Chapter 11

Month -4: Terry had learned more about his patron in Central Command, whom he had learned was Vice Admiral James Hawkins, formerly of the Royal Navy. He had worked with Hawkins in a few NATO projects, but was surprised to find him so interested. When he learned that Rear Admiral Franco d'Alessandro, with whom he had worked more closely in NATO, was the naval deputy to Hawkins, he thought he understood more. D'Alessandro had been a carrier admiral in the Italian Navy, but had substantial national and NATO intelligence background.

Given this information, Terry was able to learn that Hawkins was the designated head of the 17th Naval District, which would be headquartered in the McMasterat system, behind Earth on the axis of advance of the Swarm.

As he thought about this, members of his household continued to learn about each other, and explore their relationships. Terry himself would also explore, especially with women with whom he had had a less than ideal past relationship.

He knew that he was responsible for building the intelligence sensors needed, although he did not yet know the ship type that would carry them. Increasingly, however, he was learning that if they wanted weapons, they very well might need to adapt Earth technology to space, merge Confederacy technology, and arrange production to supply their needs. Somewhat to his amazement, the Central Command weapons designers were focusing on railguns, plasma torpedoes and other line-of-sight unguided weapons. Terry had a sinking feeling that if he wanted space-adapted missiles, he might need to produce them.

While the Castle, Mercury and some of the other Confederacy ship classes being made available were said to have weapons, Terry learned, from the Confederacy data base, that they were designed simply to destroy navigational hazards ... There was no evidence that they were part of what advanced Earth militaries considered "combat systems", with tight integration among sensors, command & control, and weapons.

It was also not apparent that the Confederacy had well-developed long-range armament, presumably missiles and appropriate sensors. Terry was not a full-time weapons engineer, but he was aware of speed-of-light limitations and how they could affect radars. Terry, and much more Catherine, knew of ways to increase radar range. Kim might well have ideas of the use of passive long-range geophysical and gravitic sensors, and Elaine on the electro-optical, to launch missiles with autonomous homing.

He thoroughly endorsed the philosophy that intelligence collection often should be clandestine, but also recognized that there would be times that things would go wrong and the collecting vessel would have to shoot its way to an escape route. For that reason, he was increasingly concerned that he could not, in the short term, send reconnaissance vessels on missions, unless he took steps to arm them. He was, at least, relieved that there was no political sensitivity requirements, similar to those that put the USS Liberty and USS Pueblo into harm's way with no ability to defend themselves.

Making the tools to make the tools

At breakfast the next morning, Mary and Dolores walked in, arms around one another, and radiating good feelings. While the others didn't know exactly how the two had spent the night, they obviously had had a fine time of it After breakfast, Terry started the staff meeting. "Among our first priorities is to obtain replicator patterns for existing Earth technology. There's a huge amount to do, and we need more people to do it. I don't want us to let up on recruiting core team members, as well as getting other people that might or might not join the clan, but will work with us for the long term. Keep your eyes out, as well, for people that could help in the short run and that we can evaluate for the long haul."

"We need Karen soon, because she can track down resources that we need, but where we don't know who has them. She can even sometimes find things we can't exactly specify. Remember that she's going to need more medtube time and emotional support than other people do, so she comes before Bob. We might also need to recruit Siobhan before Elaine, since Siobhan can advise on human interfaces.

"That still doesn't mean we don't need more people. I think we have to have, very early, aviation ordnance techs, machinists, and electronic techs, to work with weapon and sensor deployment. That also probably calls for a gunner's mate/missile.

"I'm rapidly thinking we need to get one or more people that are hardware system integrators, or perhaps come from a ship or aircraft customization background. In the near term, with the replicators available, we won't be rolling out complete spacecraft, or even some weapons. There will be substructures to assemble. There will be pods to modify, and then things to install inside pods.

"For my intelligence force, I've been assigned two Minuit-class ships, Jervis Bay and Sancho Panza. Moe Berg is the senior captain, and is getting a crew. We can call on that crew for machinists, electronic technicians, and supply clerks to start stocking the ship. We will also be getting a couple of Mercury-class assault ships, which are hyperspace-capable landing craft.

"With the large replicators, it's likely to be the case that we bring the prototypes to them, rather than the other side around. In this category, I'm talking things such as complete airplanes, or at least large mission modules that go into transport aircraft. I've arranged for a secure hangar at Andrews Air Force Base, a little farther into the Washington DC suburbs than Bolling AFB, but into which heavy transports, including the President's, fly. That hangar will hold at least an industrial, if not factory, replicator, and is generally huge, able to fit three large transport aircraft. Its functions, though, will move to the Pacific base when the island is ready.

