NATO SAMs at the Iron Curtain 1959–91

With detailed illustrations, this is the first book to survey the technology and deployment of the NATO missile systems that protected Western European airspace during the Cold War.



For more than three decades, the first line of defence at the Iron Curtain was a huge network of medium- and long-range NATO surface-to-air missile systems. Beginning in 1959, Nike and Hawk SAMs, later reinforced by Britain's Bloodhound and Thunderbird, were deployed in a two-layer missile belt to defend against any Warsaw Pact air attack.



Written by two former air defence officers, and based on declassified documents and interviews with former NATO personnel, this is the first book to survey the development, technology, and deployment of the NATO SAM system. The first – Nike Ajax and Hercules – were deployed to protect airbases and other critical installations, forming a belt through West Germany from Switzerland to the North Sea. The capabilities of NATO's defences then developed with improvements to command and control systems, the extension of the system north into Scandinavia and south into Italy, Greece and Turkey, as well as the addition of HAWK, Thunderbird and Bloodhound missile units, and finally the deployment of the ultimate Patriot system in the 1980s.



Fully illustrated, this is a concise, detailed survey of the system that at its height, fielded more than 200 SAM batteries in Germany and the length of the Iron Curtain.