ORAC, fascinating and to some extent what a thread (and thread drift). If this synopsis:
the Evolution of the Threat
How the threat from the UK changed from . . . Post-Polaris the air-breathing threat changed to a dedicated maritime strike force of Backfire and Badger to attack NATO lines of communication.
It suggests that the UK Main Base Taceval scenario was skewed from the first day.
Why penetrate a robust central European defence before sending large vulnerable bombers to pin prick the UK main base? Why attack the UK Radar system from high-level with long range missiles when there was a much less significant low level penetration risk?
I long held the view that these exercises were wholly synthetic and designed to let us play at what we could do rather than admit what we couldn't. Bomber Command never had paper sandbags to defend against paper nukes.