force of forty-some MiGs and Sukhois to break through the American air
defenses.
In fact, Hangman, as the six MiGs were called, would almost certainly be
able to slip close to the American carrier undetected. The enemy would be
concentrating on Chelyag’s main group, and Terekhov had swung the flight far
around the American ships and was approaching them from the south. Only
meters above the water, under fierce ECM and jamming, they would be almost
impossible to spot.
“Hangman Leader, Fortress,” a voice said over his headset. “Range to
target forty-six kilometers. Normal air activity with some ECM. You are
clear for attack run.”
Terekhov acknowledged, then dropped the MiG toward the sea.
0903 hours Zulu (1003 hours Zone)
CBG-14
The Norwegian Sea
The enemy planes stooped like hawks on the american battle group as they
slid past Vaeroy on their way to the open sea. Kearny was in the lead, the
frigate Stephen Decatur close astern. South, screening for a submarine threat
from that direction, was the destroyer John A. Winslow, while Jefferson and
Shiloh brought up the rear.
The first air clash was short, intense, and violent. Phoenix missiles
launched at long range by the VF-97 War Eagles. CAP drew first blood, striking
MiGs and Sukhois in flaming bursts of smoke and debris, sending wrecked
tangles of debris plummeting from the sky at the ends of long, unfurling
streamers of white.
There was no room in these narrow seas for multiple layers of defenses or
for elaborate maneuver. Despite their losses, the Soviet planes bore in
straight from the north as the War Eagles, their AIM-54s expended, vaulted
forward to grapple with them plane-to-plane, closing to “knife-fighting range”
in seconds. Standard missiles and Sea Sparrows whooshed from the deck
launchers of Keav and Decatur almost in unison. For perhaps five minutes, a
dogfight raged in the clear summer sky, the vapor trails of clashing aircraft
interweaving and looping through the sky like a tangle of fishing line, a
classic “furball.” A MiG disintegrated as a Standard struck it dead center
and ignited its fuel tanks in a searing blast; a War Eagle Tomcat pilot called
“Fox one” as he loosed a radar-homing Sparrow at his target, guiding the SARH
missile across five miles of empty air and squarely into the fuselage of an
Su-27; seconds later, the Tomcat’s left engine exploded as an AA-8 Aphid
curved in on the heat of its exhaust, killing pilot and RIO and sending the
F-14 plunging toward the crystalline blue of the sea below.
There had been eight Tomcats in the CAP to begin with. The number was
now seven … now six as another Soviet missile struck home. There’d been
forty Soviet planes in the attack wave to begin with. Fifteen of those fell
to Phoenix strikes and surface-to-air missiles from the ships in the opening
minutes of the combat, then seven more to Sparrows and Sidewinders as the
opponents came to grips.
Aircraft fell from the skies in flames.
0906 hours Zulu (1006 hours Zone)
MiG 1010
Over the Norwegian Sea
Captain Terekhov glanced left and right. The five other MiGs of Hangman
Flight held formation, bellies still scant meters above the sea as they
flashed south toward the American carrier, so low that sea spray drenched his
canopy as though he were flying headlong through a rainstorm. They were close
enough now that their low altitude would soon be no protection to enemy radar.
Yes! The threat-warning light lit up on his console, and he heard the
shrill warble of a weapons lock in his headset. But it was too late now, too
late to save the Jefferson. He could see the American carrier now, a vast,
flat-topped gray cut-out on the northern horizon, ten miles away. The sky was
filled with twisting contrails, and the straighter, faster scratches of deadly
missiles. The radar pulses probing his aircraft now were probably from the
enemy’s Aegis cruiser, which was protecting its larger charge like a dog
protecting its master.
Too late! Terekhov gave his console a last check. Weapons armed, gyros
running, guidance locked. He brought the MiG up slightly off the deck, giving
himself clearance for launch.
Fire!
The AS-7 Kerry ship-killer dropped clear, ignited, and streaked toward