Taylor, Cold War Air Thieves

Stealing Military Aviation Technology and the East-West Battle for Aviation Secrets

The Cold War was a conflict defined by the struggle for intelligence. Nowhere was this intelligence war fought more fiercely than in the field of military aviation. Gathering information about the enemy's latest fighter jets and related equipment was a primary objective for both sides throughout the ideological battle that dominated the second half of the 20th century. Had the Cold War escalated into a hot war, the side with the greatest knowledge of its opponent's fighter jets would have enjoyed a decisive tactical advantage. Since the USSR lagged behind the US and its NATO allies in many areas of aviation technology, it also relied heavily on industrial espionage to bridge the technological gap between East and West. This saved it years and millions of rubles in the development of key technologies such as gas turbine engines, strategic long-range bombers, air-to-air missiles, electronic countermeasures, and stealth technology. Recruiting high-ranking engineers and designers from the enemy's aviation industry for espionage, staging the escape of pilots in their state-of-the-art aircraft, recovering downed plane wreckage from war zones like Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, even stealing components right under the enemy's nosenothing was off-limits for the CIA, KGB, MI6, and Mossad in their relentless pursuit of aviation technology. "Cold War Air Thieves" is the first detailed account of this hidden war waged by the intelligence services of capitalist and communist countries during the Cold War to acquire, by any means necessary, the secrets of some of the most powerful fighter jets of all time.