Explore the history of the Canadian air defence of North America during the Cold War.

NORAD and the Soviet Nuclear Threat is the history of the air defence of Canada during the Cold War era. The reader is taken into the Top Secret world of NORAD, the joint Canadian-American North American Air Defence network. Ride along with the aircrew in their cockpit as they fight an electronic joust in the skies. Go deep underground to the Command Centre as the Air Weapons controllers plot the air war on their radar screens. Visit the radar sites deep in the Canadian bush as they struggle to provide the radar data for an electronic air battle happening overhead.

An actual NORAD exercise on 10 May 1973, called Amalgam Mute, is used as an example. This exercise tested that NORAD was honouring its motto: Deter, Detect, Destroy, and was protecting North America from aerial threat. There is an extensive explanation of the aircraft, squadrons, weapons, radar, and radar sites involved.

Included are two personal accounts of the first interception of a Soviet "Bear" bomber off the coast of Canada, and the first Canadian fighter interceptor pilot to win the coveted United States Air Force "Top Gun" award.

Gordon A.A. Wilson immigrated to Canada in 1965 to take the aeronautical engineering course. Deciding to "fly 'em rather than build 'em," he joined the Canadian Forces in 1968 as a pilot. He flew a tour with 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron to exercise and test the systems of the North American Air (now Aerospace) Defense Command (NORAD). Wilson lives near Vancouver, British Columbia.

Gordon A.A. Wilson's profile page