Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 02 Read online

  DALE BROWN DAY OF THE CHEETAH

  Americas most advanced weapon—a top-secret fighter whose guidance systems can literally merge with the pilots mind—a highly placed deep-cover KGB mole, unparalleled aerial combat scenes and a stunning appearance by the upgraded Old Dog itself—these are the elements that illuminate Dale Browns explosive new high-flying adventure, Day of the Cheetah, certain to eclipse the spectacular success of his previous bestsellers, Flight of the Old Dog and Silver Tower.

  It is 1996. The U.S. Air Force begins the operational testing phase of its new XF-34 fighter, nicknamed DreamStar. at the High Technology' Advanced Weapons Center in the Nevada desert. DreamStar possesses what is potentially the ultimate edge: ANTARES, a piloting system that creates a unique symbiosis between man and machine, responding directly to the pilots thought commands and issuing ones of its own.

  But it takes a special kind of man to manage ANTARES’ terrifying and potentially traumatic effects on the nervous system and f ly the XF-34...a superbly conditioned person with the physical and mental tolerance to control a flying bomb at Mach 2.

  Captain Kenneth Francis James is that man—the best combat test pilot in the Air Force and apparently the only one with the ability to fly DreamStar. But Captain Ken James is also Andrei Maraklov, a deep-planted KCB mole ordered to steal DreamStar. (Continued on hack flap)

  DAY OF THE CHEETAH

  DALE BROWN

  DAY OF THE

  CHEETAH

  DONALD I. FINE, INC.

  NEW YORK

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Published in the United States of America by Donald I. Fine, Inc. and in Canada by General Publishing Company Limited.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Dale, 1956- Day of the cheetah.

  I. Title.

  PS3552.R68543D3 1989 8i3'-54 88-45847

  ISBN 1-55611-121-5 (alk. paper)

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  DESIGNED BY IRVING PERKINS ASSOCIATES

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or publisher.

  BOMC offers recordings and compact discs, cassettes and records. For information and catalog write to BOMR, Camp Hill, PA 17012.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank the United States Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, for their invaluable assistance in gathering information on America’s future fighter aircraft. ASD is a dream come true for an ex-Air Force nav, wistful fighter pilot, and fiction writer.

  Space prohibits me from mentioning each of the fine persons of ASD that I had the pleasure of meeting, but I would like to thank Lt. General William E. Thurman, commander of ASD, for allowing me the privilege of a visit; to Lt. Col. George H. Peck, Helen Cavanaugh, Capt. Brian Hoey, Jo Ann Rumple, and Capt. Jamie Scearse of the Office of Public Affairs for arranging my visit and escorting me through the myriad of offices and labs; Captain Myers N. Drew, AFTI/F-16 Program Manager, from the Flight Dynamics Laboratories, who showed me how a fighter could really fly sideways; Mr. James Pruner, X-29 Program Director; Mr. Ron DeCamp, mission- adaptive wing (MAW) Program Director; Mr. James Kocher, Integrated Close Air Support System (ICASS) Program Director, all of the Flight Dynamics Laboratory, Wright Aeronautical Laboratories; and a special thanks to Dr. Wayne L. Martin, acting chief of the Visual Displays System Branch of the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, for allowing me to try out some of the incredible “Buck Rogers” supercockpit systems that our fighter pilots will be using five to ten years from now. I hope I have done credit to the time you extended to me.

  Source for many of the technical descriptions of aircraft, weapons systems, and military forces of foreign nations was the United States Naval Institute Military Database, Arlington, Virginia. Other information sources include Western Union InfoMaster Research Database (medical articles, research papers, theses), CompuServe Information Service (encyclopedia, data storage, and computer utilities), and the Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service (news articles, historical data, government statistics).

  Thanks to Dennis T. Hall for helping arrange research trips and interviews. It’s great having you on the team.

  A special thanks to George Wieser, who helped me to focus in on the real story behind Cheetah, and to Donald I. Fine, editor as well as publisher, for sharing his experience and talent with me.

