INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 3 – ROCKET GIRL

08:52 (Washington Time)

Wednesday, August 02, 1950 ‘C’

Office of the Secretary of the Navy

The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

Secretary of the Navy Chester Nimitz was still sipping on his first coffee of the morning when his secretary called him via intercom to say that Admiral Louis Denfeld, the Chief of Naval Operations, or CNO, and Rear Admiral Roger Stenwick, the head of the Bureau of Ordnance, or BuOrd, were in the anteroom and wanted to see him. Nimitz told her to let them in at once and rose from his chair to walk around his work desk in order to greet his visitors. He did so by shaking hands with the two flag officers, then addressed Denfeld.

‘’So, Louis, what’s up?’’

‘’Something potentially very interesting for us, Chester. You remember when Dows told us months ago that she was working on a number of missile projects, and this after providing us with our first air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles?’’

‘’I do! She also told us that

she would be working on a

submarine-launched ballistic

missile. Has she made some

progress with those projects of

hers?’’

‘’You could say that!’’ replied

a smiling Denfeld. ‘’We just got an

official request from her to use two

of our weapons test ranges: the

China Lake Naval Ordnance Test

Station and the Point Mugu Sea

Range. She says that her project to develop what she called a vertical launch system, or VLS, is ready for testing, along with four types of missiles meant to use her VLS, plus what she calls a ‘ship point defense system’.’’

‘’Damn, this girl truly works at breakneck speed! And what are those four types of missiles and this point defense system?’’ Denfeld answered by looking at Rear Admiral Stenwick, who was responsible for the development and testing of naval weapons.

‘’Roger?’’

Opening the secure briefcase he was carrying and extracting a thin file folder marked ‘Secret’, Stenwick then handed over the file to Nimitz while speaking.

‘’This is the basic information Dows told me about her Vertical Launch System and about the four types of missiles to be used in her VLS and which are now ready for live testing, sir. They are a surface-to-air variant of her AIM-1 BOLT air-to-air missile, the SA-1 SEA LANCE; a ship-launched variant of her ASM-1 MJOLNIR heavy air-to-surface missile she calls the SSM-1 HAMMERHEAD; the SSR-1 SLEDGE HAMMER bombardment rocket and the ASR-1 KRAKEN, a torpedo-carrying anti-submarine rocket. All four of these missiles are said by Dows to be compatible with her new VLS system, each missile being transported inside custom launcher cells which are then loaded in her VLS. She also said that more types of missiles will follow in the months to come, all compatible without modification with her VLS modules, which can be adapted to existing ships as well as being incorporated into future ship designs with little modifications. Finally, we have this LINEBACKER SPDS, which is a lightweight combination gun and missile turret meant to equip smaller warships, like frigates and minesweepers. If her systems work, it could allow us to seriously up-gun our ships at little comparative cost, sir.’’

Opening the file given to him by Stenwick, Nimitz took a couple of minutes to read the information inside, which was accompanied by a number of pictures. The more he read, the more his face reflected astonishment.

‘’My God! How could she come up with so many innovative ideas in so little time and then turn them into reality this quickly?’’

‘’To be fair to her, sir, Dows readily told me that she based most of what you see in this file on information concerning future weapons systems contained in the HOURGLASS files from 2012 we keep here in the Pentagon. However, we are talking here about complete working weapons systems, not mere ideas and extrapolations out of some files. What she and her Hughes Missile Division have realized is nothing short of fantastic.’’

‘’And when would she like to conduct those missile tests, Roger?’’

‘’As soon as our two weapons ranges will be ready to receive her systems. She told me that everything is mounted on semi-trailer trucks and will arrive ready-for-use at our ranges, including their guidance radars.’’

‘’Hell, tell her that we will gladly welcome her in China Lake and at Point Mugu next week, at her convenience. Uh, since one of her systems is an anti-ship missile, I suppose that she will want to test-fire her SA-1 and SSM-1 missiles against real targets, right?’’

‘’Correct, sir! China Lake has a number of remotely-controlled target drone aircraft they use to test new anti-aircraft weapons. We could use one of those drones to test her surface-to-air missile. As for her SSM-1 anti-ship missile, we could pull one of the old decommissioned ships held in reserve in San Francisco and use it as a target ship parked in a test zone well away from maritime routes. We in fact have a few old LIBERTY-Class cargo ships from World War 2 which could constitute excellent target ships.’’

