The day finally arrived for them to leave.
Even that was as secretive as possible. The deployment plan was simple. They
left at various times during the day and even into the night. They left in
pairs with each pair flying a different route to start and one that gave the
impression they were just doing more training. The pairs eventually linked up
well out over the Atlantic, with four planes in each group. They did some more
training with a midair refueling while waiting for all the planes to get in the
air on the extended schedule. That was one thing that worked out to give James
and Sarah a little extra time together. Since each flight had ten planes in it
and each branch of the service had two flights they had one group of four
planes that had a pair of planes from each flight in the group. It had been
arranged so that James and Sarah were in those pairs. Since they were all
headed to the same general area for deployment it allowed them to travel
together most of the way.
Once all those pairs had joined up in
groups of four over the Atlantic they started across the Atlantic. Each four
plane group had another midair refueling after crossing the Atlantic and just
before heading across the Mediterranean. Once over the Mediterranean they all
formed up into their flights for the first time. All twenty planes from each
branch of service formed up together. Then each set of ten planes in a flight would
separate and head to the home base of those flights. A squadron of F-35's would
already be there waiting for them to arrive either at an air base or on a
carrier. One flight of navy planes was heading to a carrier in the
Mediterranean while the other flight was heading to one in the Arabian Sea. The
current Air Force fighter squadron size was only 16 planes. That was about to
be changed with the addition of ten new F/A-48's to a squadron stationed at the
base in Turkey and the other ten to a squadron stationed in Saudi Arabia. It
would be the first time in decades that any fighter squadron was so large.
Once the flights formed up and split off for the separate destinations
things took on a new and much more serious feeling. The trip across had been a
long one, but it had been relatively casual. That was over now. As they split
off each leader of the two flights began to instruct and remind the other
pilots in those flights of just where they were headed next. James listened
attentively to his wingman, because Lt. Colonel Wilson was also the flight commander.
They had all heard this stuff before, but suddenly it was real. They would soon
be flying into Turkish air space. Even that simple act was going to be a test
for these planes. They weren't scheduled for arrival. In fact only the General
in command of the air base and the commander of the squadron they were about to
join knew they were coming at all. They were literally flying their first
mission into a combat zone with the new F/A-48's. That mission was to see just
how good the planes were at staying hidden. Were they good enough to slip in
undetected, even by their base systems, the 'best in the world', defenses and
planes? That was the mission challenge they faced today.
The flights broke up into pairs again before they entered Turkish air
space. In fact they broke up well before coming near any land. Some had dropped
down low and some had gone high in addition to a few staying at cruise
altitude. The odd man in each group of five joined up with each other to form
the final pair and they came in at standard cruise speed and altitude. The idea
was to see which worked the best or not at all when trying to remain unnoticed.
The F/A-48 was the most stealth capable fighter ever built. It had proven
itself hard to locate when you were looking for it, but how hard would it be if
you weren't even expecting it? Lt. Colonel Wilson was the lead going in. He and
James would be going straight in with no real effort to avoid detection other
than avoiding contacts they picked up on their passive systems. There were
always Turkish, American, and NATO jets patrolling in the air over Turkey now.
They had no more of an idea of where those jets were patrolling than the jets
did of them arriving. It would be very easy to fly right into a patrol of
friendly aircraft that would see them as uninvited and likely unfriendly.
The F/A-48 was designed to do just this, penetrate all defenses unseen,
so it could perform its mission and then retreat while remaining hidden. These
new jets were built to be stealthy, silent, and deadly. They were also built
for speed and were very maneuverable considering they were considerably larger
than most fighters. That added size was due to two things. The larger redundant
engines were the first of those things. They could fly and maneuver with very
little reduction in combat capability under only one engine. In fact they
normally used only one engine to fly. The second engine was literally a backup
except when the plane was being operated at the very peak of its combat
capabilities. The second reason for the increase in size was to allow more
range and/or more arms payload capacity. These jets had been designed to out
fly anything in the air. They weren't only as fast as any fighter flying, but
nearly as maneuverable as most other modern fighters. The additional fuel
capacity designed in allowed them to have a range that rivaled many of the
mid-range and even a few of the large bombers in the world too.
That added range was possible, because when operating as strictly a
fighter or light ground support the F/A-48 depended primarily on two totally
new types of weapons. The first was a pair of dual lasers. Actually there were
four separate lasers, but they were tied into pairs. Each pair could be locked
and fired at separate targets simultaneously. Using overlapping but alternating
pulses from each laser in the pair allowed a longer sustained beam, up to 30
seconds of an almost continuous beam could be fired by a pair like that. They
could also be locked and fired with both lasers on a sustained beam too. That
would double the power of the beam, but it reduced the length of fire to about
ten seconds. That was still long enough to easily penetrate all but the very
heaviest of armored vehicles. The cycle time between firing either as paired or
dual lasers was only a few seconds. The lasers stayed locked on target
regardless of the plane's flight path once they were locked and fired too. The
placement of these lasers in the jets allowed almost a complete sphere of fire
around the plane. It was all but impossible for anything to get close without
being within reach of the lasers. The effective range was several miles, but
after that long range was reached the power dropped drastically.
The second new weapon was something that was still considered by the
world to be on the drawing boards at best and complete science fiction to
most. They were designed along the same
basic idea as the larger 'rail guns' that were being used by the Navy and even
to a smaller extent the Army to fire projectiles. These didn't operate exactly
the same way though. These fired pulses of, for lack of a better term, 'energy
waves'. Each jet had a pair of the large 'pulse cannons'. They were exactly
what they were called pulse cannons. They fired the pulses of energy at a rate
of 8 per second or almost 500 pulses a minute. Those energy wave pulses alone
could be very destructive. They could tear men and materials apart with only
the energy in them, but the thing that made these even more deadly was their
ability to carry 'bullets' too. Similar to a rail gun; they could be used to
propel the 'bullets' instead of using another propellant. The bullets could be
simple lead projectiles or they could be packages. Those packages could carry
anything that could be put inside them, explosives, gases, chemicals, powders,
or flammables. The bullets actually rode inside the 'energy pulse', so it had
no effect on the pulse or the 'bullet'. There was a limit to the number of
'bullets' the plane could carry, but the two pulse cannons, much like the
lasers could be fired almost indefinitely. As long as the jet had fuel and
power, they could all be fired. That power was generated directly from the
engines. That second engine could fully power all the weapons while the first
handled all the maneuvering and power needed to fly.
Those new lasers and pulse cannons were what made the biggest difference
in the planes, but they weren't the only things. The stealth technology and the
new avionics added to the advantage. These avionics didn't depend on computers
or software as much. They depended more on the pilot. Not even a magnetic pulse could totally
disable the plane. It could greatly limit its ability, but not bring it down.
The official weapons list for the F/A-48 also included a pair of 20mm revolving
cannons with 5000 rounds of ammo each and the standard multiple payload
capability of all modern fighters. It didn't mention either of the two new
weapons though. Those were strictly classified, as was the range and speed of
the F/A-48. The range under normal load and cruise speed was in excess of 2500
miles. The top speed was over 2500 mph. That range could be extended by many
thousands of miles without outside tanks, if the plane carried no extra arms
and used the extra tanks that could be easily added inside the body where the
extra weapons would have been. It was still very deadly with only the lasers
and pulse cannons for weapons. And with that much range it could stay in the
air far longer than any other fighter without refueling. It all looked great on
paper and had tested great on simulators. It had even looked better in the
actual field tests and training, but now it was time for the real test. Now
they were flying them into an active combat zone almost totally unannounced.
They would soon see how it worked in the real world.
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