Free Final Storm by Mack Maloney Page A

target.
    Hunter jumped out of the jeep, thanked the driver and immediately began inspecting his new aircraft. Four AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles protruded from under the F-16’s wings, and two more capped the wingtips. These advanced air intercept missiles were tied into the F-16’s fire-control radar. When an enemy airplane was trapped in its electronic web, its pilot was as good as dead. A “fire-and-forget” heat-seeking missile, the reliable Sidewinder would take its target from the on-board “track-while-scan” computer, and leap off the F-16’s wing to close on the enemy at speeds in excess of 1,500 mph. As it neared the target aircraft, its own infra-red guidance system would lock on to the most intense heat source—usually the flaming jet engine exhaust—and the enemy plane would disintegrate in a fireball as the missile did its deadly work.
    For closer-range engagements, the F-16 had a multi-barrel, 20-mm rapid-fire cannon and as Hunter watched, the ground crews carefully loaded the 20mm rounds into the big gun’s ammo chamber. Guaranteed to blast holes in any type of airborne armor, the cannon shells would pump out of the six barrels to form a lethal hailstorm of screaming lead that would slice the designated target to ribbons.
    A multi-role tactical aircraft, the F-16 also possessed an excellent ground-attack capability. The ‘hard points’ on each wing and under the fuselage were designed to carry heavier ordnance—Rockeye cluster bombs, Mark 82 500-pounders, napalm, or incendiaries—enough for a respectable bomb load.
    Bigger air-to-ground missiles—AGMs—could also be suspended under the wing. AGM-65 TV-guided Maverick missiles, their cold camera eyes relentlessly focusing on the target, could be counted to seek out and destroy fortified ground targets. AGM-88 HARMs—High-speed Anti-Radar Missiles—could home in on enemy radar signals to wipe out the SAM sites with pinpoint accuracy. Even if the launchers switched off their gun-control radars, the HARM’S onboard microelectronics processor would enable the missile to still find its mark.
    And, while one set of sophisticated electronic systems sought out enemy targets and guided the weapon systems, another set was designed to protect the plane from becoming a target itself. The new AN/ALQ-165 system was installed—a defensive avionics system that was more often called the Airborne Self-Protection Jammer, or the ASPJ.
    Designed to identify the frequencies of incoming threats, warn the pilot, and take electronic countermeasures, the ASPJ was just one of the hundreds of acronym-labeled offensive and defensive systems in the technological arsenal of the F-16’s array. IFF, TFR, LANTIRN, FLIR, TACAN, MIMIC, VHSIC, ASPJ, GPS, APG, PSP, AVLSI, ADF, AFCE, and so on. Each one was a complex, multi-unit sophisticated electronic subsystem that formed the innards of the F-16 war bird, connected by an equally complex nerve network of electronic cables, wires, and trunks that wove between the ribs and struts of the airplane’s steel and aluminum skeleton.
    They were all silent now, lifeless, waiting for the spark that would bring them to consciousness once the big GE F-110 turbofan engine, the very heart of the airplane, began to throb once again.
    Hunter climbed into the cockpit, reviewing the flight and weapon control systems that were now second nature to his experienced eye. He strapped the wide harnesses across his middle and over his shoulders, the belts that would keep him in his reclined seat even when the fighter was streaking across the sea at Mach 2. To other pilots they were chains that held them down, trapping them in the tiny cramped space that was separated from the world outside only by a thin canopy. To Hunter they were bonds of faith, part of his special union with the aircraft around him.
    A few minutes of preparation passed, then finally, he got the signal from the ground crew chief.
    “Fire it up!” the man yelled to him.
    Hunter