Episode 33

142nd Fighter Wing, 123rd Fighter Squadron, Oregon National Guard

200 Miles South of Spratly Islands, FL 230

Tonight’s mission was different than the simple dash and shoot operations the 123rd had been engaged in thus far.  While the tactic of going after emissions sources had worked to date, it had also served to put those emission sources on alert.  Tonight, the squadron’s job was to interdict any AWACs birds within 500 miles of the Spratly Islands.

Major Wilkes wasn’t used to flying without complete information.  Normally, the Squadron was tasked with interdicting wayward civilian aircraft or the occasional Russian bird that made it down the coast from their usual stomping grounds up in Alaska.  A pure air to air asset, the F-15C’s of the wing had not seen much action in Afghanistan or any of the recent anti-terror actions.  The mission to Brunei had been the squadron’s first major combat action since being upgraded to F-15C’s in 2007.

“I have eyes on, Bear.”

“Affirm, I have them also.”

The Chinese AWACs bird was hard to miss.  With the radiation it was putting out, the F-15’s could detect it from over two hundred miles away.  Although the AIM-120Ds the squadron was carrying had a much-improved range over the AIM-120C, they couldn’t reach out the 150 miles to the AWACS current location.

“SAM radars coming up.”

“I have them.  Approaching threshold values.”

“Countermeasures active.”

“Roger countermeasures.”

Wilkes had read with great interest the after action report of the attempted Wild Weasel mission on Woody Island.  He had no intention of getting his plane or the planes of the squadron shot down.  He would close to one hundred miles, shoot and scoot.

“Redhawk four niner,  sentry seven.”

“Sentry seven, go for redhawk four niner.”

“Redhawk, we have bandits rotating at Fiery Cross and Mischief Reef.  Expect company ten zero mikes assuming constant course and speed.”

“Roger that Sentry.”

Now the situation got complicated.  Fighters rotating out of the two airfields ahead meant more targets and more risk for the squadron.  It would take the time and fuel to get up to the squadron’s altitude but not enough time.  At 200 miles, the strike was well within the squadron’s enhanced range with their FAST packs but they didn’t have an immense amount of fuel for dogfighting if it came to that.  There were no tanker aircraft within three hundred miles for obvious reasons so they needed to manage their fuel loads also.

“Redhawk lead to all Redhawks.  Your signal is buster.  Buster to max launch range.”

Increasing speed to their maximum possible using afterburners would get them into range BEFORE the Chinese fighters could engage but would also burn up precious fuel.  However, firing at max range significantly reduced their chances of hitting the distant AWACS plane.

“Redhawk lead to all Redhawks.  Fox Three.  Shoot.  Shoot.  Shoot.”

In close succession, the six F-15C’s launched four AIM-120D missiles each.  The twenty-four missiles remained emissions dark for the first twenty miles of their flight and then lit up their own radar seekers.  Finding more targets than expected, they selected the “best” target for each missile.  Two Chinese fighters were destroyed almost immediately.  The Chinese AWACS plane was able to turn away and dive down to one thousand feet, completely avoiding all the inbound missiles.

In the meantime, the F-15’s of the 123rd split into pairs, preparing to return home.

“Launch warning!!  SAM launch!  Multiple SAMs inbound.”

Immediately, the three pairs of aircraft went to full afterburner and dove down for the sea.  Most of them made it.