  And, as ever, to Jean. I’m happy you’re with me.

  Day of the Cheetah is dedicated to two very special people that helped me over the years:

  To my grandmother, Ruby Normandin, for her warmth and vitality, her charm and humor, for her patience when I was little and her pride now that I’m not so little. I’m happy to let the whole world know what kind of person you are and how much I love you.

  To my uncle, Leo Brown, a very special dedication. I took a lot of your time, your talent, and your patience—I even took your name. I wish I had taken the time to say Thank You.

  Contents

  GLOSSARY

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER3

  CHAPTER4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  EPILOGUE

  GLOSSARY

  All terms in this Glossary are actual terms, weapons or systems unless designated “fictional.”

  AA-11—NATO reporting name “Archer,” advanced Soviet close- range heat-seeking or radar-guided air-to-air missile. Carried by MiG-29 (can carry six), MiG-23 (carries two), and Su-27 fighters (carries four).

  AAA—anti-aircraft artillery. Also called triple-A.

  ADIZ—Air Defense Identification Zone. Specially marked areas around the United States where aircraft from outside the United States must receive permission from air traffic control before entering.

  AEROFLOT—The national airline of the Soviet Union. Aeroflot has a major role in the Soviet Union’s military strategy and planning—all Aeroflot aircraft can be expected to serve under military command in wartime.

  AFTERBURNER—A throttle setting in a high-performance jet engine where extra fuel is sprayed into an engine chamber to increase thrust. The use of afterburner increases the rate of fuel consumption by 500% but can double or triple the engine’s thrust.

  AGL—Above Ground Level. The actual distance between the aircraft’s belly and the ground. Usually measured by a radar altimeter.

  AGM-88 HARM—HARM stands for High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile. The AGM-88 is an air-launched anti-radar missile built by Texas Instruments, Inc., that homes in on enemy ground or ship radars and destroys them from ranges as far as ten miles.

  AGM-130—An air-launched rocket-powered glide bomb built by Rockwell International. Guided by infrared or TV camera, by manual data-link guidance or automatic target lock-on, it has a two- thousand-pound high-explosive warhead and can glide for two to five miles, even when launched from very low altitude.

  AGM-132C Tacit Rainbow—An air-launched winged drone antiradar missile built by Boeing Aircraft. The missile can be pre-programmed for certain enemy radars and launched from long distances. The missile will cruise to and then orbit the target area until an enemy radar comes up, then home in on it and destroy it.

  AIM-9R Sidewinder—Primary U.S. heat-seeking air-to-air missile, built by Raytheon Company and Ford A
erospace. It has a speed of over Mach two (twice the speed of sound) and a range of more than ten miles.

  AIM-120C AMRAAM—Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, a radar-guided missile built by Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon. The AIM-120 has its own radar seeker in its nosecone—unlike other radar- guided missiles, the AIM-120 does not need guidance signals from the launch aircraft to home in on its target. It has a top speed of over Mach four.

  AIM-132B ASRAAM—Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile— The proposed European-built successor to the AIM-9 Sidewinder.

  airway—Pre-planned routes to be followed by large or commercial aircraft entering, leaving or flying within the United States under positive control. Three kinds: “A” routes (from foreign or overwater points), “V” (for low altitude), or “J” (for higher-altitude aircraft).

  alpha—Stands for “angle of attack,” the angle, measured in degrees, between the wind hitting an aircraft’s wing and the angle of the wing itself. A plane exceeding a certain angle of attack will stall (cease to fly). Most high-performance aircraft cannot fly at more than eighteen to twenty alpha, but advanced fighters will be designed to fly and attack at well over fifty alpha.

  ANTARES (fictional)—Advanced Neural Transfer and Response System. A method for digitizing and transmitting neural impulses from the human body to a computer, and vice versa.

