As he left the president informed the battle staff that the new PM of Great Britain was online for a videoconference and all turned to face the screen suspended from the far wall as it came to life.
“Congratulations on your office Mr Prime Minister.”
“Thank you Mr President, not the circumstances one would wish for in reaching number ten, but there you are.” He smiled wryly.
“I understand you have something of importance for us?”
“Yes we do, we believe we have located the site the Russians intend using to upload the arming codes to the satellite.”
In order to discover the extent of the damage to their satellite intelligence, friendly powers had been called on to assist in the cross-referencing of their data with that of the United States. As clever as it was the subversive program could not hope to perform its photographic sleight of hand across an area as vast as the Russian Federation and the seas off its coastline. Satellite images of static sites where projects were underway were relatively easy tasks for the program to disguise. New images showing the empty births of the semi completed nuclear powered carriers had the vessels images inserted. The busy shipyards were likewise altered to show them as deserted. The insertions and overlays all took place between the data download site and the photo interpreters’ terminals.
The Mao and Kuznetsov had followed a very exact course on their way to the north Pacific; the programmers could not predict their exact positions on each pass of the US satellites. The vagaries of tides and happenstance are too wild for mathematics to accurately predict, so the entire intended route was doctored in every frame from two months before their actual departure, as had the RORSAT data.
The NSA team, under its new boss, had passed on everything they had gleaned from the program inserted by the two fugitive employees and an analyst in Britain had made a discovery.
Amidst the masses of data existed a longitude and latitude that had only appeared three weeks before, on the desolate Arctic Archipelago of Zemlya Georga, once known as Franz Josef Land, north of Murmansk.
Files showed that the Soviet Union had established a meteorology and research station there in the 50s but it had been abandoned through lack of funding in 1990. Ironically, had the Russian planners relied solely upon simple camouflage on the ground at Zemlya Georga, the subterfuge would never have been discovered. Where the US images showed snow and ice on the 3rd March, a British scientific survey’s images showed men anchoring a satellite dish.
The prime minister informed them that a Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules was departing RAF Luchars with members of the Royal Marine Commandos, Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre aboard. After a refuelling stop in Norway the marines would be flown below radar cover and dropped ten miles from their target. Their mission was not to simply destroy the site but to take out the dish before capturing the facility. Within the site would be the identity of the satellite the codes would be uploaded to.
The president and General Shaw exchanged glances whilst the new PM was speaking.
“Prime Minister,” began the president once the PM was finished. “Why were we not consulted before you authorised this… unilateral action?”
“Because time is of the essence and whereas your nation has twenty-four warheads hidden in it waiting to explode, my country, which is rather smaller than your state of Texas, has ten.”
The British PM gave them a moment to absorb those facts before he continued.
“We do not have an anti-satellite capability but you gentlemen do, so once our marines have obtained the satellite information it will be broadcast immediately. Can you be ready to attack the satellite in question once it is identified, you will have only about eight hours’ to prepare, is it enough?”
The general thought for a moment before stating.
“It will have to be.”
The PM smiled and nodded.
“If you will excuse me, I really do have much to do.”
As the connection ended General Shaw smiled. He had served on operations in southeast Asia with the current occupant of 10 Downing Street.
“You can’t go wrong with a marine at the helm, ex Special Forces guy too.”
The president raised an eyelid and the general added.
“Present company accepted of course.”
“Is it feasible that the Russian’s would have only one site, surely anyone with a portable satellite phone could send this?” was the president’s next question.
CIA’s Terry Jones answered him.
“You have to factor in the need for absolute secrecy sir, I imagine that the data would be contained on a disc or CD-ROM. You are going to want those kept under control and the best way to do that is to limit their numbers. Same goes for the personnel involved, limit their numbers, the fewer who know, the fewer who can blab.” The president was watching him and his mind working, looking for flaws in the argument. Terry continued.
“If you stick the personnel who are going to send it in some out of the way spot, you limit our chances of finding it and destroying it should we get wise to what’s in the wind.”
“Which we apparently have,” agreed the chief executive. “General?” he said turning his attention away from Terry Jones. Shaw was on the telephone to the air force. Finishing the call he explained what he had done.
“Sir, the original testing of the ALASATs was run out of Langley AFB; the R&D unit that was responsible no longer exists, so we are going to have to scramble to get a mission together in time.”
“Lead me through it Henry, what are the problems, is it the weapons?”
“No Mr President, the ALASAT, air launched anti-satellite missile is made up of proven technology. Basically it is uses an F-15 as the launch platform, the ALASAT is made up of current weapons components and the warhead. Lower stage is off a SRAM, short-range attack missile, married to an Altair III solid propellant second stage and a miniature vehicle warhead. No modified airframe is required; any F-15 can launch it. The pilot flies a set profile under ground control, the missile seeker head tells the pilot when it has acquired the target and he launches as he would an AGM. It was first successfully used to destroy a defunct P78-1 satellite. But that was back in ’85, a Congressional moratorium cancelled the program in ‘87, none of the original personnel are around any longer. I just ordered the air force to cut loose its best test pilot instructors from Edwards AFB; they’ve done the theory work on the launch technique. There isn’t going to be time to practice and they are enroute now in F-15s to upload the ALASATs. We have to knock out that satellite ASAP in case the Russians have a back-up site… I know I would.”
“I take it that ideally, more of an intelligence work-up should have been done?”
“Absolutely sir, but that would take time that we do not have. We cannot ask the Europeans or the Japanese to start manoeuvring satellites over Zemlya Georga to gain real time Intel, the Russian would see that and the game would be up. The Brits read it right; there really is no other option sir.”
The president didn’t like it but he had to agree.
“These Marines going in, they are Arctic specialists?”
Shaw pulled a face.
“I don’t like the term ‘specialist’, by definition it implies someone who knows more and more about less and less, until ultimately he knows nothing. No sir, the M&AW Cadre train to fight at altitude and in the cold. They were formed as part of ACE Mobile, earmarked to go behind Soviet lines should Norway be invaded. They are experts at working in sub-zero temperatures,” he explained.
“They all have got at least one Everest climb under their belts, without oxygen, and have hiked to one of the poles. When they are not on expeditions such as those they are instructing other marines in mountain and arctic warfare.”