Originally Posted by
Chairborne 09.00hrs
Pontius, the lecture was about RAF AD in 1978. He also stated that we would have run-out of AAMs by Day 3...
That was made public 10 years ago. In the case of Bloodhound 2, the original LTC for the system was based on an operational life of 12 years from 1963 - 1975 when the procurement order was signed off in 1962 and there was only one reload per launcher in the order across the whole of the operational force of which only 14 sections were intended to have the full LUE of 8 launchers that it could support.The rest of the missiles were built as instrumented firing rounds with all of the cabling already installed for telemetry equipment that would been used at Aberporth at an average firing rate of 8 per year.
The RAF Fighter Orbat in 1976 as far as planning was (taken from a document at Kew written in 1974/75) :
Wattisham - 20 Phantom
Leuchars - 22 Phantom (RAF) + 18 Phantom (RN)
Coningsby - 32 Phantom (AD + OCU) + 10 Phantom (Recce)
Binbrook - 32 Lightning (Inc OCU)
That is 102 Phantoms with 4 x Sparrow and 4 x Sidewinder = 816 missiles of each type in the UK war stocks at minimum (1632 in total). There would have been more for a set number of rounds to be fired per year on MPC's over a set period.
32 Lightnings with 2 x AAM (Firestreak and Redtop). 128 rounds minimum, again there would have been additional missiles in the stocks for MPC firings.
At the time that the above was written, the estimated Soviet AF treat to the UK was (as at mid 1974) :-
Fencer 10
Bear 20 + (45 Nuclear only)
Bison 20
Badger 350
Blinder 70 + (100 Nuclear only)
Backfire 30
as regards the Soviet Naval AF the figures were
Badger 35 + (95 nuclear only)
Blinder 25
Backfire 0
Bear (recce) 25
Badger (Recce) 30
which meant that 605 conventional armed plus 238 nuclear strike
aircraft were likely to be tasked against targets within the UKADR
The estimates for 1980 were
Soviet TAF / LRAF
Fencer 300
Bear 15 + (30)
Bison 20
Badger 200
Blinder 50 + (90)
Backfire 240
SNAF
Badger 35 + (85)
Blinder 25
Backfire 40
Bear (Recce) 25
Badger (Recce) 25
which took the total to 675 + (205)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/...-defence-fears