‘’Then prepare one such ship as a target ship, quickly! By the way, if anyone objects to all this because Dows is a reserve officer in the Air Force, then slap him silly and tell him to get on with the job. This could represent a tremendous boost to our combat fleet.’’

‘’Yes sir! I will get on this right away.’’

As Stenwick was walking out after saluting him, Nimitz gestured to Denfeld to stay, then spoke to him in a low voice.

‘’If those missiles and VLS system prove to work, would we still be able to incorporate them in to the design of our future carrier, the USS UNITED STATES?’’

‘’I believe so, Chester. The blueprints for the UNITED STATES are still being drawn and we are still waiting for our four designated building drydocks to be enlarged before we could start its construction. I can go check quickly on how advanced that drydock construction work is at now.’’

‘’Please do, Louis.’’

Denfeld then walked out, leaving Nimitz to look again at the file in his hands.

‘’If all this could truly work... But will the damn Congress accept to fork the money for these new weapons, especially after swallowing the huge new budgets for Air Force jet bombers and fighters?’’

09:18 (California Time)

Thursday, August 10, 1950 ‘C’

Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) China Lake Western Mohave Desert, 240 kilometers north of Los Angeles

The Marine Corps sergeant in charge of the main gate of the China Lake Naval Ordnance Test Station looked with suspicion at the three tractor-trailer trucks and one small bus, all painted royal blue and gold, which had just stopped short of the steel barrier of the main gate. All four vehicles bore markings saying ‘Hughes Enterprises’ and their drivers and visible passengers were all women dressed in blue coveralls.

‘’Heads up, guys: this looks a bit unusual. I’m going to check those women out.’’

‘’Checking women out... Yeah, that sounds right, Sarge.’’ replied Private Moore, who was standing next to the pivot point of the steel barrier, making his sergeant throw him a side-look before he walked up to the small bus leading the two trucks. Before he could get to the front of the vehicle, a woman in her late thirties came out of the bus through its front right accordion door, some documents in her right hand. Both of them then met next to the front bumper of the bus.

‘’Good day, maam! What is your business in coming to this station?’’

‘’We came to blow some shit up, Sergeant.’’ answered the smiling woman, who wore a blue coverall, boots and a blue baseball cap bearing a ‘Hughes Enterprises’ patch. ‘’We brought a few new missiles to be test-fired here today. Here is the Navy authorization for accessing this station and the Point Mugu sea range complex.’’ The marine NCO then belatedly noticed the impressive collection of medal ribbons pinned to the woman’s chest as he took the offered document. He was shocked to see that she had a lot more ribbons pinned on her coverall than he himself had on his going-out uniform. He also could recognize them as World War 2 medal ribbons, including a Bronze Star!

‘’Uh, nice collection of ribbons you have, miss. How did you get your Bronze Star?’’

‘’I was in Guadalcanal with my helicopter unit in 1942 and was a ground crew chief at the time. The Japanese tried to infiltrate our airfield perimeter at night and we had to defend ourselves and Henderson Field. I killed a few Japs in the process.’’ That explanation made the sergeant’s mind click on something he had learned as part of his Marine Corps history lessons and he then became a lot more friendly with the woman.

‘’You were with the Fifinellas?’’

‘’Yup! About my visit here, we are supposed to show up at the Michelson Laboratory complex for our test firing session. Could you tell us how to get there?’’

‘’Sure, maam! Follow me into the guard shack and I will show you the way on our map of the base.’’

As he led the woman towards the gate security hut, the NCO shouted an order to Private Moore.

‘’RAISE THE GATE! ALL FOUR VEHICLES CAN GET IN.’’

Entering the security hut with the woman as the bus and three trucks rolled past the raised gate barrier, the NCO showed to his visitor the big map of China Lake covering half of a wall, pointing first at the location of the access gate on the map.

‘’We are here, at the South Access Gate, maam. The Michelson Lab complex is there, at the end of that road connected to the base’s main road. The way to the complex is actually quite simple.’’

The woman examined the map for a few seconds before smiling to the marine NCO and shaking his hand.

‘’Thank you, Sergeant. May you have a nice day, you and your team.’’

‘’Thanks, maam. Have some nice shooting today.’’

‘’We will, Sergeant.’’

The woman then walked out of the hut and returned to her bus, in which she stepped in before it rolled down the road, followed by the three tractor-trailer trucks. Private Moore then shouted a question at his sergeant.

‘’HEY, SARGE, WHAT ARE THESE GIRLS DOING HERE?’’

‘’THEY CAME HERE TO BLOW SOME SHIT UP!’’

