What will it take for the U. S. Air Force to enter the twenty-first century? They're about to find out-but at a deadly price. All hell breaks loose in Asia when China strikes at Taiwan. A. U. S. effort to bolster Taiwan meets with a stunning setback that encourages an emboldened China to advance on territory it lost decades ago. Meanwhile, Chinese allies in North Korea, Pakistan, and Iran begin their own offensives, triggering conflicts from the Middle East to the Korean peninsula. Aerial strike warfare expert Patrick McLanahan and genius aerospace engineer Jon Masters are authorized by the President to put a bold plan into action: convert the Air Force's recently retired B-52 Strato fortress bomber fleet to the new EB-52 Mega fortress "flying battleship" standard and deploy them to Asia. With a small band of civilian and military colleagues, McLanahan goes to work outfitting his mini-fleet with a payload of cutting-edge stealth missiles. If anything can turn the tide, these new weapons are it. But are they enough? And have they come too late?