I believe that the value of the horse and the opportunity for the horse in the future are likely to be as great as ever. Aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the men and the horse, and I feel sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horse - the well-bred horse - as you have ever done in the past.

Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT, GCB, OM, GCVO, KCIE, ADC

CHAPTER 27 THE BOMB

John Gilchrist was good at laying out conference tables. He’d told the gate who to expect in what cars and he’d ordered the IT equipment, screens, and ports for them to plug in their lap tops or whatever they were bringing. And he’d done the Toblerones, biscuits and coffee and Colonel Barclay had warned the Officers mess to expect guests. Mrs Lexington seemed to accept he knew what he was doing, and rarely asked if he'd sharpened the pencils or not.

There were a couple of men in suits walking up between the cubicles looking bewildered. They must be for the meeting, otherwise why would they be in suits? “Are you here for the SOCAD?” asked John .

“Ah yes. Is this the right place?”

“That’s the conference room through that far door there. If you wait inside, Colonel Berkeley will be with you soon.” So many meetings nowadays, all about SOCAD. Which seemed to be a sort of large glider. All the documents were rather hazy. Even the SECRET ones.

“Are we all ready?” asked Colonel Barclay “Right. Well as you know, this group is the first meeting of the Sub Orbital Cargo Delivery Working Group, or SOCAD. Now DEC SISTER¹ has been holding war games and conversations with the academics.

The concept stage of SOCAD CADMIT is pretty much over. Just about everyone has put in their two pennyworth and we now have a fairly firm idea of what capability we want.

I think I can sum it up as a stealthy lander. Something that could land a helicopter gunship anywhere in the world and have it fly out of the box as soon as the door is open. Something that could land a special forces platoon with all their equipment. Something that could land a large fully fuelled support helicopter to fly the Special Forces from the centre of a continent to a rendezvous at sea.

In short we need a large cargo container that can be dropped full of men or equipment anywhere in the world. Now we also have to consider how this container is to be transported to its destination.”

The Tanoy was clicked on with a Carbonec wide broadcast.

“Attention. Attention. This is a security announcement. Would the person who left a wash bag in the shower facility of toilet CT17 in building 300 please collect it immediately. End of message”

There were a few jokey remarks round the table.

“Someone’s in trouble.”

“Must be a woman.”

“Got to be a woman, some stupid little girly in trouble.”

“Lost her handbag, eh?”

“I’m sure it doesn’t concern us gentlemen,” said Colonel Barclay “Now where was I? Well it seems the obvious solution is a large cargo plane. The Ukrainians have offered to extend the wings of an Antonov to give it a high altitude capability. They are marketing the concept as a Pegasus style launch vehicle. But our people think we could use it to parachute the SOCAD from height at night HALO² style. This would be good enough for most third world countries without a sophisticated radar network. They just wouldn’t hear it coming.

Similar plans have been put forwards using Airbus and a stretched Globemaster.

Then there is the possibility of using an American rocket. The type they use for their moon shots, and our SOCAD coming down from Orbit. This would certainly have the element of surprise. But you will have heard that this Congressman Lestrade and a few others don’t feel happy sharing US space techniques with us. We may be able to use French, Chinese or Indian heavy lift rockets to do the same thing.

Finally there is the complete long shot. The Aurora concept. The so called Flying Brick. I suspect this is included as a token British effort. But if we decide to go for a space system, and if the US won’t allow us to use their rockets, then it might prove a bit more attractive than other bought

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