In the Operations Center, with its banks of computers, multiple media feeds from different 24-hour news channels and social media, and its real-time satellite and drone surveillance imagery, up-to-the-minute information was filtered, analyzed and disseminated to the Command Group and supporting staff. Plans were then made and direction passed down to the Joint Command HQs at Brunssum in the Netherlands and Naples in Italy, as well as to NATO’s Maritime Command at Northwood and Air Command at Ramstein in Germany.

In the brightly lit CCOMC Conference Room, Admiral Max Howard, NATO’s strategic commander, together with McKinlay and Major General Skip Williams, the youthful-looking American Deputy Chief of Staff Operations, were running through the sequence of events for the operation due to be launched imminently, early on Sunday morning.

Williams was talking. “As you’d expect, SACEUR, there continues to be serious push back from the staff at Air Command. For an operation of this magnitude they’d expect to have several days to implement the air campaign or, at the very least, a thirty-six-hour window to guarantee even half-effective suppression of enemy air defenses. So, the idea of mounting the whole operation over one short July night is a major concern for them. They’ve pointed out that every war in recent history, even establishing a no-fly zone against an enemy as useless as the Libyans, has depended on an air campaign lasting several days.”

“That’s the way it’s going to be, Skip.” Howard was firm. “We’re in a different type of war and the old norms don’t apply here. An extended air campaign followed by a major land operation is old thinking. It’s exactly what the Russians will expect. We’ve got to be more agile. We know the integrated air-defense system covering Kaliningrad and Eastern Europe is exceptionally capable. I’m very aware that their S-400 system has missiles capable of engaging out to four hundred kilometers and they have shorter-range missiles for killing fast, maneuverable targets, so the Russians have the potential to make our air forces” job about as difficult as it can be.

“However, our aircraft are world beaters, so I’m confident that with F-22A Raptors and the B-2A Spirit Stealth bombers leading the way, we’ve got the capability to carve holes in the Russian air defenses to allow our other bombers through to attack targets on the ground. And don’t forget the new version of HARM, the High-speed, Anti-Radiation Missile our aircraft are carrying. The GPS allows it to pinpoint the location of the SAM, surface-to-air missile, radar emitters. Even if they switch off their radars, it will still hit them smack on the nose.”

McKinlay was impressed. He had not expected Howard to be so well-briefed on technical issues.

But then, he thought to himself, as an ex-naval aviator who had commanded a carrier battlegroup, he shouldn’t have been surprised. This technical stuff was essential bedside reading to aviators.