Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 09 (2 page)

 
This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents either
 
are the product of the author's
imagination or are used fictitiously,
 
and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, business
 
establishments, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental,

 
          
WARRIOR CI.AS.S

 
          
A
Berkley
Book / published by arrangement w ith
 
the author

 
          
PRINTING HISTORY

 
          
G. P. Putnam's Sons hardcover
edition / May 2001
 
Berkley
mass-market edition / May 2002

 
          
Copyright © 2001 by Target Direct
Productions, Inc.

 
          
Cover art by PictureQuest.

 
          
Cover design by Steve Ferlauto.

 
          
Interior text design by Julie
Rogers.

 
          
All rights reserved.

 
          
This book, or parts thereof, may
not be reproduced in any form
 
without permission

 
          
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a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

 
          
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ISBN: 0-425-18446-3

 
          
BERKLEY
*

 
          
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BERKLEY and the ‘ B** design
 
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PRINTED IN THE
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
          
Thanks
to Colonel Richard Y. Newton, Fifth Bomb Wing commander, and Major Randy “Max”
Allen, B-1B Lancer instructor pilot, for their technical expertise and
insights. Thanks also to Lieutenant General Donald O. Aldridge, USAF (ret.),
for his assistance, encouragement, and friendship.

 
          
Thanks
to Sara Toutin for all her hard work.

 
          
Thanks
to my friends Les Busick, Duane and Debbie Deverill, and Bob and Donna Goff for
their extraordinary generosity.

 
 
          
To
Hunter and Diane, my joy and inspiration.
 
Thanks for flying along with me.

 
 
 
         
author’s note

 
          
This
is a work of fiction. All persons, places, things, and events in this story are
a product of the author’s imagination, and any similarity to real-world people,
places, events, and organizations is coincidental. Although some real-world
events and organizations are mentioned in this story to enhance authenticity,
they are not intended to describe or portray any real-world persons, tactics,
beliefs, or policies.

 
          
This
story makes reference to a joint American- Ukrainian military campaign against
Russia, which is described in my novel
Chains of Command;
to aircraft,
Lithuanian research centers, characters, and situations described in
Night
of the Hawk;
and to the Tin Man technology 1 first described in
The Tin
Man.

 
          
Visit
my website at
www.rnegafortress.com,
where you may leave your comments.

 
          
REAL-WORLD
NEWS EXCERPTS

 
          
Russians
Operate Alone Now —
European Stars & Stripes,

 
          
July
26,1999
— Russian
troops in
Chechnya
are free to operate in the
U.S.
sector of
Chechnya
without an American presence. But NATO may
never find a way to change the Russians’ attitude about being Serb allies.

 
          
Report
Says Russia Supplied Serbs with Missiles, Breaking Embargo
— London, Aug.
3,1999 — (Reuters) —
Jane's Defence Weekly
said in a report to be
published on Tuesday that Russia was believed to have supplied Serbia with air
defense missiles before NATO started its bombing campaign against Kosovo in
March.

 
          
...
The report quoted a high-ranking Serbian officer as saying the first shipment
of between six and 10 incomplete Russian S-300PM missile systems entered
Serbia
by land, hidden in railway wagons carrying
scrap iron, in early 1999. It quoted sources as saying an unspecified quantity
of the missile systems was smuggled into the country in a Russian humanitarian
convoy, hidden in what appeared to be fuel tankers.

 
          
Kosovo
Albanians Protest Russians —
Philadelphia

 
          
Inquirer
— About 1,000 ethnic Albanian protesters marched toward a Russian base to
show their opposition to Russian peacekeepers in the southeastern Kosovo town
of Kosovska Kamenica while two U.S. Apache helicopters whirred overhead and
American troops stood by. The march ended without incident.

 
          
Russia’s
Stealth Fighter Makes Rare Appearance at Air Show
—
Los Angeles Times
.
August 18, 1999
—
Russia
’s S-37 Berkut, or Golden Eagle, was the main performer at an
international air show held near
Moscow
. The stealth jet, with its forward-swept
wings, made only a brief appearance,

 
          
Russia
Fumes at
U.S.
Over Disarmament and KFOR

 
          
—
Moscow
,
August 21, 1999
—■ (Agence France Presse) — Storm
clouds gathered over U.S.-Russian relations Friday after

 
 
          
sharp
differences emerged on nuclear disarmament and the Kosovo peacekeeping effort,
two pillars of cooperation between
Moscow
and
Washington
.

 
          
“After
the whole episode with Kosovo, the Russians feel that militarily they were
disregarded and badly treated by NATO. The only way of making the NATO nations
realize this is to remind them that
Russia
is a nuclear power,” Viktor Kremenyuk,
deputy director of the U.S.-Canada Institute, a
Moscow
think tank, said.

