Review: International: System 37 Viggen
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207503000216 |
| Author | G.R. Lindsey |
| Date | 01 June 1975 |
| Published date | 01 June 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
346
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
The
author
says
on
at
least
two
occasions
that
he
is
deliberately
not
going
into
any
detailed
explanation
of
how
electronic
counter-
measures
(EcM)
and
counter-counter-measures
(EccM)
work.
He
is
as
good
as
his
word,
with
the result
that
the
reader
either
is
kept
wonder-
ing
what
that
famous
electronic war really
is
or
else
is
apt
to
get
an
erroneous
impression
of
it.
To
give
but
one
example,
a
'jammer'
does
not
cause
a
missile
to
'veer
away,'
but
by
interfering
with
its
guidance
makes
it
miss
the
target.
The
purpose
of
this
kind
of
jamming
is
to
conceal
the
movements
of
the
attacking aircraft,
not
to
influence
the
course of
the
defensive missile
-
which could
not
be
done
by
jamming
alone.
There
is
also
the
odd
factual
mistake
in
other
parts
of
the
narrative
-
to
give
again
only
one
instance,
there
is
no
Bir Gifgafa
ridge,
let
alone
a
'sprawling'
one;
Bir
Gifgafa
is
an
important
cross-
roads
in
the
Sinai,
with
an
airfield
-
and
the
occasional
tautology,
as
when
the
author
speaks
of
a
mobile
anti-tank gun
'capable
of
traversing,'
as
if
there
were
some
which
couldn't.
'One must
end
by
concluding,'
Mr
O'Ballance
says
in
the
last
sentence
of
his book,
the clincher
so
to
speak,
'that
electronics
in
warfare
have
come
to
stay
...'
He
will
not
be
contradicted.
That
same
conclusion must
have
been
reached
by
just
about
anybody
with
an
insight
into
military
matters
in
194o,
at
the
latest,
during
the
Battle
of
Britain.
John
Gellner/Toronto
SYSTEM
37
VIGGEN
Arms,
Technology
and
the
Domestication
of
Glory
Ingemar
Dorfer
Oslo:
Universitetsforlaget,
1973,
257pp,
N.kr.
go.-
In
1970
only
six
states
were
producing
substantial
numbers
of
ad-
vanced
military
aircraft
designed
at
home;
the
United
States,
the
Soviet
Union,
China,
France,
Britain,
and
Sweden.
How
does
Sweden,
a
country
of
eight
million,
achieve
such
a
status?
Are
there features
of
Swedish
planning and
management
that
could
be
emulated
with
profit
by
other
small
countries
aspiring
to
industrial
and
technological
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