The Second World War and Radar Technologies—Developments of Air Defense and Air Traffic Control Radars

The Second World War has stimulated the search for more and more effective means to detect and locate incoming hostile aircraft and to activate a defence by fighters/interceptors or by anti-aircraft artillery (AAA of “FlaK”). So, radar technology saw an enormous advancement with the integration of search and tracking radars into the Air Defence, the enhancement of accuracy for artillery control, the new means against disturbance such as Electronic Counter Measures and chaff. The most important result was probably the generation of high power at microwave, made possible by the cavity magnetron. After the Second World War the situation changed again with the “ballistic” weapons (AAA) flanked, and in some case, substituted, by missile weapons.