Free Tiger's Claw: A Novel by Dale Brown

punched the “Takeoff/Land” checklist on his MFD, selected several steps, then looked out his left side window to make sure the wing sweep, flaps, slats, and spoilers were set properly. “The bird looks great, sir,” he remarked. “What did you do to the skin? It looks brand new.”
    “Nothing except inspection, minor repairs, anticorrosion treatment, and a little paint,” Patrick said. “No stealth antiradar coatings, no structural improvements except to fix minor structural flaws and to add a few features. We didn’t consider stealth hardly at all.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we assumed the battlefield would already be consumed with electronic jamming and intrusion,” Patrick said. “The Bones’ radar cross section—the lowest of the entire world’s heavy aircraft until the B-2 Spirit came along—could mostly be neutralized by electronic jamming. Our objective was to field an AirSea Battle attack and antimissile airframe in minimum time and cost. We analyzed the risk and advantage of the B-1B with advanced jammers and low-level flight profiles, and designed an attack profile to match. The B-1’s radar cross section is actually about the same as a Super Hornet.”
    “Pretty good,” Cuthbert said distractedly. “Where did you get all the plans and manpower to do these conversions?”
    “When the Air Force closed down the B-1 refurbishment project at Plant 42 in Palmdale, we bought all the tooling, design and manufacturing software, tech orders, and plans from the Air Force—much of which was designed and written by Sky Masters—and brought a bunch of the engineers and technicians up here,” Patrick said. “We’ve got the best in the business, all seasoned pros, and they set out to prove we could do it faster and better up here in Battle Mountain.”
    “A private company doing it faster and better than the government? Who knew?” Cuthbert deadpanned. “So you’re not going to put all that fancy drone recovery and rearming stuff and the mission-adaptive wings on your birds?”
    “We certainly can—Sky Masters developed both systems years ago, and we put all that technology on a B-1 just a couple years ago,” Patrick said. “We did retain the weapon loadout capabilities, software, and data bus of the Vampire bombers, so we can carry every air-launched weapon in the arsenal, including air-to-air missiles.”
    “Air to air! No kidding?”
    “We can put up to eight AMRAAMs on a rotary launcher, and we can carry a max of three rotary launchers,” Patrick said. “Although AirSea Battle envisions land-based bombers working with carrier-based fighters, we wanted to keep the capability of long-range unescorted land attack. Just give us whatever weapon you want to employ, and we can carry it into battle for you and let you launch them.”
    “Pretty cool, sir.”
    “The idea behind this project was to quickly field a force of long-range bombers to help protect the fleet over the horizon and to validate the AirSea Battle concept in minimum time and money,” Patrick said. “It’s just an interim solution, but time and money-wise, we think it’s the best option until they find more money for a new long-range bomber.”
    “And I’m sure Sky Masters has a design in mind for that, too,” Cuthbert said.
    “Of course.”
    “Thought so,” Cutlass said. “So let’s talk turkey a bit before we take off, General. What’s it going to cost the Air Force to build your little fleet here?”
    “Nothing,” Patrick said matter-of-factly.
    “ Excuse me? Nothing? ”
    “Sky Masters is making an investment in this project, not just trying to get a government contract,” Patrick explained. “We want the Air Force to give us the engines, avionics, radars, weapons, fuel, and access to the other aircraft at AMARG for spare parts—all stuff the Air Force already has in abundance and taxpayers have already paid for. The company pays all the personnel costs—engineering, maintenance, aircrew, support staff,