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Wild Weasel Fighter Attack: The Story of the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences Kindle Edition

by Thomas Withington (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
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An in-depth look at the weaponry, tactics, and combat pilots involved in neutralizing enemy air defenses—from the Vietnam War to today.

Detecting and destroying enemy Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) and radar is arguably the most dangerous mission that any pilot can undertake. Tactics differ with air forces, but the general principal is to fly a formation of aircraft into an area where the enemy’s air defenses are strong, wait for their radar to illuminate the aircraft and then launch a volley of anti-radiation missiles to destroy the radar and thus blind the SAMs and air defenses. Put simply, without the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission, the loss of other aircraft will be too high and the effectiveness of attack on the enemy too low.

Despite the undeniable bravery of the aircrews who flew these missions for the United States Air Force in every conflict since the Vietnam war, and their colleagues in other air forces across the world who have risked their lives in similar missions, the tactics, history, aircraft and weapons of the SEAD mission have seldom benefited from rigorous historical examination.

Using interviews with SEAD pilots, industrial experts and historical documents this book for the first time will give a detailed history of the SEAD mission from the Vietnam War to the present day.
 
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  1. Print length
    392 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Pen & Sword Aviation
  5. Publication date
    September 22, 2008
  6. File size
    14753 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Withington is an author and historian.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00CLEAS1Y
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen & Sword Aviation (September 22, 2008)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 22, 2008
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 14753 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 29 ratings

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Thomas Withington

Thomas Withington

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
29 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert L. Baird
5.0 out of 5 stars Weasels in the Gulf!
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2009
Verified Purchase
A nice surprise for the F-4G Wild Weasel fan and a very well done book overall.It provides a close look at the air war in the Gulf from the guy's flying the F-4G Wild Weasel and their ability to detect and destroy Sadam's Radar and SAM sites.
I would recommend this book to all fan's of the F-4, military history buff's, and current serving aircrew as a primer on fighting the electronic war of the past and how it has been updated.
8 people found this helpful
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Mr Bronson
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, but incomplete
Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2020
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This books is very good indeed, and provides a lot of detail about the history of SEAD and of the Wild Weasels in Vietnam and the Gulf War. However, it is rather light on the role of the US Navy during the Vietnam War. I know that the title is "Wild Weasels", but the book talks about the systems and missions flown by other countries in their own SEAD efforts, so a bit more detail on the Navy's Vietnam operations would have been good. There were also a lot of grammatical errors, detracting somewhat from the experience of reading the book.
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the time
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2019
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Seemed like it was written by an undergraduate, one sided only.
One person found this helpful
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Dan C
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on a great system
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2014
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Great book on a great system. Really appreciated by a friend who once installed & maintained the system and is near his end.
One person found this helpful
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Wentai
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2022
Ignore the bad reviews -- they appear to be written by unsettled MiG pilots.
The F-4 Phantom flew over Vietnam, slipping under the radar and at times taking out enemy SAM sites with rockets, missiles, bombs and at times the internal cannon.
What kind of bravery does it take to strike an anti-aircraft missile site with your gun?
Other chapters deal with using technology to get the job done, a strategy that has kept the US Airforce one step ahead of enemy nations.
These are my 3 favorite aviation books:
- F-5 In Action by Lou Drendel
- F-4 Phantom by Robert Prest
- Great Fighter Jets of the Galaxy 1 by Tim Gibson
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82nd Airborne
4.0 out of 5 stars Wild Weasel Fighter
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2012
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I think our military has lost site of the need for a dedcated Wild Weasel platform. It takes all parts of SEAD plat form to be sync. To function properly and with out having a dedcated crew who trains lives and breaths it together. I don't think we will be as successful as in the past. Counting on the F-22 or the F-35 to do it all it a very costly mistake and not just in money!!
6 people found this helpful
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David J. Aspinall
4.0 out of 5 stars good read
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2009
for those of you that are interested in the tactics used both in history of modern day air defence surpression, I found this book covers the topic well. From evolution of radar and guided missile defences to the aircraft, weapons and tactics utilised by various nations during a wide variety of conflicts. both in the past through to the present day and beyond.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Thibaut
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended
Reviewed in France on January 5, 2023
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A thorough historical description of SEAD. A must-read for anyone interested in this subject, although a lot has happened since the book was written more than a decade ago.
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compass
3.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in Italy on April 18, 2022
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A Good overall history of the development and evolution of both machines/weapons and tactics over the last 70 years, but not as detailed as I would have liked.
SAM batteries, battalions etc. It would have been nice to have a detailed definition of what comprises such a unit to get a better understanding.
Also few typos, wrong dates. A few of the technical systems were mentioned by only their name/designation but no real explanation on how they actually work in sufficient detail was given.
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MaKe
5.0 out of 5 stars großartiges Buch zum Thema SEAD/DEAD
Reviewed in Germany on January 15, 2017
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Inhalt:
Dieser Welzer beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema SEAD, also der Unterdrückung gegnerischer Luftabwehr. Hiermit ist auch die kinetische Zerstörung gemeint. Das Buch beginnt bei den Anfängen des elektronischen Kampfes, im ersten und zweiten Weltkrieg. Danach erfährt man einiges über strategische Ansatzpunkte der elektronischen Kampfführung, bevor es ans Eingemachte geht. Es werden verschiedene Mittel zur Bekämpfung von SAM/AAA vorgestellt, also das was man unter einer Joint Force versteht. Dabei bezieht der Autor nicht nur flugfähige Waffenplattformen, sondern auch Artillerie und SOC (Special Operation Commandos) mit ein. Darauf folgt linear ein Einblick in verschiedene Kriege des letzten Jahrhunderts, bei denen SEAD und DEAD eine Rolle gespielt haben. Der größte Fokus liegt hier auf den Kriegen, in die Israel involviert war. Vietnam kommt auch zur Sprache, allerdings recht kurz. Aber auch bisher weniger bekannte Auseiandersetzungen (Pakistan vs. Indien) werden behandelt. Eine Runde Mischung aus fast allem.