 
          
U.S.
Downplays Incident with Jets, Russian Bombers
—
Washington Times
,
September 19,1999
— The National Security Council said an encounter Thursday between
U.S.
jets and two Russian bombers flying near
Alaska
was “militarily insignificant.” The Russian
planes were in international airspace, taking part in a training exercise, and
moved closer to the Alaskan coast than has happened during the past six years.
Officials said the American jets scrambled routinely, as they always do when an
unknown aircraft approaches
U.S.
territory.

 
          
A
Genocide, a Political Coup. Some Democracy ■— by

 
          
Zbigniew
Brzezinski —
Wall Street Journal,
January
4, 2000
—• Vladimir Putin’s accession to the
Russian presidency was the work of oligarchs and army-security chiefs who
wanted to preempt any semblance of a democratic vote scheduled for June. The attitude
of Putin, as shown in
Russia
’s brutal treatment of
Chechnya
, should be taken as a warning of future
problems.

 
          
NATO
Exercise Ends in More Clashes —
European Stars & Stripes,
April
13, 2000 •— Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit left Greece the
same way they arrived for NATO’s Dynamic Response 2000 exercise in nearby
Kosovo: dodging rocks, red paint bombs and insults from anti-NATO demonstrators
along the route. The 80-vehicle convoy made it to the embarkation point at Port
Litohoro without injuries, but four vehicles had their windshields smashed.

 
          
Washington
in Brief
—
Washington
Post,
April 14, 2000
— For The Record — NATO is asking member
countries to provide 3,500 troops for the Kosovo peacekeeping operation to
replace

 
 
          
battalions
that are leaving, but no additional
U.S.
forces are likely to go. Pentagon spokesman
Kenneth Bacon said.

 
          
Putin
Eyes Defense of Russian Interests in Caspian

 
          
—
Moscow,
Apr
2
1
, 2000
— (Reuters) President-elect Vladimir
Putin expressed concern on Friday that foreign competitors were eyeing the
oil-rich Caspian region, where Moscow has traditionally dominated, and called
on Russian firms to get more involved.

 
          
“We
must clearly understand that the interest of our partners,
Turkey
, the
United States
and
Britain
, in this region is not accidental,*'
Russian agencies quoted him as telling a meeting of his advisory Security
Council.

 
          
.
.
Russia
wielded economic mastery over the Caspian
basin throughout the Soviet era when the oil-rich republics were part of a
single state. But the newly independent states, with diplomatic support from
the
United States
and
Turkey
, want to build export routes bypassing
Russia
, which would sharply reduce its influence
in the region ...

 
          
Russians
Wounded in Kosovo —
International Herald Tribune.
May
25, 2000
— Two Russian soldiers were wounded when two
antitank rockets smashed into their base in western Kosovo. Russian soldiers
also came under gunfire overnight on five occasions. The attacks followed a
Tuesday afternoon altercation between Russian troops and a former commander of
the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.

 
          
Putin,
Schroeder Hail “New Start” in Key
Alliance
—

 
          
by
Martin Nesirky —
Berlin
(Reuters) —
June 10, 2000 —
Russia and
Germany declared a new and fruitful start to a vital European alliance Thursday
when President Vladimir Putin, once a Communist spy in Dresden, met German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

 
          
“...
Germany
is interested in a strategic partnership
with
Russia
,” Schroeder said. “Not just
Germany
but all
Europe
has an interest in maintaining close and
friendly relations with
Russia
.”

 
          
Putin
said: “
Germany
is
Russia
’s most important economic partner in
Europe
. We consider
Germany
to be at the core of European integration.
As such, our conversation with the chancellor has a double significance for
Russia
.”

 
 
          
Ukraine
Hosts Big NATO
Exercise
,
Russia
Missing

 
          
—
KIEV (Reuters) — 6/19/00 — Ukraine begins unprecedented 10-day naval exercises
with NATO and several former communist nations on Monday, but Russia, still
deeply suspicious of the Western defense alliance, plans to stay away.

 
          
..,
Russia
,
Ukraine
’s former imperial master, resents
Kiev
’s warm ties with NATO and regular military
exercises in the
Black
Sea
region, where
Moscow
’s might and influence have waned
dramatically since the collapse of the
Soviet Union
in
1991.              
•

 
 
          
/
his is no time to hear that we have violated human rights. This is not true. It
is not good for my hearing. It is not good for my hair. I know the real
situation and think that
Russia
needs to be more cruel... We will resist
and use weapons, and not only nuclear ones. We will throw you into the
English Channel
We will drive all the human rights
advocates to the tunnel between
London
and
Paris
and brick them up in there.

 
          
— Vladimir Zhirinovsky,

 
          
RUSSIAN
ULTRA NATIONALIST

 
          
LEADER

 
          
(REUTERS,
APRIL 7 , 2000
)