  ATF—Advanced Tactical Fighter. A program developed to specify, design and build the next generation of fighter aircraft, beginning in the year 1992 and continue well into the twenty-first century. The ATF (X-22 or X-23) will use non-metallic materials in its construction, rely heavily on artificial intelligence and advanced computer graphics in the cockpit, fly in unconventional ways, fly at supersonic speeds without afterburner, and takeoff and land on a fifteen-hundred-foot- long runway.

  AWACS—Airborne Warning And Control System. An aircraft- mounted radar that can scan for aircraft at any altitude out to two hundred miles and control air-to-air intercepts and engagements with enemy forces with a wide array of communications equipment.

  Big Chicken Dinner—BCD, or Bad Conduct Discharge.

  BOGEY—Fighter pilot slang for unidentified aircraft.

  BREAKAWAY—An emergency term used during air refueling when the two aircraft must separate quickly. The tanker aircraft will immediately accelerate and climb five hundred feet, and the receiver aircraft will immediately decelerate and descend five hundred feet.

  BUS—In electronics, the point at which power is supplied to numerous other circuits.

  C-21B—The military version of the Gates Learjet 35A, it is a ten- person fast airlift jet used by the U.S. Air Force. Can be used for up to eight passengers, three thousand pounds of cargo, or in aeromedi- cal evacuation role.

  CANARDS—Movable fins or stabilizers mounted on the front of an aircraft to provide additional lift, turning power, or supplement performance of the main wings.

  CAP—Combat Air Patrol. Arranging fighters in a defensive or offensive role at various altitudes and configurations to counter an enemy threat.

  Cayman Islands—A small chain of islands southwest of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea, self-governed but administered by the British government.

  CBU—Cluster Bomb Unit. A canister carried by a fighter or bomber that dispenses small bomblets over wide areas. Used against columns of troops, parked aircraft, or lightly armored vehicles.

  CHAFF—small pieces of metal, like tinsel, that reflect radar energy and act as a decoy to enemy radars or radar-guided missiles.

  COMPOSITE—A material made from metallic and non-metallic substances to increase the material’s strength without adding weight.

  Connecticut Academy (fictional)—KGB training facility that teaches young Russian agents how to act like Americans.

  “CRANKED ARROW” F-16—A special version of the U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter built by General Dynamics, the “cranked arrow” resembles a large delta-winged fighter. The larger wing increases fuel load, weapons carriage, and stability.

  CV-22 OSPREY—A special tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing and Bell Helicopter that uses two movable rotors to take off and land like a helicopter but flys like a regular airplane.

  DIA—Defense Intelligence Agency. A special Pentagon unit that conducts investigations for personnel security clearances and coordinates intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination for the Department of Defense.

  Dreamland—Unclassified nickname for the restricted military airspace in south-central Nevada used by the Departments of Defense and Energy and the Central Intelligence Agency for special weapons research.

  E-3B SENTRY—Modified Boeing 707-320B airliner with a thirty-foot diameter rotating saucer radome mounted atop the fuselage, plus extensive computer displays and communications systems. Primary U.S. and western reconnaissance, command and control system. Can track hundreds of aircraft and ships at any altitude. Can fly one thousand miles to and from a patrol area and then stay on patrol for six hours.

  EEG—Electroencephalograph. Measures electrical activity in the brain and central nervous system.

  EET—Eastern European Time.

  F-15E—Modified McDonnell-Douglas F-15 air superiority fighter, with a weapons system officer and extensive air-to-ground attack systems added.

  F-16F Fighting Falcon—Lightweight single-engine, single pilot counter-air and attack fighter, built by General Dynamics. Designed for high maneuverability and flexibility and able to carry a wide variety of weapons.

  F-20 Tigershark—Modified Northrop F-5F fighter with single-engine and single pilot. Emphasis on simplicity and low-cost maintainability.

  F/A-18 Hornet—U.S. Navy carrier-based interceptor and attack fighter, built by McDonnell-Douglas. Can change from air-to-air to air-to-ground attack role while in-flight.

