{"title":"Illustrated by Robert McSweeney","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781472869524","title":"Kyiv 2022","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDrawing on Mark Galeotti’s unrivalled sources in the Russian and Ukrainian militaries, this studies Russia’s risky move to seize Kyiv at the start of the 2022 invasion, and how it was foiled.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2022, Vladimir Putin was convinced he could seize Kyiv with minimal fighting, install a puppet government, and close his fist on Ukraine in a matter of weeks. 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Beginning in 1959, Nike and Hawk SAMs, later reinforced by Britain’s Bloodhound and Thunderbird, were deployed in a two-layer missile belt to defend against any Warsaw Pact air attack.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWritten by two former air defence officers, and based on declassified documents and interviews with former NATO personnel, this is the first book to survey the development, technology, and deployment of the NATO SAM system. The first – Nike Ajax and Hercules – were deployed to protect airbases and other critical installations, forming a belt through West Germany from Switzerland to the North Sea. The capabilities of NATO’s defences then developed with improvements to command and control systems, the extension of the system north into Scandinavia and south into Italy, Greece and Turkey, as well as the addition of HAWK, Thunderbird and Bloodhound missile units, and finally the deployment of the ultimate Patriot system in the 1980s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFully illustrated, this is a concise, detailed survey of the system that at its height, fielded more than 200 SAM batteries in Germany and the length of the Iron Curtain.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504949567861,"sku":"9781472869494","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781472869494.jpg?v=1786953868"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/illustrator-robert-mcsweeney.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}