Episode 64

44th Reconnaissance Squadron, Creech AFB, Nevada

Lieutenant Reeves monitored his instruments carefully. As an “Air Force Attack Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot” (MOS 18A1), he was responsible for piloting what everyone else on the planet called a “UAV” or “Drone.” In the Air Force, however, they were Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and he was a pilot. There is nothing more sacred to the Air Force than the idea that they operated aircraft and that those operators were pilots. That made him an RPA pilot as far as the USAF was concerned.

In this case, the RPA in question was a rare bird indeed. The RQ-180 had been a completely “black” project for years until the Iranians had claimed to shoot one down. In the process of proving that the Iranians were full of it, the USAF had inadvertently confirmed suspicions that the RQ-180 actually existed.

As a “low observable” aircraft, it was the stealthiest drone in the US inventory. While it wasn’t invisible, it was VERY hard to spot which made it perfect for today’s mission.

The brass had become increasingly concerned about Chinese troop movements in and around major ports like Quanzhou and Xiamen. While China had literally hundreds of ports, only a couple of dozen were configured to handle the largest ocean-going cargo ships. Both Quanzhou and Xiamen were relatively close to Taiwan as well. Reeves wasn’t sure if that made it more or less likely that they would be used to stage any sort of invasion, but his orders were very clear. His job was to get in close to the port facilities of Quanzhou and find any army units staging there.

In theory, this job could have been and should have been done via satellite. However, in practice, they were not getting the intel they needed from satellite sources. The Chinese had managed to knock a few satellites down in the run-up to the attack on Guam and the result had been large gaps in coverage. Because satellites were very predictable in their orbits, it was easy to simply time movements to coincide with gaps in the overhead coverage. The USA had routinely done this for years when the Russians had used satellites to track US Naval movements. This is why the timing of this mission was so critical. They needed to be overhead of the objective during the middle of the gap in coverage. This gave them the best chance of seeing something that they weren’t supposed to see.

While an RQ-180 was extremely stealthy, it could be detected by long wave “anti-stealth” radar. They had a few places they wanted to investigate but they needed to do so while avoiding the various search radars on the ground. They had flown in across Taiwan straight, going feet dry about a hundred miles north of Quanzhou. The hope was that the drones would be able to get in, get the intel they needed and then get out before being spotted.

“Come left to three two zero. Thirty seconds until we have line of sight to primary.” Lewis was officially the “sensor operator” but Reeves thought of him as his co-pilot.

“Coming left to three two zero.”

“Threat board?”

“Negative. Nothing but commercial radars.”

“Keep an eye out for civilian traffic. Last thing we need to do is t-bone some airliner.” The drone could operate at fifty thousand feet or more but had to be down lower to get the sharp images they needed today.

“Eyes peeled.”

It looked like the gamble of sending the RQ-180s in had worked. The Chinese SAM coverage had been focused around more “strategic” sites along with their air force. While the aircraft was “low observable” it wasn’t invisible and it could be detected if it got close enough to enemy radar.

“OK, panning right. Holy shit! Look at all those tanks!”

Row after row of tanks were moving down a major highway towards the port.

“Back me up here, is that G-1502?”

“Yeah, confirmed. Looks like they’re headed for Hutianjiao there.”

“Looks like it. OK, let’s get the heck out of dodge.”

As the pilots commanded the drone to turn and descend, a warning light lit up on the console.

“Shit! HQ-9 radar just lit up. Bearing One Niner Four” Lewis’ voice showed the real strain of flying combat missions held for the drone operators. Even if you didn’t have to worry about being killed, the stress of constant combat operations built up over time. “Approaching threshold.”

“Coming left, zero one four.”

Unlike a manned aircraft, a drone’s maneuver limits were based on the aircraft’s structure, not the frail limits of a human body. While an RQ-180 wasn’t as maneuverable as a missile, it was capable of violent maneuvers when necessary. In this case, sharp left turn away from the potential SAM site.

“Do you think they painted us?”

“I don’t think so, but we’ll see.”

“New radar lighting up. L Band.”

“Ah, shit.” The Chinese had touted their ability to track stealth aircraft via low-frequency radar for years. While this technique was not effective against larger aircraft like the B-2 bomber, it could use used to detect smaller aircraft like the F-22, and perhaps the RQ-180.

“We have what we need, let’s ex-fil.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Let’s see if we can thread the needle down there and get to the coast.”

“Roger that.”

Carefully, oh, so carefully, they maneuvered their aircraft back to Taiwan straight and from there back to the airfield on Okinawa.