Tiger's Claw: A Novel (8 page)

“Welder One-Seven, repeat,” the range controller replied through the jamming. “Did not copy.”

“Fallon Range Control, Welder One-Seven canceling MARSA,” the pilot repeated through the haze of static. Then he said, “Hey, Masters, shut the damned jamming off, dickheads.” Patrick shut down the defensive suite, and the squealing stopped. “Fallon Range Control, how do you copy now?”

“Loud and clear now, Welder,” the controller responded.

“We’re canceling MARSA, squawking normal.”

“Roger, Welder One-Seven. Radar contact, five-seven miles northwest of the field, passing angels thirteen. Your wingman is at your seven o’clock position, four miles, passing through angels eleven. I have negative radar contact on Masters One.”

“That’s because the bastard went low-level while we were in formation!” the lead Hornet pilot replied angrily, “and then he turned on his jammers and shut every radar and radio down for fifty miles in every freakin’ direction!”

“I copy, Welder,” the controller said. “Masters One, are you on frequency?”

“Affirmative, Fallon Control,” Patrick replied. “We’re ten miles south of waypoint Tango on IR-7, passing six thousand climbing to one-six thousand, on the way to range control point JASPER.”

“Still negative radar contact,” the controller said. “You were directed to remain MARSA with Welder flight in the block angels one-seven to two-one.”

“We still own the range and the IR-7 low-level route for another five minutes, Fallon,” Patrick said. “We simply reentered IR-7 and resumed our test flight. If the Hornets couldn’t remain MARSA with us, they should’ve reported that to you and stayed in the block.”

There was a long pause on the frequency, then: “Masters One, contact Fallon Range Operations after landing. You are cleared to point JASPER, climb and maintain angels one-six. Upon reaching JASPER, you are cleared direct to Battle Mountain Airport. Contact Battle Mountain Approach upon reaching JASPER, and after arriving at Battle Mountain, contact Fallon Range Control by telephone,” and the controller read off a phone number.

“Masters One copies all,” Patrick said, adding, “Have a nice day, Welders.”

“Bite me,” came the reply, and the frequency remained silent until they exited the range and switched to civilian air traffic control.

“So, what do you think, Cutlass?” Patrick asked.

“It was
awesome
!” Cuthbert replied, pulling off his oxygen mask, squirming excitedly in his seat, and clapping his hands. “Man, I’d forgotten how exciting low-level flying is—the heavies haven’t done it in years. Sounds like you might get a spanking from the Navy after you get back for turning on that SPEAR jammer thingy and shutting everything down.”

“They’ll get over it—I’ll let the legal beagles sort it out,” Patrick said, completely unconcerned. “Feel like making the landing, Cutlass?”

“Damn right I do, sir, damn right I do!” Cuthbert said happily. “I feel like a young butter-bar bomber jock again.
I’ve
got the airplane!” He shook the control stick to indicate he had control of the aircraft, and Patrick shook his stick to acknowledge. “I might miss my flight back to Hawaii, but it was damn well worth it!”

THREE

S
OUTH
C
HINA
S
EA

T
HAT SAME TIME

“Who said it looks ugly? I think it’s cute,” U.S. Navy Lieutenant Paula “Cowgirl” Caraway commented as she studied the image on her multifunction display from her station in the aviation warfare section of the P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance plane, based in Hawaii but temporarily deployed to Taiwan. Caraway, a trim, athletic blonde with an almost perpetual smile, was the patrol plane navigator/communications officer, or NAVCOM, aboard the aircraft. The P-8A Poseidon was a naval variant of the Boeing 737–800 airliner outfitted with extended-range fuel tanks, a small bomb bay for torpedoes or cruise missiles—they were currently unarmed—electronic intelligence-gathering and antisubmarine warfare equipment, and sonobuoys for detecting and tracking submarines.

“It’s kinda sleek,” Caraway went on, “with its upturned nose, like a supermodel. Graceful.” She had switched one of her digital radar displays so she could see the high-resolution inverse synthetic-aperture radar image from the Poseidon’s AN/APY-10 multimode radar. Even at a range of almost forty miles, the APY-10 produced an image as sharp as a black-and-white photograph—she could easily count and identify the aircraft sitting on her deck. “A little princess.”

“I was the one who said it was ugly, and it is,” her partner seated beside her, Lieutenant Commander Richard “Beastie” Sykes, said. Sykes, a veteran maritime patrol plane officer with almost fifteen years of service in P-3 Orion and S-3 Viking patrol planes, was the patrol plane tactical coordinator, or TACCO, directing the activities of the P-8’s naval warfare crew. “So they slapped some paint on it and gave it some interesting new bulges. It’s still an antiquated pig.”