  FAST PACK—Fuel Armament Storage Tank Packs. Smoothly curved conformal tanks fitted to the upper side fuselages of F-15 fighters to allow them to carry extra fuel and equipment without a significant drag penalty.

  flares—Pyrotechnic magnesium or phosphorous devices ejected from tactical aircraft to decoy heat-seeking missiles.

  Fox One—Call made by an attacking fighter to friendly forces to warn of a radar-guided missile launch.

  Fox Two—Warning call for heat-seeking missile launch.

  G—Measurement of gravitational forces imposed on something. One G is normal gravity (weight); two G’s is two times normal weight, etc. Zero G is weightlessness. Negative G’s cause reversal of normal fluid motion in blood vessels or aircraft fuel systems. A trained human being can withstand as much as six positive G’s before experiencing gray- or blackout, or as much as negative-three G’s before red-out. Excessive G’s (positive or negative) cause unconsciousness.

  GCI—Ground Controlled Interception. Ground-based radars and controllers used to direct fighters to attack enemy aircraft.

  GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT—An orbit of a satellite approximately 22,300 miles above Earth, where the time for the satellite to orbit the Earth is equal to the Earth’s rotation. If the satellite is placed above the equator, the satellite will seem to hang motionless in space over the same point on Earth.

  GPS—Global Positioning System. A system of satellites around Earth that provide highly precise position, speed and time information to aircraft, ships, vehicles and ground troops. Position information precise to four feet, speed information precise to one-quarter-mile per hour, time precise to one-hundredth of a second.

  GRAY-OUT—Condition during high-G maneuvering where blood is forced out of the brain, causing a gradual loss, darkening, or tunneling of vision. Excessive G’s cause complete gray-out (blackout) and unconsciousness.

  GUARD—Internationally established and recognized emergency radio frequencies. VHF GUARD is 121.5; UHF GUARD is 243.0.

  HF—High Frequency radio. Used for extreme long-distance communications (being replaced in USAF by SATCOM).

  HH-3 Jolly Green Giant—Modified Sikorsky CH-3 Sea King helicopter, used for deep-pe
netration rescue missions into heavily defended areas.

  HH-65A Dolphin—Aerospatiale SA-366G-1 Dauphin II utility helicopter, used for medium-range personnel and cargo transport and rescue operations.

  high-G YO-YO—An air combat maneuver where a less maneuverable but more powerful pursuer can attack a more maneuverable opponent by executing a dive, then a hard climb and descent to bring weapons in line for an attack instead of trying to out-maneuver the opponent.

  HOTAS—Hands On Throttle And Stick. A carefully designed feature in many new high-performance fighters that logically arranges all necessary switches on the pilot’s control stick and throttle for easy activation in busy combat situations.

  HUD—Heads-Up Display. Usually a large piece of glass mounted atop the instrument panel in a fighter aircraft, used to reflect projected information in front of the pilot’s line of sight. All necessary flight and weapons information is thereby presented to the pilot without having to look down inside the cockpit.

  HYPERVELOCITY MISSILE—A simple, low-cost missile with no explosive warhead, designed to destroy targets by sheer force of impact. Speed of these missiles can exceed a mile a second. Warhead is usually a dense depleted uranium material that increases force on impact.

  I.P.—Initial Point, the beginning of a bomb run. Usually the weapons officer or bombadier has control of the aircraft from the I.P. to the target.

  ICU—Intensive Care Unit.

  IFF—Identification Friend or Foe. A radio system that broadcasts specific bits of data “on demand” by compatible radar-radio systems that properly “interrogate” the system. The data are usually identification, altitude and airspeed data. Used by civilian and military agencies.

  ILS—Instrument Landing System. Precise glide path (heading) and glideslope (altitude) radio beam system, widely used by civilian and military aircraft to line up with a runway for landing in bad weather. The bombing computers of military strike aircraft can sometimes simulate an ILS when no ground-based ILS is available.