Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

It would be a blast to get all this way and then for a sudden 'na, we would rather not' to occur.

(145)

Mid September 1984:

A lone SR-71 made a reconnaissance flight above Mexico in the early hours just before dawn on the morning of September 12th. The Blackbird whizzed high and fast over the north of that country making a trip starting in the northwest and ending on the eastern coast. Tanker refuellings were made at either end though far outside of Mexican airspace. During the last leg of the actual overflight, as the aircraft passed above the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains, approaching Tamaulipas before taking images of Tampico, there came the launch of surface-to-air missiles from out of those mountains. A volley of SAMs came up unexpectedly, missiles which the onboard detection systems were able to spot but not classify. Standard evasion procedures were followed: the Blackbird accelerated and made a course change. At such speed and altitude, the incoming SAMs were evaded and Tampico overflown. Later analysis of the missiles said they appeared to be a derivative of the Soviet S-300P system, what NATO called the SA-10 Grumble. However, these weren’t SA-10s at all. Studies commenced to identify what had tried to blow the Blackbird out of the sky. Only later, many weeks later when such weapons were encountered again, would it be realised that S-300V missiles – subsequently codenamed the SA-12B Giant – had been used. Neither the SA-10 nor the follow-on SA-12 was a weapon in the arsenals of the Cuban armed forces, nor those of Guatemala & Nicaragua, especially not the Mexican military either. They were Soviet missiles: high-value weapons and not something to be passed to allies.

The flight of the Blackbird came on Pentagon orders. Bentsen ordered the flight where the US Air Force’s premier strategic reconnaissance jet made that pass recording images with its cameras over areas identified as being of interest. There had been some strange goings on across the border which had concerned certain high-level officials but which were dismissed by others. The head of the NSA had expressed a worry that the electronic intelligence gathered from inside Mexico on the activities of the Cubans and their LACom allies didn’t make sense. What it all meant was a mystery. The mystery wasn’t something that could be left unsolved, Bentsen decided. Satellite passes hadn’t satisfied the NSA with the thinking that their patterns could be predicted and – shock horror – there could be deception used to hide what should have been seen. Something was being hidden in Mexico. It was something that a sudden Blackbird overflight might be able to detect. All of the information collected by the Blackbird was analysed afterwards, some back at Beale AFB in California where it returned to but also elsewhere across the country as well. Those looking at what was gained didn’t know what they were looking for. They were searching for the unexplainable. That was quite the task. There were odd things that were seen across the camera pictures and the radar images. Activity around Mexico’s few pre-war airbases was higher than was expected and there were also some improvised sites for aircraft spotted nationwide. Where combat aircraft were seen, these were identified as those in the service of those countries which had troops inside Mexico there to ‘defend’ the country. MiGs and Sukhois of various types were caught by the flight of the Blackbird. Guaymas and Tampico, the big ports on the Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico, either side of the country, were busy with shipping though not necessarily crowded: military equipment was arriving by sea though not that much. Those troops in the north that Cuba and the LAComs had in-country were still where they were beforehand and no major revision was done of numbers of them, especially not intent. The Blackbird also had reconnaissance images from the Mexicali Valley area as well as those taken of Sonora where the fighting west of the Colorado River Delta was being supported from; the Mexican communists were moving in more troops to bring an end to resistance in Baja California. They’d taken Mexicali itself and were rolling over anti-communist resistance in the wider area. As to anything else, the mystery remained unsolved. Something was up in Mexico, just no one knew what. Other things were going on elsewhere in the world though, requiring attention – such as more Blackbird flights – to be directed towards them.


That same day, hours later in the evening, Cuba purposely sought a military clash with the United States. It was deliberate, one with full intent to create an armed engagement. The Cuban Air Force had had a terrible couple of years when ‘volunteers’ were lost when engaged by the British during the Belize War. Earlier this year, there had come American air intervention over the Yucatán Peninsula and then the Yucatán Channel as well during the June shootdowns. Twice, the higher ranks had been purged of senior officers who’d overseen the disasters in the skies. This third time wasn’t meant to be a third time lucky, but a third time where everything would be arranged to achieve a victory. The seeking of the clash was done to bring attention, not divert it. It fitted into the maskirovka. There was a reason behind this beyond Castro’s pride. Admittedly, he had intervened and made sure that it was Cuban forces and not Nicaraguan ones involved as the Soviets had wanted to see done yet everything else was the same when it came to the why.

