checklist, pen, and notebook, and heading back to the ready room proper.
A large television monitor was suspended from the overhead at the front
of the ready room next to the PLAT monitor, and someone had already
switched it on. The PLAT screen was showing one of VFA-161’s Hornets
preparing to launch off the angled flight deck from one of the carrier’s
waist catapults, but the big TV showed only the crest insignia of the
U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson, a stylized CVN seen bow-on, with the motto
“COMBAT READY.”
Batman slumped into a seat next to his usual RIO, Lieutenant Commander
Ken Blake, a sandy-haired guy from southern California who went by the
handle “Malibu.” Seconds later, Jefferson’s insignia on the TV screen
was replaced by Tombstone’s face.
“Good morning, Air Wing Twenty,” he said, speaking directly into the
camera. “I’ll keep this short and sweet. A few minutes ago, our AEW
patrol picked up a large number of Russian aircraft taking off from
military fields in the northwestern regions of the Kola Peninsula. The
figures go up every time a new update comes through, but at this point
we are estimating at least one hundred twenty aircraft. Several flights
have already crossed the Norwegian border and are on a direct intercept
course with the carrier group.”
Tombstone was addressing all of Jefferson’s squadrons simultaneously
from the TV studio up in the Carrier Intelligence Center, the CVIC, or
“Civic” for short. Batman knew him well enough to know he must wish he
were here, with the Vipers, but as CAG his responsibility was for the
entire wing, from the two squadrons of Tomcats to the HS-19 squadron of
SH-3 helos.
“The battle group has already assumed a defensive posture along the
threat axis,” Tombstone continued. “Admiral Tarrant has ordered that
all radar and radio traffic aboard Jefferson be shut down. CATCC will
go back on the air only when we have to start bringing you in for
rearming. All combat communications and command control will be handled
through the Shiloh.”
That particular ploy had been worked out back in the early eighties and
had been used successfully on numerous occasions since. As large as it
was, an aircraft carrier could virtually disappear if all of the radar
and radio transmissions that could light it up on the enemy’s screens
like a New York City skyscraper at night were shut down. The Aegis
cruiser would take over all radar and combat command control duties,
making itself a target in the process, of course … but it would be a
very well-defended one.
“Shiloh’s call sign for this op will be Hotspur,” Tombstone continued.
In concise, rapid-fire words, he outlined the entire wing’s deployment.
Four VF-95 Tomcats were already aloft on CAP and were being deployed
into an advance BARCAP, or Barrier Combat Air Patrol, positioned 250
miles ahead of the Jefferson, squarely between the approaching enemy
aircraft and the carrier. Four aircraft from VFA-161, the Javelins,
that had been on Ready Fifteen, set to launch within fifteen minutes,
were now being sent aloft in their air-interceptor role, leaving bombs
and ground-attack rockets behind for Sidewinders and AMRAAMs.
The rest of VF-95 would launch next, moving forward to reinforce the
BARCAP. It was vital to get as many Tomcats in the sky as possible
since out of all the aircraft aboard, only the F-14s could carry the
AIM-54C Phoenix.
The second Tomcat squadron, VF-97, was being armed at that moment with
full Phoenix warloads, six AIM-54s on each aircraft. More of the
Javelins’ Hornets would be launched until VF-97 was armed and ready, and
then the catapults would begin putting them up.
Ultimately, both of Jefferson’s Tomcat squadrons would be in the air,
positioned to launch their long-range Phoenix missiles against the
approaching Russians. Once they had expended their munitions, they
would return to Jefferson and recover for rearming, while the two Hornet
squadrons moved in to take on the surviving Russians close-up. The
carrier’s EA-6 electronic warfare planes would be thrown far forward, to
scramble the enemy’s radar and communications. Her sub-hunting Vikings
would be deployed to maintain an ASW screen around the battle group; her
ground-attack A-6 Intruders, useless in a fight such as this one, would