The pilot’s side of the instrument panel had three sixteen-color multifunction displays (MFDs) that showed the route of flight, flight instruments, engine instruments, and system status readouts; Franken could switch between the displays with simple voice commands. Three more MFDs in the center instrument panel had fuel, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, threat, and weapon status readouts, with conventional backup instruments and gauges underneath. The mission commander’s instrument panel was dominated by a supercockpit display, a huge one-by-two- foot computer screen that showed a variety of information, all selected by the mission commander and controlled by voice commands or by a trackball on the right side. Two more MFDs on either side of the supercockpit display showed systems readouts and warning messages.

Their course was depicted on Lindsey’s display as a roadway, with the road as the computer-recommended altitude. Symbols showed known and detected threats and obstacles. Two large upside-down green cones either side of course represented the search radars in eastern Libya, with the “roadway” threading precisely between and underneath the edges of the cones; more cones represented Egyptian and naval search radars. Colored symbols all along the Libyan coastline represented the location of known antiaircraft threat sites, but so far none were active.

“Our first threat is an SA-10 site, two o’clock, forty miles,” Lindsey reported. “We should be underneath it in five minutes. We’ve got two Egyptian Roland sites at eleven o’clock—search radars only. We should be outside detection range. Egypt also has a Patriot site at extreme range, nine o’clock, fifty miles—we should be well clear. No fighters detected yet. LADAR coming on—our course is clear so far. We might have Libyan fighters at three o’clock, seventy miles—they’re moving pretty fast, but they don’t have radars on so we can’t identify yet.” Lindsey kept up a constant litany of reports and observations. Although Franken had all that information right in front of him as well, it was reassuring to hear Lindsey reciting it all—two pairs of eyes scanning the instruments was always better than one, especially when the action got hot and heavy.

The computer-generated “road” started to rise up to meet the aircraft depiction on their navigation displays, so both crew members monitored the level-off carefully. They performed a fast terrain-following system check, verified that everything was working normally. They were over water right now, forty miles off the Libyan coast. The Libyan coastal air defense sites were all around them, but right now they were quiet—no radar emissions at all.

“Want to step it down, Bud?” Lindsey asked.