The Seventh Angel - Страница 23

“Not at all,” Bowie said. “But a B-2 bomber weighs about a hundred and sixty tons, and it’s constructed mostly from advanced composites, with low radar signatures.” He patted the bulkhead. “A Flight Three Arleigh Burke Class destroyer displaces nearly ten thousand tons, and it’s built mostly from steel, which has a very high radar signature. Put simply, the Navy faces different technical challenges than the Air Force, so we have to take a different technological approach.”

He smiled. “But we’re not above stealing good ideas from the Zoomies.” He waved a hand toward the superstructure of his ship. “Take a look at her topside design and tell me the first thing that pops into your head.”

“It looks a little …” Miggs paused, as if unsure how to phrase what was on his mind. “… strange. Sort of … squashed, and oddly shaped.”

“That’s as good a way to put it as any,” Bowie said. He looked up at the low pyramid shapes of the destroyer’s minimized superstructure and the steep rake of her short mast. “There are no right-angles in the topside design. No perfectly vertical surfaces, and damned few perfectly horizontal surfaces, apart from the decks. It’s called an advanced-geometry design. Every angle is calculated to minimize radar reflections. We got the idea from our buddies in the Air Force, and I believe we even cribbed some of their math for calculating the angles.”

Miggs poked the springy PCMS tile again. “How well does it work?”

“Well, the exact numbers are classified,” Bowie said. “But the ballpark figures are releasable to the public. Towers is 529 feet long, 66½ feet wide, and her radar cross section is just a hair larger than your average fiberglass motorboat.”

Miggs looked impressed. “They can do all that with some tricky angles and these rubber tiles?”

“Not entirely,” Bowie said. “Those are just the most obvious changes. If you’ll notice, the life lines are made from Kevlar. Until a few years ago, life lines were made from braided steel cable, which has a much higher radar signature than Kevlar.” He used the toe of one boot to point toward an oval seam in the deck. “You may also notice that the deck fittings are all retractable. Every chock, padeye, and cleat on the ship can fold down into a form-fitting recess below the deck, and lock out of sight. That shaves a little more off our radar cross section. It all adds up.”

“You mean it all subtracts,” Ann Roark said.

“Right,” Bowie said. “That’s what I should have said. It all subtracts. It all goes to make us stealthier.”

“So why do these tiles change color?” Miggs asked.

“That’s a different feature of the PCMS,” Bowie said. “Ordinary PCMS tiles are just gray. But our PCMS tiles are impregnated with a special pigment that changes color in response to shifts in lighting. Under bright sunlight, it turns about the shade you’re seeing now, which is supposed to be nearly ideal for blending into the haze boundary between sea and sky. When the lighting starts to fall off, the pigment turns darker. It gets nearly black when the ship is in total darkness.”

Miggs raised his eyebrows. “Wicked.”

“We call it phototropic camouflage,” Bowie said, “and it does make us a little harder to spot visually and with optically-based sensors. But — popular myth to the contrary — it does not make us invisible.”

Ann Roark flipped up the collar on her coat, and burrowed her hands into her pockets. She looked out to sea without speaking.

“Let’s head forward,” Bowie said. “We can look at the gun and the forward missile launcher. Along the way, I’ll show you what we do to mask our infrared signature.”

He turned toward the starboard break, but before he had taken two steps, the watertight door behind him opened and Lieutenant (junior grade) Patrick Cooper stepped out.

Lieutenant (junior grade) Cooper came to attention and saluted. “Captain, the XO sends his compliments, and requests your presence in your at-sea cabin. You have classified Flash message traffic, sir. Immediate execute orders.”

Bowie frowned. Immediate execute? That didn’t make any sense. Towers wasn’t on the emergency surge list. The ship wasn’t even technically qualified for deployment yet.

He nodded. “Thanks, Pat.” He turned to the civilians. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave you for a few minutes. Duty calls. But Lieutenant (junior grade) Cooper will be glad to take over as your tour guide until I return.”

Cooper’s eyebrows went up. He obviously hadn’t expected to get roped into tour-guide duty.

Bowie winked at the two civilians. “Pat’s a smart guy, and he’s just about ready to transfer to Naval Postgraduate School, so be sure to ask him plenty of difficult questions.”

Miggs smiled and returned the wink. Roark did not.

* * *

Three minutes later, Bowie was sitting at the little stainless steel fold-down desk in his at-sea cabin, staring at a hardcopy radio message.

...

//SSSSSSSSSS//

//SECRET//

//FLASH//FLASH//FLASH//

//272042Z FEB//

FMCOMPACFLEET//

TOCOMTHIRDFLEET//

USS TOWERS//

USS ALBERT D. KAPLAN//

INFO COMSEVENTHFLT//

CTF ONE TWO//

SUBJ/SURVEILLANCE TASKING/IMMEDIATE EXECUTE//

REF/A/RMG/ONI/270812Z FEB//

NARR/REF A IS OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT OF LIVE-FIRE HOSTILITIES ON KAMCHATKAN PENINSULA 27FEB//

1. (UNCL) AS OUTLINED IN REF A, LARGE-SCALE ARMED CONFLICT BROKE OUT IN AND AROUND THE KAMCHATKAN CAPITAL CITY OF PETROPAVLOVSK AT APPROXIMATELY 0600Z 27FEB. INITIAL INDICATIONS SUGGEST THAT FIGHTING IS MILITARY IN NATURE, AS OPPOSED TO INSURGENT. ONI ASSESSMENT OF SCALE INDICATES MAJOR COMBAT OPERATIONS, CENTERED IN THE AREA OF RUSSIAN NAVAL FACILITY AT RYBACHIY.

