Shadow Flight (1990) Read online

  Shadow Flight (1990)

  Weber, Joe

  Published: 2010

  Shadow Flight

  Joe Weber

  *

  Book Cover:

  Recent congressional actions have attacked full funding of the remarkable Stealth bomber. But sinister forces in the world apparently think more highly of this advanced weapons system than does the Congress. During a special training exercise, one of the famous B-2 bombers disappears. After intensive air-ground searches reveal nothing, the Air Force concludes that the top-secret aircraft has been hijacked.

  Recovery of the Stealth and its crew is the president's highest priority. The Kremlin has its hands full with its own internal problems and disavows any knowledge of what has happened to the craft.

  After developing information which points to Cuba as the likely destination of the Stealth's last flight, the CIA dispatches agent Steve Wickham to the island. Wickham's mission: find the B-2 before the president calls for an invasion.

  As Cuban and American forces begin to clash, the world hovers on the brink of major power conflict.

  *

  Glossary

  ACM Air Combat Maneuvering; dog-fighting.

  ACO Air Control Officer.

  ADIZ Air Defense Identification Zone.

  ADVCAP Advanced Capability.

  AEGIS Air Defense System on Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. ALCM Air Launched Cruise Missiles.

  Alpha Strike All-out carrier air wing attack.

  ASW Antisubmarine Warfare.

  AWACS Airborne Warning And Control System.

  Ball The optical landing device on an aircraft carrier. Also referred to as "meatball."

  BARCAP Barrier Combat Air Patrol, used to protect vessels at sea.

  Blue Water Operations Carrier flight operations beyond the range of land bases.

  Bogie Unidentified or enemy aircraft.

  Bolter Carrier landing attempt in which the tail hook misses the arresting wire, necessitating a go-around.

  Bow Front end of ship.

  Bridge Command post in a ship superstructure.

  CAG Commander of the Air Group; oversees all squadrons embarked on a carrier.

  CAP Combat Air Patrol.

  CATCC Carrier Air Traffic Control Center (Cat-see).

  Check Six Refers to visual observation behind an aircraft. Fighter pilots must check behind them constantly to ensure that enemy aircraft are not in an attack position.

  CIC Combat Information Center--central battle management post in naval surface combat.

  CINCLANT Commander In Chief of Atlantic Fleet.

  CINCPAC Commander In Chief of Pacific Fleet.

  CNO Chief of Naval Operations.

  Dash Two Second plane in a two-aircraft section; the wingman. Departure Refers to an aircraft departing from controlled flight.

  DME Distance Measuring Equipment. Distance provided to a pilot in nautical miles from a known point.

  ELINT Electronic Intelligence.

  Feet Dry / Wet Pilot radio call indicating a position over land/ water.

  FOD Foreign Object Damage to a jet engine.

  Fox One/Two/Three Pilot radio calls indicating the firing of a Sparrow, Sidewinder, or Phoenix missile.

  Furball Multiaircraft fighter engagement.

  G-force Force pressed on a body by changes in velocity, measured in increments of earth gravity.

  G-LOC G-induced Loss of Consciousness. Gomers Air combat adversaries.

  Hawkeye E-2C early warning and control aircraft; radar eyes of the fleet.

  Hornet F/A-18 fighter/attack aircraft.

  Hot pump Refueling aircraft while engine is running.

  ICS Intercom System in cockpits of multiseat aircraft.

  IFF Military transponder used to identify aircraft (Identification Friend or Foe).

  IFR Instrument Flight Rules. Intruder A-6 attack aircraft.

  Knot One nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile equals 1.1 statute miles.

  LAMPS Light Airborne Multipurpose System; shipborne helicopter used for antisubmarine warfare.

  LCAC Air-cushioned landing craft.

  Loose Deuce Navy and Marine Corps tactical fighter formation.

  LSO Landing Signal Officer. Squadron pilot responsible for assisting other aviators onto flight deck of aircraft carrier; also called Paddles.

  Mach Term, named for physicist Ernst Mach, used to describe speed of an object in relation to the speed of sound.

  MAD Magnetic Anomaly Detector, used to locate submerged submarines.

