might be happening on one of the other screens, but he doesn’t know that because he’s got to stare at this screen for several seconds. The setup forces him to divert his attention in several different directions at once, and by doing so you make him less effective, not more. “These are the best MFDs available, ” Ormack said wryly. “You can swap displays around on each screen, split the screens and have two displays on one screen, even have the computer shift displays for you-sort of an autoscan. What’s wrong with all that?” “They’re great, but they’re outdated, ” McLanahan repeated. “We can get something better.” He shook the keyboard at Ormack, then tossed it over his shoulder. “And no important keyboards on the side instrument panels. If the nav has to take his eyes off the scope on the bomb run, it’s no good and it shouldn’t be in the plane. That’s what gets crews killed.”
“We can rig up a swivel arm for the keyboard.. .” Ormack began, but McLanahan was clearly unimpressed. “I don’t know exactly what you have in mind, Patrick, but I don’t think you can just decide to replace the entire avionics suite . “You want my recommendations, you’ll get them, ” McLanahan said. “You didn’t mention any restrictions or specifications, so I’ll build you the best cockpit I can think of.” He paused for a moment, then said, “And we’ll start with the Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory at Wright-Pat.”
“Armstrong? What… ?” And then he realized what Patrick was getting at: “The Super Cockpit program? You want to put one of those big six-square-foot screens in the B-2?”
“Sir, it’s tailor-made for the Black Knight, ” McLanahan said excitedly. “The screen would fit perfectly in this big cockpit, and they can rewrite the software in a matter of months. We can bring it in within a few weeks and have a demo flight within four months, I guarantee it.” He paused for a moment, then added, “And once we get Super Cockpit installed, we can install that Sky Masters PACER SKY system General Elliott is working on-real-time satellite target reconnaissance. That’d be awesome. A satellite sending you real-time pictures of a target area, a computer drawing your route of flight, and having it displayed on a huge mother Super Multi-Function Display? Oh, man, this is gonna be great!” John Ormack thought about the idea for several long mo ments. He knew McLanahan was nothing if not a walking idea machine, but he never expected him to devise two such radical ideas in so short a time. It was an interesting combination: Super Cockpit was a 1 980s technology demonstration program that had never been implemented in any tactical aircraft, and PACER SKY was a brand-new idea that was just now being operationally tested. Ormack knew Sky Masters’ NIRTSats could make combined synthetic radar, infrared, and visual photographs of a geographic area in one pass, uplink it to a satellite, then download it. But uplinking it to a TDRS satellite (Tactical Information Distribution System used by the Army and Air Force) then downloading it to a targeting computer on a strike aircraft was brilliant. The computer would be able to classify each return with known or suspected targets, measure the precise target coordinates, and load them into the crew’s bombing computers. The crews could then call up each target, evaluate the information and direct a strike against the targets in virtually real-time. It would be the first time crews would have access to virtual real-time imagery during a conflict. Leave it to McLanahan, Ormack thought proudly. “Jesus, Patrick, ” Ormack said, “you’ve already come up with six months’ worth of work and you haven’t been in the seat five minutes-and you’ve probably busted the bank as well.”
“Well, we can eliminate a lot of this stuff, then, ” McLanahan said, gesturing to a small shelf under the glare shield. “We can ditch this attempt at a work desk-with the Super Cockpit installed, we won’t need charts and books out cluttering the cockpit-but we’ll need coffee-cup holders, of course “Coffee-cup holders!” Ormack cried. McLanahan’s extraordinary capacity for coffee was well known throughout Dreamland. “On a B-2? Get outta here!”
“You think I’m kidding, sir?” McLanahan replied. “I’ll bet you lunch for a week that there’s not only coffee-cup holders for the pilot over there, but a pencil-holder and maybe even an approach-plate holder. How about it?”
“You’re on, buddy, ” Ormack said. “Coffee-cup holders on multimillion-dollar warplanes went out with khaki uniforms and nose art. Besides, everything on this plane is computerized-why would the pilots need pencils and approach plates when everything’s on the multi-function displays in living color?” Ormack searched the aircraft commander’s station for a moment as McLanahan confidently sat back in his seat and waited. A few moments later he heard a muttered, “Well, I’ll be damned…”
“Find something, General?”
“I don’t believe it!” Ormack shouted. “Chart holders, pencil holders, coffee-cup holders-no ashtray, hotshot… unbelievable.”
“Let me guess, ” McLanahan teased, “there’s a space up there for an inflight lunch box?”
