"HAMMER" - читать интересную книгу автора (Howard Joseph)

Joseph H2O2ward

RIDING THOR'S HAMMER




In the last century every fighter was given a name like Thunderjet or
Tomcat. The Air Force doesn't want publicity for the F-180 program, so
each of us now names his own, unofficially.
It was a warm summer evening on Dover Air Force Base when I
approached my F-180 "Thor's Hammer" for the 1000th time. I remember it
well, because I was thinking, something's going to happen tonight.
I joked with the ground crew a few moments, then climbed the short
ladder into the belly of the stub-winged poly-amorphous titanium and
plastic craft and waved out the hatch as they rolled the ladder away.
There was room aplenty for me in the rearward cabin of this ungainly
beast, as the gigantic air scoops in the front narrowed to feed the
ramrocket engines. Due to the shape of the magnetic pole pieces of the
ionic air-induction system, empty space was needed here; so why not make
things comfortable?
I sat on the vinyl-upholstered chair that folded out of the wall,
fastened my flight harness, turned on the reading light, and perused the
Dover "Air Lifter".
Then came the jerk as an old but strong C-17 took up the towline and
began accelerating down the runway.
I said, not that I needed to, "Mannet! You fly it for a while. OK?"
The ManNet -- multi-array neural-network electronic transputer --
answered, "OK, boss."
I settled into my reading.
When the last US ICBM was destroyed under the Final Zero Treaty, we
knew that Russky had sequestered at least two subs and 100 ground-based
missiles; but we didn't know where. Being an open society, we could hide
none. The politicos decided we'd play it mostly straight and make up for
the lack through high tech.
I gave Thor's Hammer a pat on his bulkhead. Their missiles were
old-generations behind current technology. Deadly, but killable by manned
aircraft.
Probably.
We had been able to keep secret that we had some anti-sat satellites
disguised as other things, in violation of the ABM Three Treaty; and a
good thing that was. One day we shot out of the sky three illegal Russky
look-down, shoot-down nuke launchers.
Though enraged at our betrayal of their betrayal, they didn't
complain. Our violations were nothing compared to theirs.
Funny thing is, the whole world knows what they're doing. If everyone
pretends ignorance, however, diplomacy has won, and peace is served. Sure
it is.
But I'm a military man, so I don't understand the finer points of