Tiger's Claw: A Novel

SPACE BASED INFRARED SYSTEM MISSION CONTROL STATION, BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, AURORA, COLORADO

THAT SAME MOMENT

“Missile launch detection!” the sensor technician shouted. That immediately riveted everyone’s attention, and console operators turned back to their computer screens.

“Origin?” the senior controller, Air Force Captain Sally Martin, asked.

“Looks like Hainan Island, China,” the sensor technician replied. “We’ll get the precise launch pad shortly. Heading is south-southeast, accelerating, approaching the Mach.”

“Alert Pacific Command,” Martin said. “Missile departing Hainan Island heading south-southeast supersonic, target unknown.” She studied the large monitor in front of her as the computer displayed a graphical depiction of the missile in flight they had detected. Martin was the duty officer in charge of the Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, a network of high, low, and geostationary heat-seeking satellites that was designed to detect and track ballistic missiles, determine their launch and impact points, track and classify their warheads and determine if any were decoys, and pass targeting information to land- or sea-based missile defense units.

What they had determined once the entire system was in place was that the sensors were so sensitive that they could not only detect and track the white-hot rocket plume during ascent or the red-hot warheads during reentry, but even detect the heat trail behind the rocket motor, which gave them even more precise tracking and targeting data. But this time, there was something strange about this heat trail. Martin turned to her deputy controller, Master Sergeant Ed Ingalls, a fifteen-year veteran of U.S. Space Command. “What do you make of that track, Ed?” she asked. “Are we not getting a good look at it?”

“I’d say it’s not a ballistic missile, but a cruise missile, ma’am,” Ingalls responded after a few moments. “Rumor had it the Chinese were deploying antiship cruise missiles, along with ballistic missiles. We might be watching one right now. They stay low so that the atmosphere attenuates their heat trail.”

Martin’s intercom beeped, and she moved the microphone to her lips. “Martin here, go ahead, SPACECOM.”

“What do you have, Sally?” the senior controller at Space Command headquarters asked.

“Master Sergeant Ingalls thinks we have a cruise missile, sir,” Martin replied. “Speed is over the Mach and accelerating, and it’s not rising through the atmosphere. Heading south-southeast.”

“Impact point?”

“Stand by.” Martin studied the display closer and waited to see what the depiction would show, but nothing was happening yet. “The missile is maneuvering slightly, so the computer’s not making any guesses yet, sir,” she said. “It looks like it’ll pass west of the Paracel Islands, but it could impact anywhere between Vietnam and the Philippines and as far out as Malaysia—it’s too early to tell for sure. But my guess would be somewhere in the Spratly Islands. If we have any ships out there, they’d better be notified.”

“I’ll pass the word to PACOM,” the controller at SPACECOM said. “When the computer gives you a definite impact point, give me a shout.”

“Wilco, sir.”