  Main mount Aircraft main landing gear.

  Marshall Aircraft holding pattern behind aircraft carrier.

  MILSTAR Advanced military satellite communications system.

  NATOPS Naval Aviation Training and Operations manual. Provides rules and regulations for safe and proper operation of all navy and marine corps aircraft and helicopters.

  NEACP National Emergency Airborne Command Post (KNEECAP).

  Nugget Rookie naval aviator.

  PRI-FLY Control tower on aircraft carrier. Phoenix AIM-54 long-range air-to-air missile.

  Plane Guard Helicopter assigned to search and rescue during carrier flight operations.

  Push Time Designated time for aircraft to start approach to carrier.

  RAM Radar-Absorbent Material.

  Ramp Aft end of flight deck; rounddown. RCS Radar Cross Section.

  RIO Radar Intercept Officer; naval flight officer in backseat of F-14 Tomcat and F-4 Phantom aircraft.

  ROE Rules Of Engagement. SAC Strategic Air Command. SAM Surface-to-Air Missile. SAR Search And Rescue.

  Section takeoff Two aircraft taking off in formation. Sidewinder AIM-9 heat-seeking air-to-air missile.

  Sparrow AIM-7 radar-guided air-to-air missile.

  SUCAP Surface Combat Air Patrol.

  Tally Derivative of tallyho; target in sight. Tomcat F-14 fighter aircraft; also called "turkey." Trap Arrested landing on aircraft carrier.

  Unload Release pressure on aircraft control stick to ease g load. VFR Visual Flight Rules.

  V/STOL Very Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Viking S-3 ASW aircraft; also called Hoover.

  Vulture's Row Observation deck on superstructure (island) of carrier.

  Introduction

  THE SOVIET UNION

  The Soviet economy had been disintegrating in the ruins of perestroika and glasnost.

  Industrial growth had mired at less than 1 percent, and food production had fallen 32 percent short of the nation's needs. Absenteeism had become rampant as thousands of workers abandoned their jobs, shouting, "We pretend to work while they pretend to pay US."

  National polls conducted during January 1990 had indicated that 97 percent of the Soviet citizens felt that the economic situation was critical, if not completely out of control. The nation's patience, after years of perestroika, had run short. The domestic crisis threatened both the integrity and the political stability of the state.

  The president of the USSR, beset with national animosities and Kremlin challenges, had become desperate in his attempt to hold the disintegrating Communist system together. Mikhail Gorbachev, when faced with increasing pressure to revive the moribund economy, had called a plenary session of the Communist party's Central Committee during February 1990. The 249-member committee had agreed to the president's plan to discard the Communist party's seven decades of monopoly on power. Gorbachev, arguing persuasively for a step toward democracy, had opened the door to political competition.

  The astonishing shift in the dominance of power had shaken many hard-line conservatives. The idea of casting aside total power and risking their positions under a system of political pluralism frightened the party members. Insurgents within the Central Committee, wh
o had grudgingly voted for the multiparty plan, were confident that the large core of Communist hard-liners would win control again when the new system collapsed in anarchy. The Soviet military, led by deep-rooted conservatives, had the raw power to crush any political opposition.

  Gorbachev, moving swiftly, convinced the Congress of People's Deputies to grant him unprecedented broad powers to save the Soviet Union from total collapse. With the world looking on, the Communist leaders watched in humiliation as the influence of the Politburo was methodically shifted to a Cabinet style of presidential council. The key members of the council included the defense, finance, and foreign ministers, along with the head of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB, the Committee for State Security).

  The director of the KGB, feeling his power and authority slowly being eroded, had quietly aligned with hard-core critics who believed in a revolution from below. Many key hard-liners, watching the riots grow more violent, had been afraid that the expanding chaos would lead to civil war in the Soviet Union.

  The growing number of discontented civilian and military leaders had discussed a conservative backlash to end demokratizatsia. A number of expelled Politburo members, filled with rage and embarrassment, had openly supported a military coup to quickly restore stability in the Soviet Union.

