The Kremlin Strike

Weapons and Acronyms

AN/TPY-2 — air defense radar system

BOHM — borohydrogen metaoxide, an advanced rocket engine oxidizer

CAPCOM — capsule communicator, person maintaining communications between a spacecraft and Mission Control

CID — Cybernetic Infantry Device, a manned combat robot

COMS — Cybernetic Orbital Maneuvering System, a manned or unmanned space transportation device

DEFCON — Defense Condition, an alerting system designating a particular war footing

Dragon — manned space capsule designed by SpaceX

DTF — digital terrain-following, high-speed low-altitude flight without using radar

E-4B — airborne command and control aircraft

EA-18G Growler — carrier-borne electronic warfare aircraft

EKS — Edinaya Kosmicheskaya Sistema, advanced Russian early warning system

Elektron — Russian manned spaceplane

Energia-5VR — Russian heavy-lift rocket

ERO — Emergency Return from Orbit, a crew escape system capable of returning a crewman from Earth orbit

EVA — extravehicular activity; spacewalk

FSB — Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, Russian intelligence service that replaced the KGB

gapa — Polish pilot’s wings

GMD — Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, part of the U.S. missile defense system

GRU — Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye, former Soviet military intelligence service

HeliVert AW139 — AgustaWestland medium-transport helicopter

HK416 — German assault rifle

Hobnail — Russian space-based laser attack system

HUD — heads-up display, a system that projects vital information to a screen in front of the pilot so he does not have to look down

HUMINT — human intelligence, using spies to gather intelligence

IKS — identifikatsionnyy kod samolet, Russian radar identification system

JP-8 — military aviation gasoline

Ka-52 — Kamov-52, Russian armed scout helicopter

Kibernetischeskiye Voyennyye Mashiny (KVM) — manned Russian combat robot

Kościuszko Land Forces Military Academy — Polish military academy

LEAF — Life Enhancing Assistive Facility, a mobile wearable life-support device

LPDRS — Laser Pulse Detonation Rocket System, advanced spacecraft propulsion system

MALD — miniature air-launched decoy, an advanced American aircraft defense system

MARAUDER — magnetically accelerated ring to achieve ultrahigh directed energy and radiation, experimental American plasma weapon

Mars Project — Russian manned space station project

MiG-31 — Russian high-speed high-altitude jet fighter

MOOSE — Manned Orbital Operations Safety Equipment, experimental American astronaut rescue system

Mossberg 500 — special-purpose shotgun

OAK — FAA designation for Oakland International Airport

Orion — NASA manned spacecraft system

PKP — Russian special-operations machine gun

PLSS — Primary Life Support System, an American astronaut’s backpack

Rapira — “Rapier,” Russian space-based Earth attack weapon

Razdan — Russian electro-optical satellite

RD-0150 and RD-171MV — Russian rocket engines

S-9 Black Stallion, S-19 Midnight, S-29 Shadow — American single-stage-to-orbit spaceplanes

S-300, S-400, S-500 — Russian surface-to-air missiles

SAM — surface-to-air missile

SBIRS — Space Based Infrared System, advanced American early warning system

Scimitar — Russian spacecraft defense system

SCT-2 — thermal imaging gun sights

SERE — Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape, training soldiers receive to prepare them for combat

SFO — FAA code for San Francisco International Airport

SpaceX Falcon Heavy — SpaceX heavy-lift rocket

Su-27, Su-30, Su-35 — advanced Russian fighter aircraft

Thunderbolt (Udar Molnii) — Russian space-based plasma weapon

Wasp — Russian air-launched antisatellite weapon

Wren Bravo — very light reconnaissance drone

XCV-62 Ranger — American stealthy short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft

XS-39 — next-generation experimental American single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane