Читать книгу Death Dealers - Don Pendleton - Страница 12

CHAPTER SEVEN

Hermann Schwarz gave T. J. Hawkins a prod in the back, urging him not to drop his jaw. “C’mon, Tex. We got a shopping list to fill.”

Hawkins tore his attention away from the massive DF-21 antishipping ballistic missile. Though he’d been aware that Able Team might encounter such a mighty weapon, seeing it sitting in the showroom right in front of him was unmistakably a jaw-dropping sight. He’d idly wondered how the Chinese design was such a looming, powerful threat, but up close, he could tell the sheer power of it thanks to its girth and the large, bell-like nozzles of its rocket motors. Now he could see the kind of thrust that could push the Dong-Feng into low orbit at ten times the speed of sound, and then drop it on an American aircraft carrier and its support group. The nose cone was blunt and wide, big enough, he noted, for easily six or seven smaller warheads, or a full-blown nuclear missile or massive ordnance air burst bomb.

“Is that...?” Hawkins began.

“Obviously not,” Schwarz answered. “It’s a dummy, like the Soviets often used for their May Day parades. There’s no smell of any form of fuel.”

“It’s a hell of a sight,” Hawkins said. “And it’s got MIRVs?”

“No. A Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle—a MaRV,” Schwarz corrected him. “And even though it’s capable of nearly 1700 miles of range, there’re still a lot of questions about how it will track its target.

“We’re not certain about their over-the-horizon radar systems or other sensors. Any long-range targeting might have to come from an outside third party.”