The Arctic Air Corridor: Bombers, Refuelling, and the Return of Long-Range Deterrence (Hardcover)

Jonas Hellqvist

ISBN 10: 9377948878 / ISBN 13: 9789377948870

Edité par Vij Books, 2026

A propos de cet article

Hardcover. In the early Cold War, planners learned that the shortest line between rivals often ran over the top of the world - and that the polar route's apparent simplicity concealed a demanding system of bases, procedures, and alerts. Today, as long-range bombers again feature in exercises and crises, the Arctic and North Atlantic are once more treated as the connective tissue of deterrence. Yet the central dilemma remains: the aircraft that symbolise reach depend on fragile enablers that can be watched, pressured, and disrupted.The Arctic Air Corridor argues that long-range air power is best understood through corridors: repeatable pathways made possible by permissions, support, and control. Jonas Hellqvist shows how aerial refuelling chains govern what can be flown, when, and for how long; why tanker vulnerability turns logistics into a strategic exposure; and how a2/ad systems reshape routing into a problem of geometry, warning time, and risk. He also examines airspace law and practice - FIRs, ADIZ expectations, and deconfliction routines - to show how safety procedures both reduce danger and create patterns that others can exploit. Across historical context and contemporary problem-sets, the book clarifies how corridor choices become messages: presence, restraint, ambiguity, and reassurance expressed through flight profiles as much as through statements.Written for students, general readers, and analysts, this is a framework-building study rather than a platform-by-platform catalogue. Readers will come away able to interpret deterrence signalling in operational terms: which corridors are being exercised, what the support picture implies, where predictability is structural rather than intentional, and how escalation control is practiced through timing, distance, and coordination. The result is a clearer way to judge what long-range deterrence can credibly do - and what it quietly depends upon when the route itself becomes contested. The Arctic Air Corridor argues that long-range air power is best understood through corridors: repeatable pathways made possible by permissions, support, and control. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9789377948870

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Arctic Air Corridor: Bombers, Refuelling, and the Return of Long-Range Deterrence (Hardcover)
• Éditeur: Vij Books
• Date de parution: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 9377948878
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9789377948870
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: new

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

In the early Cold War, planners learned that the shortest line between rivals often ran over the top of the world - and that the polar route's apparent simplicity concealed a demanding system of bases, procedures, and alerts. Today, as long-range bombers again feature in exercises and crises, the Arctic and North Atlantic are once more treated as the connective tissue of deterrence. Yet the central dilemma remains: the aircraft that symbolise reach depend on fragile enablers that can be watched, pressured, and disrupted.

The Arctic Air Corridor argues that long-range air power is best understood through corridors: repeatable pathways made possible by permissions, support, and control. Jonas Hellqvist shows how aerial refuelling chains govern what can be flown, when, and for how long; why tanker vulnerability turns logistics into a strategic exposure; and how a2/ad systems reshape routing into a problem of geometry, warning time, and risk. He also examines airspace law and practice - FIRs, ADIZ expectations, and deconfliction routines - to show how safety procedures both reduce danger and create patterns that others can exploit. Across historical context and contemporary problem-sets, the book clarifies how corridor choices become messages: presence, restraint, ambiguity, and reassurance expressed through flight profiles as much as through statements.

Written for students, general readers, and analysts, this is a framework-building study rather than a platform-by-platform catalogue. Readers will come away able to interpret deterrence signalling in operational terms: which corridors are being exercised, what the support picture implies, where predictability is structural rather than intentional, and how escalation control is practiced through timing, distance, and coordination. The result is a clearer way to judge what long-range deterrence can credibly do - and what it quietly depends upon when the route itself becomes contested.

À propos de l'auteur

Jonas Hellqvist writes with a strategic studies sensibility: sceptical of single-factor explanations, attentive to institutions, and alert to how geography quietly governs political choice. His interest lies in the seam where operational detail becomes public meaning - where a refuelling track, a basing permission, or an intercept procedure can carry more strategic weight than a speech. He approaches air power as a social and organisational achievement as much as a technological one, shaped by training cultures, alliance compromises, and the practical limits of endurance and attention.Rather than treating the Arctic as an empty map, Hellqvist treats it as a lived operating environment with routines, constraints, and histories that do not disappear when crisis begins. The Cold War's northern architectures - early warning, forward bases, and scripted encounters - form a recurring point of reference in his thinking, not as nostalgia but as a reminder that stability is often procedural. He is drawn to sources that show how plans are made usable: doctrinal debates, declassified policy language, institutional histories, and the tell-tale consistency of operational patterns over time.In this book, his voice is that of a careful guide: conceptually ambitious, wary of easy certainty, and committed to helping readers see what is usually hidden in plain sight. The result is an analytically grounded account of long-range deterrence that keeps the human and organisational realities of flying - and being seen flying - at the centre of the story.