Revolution by Dale Brown

geometry capitalized on improvements made possible by the use of the carbon composite material instead of metal. The goal of these improvements had been to reduce weight and improve performance, but as a side benefit the new wings also made the plane less visible on radar.
    They were also, of course, considerably more expensive to manufacture than the originals, a problem the engineers were finding difficult to solve.
    It was also a problem that Dog no longer had to worry about or even consider. All he had to do was finish his climb-out to 35,000 feet and get into a nice, easy orbit around Range 14a.
    â€œWay marker,” said his copilot. “We’re looking good, Colonel. Ready for diagnostics.”
    â€œLet ’em rip,” said Dog.
    The B-1Bs flown by the Strategic Air Command were crewed by four men: pilot, copilot, and two weapons systems operators. Boomer had places for only the pilot and copilot, with the weapons handled by the copilot, with help from the threat and targeting computer. The arrangement was under review. Experience with the Megafortress had shown that under combat conditions, dedicated weapons handlers could be beneficial. There was plenty of room for them on the flight deck, but the additional cost in terms of money and manpower might not be justifiable.
    Indeed, Dog wasn’t entirely sure the presence of the pilot and copilot could be justified. The Unmanned Bomber project, though still far from an operational stage, demonstrated that a potent attack aircraft could be flown effectively anywhere in the world from a bunker back in the States. The next generation of Flighthawks—the robot fighters that worked with the Megafortress as scouts, escorts, and attack craft—would contain equipment allowing them to do just that, though they still needed to be air-launched.
    The next generation of Flighthawks was very much on Dog’s mind as the diagnostics were completed, because the afternoon’s test session was a mock dogfight between a pair of Flighthawks and the B-1. The aim of the test was to put Boomer ’s airborne laser through its paces, but of course from the pilots’ point of view, the real goal was to wax the other guy’s fanny.
    Dog wondered if the computers thought like that.
    â€œ Boomer, this is Flighthawk control. Hawk One and Two are zero-five minutes from the range. What’s your status?”
    â€œRarin’ for a fight, Starship,” responded Dog. “Are you ready, Lieutenant?”
    â€œReady to kick your butt,” said Starship.
    Dog laughed. Starship—Lieutenant Kirk “Starship” Andrews—seemed to have broken out of his shell a bit thanks to his temporary assignment with the Navy. In fact, he’d done so well there that the commander he’d been assigned to, Captain Harold “Storm” Gale, had tried to keep him. Considering Storm’s general attitude that Air Force personnel rated lower than crustaceans on the evolutionary scale, his attachment to Starship was high praise.
    â€œI didn’t mean any disrespect, sir,” added Starship hastily.
    â€œNo offense taken,” said Dog. “Let’s see how you do, Lieutenant.”
    Dog and Sleek Top turned over control to the computer and settled back to watch how Boomer did. The tests began quietly, with the two Flighthawks making a head-on approach at Boomer ’s altitude. The B-1’s radar tracked them easily, identified them as threats, presented itself with several options for striking them, then worked out the solution most likely to succeed.
    The computer system used to guide the Flighthawks—known as C 3 —already did this, but the task was considerably more difficult for a laser-armed ship. While in sci fi flicks lasers regularly blasted across vast tracts of space to incinerate vessels moving just under the speed of light, back onearth lasers had not yet developed such abilities—and might not ever. The laser