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Operation Sky Shield: NORAD's Influence on SAC 's Tactics.

  • Published In: Journal of Military History, 2025, v. 89, n. 4. P. 982 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Johnson, Richard R. 3 of 3

Abstract

Early in the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) used strategic bombing tactics from World War II, despite growing evidence that high-altitude formation bombing was vulnerable to Soviet air defenses. From 1960 through 1963, SAC took part in largescale air defense exercises with the North American Airspace Defense Command (NORAD) called Operation Sky Shield. These exercises revealed weaknesses in SAC tactics, prompting SAC to make significant changes, such as adopting low-altitude single-sortie flights, passive radar jamming, structural modifications to existing bombers, and canceling planned high altitude bomber designs. These changes increased SAC bomber survivability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Journal of Military History. 2025/10, Vol. 89, Issue 4, p982
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2025
  • ISSN:0899-3718
  • Accession Number:188228353
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Journal of Military History is the property of Society for Military History and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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