Hartwell closed his folder and smiled. "Relax for the rest of the evening and enjoy Bangkok."
The People's Liberation Army and Navy's six flotillas of submarines were preparing for imminent combat operations. Seventeen subs attached to three flotillas in the North Sea Fleet were joining the new Kilos from the East Sea Fleet opposite Taiwan. Two newly commissioned Mings from the South Sea Fleet were en route to the waters surrounding Taiwan. The attack submarines, both nuclear powered and diesel powered, provided the best chance of inflicting heavy damage on the U.S. carrier battle groups.
Three U.S. Air Force EC-130H information warfare aircraft were jamming Chinese military communications and vacuuming electronic data in the Taiwan Strait and along the coast of China from the South China Sea to the East China Sea. The aircraft's powerful computer let the crew jam enemy signals without affecting its own or other allied communications on nearby frequencies.
The Compass Call electronic warfare planes were causing bedlam with the Chinese missile firing exercises and live fire exercises in the strait. Although not required to fly directly over hostile territory, the closer the planes were to the enemy, the more jamming and collecting power they could generate. Because the jamming power decreases by the square of the distance between jammer and target, the aircraft were flying very close to the Chinese shoreline.
In fact, the three crews were inside the Asian Coastal Buffer Zone and had read the notices of danger or possible harm, including the following information, on the aeronautical Operational Navigation Charts:
WARNING — UNLISTED RADIO EMISSIONS FROM THIS AREA MAY CONSTITUTE A NAVIGATION HAZARD OR RESULT IN BORDER OVERFLIGHT UNLESS UNUSUAL PRECAUTION IS EXERCISED. CONSULT NOTAMS AND FLIGHT INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS FOR THE LATEST INFORMATION.
The crews were also aware of the fact that they might be fired on without warning.
The highly valued Lockheed Hercules turboprops were considered so important to top military planners that the classified, closely guarded aircraft were always accompanied by fighter escorts when they were near hostile activity or inside a nonfree flying area.
If attacked by enemy interceptors, the EC-130H crew could jettison the large antennae mounted under the tail. Blowing the cheese cutter off the airplane would increase speed and maneuverability, but the big Hercules would still be easy pickings for an average fighter pilot.
Assigned to the 43d Electronic Combat Squadron, the three Bats Compass Call aircraft were augmented by two Compass Call aircraft from the Scorpions of the 41st ECS. The 41st Hercs were covering the North Korean theater. Both squadrons operated as part of the Twelfth Air Force's 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
The specialized aircraft also disrupted vital links between control facilities and antiaircraft weapons sites. Flying missions lasting as long as eighteen hours, which required aerial refueling, the aircraft could provide sustained jamming on a large number of frequencies simultaneously.
Compass Call exchanged information with other intelligence-gathering aircraft like the RC-135 Rivet Joint, which monitored the electromagnetic environment. Complementing the Compass Call aircraft, EC-130E Commando Solo psychological-warfare Hercules were used to capture enemy transmissions and insert false but believable data before retransmission. They could also monitor a wide variety of radio transmissions and television signals.
Major Chuck Burlingame, the Compass Call aircraft commander of Fresco 53, was flying a long racetrack pattern at twenty-five thousand feet extending from Hanjiang to Quanzhou when the Boeing E-3 AWACS radioed the first warning.
"Fresco Fifty-three, Big Eye has multiple targets closing from your five o'clock, ah… let's see — twenty-four miles, out of nineteen and climbing rapidly. They have to be fighters."
"Fresco Fifty-three," Burlingame said, then quickly checked with the flight leader of the four air force F-16s flying escort for the lumbering Hercules. "Razorback One, should we call for backup?"
"Stand by."
"Fifty-three," Burlingame radioed, and exchanged a cautious look with his copilot, Capt. Russ Spangler. "This doesn't sound good."
"Yeah, we need to get the fighters between us."
Twenty seconds of uncomfortable silence passed before Razorback One came up on the radio frequency being used for this mission.
"Fresco, we have two navy Hornets on the way," a voice said with an Arkansas drawl.
Burlingame keyed the radio. "Fifty-three."
"Razor Birds," the F-16 flight leader radioed, "let's arm 'em up."
"Two."
"Three."
"Four."
Some of the best fighter pilots in the world, the Viper wingmen were well prepared for any aerial engagement.
"Fresco Fifty-three, Big Eye with five more bandits from your two o'clock, nineteen miles, out of seventeen, climbing like a rocket."
"Great," Spangler said.
With the early morning sun to their left, Burlingame and Spangler anxiously searched for the targets to their right. They could see the runway at Luocheng, but the elusive jets were not visible at the moment.
The F-16s set up for an engagement and called for help from other air force and navy/Marine fighter planes in the immediate area.
The mission commander in the AWACS had seen enough. "Fresco Fifty-three, Big Eye recommends a heading of one-onezero, now!"
Burlingame nodded to Spangler and smoothly banked the plane to the left. "I have the aircraft — you take the radios."
"Got 'em." The copilot adjusted his headset and microphone. I have a bad feeling about this crap.
"Fresco Fifty-three," Captain Spangler said with a suddenly dry mouth, "coming left to one-one-zero."
He looked at Burlingame and noticed the rising fear in the pilot's eyes, fear that Spangler had never seen before in the normally confident, quick-witted man.
"Fresco, Razorback One. Pick up the speed and head downhill as fast as you can pedal!"
"Fresco Fifty-three," Spangler said.
The aircraft commander added power and keyed the intercom.
"This is Major Burlingame. Cease buzzer and secure all loose gear."
"Razorback One, Big Eye with more bandits at eight o'clock!"
"Razor copies."
Burlingame tensed and set maximum power on the engines. "Let's blow the cheese cutter."
Spangler keyed the radio. "Fresco Fifty-three is jettisoning the tail antenna in ten seconds."
"We're clear," Razorback lead replied, this time in a higher voice. "Let 'er go, Fresco."
The F-16 pilots saw the big rectangular antenna under the tail of the Hercules fly off and tumble out of sight. Seconds later, they turned to engage the Russian-built, Chinese-flown Sukhoi-27s.
The Chinese fighter planes were equipped with a 23mm gun, four air-to-air missiles, look-down/shoot-down radar with 130-nautical-mile search, and 100-nm track ranges. Capable of flying at speeds approaching Mach 2.3, the twin-tailed fighter has a combat radius of four hundred nautical miles. That was the upside for the Chinese air force.
The downside, according to the CIA director's annual report to the Senate Intelligence Committee, was the length and quality of training the Chinese fighter pilots received. Even the most skilled naturals generally flew only eighty to one hundred hours per year, some only fifty to sixty hours a year — not enough to be proficient in the deadly arena of aerial combat. If you finished second in a fighter plane, you'd have a high probability of being planted in the old boneyard.
Unlike most Western and European fighter pilots, who flew to the edge of the aircraft's performance envelope and their own flying ability, Chinese pilots stayed in the middle of their fighter's parameters. They were afraid of damaging or crashing their prized planes, an unforgivable act of recklessness in the eyes of their superiors.