Probably a coincidence but...

Back in my early years of high school (so about 1996 or so) I read this book by Dale Brown (not to be confused with Dan Brown) called Day of the Cheetah. Now certainly not high-brow literature, but an enjoyable read to pass time in study hall. Anyway, without spoiling too much about either this film or that book, the program the protagonist/antagonist character in Day of Cheetah came from bears an uncanny resemblance to the one Salt comes from in this movie. Basically make Salt male and an Air Force top secret test pilot instead of a government agent and...yeah pretty much same character. Coincidence? Very probable, but still I wonder if one of the writers read that book at some point and incorporated ideas from it into this?