Fifty years ago this week Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that U.S. military agencies was "apparently making strides in exploiting unintentional radio frequency (FR) radiation from man-made equipment in a new twist in the see-saw struggle of electronic warfare."

Reporter Barry Miller conceded that just how much progress was difficult to assess in the field of radiation intelligence (RINT).

He wrote: "But indications are that sensitive airborne emission sensors designed to detect unintended RF radiation from truck ignition and other engine systems were highly successful in Vietnam."

Discover how USAF and the Navy attempted to install smaller version of these sensors in "truck chasing" bombs and how the Navy was exploring the application to missiles of ignition sensors and other RINT devices for sensing spurious emissions from generators and computers in the search for more economical anti-radiation missiles.

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