At the Michelson Laboratory complex, which conducted design research

and testing of new naval weapons systems, Ingrid had been waiting at the operations center of the complex with Navy Secretary Nimitz, Admiral Louis Denfeld and Rear Admiral Roger Stenwick for the convoy from the Hughes Missile Division. An officer who answered a ringing telephone then shouted to Nimitz.

‘’SIR, FOUR VEHICLES FROM THE HUGHES ENTERPRISES JUST ROLLED INTO THE BASE AND ARE ON THEIR WAY TO HERE.’’

‘’THANK YOU, COMMANDER!’’ shouted back Chester Nimitz before looking at Ingrid. ‘’Well, your weapons team will soon be here, General Dows. I can’t wait to see how your new weapons systems will perform during their live firing tests.’’

‘’You should get impressed, Mister Secretary. Know that you will find in them a lot of very advanced technology which is used in my supersonic combat aircraft, like heads-up displays, thermal and infrared sensors and short-wave radars.’’

‘’But how affordable will these new weapons be for the Navy, General?’’ asked Rear Admiral Stenwick. ‘’New and advanced technology items often translate into big acquisition and operations costs.’’

‘’True but, since the sub-systems used in my proposed naval weapons have all been developed in the past to equip my supersonic aircraft, they will have cost nothing to the Navy to develop. You would thus pay only for their integration work into ship-ready system. If you take for example my Ship Point Defense System, which will be tested today, it combines air-to-air missiles modified to fill the surface-to-air role, an infrared search and track sensor used in my fighter-bombers, a Ku-band tracking radar, a FLIR camera, a low-level light camera, a laser rangefinder, a heads-up display system and four 30mm cannons, all of which you will find in my F-9 ARROW supersonic fighter-bomber. The only changes made to these systems are in their target tracking algorithms, which were modified to fit their new surface-to-air role, and their traverse and elevation servos. The result is my LINEBACKER point defense turret, which is small enough and light enough to easily fit on a destroyer deck and which will only need to be dropped in place and bolted down on a ship’s deck. There will thus be no costly integration or fitting in work to be done. By the way, if you decided to buy one or more of my systems, I also developed electronic simulators to help train their future operators. But we could talk money once my systems will have proved themselves to your satisfaction, Mister Secretary. Are your Navy target drone teams ready to fly off?’’ Getting a nod from the officer who had answered the telephone, Nimitz nodded in turn to Ingrid.

‘’Yes, they are, General. In which order will you want to run those firing trials?’’

‘’Once I will have shown to you my systems in a static exposition, I would like to then test my longest-ranged systems first, starting with my SA-1 SEA LANCE medium-range surface-to-air system, which has an effective range of over 33 nautical miles. By the way, my SA-1 uses a slightly modified AIM-1B air-to-air, radar-guided missile. Then, we can continue our tests using target drones by firing my LINEBACKER SPDS, which uses modified AIM-1A infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. Lastly, I will fire away a salvo of four of my new SSR-1 SLEDGE HAMMER bombardment rockets at a desert target thirty nautical miles away. The SSR-1 is basically meant to give to destroyers and cruisers a land bombardment firepower equivalent to that of a battleship, by shooting a 660-pound warhead to ranges of up to 33 nautical miles. It includes a simplified inertial guidance system, thus should be very accurate, even at maximum range.’’

‘’God! If your systems fill their promises, they will radically change in our favor the tactical situation at sea.’’ said Admiral Denfeld, making Ingrid nod.

‘’They should and we still haven’t talked about my new surface-to-surface missile and rocket systems. But those will be better tested tomorrow from Point Mugu. By the way, my missile launchers come into two variants: ship-mounted systems and mobile coastal defense systems. With the latter variants, you will be able to provide deep defensive coverage of our ports and naval bases against both ships and aircraft.’’ Both Nimitz and Denfeld couldn’t then help themselves look at Ingrid with open awe.

‘’My God! You are nearly unbelievable, General.’’ said Nimitz. ‘’If we would have had those missile systems a mere eight years ago, then the war in the Pacific against the Japanese would have been a one-sided massacre.’’

‘’Indeed! However, I was then a teenager who was just starting to fly as a fighter pilot on a Boeing P-26 PEASHOOTER in the Philippines. Now, I am able to design and produce the kind of aircraft I always have dreamed of flying, thanks to my part-ownership of Hughes Enterprises. But I believe that we should now go out to greet my demonstration team.’’

