“We got a kill code of 0.75 from Patriot,” Sergeant Pierini called out. The Patriot fire control computer was] programmed with a set of hostile-aircraft flight parame- ters — distance, speed, heading, altitude, flight path, location in or away from the safe-fly zones, general tactical, situation — and every target was assigned a hostile track code, or “kill code.” A score of 1.0 meant that Patriot be- < lieved the hostile was going to strike either the Patriot site or Patriot’s assigned protection zone. Next to the target’s 1 kill code was Patriot’s estimate of a successful kill if it launched on the hostile track — right now, patriot’s confidence of a kill was 0.95. It was probably an underestimate.
“Hold fire, Sergeant,” Witt said. “The fighters are on him. Let them deal with this sucker.”
“All units acknowledging HOLD FIRE,” Pierini replied.
Aboard the F-16 ADF Fighter Tango X-Ray-311
The vertical and horizontal antenna sweep indexers on the F-16 ADF’s AN/APG-66 radarscope continued to move, but a small white box had appeared at the upper-left portion of his F-16 Fighter Falcon ADF’s radarscreen. Captain Ron Himes, 111th Fighter Squadron “Texans,” Ellington Field, Houston, Texas, clicked a button on his throttle, moving two white lines called the target acquisition symbol onto the white box, then pressing and releasing the button to lock the cursor onto the target. He switched to medium PRF, or pulse-repetition frequency, to get a clearer look at the target. The fire control computer displayed the unknown target’s flight parameters — range thirty miles, speed three hundred knots, altitude five thousand feet and descending. Himes clicked open his radio and reported, “Tango X-Ray-311, judy,” indicating he had the target on radar and needed no further intercept information.
“Roger, 311,” the weapons controller aboard the E-3C AWACS radar plane responded. “Check nose cold, ID only. You’re cleared in the block angels six to eight.”
“311 copies, ID pass only, nose is cold,” Himes responded, letting the controller know — for the third time since takeoff — that all his weapons were safe. He transitioned from the radarscope on his instrument panel to his heads-up display, which also showed the radar target lock, and prepared for the intercept. Unlike the past few years, when all the F-16 Air Defense Fighter birds carried was ammunition for the cannon, Himes’ and his wingman’s birds were fully armed in air defense/intercept configuration. Himes carried six AIM-120A Ram radar-guided missiles on this mission, plus one fuel tank on each inboard wing pylon and two hundred rounds of ammunition for his 20-millimeter cannon; his wingman carried four AIM-9P Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles instead of the newer Ram missiles. The AIM-120A Ram missile was a medium-range “robot” missile, capable of guiding itself to a target at over twice the speed of sound from twenty-five miles away with its own on-board radar, rather than having the launch aircraft illuminate the target for it.
A lot of low-level humidity haze and a few summertime thundercloud buildups in the vicinity of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport were the only obstructions in the sky. Himes encountered a little thermal turbulence at all altitudes, and the cockpit glass acted like a greenhouse, trapping the hot Texas sun inside the cockpit and baking his slate-gray helmet. Himes usually enjoyed flying, even in these conditions, but this assignment was demanding and very frustrating. Only two F-16 fighters from his unit had deployed to DFW Airport, since Texas Air National Guard fighters were being sent as far away as Ohio to fly air defense missions over major airports, and resources were very scarce. That meant Himes and his wingman, Captain Jhani McCallum, one of the first black female combat pilots in the world, took all the scramble calls for this very busy airport.
It was never anticipated that the interceptors would be used so much, and the strain was starting to wear on Himes. On average, an Air National Guard fighter on alert would launch once in a three-day alert shift and spend about two hours in the air. Here at DFW, they were launching every few hours, day or night, good weather or bad. No sooner would they land from one scramble and refuel, and they’d be off on another chase. A sortie lasted only twenty to thirty minutes, but the tension was ten times greater than anything most of them had ever experienced. They were chasing down a deadly terrorist who could kill hundreds of people in one pass if the interceptor pilots didn’t do their job. But so far all they had accomplished was to train live missiles and guns on airliners filled with travelers, not explosives. It was a deadly game.
Himes saw the airliner’s smoke trail first. He wagged his vertical stabilizer, a visual signal to McCallum to extend into combat spread formation left, then gently eased into a left rolling climb. As the airliner slid underneath him, Himes continued his roll until he was above and to the 727’s right side, beside the tail. He made a fast check— good, McCallum was in position above and behind the airliner’s left wingtip. She would stay in that support position until this 727 was either on the ground, no longer classified an unknown — or they destroyed it.
“Tiger Control, 311 in position, nose cold, radar down, wingman on guard,” Himes reported to the AWACS Weapons Controller assigned to him. “Stand by for visual ID.”
“Tiger Control, ready.”
“Tango X-Ray-311 lead has intercepted a Boeing 727 airliner, registration number November 357 Whiskey. Beige in color with royal blue stripe across the windows, no lettering. Large heraldic crest in gold on the blue vertical stabilizer.” Himes slid a few more yards to the left, close enough to see a shadow of his number-one AIM-120 Ram missile on the airliner’s tail. “Reads ‘U-N-I–V-E-R-S- A-L’ on the scroll. I observe several sealed windows on the right side over the wing. The aircraft appears to be in Westfall Air livery, repeat, Westfall Air charter livery. Moving underneath.” Westfall Air, based at Dallas-Fort Worth and owned by the same company in Scotland that owned Universal Express overnight package service in Memphis and Sky Partner International Airlines in New York City, was one of the largest air charter operations in the south, and its planes were well known to most Texas fliers.
Himes gently eased below the fuselage until he could see the entire underside of the jet. It was filthy dirty from years of accumulated tire smoke and perhaps some rough handling, but otherwise normal. “311 is underneath the target aircraft. No open panels, no underslung devices. No unusual antennas. Moving forward in visual range of the target’s crew.”
“Clear,” the weapons controller acknowledged.
Himes carefully slid out, then above the airliner, then eased forward until he was abeam the cockpit windows. Then he slid forward and gently in toward the airliner until he could see the pilots turn their heads toward him — he knew he had their attention now. “Tiger Control, I have positive visual contact on two male individuals in the target’s cockpit, and they do see me as well, repeat, they do see me.” He hit a button on his multifunction display, which activated a video camera that had been mounted on the right wingtip. The video was displayed on the multifunction display. Himes adjusted the steerable camera with a toggle switch on the instrument panel until he could see the cockpit, then zoomed in until he could clearly see the i faces of the men in the airliner cockpit looking back at him. / “Smile for the camera, boys,” he said half-aloud as he zoomed in for a nice tight shot.
“Tango X-Ray-311, this is Tiger Control, you are clear to divert the flight, preferred destination airport from your present position is Fort Worth-Meacham, heading three- five-one at two thousand feet, do not overfly Carswell Air, Force Base or Naval Air Station Dallas. Landing at Alliance Airport or Dallas Love Field not authorized. Weapon status is HOLD FIRE, repeat, HOLD FIRE, acknowledge.”