Throughout the second half of the 20th century, international relations across the globe were dominated by the Cold War. From 1949 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries created the best-equipped armed forces that the world had ever seen, and which faced each other directly across the Iron Curtain in Europe. Our speaker is Michael Napier, an ex-RAF Tornado pilot turned author, who saw frontline service during the Cold War as well as combat experience over Iraq. Michael examines the airpower of the major powers at both strategic and tactical level throughout the 40 years of the Cold War, including the aircraft types, the units that operated them in the roles in which they were deployed.