‘’Right! COMMANDER TUCKSON, PLEASE COME WITH US OUTSIDE!’’

‘’YES, MISTER SECRETARY!’’

Walking out of the building housing the operations center, the five of them, accompanied by a signaler carrying a backpack radio, went to one side of the large parking lot adjacent to the operations building and waited for the announced vehicle convoy to arrive. That didn’t take long, with the one bus and three tractor-trailer trucks arriving within three minutes and then parking in a single row, with twenty meters between the vehicles. Ingrid then led the Navy men towards the first tractor-trailer truck as a number of women walked out of the bus. Ingrid first presented one of the women, who saluted Nimitz as Ingrid was talking.

‘’Gentlemen, this is Carol Manning, the head of my testing team. During the war, she served in Guadalcanal as a helicopter crew chief, then, after the war, used like me the G.I. Bill to earn a degree in aeronautical and mechanical engineering.’’ Nimitz saluted back Manning before warmly shaking hands with her.

‘’Thank you for your service, Miss Manning.’’

After the other Navy men had shaken hands with the robust woman, Ingrid approached the nearest truck and pointed at it.

‘’This, gentlemen, is the firing unit for my SA-1 LANCE surface-to-air missile, in coastal battery configuration. This firing unit comprises eight ready-to-fire SA-1 missiles in their transport and launch canisters, plus a telescopic mast supporting a medium range search-and-track radar. This trailer, once in position, can thus defend by itself a fifty-mile-wide portion of a coastline. The forward-most section on the trailer contains the shelter housing the radar and its telescopic mast, while the mid-length section contains the command-and-control station, the radios and the radar circuits, plus a generator unit situated under the control cabin. Finally, the aft section contains the erectable missile launch unit, with its eight missiles and their hot gas deflector ducts. Once in position, the missile launch unit is then raised to the vertical, while the radar tower extends upwards in order to obtain a 360-degree air watch coverage.’’

‘’You don’t have to point your missiles towards their targets, General?’’

‘’No, Mister Secretary! The whole idea for my VLS system is to have my missiles launch at the vertical from their canisters and then to veer towards their intended targets with the help of a simplified inertial navigation system, using the targeting data from a search radar. After pointing at their targets and accelerating to supersonic speed thanks to their solid rocket motor boosters, the tracking and guidance sensors in the heads of my missiles then take over control of them, until they intercept their targets and destroy them. The SA-1 SEA LANCE, like my AIM-1 BOLT, is equipped with a 66-pound high-explosive fragmentation warhead activated by a combined contact and proximity fuse. However, contrary to the AIM-1A BOLT air-to-air missile, which uses an infrared guidance system, the SA-1 uses an active millimetric wave radar to acquire and track the missile after taking over from the inertial system. With its solid rocket booster motor and second stage ramjet engine, my SA-1 can attain a top speed of Mach 4, or over 2,400 miles per hour. Why so fast? Because it allows it to close in rapidly on its target after launch, thus keeping the needed search cone for its radar quite tight, even when the target is maneuvering and trying to escape. While static firing of my missiles has been done multiple times, proving the reliability of their rocket motors, this will be the first complete live firing of my SA-1 against an aerial target. What kind of target drone do you use in China Lake, Admiral Stenwick?’’

‘’We mostly use the Glenn Martin KDM PLOVER target drone, General. It is powered by a ramjet engine, can reach high subsonic speeds and has a range of seventy miles. For the purpose of today’s tests, we have three such drones ready for launch. Those drones are presently at a launch pad located 54 miles from here.’’

‘’Perfect! Now, I will deploy the missile canisters and radar in firing position, so that you can see how they look like. Carol, you may proceed.’’

‘’Right away, Ingrid!’’

Using a side ladder to climb up to the fire control cabin of the trailer and entering it, Carol Manning first switched on the trailer’s onboard generator, then pushed a few buttons on the missile operator’s station. A radar antenna mounted on a telescopic mast first emerged from the forward section of the trailer, rising up by a good six meters before stopping. Commander Richard Tuckson then made a comment while pointing at the radar antenna, a flat rectangular array.

‘’Hey, your radar has an unusual shape and appearance, General.’’ Ingrid looked at him questioningly, appearing surprised by his remark.

‘’It is a phased array radar, Commander. You should know that type of radar from our ATHENA files on 2012 military technology.’’

‘’I never saw those files, General.’’

Tuckson’s reply actually angered Ingrid, who drilled him with her eyes.

