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SPECTRE WAS DRAGGING ass and the coffee wasn’t helping. He had gotten up early with the rest of the team and flown the first of three scheduled training missions. It was going to be a long day.
The first flight had gone well. Spectre had briefed it and flown as the instructor pilot sitting in the backseat of Sparky’s airplane while Cowboy rode with Woody. They had started out slow, working on the basics to allow Sparky and Woody to get familiar with the aircraft.
So far, Sparky and Woody seemed to be adapting quickly. They had done various canned drills, practicing things like short-range radar, targeting with the helmet-mounted sight, and using the captive-carry training version of the AA-11 Archer infrared missile with its extremely lethal high-off boresight capability.
Mentally, the mission had been demanding, but physically it wasn’t much. The set-ups were all cooperative to give the students solid sight pictures. They never pulled more than four or five Gs. In a fighter that could easily pull nine, it was a walk in the park.
But despite the relatively low-key start, Spectre was tired. He was still jet-lagged from their trip to Europe a few days earlier, and had only slept four hours the night prior. The stresses of planning and training for a mission that was becoming more and more impossible by the second had started to take its toll. The bags under his steely-blue eyes were proof of that.
Spectre put his coffee cup down on the briefing room table as he sat down. Unlike the folding tables and chairs in the hangar in Belarus, this facility had actual briefing rooms with whiteboards, computers, and furniture inside the vault in the hangar that was next door to the hangar with the SCIF.
He was all alone in the room as he reviewed his notes from the flight prior. He had already debriefed Sparky, Woody, and Cowboy on their performance. Now he had ten minutes to integrate those notes and come up with a quick plan for the next flight.
As he finished coming up with a lineup card, Woody walked in and handed Spectre a Red Bull. “You look like you could use a pick-me-up.”
Spectre accepted it and put it next to his now-empty coffee cup. “Thanks. Where’s everyone else?”
Woody looked at his watch. “They still have five minutes. Sparky was getting a snack and Kruger is in the other vault talking to some big wig.”
Spectre stopped writing and looked up at Woody. “How do you feel in the aircraft right now?”
Woody sat on the briefing room table and considered the question. “Flying this jet is easy. The Russians built a solid airplane. Employing it is another story. If you’re asking if I would go out and defend the Straits of Taiwan with it, the answer is no. But as a wingman it’s not that difficult. It helps that this version of the aircraft is in English.”
Spectre nodded. That was one of the first requirements he had for this operation. The demonstrators that they were using had to have the same software that the actual aircraft would use. Luckily that meant mostly Lynch avionics like the Malaysian SU-30 MKM and Indian SU-30 MKI.
Sparky walked in followed by Kruger. “Everything okay?” Spectre asked Kruger as he and Sparky took their places around the table.
“Fine,” Kruger grumbled. “Just getting an update on Churchill in Lajes.”
“How is he?” Spectre asked.
“As frustrated as anyone would be in that situation,” Kruger replied.
Spectre stood and turned toward the whiteboard behind him.
“Alright, let’s get started,” he said.
Spectre briefed the second mission in just under thirty minutes. The plan was very similar to the first mission. They would start out with basic exercises to get sight pictures and work on the switchology drills necessary to employ the weapons. It would allow Sparky and Woody to hone their skills while giving Kruger a fresh look since he hadn’t been in the airplane in a while. This time, Spectre would be riding in the backseat of Woody’s aircraft to work on any issues he had been having.
After the warm-ups, Spectre intended to move from crawl to walk. They would do basic fighter maneuver drills called “perch setups” in which one aircraft would start out offensive and the other defensive. This would allow them to practice entering the adversary’s imaginary “turn circle” which was the imaginary arc it traced across the sky, and then close in to the control zone to employ the simulated gun.
On the other side, the defender would practice defensive maneuvers, starting with the initial break turn and then recognizing the offender’s weapons employment zones. Once the attacker was inside the control zone, the defender would then practice his guns defense until Spectre determined that the training objectives had been met.
