Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 15
“Our industrial engineers have to be given much of the credit for all of this. The important thing that the extra investment that we have made in many of our factories including our aerospace division. This investment in automation and flexible production capacity has permitted us to quickly shift to producing different products and even substantially increase production rates when necessary.”
“All of our people have done a bloody wonderful job with this. Now, our new unmanned aviation products are quite interesting. They are currently focused on two product lines. The first is a lightweight remotely piloted coaxial-rotor helicopter that is designed to supplement the manned helicopters on Commonwealth warships. This craft incorporates a modular system in a bay below the main fuselage. We can readily switch modules based on the mission. It can either carry a primary surface search package with optical and radar sensors, an antisubmarine support package with sonobuoys dispensers, a short-range magnetic anomaly detector, and thermal sensors, or an ASW weapons delivery package with two 40cm lightweight torpedoes or depth charges.
If the helicopter is fitted with one of the search packages, it still has sufficient payload to carry an 8.6mm medium machine gun and several short-range rockets to deal with surface threats. Of course, these helicopters can only take offensive action while under the direct control of a human controller through a secure data link.
The second line is our fixed-wing long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. They are primarily intended for surveillance missions, both over land and for maritime reconnaissance missions. These aerial vehicles can fly for more than twenty-four hours at medium and high altitudes when necessary.
They carry a variety of optical sensors as well as laser designators as part of their standard equipment. They also have internal mission bays and external hardpoints for additional equipment. The internal bay can be used for extra fuel, sensors, and electronic intelligence-gathering equipment. The external hardpoints can also carry additional sensors and other mission equipment in addition to the ability to carry a variety of weapons such as antitank missiles, guided rockets, lightweight glide bombs, and even lightweight ASW torpedoes.”
“All of these innovations are being generated in-house?” James innocently asked, knowing the answer already.
“I wish that we could take credit for all of this. But to be honest, many of these latest innovations have been coming in from outside contractors who have been hired to provide us with supplementary support. I don’t know exactly who the people are that have been feeding us with some of these ideas, but they are bloody incredible. I wish that I could shake their hands because they have made my job and those of our other engineers a lot simpler, I must admit.” Orin explained.
“I will be sure to pass along your thanks to those ‘outside contractors’, Orin.”
“I also wanted to tell you about what else our work has contributed to, Mister Cavill. We are also repurposing some of the unmanned aircraft technology, especially the control systems for the commercial market with lightweight VTOL drones that can be used for imagery. We anticipate that they will soon be small and inexpensive enough for even consumer or hobbyist use.”
“So you are saying that we are about to get into the toy business?”
“I reckon that you could say that. I’ve played around with little VTOL drones that had between four and eight electrically driven motors during our testing program. That was certainly a lot of fun. I would imagine that there are plenty of people out there who would buy one of the little drones just to fly it around a big field or something like that.”
“It sounds like something that my kids and I would also enjoy.”
While he certainly recognized the commercial and entertainment value of this craft, James also knew from his research that even the smaller drones could and would be adapted for military use eventually.
“I think that my kids would also enjoy them when they reach the consumer market, Mister Cavill.” A delighted Orin replied.
“How soon will the lightweight electric rotary-wing drones be going into production?” James asked.
“Some of them will be going to be coming off the production lines in less than six months. I think that the lightest craft are going over to one of our consumer divisions for production in about the same timeframe. They want to have them ready and on store shelves in time for Christmas, I believe.
Chapter Fifteen:
Ministry of Defense
London, United Kingdom
August 14, 1997
The British Defense Minister, Alan Falk, walked into one of the Ministry’s secure meeting rooms and took a seat at the head of the long conference table. He looked down at his watch and saw that it was precisely one minute before nine in the morning. Alan was expecting one of MI-6’s senior analysts to meet with him at the top of the hour.
About thirty seconds later, a modestly dressed woman in her late thirties walked into the meeting room with an armful of binders that she managed to carry without the least amount of awkwardness. The brunette was attractive though she didn’t appear to be wearing anything more than the barest amount of makeup. She woke a photo security badge on the lapel of her suit jacket.
“Hello, Sir. I trust that you didn’t have to wait very long for me. Security can be quite a challenge to deal with at times, I’m afraid.” Selena Collingwood explained as she put down and arranged the various binders and slides on the table. A vertical projector sat in the middle of the table so that transparencies could be placed on it for an audience to view.
“I understand, Miss Collingwood. I’m afraid that it is a necessary evil, however. We can’t allow the wrong people to enter our most secure areas and have access to our secrets, can we?” Alan pointed out.
“Of course not, Sir.”
“Whenever you would like to begin your briefing, you may proceed, Miss Collingwood.”
“There isn’t anyone else coming, Sir?”
“No. You have me all to yourself.”