“Box lunches and even a stopwatch holder. I just don’t believe it. There are twenty systems on this plane that’ll give you a countdown. The plane practically flies itself, for God’s sake! If you want, a female electronic voice’ll even give you a countdown over interphone. But they went ahead and put in a black rubber stopwatch holder anyway. “The Air Force probably paid a thousand dollars for it, too, ” McLanahan added dryly. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ll have developed a hypersonic bomber that can circumnavigate the globe in one hour, and someone’ll still put a stopwatch holder in the cockpit.” Ormack tried to ignore McLanahan’s smug smile. “Well, you’ve got your work cut out for you over here, that’s for sure, but you’ve made a terrific start. When can you get to work?”
“Right away, General, ” McLanahan replied. “The F-15F Cheetah project is off the flight line for a few months, so this’ll work out perfectly. I’ve got a staff meeting with J. C. Powell and McDonnell-Douglas in about an hour, and I’ll clear the desk and schedule an afternoon staff meeting on this project. We’ll be back out here taking measurements”-he paused, then gave Ormack a sly smile-“right after we get back from lunch. Your treat, I believe?” THE GOLD ROOM OFFICE OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF THE PENTAGON, WASHINGTON, D.C. MONDAY, 15 AUGUST 1994, 0800 HOURS LOCAL CC6ood morning, sir, ” Navy Captain Rebecca Rodgers, senior staff officer, Pacific, of J-2, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Intelligence Directorate, began. “Captain Rodgers with this morning’s intelligence report. The briefing is classified top secret, sensitive sources and methods involved, not releasable to foreign nationals; the room is secure.” She paused to doublecheck that the thick mahogany double doors to the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference Center, referred to as the “Tank” or the “Gold Room, ” were closed and locked and that the red “Top Secret” lights were on. Rebecca “Becky” Rodgers could feel the tension of the men and women in the Tank that morning, and her news was not going to help to cheer them up one bit. Captain Rodgers was at the briefer’s podium at the base of the Tank’s large, triangle-shaped conference table where everyone could see her and the screen clearly. It was a most imposing and decidedly uncomfortable spot-seven of the most senior, most powerful military men on the planet watching her, waiting for her, no doubt evaluating her performance every moment. The first few sessions in this room had been devastating for her. But that was a half-dozen crises ago, and it seemed like old hat now. She didn’t need the old trick of trying to imagine the Joint Chiefs naked to get through her nervousness-the fact that she knew something that these powerful men and women did not know was comfort enough. Present for the briefing was JCS Chairman General Wilbur Curtis; the Vice Chairman, Marine Corps General Mario Lanuza; the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Randolph Cunningham; Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Peterson; Air Force Chief of Staff General William Falmouth; and Army Chief of Staff General John Bonneville, plus their aides and representatives from the other J-staff directorates. Curtis insisted on attendance by all Joint Staff members and directorates for these daily briefings-it was probably the only opportunity for the staff to get together as a team during their busy week. The Chairman sat at the blunted apex of the triangle, with seats available beside him at the head of the table for the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States if they chose to attend, although in his two years of office, the President had never set foot in this place. The four-star Joint Staff members and their aides and staffers sat on the Chairman’s left, the J-staff directorate representatives on the right, and guests and briefers at the base of the triangle near the back. Each seat had a small communications console and computer I TV monitor embedded in the table, which was fed from the giant Global Military Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence Network operations center on another level of the Pentagon. The back wall of the Tank was a large rear-projection screen. Arranged above it was a series of red LED digital clocks with various times, and several members of the staff, by force of habit after long years aloft or at sea, gave themselves a time hack from those ultra-precise clocks every morning. “The number-one topic I have for you today is the Philippines and South China Sea incidents, ” Rodgers said after concluding her routine force status briefings. “In response to the attack on an oil-exploration barge a few months ago in the neutral zone in the Spratly Island chain, both the Philippines and China have stepped up naval activity in the area. “Specifically, the Chinese have not added any new forces except for a few smaller shallow patrol boats. They have a very strong contingent there, including the destroyer Hong Lung, which carries the Hong Qian-9 1 surface-to-air missile system, the Fei Lung-7 and Fei Lung-9 antiship missile systems, and a good complement of dual-purpose guns. Additionally, they have two frigates, four patrol boats, some minesweepers, and other support vessels. They usually detach into three smaller patrol groups, with a missile craft leading two groups
