Executive orders - Tom Clancy [558]
We should attack them anyway, his air force adviser urged.
I think that would be a mistake, Intelligence said. It would be an invasion of Saudi airspace, alerting those goatherds too soon. The Americans can at most move one brigade-sized force. There is a second based at Diego Garcia-the equipment, that is-but we have no information to suggest that it has moved, and even if it does, we expect that our Indian friends can stop it.
We trust pagans? Air Force asked with contempt. That was how Muslims viewed the official religion of the Subcontinent.
We can trust their antipathy to America. And we can ask them if their fleet has spotted anything. In any case, the Americans can deploy another brigade-sized force. That is all.
Kill it anyway!
That throws away operational security, Intelligence pointed out.
If they don't know we are coming by now, then they are fools, Air Force objected.
The Americans have no reason to suspect that we have taken hostile actions against them. To attack their aircraft, if that's what they are, will alert them unnecessarily, not just the Saudis. They are probably concerned about our troop movements in Iraq. So they fly in some small reinforcements. We can deal with them when the time comes, Intelligence told them.
I will call India, Daryaei said, temporizing.
NAVIGATION RADARS ONLY make that two air-search, probably from the carriers, the petty officer said. Their course track is zero-niner-zero, speed about sixteen.
The tactical officer on the Orion, called a tacco, looked down at his chart. The Indian battle group was at the extreme eastern edge of the racetrack pattern they'd been following for the last several days. In less than twenty minutes, they should reverse course to head west. If they turned, things would become exciting. COMEDY was now 120 miles away from the other formation, and his aircraft was feeding constant information to Anzio and Kidd. Under the wings of the four-engine Lockheed turboprop were four Harpoon missiles. White ones, war shots. The aircraft was now under the tactical command of Captain Kemper on Anzio, and on his order they could launch those missiles, two each at the Indian carriers, because they were the long gun of the opposing navy. A few minutes behind would be a swarm of Tomahawks and more Harpoons headed the same way.
Are they EMCON'd? the officer wondered. With nav sets emitting? the sailor replied. COMEDY must have 'em on their ESM gear by now. Damned sure our guys are lighting up the sky, sir. COMEDY had essentially two choices. Adopt EMCON-for emissions control-turning off their RADARs to make the other side expend time and fuel searching for them, or simply light everything off, creating an electronic bubble which the other side could easily see, but the penetration of which would be dangerous. Anzio had gone with the second option.
Any airplane chatter? the tacco asked another crewman.
Negative, sir, none at all.
Hmph. As low as the Orion was flying, its presence was probably not known to the Indians, despite their use of air-search gear. He was sorely tempted to pop up and illuminate himself with his own search RADAR. What were they up to? Might a few ships have broken away from the group, heading west, say, to launch an off-axis missile attack? He couldn't know what they were saying or thinking. All he had were computer-generated course tracks based on RADAR signals. The computer knew exactly where aircraft was at all times off the Global Positioning Satellite system. From that the bearing to the RADAR sources enabled calculation of their location and
Course change?
Negative, system shows them still leading zero-niner-zero at sixteen knots. They are passing out of the box now, sir. This is farther east