by Ron Westrum, Naval Institute Press, 1999, 331 pp, $38.95 This is a fascinating book about a famous weapon and the story of where and how it was built. The AIM-9 Sidewinder is legendary for its simplicity, and it's well known that the US Navy didn't want the Sidewinder, but this is the full story. The surprise is, this isn't a story of the weapon, or the sciences that went into it. It's the story of one man's unique management style. Bill McLean worked at China Lake Naval Test Station. He had an idea for a heat-seeking air-to-air missile at a time when people didn't believe the technology existed to create such a weapon. Because the Navy didn't think it was feasible, it would not issue a "Requirement" for one, and without a Requirement, no defense contractor would explore the technology. But Bill McLean had an interesting philosophy. He wasn't interested in what someone's title was. He wasn't interested in what the job specification called for. He was simply interested in what worked. In Ron Westrum's terms, he was "mission oriented," and because of that, connived, finagled, and scrounged until he and his team created the most successful air-to-air weapon in history. Needless to say, he got in a lot of trouble. He siphoned funds from other projects, ignored directives to stop work, and in general manipulated the system. These days, his actions would probably get him canned, possibly jailed, and the irony of that is not lost on Mr. Westrum. But while Mr. Westrum does point out several major flaws in the procurement system, that's too easy. What he spends most of the book on is what Bill McLean did right, and how can we learn from it. Along the way we follow the development of the Sidewinder from an idea to testbeds to prototype. Sidewinder is "the world's simplest missile," and the technology was still subtle and difficult to implement. As they tackle problem after problem, one becomes amazed that the Patriot, Aegis, or the Space Shuttle ever worked at all. Mr. Westrum concentrates on the management style that Mr. McLean used, but he also provides detailed description of the different upgrades of Sidewinder, as well as a complete technical description of the many different variants. This book is worth every cent. It's well written, and successfully covers several worthwhile topics. BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #18 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com