ARCHIE, FLAK, AAA, and SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air Defense

The title refers to the name that airmen use and have used to describe ground fire against aircraft: ARCHIE in World War I (from the British), FLAK in World War II and Korea (from the Germans), AAA throughout but especially in Vietnam (from the American abbreviation for antiaircraft artillery), and most recently SAM (from the US abbreviation for surface-to-air missiles). This study concentrates on how these weapons developed and how they impacted both US and non-US air operations.