Salute!
Always loved the looks of the Vulcan, and admired its high altitude capability according to it crews.
The book was published in 65, but was a direct result of the U.S. canceling Skybolt, which the U.K. was depending upon for penetration missions versus actually flying in all the way, Even with the Vulcan. So we Yanks went with the Hound Dog, then later, SRAM.
According to Wiki:
"The UK had decided to base its entire 1960s deterrent force on Skybolt, and its cancellation led to a major disagreement between the UK and US, known today as the "
Skybolt Crisis". This was resolved by a
series of meetings that led to the
Royal Navy gaining the
UGM-27 Polaris missile and construction of the
Resolution-class submarines to launch them."
Gums sends...