The arms race between air attack and air defence 

2:58 Thank you for using the proper wording

the way he explains BUFF with his proper British accent and deapan university lecturing voice is pure gold.

B-52s nickname is a treasure

Y'all deserve a like just for saying what BUFF stood for without chuching up.

5:20 This was unbelievably dangerous and Wild Weasel Pilots referred to this as "Hunting elephant guns with elephants." 😕

b52 =buff........love it

Just here to add my voice to the chorus of: “thanks for using the proper naming for the BUFF” lol

Maxim respect for using the full namet crews used. History like that should always be remembered. Thank you.

My visit to Duxford was one of the highlights of my trip to the UK two years ago. Still have fond memories.

Unfortunately, this video completely skipped over the most pivotal SEAD campaign of the 20th century: Operation Mole Cricket 19, which the Israeli Air Force carried out in 1982 - halfway between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. It set the standard for SEAD campaigns worldwide that followed. The Israelis developed the comprehensive SEAD strategy that was carried out during that operation over the span of a decade following their almost total failure to destroy soviet-supplied AA systems from the air during the 1973 Yom Kippur War (and the resulting degradation of the IAF’s capabilities during the 1973 war due to this failure).

Never thought I’d hear swearing on this Chanel 😂

"SEAD" is usually pronounced as "seed", as opposed to "S-e-a-d" (for brevity). Hats off for not bleeping out what the acrony of "BUFF" stands for. Also, no mention of the F-111 Raven?!

2:58 anyone else burst out laughing how random and unexpected this just was lmao

Always interesting. Thanks IWM 👍

Thanks for posting 😊

For reference, those in the business pronounce it as in 'Seed'. No one I know ever spelled out the acronym. 'See-ad' was as close as it got. 'Radar-hunting precision munitions' are not smart bombs, although smart bombs may be used to attack radars. As far as I know all specific anti-radar weapons, such as HARM and the old ALARM and Shrike, are missiles, not bombs. Remember that the key to ARMs is to release them outside the engagement zone of the threat system; that's hard with a bomb. When mentioning radar-based defences, it's a shame you show a manually-aimed ZSU-23/2. The SA-2 warhead was not 'F-R-A-G'. The 'Frag' is a contraction of 'fragmentation', not an acronym. The damage mechanism, as far as I remember, was expanding rod with a lethal radius of 100+ metres. But it would not detonate 'a blast of shrapnel forward of the aircraft'; that would be what we call a miss. The fragments actually follow an expanding conical path ahead of and around the missile, fusing timed so that this cone will intersect the target. On the use of HARM, making the enemy shut down to avoid destruction is suppression, but only temporary. If possible DEAD is always better. In Gulf War 1 the Iraqis certainly did not have the latest Soviet equipment. We were very fortunate that we were up against an IADS largely comprised of relics from 20 or 30 years earlier, with only the odd Roland thrown in. SA-10, for instance, could have made a massive difference due to its ability to put missiles in the air without exhibiting tracking modes, and HOJ terminal guidance that would have made the then conventional ECM ineffective. And that leads on to my main point: SEAD does not make enemy air defences useless'. Against a peer or near-peer adversary it can give local/temporary air superiority and, as with other military domains, there is a constant swing between weapons, tactics and countermeasures. Modern SAMs can be highly mobile and the unexpected 'SAM trap' is still a major hazard. Please stop saying 'S-E-A-D!

Much appreciated the buff nickname, explanation. You have my respect! 😂

Very educational 👍 Thank you!

Very interesting 👏 👏 👏

6:08 i love that the Thud is mentioned. 😍

Never even thought about the potential for anti-radar missiles to exist let alone be employed

I love your museum

One of the greatest history channels there is. No quacks working for unknown universities in China and selling Wikipedia facts.

Phantoms are fine looking planes.

The doco misses an obvious question - why weren't the Wild Weasel aircraft shot down by the SAM sites? It seems a bit dangerous to be flying around a SAM site in a war.

Are forgetting something like the f100 and f105 used the first anti radiation missle called the AGM-45 Shrike and the AGM-78 Standard ARM

i remember an interview with a weasel pilot, and they said when they turned on the ecm, the plane would crackle and your hair would stand up.

“Buff” - I literally, not figuratively, lol’d at that.

That thumbnail was somalia before Civil War, what a great nation 😊

Love these videos from the IMW!

Some conflict in the Middle East 67, 73 and 82 at least.

Yeah, the good old days. A quarter of a century ago, I could bench press 200 pounds.

1:50 that B-52 is carrying the X-15 (?)

You failed to mention 2 other conflicts that were essential for the creation of an efficient anti - anti aircraft missiles: The 1973 Yom Kippur war and the 1982 First Lebanese war. Operation Mole Cricket 19 on June 9th 1982 was the model used later in 1991 to destroy the Iraqi SEED

God Damn....

Rendering it useless... That's an overstatement... Once the US tactics to counter air defense were known, counter tactics were developed. And while the air defense wasn't able to function with impunity, it pretty much remained functional... For example, NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, after the Iraq war... Yugo forces knew how long the radar was to be turned on, made false radar positions and radiation... So HARM missiles in most cases went for decoys. And in the middle of all that SEAD, a semi-mobile SAM system S-125 (SA-3) managed to shoot down an F-117. Also, several other planes were either downed or damaged and Yugoslav air defense remained functional through the entire war...

Call sign? ... Bob.

Well, Iraq was not eqiupped with latest Soviet technology. Ukraine in 2022 is closer to what USSR had in late 1980s and as we see, they were able to deny air sapce to much advanced Russian Air Force

"If one element is missing, the whole concept of SEAD comes apart" Russians are like "Cyka Blyat dat too complicated, we just fly planes. Why we cannot suppress SAMs?!?" 😂

The hypersonic shovel has created a problem for modern day AA defence platforms and systems which can't be countered currently.

Interesting insight into the impact the Gulf War had on the end of the Soviet Union. Let us hope that the failure of the 'second best army in the world' to become the 'best army in Ukraine' will have similar consequences.

@Imperial War Museum: Im surprised the parallell between ww2 era bomber streams and and 21st century missile and drone swarms are not mentioned. The idea is the same send enough weapon systems through an area and rend any fighter and gun/missile defences insufficient to deal with the attack.

Hi

I can't remember if it was Operation Linebacker or Rolling Thunder, but bc of the massive bombing runs, the North was days away from surrender, we just didn't know it.

Ukraine's current offensive against Russian air defense (SEAD) will help achieve a renewed Ukrainian offensive using advanced aerial weapons provided by the West.

Deny the sky

I come from Vietnam And the Americans failed in my coutny skies, the US Air Force absolutely failed to defeat Vietnam

Radar hunting precision munitions are Anti-Radiation missiles, not Smart bombs, and its a frag warhead, (from fragmentation) not EF AR AY GEE.

BRUH!

You are saying that SEAD makes Air Defence useless? You might want to mention that to all the pilots shot down in the Gulf War.

Anyone kind of feel a bit weird that he actually called it by what the air crew called it and didn't censor the word at all?

he said the Gulf war played a role in the fall of soviet union... its a palpable lie

Ukraine needs this tech, and capability to suppress Anti Aircraft systems. In order to gain air superiority over the Russians.

Swearing makes him feel like an adult.

OMG. Did I hear the IWM say that SEAD contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. How incredibly shallow.

The war in Ukraine has shown that attack helicopters and CAS (close air support) are redundant due the lethality of AA systems.

So now I am going to hear the F word from the IWM? Really? So I will not have children listen to your channel.

Wash your mouth out with soap and water

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