“Here we go, Bud,” Patrick said. To the computer, he said, “Activate array.” In an instant, the towed array, which normally was all but invisible to radar, blossomed to the electromagnetic equivalent of a Boeing 747.

That move had its desired and expected effect: All of the Libyan air defense radars, which had just been searching the skies seconds before, almost immediately locked on to the towed decoy. Now instead of peaceful search and air traffic control radars, Patrick’s threat scope was suddenly alive with dozens of antiaircraft threats—surface-to- air missile sites, antiaircraft artillery, and fighter-intercept radars. “Warning, SA-10 acquisition mode, ten o'clock, twenty miles," the computer responded. “Warning, SA-9 acquisition mode, two o'clock, ten miles...” The warnings kept coming, until: “Warning, missile launch, SA-10, ten o'clock, nineteen miles. .. warning, missile launch, SA-10, ten o'clock, nineteen miles...”—the SA-10 missiles always launched in pairs. “Countermeasures not activated."

“Commit Dragon,” Patrick spoke. He had to consciously bring his breathing and voice under control. In all the times he had been on an attack run, this was the first time he did not react when a threat came up. If this didn’t work, they’d be dead in fifteen seconds.

“Caution, Dragon activated.. . caution, Dragon engaging," the computer responded. Patrick watched in fascination as the newest and most sophisticated computer system ever placed aboard any aircraft automatically began prosecuting the attack and activating the most devastating airborne weapon ever produced:

The AL-52 Dragon’s LADARs, or laser radar arrays, which electronically scanned hundred of thousands of cubic miles of space in every direction thirty times per second, tracked the Soviet-made SA-10 missile with millimeter precision. At the same time the LADAR also instantly measured the dimensions of the rocket, determining where its motor section was. Tracking computers then began measuring the rocket’s speed, altitude, and direction— even predicting its probable impact point and relaying the data to friendly forces downrange.

At the same moment, the Dragon itself came to life.

Turbopumps in the belly of the AL-52 Dragon immediately began pressurizing hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide inside a reaction chamber. Chlorine gas and helium from storage tanks in the cargo section of the modified B-52 bomber were then sprayed under pressure into the chamber, forming an energized substance called singlet delta-oxygen. In another reaction chamber, iodine and helium were injected into the substance, which released the high-energy photons from the gas, creating laser light.