Free Tomahawk by David Poyer Page A

blockhouse.” When they found it, not far from the beach, a group of men in civvies were standing near the doorway.
    â€œLenson, I presume? Project Office?”
    â€œDan Lenson. This is Sparky Sakai, Vic Burdette.”
    â€œJ. J. Slater, Convair. I built this beast.”
    â€œNice to meet you.” They shook hands; Slater introduced the others, from FMC, Unidynamics, and Vimy. Dan asked if they’d gotten the bid package. “Yeah, we did. Thanks,” the man from Vimy said. He looked tough, with a sun-seared Irish face.
    â€œSorry I got held up. You fellas had a chance to look it over?”
    â€œThere was a launch crew here drilling yesterday. We got to see some of the loading.”
    â€œThat’s good. I haven’t. J. J., want to give me the tour?”
    The prototype was about the size of a tractor-trailer container, painted haze gray. The welded seams were un-ground. Slater gave them a walkaround, pointing out the exterior connections and power and hydraulics requirements. “Stand clear,” he yelled, then hit a button.
    Bells shrilled. A rotating beacon began to flash. Two thuds echoed off the bunker.
    The clamshelled upper section came up surprisingly fast. The only indication of the effort it took to lift those tons of metal was the muffled hammer of a prime mover back in the power room. A shining steel rod carried the launch tubes up with it, till they pointed at the empty sky.
    Slater said, “Okay, she’s open. Elevation angle thirty-five degrees relative to the deck. You can see the canister support assembly and the fronts of the four tubes. The top two have the frangible covers in place. Those are the starred discs, look like the front of a shotgun shell. The bottom two, you can see the nose of the missile. All four have the same electrical and data connections, so you can put any variant in any tube. The heating and cooling system maintains storage temperatures from minus forty to plus one hundred and twenty degrees in direct sun. Fire and security alarms tie into existing ship systems. Any questions?”
    Sakai asked, “How about pitch and roll?”
    â€œWe sized bolts and shear forces for a sixty-degree roll. I don’t think you’re going to get that on a battleship. Actually, I seem to recall the
Iowa
class, you roll ‘em too far, the turrets drop out so you don’t capsize.”
    Dan was thinking that one over when Slater added, “Let me say one more thing, Commander. I wanted to bid on the production units. We could kick you out a nice product. But I got overruled. The company doesn’t want to commit on the time frame you’re laying out. It’s better just to say up front we can’t do it than to look stupid later.” The other reps looked at the launcher, ignoring the taunt.
    â€œAre those actual missiles in there now?” Dan asked him.
    â€œNo, those are blind rounds—identical shape, size, weight, but no internal structure. Used them to work up the loading equipment.” Slater pointed at an assemblage of metal rods and beams by the bunker. “I recommend you order your loaders from the same guys you get your boxes from. Otherwise, one company’s loaders are goingto be a quarter inch off, or the bolt will have different threads.”
    Dan noted that. “Okay, thanks for the show. Have you guys got any questions?”
    â€œI do,” said the FMC engineer. He had on a Bills wind-breaker. “Can we streamline the design? And fix a couple things? Like these dual latching mechanisms—you get any kind of torsion, they’re gonna dealign and jam. We can do better than that.” He grinned at Slater.
    Sakai said, “The latching mechanisms are probably mandated by the nuclear weapons security program.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said Slater. “You want to improve the design, fine, but make sure you meet those specs. They also approved our nuclear surety link.