The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology
German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War
James Mills
Casemate, Philadelphia, 2022, 240 pages
Book Review published on: July 14, 2023
Author James Mills presents an amazing, detailed history review of the German surface-to-air guided missile technology development in the book The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War. I’d like to recognize the amazing details, level of research, and translation that the author had to conduct to compile this historical record on the subject. This is evidenced by the sixty-two pages of appendices and bibliography. This work is basically a genealogy of current Western surface-to-air missile systems.
Mills begins with basically a DNA research project of German-guided missile development during World War II. Mills then compares British and American missile development in World War II. Next, he details how the allies exploited captured German sites and divided up what documents, personnel, and test equipment were relocated to their countries. The level of detail the author provides is astounding.
The author explains U.S. and UK analysis of sites that U.S. intelligence collected during the war and what happened to these after the war. Mills discusses how the allies utilized not only the scientist and materials captured but also the seldom-mentioned key assets of the test facilities that were captured.
Mills’s final three chapters review how the United States, UK, and France used the captured German technology and scientists to develop their own antiaircraft missile programs. He discusses how the priority of exploitation was in the war against Japan. He then moves to explain which German specialists were sent to which U.S., French, or British facilities to work on specific projects. The detail of Mills’s analysis outlines which German specific weapons systems research documents on was available and each location. This was valuable since there was no internet to share items online. Copies had to be made and couriered or people had to travel to the specific base as well as which base had samples of the German hardware and which scientists worked with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and American Air Force/U.S. Air Force and location. The chapter on American exploitation discusses how German work influenced the U.S. Army Nike Missile System and other items from propellants to guided systems. The chapter on the UK development of German captured assets is roughly the same as the United States in scope, breadth, and details. Capturing less German assets after the war, they lagged the United States and UK in development and eventually purchased U.S. and UK surface-to-surface systems.
As stated by the author, the presented historical account explains how scientific advances can be exploited and accelerated due to war—whether armed conflict, space surveillance, cyber operations, signal intelligence collection, etc. This is much more relevant today in the age of multidomain operations and a much more technology reliant economy and military. This book was a complex and detailed read. I would recommend for researchers involved in the developing area of counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) technology or even in military technology exploitation of captured enemy equipment from C-UAV to cyber programs to area denial systems. While the technology in the book is most likely outdated, the investigation and development and testing programs are probably still valid.
Book Review written by: Col. James Kennedy, U.S. Army, Retired, Fort Belvoir, Virginia