ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL 26 2 The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the contributors concerned and are not necessarily those held by the Royal Air Force Historical Society. Photographs credited to MAP have been reproduced by kind permission of Military Aircraft Photographs. Copies of these, and of many others, may be obtained via http://www.mar.co.uk Copyright 2001: Royal Air Force Historical Society First published in the UK in 2001 by the Royal Air Force Historical Society All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. ISSN 1361-4231 Typeset by Creative Associates 115 Magdalen Road Oxford OX4 1RS Printed by Professional Book Supplies Ltd 8 Station Yard Steventon Nr Abingdon OX13 6RX 3 CONTENTS (check page Nos) THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE RAFHS SEMINAR ON 7 THE RAF AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS, 1960-1998 AFTERTHOUGHTS and SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS 113 BOMBER COMMAND AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL 123 DEFECTS AND THE USE OF NDT IN THE EARLY 1960s BOOK REVIEWS 130 4 ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SOCIETY President Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham GCB CBE DFC AFC Vice-President Air Marshal Sir Frederick Sowrey KCB CBE AFC Committee Chairman Air Vice-Marshal N B Baldwin CB CBE FRAeS Vice-Chairman Group Captain J D Heron OBE Secretary Group Captain K J Dearman Membership Secretary Dr Jack Dunham PhD CPsychol AMRAeS Treasurer Desmond Goch Esq FCCA Members Air Commodore H A Probert MBE MA *J S Cox Esq BA MA *Dr M A Fopp MA FMA FIMgt *Group Captain P Gray BSc LLB MPhil MIMgt RAF *Wing Commander Q N P D’Arcy RAF Wing Commander C Cummings Editor, Publications Wing Commander C G Jefford MBE BA *Ex Officio 5 ABBREVIATIONS Note. When Strike Command was established in 1968, the word ‘strike’ had meant merely to deliver a blow. By the late-1970s, however, British (but not NATO) military patois tended to associate the adjective ‘strike’ with nuclear operations, as distinct from ‘attack’ which implied the delivery of conventional weapons; if it was necessary to make the point, a dual-capable unit would be described as a strike/attack squadron. Although it was not recognised universally, this convention remained in use thereafter within those elements of the community where such distinctions were of significance, and it is reflected in some of the following presentations. It has presumably become redundant within the RAF now that the Service no longer has a nuclear capability. BCAS Bomber Command Armament School (later RAFASU) BCATP British Commonwealth Air Training Plan BCMC Bomber Command Modification Centre BMEWS Ballistic Missile Early Warning System BNDSG British Nuclear Defence Study Group CIA (US) Central Intelligence Agency CSDE Central Servicing Development Establishment EMP Electromagnetic Pulse GRU Glavnoje Razved-yvatelnoje Upravlenie – the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile IRBM Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile JARIC Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre JIC Joint Intelligence Committee KGB Komitet gosudarstvennol bezopasnosti - the (Russian) Committee for State Security LABS Low Altitude Bombing System LOX Liquid Oxygen MoA Ministry of Aviation MoS Ministry of Supply MRBM Medium Range Ballistic Missiles NORAD North American Air Defence (Command) NRC Nuclear Reporting Cell ORB Operations Record Book (the RAF Form 540) 6 ORBAT Order of Battle QRA Quick Reaction Alert RAFASU RAF Armament Support Unit (ex-BCAS) R&D Research and Development SACEUR Supreme Allied Commander Europe SASO Senior Air Staff Officer SBAC Society of British Aircraft Constructors SIOP Single Integrated Operational Plan SIS (British) Secret Intelligence Service SLBM Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile SOP Standard Operational Procedure SSA Supplementary Storage Area UKAIR A High Wycombe-based NATO Headquarters responsible primarily for maintaining the integrity of the UK Air Defence Region and exercising control over UK-based nuclear forces assigned to SACEUR. UKWMO UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation WST Weapons Standardisation Team 7 THE RAF AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS, 1960-1998 RAF MUSEUM, HENDON, 11th APRIL 2001 WELCOME ADDRESS BY THE SOCIETY’S CHAIRMAN Air Vice-Marshal Nigel Baldwin CB CBE FRAeS It is a pleasure to see so many members gathered this morning - nearly 150 - probably a record. As always, I will begin by thanking, on all of our behalves, Dr Michael Fopp and his staff at the Museum - as a Society we are most grateful for the use of their facilities and for their ever-ready help. It is a special pleasure for me to introduce