Napier Michael - In Cold War Skies

CONTENTS

Formation of alliances, the development of nuclear weapons and jet aircraft

International crises, supersonic aircraft and the switch to low-level

Detente and a consolidation of capability

The time of Glasnost and Perestroika, agile aircraft and all-weather capability

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This electronic edition published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain in 2020

Michael Napier, 2020

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ISBN: 978-1-4728-3688-5 (HB)
ISBN: 978-1-4728-3689-2 (eBook)
ISBN: 978-1-4728-3686-1 (ePDF)
ISBN: 978-1-4728-3687-8 (XML)

Conceived and Edited by Jasper Spencer-Smith

Cover Design and Art Direction: Stewart Larking

Layout by Isobel Fiske

Index by Michael Napier

Produced for Bloomsbury Publishing Plc by Editworks Limited,

Bournemouth BH1 4RT, UK

Front cover:

An English Electric Lightning F6 climbs almost vertically away from its base at RAF Binbrook, Lincolnshire in the late 1970s. The aircraft is armed with two Hawker Siddeley Red Top air-to-air missiles (AAM). (Richard Cooke)

Front flap:

A MiG-21bis of the Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) taking off from a highway strip during an exercise in 1978. (Laukkanen)

Back cover:

A regiment of Soviet MiG-23 fighters [NATO reporting name Flogger] taxy out for a sortie during an air exercise in the Ukraine SSR in 1977. (Sputnik)

Back flap (top):

The author in front of a Tornado GR1 during an operational deployment to Saudi Arabia. (Napier)

Back flap (bottom):

A North American F-86A Sabre of the California ANG in the early 1950s. (USAF)

Title pages:

The Boeing B-47B Stratojet medium bomber formed the front-line of the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the mid-1950s. (USAF)

Contents pages:

A Tupolev Tu-95RT maritime reconnaissance aircraft [NATO reporting name Bear-D] of the Soviet Naval Aviation seen over the shoulder of a USAF interceptor crew. (Getty)

Imprint pages:

A McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom of the US Air Force closes with a Soviet Tupolev Tu-95 Bear. (US National Archives)

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INTRODUCTION