriers, forming a diamond formation with Truman’s cycle in the lead. The Russian surface combatants were arranged in a single task force resembling a two-carrier strike group, with the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov and the battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy in the center.

Although the four waves of American fighters had been tasked with sinking the Russian surface ships, they would have to deal with the Russian combat air patrol first. The Super Hornets in his cycle were carrying a mixed load: air-to-surface missiles for the ships and air-to-air missiles for the tactical fighters. The Russian ships, aircraft, and missile batteries ashore would fire a bevy of missiles against the incoming American fighters, and defending against them would be challenging. Houston would have to rely on chaff, infrared decoys, and his organic jammers, as well as the more powerful electronic countermeasures aboard the accompanying Growlers.

Houston’s Radar Warning Receiver activated, its audible warning pulling his attention to the display. E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft, operating high above and to the rear, were relaying their contacts to the inbound fighters. Missiles had appeared over the Iranian coast, headed Houston’s way on an intercept course. Each missile was represented by a red 6, which indicated they were long-range 40N6 surface-to-air missiles fired by Russian mobile missile batteries. The 40N6 was designed to kill high-value targets, able to defeat EA-18G jamming.

There were four waves of outbound missiles, each wave headed toward a cycle of American fighters. In response to the incoming threat, the pilots from all four carriers did as they had been instructed to do. They banked hard left and dropped to the deck, skimming just above the ocean surface as they streaked away from the missiles.

In layman parlance, Houston and his fellow pilots turned and ran.