Episode 14

27^th Fighter Squadron

FL 330,  Northern Philippines

Looking down at the four squadrons of F-15E “Strike Eagles” and their tankers, the scene looked peaceful enough, beautiful even.  Under complete EMCON, the “Fighting Eagles” of the 27^th Fighter Squadron had drawn high cover duty today.  The squadron was normally based at Langley AFB with the rest of the 1^st Fighter Wing.  On TDY to Clark in the Philippines, their job today was to stay high and provide overwatch.  Their high altitude and stealth gave them a huge advantage over any Chinese jets that decided to come out to play.

The F-22’s of the 27^th had a single, primary mission in combat.  To maintain air superiority.  Or as the wing’s Chief Master Sergeant put it:  “To be the biggest bad-ass in the sky.”  Until recently, that mission had been largely subsumed by a support role.  F-22’s had been used to attack ground targets, to support strike packages as a “coordination node” and as a relatively stealthy ISR platform.  However, no F-22 had ever achieved its primary purpose of scoring an air-to-air victory over another fighter aircraft.  In fact, the USA had not scored an air to air kill for over 25 years before the shootdown in Syria in June of 2017.  Considering the target was an elderly and supposedly poorly maintained Su-22, some folks didn’t even count that one.    Major Richard “Tex” Ewing, commanding officer of the 27^th had a feeling that this fact was about to change.

While the Chinese had done well in using hit and run tactics against the Navy and to some extent against the Air Force, the problem was that their tactics were predictable.  Because they were on the defensive, they had to react to American movements.  This meant that the US could “force” the Chinese to make the moves they wanted by showing them something they thought they understood.  They would then learn the difference between “near-peer” and “peer” adversaries.

The Chinese were desperate to maintain air superiority over their island bases in the South China Sea.  The island bases gave them the force projection they needed to keep the Navy at bay.  In effect, each island was an unsinkable aircraft carrier.  This meant they were on the lookout for raids such as the one below him right now.  The four squadrons of F-15E’s would do an excellent job of raising all kinds of hell on the island and Ewing was pretty sure that they would attempt to disrupt the raid.  In this case, the F-15E’s were all armed with HARM missiles to go after the SAM radars in addition to their JDAM bomb load to take out buildings and any aircraft that they were foolish enough to leave sitting around.  Taking the runways out would also be a great outcome, but the F-16 was the only plane in inventory rated to carry the French-made Durandal anti-runway bomb.  A few years back, that would have been the job of F-111’s but those airplanes had been retired with no direct replacement.  In this case, the shorter legs of the F-16 made them less than desirable and the mission had been planned with F-15E’s instead.

The F-15’s were not his main concern, however.  They could take care of themselves.  Each aircraft was armed with two AIM-9x and two AIM-120D missiles plus a Vulcan cannon if things got really hairy.  In reality, the Chinese were very unlikely to get into a furball with the Eagles.    His mission was much more complicated than that.  Directed by the pair of AWACS aircraft orbiting two hundred miles to the rear, his job was to localize, track and shoot down the force of Chinese fighters that would surely be sent to take out the tanker squadron.

Under normal circumstances, this would be difficult enough and the usual goal was to simply convince the opposing fighters to break off.   A flight of four F-15’s could normally do that just fine.   In this case, the goal was to force a decisive engagement and destroy the bulk of the Chinese fighter aircraft operating in the South China Sea theater.  Without fighter cover, they would be unable to protect their fixed assets and the US could systematically reduce each of their island strongholds.

That was the theory, anyway.  In actual practice, it was quite difficult.  The AWACS controllers could not see the F-22’s and the F-22’s could not communicate without giving their position away.  Unlike the F-35, the older F-22 had a very limited ability to share tactical information when running under full EMCON.  This meant that although he was being given instructions from the AWACS controllers, he could not ask questions or redirect the mission without giving away his position.

All of this meant that while he was fairly confident in his mission and extremely confident in his plane and his squadron, there was a certain amount of tension involved.  While stealth was a new and as yet untested element in air to air combat, there were several other factors that were not so risky.  In this case, having the energy advantage of altitude.  The squadron had very carefully placed themselves above and in front of the tankers.  This meant that if the Chinese scrambled from their island base as expected, they would have to fly under the squadron of Raptors.  Height was a huge advantage in air combat and had been since the sport was invented during World War I.  Second, while the flying weather was good, the visibility was “limited” to about a mile or two.  This meant he could see (barely) the tankers flying below and behind him, it also meant that the Chinese would have a hard time visually locating the small stealthy planes of the 27^th.    On the other hand, if the Chinese had deployed “anti-stealth” Radar, they might know that the squadron was in the vicinity.  Nobody really knew how well Chinese UHF Radar worked.  The Air Force was relatively certain that it wasn’t good enough to get a “hard lock” but it might be good enough to warn of the squadron’s presence.  Too many unknowns and too many if’s for Ewing.  The tactic would work or it would fail.  Simple as that.

While EMCON meant he couldn’t transmit, his receivers were working fine.   “Raid warning.  Raid warning.  We have multiple aircraft rotating from the primary target.”

So, the Chinese had decided to come up and play.  Either they didn’t know the F-22’s were there or they thought they could take them out in a fair fight.

Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t going to be a fair fight.  War isn’t about fighting fair.  War is about killing the other guy before he kills you.  Better yet, sneak up behind him and stab him in the back before he knew you were there.  Or as it’s known by the US Air Force: stealth.

Utilizing the tactical information from the trailing AWACS, Ewing’s aircraft was showing an intercept vector for the new Chinese planes on his display.  Coming in from above and at long range, the incoming aircraft might not ever see the F-22’s coming to take them out.   Which was just fine with Ewing.  Turning and burning was fine for air shows but his job was to take the other guy out.  If that happened at long range with the other guy not seeing it coming, all the better.

Looking to his right, Ewing gestured to his wingman.   Two fingers pointed down and a circling gesture.  Considering that his wingman was only twenty feet away, he saw the signal clearly.  Hopefully, he was also receiving the same tactical signals, but it was best to be sure.  The thumbs up in reply and a tap to the helmet confirmed that he was receiving the tactical feed and could hear the AWACS controller also.

As they vectored to the target, Ewing mentally reviewed his plan again.  He wanted to engage at about fifteen miles range.  He could estimate that range based on his own known position and the tactical data transmitted from the AWACS.  This should allow him to fire his missiles without revealing his location to the Chinese.  While the AIM-120D was radar-guided, it could be used in combination with the F-22’s AESA radar to produce a “Low Probability of Intercept” or LPI lock.  While the Chinese would undoubtedly know that American planes were targeting them, they wouldn’t have enough information to get a lock themselves and return fire.  In theory.

In practice, nobody knew.  No Stealth Aircraft had ever scored an air to air kill.  Until today.

As the range decreased, he found himself breathing more rapidly.  While he had trained for the majority of his adult life for this moment, he had been too young for Iraq and had never had the opportunity for an air to air kill in his entire 20-year career.  The majority of his career had been in F-15’s bombing ground targets during the “global war on terror.”  Not what the F-15 was designed to do.  This was different.  His squadron was about to attack what was probably a squadron of Chinese jets that were a near-peer of the F-15.  They had a will to fight and the aircraft to do it in.  Or so they thought.  Ewing was getting way too old to lead a fighter squadron and he knew it.  This would be his first and last air war.

As the range approached fifteen miles, Ewing realized that he didn’t have as much to worry about as he had originally thought.  The Chinese jets had their search radar on but not their fire control radar.  While they clearly knew there were American planes in the vicinity, they didn’t have a lock on the F-22’s of the 27^th.   While in theory, the AIM-120C has a range of over 65 nautical miles, the tactical discipline of US Fighters was to employ it at much shorter ranges.  While still a “Beyond Visual Range” or BVR weapon, the reality of the physics involved meant that super long-range shots of 30 miles or more were rare. At that range, it is more up to luck or your enemy being dumb.  The longer the weapon is in flight, the easier it is to change your vector and the longer you have to plan your evasion.  Thus, the plan was to engage at fifteen miles.

“All Eagles:  Light ‘em up, take ‘em out.”

With that command, the F-22 tactical data link, previously dormant, was activated on all planes.  This allowed them to share targeting information.  While this increased their probability of intercept, it also meant that the planes would share the target load and prevent targeting one plane with too many weapons or leaving someone out.

In this case, the eight F-22’s of the squadron was armed with six AIM-120D missiles each for a total of forty-eight long-range missiles.  The twelve aircraft below were targeted by two missiles each with enough missiles remaining for a second salvo.

“All Eagles, Shoot!  Now, now, now.”

In nearly perfect unison, all eight F-22’s opened their internal weapons bay doors and ejected their missiles.  Each plane fired three AIM-120 missiles in rapid succession.  All of this was sorted out by the computers in the aircraft, target assignment, firing sequence, and drop spacing was done automatically.

Ewing was pleased with the squadron’s performance but could not help but be appalled at the carnage that was about to ensue for the Chinese.  This isn’t a dogfight, this is friggin’ murder.

Too late, the Chinese pilots realized they were under attack.  Either the radio chatter or the emissions signature of the Raptors had given the game away.  The aircraft broke, scattering in pairs.  While the maneuver was nicely done, it was too little, too late.  More than half the aircraft was destroyed in the first salvo.

“Eagles, break, break break.”

On command, the eight F-22’s of the 27^th squadron broke into pairs to chase down the fleeing aircraft.  Operating over 15,000 feet higher than the Chinese jets gave them a huge advantage to start with.  Adding in the hard locks they already held, the result was predictable.  Or mostly predictable.

“Eagle four, break off and RTB.  You are approaching bingo fuel state.  Repeat, break off and RTB.”

Lieutenant Williams, a good pilot but a bit too eager had managed to burn off 80% of his fuel on burner trying to bring one of the Chinese jets to action.  The Chinese pilot had wisely gone to full afterburner and taken a reciprocal course to the Americans.  Not that the young Lieutenant couldn’t catch the fleeing Chinese plane, because he could.  The issue was that he shouldn’t be chasing after him at all.  Their orders were clear, seek a decisive engagement and break off once the initial surprise was lost.  They didn’t want to get into a turning fight this far from their base on Clarke.  Williams had blown that plan.  “Scooter, take your wingman up to tank and then RTB.”

“Roger that Tex.”

Young Williams would be scouring a hallway at Clark with a toothbrush before the day was out.  A long hallway.   The longest one Ewing could find.