Remember that even IRCMs were not in production when the SR53/Lightning were in development, the only threat to the UK was the manned bomber, the Thor was not commissioned till 1959 and the Soviet equivalents could not reach the UK. When the Soviet IRBM/ICBM could reach the UK the role of the AD force during Tripwire became even more redundant, being limited to the peacetime air policing role and the engagement of the follow on manned bomber raid in war - which they had insufficient endurance to meet.
Which lead to the farce of the Lightning force doing survival scrambles followed by a recovery and turnround to meet the attack. Anyone else remember the Binbrook "trombone" across the Blueway? What fun we had trying to slot the F3s in before the F6s, let alone those that missed their stream numbers....
Last edited by ORAC; 17th Apr 2006 at 04:11.