Sykes and Caraway were talking about the main subject of the day’s surveillance mission over the South China Sea: the
Zhenyuan,
the People’s Republic of China Navy’s first aircraft carrier. Formerly the
Kuznetsov
-class Russian carrier
Varyag,
it had first been transferred to Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union. It was purchased by Iran purportedly to be used as a work platform for offshore oil rigs, but it had been secretly made operational and based in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman as the carrier
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
the first aircraft carrier operated by a Middle East nation. After a brief skirmish with American Air Force bombers, where the ship was severely damaged, the carrier was stripped of all its weapons and sensors and sold to China, again purportedly to be used as a floating hotel and casino near Hong Kong. It appeared briefly as the aircraft carrier
Mao Zedong
and was involved in the conflict between mainland China and Taiwan after the island nation declared independence, and then retired once again after being severely damaged. The Chinese announced it was an environmental hazard and transferred to the northern port of Dalian to be scrapped.

Instead, several years later, the ship emerged from dry dock with newer, more powerful engines and improved digital sensors. It successfully completed sea trials in 2011. According to the Chinese navy, the carrier, renamed the
Zhenyuan,
would only be used for “experimentation, training, and research,” and stay near the Chinese mainland. The world was surprised when it appeared in the Gulf of Aden a year later as part of an eight-ship carrier battle group that at first drilled with the Russian aircraft carrier
Vladimir Putin
battle group, then attacked the Yemeni port city of Aden and participated in attacks against pirates in Somalia, using advanced JH-37N fighter-bombers flying off its decks. Few analysts in the world would have guessed that the Chinese would have an aircraft carrier battle group operational before the year 2020, let alone actually use one in combat. When China agreed to withdraw its troops from Somalia in 2013, the
Zhenyuan
and its escorts returned to home waters and rarely left the South China Sea. The Chinese navy began intensive carrier flight operations training aboard the
Zhenyuan
in anticipation of outfitting its second aircraft carrier, the
Zheng He,
planned for 2015.

Although more than twenty miles away, the Poseidon’s synthetic-aperture radar provided very detailed images of the
Zhenyuan
. Like British Invincible-class carriers, instead of aircraft-launching steam catapults, the Chinese carrier used an up-sloped forward deck called a “ski jump” to throw fixed-wing aircraft far enough into the sky for them to accelerate to flying speed before they descended and hit the water. It had a very large island superstructure on the starboard side, with light-colored smoke billowing from stacks in the rear. The island bristled with antennas and electronics domes, as well as phased-array radar panels and self-defense missile launchers and gun emplacements; there were more missile launchers and gun turrets midships on both sides along the gunwales. There were six arresting gear wires aft to recover fixed-wing aircraft. Four very large twin-tailed aircraft were parked forward of the island and six more smaller jets aft on the starboard side, plus two large helicopters parked on the port-side elevator and an aircraft waiting to launch from the ski jump. The sensor measured the
Zhenyuan
’s forward speed as twenty-five knots.

“The planes forward of the island look like JH-37s,” Sykes remarked as he studied his right-side multifunction display, which was displaying radar images, “but the ones aft of the island and the one getting ready to launch look smaller than the others. Are they JN-15s?” The Shenyang JN-15 was an unlicensed copy of the Russian Sukhoi-33 carrier-based fighter, reported as the original aircraft to be deployed on Chinese carriers until the surprise appearance of the much larger JH-37 fighter-bomber.

“Can’t tell yet,” Caraway said as she made reconnaissance log entries and took a sip of water from a hip flask. “I’d expect to get a visit from one of those JH-37s any time now. I can’t wait to see one up close. I hope they . . .”

At that moment they heard on the international emergency GUARD frequency: “United States Poseidon naval reconnaissance aircraft with the unit number of VP-9, this is the combat controller aboard the People’s Liberation Army Navy carrier
Zhenyuan
on GUARD channel. How do you hear this transmission, please?”

“
He read off our squadron number?
” Sykes exclaimed. “Unless they got a very high-powered telescope or made a really good guess, they must’ve intercepted us. Pilot, TACCO, any visual?”

“Negative!” the P-8’s pilot, U.S. Navy Commander Renaldo “Nacho” Sanchez, another veteran patrol aircraft crewmember, responded. “Let me try some turns to see if . . .”

“Wait, wait, I see him,” the copilot, Lieutenant Helen “Troy” Lister, radioed, her voice high pitched from excitement. “Four o’clock, high. Boy, that is one tiny plane. It’s . . . hey, I think it’s a J-20!”

“
What?
” Sanchez exclaimed. He strained forward in his seat to get a better look out the copilot’s side window. “I think you’re right, Troy.” The Shenyang J-20
Tiaozhàn zhe
, or “Challenger,” was the People’s Republic of China’s answer to the American F-22 Raptor: sleek and stealthy, reportedly able to cruise at supersonic speeds without afterburners, with internally carried air-to-air missiles, a powerful active electronically scanned radar, and telescopic infrared sensors that allowed it to engage targets without using its radar. “I thought it was experimental only.”

“Grab some pictures and I’ll upload them to the satellite,” Sykes said.

Lister immediately pulled out a digital camera and began taking pictures. “I don’t see any external weapons,” she commented as she snapped away.

“They’re supposed to be internal, like the F-22,” Sanchez said. “Do you think it came from the carrier or from a land base?”

