CARRIER 10: ARSENAL By: Keith Douglass

before comprehension began to dawn. He scrambled out from under the

single bed and lurched to his feet.

Good. Uninjured. Sikes nodded approvingly, then spared two seconds to

shake the man’s hand. It quickly turned into a hard, quick embrace.

Getting out was just as easy. Whatever remaining Cuban forces had been

in the compound were significantly distracted by the destruction

raining down on them. Sikes tried to remember the mission was briefed

as a six-missile strike, all impacting their targets simultaneously.

If things went according to plan, there would be no more inbound

missiles to jeopardize the team’s escape. Not that the SEALs should

have ever been there in the first place by now, they should already

have been back in their boat and headed for the carrier. Still, the

Cubans didn’t know that more missiles weren’t coming. There was a

ten-minute window between the Arsenal attack and first strikes by naval

aircraft.

He hoped it would be enough.

0455 Local (+5 GMT) Hawkeye 601

“Oops. Here comes trouble.” The RIO’s voice over the ICS brought

everyone back to full alert. On each screen, just at the outer edge of

the detection capabilities, six small blips appeared. “Where the hell

did they come from?” the RIO muttered under his breath. “It would be

too good to be true if we had air superiority without a fight, don’t

you think?”

The second RIO reached for his mike. “I’m going to let strike leader

know, if he hasn’t already seen them on his AWG-9.”

“Intercept time?” the first RIO asked.

“About six minutes.” The second RIO left unspoken the obvious

conclusion there wasn’t enough time for the inbound strike to dump

weapons and disengage. They’d have to take the MiGs on while still

fully loaded or dump their weaponry harmlessly in the ocean. A helluva

choice to make, and one the E2C RIO was glad he didn’t have to entrust

to his pilot.

0455 Local (+5 GMT) Tomcat 201

Bird Dog swore softly. Why the hell couldn’t the MiGs have waited

another ten minutes? By then, he’d be wings clean and at his most

maneuverable. As it was, air combat maneuvering against the nimble

Soviet-built fighters would be problematic, not only for the fighters

but for the smaller Hornets accompanying them. And the EA-cBs carried

no anti-air weaponry except the HARMs. “Why didn’t we have the Arsenal

neutralize that land base and airfield?” Gator asked. “I would have

thought that would be the perfect mission for them.”

“You don’t understand conflict. Gator,” Bird Dog said hotly. “This is

an operational air problem. This is a limited war we don’t want it

spreading into a full out-and-out conflict between the United States

and Cuba. See, if we conducted an attack on the other base, we’d be

sending a signal that” “Maybe they don’t read sign language. Bird

Dog.

Did you ever think of that? All your fancy operational art has gotten

me so far is fighters inbound.” Gator sounded tired. “Okay, let’s

figure out how we’re gonna get out of this one.”

“We outnumber them,” Bird Dog observed. “You got the contacts relayed

by the E-2?”

“Affirmative. We definitely outnumber them, but they’re moving like

greased lightning. Tight formation, good flight discipline. They

should beah, there they go. High-low formation now.”

“Let’s give them something to shake up that tight discipline a little,”

Bird Dog said. He toggled over to tactical. “Red Dog Three, this is

Red Dog Leader. Vector zero-four-five and take bogeys with Fox One.

Hold them off for a while, Fred, until we can get rid of this load

we’re carrying.”

“Roger. Coming right now.” Two aircraft peeled off from the formation

and headed toward the incoming MiGs.

“Fox One, Fox One,” Red Dog Three announced seconds later, indicating

that he had fired Phoenix missiles at the intruders.

The Phoenix missile was the long-range attack weapon of choice for the

United States Navy. Designated the AIM-54, it was the most

sophisticated and longest-range air-to-air missile in service in any

nation. Over thirteen feet in length, with a diameter of fifteen

inches, it weighed almost one thousand pounds and was capable of

achieving speeds of up to Mach 5. With a maximum range of 110 nautical

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