Butch 'Cobra' Masters aces his USNAF top gun squad, until they are all disgraced, blamed for an exercise turned tragically wrong as manipulated real-time information made them launch real rockets on a cave hideout for chemical arms. As suggested at court trial, his mates accept to avoid a conviction by applying for a voluntary dismissal, each finding a niche in civilian aircraft. When ambitious Pentagon official John Webster, the former squad's former superior, urgently needs their specialty of strike capacity in the Middle East but can't officially engage troops for diplomatic risks, the team is informally reassembled under promise of full rehabilitation. They are retrieved from placed as far as Moscow, complemented for research with his ex girl friend, now investigative reporter, supposed to prevent chemical weapon Rainmaster falling in the hands of crazy Kurdish militia in Syria, but layers of betrayal cause unforeseen trouble.—KGF Vissers