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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0858.PDF
864 FLIGHT, 28 June 1957 The three V-Bombers, Vulcan, Victor and Valiant, on the tarmac at Boscombe Down, where development work continues. BOMBER COMMAND . . . Strategic Air Command, but the British security system and out-look are very much less obtrusive and certainly less dramatic in their working. Nevertheless, Bomber Command is achievingresults very similar to those of S.A.C. Yet the mighty deterrent potential is there and ready to go atany hour of the day. Single V-bombers, or groups of them, can be deployed either within the United Kingdom or far abroad ata moment's notice. Each crew knows where to go and what to do. This applies also to the Canberra force, whose standards are no lesshigh. Its role is, however, primarily to provide bomber support for SACEUR in case of a land attack on NATO countries.A vital element in the use of the V-force is to know when to tell the bombers to start on their way to their targets. For thispurpose every source of warning of impending attack is carefully watched. The Suez operation and the Christmas Island tests providedvaluable experience; and weekly exercises in the Command, coupled with intensive bombing training, serve to raise and main-tain efficiency. Both visual and radar bombing results are proving very good and a team of three Valiants and three Vulcans is to flyto Florida in October to compete in the S.A.C. bombing champion- ships. The crews are now being picked on the strength of theirresults in training and will be given special intensive training in Britain and a three-week acclimatization period in America beforethe actual contest. Meanwhile, the routine practice sorties continue, preceded eachtime by a three-and-a-half-hour briefing session, and each squad- ron is sent abroad for a month to achieve in the field that finalpolish which will weld it into a crack fighting unit. Aircrew normally remain in the V-force for five years, regardless of pro-motion, so that continuity is maintained and the requirement for expensive training minimized. The ground crew are formed intoteams which look after each V-bomber and are led by a Crew Chief, himself a highly trained N.C.O. The Crew Chief looks after his aircraft from its production onwards. He watches over it and goeswith it to each major overhaul. Other teams of technicians form snag-crews to see to faults requiring special field work; andrather-larger-than-normal second-line servicing teams undertake the more detailed work in the station workshops. The V-bombers are, of course, equipped to deliver both con-ventional H.E. bombs and nuclear weapons. At present both these are of the free-falling type but—some time in the not-too-distantfuture—the first stand-off bombs will become available. These are propelled and guided and are particularly useful for penetratingheavily defended target areas. They also represent the half-way point between the free bomb and the complex bombardmentmissile. To be of any operational value an ICBM (intercontinentalballistic missile) force would have to be held at almost instant readiness; certainly it should be able to fire several rounds in lessthan an hour, from an alert being sounded, irrespective of when the call should come. This, and the many other factors involved,naturally present their own particular problems. The manned V-bomber suffers few of these difficulties. Inaddition, air-dropped weapons tend to decrease rather than in- crease in size; and the very large bomb-bays of the V-bombers arehardly likely to become too small for later weapons. Navigation, bomb-aiming and the many aspects of crew-training and efficiency have all been carefully developed to meet the highly specialized and exacting requirements of theV-force. All the years of planning and testing which have gone to the makings of the force and its equipment in the ten yearssince the first firm specifications were issued are now bearing fruit. Bomber Command has its H.Q. near High Wycombe. TheCommand is broadly divided into two groups, Nos. 1 and 3, from each of which depend a number of operational stations. A certainamount of reorganization is now taking place so that in due course the Vulcans and the remaining Canberras will be concentrated inNo. 1 Group and Valiants and Victors in No. 3 Group. Each group runs its own O.C.U.s, those for Canberras at Bassingbourn A Valiant B (PR) K.I, serial number WZ393. Valiants of this mark are equipped to act as flight - refuelling tankers, or as receivers.
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