Episode 17

9^th Bomb Squadron (7^th Bomb Wing), Andersen AFB, Guam

Despite the fact that Lt. Colonel Massey had been the commanding officer of the 9^th Bomb Squadron for almost two years, he had never actually expected to command the squadron in combat.   Not that members of the 9^th hadn’t dropped bombs in support of various American combat operations, but the fact was that no B-1 squadron had EVER in the history of the type deployed as a complete squadron.  Never.  Not during Desert Storm, not during Afghanistan.  The reality was that the B-1 had never performed its mission to go after near-peer adversaries.  Thankfully, the B-1 no longer had a nuclear strike role, so that was off the table. However, the current mission of the B-1 was to be a very fast cruise missile delivery vehicle.  A mission it was VERY VERY good at.  Today would be the largest ever strike mission performed by the B-1 and her crews were ready.

“Gentlemen, take your seats.”

The fifteen command crews (pilot and co-pilot) slowly settled down around the large conference room.  While all of them had dropped ordinance before, this was a different matter.  While there was always the possibility of catching a “golden bb” with your name on it, there was simply not the element of personal risk in bombing Syria or Afghanistan that there was in going after China.  This was the big leagues.  Most of the crews were veterans of Afghanistan and almost all had seen combat.  The veterans were busy telling themselves that they had “been there, seen that” and the rookies were so busy trying to pretend to be nonchalant that they didn’t have time to get nerves.  It was a game, but it worked.

“I will assume that everyone is very familiar with the briefing material.  If not, don’t plan on being in my squadron for long.”  A brief but fierce glare around the room ensured everyone knew this was only half a joke.  “However, I would like to emphasize some points from our Navy friends.”  There was a collective chuckle but much less than would normally be the case.  The Navy had been taking it in the shorts lately and the normal inter-service rivalry had been cranked down to a minimum lately.  “It looks like Chinese fire control and AA is even better than we originally thought.  The decoy strike by the BUFFs was fended off very successfully.  The current estimate is that only one or two ships would have been destroyed without the Marines and their F-35 sucker punch.”  This did elicit some groans.  The Marines would be INSUFFERABLE about their ability to succeed where the USAF had failed.  The fact that this was the plan all along would not enter into the conversation over beers that would inevitably occur off base.  “However, the EW take shows that the PLAN has over-optimized their air search for the Harpoon.  Their wavelengths and search patterns indicate that they would not be able to pick up a JASSM strike using the same equipment they used on the Harpoons.”

“Allegedly.”

Massey didn’t look up to spot the offender.  He already knew it was Jones.   “Yes, Jones.  That’s from the Intel Weenies so liberal doses of salt apply.  Also, the units on Woody and the other islands are actually Army units, not PLAN units so it is unknown how they will react or their exact AA capabilities against the JASSM.  For this reason, we will over-target at a ratio of 5-1 for every known target on both islands.  As you can see, that gives us a total target list of 43 targets and a budget of 215 missiles.  To ensure we have enough magazine depth, we will sortie the entire squadron with a full load out of 360 JASSMs.”

He allowed this information to sink in for a moment.  The full squadron had never sortied together and certainly never received a full load out of twenty-four missiles per plane.  “This is a full alpha strike gentlemen.  No fucking around, we are at war and we will not fail.  Am I clear?”

There was only one answer to that question.  Nearly in unison, the 30 men in the room answered:  “YES SIR!”

“Right.  We are going in supersonic at low level.  No more than 500 feet AGL.  Your approach vectors are in your mission plans.  We launch at 100 miles.  Shoot and scoot.  The Spirits cannot do this mission, this is a BONE profile.  Come in fast and low, nobody ever sees us.  This is our butter zone.  In case of PLAN contact, your evasion protocols are as follows…”

It was a long briefing as befitted such an important mission.  While there would be support from the Navy, their version of the JASSM was not fully up and running so that meant that they would be using the older and more detectable Tomahawk.  China’s ability to intercept cruise missiles was very high so there was a real concern that a strike by the Navy would not be effective in taking down the AA capacity on the islands.  Hence the BONES would come in as a first strike to reduce their capacity to defend against follow on strikes by the Navy and other assets.

The addition of the stealthy JASSM to the B-1’s arsenal really made the old plane sing.   While the B-1 was a spring chicken when compared to the B-52, the original design of the B-1A had assumed that a high flying supersonic bomber would be simply untouchable by enemy anti-aircraft missiles.  That was proven untrue even before the B-1 became operational which changed the B-1’s design significantly. The B-1 had been essentially canceled before being resurrected as the B-1B. All operational B-1s were technically B-1B’s since the “A” model had never seen operational service.  Even the modifications that made the B-1B a low-level high-speed penetration bomber had not proven sufficient against modern anti-aircraft missiles and the expectation was that B-1B would not survive a close encounter with a well-defended foe.

On the other hand, at 500 feet or less, an aircraft was almost impossible to detect from ground-based radar from over 100 miles away.  The curvature of the earth made this extremely difficult.  Thus, a standoff weapon like the JASSM made the B-1 an excellent choice to attack even well-defended targets like the Chinese islands in the south China sea.

While radar waves can use “ducting” to see around the curvature of the earth, it was very difficult to pick up a small target very close to the sea at ranges over 100 miles.  In the case of a manmade island like Woody, the radar was simply built on a tower.  This lower height also reduces range.  And while the B-1 wasn’t a “Stealth” plane by modern standards it did have a much smaller radar cross-section than the B-52.  All of these things meant that it was very unlikely that the Chinese could track or target them if they came in low enough and released their missiles from 100 miles out.  Of course, being supersonic and being able to get out of Dodge quickly didn’t make the pilots unhappy either.