Tiger's Claw

THIRTEEN

OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN, FIVE HUNDRED MILES WEST OF GUAM

THAT SAME TIME

“Fox three, Brewski!” Jimmy Maili shouted on the command channel. All four Chinese fighters were locked on solid on his APG-77 radar, and the fire control computer had selected the best targets. With the press of a button, the left main weapon bay door opened and an AIM-120D AMRAAM was ejected into the slipstream and homed in on its target, followed a few seconds later by another from the right-side weapons bay. He could see tiny sparkles in the distance and assumed it was the Chinese pilots ejecting flares when they got the missile launch warning.

“Siren flight, bandits still at your six o’clock, eleven miles,” the AWACS radar controller reported. The Raptor’s multifunction cockpit displayed a God’s-eye view of the engagement, combining the AWACS’s radar information with their own radar data to give a complete picture of the battle.

“I’m breaking off to engage the trailers, Juju,” Carling said.

“Nail ’em, Brewski,” Maili said.

Carling deactivated his radar, then executed a tight climbing left turn, using the Raptor’s thrust-vectoring engine exhaust nozzles to pull the jet’s nose around even harder. With the AWACS in the area supplying real-time radar information to each Raptor, it was possible for the F-22s to attack using AWACS radar data, thereby not revealing themselves to the enemy by turning on their own radar. Carling switched into radar-emulate mode, and the fire control computer selected the best targets. “One-Nine, fox three,” he announced, and he issued the attack order. The left main weapons bay opened and an AMRAAM shot off into the darkness. Once the AMRAAM got closer to its quarry as shown by the AWACS information, it would activate its own radar and infrared sensors and take over the kill by itself.

“One-Eight, splash one,” Maili radioed. “Looks like the second missed. Jamming is heavy.”

“One-Nine, splash one,” Carling reported as he saw the blinking coffin-shaped box appear around the first bandit. But he also noticed that the targeting cues around the other bandits had disappeared. “Lost radar data from the AWACS,” Carling radioed. He activated his AN/APG-77 radar to start searching for the Chinese pursuers . . .

. . . and found them all around him! Like sharks closing in on a baby seal, the Chinese fighters had surrounded him. Carling shut off his radar, rolled inverted and dived five hundred feet, executed a hard right turn, waited a few heartbeats, then rolled wings-level and executed a hard barrel roll. If the bandit to his north tried to follow him down, he should be right in front of him when he finished the roll . . .

. . . and when he turned on the radar again, there he was, less than four miles in front of him! Still inverted he radioed, “One-Nine, fox two!” he radioed. The fire control computer had already selected an AIM-9X Sidewinder heat-seeking missile from the left-side weapons bay and sent it into space. Carling immediately deactivated his radar . . .

. . . but as he did he heard, “One-Nine, bandit, five o’clock high, eight miles!” from the AWACS controller. “Additional bandits now eleven o’clock nine miles and seven o’clock ten miles!” Carling immediately snapped into a tight climbing right turn, chasing after the closest target behind him . . .

. . . but that was what the other Chinese J-20 fighters were waiting for. As soon as he made the turn he exposed his hot exhausts to the fighters off to his left, and two J-20s launched a volley of PL-9C heat-seeking missiles. The automatic countermeasures system aboard the F-22 reacted instantly, firing decoy flares and warning the pilot, and Carling executed a hard right diving break to escape the incoming missiles. But as soon as he did he presented a perfect radar target for the eastern bandit, who fired two radar-guided PL-12 missiles. Carling’s Raptor exploded after a direct hit.

Meanwhile, Maili had killed another of the three remaining J-20s pursuing the AWACS plane. The two remaining Chinese fighters split up, both turning away from the AWACS. “Brewski, looks like the J-20s up here are turning your way.” No reply. “Brewski, how copy?”

“Negative radar contact with One-Nine, Siren leader,” the controller radioed. Maili swore into his oxygen mask. “Warning, bandits, seven o’clock, fifteen miles and closing, numerous targets. Bandit at ten o’clock, six miles, still turning, heading southwest. His wingman is at your two o’clock, heading southeast.”

“Spyglass, it looks like they can’t see me with my radar off,” Maili said. “How’s that datalink looking?”

