M16 SAR COVER: nothing touches the Angel 2e8ad0a

Viper Three is in the water twenty-five miles west, alive and smoking, and two bandit patrols are being vectored to make sure he stays there. The rescue helo goes in anyway — your job is written on every SAR briefing board ever chalked: nothing touches the helo.

1. The Angel flies the whole profile. Off the deck, seventy-five knots at sixty feet, out to the smoke — then two minutes hovering dead still at eighteen feet while the hoist does its work, then the long low run home. She does not evade, she does not climb, she cannot afford to.
2. Two bandit waves hunt her. The first pair vectors in on the transit; a three-ship comes for her during the hoist, when she is slowest and lowest. Rated-65 pilots — veterans, cleared for the whole maneuver library.
3. Lose the Angel and the sortie is over. Bring her feet dry with Viper Three in the cabin and the debrief writes itself: that was the whole job — and you did it.