  The KGB chief, Vladimir Golodnikov, who was convinced that the military leaders would reinstate the Communist party to absolute power, decided to implement a bold plan of his own. The first step was to get his hands on the American's B-2 bomber. The ambitious operation, worked out in secret by the chief during November 1989, was an intricate plan to acquire the radar-evading aircraft, reverse engineer the B-2, then manufacture clones when the military regained power.

  Golodnikov was confident that he had thought of a political escape route for every contingency. If the plan succeeded, the chief would be held in high esteem by the leaders of the revived Communist party. If it failed, he would deny all knowledge of the operation.

  The KGB Directorate, proceeding cautiously, had closely monitored the B-2 budget reductions. The Russian contingent in Washington, D. C., had lobbied tenaciously to either cancel the B-2 program or limit the number of aircraft produced each year. When production of the Stealth bomber was curtailed sharply, the KGB chief decided to take advantage of the situation. Golodnikov could now count on the American Stealth program to remain stagnant, and a vast strategic advantage would thereby be gained for the Motherland.

  PROLOGUE:

  EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA

  6:50 A. M.

  Gennadi Levchenko leaned against the side of his Lincoln town car, braced his elbows, then stared at the B-2 through his binoculars. The senior KGB officer, dressed in khaki-colored slacks, brown loafers, and a green windbreaker, blended in with the throngs of spectators watching the Stealth bomber accelerate down the runway on one of its routine test flights.

  Levchenko, shivering slightly in the brisk morning air, followed the takeoff and initial climb. He lowered the binoculars, zipped his jacket, and got back inside the warm, idling automobile. The KGB Stealth project officer was feeling more confident by the minute. After waiting eight months and enduring many arduous trips to Moscow, Levchenko had received permission straight from Golodnikov, chief of the KGB, to commandeer a Stealth bomber.

  The crowd returned to their vehicles, and as the cars in front of him began to move, Levchenko placed the Lincoln in gear. He had a meeting in San Bernardino with the two KGB agents who were responsible for initiating the B-2 hijacking.

  Irina Rykhov, astrikingly beautiful young woman with sensuous hazel eyes, and Aleksey Pankyev, a dashing and experienced agent, had spent the previous six months systematically organizing the operation. They were both distinguished graduates in military intelligence from the prestigious Bukharin Academy, and had worked as a team for more than three years. They had been directly responsible for obtaining the classified Trident D-5 missile specifications.

  Now, Levchenko thought as he adjusted the radio volume, Rykhov can execute the final step to carry the hijacking to completion. The Motherland would have an American B-2 Stealth bomber in a matter of weeks.

  Chapter One

  ON BOARD SHADOW 37

  The Northrop B-2 banked gently to the left, then returned to level flight, as U. S. Air Force Lt. Col. Charles E. Matthews scanned the clouds below his "invisible" bomber. A tall, ruggedly handsome man of thirty-six, Matthews unzipped the top of his flight suit, stretched the underlying turtleneck, and rubbed his irritated skin.

  "Shadow Three Seven, Mystic," drawled a deep voice with a southern twang.

  "Three Seven," replied the Stealth's copilot, Maj. Paul Tyler Evans.

  "Ghost Two Five is closing from your eight o'clock, three miles," responded the airborne controller in the orbiting Boeing E-3C AWACS. The four-engine warning and control aircraft, operating from the 552d AWAC Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, was 115 miles southwest of the B-2.

  Evans keyed his radio mike, heard the voice scrambler hum, then spoke. "We've got a radar lock."

  The copilot, a recently qualified B-2 aircraft commander, watched the radar display for a few seconds, then keyed his mike again. "Should have a visual shortly."

  "Concur, Three Seven," the airborne warning and control officer replied. "Ghost Two Five will be up your frequency in fifteen seconds."

  Chuck Matthews glanced at his copilot, then back to the civilian tech-rep occupying the cramped third seat. The new bomber, after final air force testing, would be configured for a two-man flight crew.

  Shadow 37, the sixth B-2 off the Northrop assemblyie, was undergoing a series of technical evaluations before final acceptance by the Strategic Air Command (SAC). For the present, the aircraft had been fitted with three crew seats.