‘’You are in charge of one of the premier naval weapons technology development and testing complexes in the United States and you never read the ATHENA files that my adoptive mother brought from the future, copies of which have been held at the Pentagon for nearly ten years, Commander? Were you refused access to them?’’

‘’No, General! I simply didn’t feel the need to go to the Pentagon just to read them.’’

Ingrid, now downright furious, walked quickly to Tuckson and stopped in front of him, nearly nose to nose with him.

‘’YOU DIDN’T FEEL THE NEED TO CONSULT DOCUMENTS WHICH DESCRIBE IN DETAIL WEAPONS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT FROM THE NEXT CENTURY? WHAT KIND OF THINKING IS THIS, COMMANDER?’’ Tuckson then realized that the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the head of the Navy’s Ship Development section were now all eyeing him with reprobation. Suddenly starting to sweat, he tried his best to find a believable excuse.

‘’But, I would have been advised by someone at the Pentagon if something of interest for the Navy would have been in those files, General.’’ That was when Admiral Denfeld jumped in on the exchange.

‘’That’s bullshit, Commander, and you know it. Once today’s live fire tests will be completed, you will be replaced by your deputy: you’re relieved of command as of tonight. Thinking of it, get your deputy right now: we will conduct the tests with him.’’

‘’Er, right away, Admiral.’’ said Tuckson before starting to run back to his operations building, leaving Ingrid and the three Navy admirals shaking their heads in disbelief. Nimitz then spoke to Ingrid while watching Tuckson go.

‘’Please excuse us for this, General: this is certainly not up to the standards of MY navy.’’

‘’Actually, Mister Secretary, I find this more scary than just disappointing. How many of your Navy programs could be behind their full potential because of this refusal by some to learn from the future? Talking of Navy programs, have you decided if you would adopt a multi-hull design for your future aircraft carrier, the USS UNITED STATES?’’

‘’We are going with a catamaran variant of a highly modified blueprint of our original carrier design, General.’’

‘’Good! Then, you could possibly still incorporate my VLS missile launcher system to it...if today’s tests and those tomorrow will prove successful, right?’’

‘’If everything goes as well as you believe, then we would be stupid not to incorporate your new VLS concept to our carrier...and to all our future warship designs. Are you sure that you would not like to come work with the Navy, General?’’ That last question, made in jest by Nimitz, made Ingrid chuckle in response.

‘’Me, a pigeon, going to work for squids? Sorry, Mister Secretary: the most I will do for the Navy will be to propose ideas and solutions while I keep designing and flying aircraft.’’

‘’I can live with that, General.’’ replied a smiling Nimitz.

15:07 (California Time)

Friday, August 11, 1950 ‘C’

UH-1T light helicopter, flying at 2,500 meters

Point Mugu Navy sea test range, near Los Angeles

‘’Here it comes, Mister Secretary!’’ announced Ingrid while piloting her UH-1T light helicopter, in which Chester Nimitz, Admiral Louis Denfeld and Rear Admiral Stenwick were riding as passengers. The three Navy senior commanders barely had time to catch with their eyes the speedy object which dove down at a steep angle on the old, decommissioned cargo ship playing the role of target for today’s firing tests before the Hughes SSM-1 HAMMERHEAD anti-ship missile hit it amidship. The powerful explosion which followed actually broke in two the cargo ship, whose parts then sank quickly under the Navy men’s eyes.

‘’Jesus! A first round hit from a distance of a hundred nautical miles. This will revolutionize naval warfare, General.’’ pronounced Stenwick, making Nimitz nod.

‘’And this is one revolutionary design which you can be assured the Navy will want, General Dows. I believe that we will have to seriously discuss contracts between Hughes and my Navy once back on the ground. I hope that your company will have sufficient production capacity to provide hundreds of missiles and VLS launchers to us.’’

‘’My Missile Division at Canoga Park is presently expanding its production lines, Mister Secretary. By the time that a Navy contract is finalized, I will be ready to fulfill it.’’

‘’First, you had an Aircraft Division, then added two new aircraft production lines to it before creating an Electronic Systems Division and a Missile Division. What’s next, as projects go, General?’’ asked Admiral Louis Denfeld.

‘’Next in my books is to start a small car production facility where high-performance sports cars of my own design will be built in small numbers, Admiral. I was not happy with the lack of a decent American sports car on the market, so I decided to design something I would be proud to drive around. After that, I will design some very long-range missiles to go with my VLS system, missiles which will allow our navy to hit an enemy from thousands of miles away. Then, after that, I will aim for Space, gentlemen.’’