Selena began her briefing. It covered a variety of different issues including international hot spots, foreign military force distributions, readiness levels, significant technological developments with military potential, and new weapons systems. While she presented a particular subject area, she would place one or more transparencies on the projector to display imagery or data charts to support her briefing.
After Selena covered a particular subject, the Defense Minister quickly interrupted her by posing a question.
“What do you think about all of this atomic weapons business? I know that a lot of people are worried about it.”
“Well, only the Chinese and Israelis have used the bloody things. The Chinese government that launched their weapons was thrown out of power. Supposedly, the Chinese didn’t have any more of those bombs, especially after the civil war that followed their attack on Japan.
The Israelis have the bomb too. However, they have declared that they will only use their atomic weapons for defensive purposes. I’m inclined to believe them since they literally dropped a bomb on their own territory to stop an invading Arab army rather than using it to smash one of the Arab cities in revenge.”
“I wonder who else is working on a nuclear weapons program of their own? If the Israelis and even the Chinese can, for Pete’s sake, build a nuclear weapon, I find it very difficult to believe that none of these other major powers have also started working on these weapons as well.”
“It’s most likely going to be nations that have already been working with nuclear power. I know that they are all claiming to be only using their reactors for the production of electric power. But the same scientific knowledge that enables the design of nuclear reactors is very closely applicable to the design of a fission bomb.”
While I am not an expert on nuclear weapons design, I know that a fission bomb requires either highly enriched uranium or plutonium as a fuel. Uranium ore is refined and then the fissionable part of it which is the isotope Uranium-235 is enriched until it is a very high percentage of the fissile fuel. Conventional uranium fuel that is produced for most nuclear power reactors uses a much lower percentage of U-235. Once the fissile uranium fuel is enriched to that very high level, then it is suitable for use in a bomb.
The other fuel for a nuclear bomb employs a radioactive element called plutonium. Almost all of that is produced as a byproduct of the fission process within a conventional nuclear reactor. The nuclear fuel is removed from that reactor after a while and sent to a reprocessing center where the plutonium is extracted. Then the plutonium is used within a fission bomb.”
“There are more than two dozen nations now that have nuclear power reactors. That means that any one of them could potentially produce the material necessary to build a fission bomb, Miss Collingwood.” Minister Falk pointed out in dismay.
The science of nuclear weapons was still an arcane art in the view of most of humanity, even those in positions of power.
“That’s true, Sir. They all have the potential of being able to manufacture fission weapons, either through diverting yellowcake which is a powdered uranium concentrate for enrichment, or by reprocessing used nuclear reactor fuel to obtain plutonium. This is how we suspect the Chinese obtained the fissile fuel for their nuclear weapons. We believe that the Israeli bomb utilized plutonium instead though.
Notably, some nuclear reactor cycles are highly resistant to be employed to assist with nuclear weapons proliferation. The most noteworthy reactor cycle design involved a molten salt reactor that employs a mixture of uranium and thorium as fluorine salts. The fuel cycle was very efficient and extremely safe from possible reactor accidents. The recycled fuel involves highly energetic byproducts that require heavy shielding. So few nations have such expensive facilities to handle materials that radiate gamma radiation.“
“So no one can simply brew up a fission bomb in their backyard if the materials came from one of these molten salt reactors, I suppose?”
“That’s correct, Sir. Cavill Energy Systems pioneered the uranium-thorium molten salt reactor technology and has sold licenses for scores of these reactors to be constructed around the world.”
“Why am I not surprised that the Cavills are somehow involved in this?” the Defense Minister wryly asked.
“Cavill Industries has certainly diversified the number and variety of businesses that they are involved in currently. They have also been involved steadily in advancing the state of the art in any technology that they are involved in.” Selena professionally explained.
“Yes, I suppose that they are. The irony is that they have been doing the very same bloody thing ever since Harold Cavill first appeared something like six decades ago.”
Selena continued with her briefing as soon as the Defense Minister concluded his comments about the Cavill family. She was well into the section of her briefing about technological developments and weapons production when Minister Falk interrupted her again.
“Why are the Russians building those big artillery rockets? It would seem to be a very expensive way to put a thousand kilograms of high explosives somewhere within a kilometer of a target. Even the Nazis didn’t put this amount of resources into their V-2 rockets which only had a range of a few hundred kilometers and were extraordinarily cheap in terms of today’s heavy rocket designs.”
“The Russians claim that their rockets are actually intended to be space launch vehicles to put satellites and cosmonauts into orbit.”
“While those rockets are certainly suitable to launch satellites, MI-6’s intelligence has indicated that the Russians are building a lot more of these rockets than what they need for their planned space launches. The Russians have also put a lot of effort into hiding the actual numbers of their big rockets that they have manufactured.”
“The big question is what these extra rockets are for?”
