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

by Thomas Withington

Detecting and destroying enemy Surface-to-Air Missiles (S.A.M.) 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 S.A.M. and air defenses. Put simply, without the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (S.E.A.D.) 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 S.E.A.D. mission have seldom benefited from rigorous historical examination. Using interviews with S.E.A.D. pilots, industrial experts and historical documents this book for the first time will give a detailed history of the S.E.A.D. mission from the Vietnam War to the present day.

Genres: Aviation

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m an airplane nut. Put an F-4 on the cover and Wild Weasel in the title, I have to pick it up. SAM suppression is an absolute requirement to obtain air dominance over a battlefield. During the ATF competition, Northrop identified SAMs as the more serious threat and focused their goal to be super stealthy. Lockheed, on the other hand, went with less stealthy and more agile, as they knew the fighter jock generals would like that better. The ego choice reduce the threat from advanced Russian SAMs, as those systems are designed to find stealth aircraft.

The book starts in World War 2, with some interesting radar jamming stories. I hadn’t been aware that there were such focused efforts on the Allies part using advanced electronics to counter Nazi radar. My books on B-17s & B-29s do not mention such missions. Now I want to go through others to find mentions of this interesting aspect of electronic warfare.

After that, the book slides through various conflicts, describing the origins of the wild weasel programs in the USA. There are some interesting tidbits, such as the USAF not interested in putting radar warning receivers on its fast jets (the Navy did, once again demonstrating the Navy is thinking ahead). But there isn’t a lot for in depth stories. Sure, there are technical details dropped continually, but the people behind the concepts were barely mentioned. I was seeking the stories of the pilots going on Wild Weasel runs, discussing their fears and successes.

The book also needed an editor. Time frames were off, some facts seemed to contradict one another.

While a good introduction, the book came off as too dry. It needed deeper stories of the pilots to truly flesh out the technical details provided.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book was a good overview of the history of SEAD...a few errors on squadrons involved in operations and a few mixed up dates which should have been caught in the proofreading.