For the last fifteen minutes, aviators had been kicking the tires and
lighting fires on a wide variety of aircraft. EA-6B Prowlers were
already spooled up and waiting on the catapult; their bulged cockpits
and forward radomes, coupled with the distinctive pods mounted aft atop
tail fins, marked them as EA-6B variants. The strange pods held both
receivers and antennas for the SIR group, a systems integrated receiver
for five bands of emissions. Other antennas were mounted on the fins,
below the pods, enabling the aircraft to cover all electronic emissions
from the A through the I bands.
The two J-52 turbojets flanking the fuselage were generating over
eleven thousand pounds of thrust each, and each aircraft was straining
at the tieback that held her shackled to the shuttle. The JBDS-jet
blast deflectors aft of the catapult shunted the wash from their
engines to the side, although the gaggle of fighters clustered farther
back on the flight deck was generating more than enough wind across the
deck.
Each aircraft carried three jamming pods, one on either side on a wide
pylon and one on the centerline fuselage hard point. Additionally,
AGM-HARM anti radar missiles graced their wings from the other
pylons.
Each aircraft weighed in at slightly over sixty thousand pounds.
Overhead, two E-2 Charlie Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft
orbited, each under the protection of two F-A18 fighters. The Hawkeyes
and their escorts had launched an hour earlier, and were keeping a
close watch on the airspace in the vicinity of Cuba’s coast. Should
anything launch, either aircraft or missiles, the E-2 Hawkeye would
catch it on its ALR-73 PDS radar and relay it instantly to the carrier
Combat Information Center through a two-way Collins AN-ARC-34 HF or
ARC-58 UHF data links. Since the installation of the joint tactical
information distribution system (JTIS), the E-2 had become capable of
controlling and vectoring the air picture for any combat aircraft in
the U.S. inventory.
The catapult officer, a lieutenant who had been on board Jefferson less
than six months, shook his head as he looked at the cluster of aircraft
queuing up behind the JBDs. Even during workup operations, he’d never
seen so many turning at once, never had an opportunity to appreciate
the delicate ballet orchestrated by the handler and the yellow-shirted
deck crew. Most of the plane captains had already scampered away from
the hot tarmac, taking cover in the vicinity of the island to avoid
being inadvertently sucked down the throat of one of the screaming
engines.
“Get your head out of your ass. Cat Officer,” his earphones
thundered.
The lieutenant glanced up at the tower and nodded his head at the air
boss, invisible behind the dark glass. It all came down to this, the
one moment when he, the catapult officer, released the first aircraft
for flight.
Even from his position in the enclosed bubble protruding up out of the
flight deck, he could sense the tension.
“Roger, sir.” He made his words sound as calm as possible. In the
present mood the air boss was in, it wouldn’t do to irritate him
unduly. Not that he blamed the junior captain ensconced above hell,
they were all nervous right now.
The catapult officer shifted his attention back to the flight deck and
studied the Prowler straining at the shuttle in front of him. A plane
captain held up a grease-penciled Plexiglas board to the pilot, showing
the aviator his field state, weight, and weaponry. The pilot nodded,
and the catapult officer saw the control surfaces on the Prowler waggle
up and down. It was called cycling the stick, the last check of
control surfaces that a pilot made before being launched.
“Now.” The catapult officer authorized release of the aircraft on
deck. He saw the yellow shirt come to attention, snap off a quick
salute, and drop to his knees, pointing down the deck toward the bow.
The pilot in the Prowler returned the salute, then leaned back
slightly, bracing himself against the seat for the shot.
As always, it seemed to start impossibly slowly. The first few seconds
of a cat shot were a study in tension as the massive aircraft slowly
gathered speed. Soon, though, the expanding steam behind the shuttle