Mack Maloney - Wingman 06 by The Final Storm

Author:The Final Storm [Storm, The Final]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-26T03:27:53+00:00

Chapter 24

It was not the same Hawk Hunter who climbed into the cockpit of his replacement F-16 on that gray afternoon.

He barely noticed that the jet was inexplicably painted all white, a sharp contrast to the blue-gray color scheme of the other fighters of the 16th TFW.

He did his pre-flight checklist in grim silence, mechanically preparing his plane for the impending combat. Four Sidewinders and a noseful of cannon ammo, he thought ruefully. It hardly seemed like enough to take on the entire Soviet air force. But then again, he wouldn't be alone in the skies above France.

All along the flightline in Rota, every NATO interceptor that could get airborne was being prepared for the first wave of Jones's fighter sweep. A ragtag fugitive fleet of aircraft-the refugees of a hundred forward NATO air bases-was clustered on the Spanish tarmac.

Besides Hunter and the other fourteen surviving F-16s of the 16th TFW, the American planes included thirty or so F-15 Eagles, the kick-ass air-superiority fighters that carried four big medium range air-to-air missiles as well as another four Sidewinders, plus a rotary 20mm cannon in the starboard wing. Hunter knew Jones wished he had more.

A couple of squadrons of F-4G Phantom Us were lining up to join the fray.

Thrown together from the remnants of half a dozen squadrons whose bases had fallen to the Soviet advance, some of the fierce-looking fighters had been fitted with AN/APR-38 electronic warfare pods to enable the old workhorses to carry up to

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three Sparrow AIM-7 radar-guided missiles as well as four Sidewinders.

The rest had already been configured as "Wild Weasel" SAM-killers, armed with the new AGM-88 HARMs (High-speed Anti-Radar Missiles), bundles of chaff, special decoy flares, and electronic jamming gear. Jones had wanted to provide the fighter sweep some protection from the Soviet anti-aircraft missiles sure to be packed in close to the fighting front, and the "Weasels" fit the bill.

Just as Jones had predicted, several Air National Guard units had been ferried over to Europe. Already stripped of their frontline planes-F-16s, F-4s, A-lOs and F-15s-by the initial call-up, the only fighters the strapped ANG groups could muster were a handful of F-106 Delta Darts, a dozen vintage F-105

Thunder-chiefs, and even some creaking F-101 Voodoos.

Hunter knew Jones didn't spend much time thinking about what would happen to the vintage interceptors if a flight of new-generation Soviet fighters, like the MiG-29 Fulcrums, fell in on the aging National Guard planes. It didn't matter whether he worried about it or not-he needed every fighter he could get.

The real "flying circus" atmosphere on the base was brought on not by the USAF

planes, diverse as they were; but by the incredible assortment of NATO

aircraft assembled at Rota for the final push. Almost every member nation's planes were represented on the field, and some of the southern flank countries had transferred their entire air forces of Jones's direct command at Rota.

The remainder of the Spanish Air Force was now there: Some US-built F-5s, and a dozen older F-4 Phantom Us, as well as some stripped-down French Mirage Ills and its later F-l derivative.

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