Fazit:
Das Buch hat mich gefesselt, von Anfang bis Ende. So weit vorne in der Geschichte hat noch kein anderer Autor beim Thema SEAD begonnen. Auch die strategischen Ansätze und der Einfluss anderer Waffengattungen war abwechslungsreich und sehr informativ. Die detaileichen Ausführungen der verschiedenen Konflikte bilden dabei das I-Tüpfelchen auf der Sahnetorte. Das der Part über die SEAD Einsätze etwas kurz kam stört nicht, da gibt es ausreichend Literatur. Die Analyse der israelischen Konflikte war überaus hilfreich und lesenwert. Einzig und allein die Behandlung des Konfliktes zwischen Iran und Irak hat hier noch gefehlt. Da die anderen Konflikte nach dem Thema "Israel" weniger detailliert ausgeführt wurden, sank die Spannungskurve gegen Ende leider. Ich hätte mir hier den gleichen Detailgrad wie im "Israel" Kapitel gewünscht. Auch der Ausblick hätte gern noch um die Themen anti access/ aerial denial ausgeweitet werden können. Alles in allem aber ein sehr gutes Werk zum Thema.
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dukeofwelli
5.0 out of 5 stars Histoire des Wild Weasels
Reviewed in France on June 29, 2012
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Thomas Withington reprend dans son ouvrage l'histoire de ces aviateurs dont le rôle est de supprimer (à la fois dans le sens de "faire taire" ou alors dans celui de "détruire") les défenses aérienne d'un adversaire en période de conflit.
L'auteur ne se contente pas seulement de lister des faits, il théorise également chacune des époques considérées. "Apparu" au début de la seconde guerre mondiale, lors de la tentative de destruction des radars défendant les côtes de la Grande Bretagne, ce domaine c'est transformé au fur et à mesure du développement de l'arme aérienne.
Withington évoque également les perspectives à venir, dans ce domaine si particulier. Il insiste particulièrement sur la nécessité d'intégration de différentes composantes, réactives et adaptatives, ouvrant le champ d'application à d'autres armes que celles aériennes.
Ce livre complète élégamment celui d'Eisel et Schreiner:  Magnum! The Wild Weasels in Desert Storm. The Elimination of Iraq's Air Defence
2 people found this helpful
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