8 Bells Lecture | Norman Friedman: Naval Air Defence from Biplanes to the Cold War

Norman Friedman, “Fighters Over the Fleet: Naval Air Defence from Biplanes to the Cold War,” Eight Bells Book Lecture, Naval War College Museum, March 1, 2018. “Fighters Over the Fleet” is an account of the parallel evolution of naval fighters for fleet air defense and the ships they sought to defend. This volume concentrates on the three main advocates of carrier warfare: the Royal Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the Imperial Japanese Navy. Because radar was not invented until the mid-1930s, fleet air defense was a primitive effort for flyers during the 1920s. Once the innovative system was developed and utilized, organized air defense became viable. Thus major naval-air battles of the Second World War—like Midway, the “Pedestal” convoy, the Philippine Sea and Okinawa—are portrayed as tests of the new technology. However, even radar was ultimately found wanting by the Kamikaze campaigns, which led to postwar moves toward computer control and new kinds of fighters. After 1945, the novel threats of nuclear weapons and stand-off missiles compounded the difficulties of naval air defense. The second half of the book covers the U.S. and Royal Navies’ attempts to resolve these problems by examining the U.S. experience in Vietnam and British operations during the Falklands War. The book then turns to the ultimate U.S. development of techniques and technology to fight the Outer Air Battle in the 1980s before concluding with the current state of technology supported carrier fighters. Dr. Friedman has been concerned throughout his career with the way in which policy and technology intersect, in fields as disparate as national missile defence, nuclear strategy, and network-centric warfare. An internationally known strategist and naval historian, he spent more than a decade at a major US think-tank, and another decade as consultant to the Secretary of the Navy. Dr Friedman has written more than 40 books on naval strategy and technology, including an award-winning account of the US Cold War Strategy and histories of British (and Commonwealth) and U.S. aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and frigates as well as U.S. submarines. He contributes a monthly column on world naval developments to the Naval Institute’s Proceeding magazine and writes articles for journals worldwide. Dr. Friedman holds a PhD.in physics from Columbia University, New York. He lectures widely on defence issues in forums such as the National Defence University, the Naval War College and the Royal United Services Institute. ***** Disclaimer: The views expressed are the speaker's own and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Naval War College, the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, or any other branch or agency of the U.S. Government.