Thats very interesting PN, I was not aware that there were any AA trials even. I must look and read harder in future.
Interesting that both expense and unsurprisingly crew fatigue were major factors in this never happening.
AA Vulcans were meant to be Skybolt carriers. I know Skybolt and other stand off weapons had their programmes cancelled-would the benefit of Skybolt over Blue Steel and Yellow Sun (massive increased stand off capability) have made any difference to this equation, do you think?
With this sort of stand off range, at least some Q targets could have been destroyed without the need to penetrate Soviet/WP Air Defence, meaning less attrition in airframes and more targets destroyed? Or was the lack of tanker assets the rate limiting step anyway?
Cheers
TO