The Vulcan B2 in the Cold War

Many who lived during the Cold War asked the question of the V-force nuclear deterrent: 'If the balloon had gone up, would it have got through?' This book, written by an Air Electronics Officer with some 4,500 flying hours in Avro Vulcans, sets out to answer that question. The Vulcan B2 in the Cold War analyses the state of air power in the early years of the Cold War, examining the hot wars of Korea and Vietnam, as well as the early versions of Soviet and Chinese air defence systems and how effective they might be at countering the RAF's nuclear bomber fleet. The UK's deterrent had to be survivable of a Soviet pre-emptive ballistic missile strike, or had to be airborne before such a strike took place. The early warning system provided Bomber Command's headquarters with some 3½ minutes to 4½ minutes warning to get the V-force airborne. The average time to get these aircraft airborne was an astonishing 1 minute 53 seconds. The author explains the 'combat environment' the Vulcan would have to fly into to be able to release its weapon. It would have to be capable of outpacing enemy fighters and avoid detection from the radars of surface-to-air missiles. Such factors were considered in what was called the 'Probability of Kill'. The effectiveness of the Vulcan in evading Soviet defences was put to the test during several critical moments of the Cold War. One such instance was the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Another supremely important element of the Vulcan's role was the nature of the weapon the Vulcan carried and its method of delivery. All of this is discussed in this intriguing investigation into how the Vulcan, and more specifically the B2 variant, would have fared should the Cold War have turned 'hot'. AUTHOR: Julian Grenfell joined the RAF in 1960 and, after completing Air Electronics Officer flying training was posted to the Vulcan Conversion Unit, thence to 27 Squadron. Other squadrons with which he flew on were, IX Squadron (in Cyprus), 44 Squadron, 101 Squadron, and 617 Squadron, though not in that order. He was a staff officer at RAF Waddington responsible for Vulcan aircrew air and ground electronic warfare training and was a war mission flight checker. Julian was also a RAF crew electronic warfare assessor at Nellis AFB, Nevada, USA. He amassed 4,500 hours flying Vulcan B2 bombers, before leaving the RAF in 1981. Julian has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Manchester. After the RAF he worked in the defence industry in the field of airborne electronic countermeasures. On leaving the defence industry, he started his own electronic warfare consultancy. He now gives talks on the Vulcan. 32 b/w illustrations