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Hello, CMANO community,

Can anybody advise on technical resources for the operation and tactics of IADS and naval AAW, and how aviation and other ground equipment interacts?


I've had difficulty finding information post the early Vietnam war. Piecemeal at best.


For information only: a good book on WW2 EW and AAW is "Instruments Of Darkness: The History Of Electronic Warfare" by Alfred Price


Any advice appreciated, thank you all.

Truth be told, in the abstract, not a lot has changed since the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war, and the Linebacker Campaign in particular, is interesting in part because it was where many of the tactics which have persisted to this day were created (e.g. strike packages, gorilla strikes, precision guided weapons, ever larger numbers of support aircraft, and the defenses against them).

The best book I've found that talks about IADS, is a book called Strike Warfare in the 21st Century by Dale E. Knutsen. I like how he talks about how air defenses are layered up (something a lot of scenario builders could stand to learn). He's a China Lake guy, so the book is targeted at new engineers who know nothing about air warfare looking at building advanced munitions.

Obvious starting point for US stuff is Joint Pub 3-01 Countering Air and Missile Threats. There's some discussion of Naval IADS in Naval Operations Analysis by Wagner, et. al. For a more conventional description of a post-Vietnam IADS, the Gulf War Air Power Survey, Volume 4 has a summary of Iraqi air defenses, although it is somewhat redacted.

Thank you very much, SeaQueen and ExNusquam.
I particularly liked the Gulf War Air Power Survey's claim that the Coalition lost no aircraft in air to air engagements.

Looking forward to tracking down Strike Warfare and Naval Operations Analysis.