"We will have even larger replication facilities at Midway Atoll, but it will take at least a month or two before they are ready. Shift things there, however, as soon as possible. Remember, the largest items might go by ship, possibly high-speed transports like the prepositioning ships, or even aircraft carriers.

"Technical intelligence people will have a lot to contribute. Elaine is the best oriented in that discipline, although she also does electro-optical and materials MASINT."

Mary and Dolores had been whispering. "Terry," Mary asked, I have just a little grasp of MASINT from my medical intelligence work. Dolores doesn't have any. Since it's your specialty, could you elaborate?"

"Sure. It's a framework that pulls together a lot of odd intelligence collection disciplines. Let's say an enemy rocket is of interest. A technical intelligence (TECHINT) specialist would photograph it, go through the manuals, and then test-fire it to learn its capabilities. The materials MASINT specialist would go to the test range during and after the firing. Rather than putting sensors on the rocket itself, the MASINT approach would look at the light emitted by the rocket motor, the chemicals it put into the air and the characteristic sound of its takeoff and flight.

"In other words, I tend to look at how it affects its environment, rather than what it can do. Obviously, both are part of complete analysis. We also look at effects on the environment, such as the heat, magnetic and gravitational effects caused by underground construction."

"Catherine, here's an authorization code that will let you order the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, to detail aircraft to you. The missile plume tracking COBRA BALL and the general signals intelligence RIVET JOINT mission kits are already interchangeable, so it should be straightforward to run their pallets through replicators. There's no reason to tie up an operational RC-135 if the pallets can be shipped to us. See if they have palletized spares for the COMBAT SENT radar analyzer.

"Also, Catherine, since one of your specialties is dynamic conformal antennas, remember the RC-135s are fairly old. They may have a large antenna in a canoe housing and haven't changed it because it works, but for new construction, we may just want to build conformal elements into the outer frame of the aerospace craft.

"To the greatest extent you can, take out individual components so we can replicate them on an as-needed basis. For example, we want to be able to replicate separately the low and high frequency intercept receivers. When you do that, send them to the smaller replicators in this building or in outlying labs.

"This separate code is for the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB in California, as well as its support pipeline. That gives you access to all the U-2 payloads. You remain the expert on RIVET JOINT and COMBAT SENT, but I'll try to get you help for the electro-optical stuff.

"Robins AFB, in Georgia, will get you a revolver launcher from a B-1, either flown to you on pallets, or just on a B-1. They'll do the same with an E-8 JSTARS radar: components or aircraft. I know the launcher is mechanical rather than electronic, but since it's the same base, it would be good that they have a single point of contact with us.

"We've arranged with the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force to get you access for their E-767 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) payloads. Also, talk to the Australians and Turks about their Wedgetail 737 AWACS. Remember that the airborne radars generally look down at a hemisphere, and we'll need full spherical coverage.

"Kim, you already know people at the Night Vision Lab at Fort Belvoir, and they are eager to provide unattended ground sensors for replication. For the rest of you, that lab does more than its name suggests -- it's the center of excellence for ground sensors. We can set up replication, here at Bolling, for those fairly small and nonexplosive packages.

"Replication alone won't be enough; some things are going to be customized. Kim, I know you're a decent machinist, but do you know any technicians we might want to be assigned? So far, I'm not getting huge complaints asking for people."

"Terry, whether you know it or not, you bring up several points. Any decent machine shop has bins full of metal and plastic stock: rods, sheet, blocks of various sizes; nuts, bolts, screws, hinges, etc. I suggest that very early, we take an appliance or machine shop replicator to a good shop and just start pulling drawers of materials and standard parts, and running them through. There are also standard catalogs of things like gears, small motors, etc., and we might do well to order one of each.

"In fact, it wouldn't at all hurt for us to design a standard shipboard machine shop, which would blur into an electronics lab. Things like antennas need both.

"Next, there's more than one skill. While I can do a lot, I'd like to see us with a classical machinist, as well as a sheet metal person and probably someone skilled in plastic fabrication. We'll want hand tools, small compound machines like the Unimat, some larger fixed tools such as milling machines and drill presses, and computer numerical controlled robots. When you're prototyping, sometimes you'll see a need where it's faster to build the piece than program Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machine tools to do it."

"I agree with Kim that replicators aren't a general solution for development. Everyone should be aware," Terry, commented, "that I'm getting mixed reports of how much the AIs and replicators can conveniently do for prototyping, as opposed to what skilled people can do with tools and basic automated shop tools. I'm dubious that there is substantial reason to believe the AIs truly understand the requirements of combat against sophisticated foes, or the deception that could be used against an unsophisticated one."

Catherine pointed out she'd definitely need sheet metal work for a Faraday cage. "Racking, stacking and especially packaging electronics in tight containers is a skill of its own." She batted her eyelashes. "Some of us know more about tightness than others."