Part VI: Winchester?
March 17th saw the start of a busy day for Allies. Numerous Allied positions and forces were under attack by Taliban forces. Calls for air support were accelerating and twice during the last few hours there had been brief moments when air support was unavailable due to
the number of targets that required servicing.
The Yogis were busy designating targets for engagement by Close Air Support or tube artillery. In one memorable engagement Yogi 14's EWO used the SLAR radar to lock up Taliban targets for an Excalibur GPS artillery engagement while the Tech Crewman used the EO/IR system to designate a target for USMC F-18's from VMFA-314.
The Yogis had three airframes available, but only two had responded to the surge in operations. 144404 had been frantically worked on by the groundcrew, lifting off almost an hour later than it's two sisters. It was barely airborne when '403 landed to be met with the same frantic level of work. When '403 returned to the air '402 took it's turn on the ramp and the ministrations of the waiting groundcrew.
'402 was not destined to be airborne before Yogi 11 and Yogi 14 showed the full capability of the new Challengers. A truck bomb and two suicide bombers had attacked a Canadian artillery encampment that was supporting a USMC company-level sweep. The Canadians had suffered few casualties, and no dead, but the artillery was out of the fight. The suicide strike had destroyed much of the stored and ready ammunition, including all the available stock of Excalibur rounds. The Canadians could still fire in support, but at extended range without the GPS-guided Excalibur it would be far less effective.
Resupply of the Canadian artillery position was scheduled, but the high volume of air evac calls meant that it would be almost an hour before a Chinook could be freed to fly in extra ammunition. The Marines had yet to face any opposition, so the decision was made to assign them a somewhat lower priority than forces heavily engaged. It was a decision that almost had disastrous consequences.
The first sign of trouble was a rather obvious IED emplaced on the road in the Marines path. 35-C, the Marine commander deployed his forces some 2000 yards short of the village that was to be his first major checkpoint. The bomb disposal unit was advancing to disarm the IED when a series of small explosion erupted in front of 35-C's deployed company. The commander was confused, the explosions were barely big enough to place his troops at risk, let alone his LAV-25 armoured vehicles. They had churned up some sand and gravel, but done no harm. Even more strange, the explosions were in an almost dead-straight line in front of his troops. Looking left and right from his position he could see the faint wisps of smoke the explosions had left, and the darker brown of the churned soil left in their aftermath.
The "shoop-shoop-shoop-shoop" of at least four mortars firing provided the answer 35-C had been unable to find. Unable to leave visible markers for pre-registered mortars, the Taliban had made the registration points visible only when needed. Undoubtedly there was a lookout or two in the minaret of the town's Mosque. Equally certain was that if he ordered his troops to engage the minaret, or even was slow in stopping if they should do so without orders, that the embedded press crews from CNN and Al-Jezeera aboard 35-G would gleefully report the Mosque's destruction. Unless he was fired upon from that position he was unable to visibly justify hitting the building.
Turning to his radioman he made the call to "ARGO" the airborne command post coordinating CAS flights.
"Argo, 35 Charlie. Request close air support at my position", he pressed the button on his map display which would slug his troops current positions to Argo.
"35 Charlie, Argo. Negative your request. All airborne assets are currently engaged." Aboard the E-3 Sentry acting as a command post the controller might have sounded bored, but he was anything but. Aircraft were engaging Taliban forces, declaring "Winchester" when out of ammunition, racing back to the bases for re-arming before re-entering the fight. The number of aircraft moving in the battlespace at any one time was staggering. Some idiot had even tagged the two unarmed Canadian Challengers, Yogi 11 and Yogi 14, as CAS assets. He deleted them from the queue and went back to looking who was coming back up and might be free for assignment.
"Argo, 35 Charlie. Please provide an ETA when support available, or when resupply of my assigned artillery can be accomplished."
The controller looked up the requested data and responded. "35 Charlie, CAS available no sooner than figures 55 minutes. Resupply helo available no sooner than figures 95 minutes."
35-C cursed, the ETA on his artillery resupply was even later than it had been 20 minutes earlier. He considered the tactical situation and determined that his LAV's could find and destroy the mortars. It was somewhat more dangerous than letting the flyboys do the job, but well within a Marine's job description. Ordering his armour forward he watched in horror as two were destroyed by mines as they advanced. A third took a mortar round on top of the turret and was even now starting to show the slow link of flame that meant it too was gone.
