Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air Defense - Softcover

Werrell, Kenneth P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1089203470 ISBN 13: 9781089203476

Verlag: Independently published, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

Archie to SAM is an update to Kenneth Werrell's Archie, Flak, AAA, and SAM published in 1988. He continues to study ground-based air defense systems in new events, including the Gulf War. In rescuing ground-based air defense systems from long neglect, Werrell delves into such topics as tactics, leadership, change, and innovation.Archie, Flak, AAA, and SAM is an operational history of ground-based air defense systems from the beginning of air warfare up through 1988. The title refers to the several names Airmen use, and have used, to describe ground fire: Archie in World War I (from the British), flak in World War II and Korea (from the Germans), AAA throughout, but especially in Vietnam (from the American abbreviation for antiaircraft artillery), and most recently SAM (from the US abbreviation for surface to-air missiles). This study concentrates on how these weapons developed and how they affected both US and non US air operations.The subject of ground-based air defense systems is neglected for a number of reasons. First, research is difficult because source material is fragmented. Even more significant is the fact that the topic does not have “sex appeal.” Readers are more interested in the aircraft than the weapons that bring them down. Whereas the airplane appears as a dynamic, advanced, exciting, and offensive weapon, ground-based air defense systems are seen in the opposite light. Further, US experience has been almost exclusively with the offensive use of aircraft, not with the defensive use of flak and SAMs; Americans have seldom fought without air superiority. Too, there is the World War II example that many, if not most, people hold as the archetypical war—during which aircraft defeated all comers on all fronts. Another factor is that the air defense community has been overwhelmed by the air offense community. Not that the former is any less able or less professional than the latter, only that the air offense community has the attention and support of both industry and Congress. Little wonder then that the subject of flak and SAMs has been neglected.Despite this neglect and the aforementioned reasons, ground based air defense systems are important. They have been involved, have impacted on most air conflicts, and have achieved notable successes. These weapons have downed and damaged large numbers of aircraft and consequently have forced aviators to make changes and pay higher costs for operations. Clearly, ground-based air defenses have been ever present and have always been a factor in air wars. There is no indication that this influence will diminish in the future.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Independently published
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1089203470
• ISBN 13: 9781089203476
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 309
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.de/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxemburg