I've often wondered how many aircraft would actually have got away. Even from a state of full alert you'd not get that far in the three minutes however many seconds you'd actually get if the balloon really went up.
I'm sure that Ivan would have thought of this and cheerfully aimed a few megatons to airburst in that general direction. I'm presuming that's why we moved to SSBN.
Generally speaking can any one out there give an idea of how well the various aircraft would have coped in the extremly hostile environment that would have resulted.
(Without giving away any classified details obviously)