Originally Posted by
D O Guerrero
Blue Steel - It may have had a good INS (but then again is high accuracy that important in a nuclear weapon?), but it was completely vulnerable to SAMs even during the 1960s. The V-bomber had to get within something like 150nm of the target. I'd hardly call that stand-off!
Firstly Blue Steel did not have a good IN; it had an early generation IN and errors IRO 3000 yards in training were not unusual. In defence it could be argued that flying the parent aircraft using the missile guidance system to simulate the attack was not entierly realistic as the real profile would have taken 2 minutes against 9 for the bomber (low level).
Secondly accuracy is actually very important to get the weapon effects on the DPI. Certainly an airburst Blue Steel would have a huge damage area but for impact against a hardened or semi-hardened target 400 yards would be towards the limit of acceptable accuracy.
Finally, as for the 150 miles; during the Blue Steel period there were still large tracts of undefended air space, especially at low level. Blue Steel's demise was due to the missiles' vulnerability to SAM and not, per se, the carriers.