The cancellation of the CF-105 Arrow in 1959 holds such a grip on the imagination of Canadians that earlier developments in defence procurement remain in the shadows.

Randall Wakelam corrects this oversight – and offers fresh insight into the AVRO saga and contemporary procurement issues – by detailing the complexities Canada’s air force faced in buying fighter aircraft and by showing how the RCAF grew by leaps and bounds. Wakelam shows that cabinet members, chiefs of staff, and air marshals were forced to negotiate competing pressures to arm the air force, please allies, and save money. Their decisions resulted in the CF-100 Canuck and the F-86 Sabre, Canada’s front-line defensive aircraft in the coldest years of the Cold War. Although historians assume that the Arrow arrived on the heels of these successes, Wakelam reveals that neither the air force nor the government believed AVRO could manufacture even the CF-100 on budget.

Colonel Randall Wakelam is a former air force officer and military educator who has commanded a helicopter squadron and taught senior military leaders and executives. His is currently a research associate at the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies and is the author of The Science of Bombing: Operational Research in RAF Bomber Command (2009).

Howard G. Coombs is an Assistant Professor of the Royal Military College of Canada currently with the Directorate of Learning Innovation at the Canadian Defence Academy. He is also a part-time reserve officer affiliated with the Princess of Wales’ Own Regiment, an infantry unit based in Kingston, and currently serving as the programme director for distance learning at the Canadian Forces College, Toronto, Ontario.

Randall Wakelam's profile page

Wakelam uses his previous experience in the Air Force and within the aircraft procurement environment to contextualize the archival material he has unearthed to render an exceptional examination of aircraft procurement that is as relevant today as during the 1950s.

RCAF Journal, Winter 2013, Vol. 2, Issue 1

Cold War Fighters confronts the reality of a nation that aspired to great technological advancements in the air and how it dealt with its limitations rooted in the lack of experience designing and producing advanced military platforms. Wakelam is able to properly instill feelings in the reader that range from enthusiasm at Canada’s successes and frustration caused by the industrial failures that hindered the potential to become a world renowned producer of jet aircraft.

Left History Journal, Issue 16.2

Very readable and well-researched…Wakelam has made an important contribution to the historiography of the Canadian aircraft industry and the institutional history of the RCAF. By providing the context, analysis, and research strength that was lacking in previous non-scholarly publications on Canadian air force procurement, Cold War Fighters succeeds in bridging the gap between academic and popular history.

Canadian Military History