lead of the attack formation," General Elliott radioed over the
command frequency. He studied the data-link radar-depictions
of the Soviet aircraft on his heads-up display. "The Soviet air-
craft are at flight level one-five-zero, six-zero nautical miles,
heading south. I want to draw out the XF-34, try to force it
down. We'll reinforce your group with Dragon Six-Zer-o flight
when they get on station. Take heading of two-zero-zero to in-
tercept. Over.
352 DALE BROWN
Tom Duncan, commander of the second F-16 flight, which
was to relieve Dragon Five-Four, was not about to stay on the
E-5 AWACS's wing with two MiG-29s in the area. "Barrier,
this is Dragon Five-Seven, I copy all. Dragon Five-Six, get on
the tanker, then stay and cover Barrier. Gold Flight, I've got the
lead, coming right heading two-zero-zero. Take combat posi-
tions. Set mil power."
:'Two. I I
'Three." The three F-16 Falcons executed a precise right
turn as they spread into a wide triangle fortnation, with the two
wingmen about a mile away from the leader at staggered alti-
tudes, then accelerated to two hundred knots overtake speed.
"Gold Flight, listen up," Duncan said to his wingmen.
We're looking at a three-on-three situation here, but they've
lost their AWACS and we still have ours up. The MiGs have
been in the fight, and they've burned down weapons and fuel."
. . .On two of our F-16s,.Duncan added to himself "One
of the MiGs may be damaged as well. I want fast attacks, mutual
support and heads-up smarts. Watch your airspeed. The Falcon
can bum off energy real easy in tight turns but you can extend,
regain speed and get back in ' the fight faster than any bird flying.
Keep your speed up and use your heads - "
" Dragon flight, this is Barrier Command," Elliott called in
on the command net. "Bogeys are at twelve o'clock, forty
miles. "
Elliott decided to drop the cold monotone of an air-combat
controller-these guys were about to face an entirely different
threat. "Listen up, you guys. This is General Brad Elliott, com-
mander of the High Technology Advanced Weapons Center.
Your target is the XF-34, an American experimental forward-
swept wing fighter that was stolen from Dreamland a few days
ago. I I
"Goddamn, " Duncan said. "We're going after one of ours?"
"Be advised-that fighter is much more maneuverable than
the F-16," Elliott was saying. "It fights at high angles of attack.
It has a radar that can see in all directions and high-speed mi-
croprocessors that simultaneously process attack and defensive
information at high speed. " Elliott decided not to tell them about
ANTARES or any thought-control capabilities-this was going
to be tough enough. "It has an advanced data-link capability
with the E-5 AWACS; we must assume that the XF-34 is re-
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 353
ceiving and using AWACS data-link information. The Russians
aren't going to allow you to close on the XF-34. You may have
to start the attack beyond visual range. I advise you not to en-
-gage the XF-34 singly or at close range. He can reverse, change
directions and cause you to overshoot faster than you can be-
lieve. If you can force him to punch off his external tanks and
delay overwater for several minutes, we can maybe force him to
ditch. You guys are experienced fighter pilots so I won't tell you
your business. But I tell you the XF-34 is a killer. Be careful
when you go for a shot. If you lose sight of him, extend and
clear-don't waste time looking for him because he'll probably
be right on your tail. Use your speed and maneuverability and
your buddies to get him. Good luck. "
"Bogeys at twelve o'clock low, twenty-five miles to nearest
target, fifteen thousand feet," the controller said. "Showing only
two targets now. Second target at eleven o'clock low, thirteen
thousand feet."
"Gold Flight copies all, Barrier," Duncan replied. Both tar-
gets were displayed on his heads-up display as a data-link be-
selected an AIM-120C Scorpion missile and designated the left-
most target. The missile immediately received its steering infor-
mation and relayed IN RANGE and ARM messages to Duncan's
heads-up display.
"Let's get the ball rolling. Gold Flight, fox two," Duncan
said, and squeezed off the first missile.
"They're twenty-five miles behind us, 'I Maraklov warned. "Es-
cort Three and Four, stay with the transport and keep the-F-16s
away from it. If the Americans get any closer I'll engage and
try to keep them busy while you get away. The Nicaraguan MiG-
23s should be able to help as we get closer."
"Shouldn't we counter the Americans now?" the pilot of Es-
cort Four asked. "The transport will be sure to get away . . . "
Just then ANTARES transmitted a radar-threat warning to
Maraklov's brain louder than any audio signal. He reacted in-
stantly. "All aircraft, chaff and jink, now!"
The MiG pilots reacted quickly, but the AIM-120 missile was
detected only seconds from impact, when its internal active radar
steered it into its target. A huge black cloud erupted from Escort
Three's right wing, which seemed to push the fighter to the left,
354 DALE BROWN
then hard over right into a spin. The pilot was able to eject and
was even accorded the rare indignity of watching his aircraft spin
into the Caribbean Sea.
