"Give me RWR and IRWR, screen one," he commanded.
The liquid crystal panorama inside the helmet immediately flashed, showing the unfriendly radar and infrared interrogations. The two Acrid AA-9s—that's what they had to be—were gaining altitude, tracking them like bloodhounds. One was radar locked, while the other showed active-homing IR guidance. The exhausts of Daedalus's afterburners must look like a fireball in the sky, he thought.
He scanned the menu for electronic countermeasures (ECM) capabilities.
"Petra, commence radar jamming."
“Commenced. Estimated time to impact, thirty-eight seconds.”
The missiles were still closing. Even if the radar-guided AAM could be confused, Daedalus had no way to defeat infrared homing.
The left-hand display now showed they had accelerated to Mach 4.2. The throttle quadrant was locked into the afterburner mode, but outrunning AAMs was like trying to outspeed a smart bullet.
He watched the dials. Mach 4.3. Mach 4.4.
“Estimated time to impact twenty-eight seconds.”
"I'm not sure we're going to make it," he said into his helmet mike. "We may have to try initiating the scramjets early."