[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Both my parents worked for EMI Defence at times, Dad for very many years. Apart from Searchwater he worked on Cymbelline which was an anti-mortar/artillery tracking and designation system, and the radar in Rapier. However the convoluted and lengthy processes by the MoD to tender and then award contracts used to really take its toll. Then, come the Falkands War, every stupid restriction was dropped instantly...my Dad worked 13 hour plus days and his tem adapted and designed the AEW Searchwater system to the Sea King airframe in absolutely record time. A team then went from Hayes to Yeovil and worked long hours to get the radar onto a movable pod that rotates downwards or upwards for landing. Those guys got special ties as a memento..very proud they are as well. Dad was in Heavy Rescue in the last War, and then 1946-48 in the RAMC mostly in the Mid-East where he saw the casulaties of Arab and Jewish warfare, and of course attacks on our men. Come the Falkands War every man on the team at Hayes felt it was there patriotic duty to work as many hours as possible, and Dad used to come home at 3 in the morning, have a few hours's kip and then go back to work, 7 days a week.

The answer is that there was the finest radar expertise in the world in the UK, and we exported better systems than the MoD contracted for. It takes times of crisis for the fetters on expenditure to come off and get those boffins working.