Maraklov rolled upright after his own rapid left turn. A quick
radar-scan showed the F-16s still just over twenty miles away-
they had launched from long range, nearly the outer limit of the
Scorpion. The sky should be filled with Scorpion missiles, but
he and the other two aircraft of his convoy to Cuba had survived.
"Escort Four, stay as low as you can over the water," Mar-
aklov radioed to the last remaining MiG-29. "Stay with the
transport and protect it as best you can."
Maraklov issued a mental command and punched off his two
Lluyka fuel tanks. With the added drag of the tanks gone,
DrearnStar suddenly seemed to wake up. The offensive and de-
fensive options suggested by the ANTARES computer automat-
ically jumped from a scant few to hundreds of options. Maraklov
initiated a ten-G Immelmann, which got him turned around
heading north toward the three F-16 attackers.
Maraklov carried five-hundred rounds of twenty-millimeter
ammunition and two AA- 13 Axe radar-guided air-to-air missiles.
The AA-13 was inferior to the American Scorpion-it was a fast
and powerful missile, capable at ranges out to forty miles, but
it weighed twice as much as the Scorpion and required contin-
uous radar illumination by the launch aircraft to home in on its
target-carrying no missiles at all would almost have been bet-
ter. If he was lucky the missiles might actually hit something-
but their primary use would be to break up this well-organized
combat patrol of F-16s.
Maraklov picked out the high F-16. He was the spotter, the
one who was supposed to detect the enemy first and draw fire
until his wingmen could get into position to press the attack. He
was also the most dangerous, since in his high and fast position
he could defend himself easily yet turn quickly and bring guns
or missiles to bear if his wingmen were attacked. Maraklov
quickly designated the high F-16 with his attack radar, and at a
range of ten miles, launched his first AA-13 missile.
"Missile launch, " Duncan called out as his radar-warning re-
ceiver blared to life. "Check your trackbreakers, clear to ma-
neuver, pick it up .
"Tally on the missile," John "Cock" Corcoran, the pilot
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 355
aboard Dragon Five-Eight shouted. "On me at my twelve. Go-
ing vertical ' ' '"
Corcoran pumped out chaff to decoy the missile, activated his
F- 16's trackbreakers to jam the steering signals from DreamStar
to the missile, and zoomed upward to force the missile to lose
some of its energy. The AA-13 locked onto the chaff and almost
flew right into the cloud, but finally reacquired its true target
and veered upward toward the F-16 when the chaff cloud dissi-
pated. By then the fast-burning solid-fuel propellant had burned
out, and the missile was coasting toward its target, losing speed
every second. The F-16 pumped out more chaff, rolled inverted
and dived straight down. The AA-13 promptly locked onto the
chaff once again, flew through the chaff cloud, and exploded.
It had taken the F- 16 pilot only a few seconds to defeat the
missile, but in that short span of time the distance between
DreamStar and the F-16 had decreased from ten miles to two.
Maraklov knew that the F- 16 could maneuver fast enough to
evade the Soviet missile, but that same violent maneuvering con-
sumed every ounce of the pilot's concentration and took a mas-
sive physical toll-in extremely hard maneuvering in an F-16
pilots often blacked out for seconds at a time. Maraklov was
hoping that the harder the F-16 pilot worked at defeating the
missile-he would fall all the easier under a follow-on attack.
And it was working. The F-16 was in a headlong dive after
coming over the top in a tight hairpin turn, pulling at least three
negative G's. Unlike positive G's, which forced blood out of
the head and produced tunnel vision or blackouts, negative G's
drew blood toward the brain, creating redouts, which were much.
more serious. It took, he knew, at least six or seven positive G's
to incapacitate a pilot, but only two or three negative G's. This
guy had allowed himself to go right out on the edge.
"Dragon Five-Eight, bogey at your one o'clock low, two
miles," the controller called.
Duncan heard the warning and scanned the sky for the at-
tacker. He spotted both his wingman and the XF-34. The
forward-swept-wing jet was making an unbelievable gun pass-
instead of raising its nose to intercept Corcoran, the plane was
climbing like . . . like a helicopter, flying horizontally but mov-
ing vertically. As Corcoran got closer the XF-34 raised-its nose
356 DALE BROWN
and slowed its ascent, seemed to hang in mid-air, slowly raising
its nose at the oncoming F-16, tracking it perfectly.
"Bandit, twelve o'clock, Cock, get out of there, " Duncan
shouted. Too late. Corcoran barely had time to recover from the
disorientation and fuzzy vision caused by the negative G-forces
in the wild dive when he saw the XF-34 DreamStar angling up
for him dead ahead. He tried to roll away but DreamStar kept
on coming. Now in high-maneuverability mode, with its canards
angled downward, DreamStar's gun port easily tracked the P-16
through each turn and jink-the cannon muzzle never strayed
from the F-16 even during the most violent maneuvers. At one
mile Maraklov opened fire, spraying the F-16 with fifty rounds
of twenty-miflimeter shells before dodging clear. The shells
ripped across the F-16 from canopy to tail, killing the pilot in a
fireball of exploding fuel.
