Dale Brown
Shadow Command
DEDICATION
This novel is dedicated to all who make the often difficult decision to do one simple thing: Go For It. When you see it happen, it’s more exhilarating than a space launch, and twice as powerful.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
JOSEPH GARDNER, President of the United States
KEN T. PHOENIX, Vice President
CONRAD F. CARLYLE, President’s National Security Adviser
MILLER H. TURNER, Secretary of Defense
GERALD VISTA, Director of National Intelligence
WALTER KORDUS, White House Chief of Staff
STACY ANNE BARBEAU, senior U.S. senator from Louisiana, Senate majority leader; Colleen Morna, her aide
GENERAL TAYLOR J. BAIN, USMC, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
GENERAL CHARLES A. HUFFMAN, Air Force chief of staff
AIR FORCE GENERAL BRADFORD CANNON, commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM)
ARMY GENERAL KENNETH LEPERS, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
MAJOR GENERAL HAROLD BACKMAN, commander of the Fourteenth Air Force; also commander of Joint Functional Component Command-Space (JFCC-S) of U.S. Strategic Command
LIEUTENANT GENERAL PATRICK MCLANAHAN, commander of the High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC), Elliott AFB, Nevada
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAVID LUGER, deputy commander of HAWC
COLONEL MARTIN TEHAMA, incoming commander of HAWC
MAJOR GENERAL REBECCA FURNESS, commander of the First Air Battle Force (air operations), Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base (ARB), Nevada
BRIGADIER GENERAL DAREN MACE, Air Battle Force operations officer, 111th Bomb Wing commander, and EB-1C mission commander
MAJOR WAYNE MACOMBER, deputy commander (ground operations) of the First Air Battle Force, Battle Mountain Air Reserve Base, Nevada
MARINE CORPS MASTER SERGEANT CHRIS WOHL, NCOIC, First Air Battle Force
U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD CAPTAIN CHARLIE TURLOCK, CID pilot
CAPTAIN Hunter “Boomer” NOBLE, XR-A9 Black Stallion spacecraft commander, Elliott Air Force Base, Groom Lake
U.S. NAVY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER LISETTE “FRENCHY” MOULAIN, XR-A9 spacecraft commander
U.S. MARINE CORPS MAJOR JIM TERRANOVA, XR-A9 mission commander
ANN PAGE, PH.D., former U.S. senator, astronaut, and space weapon engineer
AIR FORCE MASTER SERGEANT VALERIE “SEEKER” LUKAS, Armstrong Space Station sensor operator
GENERAL HESARAK AL-KAN BUZHAZI, leader of the Persian military coup
AZAR ASSIYEH QAGEV, heir presumptive of the Peacock Throne of Persia
LIEUTENANT COLONEL PARVIZ NAJAR AND MAJOR MARA SAIDI, Azar Qagev’s aides-de-camp
COLONEL MOSTAFA RAHMATI, commander of the Fourth Infantry Brigade, Tehran-Mehrabad Airport
MAJOR QOLOM HADDAD, leader of Buzhazi’s personal security team
MASOUD NOSHAHR, Lord High Chancellor of the Qagev royal court and marshal of the court’s council of war
AYATOLLAH HASSAN MOHTAZ, supreme leader in exile of the Islamic Republic of Iran
LEONID ZEVITIN, president of the Russian Federation
PETER ORLEV, president’s chief of staff
ALEXANDRA HEDROV, minister of foreign affairs
IGOR TRUZNYEV, chief of the Federal Security Bureau
ANATOLI VLASOV, secretary of the Russian security council
MIKHAIL OSTENKOV, minister of national defense
GENERAL KUZMA FURZYENKO, Russian chief of the general staff
GENERAL NIKOLAI OSTANKO, chief of staff of the Russian army
GENERAL ANDREI DARZOV, chief of staff of the Russian air force
WOLFGANG ZYPRIES, German laser engineer working with the Russian air force
WEAPONS AND ACRONYMS
9K89—small Russian surface-to-surface missile
ARB—Air Reserve Base
ATO—air tasking order
BDU-58 Meteor—precision-guided vehicle designed to protect payloads from the heat of re-entry through the atmosphere; can carry approximately 4,000 pounds
CIC—Combat Information Center
coonass—a person of Cajun ethnicity
E-4B—National Airborne Operations Center
E-6B Mercury—U.S. Navy airborne communications and command post aircraft
EB-1D—B-1 Lancer bomber modified as an unmanned long-range supersonic attack plane
ETE—estimated time en route
FAA Part 91—regulations governing private pilots and aircraft
FSB—Russian Federal Security Bureau, follow-on to the KGB
HAWC—High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center
ICD—implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
Ilyushin—Russian inflight refueling tanker aircraft
MiG—Mikoyan-Gureyvich, Russian military aircraft maker
OSO—offensive systems officer
RQ-4 Global Hawk—high-altitude long-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft
SAR—synthetic aperture radar; also search and rescue
Skybolt—space-based anti-ballistic missile laser
SPEAR—Self-Protection Electronically Agile Reaction network intrusion defense system
sun-synchronous—an Earth orbit on which a satellite passes over the same spot at the same time of day
Tupolev—twin-engine Russian jet bomber
USAFE—U.S. Air Forces in Europe
VFR—Visual Flight Rules
Vomit Comet—aircraft used to fly parabolic flights to simulate weightlessness
XAGM-279A SkySTREAK (Scramjet Tactical Rapid Employment Attack, or “Streaker”) — air-launched hypersonic attack missile, 4,000 pounds, 12 feet long, 24 inches in diameter; uses a solid rocket motor to boost the missile to Mach 3, then switches to a JP-7 jet fuel and compressed atmospheric oxygen scramjet to cruise at Mach 10; inertial and precision GPS navigation; satellite datalink operator mid-course reprogramming; ballistic flight profile max range 600 miles; after accelerating to Mach 10, releases precision-guided warhead with millimeter-wave radar and imaging infrared terminal guidance with auto-target discrimination or satellite datalink remote operator target selection; no warhead; two can be carried aboard EB-1C Vampire bomber in aft bomb bay; four carried internally or four externally by EB-52 Megafortress; four carried internally by B-2 stealth bomber
XR-A9—single-stage to orbit “Black Stallion” spaceplane
REAL-WORLD NEWS EXCERPTS
STRATFOR MORNING INTELLIGENCE BRIEF, 18 JANUARY 2007–1216 GMT — CHINA, UNITED STATES
— U.S. intelligence agencies believe China destroyed the aging Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite in a successful anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test Jan. 11, China Daily reported Jan. 18, citing an article to appear in the Jan. 22 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology. U.S. intelligence agencies are still attempting to verify the ASAT test, which would signify that China has a major new military capability…
…The new cloud of debris orbiting the Earth is an indication of things to come should two space-faring nations face off in a conflict. Especially in the case of the United States, space-based assets have become too essential an operational tool to be ignored any longer in times of war.