"Brown, Dale - Fatal Terrain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

tion fix for their inertial guidance units, which meant that the
'launch points could be known and attacked.
The advent of satellite-based positioning and navigation
greatly increased the accuracy of military weapons-at any
moment, even while moving in an aircraft, it was possible to
Capture Position, speed, and time from the satellites, dump the
information to a missile or rocket, and be assured of previously
unbelievable accuracy. If the weapon could get position up-
dates from the satellites while in flight-and the M-9 missile
Sun had just launched could do just that-the weapon's ac-




14 DALE BROWN
curacy could be improved even more. And if the missile con-
tained a TV camera with a datalink back to the launch aircraft
so an operator could lock onto a particular target and steer it
right to impact, pinpoint accuracy was possible.
Sun stepped back through the cargo bay, waving away sev-
eral soldiers who cautioned him not to go back there, and
walked right to within a few feet of the edge of the open mouth
of the cargo bay. What he saw was absolutely spectacular.
The M-9 missile was suspended vertically below three sixty-
foot parachutes, fitted with strobe lights so he could see where
they were in the darkness. He knew that as the 14,000-pound
missile fell, it was receiving yet another position update from
the American Global Positioning System satellite navigation
constellation, and gyros were compensating for winds and mis-
sile movement, and were aligning the missile as vertically as
possible. Sun's cargo plane was about two miles away now-
the missile could just barely be seen under the three chutes-
when suddenly a long white tongue of fire and smoke appeared
from under the parachutes. The three chutes deflated as the
weight was taken off the risers, then they cut away completely
as the M-9 rose up through the sky.
A perfect launch! Sun had proven-again, for this was his
seventh or eighth successful air launch-that it was possible
to launch a ballistic missile from a cargo plane. No special
aircraft was necessary. Any cargo plane-military or civilian-
could do it, with the right modifications. All of the avionics
needed to transfer satellite navigation data to the missile was
in a "strap-down" container that could be transported with
ease and installed in less than an hour.
Sun signaled that he was clear of the opening and that it
was safe to close the cargo doors, hurried forward, and entered
the air lock leading to the crew cabin. Ignoring the biting cold,
he stripped off his gloves and snowsuit as the air lock pres-
surized, then removed his oxygen mask and helmet, opened