“A Chinese carrier-based stealth fighter—that would be huge,” Caraway said. “
We
don’t even have anything like that yet.”

“Pretty good job sneaking up on us like that,” Sykes remarked. “Not one squeak on the ‘raws.’ ” The “raws,” or Radar Warning Receiver, warned of any ground, ship, or airborne radar that might be tracking them.

“He could be using AESA or IRSTS,” Caraway said. AESA was Active Electronically Scanned Array, an advanced radar that shifted frequencies more quickly than most RWRs could identify; IRSTS was Infrared Search and Track System, a sensor that detected and tracked heat sources. Both systems could allow a fighter to track and target another aircraft and guide missiles with a very low probability of being detected.

“Carrier
Zhenyuan,
this is Nickel Five-One-Five, U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft,” Sanchez announced on the UHF GUARD channel. “We have visual contact on an aircraft at our seven o’clock position. Is that one of yours?”

“That is confirmed, Five-One-Five,” the controller responded. “There is another aircraft approaching on your left.”

Sure enough, when Sanchez swung around to look out his window, he saw another J-20 flying close formation. “It’s another J-20!” he exclaimed. “They have two of those suckers out here? How far are we from a Chinese air base?”

“At least four hundred miles,” Sykes said. “How about that? Looks like the Chinese built themselves a carrier-based stealth fighter.”

“Are you sending all this to headquarters, Cowgirl?” Sanchez asked.

“I’m typing like crazy,” Caraway said. “I’ll come up for your camera after I get the acknowledgments, Troy.”

“State the purpose of your flight near our ships, please,” the Chinese controller radioed.

“Routine reconnaissance flight, carrier
Zhenyuan,
” the pilot replied.

“Are you armed, sir?”

“Negative,” Sanchez replied. “We are unarmed.”

“Please open your bomb bay and lower your landing gear, Five-One-Five,” the Chinese controller said, “so our fighters can visually inspect your weapons bay.”

“
What?
” Caraway exclaimed. “He’s nuts!”

“We cannot comply,
Zhenyuan,
” Sanchez replied. “That would be unsafe at our current airspeed, altitude, and weight. We are on a peaceful routine reconnaissance flight over international waters.”

“It is well known that your aircraft can be fitted with antiship cruise missiles in the internal weapons bay,” the Chinese carrier’s controller said. “Such aircraft are not permitted to fly within cruise missile range of our vessels or of our petroleum facilities unless their armament status is visually confirmed and your peaceful intentions verified. You must turn north immediately and exit this area. Continued flight in this area will be considered a hostile action and an appropriate response will be initiated without further warning.”

“Pilot, TACCO,” Sykes called on the intercom, “what do you want to do, Nacho?”

“The ROE says we don’t mess around with a couple of Chinese fighters on our tail,” Sanchez replied, referring to the Rules of Engagement operations plan briefed before each and every mission. “We briefed the possibility that we might get intercepted—just not by freakin’
naval
J-20s. Cowgirl, send home plate a text and advise them of our situation. Troy, give me a heading back to the refueling track.”

“Not completely unexpected, especially since what happened last year,” Sykes said on intercom. “After what the Air Force did in the Gulf of Aden to the Russians, I’m surprised they let us get
this
close.” Tensions between the United States, Russia, and China following the previous year’s skirmishes in the Middle East had decreased markedly, but they were still uncomfortably elevated. “They definitely got the drop on us, sneaking up behind us.”

“Steering bug is on the air refueling initial point,” Lister said. Sanchez started a right turn to center up the steering indicator. As they turned, Lister turned in her seat to look out the windscreens and make sure the Chinese fighters were turning with them. The last thing they wanted was another midair collision like the one that happened in 2001 when Chinese J-8 fighters collided with a Navy EP-3 Orion patrol plane near Hainan Island, killing one Chinese pilot and forcing the EP-3 to land on a Chinese military base. The crew was detained for ten days and the plane for three months while the Chinese scoured every inch of it for intelligence and engineering information. “Hey, I don’t see our little friend anymore. Looks like he went home.”

“The one off our port side is gone too,” Sanchez said.

“We can expect some more little friends soon—we saw one ready to lift off the carrier,” Sykes said.

“What’s our range to the carrier, Beastie?”

“Forty-six miles,” Sykes replied. “Boy, I’d love for them to kiss my narrow hairy ass,” he went on. “Being forced to get jerked around in international airspace is bull. But we wouldn’t let them come any closer than a hundred miles from
our
ships, so I guess . . .”

And at that moment, completely without warning, the entire interior of the Poseidon went instantly and completely dark, the engines started to spool down, and the cabin depressurized.

“
Holy shit!
” Sanchez shouted, right after his last breath whistled out between his lips in a loud “BARK!,” and air that hadn’t leaked away instantly became a thick fog. Sanchez and Lister immediately slipped quick-don oxygen masks over their faces with well-practiced ease. “Troy, can you hear me?” he shouted through his oxygen mask.