“The Germans and Russians both insist that all of these rockets are actually space launch vehicles, not weapons.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“I’m not entirely sure. But something certainly doesn’t feel right about it, I have to admit.” Selena replied
“The Nazis employed their V-2s as a terror weapon during the war using only conventional warheads, didn’t they?”
“Yes, Sir. But these new Russian rockets are far longer-ranged and much more expensive in a relative sense. For that matter, the Germans are also building very similar rockets that as supposed to be only for their space program as well. While we don’t know of them manufacturing a lot more rockets than what would be needed for their space program, they certainly are quite capable of being weaponized.”
We both know that these rockets, or perhaps strategic ballistic missiles, are a terribly expensive way to deliver a couple of thousand kilograms of high explosives somewhere within a kilometer or two from their aimpoint. On the other hand, if they were delivering a payload that had a much larger lethal effect, that would significantly make them far more viable weapons.”
“I already see where you are going with this, Miss Collingwood. The question then is whether or not the Russians or Germans making nuclear weapons to put on top of these missiles?”
“I wish that I could give you a definitive answer to that question, Sir. To be perfectly honest, we just don’t know. Both nations certainly possess light-water pressurized nuclear reactors. They also have access to uranium ore, either from indigenous sources or imported from nations in Africa or Asia.
It is well known that both nations have nuclear fuel reprocessing centers. Officially, they are using them to prepare the fuel to be recycled into fuel for new molten-salt reactors throughout Europe and Russia that are under construction. However, we have not been able to track what has been done with any plutonium that has been harvested from the old reactor fuel rods.”
“So we have to begin planning on the basis that either or both the Germans and the Russians could have an active nuclear weapons program.”
“Yes, Sir. That is what our analysts at MI-6 believe as well.”
“That is going to cost us one hell of a lot of money to try to defend ourselves from that potential threat. I suppose that we are fortunate that Cavill Industries and the Australian government appear to have already been working on interceptor missiles that could potentially destroy a long-range ballistic missile.”
“Yes, Sir. It does appear that they are making good progress towards that goal. There is also one other discovery that we appear to have determined as well.”
“What is that, Miss Collingwood?”
“Our analysts believe that the Americans already have an active nuclear weapons program and may have already manufactured such weapons. The Americans also have the means to acquire and refine the fissile fuel as evidenced by their civilian nuclear power program and their nuclear-powered submarines. In addition to that, the Americans most certainly have aircraft and the same long-range rocket technology to deliver those weapons.”
“Given the Americans’ experience with weapons of mass destruction having been delivered upon their soil, I suppose that if they have indeed developed nuclear weapons, it is not surprising.”
“It is fortunate that we and the Americans are friends then, Sir. I would hate to be engaged in a war where nuclear weapons are involved and a nation as large and powerful as America using them. Who knows how many they could manufacture if they devoted their resources to do so?”
“This is true. But sometimes the Americans can be very fickle, usually dependent on which of their major political parties happens to be in power at the time.”
“Our intelligence agencies still work with our American counterparts as well as those from the rest of the Commonwealth, Sir. There are certainly some areas where the Americans certainly hold back some information from us. It is clear that the subject of nuclear weapons is one that they do not wish to discuss with us though.”
Chapter Sixteen:
CIA Headquarters.
Langley, Virginia
November 3, 1997
Edgar Calvin was swamped with work after his predecessor had been fired as a result of a Logan Act violation that had drawn the unwanted attention of his supervisor. Edgar ended up being promoted to fill the slot since he was the most experienced analyst in the Communications and Computer Operations Division.
He was only a GS-11 but had been promised to be pushed up three steps if he performed well in his new position. But for now, it seemed like Edgar was getting the same pay but was now doing three times as much work.
Edgar was pushing through another pile of classified documents while looking over at what was also on his computer screen when one of his subordinates, Kaitlyn Norwood, knocked on the door to his small office.
“Come on in, Kaitlyn. How are things going in your section?”
“Well, to be honest. Things are going much better now that asshole Jeremy is no longer in the building. I hope that they yanked his security clearance while he was going out the door. I got sick of him pushing that left-wing political crap here at the office. I also hated that he constantly smelled like a damned cigar all of the time.
We’re supposed to be giving our customers the best analysis possible based on the information that we have. We are not supposed to be pushing the Democrat Party on everyone and exploding when the intelligence doesn’t support what the Democrats want everyone to believe.”
“I know that. The previous Democrat administration pushed a lot of their partisans into senior executive and other governmental management positions. They not only tolerated people like Jeremy but promoted them over others who were far more dedicated to truth instead of the party line.”
“Yes, Teddy Kennedy and his people certainly worked very hard to insert as many loyalists into senior positions before he was defeated for reelection. Their departure from government service is long overdue. So what do you need, Kaitlyn? I know that a dedicated analyst like you wouldn’t leave that pile of work on your desk unless it was very important.”
