[jpmattia]

> Regarding the opening anecdote - some have suggested the Soviets used vacuum tubes so that their planes would survive the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear explosion.

I don't think the authors delved too hard into the history. I interviewed at General Dynamics in Ft Worth around 1986: They told us that they they just designed out the last of the tubes on the F16 and were working to remove the last tubes from the F4U Phantom.

Nobody mentioned that the tubes were around as a countermeasure to EMP; it was more about waiting for technologies to mature to the point that you'd believe they were battle-tested enough for your most advanced weaponry.

Edit: The above anecdote in reference to the article claiming

> By the mid-1970s, the only vacuum tubes you could find in Western electronics were hidden away in certain kinds of specialized equipment