Introduction

Since late in the Korean war, into the Vietnam War, and even more importantly today, one of the most important missions within the United States Air Force and Navy is the suppression of enemy air defense systems. Blinding the enemy air defenses was and still is crucial to clearing the road for massive bombing campaigns and air superiority. In the United States Air Force, this mission went to a group aptly named the wild weasels. Much like a weasel, the job of these aircraft is to stick their head up and get the enemy air defense systems to see and lock their radar on the aircraft. When the electronic systems in the weasel aircraft indicate the enemy is locked on you, you would launch your anti-radiation missile to ride the enemy radar beam back to the antenna it was broadcasting from. Once in proximity of the antenna, the missile would detonate releasing thousands of bits of steel shrapnel, shredding the enemy radar antenna thus blinding the enemy.

This set replaces parts B6,B7, B44 and B45 from Kitty Hawk Kit number KH80115. The detail quality is to the normal high standard of the Quickboost products. As usual there is no flash or other imperfections. The parts, once removed from the mold base, are ready to install. The parts will make a great improvement on the kit parts, which have no fine details as these do. A great price for such fine additional details for this kit.

Thanks to Aires for providing the review sample.

This set replaces parts 28 and 30 from Kitty Hawk Kit number KH80115. The detail quality is to the normal high standard of the Quickboost products. As usual there is no flash or other imperfections. The parts, once removed from the mold base, are ready to install. The parts will make a great improvement on the kit parts, which have no fine details as these do. A great price for this kit with such fine additional details.

Thanks to Aires/Quickboost for providing the review sample.

As Gary Hatcher states in the editorial, the dust is settling from the transition in editors and they are striking a balance between modelling, reference and history with modelling having the lead. This edition is chocked full of detailed articles on all types of planes.

The lead article is a test shot build of IBG's RWD 8 PWS by Karl Robinson. The final results are great and as this is their first aircraft, Polish manufacturer IBG comes out strong with this kit and bodes well for the future. Karl shows off his rigging skill as well.

Richard Mason previews Revell of Germany's 1/72 C-54 Skymaster with shots of the sprue and a history of the plane itself. The kit has a full interior and it builds similar to the RoG C-17. The kit looks great and I can't wait to see it show on American shelves.

The AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile) was developed to replace the AGM-45 Shrike and the AGM-78 Standard ARM. Unlike the Shrike and the Standard ARM, the HARM was designed from the outset as a SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) weapon, not an adaption of an existing weapon. The HARM system includes the missile, the LAU-118 launcher and HARM specific avionics in the launch aircraft. HARM has the ability to detect, acquire and select a radiating threat and once launched operates in a “fire and forget” autonomous capacity, freeing the launch aircraft to maneuver or to attack another target. The HARM proved its lethality during operations over Iraq during both Desert Storm and Desert Fox. It was used by the F-4G, A-6, A-7, Tornado and the EA-6B and is currently carried on the F-16CJ, F-18A/C/D/E, EF-18G and other aircraft.