Strike Force

“Relax, Huck, relax,” the AL-52 Dragon’s aircraft commander, Air Force Brigadier-General Nancy Cheshire, said, straightening up in her seat as if just awakening from a nap. The veteran pilot was some sort of bionic crewdog: even though crewmembers were allowed to wear headsets while in high-altitude cruise, she always wore her flight helmet, gloves, and cold-weather jacket; always kept her oxygen mask on except when drinking water (and only water) and always kept her clear visor down; never ate any meals on board, and never had to; and never took a nap on board an aircraft, and never had to. “Let the systems do the work — you need to keep calm and monitor everything carefully.”

Cheshire was the commander of all of the Air Battle Force’s modified B-52 bomber fleet at Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, a grand total of six planes — all of which were involved in operations near Iran — plus a steadily growing fleet of eight QA-45C “Hunter” unmanned stealth bombers undergoing final flight tests at Dreamland before becoming fully operational. Cheshire, a soft-spoken and very laid-back test pilot turned wing commander, was the first female test pilot at Dreamland before being chosen to command the Air Battle Force’s B-52 bombers at Battle Mountain.

Although she was checked out in every aircraft under her command at Battle Mountain, plus every aircraft that had been flown at Dreamland for the past ten years, her favorite aircraft was by far the AL-52 Dragon. This Dragon — the only one that survived the American Holocaust and the Air Battle Force’s counterattack over Russia — was the latest variant of the B-52 bomber tested at Dreamland and deployed at Battle Mountain. Originally a test bed aircraft only, the Dragon carried only one weapon, but it was one of the most powerful weapons ever fired from an aircraft: a three-megawatt plasma-pumped electronic laser. Steered by an adaptive-optics mirror system in the nose, the laser beam fired from the Dragon had a maximum range of about three hundred miles and could attack and destroy or disable targets in space, in the sky, and even on the ground.

“Make sure the computer has designated the targets…there, that’s what that symbol means, remember?” Nancy prompted her mission commander. “Do a quick scan for any other threats — don’t assume the computer will always pick the right targets. A fighter a hundred miles away always has priority…”

“A fighter? Where?”

“Just an example, Huck,” Nancy said patiently. Man, this guy was skittish — he either needed a few more combat sorties under his belt, or a roll in the hay. “The targeting computer is programmed to go after ballistic missiles first, but if a fighter is nearby, even if it’s a long way away, it’s a bigger threat in my book. You also want to make sure it hasn’t designated any friendly aircraft or missiles. The system is good, but it’s not foolproof. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“A simple ‘yes’ is good, Huck,” Nancy said. She was only in her early forties, but these young kids in the force today made her feel much older sometimes. “Okay, it looks like the coast is clear, and the Dragon has the two top priority targets. This indication”—she pointed to the upper left corner of Dannon’s supercockpit display—“tells you that the targeting laser has already locked onto both missiles and has measured them and the surrounding atmosphere for attenuation compensation. Dragon does that automatically but not continuously unless you tell it to. Will it fire the main laser automatically?”

“No…I mean, yes, because we’ve given consent and…no, wait…”

“You had it right the first time, Huck: no, it will normally not fire the main laser automatically,” Nancy said, starting to lose a little patience. She always insisted on flying with the most inexperienced crewmembers, but sometimes their inexperience and nervousness-induced dumbness aggravated her. “Man-in-the-loop, remember? You have to have consent, pre-attack checklist complete by both crewmembers, targeting lock either manual or auto, and give the order to fire. The only exception is with failure of both supercockpit displays or with other kinds of serious malfunctions, when the Dragon shifts to self-defense mode. The system will…”

“Uh, ma’am, shouldn’t…shouldn’t we attack now?”

“What’s the missile flight time remaining until impact, Huck?”

Dannon checked his display. “Uh…one minute forty-one seconds.”

“Correct. And what’s our range to target?”

“One hundred ninety-three nautical miles.”

“Good. And what’s the speed of light?”

“One hundred eighty-six thousand miles per second.”

“Correct. And how long is a typical laser engagement?”

“Six seconds on an intercontinental ballistic-missile-sized target — a little less with a tactical ballistic missile — plus turret rotation and mirror focusing time. About ten seconds total.”

“Good. So how long will it take for our laser beam to hit and destroy the Shahab-2, assuming it was an ICBM-class target?”