  The subcontractor-supplied electronics specialist was responsible for certification of a half-dozen electronic warfare systems. He checked the laser radar and the infrared detectors, then adjusted the covert strike radar.

  "Ready, Larry?" Matthews asked the slight, bespectacled man in the aft seat.

  "All set, colonel. Avionics automation up," Lawrence M. Simmons answered nervously, trying to quell his anxiety. He could feel his pulse racing as he contemplated executing his mission. The dimmed cockpit lights masked the tension on his face. Frail, prematurely gray at thirty-two, Simmons knew instinctively that after today his life would never be the same. He would finally receive the respect he deserved. He hoped that the other two crew members had not noticed his shaking hands.

  Chuck Matthews, aircraft commander of the advanced technology bomber, checked the bright radar screen, then keyed his mike. "Ghost Two Five," Matthews paused, glancing over his left shoulder through the cockpit side window, "we have a radar lock at our eight o'clock, two and a half miles."

  The radio scrambler hummed as a new voice, crisp and articulate, sounded in the helmets of the Stealth crew. "That's us, Shadow," responded the aircraft commander of the Rockwell B-1 B strategic bomber. "Are you on top?"

  "That's affirm, Ghost Two Five," Matthews answered quietly, searching visually for their teammate. "We show you out of thirty-three point two. You should break out in a couple hundred feet."

  "Roger," the B-1B pilot radioed, still flying in instrument conditions.

  Both air force aircraft, although different in appearance, size, and mission capability, would be operating as a team during the joint United States/Canadian forces Operation Veil. The purpose of the operation was to evaluate each bomber's ability to penetrate random radar defenses, survive the simulated bombing raid, then safely egress from the target area.

  The new Stealth bomber continued to be a controversial subject on Capitol Hill, openly criticized by various lawmakers. Most of the political opposition centered around the diminishing Soviet threat, along with the procurement cost of the Northrop B-2. Not lost in the controversy, and discounting cost overruns, was the undeniable fact that Soviet leaders had been frightened by the su
persecret advanced technology bomber.

  The outdated B-52 bomber had a large radar cross section (RCS) of approximately 1,080 square feet. Soviet air defense radar systems could locate the aging craft hundreds of miles from any intended destination.

  The Rockwell B-1B, with engines mounted at the far end of long, curving inlet ducts, presented an RCS of less than 11 square feet. Advanced Soviet radar units, airborne and on the surface, could still provide a minimal amount of warning time against the B-1 Bs.

  As shocking as the B-1B radar cross section news had been for the Russians, the RCS report on the B-2 had been devastating. The dreaded Stealth strategic bomber had an RCS the size of a small bird. Soviet radar experts, using small drones to duplicate the radar cross section of the B-2, had confirmed that their long-wave radars were incapable of detecting the Stealth bomber. The Russian radar sites KNIFE RESTS and TALL KINGS glimpsed the intruders occasionally but could not track the aircraft at long range. When the stealth decoys closed on the long-wave sites, the radar units lost the drones completely.

  The Kremlin military planners knew that the "invisible" B-2 could become their Trojan horse. An unseen, undetectable, airborne nuclear nightmare. Thwarting the Stealth bomber would be akin to sparring with an invisible opponent.

  A tight cadre of top Russian scientists and technicians, along with their military counterparts, had worked feverishly to develop a similar stealth aircraft. The Soviets had discovered the basic technological ingredients--carbon fiber and composite materials--to make an aircraft invisible, but the final solution had evaded even the brightest of the distinguished academicians.

  Soviet scientists and engineers had reached an impasse in the area of constructing radar-transparent and radar-absorbent materials (RAM) into airframe components strong enough to withstand high-altitude, high-speed flight. But Vladimir Golodnikov, director of the KGB, had devised a daring operation to break the deadlock and gain the stealth technology for the Rodina--the Motherland.

  The setting sun forced the Stealth's pilot to squint as he watched the B-1B emerge slowly from the puffy overcast. First the tail, like the dorsal fin of a shark, then the cockpit became visible from the tops of the pea green clouds.