Salute!
Sorry, Bob, I should have given credit to Dale. I actually thot of it before he published "Flight of the Old Dog" and many following techno-thrillers. And I bought the book just after it came out when a fellow pilot/engineer had a son flying Buffs and recommended it.
The technical problems of launching missiles from the big boys are not as challenging today as they were when Dale wrote his first book. The aero stuff is still challenging, but the nav/guidance/sensor technology is way beyond what many of us envisioned.
In the late 70's we all laughed when the troop from DARPA or Systems Command advertised a 15 meter sphere for position accuracy using the "secret" P-code we military folks had, and then Selective Availability. So 25 years later, and having worked on the original JDAM ops demo in early 90's, I sat on my deck and waited for the clock to reach 1200 when the SA went away. My Magellan handheld unit's position settled down and I had at least the 15 meter position accuracy we were told about using just the coarse acquisition sfwe we civilians had
Gums sends...