Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 06 Read Online Free PDF Page A

modifications. All of the avionics needed
to transfer satellite navigation data to the missile was in a “strap-down”
container that could be transported with ease and installed in less than an
hour.
                Sun signaled that he was clear of
the opening and that it was safe to close the cargo doors, hurried forward, and
entered the air lock leading to the crew cabin. Ignoring the biting cold, he
stripped off his gloves and snowsuit as the air lock pressurized, then removed
his oxygen mask and helmet, opened the forward air lock door, and entered the
launch-control compartment. “Status!” he called out excitedly.
                 “M-9
is running hot and true,” the launch officer replied. “Altitude eighty thousand
feet, twenty-nine miles downrange. Datalink active.” The officer handed Sun a
messageform. “This came in for you while you were aft, sir. Message from
headquarters.”
                 Sun
took the messageform but did not bother to look at it—he was too excited about
the launch. He watched in childlike fascination as the tracking numbers
changed, moving his finger along a chart following its position as the missile
zoomed northeastward. It was running perfectly.
                 Minutes
later, the M-9 was approaching its target—Tung Ying Dao, what the rebel
Nationalist government on the Chinese island province of Formosa called Tungsha Tao. Tung Ying Dao was a
large archipelago of islands and reefs in the South China Sea , claimed by Taiwan , about midway between the southern tip of Formosa and Hainan Island , almost two hundred miles east-southeast of Hong Kong . The rebel Taiwanese government had erected
several military sites on the largest island, Pratas Island , including U.S.-made Hawk and
Taiwanese-made Tien-Kung antiaircraft and Hsiung Feng anti-ship missile sites.
The defenses on the island were a great threat to Chinese ships passing between
the mainland and the South
China Sea ,
especially ships bound for the Spratly Islands , the archipelago of islands, reefs, and
atolls claimed by many western Asian nations.
                 “M-9
reaching apogee,” the technicians reported. “Altitude one hundred fifteen
thousand feet, seventy-one miles downrange.”
                 Admiral
Sun touched the sensor control, and in a few seconds several white dots
appeared on a dark black and green background. This was an infrared image of
the scene below from the nose cone of the M-9 missile, beamed to the launch
aircraft via radio datalink. Sun magnified the image to maximum and could just
barely make out the outline of Pratas Island . Several other large, hot targets, far more
intense on the heat-sensitive sensor than the island, showed as well—these were
target barges with large diesel heaters set up on them, arrayed around Pratas Island to act as targets for the M-9 missile.
                But Sun ignored the target barges.
Instead, he locked the targeting bug of the M-9 missile on the northwest
section of Pratas Island , where he knew the missile installations
were located. The senior technician noted this at once: “Excuse me, Comrade
Admiral, but you have locked the missile on the landmass. ...”
                 “Yes,
I know,” Sun replied with a sly smile. “Continue the test.”
                “Our telemetry systems won’t record
the impact if it strays more than twenty miles off course,” the tech reminded
him.
                “How long will we have datalink
contact before impact?”
                 “It
should hold lock all the way to impact,” the tech replied, “although terrain or
cultural obstructions may block the signal within approximately eight seconds
to impact.”
                 “How
far will the missile drift off course in eight seconds?”
                 “If
it stays locked on, it will not drift off course,” the tech replied. “If