In the 1930s, the British Air Ministry was very interested in constructing aircraft which could fire behind them, giving, in theory, no blind spot. Their solution was the 'turret fighter', a fighter aircraft with a powered turret, which could be traversed to point at any threat. Such aircraft would be able to approach bombers without exposing themselves to defensive fire. The accuracy of the guns would also be improved over a non-turret fighter, as the two tasks of aiming the guns and flying the aircraft were carried out by two different people.

Two such aircraft were brought into service, the Boulton-Paul Defiant and the Blackburn Roc. The Roc was a carrier-borne turret fighter developed from the Fleet Air Arm's Skua dive-bomber/fighter, while the Defiant was a completely new design. Neither proved successful in service. The Roc in particular was near-useless, with the Skua it was built on being notably underpowered even before a heavy turret was added. If the turret was traversed, this added even more drag, making it impossible for the aircraft to catch any German aircraft. Rocs were used during the Norwegian campaign and Dunkirk evacuation, but only claimed a single kill. The Defiant was somewhat more useful, claiming many kills over Dunkirk and the Channel in May and June 1940. However, the Germans soon learned to exploit it's weaknesses. As with the Roc, it was slow when the turret was traversed, and was unprotected against attack from below, leading to losses of over half of all delivered aircraft. From August 1940, they began to be redeployed as night fighters, a role for which they were more suited. By the end of 1941, with the end of the Blitz bombings and arrival of more modern night fighters, they were withdrawn to second-line roles like target towing.