The post-war development of fighter radar in Europe - A British perspective

This paper, focusing on fighter radar, covers the period of indigenous development that followed the British wartime expedient of reliance on US industry, particularly for airborne equipment. To set the story in context, the wartime history and the U.S. connection has to be sketched, since it provides important support to the theme, though it is not central to it. At each stage of development, the enabling technical principles are discussed in a historical context. It is important that younger people entering the field today have a link with the subject origins and that is the main motive behind the paper. It is intended as a light introduction, not as a definitive history. It is about inspiring enquiry and providing linkage, not about settling historical controversy. One value of history is the projection that it supports. As a basis for this, the importance of the three PRFs in configuring the coherent pulse train for air intercept is illustrated. The European evolution of active array implementation is discussed and quite naturally, the paper ends on prediction of European emphases for the next two decades in the field.