2. (SECR) U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN RECEIPT OF UNCORROBORATED REPORTS THAT UNIDENTIFIED ASIAN COMBAT TROOPS, POSSIBLY CHINESE, ARE PRESENT IN LARGE NUMBERS IN PETROPAVLOVSK. SAID TROOPS REPORTED TO BE HEAVILY INVOLVED IN COMBAT OPERATIONS. THESE REPORTS ARE UNCONFIRMED AT THIS TIME. U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES UNABLE TO ASSESS LEVEL OF ASIAN AND/OR CHINESE MILITARY INVOLVEMENT, IF ANY.

3. (SECR) AT LEAST ONE (1) DELTA III CLASS BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINE IS BELIEVED TO HAVE DEPLOYED DURING OR SLIGHTLY PRIOR TO ONSET OF HOSTILITIES. ONI HAS TENTATIVELY IDENTIFIED DELTA III SSBN AS HULL NUMBER K-506, THE ZELENOGRAD. THIS IDENTIFICATION CORROBORATED BY RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC SOURCES. REF A REFERS.

4. (SECR) INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF DELTA III MOVEMENT SUGGESTS THAT SSBN IS TRANSITING TO SEA OF OKHOTSK, WHERE IT MAY ATTEMPT TO HIDE UNDER ICE PACK. REF A REFERS.

5. (SECR) RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT REPORTS AKULA CLASS SUBMARINE KUZBASS PATROLLING IN VICINITY OF KURIL ISLANDS. KUZBASS HAS ORDERS TO INTERCEPT AND DESTROY K-506 AT OR NEAR ENTRANCE TO SEA OF OKHOTSK. REF A REFERS.

6. (SECR) DELTA III SUBMARINE BELIEVE TO BE ARMED WITH SIXTEEN (16) SS-N-18 MISSILES, EACH CARRYING THREE (3) NUCLEAR WARHEADS IN MIRV CONFIGURATION. RUSSIAN AND U.S. GOVERNMENTS UNABLE TO CONFIRM THAT DELTA III HAS OVERRIDDEN SAFEGUARDS TO PERMIT INDEPENDENT LAUNCH. ALL PARTIES, U.S. AND RUSSIAN, AGREE THAT WORST CASE SCENARIO MUST BE ASSUMED. REF A REFERS.

7. (SECR) ONI AND NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE HAVE INDICATIONS THAT RUSSIAN MILITARY IS RAMPING UP TO AN ADVANCED STATE OF COMBAT READINESS. HUMINT SOURCES CONFIRM THAT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FORCES HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO INCREASED ALERT STATUS. APPROXIMATELY FIFTY-PERCENT (50 %) OF THE RUSSIAN PACIFIC FLEET IS PUTTING OUT TO SEA.

8. (SECR) RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT HAS FORMALLY DECLINED OFFERS OF U.S. MILITARY ASSISTANCE. RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC SOURCES INSIST THAT COMBAT OPERATIONS IN KAMCHATKA AND UNAUTHORIZED DEPLOYMENT OF DELTA III NUCLEAR MISSILE SUBMARINE ARE INTERNAL RUSSIAN MATTERS. AS SS-N-18 MISSILES HAVE THE RANGE AND CAPABILITY TO STRIKE NUMEROUS U.S. TARGETS WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS, SENIOR U.S. LEADERS ARE NOT INCLINED TO TREAT THIS AS AN INTERNAL RUSSIAN PROBLEM.

9. (SECR) USS TOWERS AND USS ALBERT D. KAPLAN ARE DIRECTED TO DETACH FROM CURRENT DUTIES AND DEPART THEIR RESPECTIVE OPERATING AREAS UPON RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE. PROCEED AT MAXIMUM AVAILABLE SPEED TO INTERNATIONAL WATERS IN VICINITY OF SOUTHERN KAMCHATKA PENINSULA FOR COVERT SURVEILLANCE OF DEVELOPING EVENTS. AS MENTIONED ABOVE, RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT HAS DECLINED U.S. MILITARY ASSISTANCE, AND PRESENCE OF U.S. WARSHIPS MAY BE TREATED AS PROVOCATION. IN VIEW OF THIS, BOTH UNITS ARE DIRECTED TO OPERATE WITH MAXIMUM STEALTH, AND TO AVOID DETECTION BY RUSSIAN MILITARY FORCES. DO NOT CROSS INTO RUSSIAN TERRITORIAL WATERS.

10. (SECR) ADDITIONAL ORDERS AND AMPLIFYING INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.

11. (UNCL) THIS IS A TRICKY ASSIGNMENT, BUT I KNOW YOU’RE UP TO THE JOB. GOOD LUCK. ADMIRAL DAVIS SENDS.

//272042Z FEB//

//FLASH//FLASH//FLASH//

737465616C7468626F6F6B732E636F6D

//SECRET//

//SSSSSSSSSS//

Bowie read the message through twice before looking up at his executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Nicolas Bishop. “What do you think, Nick?”

The XO grimaced. “You know I’m a can-do kind of guy, Captain. But we are not ready for this. Not even close. The crew is only about half-way through the training cycle, about forty-percent of our missile cells are empty, and we don’t even have a helicopter embarked yet.”

Captain Bowie nodded. “I’m not too worried about the helo,” he said. “We probably couldn’t use it anyway. Our orders are to make like the Invisible Man, and while SH-60s might be good helos, they’re not exactly stealthy.”