Shadow Command

WEAPONS AND ACRONYMS

9K89—small Russian surface-to-surface missile

ARB—Air Reserve Base

ATO—air tasking order

BDU-58 Meteor—precision-guided vehicle designed to protect payloads from the heat of re-entry through the atmosphere; can carry approximately 4,000 pounds

CIC—Combat Information Center

coonass—a person of Cajun ethnicity

E-4B—National Airborne Operations Center

E-6B Mercury—U.S. Navy airborne communications and command post aircraft

EB-1D—B-1 Lancer bomber modified as an unmanned long-range supersonic attack plane

ETE—estimated time en route

FAA Part 91—regulations governing private pilots and aircraft

FSB—Russian Federal Security Bureau, follow-on to the KGB

HAWC—High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center

ICD—implantable cardioverter-defibrillator

Ilyushin—Russian inflight refueling tanker aircraft

MiG—Mikoyan-Gureyvich, Russian military aircraft maker

OSO—offensive systems officer

RQ-4 Global Hawk—high-altitude long-range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft

SAR—synthetic aperture radar; also search and rescue

Skybolt—space-based anti-ballistic missile laser

SPEAR—Self-Protection Electronically Agile Reaction network intrusion defense system

sun-synchronous—an Earth orbit on which a satellite passes over the same spot at the same time of day

Tupolev—twin-engine Russian jet bomber

USAFE—U.S. Air Forces in Europe

VFR—Visual Flight Rules

Vomit Comet—aircraft used to fly parabolic flights to simulate weightlessness

XAGM-279A SkySTREAK (Scramjet Tactical Rapid Employment Attack, or “Streaker”) — air-launched hypersonic attack missile, 4,000 pounds, 12 feet long, 24 inches in diameter; uses a solid rocket motor to boost the missile to Mach 3, then switches to a JP-7 jet fuel and compressed atmospheric oxygen scramjet to cruise at Mach 10; inertial and precision GPS navigation; satellite datalink operator mid-course reprogramming; ballistic flight profile max range 600 miles; after accelerating to Mach 10, releases precision-guided warhead with millimeter-wave radar and imaging infrared terminal guidance with auto-target discrimination or satellite datalink remote operator target selection; no warhead; two can be carried aboard EB-1C Vampire bomber in aft bomb bay; four carried internally or four externally by EB-52 Megafortress; four carried internally by B-2 stealth bomber

XR-A9—single-stage to orbit “Black Stallion” spaceplane