Post by Exorcet on Mar 18, 2010 18:57:59 GMT -5
I've been trying to write this forever. That being the case, one incomplete chapter means that I haven't got very far as readers of ACTOR would expect. This is a bit of a draft, I plan to fix it and add more, eventually.
It was when I heard the alarm from the RWR that I thought to myself, ‘This is real’. The previously barren screen now displayed A-50 in the upper right corner. We had found the first enemy AWACS, and the stealth that we so were so strongly convinced of in training suddenly became an obscure concept that could only be dealt with via faith. The black sky and glowing moon of that night were near indistinguishable from their incarnations during the various war games our squadron participated in. Yet nothing felt the same.
The moonlight was no longer a harmless artifact of that serene disk that drifted across the night sky. Had we happened to pass under the moon, or reflect a mere glint of its light in the wrong direction at the wrong time, we might have found ourselves being tracked by every radar for 200 miles. Likewise, the Earth below, which was now comprised of grassy snow capped mountains in place of sand and dirt, would be waiting to skewer us at any time. A malfunction, a defeat in an engagement, or just being careless would result in a bailing out with the knowledge that every man in the entire country you just set foot on wants you dead.
Skulls was my wingman that night. His mind was always sharp, ten steps ahead of the present. You could ask for a better number 2 in a situation like this. Not a word went between us as we crossed in country. Radio silence was always maintained up to the point that the enemy retaliated. No one wanted a repeat of what transpired when that hotshot F-22 pilot basically asked the entire air defense network to point their guns at him.
The RWR went off a second time. Falp Lid – just as the briefing had said. It’s a nasty missile if you respect, but the real threat was from SA-21’s. LPI radar equipped SAM’s, they could be watching you and you wouldn’t know it. Intel said there were none. We hoped intel was right.
We reached waypoint three, 100 miles from the target. Heading was adjust by 37 degrees, and cruise speed upped to Mach 1.6. This was it. Skulls spread out, and we activated the short range data link, turning our two planes into a flying supercomputer processing all of the enemy’s emissions through passive detection.
At eighty miles, I switched on my radar, setting azimuth and elevation to scan in a narrow beam, using LPI modes to avoid detection. We had already pin pointed the location of the AWACS with our passive emissions sensors, so the radar lock was nearly instant. Our AIM-120 D-6’s had enough range to strike from where we were, but the mission would be significantly more difficult if the shot missed. With a small push of the throttle, I raised my speed to Mach 1.8 and waited as the range to target counted down on my helmet screen.
Sixty miles – launch. I gently pulled back on the stick to raise my nose, the 120 was fired in silent configuration, so it would only accelerate slowly at first. After several seconds, I saw, or perhaps imagined, a speck suddenly emerge and vanish in front of me that I took to be the missile. The seeker counter came up on my display, and we cut thrust before banking right towards the second AWACS. All the while the seeker counter continued to inform me of the missiles status. As soon as it hit zero, I set the radar back to passive, now the impact timer displayed 15 seconds.
The RWR lit up. At least 3 Su-35’s had their radars on within 7 seconds, while an assortment of formerly silent ground units suddenly made themselves known. However, the A-50 signal disappeared. The F-46 A had just scored its first combat kill.
It was when I heard the alarm from the RWR that I thought to myself, ‘This is real’. The previously barren screen now displayed A-50 in the upper right corner. We had found the first enemy AWACS, and the stealth that we so were so strongly convinced of in training suddenly became an obscure concept that could only be dealt with via faith. The black sky and glowing moon of that night were near indistinguishable from their incarnations during the various war games our squadron participated in. Yet nothing felt the same.
The moonlight was no longer a harmless artifact of that serene disk that drifted across the night sky. Had we happened to pass under the moon, or reflect a mere glint of its light in the wrong direction at the wrong time, we might have found ourselves being tracked by every radar for 200 miles. Likewise, the Earth below, which was now comprised of grassy snow capped mountains in place of sand and dirt, would be waiting to skewer us at any time. A malfunction, a defeat in an engagement, or just being careless would result in a bailing out with the knowledge that every man in the entire country you just set foot on wants you dead.
Skulls was my wingman that night. His mind was always sharp, ten steps ahead of the present. You could ask for a better number 2 in a situation like this. Not a word went between us as we crossed in country. Radio silence was always maintained up to the point that the enemy retaliated. No one wanted a repeat of what transpired when that hotshot F-22 pilot basically asked the entire air defense network to point their guns at him.
The RWR went off a second time. Falp Lid – just as the briefing had said. It’s a nasty missile if you respect, but the real threat was from SA-21’s. LPI radar equipped SAM’s, they could be watching you and you wouldn’t know it. Intel said there were none. We hoped intel was right.
We reached waypoint three, 100 miles from the target. Heading was adjust by 37 degrees, and cruise speed upped to Mach 1.6. This was it. Skulls spread out, and we activated the short range data link, turning our two planes into a flying supercomputer processing all of the enemy’s emissions through passive detection.
At eighty miles, I switched on my radar, setting azimuth and elevation to scan in a narrow beam, using LPI modes to avoid detection. We had already pin pointed the location of the AWACS with our passive emissions sensors, so the radar lock was nearly instant. Our AIM-120 D-6’s had enough range to strike from where we were, but the mission would be significantly more difficult if the shot missed. With a small push of the throttle, I raised my speed to Mach 1.8 and waited as the range to target counted down on my helmet screen.
Sixty miles – launch. I gently pulled back on the stick to raise my nose, the 120 was fired in silent configuration, so it would only accelerate slowly at first. After several seconds, I saw, or perhaps imagined, a speck suddenly emerge and vanish in front of me that I took to be the missile. The seeker counter came up on my display, and we cut thrust before banking right towards the second AWACS. All the while the seeker counter continued to inform me of the missiles status. As soon as it hit zero, I set the radar back to passive, now the impact timer displayed 15 seconds.
The RWR lit up. At least 3 Su-35’s had their radars on within 7 seconds, while an assortment of formerly silent ground units suddenly made themselves known. However, the A-50 signal disappeared. The F-46 A had just scored its first combat kill.