This book is subtitled "RAF Air Defence Projects and Weapons since 1945 and that is exactly what is contained within. The majority of these projects were prompted by the very real threat of nuclear war from the Soviets and while some of the projects may seem somewhat out of place today, they were all designed to protect the populace of the UK from the dangers of the day. Much of the book contains projects that were either still-borne or never made it out of prototype stage. It is actually quite surprising to me the number of innovative designs that were suggested. It also shows that the number decreased rather considerably as time went on. Those proposed post WWII and into the 1950s were many and those in a more modern era were few and far between.

The book is not exactly an easy read as it is so full of information that it takes quite a while to digest it all. Not to say it is not interesting, as it very much is, but that you will not have it finished in a weekend!

The author has a considerable amount of material to cover and does so by taking things in stages.  First of all, we start with how the UK positioned it response and warning sites as well as those areas most often visited by Soviet recce aircraft. Then it moves into various types of anti-aircraft artillery and how that progressed over the years. Of course, one are of major importance is actually seeing the incoming threat and the third chapter covers the use and advancements in early warning radar technology. Surface to air missiles are the next area covered. I am sure most folks of an age recall the batteries of Bloodhound missiles that dotted the eastern shores of the UK and that is all covered in this chapter.

Of course, the threat changed from aircraft to ballistic missiles by the end of the 1950s and so there grew a real need to come up with anti-ballistic missile defense. Numerous programs were started and several promising vehicles were successfully tested, but the signing of the ABM treaty between the US and USSR had work in this area come to mere crawl. Still, bombers were and still are part of the equation, so the development of air to air missiles to be carried by interceptors is delineated in the next chapter.  Force mulitpliers are the next section. This includes both air tankers as well as AEW platforms. I have to confess that several of these projects were truly fascinating, including a turboprop powered C-97 derivative as an AEW aircraft. Of course, the cursed Nimrod AEW is part and parcel of this section.

The eighth chapter covers a variety of interesting projects from the 1950s and early 1960s. This includes various interceptor projects and some equally interesting weapons ideas. One I found quite interesting was the battery of recoilless rocket installations in the fuselage of a Bristol 180-looking aircraft that fired from below Soviet bombers. Very much like the standard WWII German night fighter fuselage cannon installation. The next chapter covers projects from about 1957 until today. This includes a variety of projects such as the supersonic Harrier. This all ends with a section on the Tornado ADV and other similar projects. I this one the lower image on the cover, a Vulcan F.2 air defense aircraft is one of the many interesting ideas is covered.

This all makes for a superb book that is chock full of what was, what is, and what could have been. A book that, like all Hikoki publications, is well researched, well written and one I can quite easily recommend to you.

December 2012

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