[positr0n]

Not related to magneto hydrodynamics, but

> Did Clancy speak to someone with non public information?

I heard from people working for DoD contractors that there was a lot of classified information around anti-submarine warfare technology and tactics in the book. This quote from the nytimes review in 1987 seems to confirm that.

Mr. Lehman, in an interview last week, recalled telling Mr. Clancy in a good-natured way: 'If you were a naval officer, I would have you court-martialed because of all the classified information in your book.' Up to that time, Mr. Lehman said, 'operational procedures of antisubmarine warfare had been classified.' But, he added, Mr. Clancy had simply ''pieced it all together by voraciously reading the open literature for 15 years, things like the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/30/weekinreview/tom-clancy-s-...