A flight three of Cuban MiG-23s – the latest -23MLD variant and not a downgraded export version either – raced north away from Cuba and out over the Florida Straits. Their course took them towards mainland Florida, along its southwestern coast, and to do this they went around the Florida Keys. United States airspace was crossed when the MiG-23s went inside the twelve-mile territorial limit near Key West before going back out again over international waters. They pressed on towards the Florida Peninsula still. Onboard jamming was used and they were up high in the sky. Attention was sought…

…and it came. From out of Homestead AFB raced a pair of F-15 Eagles and they were tasked with engagement of these aircraft. Their parent unit was the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing home-based up in Virginia yet a detachment as down in Florida with some F-15s at Homestead and others at MacDill AFB too. The Homestead fighters were those on immediate alert though others from MacDill were due to join them soon enough. Specific Cuban intentions were unknown but these aircraft were clearly acting hostile and had already violated US airspace. The rules of engagement for the F-15s were to escort them back to Cuba forcefully. There was a right of self-defence too and the limitations on that were tighter than they had been for US Air Force aircraft when in operation over Mexico yet looser than could often be expected in such a situation like this at another time. The F-15 pilots took off expecting to knock down these Cuban jets; escorting them back wasn’t something that could be easily done unless the Cubans wanted to be super-duper cooperative.

As the F-15s closed in upon the MiG-23s, homing in upon all that jamming the Cubans were giving off rather than using their own radars, they themselves suddenly found that they were being counter-intercepted. Radars were detected to the south, behind the MiG-23s. The flight computers on the American aircraft picked up a pair of radars belonging to Cuban MiG-29s. The F-15s made a turn and then the warning sirens went off: both new contacts opened fire and the warnings said ‘Alamo’. The AA-10 Alamo was the R-27 air-to-air missile, one of the most advanced pieces of Soviet missile technology. The pilots wanted to scream obscenities back to base when they came on the airwaves – an E-3 Sentry for airborne control was lifting off from distant Eglin AFB but for now ground control out of Homestead was meant to be watching the skies – announcing that there were MiG-29s in the sky. Thanks, but that was far too late. The F-15s manoeuvred to avoid the incoming missiles and prepared to return fire. Note was also taken at that point of the MiG-23s having turned off their jammers… and activating their own radars now. Five against two with the MiG-29s to the south and the MiG-23s to the west, which started firing more of those damn Alamos. The tactical situation was all wrong. It was a trap. Evade!

Both F-15s were hit. The first exploded in mid-air, killing its pilot. The second took major damage and the pilot ejected, hoping to be soon picked up by air-sea rescue. All five Cuban aircraft turned back for home. Sirens wailed at NAS Key West, where the US Navy had aircraft, but they, like the other F-15s coming from MacDill, were far too late. June had been avenged. The Cuban Air Force had got its revenge, Castro had his too. And the United States was going to react, sending the world spiralling now towards war.

Nope. It was engaged and evaded. Two F-15s were downed in a separate engagement.

This reminds me of the Protect and Survive TL; one of the precursors to the war there was an incident where a Soviet Bear bomber and some Cuban fighters (IIRC) clashed with some US Air Force planes (F-4s and F-14s) out of Key West NAS.

Did this inspire you, James G?

(BTW, have you read that TL; good TL and someone should cross-post it here...)

Waiting for more...

Very hot. Them someone might suggest some ice cold water to calm everything down leading to a belief that the storm has passed. Maybe that might happen?




I've read that one, the Florida one on ah.com? That might have inspired me without realising.




It is very complicated and I've probably not connected all of the many dots. the storm is about to break. There are just a few more things to tie in during the last days of peace.

Yeah, there is a Florida spinoff of that story, but it was originally set in Britain during the same period; the Florida story (End of Watch; I'd link to it, but I don't know if that's allowed here) is a spinoff of that story...

I must commend you on your profile picture James G. That was a great movie that had me laughing all the way through.