“It’s clear right now, One-Eight,” the controller said. “Vector left heading two-eight-zero, target will be at twelve o’clock, six miles. Intermittent heaving jamming on all frequencies,” the controller said. “The bomber formation is at your five o’clock, thirty miles—the heaviest jamming seems to be coming from them. But it’s getting less the greater distance you get.”

Unfortunately, Maili thought as he turned to the new heading, it also meant that the bombers were getting that much closer to Guam. As soon as he rolled onto the new heading he saw a “SHOOT” indication on his multifunction display. He pressed the launch button, and an AMRAAM flew out of the left main weapons bay. A few seconds later he saw a bright flash of light off in the distance, followed by a brief trail of fire, then nothing except another blinking coffin on his display.

“Vector left heading zero-five-zero,” the controller said. “Bandits will be at your twelve o’clock, nine miles. Additional bandit at your two o’clock, six miles high.” The threat warning receiver blared. “Bandit at your two o’clock is descending, appears to be diving on you. Two bandits at your twelve o’clock, eight miles, accelerating, climbing, range to Spyglass inside fifty miles.”

Shit, Maili thought, and he pushed the throttles to zone one afterburner. The datalink was intermittent again, so he activated his radar, found the two J-20s closest to the AWACS plane, locked them up, and fired two AMRAAMs in quick succession . . .

. . . but not before the Chinese J-20s fired four PL-12 radar-guided missiles at the AWACS plane. The PL-12s were some of the world’s most advanced air-to-air missiles. They had four different modes of guidance, and they used them all on this engagement:

They first got the initial target position from the J-20s’ attack radar at launch. When Maili’s AMRAAMs hit home and the J-20s’ radars went down, they switched to inertial guidance mode to navigate themselves to a predicted point in space where their target might be. As they got in closer they switched on their own radars, discovered their target, and closed in for the kill. As soon as they activated their terminal guidance radars the AWACS radar plane began sending out jamming signals, dropping chaff and flares, and maneuvering as best as the big plane with its thirty-foot-diameter radome atop the fuselage could do, but the PL-12s used their fourth terminal guidance mode and homed in on the jamming signals themselves. Two of the missiles missed . . .

. . . but the two remaining PL-12s were more than enough to do the job. They ripped into the Sentry’s fuselage, and their fifty-pound shaped-charge warheads and laser proximity fuses did their job, tearing the plane apart in seconds and sending it crashing to the sea.

Maili saw the fireball off in the distance and knew he was too late, and he thought of that big plane and the over twenty crewmembers killed, but now was the time to figure out his next moves. He made a quick assessment of his situation: he had two AMRAAMs and one Sidewinder remaining. He was getting low on fuel, but that didn’t matter because they were all heading to the same place—the island of Guam. Turning for home wouldn’t do him any good if there was no home to go to.

Maili was determined to take out as many Chinese bombers as he could. He still had four hundred and eight rounds of twenty-millimeter ammunition for his cannon, and he was even determined to kamikaze into another bomber if he couldn’t get their formation to break up and turn away.

He turned in the direction that he believed the formation was located and activated his AN/APG-77 radar, and sure enough he painted the two V-formations just thirty miles to his southeast—they had not bothered to stray off their original course or altitude. He immediately locked up the lead bomber in the northernmost formation and fired, hoping that the sight of their leader going down would prompt the others to turn around or at least break up the . . .

. . . and at that instant his radar picked up other air targets flying eastbound, going fast and accelerating, already approaching the Mach just seconds into their flight . . . cruise missiles, supersonic cruise missiles!

“Warning, warning, any vessel, any command post on freq,” he cried on his command channel and the international emergency GUARD frequency, “this is Siren One-Eight, United States Air National Guard, cruise missiles inbound heading toward Guam, if you hear me, take cover!” He knew he was hundreds of miles from Andersen Air Force Base and well over their horizon, and without the AWACS plane acting as a communications relay for his Joint Tactical Information Distribution System no one else was receiving his radar imagery, but he just couldn’t remain silent while . . .

. . . and then he saw an immensely bright flash of light and felt a tremendous whipsaw effect as his F-22 Raptor was blown apart by several Chinese PL-12 missiles hitting him simultaneously, and then he felt nothing at all.