It was mid-Friday, August 2, in Washington, when television channels broadcast an emergency message: enemy supersonic bombers were approaching the East Coast. Soon the Secretary of Defense spoke, confidently declaring that the Norad air defense system would repel any air attack. To this, military observers from NBC and CNN unanimously objected that a squadron of “Black Jacks” could fire dozens of cruise missiles from a distance of about 2,000 miles, that is, they would not be able to shoot down the planes themselves, and the interceptors would have to hunt for tiny projectiles like the Kh-55 Kent.