They took off and climbed to the working airspace above the top-secret airfield. After a brief “G-warmup” in which they made sure their bodies and systems were ready to pull g-forces by making two hard, 180-degree turns, they set up for the first exercise.
Spectre coached Woody through the guns tracking drill as Sparky provided a stable target. After three iterations, Sparky added a jink and spoiled Woody’s gunshot, taking advantage of the super-maneuverability of the Advanced Flanker.
“Sparky’s pretty damned good,” Woody commented over the intercom as they recovered and leveled off.
“Yeah, he’s doing well,” Spectre said. “Just remember to give yourself an out because you can easily end up with a face full of jet if he swings the nozzles and you’re not ready for it.”
“Copy that,” Woody said.
They switched roles and allowed Sparky to practice his gun work. Woody tried to spoil Sparky’s shot on the last setup but was unsuccessful.
“You have to go earlier,” Spectre coached. “Use the thrust-vectoring.”
“Got it,” Woody replied.
After completing the warm-up drills, they set up for their first high-G exercise. Sparky moved into the appropriate position two miles off Woody’s wing.
“Next set will be 9K offensive for number two,” Spectre called over the radio.
“Two,” Sparky replied crisply.
“One’s ready,” Spectre called.
“Two’s ready,” came the reply.
“Check right,” Spectre said.
Woody initiated a hard turn to the right.
“One point nine,” Sparky called, indicating he had a good radar lock and was at just under two miles away.
Woody reversed his turn back into Sparky and set up an easy left-hand turn, looking over his shoulder to help set the appropriate aspect angle for the setup.
“One point eight,” Sparky counted down. He was nose-on to Woody and Spectre and the range was steadily clicking down.
“One point seven...one point six... Fox Two!” Sparky called, indicating the simulated launch of his air to air missile which also served as the “Fight’s On” call.
Woody started a hard break turn into Sparky as Sparky rolled wings level. If Sparky kept his pursuit course, it would create a high aspect pass or overshoot. Sparky had to be patient and “drive” toward Woody’s imaginary turn circle.
But Woody had other plans. Instead of a level break turn as briefed, he rolled into a split-s, reefed back on the stick, chopped the throttles to idle in order to bleed speed, and then went full afterburner while using the thrust-vectoring to minimize his turn radius. The aircraft responded almost instantly, turning to face their attacker.
Spectre started to call a knock-it-off to reset the fight since that wasn’t the point of the engagement, but decided to let it go as he saw Sparky’s aircraft respond. Sparky climbed and the aircraft rolled onto its back, trading energy for altitude since he knew Woody’s maneuver was a one-trick pony.
As the two aircraft crossed high aspect, Woody reversed into another split-s toward Sparky who responded by using the thrust vectoring to create a single-circle fight downhill. The nose of Sparky’s Flanker started to come to bear but then suddenly stopped and the aircraft seemed to point straight at the ground.
“Banshee, knock it off, Banshee One knock-it-off,” Spectre called as he saw Sparky’s aircraft no longer maneuvering in relation to them.
There was no response as the aircraft continued zooming toward the ground. Woody reversed to follow and get a better look.
“I think he G-LOCed,” Woody said, referring to a G-induced Loss of Consciousness in which a person loses consciousness under G-forces due to blood pooling in the lower extremities under high g-forces.
“Sparky, pull up!” Spectre yelled over the radio.
“He’s not responding,” Kruger called out over the radio.
“Pull back on the stick!” Spectre yelled.
As the jet screamed toward the ground, Spectre’s heart sank. He knew he was close to watching two of his best friends die in a fireball. Just as he was about to call for them to eject over the radio, Kruger finally complied and the nose of the aircraft started to track upward.
Woody gave chase as the aircraft leveled off. He rejoined on Sparky’s left wing. Spectre could see Sparky slowly come to and try to shake it off.
“You okay, Sparky?” Spectre asked over the radio.
“Yeah...yeah, I’m okay,” Sparky slurred.
“Alright, fence out, we’ll take you home,” Spectre said.