Elliott Firebrigade: A Description of the Elliott‐Automation Computer‐Based Air Defence System which has been ordered by the R.A.F. and the Royal Netherlands Air Force

THE necessity for an automatic, i.e. computer‐assisted, air defence system might appear so obvious at this stage of air warfare development, that it hardly needs reiterating, and it is therefore not surprising that, in March 1962, the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization approved in principle the co‐ordination of European air defence based on such techniques in the form of the N.A.D.G.E. (NATO Air Defence Ground Environment) scheme. The advent of high performance fighter types in the European air defence theatre, such as the English Electric Lightning, the Marcel Dassault Mirage III, and the Lockheed F.104G. Starfighter, with their phenomenal rates of climb and supersonic speeds in the attack phase, allied to the assumed improvements in performance of bomber aircraft of likely enemies, has thrown an enormous burden on to those responsible for controlling fighter aircraft. Since the time available in which to make vital decisions is now so short, and the timing accuracy required is so critical, it has to be accepted that the problems to be resolved during the course of a fighter interception are beyond the range of human judgment. The split second assessment of changing parameters and the rapid calculations on which successful high speed interceptions depend can only be carried out by electronic computers. The N.A.D.G.E. system was based upon this premise but unfortunately since the system was first conceived, a number of shortcomings associated with its limitations in respect of low‐level attacks and command structure, allied to political and economic differences, have meant that the system has not yet been introduced into European air defence operations, and indeed is quite some way from reaching the operational state even assuming that immediate agreement was reached within N.A.T.O. on its final form and distribution of costs.