This illustrated study explores the design, development, and
deployment of the F-102, a groundbreaking fighter intended to combat the
threat of Soviet nuclear-armed bombers.
World War II saw the development of the heavy bomber as a decisive
weapon which, in sufficient numbers, could overcome defensive fighters
and guns and lay waste to strategic targets. The addition of nuclear
weapons to the bomber's armament made it even more formidable, and by
the late 1940s, US planners saw the growth of a Soviet nuclear-armed
bomber fleet as a terrifying threat to North American security.
Conventional subsonic fighters with guns and free-flight air-to-air
rockets would be incapable of reaching these incoming bombers in time to
prevent even one from delivering a devastating nuclear attack. As a
result, supersonic speed, long-range guided missiles and precise
radar-based control of an interception became prerequisites for a new
breed of fighters, beginning with the F-102.
A massive research and development effort produced the F-102A "1954
Fighter," the J57 afterburning turbojet, its Hughes MX-1554 fire control
system and, in due course, the Semi-Active Ground Environment (SAGE)
radar and communications network that covered North America to guide its
airborne defenses. In service, F-102As also provided air defense in
Europe with USAFE, in the Far East, and in Southeast Asia, where they
protected US airbases in South Vietnam and Thailand from air attack by
North Vietnamese fighters and bombers and escorted B-52s and
fighter-bombers on their attack sorties.
This illustrated study from leading expert Peter E. Davis details the
design, development, and deployment of the futuristic F-102, including
its complex research program and role in Vietnam.
