Listening In: Electronic Intelligence Gathering Since 1945 By Chris Gibson And Dave Forster

As WWII closed, the Air Staff decided to preserve the UK’s electronic intelligence (ELINT) expertise, resulting in the formation of the Radio Warfare Establishment and later the Central Signals Establishment. A tentative ELINT program was commissioned in 1946 using a small number of Lancaster and Mosquito aircraft specially modified for the task and as relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated, interest focused on the growing Soviet air defense system, with the 1948 Berlin crisis resulting in the first major ELINT program against the Soviet Union’s air defenses. During the mid-1950s the Washington and Canberra were introduced as interim ELINT platforms and proposals were made for the use of V.1000, the Shackleton and the Comet for this new and dangerous branch of warfare, often requiring flight close to, or over, hostile territory. Operations against Indonesia and China, and worsening relations with Iran, increased the importance of ELINT operations during the 1960s and 1970s and in the quest for more capable aircraft, the Comet 4 was passed over in favor of the Nimrod.
ELINT aircraft proposals including the VC-10 and Airbus are covered, while Listening In also details operations in the Falklands, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan as the authors draw together, for the first time, a mass of unpublished material to describe the evolution of the secretive ELINT aircraft, their equipment and operations. The story is bought right up-to-date with Project Helix and the controversial decision to scrap the almost complete Nimrod MRA.4 fleet and instead acquire the EC-135R Rivet Joint