Introduction

Weapons Races is a military television documentary series examining the development of various new military technologies and how their evolution impacted tactics and strategies used in warfare since the High Middle Ages, but focused mainly on film since World War I.

Outline

It is an eight-part series exposing the most significant weapons races to transform modern warfare, from the original concepts that overturned military thinking to the most advanced versions of each weapon in service today.

Whether it is a new idea such as radar, or a series of breakthroughs producing a dramatic new weapon like the jet fighter, in each case it shows that enemies have to react with their own countermeasures – creating a competitive arms race.

The series is shown on the American Heroes Channel (AHC, formerly the Military Channel) in the US and UKTV History in the UK.

Each episode looks at particular military development – or “race” – through a succession of historical developments and the responses by the various rivals of the day, displaying them against the ideal requirements necessary to engineer the new technology successfully.

All eight episodes use mixed examples where applicable with such mentions like the Revolutionary submarine Turtle and the CSS Hunley, but most mentions and examples are from modern warfare where ample film archives exist, dating mainly from the First World War (1914–18) up to the recent Iraq War (2003).

A varying panel of military or military history experts provide commentary and highlight key developments including Lloyd Clark (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst) and Bruce Gudmundsson (US Army War College).

These panelist’s analyse the information and talk about it on the show.

Weapons Races Series

• Episode 01: The Race for the Jet Fighter.
• Episode 02: The Race for the Battle Tank.
• Episode 03: The Race for RADAR and Stealth.
• Episode 04: The Race for the Nuclear Bomb.
• Episode 05: The Race for the Strategic Bomber.
• Episode 06: The Race for the Strategic Ballistic Missile.
• Episode 07: The Race for the Nuclear Submarine.
• Episode 08: The Race for the Aircraft Carrier.

Production & Filming Details

• Production: History Channel.
• Distributor(s): History Channel (US) and UKTV (UK).
• Release Date: 2006.
• Running Time: 50 minutes (per episode).
• Country: US.
• Language: English.