Well fair enough...
Yet TSR2 stood for Tactical Strike and Reconnaisance. The nuclear role was largely concealed, possibly because it had been thrust upon it at short notice and changes had to be made. Another suggestion was that the RAF wanted this capability built in if possible, yet as time went on and it became apparent it would be quite capable in this role, labour support for an anti-nuclear stance meant it was kept quiet by those promoting TSR2... effectively being another nail in its coffin (that is greater capability >> more likely to be cancelled!)
'twas obviously a lose lose situation, but I really don't think technical considerations came into it in the final analysis..
If the govt genuinely thought Polaris was all we needed and Duncan Sands had been right all along then ordering F-111 straight away was an equally cynical move...
I think the RAF lacked the good men, the MOS and two Govts. had created a right mess...
Any organisation feeling any genuine responsibitlity to the people they served would have taken stock, maybe not admitted it, but put everything on hold for a while, under any pretence they liked, let's say fiscal constraints... and certainly not betrayed the whole industry by forcing the immediate destruction of all jigs, tools and designs.
That was the step, hinting at security issues, that led to accusations of conspiracy in some places and it was that step that brought about the wholesale condemnation within and without the industry for cynical and spiteful politics...
Please don't follow the theorists and claim the project's cancellation in any way was really because it technically flawed; Roland Beamont who had fought in the air since 1939 knew well that what he was flying was much more than a simple step up from the Canberra or V-Bombers... it was a quantum leap forward in just a few years and if you prefer someone equivocating in retrospect...
'...it would have undoubtedly been the 'least worst option' at that time and for maybe 20 or 30 years thereafter'
Last edited by HarryMann; 9th Feb 2008 at 20:01.