"Five-Eight's been hit," Duncan called out. "No 'chute.-
The full significance of Barrier Command's warning was ob-
vious now. The forward-swept wing aircraft, the XF-34, ap-
peared to hover, virtually suspended in mid-air as it cut down
Corcoran. No aircraft except a subsonic Harrier Jump-jet or a
helicopter could do that.
But now it was the prey, not the hunter. It had slowed itself
down to practically nothing, which made it, he thought, an al-
most laughingly easy target. Duncan selected an AIM-132 mis-
sile, lined up on the XF-34 and waited until the missile had
locked-
In the blink of an eye the XF-34 had flat-turned, faced Duncan
and began firing its cannon. Astonished, Duncan rolled hard left
and dived, trying to put as much distance between his F-16 and
those cannon shells as he could. He dived five thousand feet,
ejected one chaff and one flare bundle to decoy any missile the
Russian might have fired, then pulled hard on the stick and
zoomed skyward.
The XF-34 was waiting for him. As Duncan brought his F-
16's nose up to reacquire his target he saw that the Russian had
positioned himself to take a shot as he flew above the horizon.
Duncan hit the afterburner and snapped his Falcon into tight
aileron rolls to spoil the Russian's aim . . .
"Extend, Dunk," he heard a voice call out. It was Lee Berry
in Dragon Five-Nine. "Break right and extend .
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 357
Duncan could hear cannon shells buzzin und him.
91 pinging aro
A warning horn sounded but he didn't stop to check the mal-
function. He halted his wild last-ditch roll, banked hard right,
rolled upright and scanned the sky for his attacker as he waited
for his airspeed to build.
The XF-34 was nowhere to be seen.
Duncan forced his attention back inside the cockpit to check
his instruments and the warning panel. The OIL PRESS light was
lit-he had taken a hit in the engine. No smoke in the cockpit
or fire lights, so he still had time to head back to Georgetown,
but in a single engine aircraft an oil pressure problem was a
land-as-soon-as-possible inflight emergency. "Barrier, this is
Five-Seven. I've got an oil pressure light," Duncan reported on
the command channel as he headed north. "I need a vector to
Georgetown. "
"Copy, Five-Seven. Heading zero-three-five, vectors to
Georgetown Airport, one-one-five nautical miles. Climb as re-
quired. Emergency channel Bravo. Search and rescue has been
notified. "
Duncan angrily clicked his mike in response. They were al-
ready preparing to fish him out of the Caribbean. Thanks a
bunch.
He keyed his mike. "Gold Flight, check in." No answer.
"Berry, where are you?" Still no reply.
"Barrier, where's Five-Nine?"
"No contact with him, Five-Seven
," the controller replied.
"No IFF, no primary target."
Oh, God, Duncan thought. That guy got Berry, too. He closed
his eyes, trying to force the image of his two squadron buddies
out of his mind. It was no use., Two hours ago they were together
making plans for a luau on the beaches near the casinos-now
he'd have to make plans for a funeral.
That last guy was good, Maraklov thought as he pulled his power
back from full afterburner to military power. Very good. The F-
16 pilot had maneuvered so fast that he never got a clean shot
off at him, but he had apparently taken some damage because
he wasn't pressing the fight. Maraklov had taken his shot, then
immediately turned south at full power and headed back toward
Nicaragua to join up with the stricken II-76 transport and Escort
Four.
358 DAIE BROWN
Dream Star ... his plane ... was still safe, still with one
AA-13 missile and two hundred rounds of ammunition. Fuel was
the problem now-almost none left for another dogfight with any
more F-16s. He'd have perhaps fifteen minutes of fuel remaining
once he returned to Sebaco.
"Escort Four, this is Maraklov," he called on their assigned
frequency. "Approaching your fort-nation at fifteen thousand feet,
twenty miles behind you. Area is clear. " there had been three
F-16s in the attack formation, but his spherical scan showed
clear. The third F-16 must have returned with his leader.
The pilot in Escort Four acknowledged. The Ilyushin trans-
port and the MiG-29 had managed to climb back to a safer al-
titude, but the transport looked worse every second. "Clear to
approach. Flight Kepten Kameneve reports that the Ilyushin is
very unstable and landing may be impossible. He is briefing the
crew on ditching procedures at this time."
"Understood."
It seemed the game was up. The Americans weren't likely to
send in another jet with a camera over Sebaco. Next time they'd
send in bombers. One aircraft carrier loaded with F/A- 1 8 fighter-
bombers, or one B-52 like the Old Dog he destroyed in Nevada,
could devastate Nicaragua's whole defense network and waste