our Chairman for the day, Air Chf Mshl Sir John Willis. When I joined No 9 Sqn at Coningsby in the spring of 1963, as a pilot officer Vulcan B.2 co-pilot, John was the youngest captain on the squadron and thus an inspiration to me and to many others. Nuclear weapons and QRA - Quick Reaction Alert - dominated our lives then and, I suppose, helped shape our subsequent careers. With much experience of the definition and subsequent implementation of defence policy - not least at SHAPE - Sir John was a natural choice for his final Service appointment - that of Vice Chief of the Defence Staff. So, a career nicely spanning the period we are going to talk about today. Sir John - thank you for agreeing to steer us. Over to you. 8 INTRODUCTION BY SEMINAR CHAIRMAN Air Chief Marshal Sir John Willis KCB CB Thank you, Nigel, and good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a real privilege to be here today because this is a topic which seems, one way or another, to have dominated my forty-two years in the air force, from my early days at the sharp end, right through to my retirement when we were still working with Trident, regretfully abandoning our air delivered capability, and at all stops in between. I must say that if I had known that you were going to show the video that was playing in the Art Gallery I might not have come. It was an ITV horror called The Deliverers and, since my crew had fourteen children between us, it seemed to have some resonance! (Laughter) Today’s event is the second part of what TV would call a two-parter, except that in our case there has been something of a gap between the parts because the first episode was some 11½ years ago when the Society looked at the origins and development of British Nuclear Deterrent Forces between 1945 and 1960. Today we are going to take the story forward, by looking at the RAF and its nuclear weapons during the 1960- 1998 timeframe. The 1998 cut-off was decided by the fact that, since then, and I say this with some regret, the RAF has not been directly involved in the nuclear business. It was a period during which a lot of very important things happened. During the 1960s the strategic element operated by the RAF realised its full potential as the deterrent force of the United Kingdom. Towards the end of that decade responsibility for deterrence passed to the Royal Navy and its Polaris submarines, we in the air force retaining the sub-strategic, or theatre, nuclear role. By this time, of course, the V-Force was assigned to NATO in the nuclear role, and that was to have its ramifications in the 1970s when we had the great debate as to whether the Polaris replacement should be an air delivered system. I had much to do with that one but air delivery was not the best option and in the end we went for Trident; nevertheless, examining the options before coming to that conclusion had been a very necessary and worthwhile exercise. By the late 1980s we were considering acquiring an air delivered missile system to preserve our sub-strategic capability, but when the Cold War ended, economic considerations prevailed and the RAF withdrew from 9 the business, leaving the UK still a nuclear power, but with only one system - which does beg some questions. But, while the last forty years or so saw these practical developments, it was also a period during which the whole concept, the underlying philosophy and psychology, of deterrence was refined and developed in a far more coherent form and later this morning we will hear from one of the leading personalities involved in that process. That is, I think, enough from me for now so I will make way for our first speaker. 10 SUMMARY OF THE PREVIOUS RAFHS SEMINAR ON THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRITISH NUCLEAR DETERRENT 1945-60 Air Vice-Marshal Michael Robinson Michael Robinson had three tours associated with the V-Force. The first was as the first CO of No 100 Sqn when it re-formed at Wittering with Victor B.2s in 1962. The second was as Group Captain Off Ops at HQ Strike Command 1970-72 and the last as SASO, No1 Group 1977-79. The latter permitted him to qualify on the Vulcan and to renew his acquaintance with the Victor, albeit now in the tanker role. Although the October 1989 seminar was entitled ‘The Origins and Development of the British Strategic Nuclear Deterrent Forces 1945- 1960’ this synopsis will start ‘In the Beginning…’ which was 1st September 1939 as Margaret Gowing pointed out, the day the Germans invaded Poland. On that day the basic theory of fission was published. The potential of Uranium 235 to create an atomic reaction was set out by two refugee German scientists working at Birmingham University. Two French scientists working at Cambridge University were the first to discover that a chain reaction was possible.