Interceptor Aircraft - Interceptors in Other Countries

Interceptors in Other Countries

Several other countries also introduced interceptor designs.

The Swedish Saab 35 Draken was specifically designed for intercepting aircraft passing Swedish airspace at high altitudes in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and NATO. With the advent of low flying cruise-missiles and high-altitude AA-missiles the flight profile was changed, but regained the interceptor profile with the final version J 35J.

Avro Canada produced the Avro CF-100, generally similar to the F-89, which went on to serve for a lengthy period of time in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The ADV variant of the Panavia Tornado was eventually introduced into this role in the 1980s, and continued to serve in this role until replaced with a multirole design, the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is an air superiority fighter and also an attack aircraft.

In the 1950s-1960s several planned interceptors never came to fruition, with the expectation that missiles would replace bombers. The Royal Air Force operated a supersonic day fighter, the English Electric Lightning, alongside the Gloster Javelin in the subsonic night/all-weather role. Efforts to replace the Javelin with a supersonic design under Operational Requirement F.155 came to naught due to this. Similarly, the replacement to the Avro CF-100, the Avro Arrow, was controversially cancelled in the late 1950s.