"Warning, MiG-23, six o'clock, eight miles, high." "If he stays high, he'll try a radar shot any second," Tanaka guessed. "If he follows us down, he'll try a heater next."
"Then let's see if we can make him stay up high," Wickland said. To the attack computer, he said, "Deploy towed array."
From a fairing in the tail of the bomber, a small aerodynamic cylindrical object extended out in the bomber's slipstream on an armored fiber-optic cable, quickly going out three hundred feet from the tail. The object was a transmitter that could broadcast a variety of signals-radar jamming, spoofing, noise, heat, or laser signals. When the array was extended, Wickland called up a program on the defensive system and activated it.
On board the Libyan MiG-23, the pilot's radar warning receivers started to go crazy-it was as if an entire squadron of American F-15 fighters was closing in on him. As he was wondering why he didn't see them coming, suddenly the radar warning receiver told him every one of the F-15s was launching missiles at him!
He knew it couldn't be true-there were no F-15s in the middle of Libya. But he could not ignore the warnings. The pilot immediately dropped radar and missile-decoying chaff and flares and executed a tight left break to escape what he believed were a dozen AIM-7 Sparrow missiles heading toward him.
The second MiG-23 did the same, breaking in the opposite direction-but not before he fired an R-60 heatseeking missile from less than six miles away.
"Warning, missile launch, MiG-23, five o'clock, six miles," the computer's female voice calmly reported. But as it reported the attack, it was already responding. The towed array instantly began transmitting infrared energy signals, making the heat-seeking missiles think they were pursuing a huge heat source the size of a house. Seconds later, the computer ejected decoy devices that emitted hot points of infrared energy that drifted down and away from the Megafortress, then shut off the infrared energy signal from the towed array. When the R-60 missile was able to pick up a target again, after being dazzled by the huge heat source, all it saw was the tiny, hot, slow-moving dot of the high-tech decoy-too inviting a target to ignore. The first R-60 missiles plowed into the decoy two miles behind the Megafortress, safely out of range.
With the decoy destroyed, the second R-60 missile fired by the MiG-23 veered back toward the Megafortress. It was too close to be decoyed by the towed array again, so another defensive system activated: the active laser defensive system. Directed by the EB-52's laser radar, a large helium-argon laser mounted in a fairing atop the Megafortress fired beams of laser light at the oncoming R-
60 missile. After a few seconds, the missile's seeker head was blinded by the laser's intense heat and light, and the missile could no longer track.
"We got it!" Wickland shouted. "We-!"
Just then, they heard a fast-paced DEEDLEDEEDLEDEEDLE! warning tone and the computerized voice say calmly, "Warning, radar missile launch MiG-23 R-
24. " The first MiG-23 had turned around, locked onto the EB-52, and had taken a shot with a radar-guided missile, then a second one.
'Take defensive action," Tanaka told the computer. The computer was way ahead of its human commander: It immediately ejected decoy devices from the left ejection chambers, tiny winged canisters that had several times the radar cross-section and infrared signature of the largest aircraft in the world-then threw the EB-52 bomber into a steep right bank. The defensive systems in the EB-52 Meg,afortress bomber were completely automatic: The tiny decoys made invitingly large targets, and with the bomber in a tight turn, the decoys were all alone in space, dangling themselves in front of the Libyan missiles. Along with the decoys, the Megafortress emitted jamming signals to the MiG-23's India-band radar that prevented the radar from tracking any other targets but the decoy.
With the power and airspeed already up, the bomber was able to sustain a tight ninety-degree bank turn for several long seconds, crushing both crew members into their seats with unexpectedly heavy G-forces. Both crew members caught a glimpse of one bright explosion out the left window-one of the missiles had exploded less than a hundred yards off their left wingtip. The second R-24 radar-guided missile was handled by the active laser defensive systemit took only a few seconds for the laser to completely blind the second missile, and it continued on straight ahead and harmlessly exploded on the desert floor below.
But after its tight defensive break, the Megafortress was dangerously slow. Tanaka rolled the big bomber out of its tight turn, keeping the power in full military power and the nose pointed down to try to quickly regain lost airspeed. The first Libyan MiG-23 had overshot the EB-52-but the second MiG-23, which had stayed down low to maintain contact, was now in perfect attack position, directly behind the Megafortress. It closed in almost at the speed of sound in seconds. "Warning, bandit six o'clock, four miles, MiG-23," the computer warned. "Warning, MiG-23 six o'clock, three miles.. warning, missile launch detected…"
The Megafortress's next defensive weapon automatically activated: the Stinger airmine system. Instead of the fifty-caliber or thirty-millimeter machine guns in earlier B-52 bombers, the EB-52 Megafortress carried a fiftymillimeter cannon that fired small LADAR-guided rockets. With a range of about three miles, the tiny rockets were steered toward incoming enemy aircraft or missiles and then detonated ahead of them, creating a cloud of titanium flak that could shred jet engines with ease. The crew heard a poof! poof! poof! sound far behind them and a hard jolt every few seconds as the small rockets were launched. The MiG-23 that stayed down low flew through a cloud of tungsten pellets that shredded the cockpit canopy and engine; the pilot punched out just before his fighter started to spin out of control.
'Tail's clear, Zero!" Wickland crowed. "The MiG up high looks like he's staying up there trying to find us."
"Where are those bombers?" Tanaka asked.
Wickland expanded out his display. "Eleven o'clock, forty miles. Three fast-movers, low. They're within fifty miles of Jaghbub, going almost six hundred knots. I'm not sure if we can catch them. They'll be over the base in five minutes."
"Nike, this is Headbanger," Tanaka radioed to Chris Wohl.
"Go."
"You've got three inbounds, ETE five minutes. We can't catch them unless you can get them to turn around."
Wohl turned to Hal Briggs. "Sir, we need a distraction for those bombers," he said. "What do they have in storage?"
"Just about anything you want," Hal said. "I'll be right back." Briggs jet-jumped out toward the underground weapon-storage area. He came back a few minutes later carrying a twin-barreled 12.7-millimeter truck-mounted antiaircraft gun and a large metal box of ammunition. He jet-jumped to an isolated area about two miles west of the airfield, as far away as possible from the underground shelters where Sanusi's men were taking cover. 'This what you had in mind, Sarge?"
"It's about time, sir," Wohl said. He was already scanning the sky with his battle armor's sensors for the incoming bombers. "Get ready."
"Nike, one minute out. We're still just out of missile range."
Hal Briggs had to work fast with an unfamiliar weapon, trying to quickly get the ammunition belt fed-snto the feeder. Normally the action was engaged electrically in the gun, but luckily Briggs found a manual crank that he used to wind a spindle that would fire the first round-after that, gas from the cartridges should initiate the action.
"What are you doing over there, sir?" Wohl called out.
"Hey, you try and load this thing." In a second Wohl dashed over to him, gave Briggs his electromagnetic rail gun, and started unfeeding the backward-looped ammunition belt. "Now we're talking!" Briggs shouted as he hefted the big high-tech weapon.
"Just don't miss, sir-we're running out of projectiles," Wohl growled.