The remaining LAVs reached the village, only to be met by a flurry of RPG fire that destroy more than half their number. He ordered a retreat by the LAVs and saw that barely a quarter of their number rejoined his dismounted infantry. Even some of those were damaged, several showing flat tires that had slowed their return.
"Argo, 35 Charlie. I am taking heavy fore from the village. Multiple WIA/KIA. Request immediate support."
The controller on Argo cringed. He could see the icons of destroyed vehicles relayed to him via datalink. The Marines had taken a beating and undoubtedly more lay in store. "35 Charlie, Argo. Understand your request. Support available in figures 30 minutes. You have priority. Marine air slugged to your support as soon as available."
On the ground 35 Charlie also cringed. While he was talking to Argo the Taliban had opened up on his positions with heavy machine gun fire. Right now it was harassment, but between the mortars and the MG's his troops were pinned down. Two of his surviving LAV's had tried to silence the MG's, only to be targeted by multiple mortar tubes. One of the LAV's was lucky and retreated back under cover, the second was burning 300 meters to his right. The smoke billowing to the rear didn't even provide cover for his troops.
Aboard Yogi 11 Major Shea had been monitoring the Marines plight. The communication gear meant for jamming gave him the ability to listen to numerous frequencies at once, he was now using that to full effect. Calling Yogi 14 he devised a plan "Two, Yogi Lead. Join on me at Bravo". Bravo was the position of the Canadian artillery that Yogi 11 was now orbiting. "Two" was the only reply, but nothing more needed to be said.
It took only 7 minutes for Yogi 14 to announce it's arrival "Lead, Two with you, one half mile right echelon." Yogi 14 was now joined up half a mile to the right and astern of Yogi 11.
"Argo, Yogi Lead, flight of two. Available to support 35 Charlie".
The controller aboard Argo was confused. Yogi Flight? The Canadian ISR planes? Well surveillance and targeting for the shooters couldn't hurt. "Yogi Flight, cleared in support 35 Charlie. Will advise when CAS available and inbound."
"Argo, is Yogi Flight cleared hot?"
The controller was now even more confused, and it showed in his voice, "Yogi Flight, state aircraft type."
"Argo, Yogi Flight. Quantity two, Charlie Echo One, Fower, Fower Delta"
Argo consulted his reference and saw nothing which suggested the CE-144D was armed, but there was mention of multiple pylons. "Yogi Flight, Argo. Are you Winchester at this time?"
"Argo, Yogi Flight is NOT Winchester. I say again, Yogi Flight is NOT Winchester"
The controller was decisive, if the Yogis were not unarmed, get them in the fight.
"Yogi Flight, Argo. CLEARED HOT. I SAY AGAIN, CLEARED HOT."
On the ground, the Marines were not even aware that Yogi Flight had arrived on station. The two Challengers scanned the Marine positions and the Taliban positions in the village. They rapidly located all the Taliban positions as well, including the sat-phone signals emanating from the minaret of the village mosque. That signal was jammed, as was the nearby signal from the mortar positions. Once a good map of friendlies and hostiles was developed Yogi 11 called the Marines.
"35 Charlie, Yogi Flight with you. I understand you boys need some help?"
"Yogi, 35 Charlie. Roger that! We are pinned down by accurate indirect fire from the village." 35 Charlie hadn't noticed that for the last several minutes the fire from the village was no longer correcting on his troops.
Aboard Yogi 11 instructed Yogi 14 to orbit the village and maintain a senor picture, Yogi 11 would make the first attack.
Kandahar Air Base had been so busy that no one had noticed the changes in the Canadian Challengers. Pylons 1 and 5 (outer wing stations) had normally carried SAAB ESTL pods for self defence. Pylon 2 (centerline) had carried the APS-143 radar. Today though stations 2 and 4 carried something new, a pod that looked suspiciously like a SUU-20 practice bomb dispenser. In truth, the pods had been SUU-20's... until being modded by AETE.
The mods weren't even all that significant, and hadn't been meant for the CE-144D program at all. AETE had modded several pods to enable the carriage of practice laser guided bombs in support of CF-18 training. The pods now carried 4 practice LGB's as well as the normal 4x2.75" rockets. Onboard a CF-18 these would be practice rounds, fitted with smoke cartridges for target assessment. On board the Challenger they were fitted with live warheads.